009.

N O T I C E : This book includes detailed themes surrounding violence, sex, suicide, abuse, sexual harassment, alcohol, drugs and blood—all are graphically depicted in this story.

Proceed with notice.

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  "THANKS FOR DROPPING ME OFF."
Y/N said with a smile as she took a step out of Finn's car, shutting the door shut behind her before peeking her head through the open window of the passenger seat.

Finn leaned over against the armrest of his car, one hand still on the wheel as the car continued its hum.

"Of course. I had a lot of fun, as usual."
Finn smiled sweetly, his curls falling over his eyes as he stared with a cute look at
Y/N—sending her cheeks in a blushing fest.

Butterflies.

"So did I."
Y/N smiled, leaning off of Finn's passenger door window to wave goodbye.

"Call me if you need anything."

Finn finished with genuine concern, receiving a nod as an answer from Y/N before he pulled away from her driveway of her house—leaving her to watch his own car pull up into his own driveway just next door.

With a dreamy sigh, Y/N smiled like a fool while she walked up the pathway that led to her front door, but stopped before opening her door.

She paused, turning to look over at Finn's house.

But she didn't expect her eyes to meet with Finn from across their yards, his eyes seemingly shooting daggers of pure affection towards Y/N, before she blushed and quickly looked away—Finn doing the same before entering his house.

Y/N entered her own house, "I'm home."
She announced, turning to close the door, only to pause in place.

Before she closed the door, something caught her eye on the street.

It was a lonesome white car, just sitting parked on the curb in front of Y/N's house.
  She couldn't see the face of anyone inside the car, because it was pitch black inside.

But it's headlights were on, and on the lowest setting, as if it had been sitting there for a while and getting ready to leave..

She had never seen that car before, nor did she believe anyone in her neighborhood owned one like that.

Cautiously, while keeping a watchful eye on the suspicious car, Y/N closed the door and locked it—holding her hand over the lock as if it were going to help.

Why was it in front of her house anyways?

Many thoughts filed through her mind, putting her more closer to the edge of her paranoia before she felt a hand on her shoulder.

Y/N jumped back, her shoulder flinching and her heart racing before seeing that it was just her mother.

"Jesus.." Y/N breathed out, putting a hand to her chest to steady her breathing. "You scared me."

"When did you get back? Just now?"
Her mother asked, her eyebrows etched with a certain wild look in her wide eyes that only a mother possessed when worried for her child's safety.

"Yes..yes, why?"
Y/N replied insistently, unsure as to why her mother was acting this way.

Her mother looked over Y/N's shoulder to walk over and stare through the peep-hole on their front door, before checking the locks that Y/N had just fastened.

"Mom, what's wrong?"
Y/N was beginning to get worried herself, and took a step back to give her mother space when she turned around.

"Did you see that car outside?"
Her mother asked, her eyes wide like that of a prey on high alert in case of a predator's attacks.

Yet, her persona illuminated calmness.

"Y-Yeah, that was weird. How long has it been out there?"
Y/N asked with concern, and her mother seemed on edge for the simple fact that she didn't know.

"I-I don't know, it's been out there for a little over an hour." Her mother licked her lips between words—she had short breaths.
  "I called you home because I didn't like that you were out alone, and that car was just outside, too."

Y/N nodded knowingly, placing a hand on her mother's shoulder in an attempt to comfort
her—to calm her down, and it seemed to work.

Her mother had always been a calm person, so it made sense that she gathered herself quickly.
She turned around to look out the peep hole of the door again, her palms flat against the wood.

"It's gone.."
Her mother mumbled against the door before turning around to exhale with relief.

"Whew. That was weird."
Her mother simply brushed it off.
She walked past Y/N to go sit down in the living room, leaving Y/N to stand confusedly by the front door.

However, Y/N couldn't seem to shake a weird feeling. She felt uneasy.

"Anyways, did you have fun?"
Her mother shouted from the living room, referring to Y/N's outing—all day, no less.

