NovelEnglishChapter 5
That night, | filled the bathtub to the brim with scalding water, watching steam rise in thick clouds. | desperately
wanted to wash away every trace of the past twenty-four hours, as if enough hot water could somehow cleanse
my soul along with my skin.
But as | undressed in front of the bathroom mirror, the purple-blue marks scattered across my skin told their own
story. Love bites on my neck, fingerprint bruises on my hips - each one a reminder | couldn't erase. The bruises
weren't ready to fade, just like the memories.
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Last night cflooding back uninvited - the burning heat of his skin against mine, his passionate breathing
against my ear, the way he’d whispered my nin the dark. The ghost of his touch still lingered everywhere,
like phantom hands tracing patterns across my body. The warmth of his chest pressed against my back, his
fingers intertwined with mine - memories | wanted to forget but couldn't
seem to shake.
I shook my head violently, grabbing the sides of the sink until my knuckles turned white, trying to shake away
these fragments of madness. These moments that meant everything toand nothing to him.
Grabbing my roughest loofah, | scrubbed and scrubbed until my skin turned angry red. My arms, my neck, my
chest - anywhere his lips had been. As if | could somehow erase what had becthe most humiliating memory
of my life. The physical pain felt almost good, like maybe it could overshadow the ache in my chest.
The raw, stinging pain kepttossing and turning all night. Every position hurt - my skin too sensitive, my body
remembering touches | was trying to forget.
Aiden didn't text, of course. For the first tin six years, since we got our first iPhones in middle school, there
was no “goodnight” message. No inside joke about his calculus homework. No stupid TikTok he thought would
makelaugh. No heart emoji that | used to analyze for hours. Just deafening silence.
Better this way.
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It had to end sometime.
Might as well start detoxing tonight.
| drifted in and out of consciousness until dawn approached, finally falling into an uneasy sleep somewhere
between counting sheep and counting mistakes.
Just as morning light began filtering through my curtains, | felt what seemed like a gentle kiss on my forehead,
so real it startledfrom my dreams. For a moment, my heart stopped, thinking he might have used his spare
key to check onlike he sometimes did before school.
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