We head down stairs and meet with the group again by the couch.

"Finally, you always take so long Tilly" Axel laughs as he spoke and got up off the couch, which lead to everyone else doing the same. Tilly just blushed and kept quiet. Everyone was heading towards the door, and then I noticed the brown haired boy come through from the kitchen. All he had on was a pair of black shorts and grey top and a navy blue beach towel splayed over his shoulder. His brown eyes met mine and his eyebrows furrowed even deeper, he's clearly disappointed I'm coming to the lake. Feelings are mutual.

Tilly grabs my hand and we head outside the common room and head towards the two ovals. I didn't know where I was going but i was enjoying the walk. Don't think I've ever done this much exercise ever.

Maybe that's a sign I need to start getting into training.

"It is way too hot out here" Frankie yelled to the group who were scattered out through the walk to the lake.

"I cannot wait to get to this lake, I'm over this walking, my leg hurts from training yesterday, pretty sure I broke my leg everyone" Henry spoke out loud,

"Shut up Henry" everyone collectively yelled together followed by a group laugh, from all but one. Still nothing but glares from the brown haired boy.

I decide to just forget about him, stop checking if he's still glaring at me. He's a dick and I'm not going to give him that satisfaction. Five minutes go by and we walk past a massive tree and we finally arrived. This lake was amazing, I've never seen something so beautiful. I tried to not make it look like I've never seen a lake before but it was so clear, I could practically see the rocks underneath the water. The massive tree was creating some shade onto the lake and there was a rope connected to its long branch hanging over the water. I no doubt guess everyone will be swinging on that shortly.

"Octavia you coming?" Tilly asked me snapping me out of my trance over this lake and view, I realised everyone was getting undressed to hop in, and fuck the part I did not want anyone to see.

They were all stripping off into their bathers like it was nothing, no thought in the world, I mean I would be the same if I hadn't had my childhood.

I walk over quickly and take off my shoes and take out my hair tie while the girls were down to just their bikini's and the boys in their shorts and the shirts off. I won't lie I wasn't complaining about seeing that but I have no idea what I was doing so I stopped looking over at them and walk over to the girls who were standing over by a bit of higher ground and looked like they were ready to jump in, until they all turned and looked at me,

"Cmon, we'll all on jump in together" Adira said waving me over. The boys were already in and fighting each other, suppose that's what boys do? Anyway I walk over and the boys stop and watch as we were about to jump in until I heard someone shout out,

"You're meant to take off your clothes before you hop in the lake, you know that right?" That brown eyed cocky shit head yelled out to me, and it just went so awkward and quiet. I am guessing the other boys didn't even notice until he said something. The girls just sort of looked between him and I a couple of times until Tilly realised that I wasn't comfortable.

"Don't be a dick, she can wear whatever she wants to wear" Tilly spoke with power, it was weird it made me feel small but strong at the same time. Small at the fact now these people know I'm not confident enough to wear a bikini like a normal person but strong at the fact that that shouldn't matter and I can wear whatever I want.

"Don't listen to him-" Adira whispered to me so he couldn't hear, she spoke again, "-sounded to me that you wanted her to take her clothes offff" she said flirtatiously but knew that's what would get him angry as she just laughed out loud and so did everyone else and they seemed to just go on as axel started fighting with Flynn again and I notice the brown eyed boy turn away and mumbled "whatever" knowing Adira won.

I am sick of his fucking attitude, and you know what I am over people like him treating me like shit or that he's better than me. I am over it. I've dealt with worse shit in my life than some emotional immature boy time to give it back to him. I have been here long enough now to not take this shit anymore.

I roll my eyes and I hear "3, 2, 1" and all four of us girls jump into the lake. I close my eyes and my body hits the water and all of a sudden I see flashes back to the basement. It's like I was back there but in only flashes, flashes of my father hitting and kicking me, flashes of my mum shutting me out, flashes of the raw cuts and bruises all over my body. I tried to open my eyes in hopes that would take me back to the lake but it all became too much and my vision went black, quickly.

Fuck.

———-

Authors note:

Hi everyone!!!!! Hope you're enjoying these two chapters, about to start writing up the next one. Super excited about it and I hope you guys are too.

If you have any suggestions on what you think should happen, let me know!

IMPORTANT (PLS READ)

I've made a new tik Tok account for this book, I can't seem to log into my old account so please go follow my new account! It's called "tortured.heart"

I'll be updating on there!

Lots of love, A