Joanna's nude form lay tangled in the sheets. The sunlight streaming through the window set alight her strawberry blonde hair into a living fire that rested gently upon her sleeping head. Small freckles that covered her cheeks were now revealed to have scattered all across her body, down her arms, across her thighs and some were speckled on her breasts; her perfectly round breasts, each adorned with a perfect nipple the colour of a blooming rose. Perfect.

Truly, she was angelic in her appearance.

However, she was not so angelic in her personality. Sophie knew this, she'd known it for so long and yet here she was, laying beside the false angel as naked as the day she was born. Their relationship -if it could even be called one- had turned into a repetitive and frustrating cycle of events. First, Sophie would try to distance herself from Joanna, then Joanna would immediately notice and find something to drag Sophie back to her, Sophie would sympathise with Jo and take care of her until Jo wanted something beyond the realms of friendship and Sophie would always provide it. There wasn't a victim in their relationship, Jo was manipulative but Sophie didn't mind being manipulated, if she truly wanted to she could fight harder against Jo's hold on her, she should've done that ages ago before Jo managed to establish a full artillery of things to now use against Sophie, but Sophie had let it happen.

'You made this bed now lie in it'. A phrase Sophie's mother often used to berate her on poor life decisions she made, of which there were plenty.

'I need to pull away harder this time,' she thought, 'put an end to this. It's already gone too far, but it's not too late.' The cycle would always end with Sophie feeling regretful about her choice to stay with Jo, but never really doing much about it. She knew that and that's what made it worse.

Jo's phone buzzed and there were multiple text messages from a variety of people, all boys. She felt no urge to snoop and see what they wanted, they wanted the same thing Sophie wanted from Jo. It was amazing how Jo had so many people twisted around her little finger, all vying for her attention like they can't live without it and perhaps that was true.

Joanna's room was warm, the blankets were soft, the general atmosphere was calming. The only thing more pleasurable was when Jo was being nice, her touch was warm, her lips were soft and -on the rare occasion when she was being extra nice- she was an especially calming person to be around.

Sophie stared out the window that was engulfed by the rays of the morning sun. Ugh, what was she doing here... again?

She didn't want to leave though. To leave meant to go home and that was not happening. Somehow, in the past couple years, this room had become her safe haven from her family. She often escaped to this room when her parents were... expressing their beliefs and in this room, Sophie technically got to live her belief too. She was able to lie with a woman. During the times she allowed herself to fantasise about an impossible life, she imagined this situation; she and Jo wrapped in blankets after being with each other all night, but she also imagined that the two were in love.

Wasn't it a common dream to wish to be loved by the person you loved?

Joanna's phone buzzed again, a different name popping up with the same intention as all the rest. Sophie was special to Joanna, they got together more than any of Jo's other companions did, but that did not mean Jo loved her.

Sophie sighed loudly and looked around the clothes covered floor for her phone. She picked up her discarded handbag and dug through it until she found her phone. She didn't want to go home, so where could she go?

She had a text message from Colby: 'hope u had fun time night, we shud do that again soon :)'. If Colby and Ezra really were dating now, then Ezra would have to teach Colby how to type properly. Colby's father was an English teacher for peat sake, why didn't he use proper English? She laughed quietly at Colby's lingo, maybe she could go round to his for a bit. She didn't want to force herself on him though.

Joanna began to stir and stretched her arms out. As soon as she woke fully, she would kick Sophie straight out the door so she needed to work fast.

She texted Colby asking to come round for a bit and he replied quickly that she could.

Joanna's emerald green eyes fluttered open. She was beautiful.

"You're still here?" Her groggy morning voice somehow melodic.

"I was just leaving." Sophie assured her.

Joanna rolled back over, Sophie could only see her back now and her fiery hair splayed out against the pillows. "Next time I call you, you better pick up straight away. No fucking around."

"Okay."

"I worry about you when you don't answer immediately, I can't help but think something happened to you." Sophie's heart unconsciously soared at that. "I care about you."

"I care about you too. I'll pick up next time."

"Good." Sophie admired Joanna's form for a few moments longer. "You can go now."

Sophie shuffled out of the bed, put her clothes back on and left the house.

She shivered as she left Joanna's house, the temperature had not gotten any warmer over night. It made her doubt whether global warming was really a thing, she was only kidding though, she would sound like her mother if she said that with all seriousness. She took out her phone again and texted her parents, telling them she was going to the old folks home to read to them. Unconvincing, maybe. But it was the best excuse she could think of.

She went round to Colby's house and knocked on the door. Mr Williams, Colby's dad, opened for her.

"Morning, Mr Williams."

"Sophie! Merry Christmas. Although, I suppose it's closer to New Years now." He was the older and wiser version of Colby. With dark slicked back hair and honey coloured eyes. He was wearing a tie that had a picture of Santa Claude on it and it read 'I get all the ho, ho, hos.' He must have noticed Sophie staring at it as he quickly explained: "My wife got it for me as a joke, I promise you I do not have any side hoes, I am committed to my main ho."

