- 8.
I froze, staring at the screen.
I looked awful, sad, and I was crying.
What had ten years with Mark done to me?
Mark kept talking, “You think you’re good just because you write? Jennifer, I’m helping you,
you can’t even take my criticism.”
“You are too heavy, I’m just pointing it out,
why are you upset?”
“I’m helping you.”
After saying something bad, Mark always said
that he was “helping” me.
く
But I was sick of it.
Even though I’d decided to fight back, I still
started shaking and crying. “Can’t you ever
say something good about me?”
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Chapter 2
“My writing is worthless, my body is
disgusting. If I’m so terrible, why were you
even with me?”
Words I’d never voiced exploded from a dam
inside my heart.
I was like a madwoman, smashing the mugs
Mark had given me, shredding the clothes and
towels he’d bought.
“I hate this stuff! I like colorful things! So
what if my taste is trash?”
“Am I so bad that even the things I like are
cheap?”
I broke things, threw things, screamed, and
for the first time, saw shock in Mark’s eyes.
L
for the first time, saw shock in Mark’s eyes.
His tight frown softened, he reached out to
me, but the first thing he said was, “Jen, calm
down. You’re an adult, why can’t you control
your emotions?”
I looked at him in despair.
My meltdown, my anger, my self–doubt, were
just signs I couldn’t control myself?
Even now, his first reaction was to criticize
- me.
That feeling of utter helplessness washed
over me again, threatening to drown me.
Ashley eventually came upstairs and dragged
me away, shielding me from Mark.
く
Seeing Ashley, Mark’s face darkened.
“Jennifer, I told you not to hang out with
people like her!”
“She praises you and agrees with you, which
will keep you from growing.”
Ashley put her coat over me, covered my ears, and shut out Mark’s words.
Her last words to Mark were, “Whether I’m
good or bad is irrelevant, but Jen gets to choose her friends.”
“You don’t get to judge.”
“realnovel”.