All day.
She was out all day with Finn, but she never minded at all.

"Yeah."
Y/N answered back, shaking her stare from the door to take off her jacket to hang on the hanger in front of the door.

"Oh yeah? That's good. Who were you with?"
Her mother shouted again, sounding preoccupied like she was doing something else while she was talking.

Y/N walked over to the kitchen that looked into the living room to pour herself a glass of water.
"Oh..just a friend. That Wolfhard kid that lives next door?"

Y/N tried to make it seem as nonchalant as possible that she was always—constantly—with Finn.

But, if she were being honest, there was nothing wrong with that.

They were just friends..

"Oh, that's nice.."
Her mother answered back, very much absentmindedly.

Y/N turned her gaze from the water she was pouring to look in her mother's direction, and then decided to test something out while she leaned against the counter—her cup of water untouched in her hands.

"Yeah, he always drives us to this mountainside that we like to go to. It's about 20 minutes out.."
Y/N called back, knowing fully that her mother had never heard any of this because
Y/N never told her where she has been going with Finn.

Because her mother never bothered to ask.

"Wow, very nice."

Y/N decided to push a little further—in case she could get even the smallest reaction from her mother.

Lately, her mother had been very distant.

She hardly ever asked where she was going, or who she was going with.

And when Y/N would tell her about her day, it was obvious that her mother's mind was elsewhere.

She hasn't been listening.

She was there with Y/N, but she wasn't never really there.

"A-And I think..I think I really like him."
Y/N breathed out, her cheeks rising with a blushing smile as she admitted it to herself, fiddling with the rim of her cup.

But instead of receiving even an absentminded answer, Y/N received none at all.

There. Y/N now knew for a fact that her mother was definitely not listening, which was hurtful, she had to admit.

Y/N set her cup of water on the counter with a loud tap to then walk into the living room to see her mother giggling—her intent gaze was glued to her computer screen in her lap.

Y/N sighed with disappointment before she walked over behind the couch to where her mother sat to take a peek at what she was looking at.

She was talking to someone—texting someone.

She was on a website, one that Y/N wasn't familiar with. It wasn't Facebook, which was what her mother was usually on.

But as Y/N took a closer look at the other person's profile picture that her mother was texting, it looked oddly familiar.

She had seen that man in the picture before, she just knew it.

But the closer she looked at the website, the weirder she felt.

It seemed really..sketchy. It didn't seem verified, or safe for that matter.

Is she really on a..

"Y/N! What are you doing?"
Her mother quickly shut the laptop closed in her lap, her glare was intense as she stared at Y/N.

"Were you on a dating website?"
Y/N blurted, her stomach twisting in knots of fear at the mere thought of the possibility of her mother speaking to a man that was smiling to her father.

Y/N's mom stood up, leaving the laptop on the couch.
She sighed as she nodded, making gestures with her hands like she didn't know what else to say to cover it up.

"Why?"
Y/N breathed out, unsure of how she was feeling right now.
  Of course she wanted her mother to be happy and everything, but Y/N didn't trust any man after her father's horrible example, and she knew that her mother didn't either.

"Yes Y/N, because I wanted to, okay?"
Her mother immediately became defensive that her daughter was questioning her personal decisions, but Y/N just couldn't wrap her head around it.

"Mom, what website was that?"
Y/N asked, walking around the couch to grab the laptop and opened it up to see the name of the website.

It wasn't one of the better known ones, and
Y/N had heard from a lot of them from Millie when they still talked.

It wasn't exactly well known, and it didn't have many security options for the user.

"Mom, this website is like, really sketchy. Who knows what kind of weird guys are on here—.."
Y/N stressed, trying to warn her mother that there could be men just like her father on here.

But not before her mother grabbed the laptop from her hands and tossed it on the couch with irritation.

"Goddammit, Y/N, who do you think you're talking to?"
Her mother shouted abruptly, the entire room going silent with tension.

Y/N froze in place, her eyes wide at her mother's outburst.

