ROGUE

05 : Hello? Martha?

Your POV

At the sound of my words, Jason pulled his head back. Confusion swirled in his brown eyes, and lines appeared in his forehead as he searched his mind for some sort of explanation. "That's..." He inhaled quickly and his breath hitched. "That's impossible."

Martha fiddled with the hem of her white shirt. "I really think I should go." She announced, looking at anything but me, trying to ignore the questions that I held in my eyes.

"You're not going anywhere until you tell me what the fuck you're talking about." I snapped at her, unable to conceal the intense feelings of anger and pain that were quickly layering on top of each other. "Chris is dead. He died almost a year ago. Why the fuck would you lie to me?" Tears pinched at the back of my eyes, but I refused to let them show. I had half a mind to lunge at her for making up such a sick story, but heads had been turned at my sudden outburst, and Jason's arm was wrapped tightly around my waist. He was pretending to be comforting, but I knew that he was secretly restraining me.

"I'm not lying." Martha shrunk back. "He was shot in the head the same day you disappeared," Her eyes widened as she said it all out loud and pieced up the metaphorical jigsaw, her voice sounded far away when she continued, and I began to feel nauseous. "The bullet only passed through one lobe, and completely missed the brain stem. A nearby passer apparently called the ambulance straight away and helped control the blood loss whilst they waited for it to arrive. Chris was in a coma, and he only woke up around a month ago. Everyone thought he was going to die," She noticed the tears collecting in my eyes and I quickly blinked them away. "He got lucky."

I swallowed the sickening lump that had formed in my throat as memories of Chris flickered through my mind like a film.
"I don't believe you." I choked out after a short moment of silence.

Jason fixed his gaze on the ground with his jaw tightly locked. "Y/n," He said lowly. "Let's just pay and go home." He reached for my hand but I tugged it away and pointed an accusing finger at Martha.

"If he never died, why the hell did Bella or Ellie not say anything to me?" I tried to sound angry but my voice wobbled and gave away my pain. "Did I not have the right to know?"

"I don't know, Y/n." For some reason, tears pooled in her eyes, before she dug around in the pocket of her tight denim jeans and pulled out a cellphone. "But if you don't believe me, I can prove it. I have his number."

Jason's head snapped up. "No," He shook his head frantically. "This is pathetic and wrong, what the hell is it gonna prove - "

"Call it." I whispered, staring at the phone.

Jason glanced at me pleadingly, but I couldn't shake the sudden crave to hear Chris's voice.
I know it was wrong, but I couldn't help it.
"Y/n, what are you doing?" Jason mumbled, knowing how much this was gonna hurt me.

I ignored him and looked up at Martha through the blur of my tears. "Please."

Nothing was said after that, and all the sounds of the outside world faded to silence.
All I could hear was the buzzing sound that came from Martha's phone as she turned on the speaker. My body tensed as it rung for a while, until a familiar voice echoed through my ears and raised the bile from the back of my throat. "Hello?"

I slapped my hand up to my mouth, and tears ran freely down my cheeks. I knew that no matter how hard I tried, they wouldn't stop.
"Oh my god." I whispered, beginning to shake.

"Hello? Martha?" Chris muttered with a slight tone of confusion.
I knew that he would put the phone down if nobody spoke soon, and I looked up desperately at her, but she shook her head.
I bit my lip and turned to stare up at Jason, but he sighed impatiently before turning around and disappearing down an isle, pretending to be interested by the boxes of cereal and obviously not wanting to listen to whatever was about to be said.
"Martha, are you there?" Chris sighed.

I inhaled a shaky breath and tried my best to say something. "Chris?" My voice was barely audible.

"Yeah?" He mumbled casually, before pausing. "You alright? You sound like you're crying."

"Oh, um..." I squeezed my eyes shut and accidentally let out a hiccuping sob. "I just... um - "

"Martha," His voice was soothing, and I couldn't prevent the memories from torturing my head. "You can tell me."

"Chris... I don't - "
Know what to say.
I cut myself off, biting down so hard on my bottom lip that a coppery tang of blood filled my mouth. "This isn't Martha." I breathed out.

"Oh, who is it then?" His voice sounded equally as calm and reassuring, and the concern level didn't change. "Are you okay?"

"Chris." I was getting frustrated with myself that I couldn't say the things I needed to say. "I can't believe you're alive." I slapped my hand against my forehead, wincing at I accidentally blurted the words out.
"I'm sorry..."

"Who is this?"

"Um..." I felt nauseous.
Just as I was about to say my name, something inside me held back and I fought with myself to end the call. But before I could press the red button, Martha stepped in.

"It's Y/n." She said

Suddenly, with no warning, Martha's phone was snatched out of her hands and thrown to the floor, causing it to shatter into a dozen shards of glass. I looked up to see who had cut off the moment, and I wasn't surprised to see Jason. He was glaring at Martha, and clutched onto my wrist tightly. My mouth hung open for a moment at his sudden outburst, before he turned to me with his eyes wild with rage. "We're leaving."

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