My Parents Deleted My Only Graduation Photo for My Bestie Chapter 04

My Parents Deleted My Only Graduation Photo for My Bestie Chapter 04

I knelt down and gathered the broken pieces into my palm.

A jagged edge sliced my finger. Blood seeped into the gold.

On my eighteenth birthday, my grandma had fastened this locket around my neck herself.

Her hands had been shaking even then. It took her three tries to close the clasp.

“My Audrey is always giving pieces of herself away.”

“When I’m gone, hold on to the things that matter to you. Promise me. Stop giving yourself away.”

I’d buried my face against her shoulder and laughed it off. Told her she wasn’t allowed to go anywhere, so it didn’t matter.

But she had gone.

After that, there was no one left in this house who looked at me and saw a girl who could still hurt. Someone who still needed to be held.

I couldn’t even protect the one thing she’d left me.

The only piece of love I had left in this family had been handed to Chloe without a second thought, and now it lay shattered in my hand.

“Audrey, I swear I didn’t mean to.”

Chloe buried her face in her hands and sobbed.

My mom pulled her close, shielding her like Chloe was the one who’d been hurt.

“Don’t cry. No one is blaming you.”

Then she looked up at me, furious.

“If you hadn’t lunged at her like that, she never would’ve dropped it.”

I hadn’t even touched her.

Julian rolled his eyes.

“Just get it repaired. It’s not like it’s worth anything.”

Logan handed Chloe a tissue and gently dabbed at her cheeks.

No one noticed my hand was still bleeding.

Maybe they did.

It just didn’t matter as much as Chloe’s tears.

I closed my fist around the locket.

In the past, I would have fought to make them listen.

I used to believe that if I just explained myself, they’d finally hear me.

But something inside me had gone empty. I didn’t have it in me anymore.

I slipped the broken locket into my pocket, turned, and walked out.

My mom’s voice followed me.

“Walk out that door and don’t bother coming back! You’re a grown woman acting like a child. No wonder no one can stand you!”

I didn’t look back.

She didn’t know I wasn’t planning on ever coming back.

Back at the hostel, I checked Westridge’s start date. The day after tomorrow.

I packed what little I had left.

At one a.m., Logan texted.

[Chloe’s been crying all night. Are you happy now?]

I stared at the message for a long time.

I started typing a reply. Got halfway through. Deleted it.

He wouldn’t care. He hadn’t asked once why I was leaving.

Chloe’s tears got a whole night of comfort from everyone.

My pain got a single text blaming me.

I ignored all of them and dragged my busted suitcase to the airport.

At security, one of the wheels caught on the escalator. A woman I didn’t know bent down and helped me lift it.

“Sweetheart, are you traveling by yourself? Got everything?”

I smiled. It didn’t reach my eyes.

“They had someone more important to take care of.”

The plane took off from the runway.

I opened my hand and looked at the locket, its delicate hinge snapped. And finally, somewhere no one knew my name, I let myself cry.

It wasn’t them I was crying over.

I was grieving the girl who had spent her whole life being good, thinking that if she just tried a little harder, someone would finally love her back.

Before I finally blocked their numbers, a few more messages came through.

The same thing they always said. Be the bigger person. Go back. Apologize to Chloe.

But they didn’t know.

The Audrey who always gave in, who had waited her whole life for one word of approval, was gone.

And she was never coming back.