She had never yelled at her like this before.

Only her father ever yelled like that.

But it was with this parallel, that Y/N felt the need to defend herself—as if it were her father yelling at her.

Y/N remembered what Finn had told her about defending herself, and although that advice was directed towards douches at school, Y/N felt it necessary in this situation.

"I'm just trying to make sure you're safe, mom! It's not like I'm trying to control you!"
Y/N never argued with her mother, so she didn't know how.

"Y/N, I'm perfectly capable of making my own decisions, your input was not necessary!"
Her mother seemed offended, but mostly, embarrassed.

"My input? I was just warning you that there's weird people on there, mom! I'm just trying to make sure you don't get lured in by some psychopath—.."
Y/N rambled, for she could only assume the worst.

"Do you really think that little of me? I met a really nice guy on there, and he sure doesn't seem like a murderer to me!"
  Her mother rebutted, taking a breath before gesturing her hands for emphasis on Y/N's impossible theory.
"Do you really think I'm not smart enough to know whether someone is genuine or not?"
  Her mother was now very upset with Y/N, but Y/N wouldn't apologize for trying to help her mom.

It was then that Y/N realized why the profile picture looked so familiar.

It's because she saw that same person in one of her favorite TV shows.

"Well, obviously you can't, because the person you were texting has a picture of a TV actor as his profile picture! He's not telling you the whole truth of who he is!"
Y/N knew she had a point, but her mother would just not let up.

Y/N fists clenched at her sides as she felt her anger just bubbling up.

"Who are you to tell me any of this, huh? You're my daughter for Christ's sake, not my best friend!"
Her mother was closer to her face now, trying her best to defend whatever man she had met.

Trying to defend her own decision.

"For all you know, he could be lying to you!"
Y/N took a breath, tears beginning to well up in her eyes. "For all you know, he could be a guy just like dad!"

It wasn't a second later that Y/N felt a sharp stinging sensation on her cheek, sending her face to whirl to the side.

She reached her hand to her cheek, her fingertips grazing the top of her now inflamed and bruised skin—a single tear escaped her eye and skipped along her cheek.

And it was when she look up at her mother with watery eyes that she knew she had just been slapped.

Her mother's eyes were wide—apologetic and immediately regretful.

Y/N had never been hit by her mother—only by her father.

"Y/N..Y/N, I-I am so sorry.."
Y/N's mother tried to apologize, tried to reach her hand to caress her daughter's cheek but
Y/N tuned her voice out.

Y/N had flashbacks of seeing her father's terrifying face with his belt in hand or his hands clenched in fists.
  She remembered every single time that Y/N's father's fists hit her body.

That was all she saw in her mother at that moment.

And she became angry. She seethed with anger.

Her mother's muffled apologies soon became clear as Y/N tuned them in again, but only to shove her mother's hands away from her face.

With only a single tear to authenticate her anger, Y/N stormed away from her
mother—towards the front door.

She couldn't bare to look at her mother right now.

She just couldn't.

Y/N unlocked the door, and her hand was on the doorknob before she was stopped by her mother's call once again.

"Don't."
Her mother called from a few good feet away from Y/N down the hallway, making Y/N turn around to see her mother running a stressed hand through her hair.

"Please.."
She finished, but Y/N shook her head painfully.

"Just like dad.."
Y/N muttered under her breath, not caring if her mother heard her or not, but either way,
she opened the door and slammed it shut behind her.

Y/N was met with the cold night air against her tear stained cheeks, and just began running with her hair flailing in all directions behind her.

She didn't know where she was going, but she just needed to get away.

But Y/N's mother did hear her.

And it broke her heart because she knew that Y/N was right that entire time.

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Author's Note :

wow, that was pretty intense..

things are gonna start picking up..so be prepared.. ;))

the next chapter is gonna be an important one because there will be some things revealed about Finn..or will there?

[ i know i say this in every chapter but i always change it up]

thanks for reading, let me know what you think about this story.. <3

stay tuned.. ;))

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