"Gross, dad. Don't call mom your ho." Colby appeared from around the corner, his fluffy brown hair turned into an explosion of bed head.

"Why can't I call your mother my ho? You call Ezra much worse things. Just last night, you told him that you were actually straight and he was your boy toy."

Sophie gasped dramatically. "Colby! How could you verbally abuse Ezra like that?"

"It is abuse isn't it, Sophie." Mr Williams shook his head disapprovingly. "I didn't raise you to be this way, son. I'm not mad, I'm disappointed."

"I'm not abusing, Ezra! Sometimes, he just needs to be humbled a little bit, he was getting way too cocky last night and kept on eating my fries. They were my fries!"

"It's terrible manners to treat your boyfriend like that, Colby." Said Mr Williams.

"You know what else is terrible manners, dad?"

"What?"

"Keeping Sophie out in the cold whilst you scold me."

"Oh my god, you're right. Sophie I do apologise. Come in, come in. To make up for my lack of courtesy, I'll make everyone hot chocolates." He turned to Colby. "Can you ask Ezra if he'd like one?"

"Will do."

Sophie took off her shoes and coat and left them by the door. "Sorry for coming round to yours so early in the morning."

Colby smiled warmly at her. "Hey, don't apologise, it's nice having you round. Feels like we haven't hanged out much recently. Do you want to watch a movie or something in the living room?"

Colby's living room was incredibly cozy. The walls were painted a warm peach colour and the sofas were overflowing with blankets and fluffy pillows. The stained coffee table had a notepad and a pen on it, from the looks of it the notepad was covered in a mixture of English notes on a variety of plays, recipes for Spanish foods and drawings that looked like they were done by a 5 year old, so they were probably Colby's. One drawing was a love heart that had the initials C + E written inside, except the E was crossed out and someone had written Side hoez over it.

"Pick a movie, I've got to go wake up Sleeping Beauty. He's gotten so lazy since he started staying here."

"It's nice that you let him spend the night sometimes."

"Oh, no. He lives here now."

"He lives here. What? Why? Where does he sleep? Is he okay?"

"That's a lot of questions and I promise I'll answer most of them or you can ask Ezra when he's awake." Colby left the room and Sophie heard the thumping of his feet as he went up the stairs.

She turned on the TV that was mounted on the wall and looked through Colby's Netflix. Why was Brokeback Mountain recently watched? Colby hated old timey Cowboy films. You know what, she didn't want to know. Sophie wanted a pick me up and Colby loved dumb comedies so she put on Get Hard. It was definitely Colby's type of thing.

She heard footsteps coming back towards the living room. Colby walked in with a very sleep looking Ezra behind him, still in his pyjamas.

"Hey, Sophie." Ezra greeted. Colby sat down on the couch and Ezra lay down with his head in Colby's lap, Colby played with Ezra's blonde hair.

"I love this movie!" Said Colby.

"I knew you would." Sophie looked at their little display of affection for a few moments longer. It really was a simple act and yet it caused a deep ache in Sophie's chest as she knew that she would never have that from the girl she liked.

"Ezra's been living here for like a month now." Said Colby, he never really needed a good moment to begin a conversation. If he wanted to talk about something, he would, no matter how awkward the talk might be or whether it was appropriate to start talking about it.

"As in permanently?" She asked.

"Yep, best month of my life." Ezra's sleepy voice piped in. "My dad kicked me out and my mom doesn't believe in child support of any kind, so I'm using my body to pay my rent to Colby."

"Shut up. You want to give me your body, don't lie."

"Didn't say I was reluctant in doing so."

"Wait." Interrupted Sophie. "He kicked you out and you just... left. Simple as that?"

"Kind of." Said Ezra. "I was sleeping in my car for a bit, but yeah, I left. My dad was a dick and I kind of just reached my limit of putting up with him. Sometimes it's better to leave than stay."

"But... but then you're without family, without someone to care for you."

Colby pouted. "Hey! I look after him. I feed him at least once a week."

"Family gets tossed around a lot, but just because you're related by blood, doesn't make them family and it doesn't mean they care about you. Jemma said to me recently that you can't get better in the same place you got sick; in regards to family and living with them. She's right."

The conversation made Sophie uncomfortable and she couldn't think of a response to argue that blood mattered. It did matter. Her father always said so, it was part of the Ten Commandments to respect your parents.

Luckily, she didn't have to speak as Mr Williams came in with hot chocolates. They continued to watch the movie until Sophie got a text from her mother.

'Coming to pick you up from the retirement home for family lunch. Be ready.'

The retirement home was 40 minutes away. She was so fucked.

I AM SO SORRY FOR NOT UPDATING!

I haven't been on top of updating because I was told that I would have exams in January, but they have been cancelled but sort of not cancelled because of COVID. UK peeps will understand, shoutout to anyone that was supposed to do exams this year. Anyway, I will be updating regularly again and I hope you enjoy xx