Krystal's POV

When I woke up the pain was still there but it wasn’t as bad. I just got on with getting ready for school and carried on with my morning routine. It was just that a ringtone had stopped it all from going any further. ‘’Yes?’’ I answered and waited for a response just as I was biting through a piece of toast.

‘’Glad to hear that you’re better.’’ I heard a gruff voice through the receiver and I dropped the plate from my hand along with my phone in an instant. I covered my mouth. Was that… I quickly apologized to my parents and started to clean up as I swiftly hanged up on the caller. There was no way he could have gotten my phone number. I didn’t give him my phone or anything. How did Zico have it?

After I cleaned up I went upstairs to calm down and just then Jessica walked inside my room. I hid my phone away and looked at her. She scrutinised her eyes at me for a second but carried on afterwards. ‘’I really need you to get home early today. Can you do that for me?’’ she asked with a little excitement on her face. ‘’Yes. But why?’’ I asked.

‘’I need you to help me with something.’’ She said and rubbed her hands as she stormed out of my room. ‘’See yah at home, okay?’’ she said as she ran downstairs. I could just hear her friend’s car pull up in front of our house. ‘’Sure… I have no plans afterschool…’’ I uttered under my breath.

Once I reached the girls in the school yard I broke the news to them. ‘’Guys… I can’t come to the movies with you. Je-‘’ I stopped as I nearly revealed to them that Jessica needs me.  ‘’Je- what?’’ Tess asked. ‘’Jewellery. I love you necklace.’’ I commented just to escape out of that and Tess looked at me weirdly. ‘’Thanks’’ said Lesley and she waited. ‘’So…why can’t you come?’’ Tess asked.

‘’My parents, they said we’re visiting family again’’ I said and the girls rolled their eyes. ‘’We never get to hang out. And you’re the one that needs a break.’’ Clara commented. ‘I know’ I commented in my brain.

It was when my phone ringed the second time that morning that I panicked. I knew that my parents don’t call me and Jessica never reaches me over the phone, she personally comes to me in secret. ‘’Excuse me’’ I said as I took my phone out. I rejected the call when I saw the same number that called this morning displayed on my screen.

A message shortly followed. ‘’If you ignore me one more time, I swear something bad is gonna happen.’’ I read in fear. ‘’I can’t talk right now’’ I wrote back hoping he would understand. He never replied after that and I was thinking that he was mad. I started to type that I was sorry and all but then I thought… he was the one who was supposed to apologize to me since he was rude and never had once apologized to me. I deleted the message I wrote.

I tucked my phone away after turning it on silent and joined the girls with the reasoning that my mum needed me to buy something for her.

In the end I lived in fear for the rest of the school day for nothing. Zico never showed up to school and I was glad he didn’t. I said bye to my friends and had gotten home on the exact time that I was asked to. The next minute or so it was Jessica that had showed up in breaths and huffs.

‘’Let’s go upstairs, I’ll explain to you when I get there.’’ She said and pulled me after her. I dropped my bag on the floor when I saw that she did the same and sat down on her bed as she opened her closet. ‘’I need you to help me to get ready and to fill in for me to our parents.’’ She said and I crossed my eyebrows together. What the hell is this woman saying?

She exhaled and came closer like she always does when she gets mad when she has to explain things twice to me.

‘’Do you remember about that boy that I liked?’’ She asked on a hesitant mode and I nodded. ‘’Well, there were rumours that he was going to attend this party tonight and…I wanted to go as well…’’ she trailed on hoping that I would catch on to it. I frowned again. ‘’I want to make a move or at least speak to him tonight’’ she finally said and I released the tensed up muscles on my face.

‘’And I need you to cover for me at home as well, you know how things work with mum.’’ She said and my face saddened a bit. This is what I cancelled a night out with my friends for? I always have to sacrifice something don’t I?

‘’Sure…’’ I said. The evident smile on her face came back and she started going back to her closet.

Hours. It took hours to get her into the state that she was now in. ‘’How does it look?’’ she asked as she twirled in circles. ‘’Beautiful’’ I said taking a seat to relax my tense legs down. The dress was a little short for me to wear but it looked good on her. Red. She liked red, this woman. The dress was red. It was most likely that she was going to be in the centre of attention, like always. But it was a good thing that I wasn’t going to be there.

The make-up took effort from both of us. We’ve done it twice because she wasn’t satisfied the first time. The heels. She loves to wear those, doesn’t she? It was from little that she started to love those, I don’t know how many pairs of heels that mum had this girl had broken. I smiled at that. The hair was amazing and last but not least she had worn a huge smile on her face to suit the appearance.

‘’You’re ready to go now’’ I said looking at the clock. She nodded and soon went to grab something. She handed a bottle to me and she looked at me. ‘’You have the honour this time’’ she said as I looked at the bottle.

Perfume.

We always had fights over perfume when we were small but as we grew older it became an honour to spray the perfume on just because we thought it was a big thing when we were small and so it became some sort of a family tradition in between us. I sprayed on just the right amount and she had given me a hug. ‘’Thank you for everything and good luck with mum and dad.’’ She said.

I helped her get outside to the taxi and off she went after a few words of being careful. I walked back inside and waited for our parents to come home. I had just the thing to tell them to cover for Jessica.

In the end I had gotten a message from mum, she was gonna stay over at a hotel because she needed to stay late and be to work early in the morning as she had a huge ceremony going on. She also texted me that dad wasn’t coming home either. He had gone in for a meeting onto expanding the business to another city and he expected us to ‘behave’. I exhaled in relief. They wouldn’t even know that Jessica attended a party.

I went to sleep later on that night after doing my homework and after taking a snack, I was pretty tired and on top of that my back needed healing.

I closed my eyes and was on the boundary where I could doze off.

Suddenly the phone on the night stand had started ringing and I stretched out like a blind woman just trying to find the dammed thing. I really hoped that it wasn’t him.

 An agitated voice had greeted my sleepy state and I jumped out of my bed.

‘’Krystal, help me!’’

‘’Jessica? What happened?’’ I asked as I went to look out of my window to see if she was there but to no avail, she wasn’t there. ‘’Can you please come and get me? I’ve nearly been .’’ Those words had settled heavily on my brain. She was agitated and I could sense through the rough breaths that she had already been through a lot. ‘’Are you okay now? Where are you?’’ I asked. ‘’I ran away from him. I’m hiding in one of the rooms at the party.’’ She was now crying uncontrollably and I could barely understand what she was saying.

‘’Stay there. Just tell me how to get to you.’’ I waited and I quickly wrote down the address on a piece of paper which was ironically one of the post-it notes that had accidentally gotten into my pocket at school. ‘’Krysta, please hurry.’’ I heard when I hung up. And I did. I had pulled on a black hoodie and some jeans and quickly found my vans in my closet. I skipped three steps at a time to get downstairs and I opened the door and closed it behind me.

Halfway down to the gate I remembered that I forgot to lock the house. The frustration had collapsed onto me. I couldn’t let my sister wait for too long but I couldn’t risk to leave the house unattended and unlocked for it to be robbed. I knew I had to face my parents for it later. I went back. I could barely lock the door. My hands were shaky. I couldn’t think properly and my condition wasn’t helping either.

When I finally man