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#trauma dumping
samkerrworshipper · 17 days
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the monsters gone
part 3 of beautiful girl series -> part 1 -> part 2
leah williamson x reader, jordan nobbs x reader (wobbs as moms)
warnings: drug addiction, drug abuse, talks of illicit substances, depression, intrusive thoughts, would not advise for people in a bad mental headspace
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You wanted her to leave, or you were desperate for a fix and well aware that it wasn’t going to happen until she was gone and you could retreat up to your room like normal. 
You scratched at the incision on your forearm, it was hidden underneath your hoodie but you could feel it all the same, it made you feel guilty. 
You’d never felt guilty for taking drugs, why would you? It was your choice, your body, your brain that you were fucking with. Yet for some reason, the little mark that you knew was sitting right on top of your vein was making you feel guilty. You didn’t want to admit it, but it felt oddly like the start of something, you weren’t sure what though, whatever it was though, it didn’t feel good. 
When the door clicked open around 2 o’clock you felt far more at peace, watching your mom hobble through the door with Lia following her. Jordan stood up almost immediately and if the room hadn’t already been awkward then the awkwardness found a whole new definition as the two women looked at each other. 
“Hey Jord, thanks for hanging around, you’re looking good.”
Your mom looked relieved to see Jordan, your ma on the other side looked slightly terrified as she eyed up the two women. 
“It wasn’t an issue, you know I love spending time with my chick.”
Leah smiled, looking down at you on the couch, you buried your head in your phone, ignoring her gaze. 
“Whether she admits it or not she likes seeing you as well.”
Your ma laughed awkwardly, it took everything in you to not burst out laughing at all of the tension between the two of them. 
“Look I’ll be heading off, gotta me back in Birmingham for game review tonight but can we talk for a minute though Le?”
Your mom’s head cocked to the side, a look of curiosity evident on her face. 
“Yeah sure, come with me.”
Lia watches them with the same look of curiosity as you, your eyes meeting as the trail back from the doorway to Leah’s office that they both step into. 
“They’re talking about me.”
Lia doesn’t bother trying to ignore you or deny what you’re saying, she nodes her head. 
“Probably, that’s what most parents do.”
It’s a absentminded answer, and for a second your aware that maybe Lia is in on whatever is happening, that she knows exactly what is going on behind the door. If anything important came from the phone call earlier you know Lia would be the first to know, she was like the third parent you never asked for nor wanted, but somehow ended up with. 
“Ma thinks that Mom’s parenting is shit.”
Lia cocks her head, she’s harder to read then your moms, more calculated, more clean, less obviously emotional. 
“She just disagrees with some of the things that your mother does, so do I. Nobody else is in her shoes though, she makes the decisions that are necessary and best for you.”
Lia sounds convinced of her words, even though you doubt them. 
“Ma doesn’t think so.”
Lia bit down on her bottom lip, finishing with tucking her kit bag away so she could focus her attention on you. 
“She worries about you.”
You did your best to suppress the eye roll, it didn’t work. 
“She worries that mom is too nice and isn’t strict enough.”
Sometimes you thought that your mom compensated for the void between the two of you by letting you do whatever you wanted, other times you were reminded by your grandma that she’d told Leah she needed to go easy on you and that not everyone could be as perfect as Leah Williamson. 
“Your mom knows what you need better than anybody else.”
The conversation paused, the two of you flinching at the sound of yelling from the other side of the door, you couldn’t make out what was being said, both of them were yelling though. 
“Set the table for lunch for me, kiddo?”
You couldn’t pull your eyes from the door, you hadn’t hear your moms yell in a long time, it took you back to when they were breaking up, when they tried to act like they weren’t, when they saved the fighting and yelling for when you’d been tucked into bed and they’d thought you were asleep. 
“Kiddo, table.”
You stood up from the couch, your eyes staying stuck to the door, even as you pulled cutlery from the drawer and laid it out with the placemats on the table. Eventually, the yelling ceased, and the room was over come with a silence like no other, only being broken by the door opening and your two moms walking out, both of them looking far more content considering that it had sounded like they were screaming at each other, not thirty seconds ago. 
“Bubba, Jord is going to head off, if you want to say bye.”
Jordan’s arms opened up to you and as mad and confused as you were, you weren’t going to deny her. You walked around the table, leaning into her hug, wrapping your arms around her the same way she did for you, letting her hold on for a little bit longer. 
“I’ll be back when I can chicky, I love you so much.”
You wanted to tell her she was lying, that they were all lying, they didn’t fucking love you, it was so fucking obvious. But for the sake of keeping the peace you didn’t. 
“I love you too Ma.”
Jordan let go of you, pressing a kiss to your forehead. The same way she had when they’d adopted you when you were eight, the same way she had after your first game when you were 12, the same way she had when you were 14 and you’d been top of your form and given an award, the same way she had when she’d left for good when you were 16. It was the same kiss, yet everything about it was different, the meaning, the purpose, the intention, it was all different. 
You watched as she walked out the door, the same as every time, you listened to the sound of her car starting and the sound of gravel underneath her tires as she pulled out and onto the road. 
Once you were sure she was gone you turned around, sliding into a seat at the table, across from your mother, staring at her. 
“What were you guys talking about?”
Leah looked at you, poker face as good as ever. 
“Football, some other stuff.”
It was a obvious lie, both you and Lia knew it. 
“You were talking about me, what about me?” Leah rolled her eyes at you. 
“It was a conversation between your Ma and I, not for your ears.”
You didn’t bat an eye as Lia set lunch down in front of you, to fixated on your mother. 
“You don’t yell over nothing, what were you talking about.”
Leah pushed her tongue out against her lips. 
“Your ma had some concerns about you, that’s it, I told her she had nothing to worry about and that we were doing just fine.”
You knew that even if you didn’t want to admit it, Jordan probably had some valid points, your mom seemed unphased though. 
“That’s it?”
Leah looked at you, and you could tell that she was holding something back. 
“She told me that you’d told her you smoked weed last night and that you were vomiting this morning.”
You tried to keep your face from changing, keeping the confident exterior even if you were slightly scared on the inside. 
“I got drunk, I had some fun, it was no biggy.”
Leah’s eyebrow rose in the trademark question. 
“It’s a biggy to me because you told all you were doing was vaping and a little bit of drinking, you said you’d be honest with me and it’s clear you haven’t been.”
You hesitated for a second, the air thickening around you as suddenly the tension was between you and your mother. 
“I was just having some fun mom, I didn’t do anything stupid, I was safe, just like you asked.”
Leah’s face shrivelled up as you used her words against her. 
“You were out with friends I’ve never met, at a house on the opposite side of town that I’ve never been too, Jord said you looked like you’d been on a three day bender and I told her that I didn’t believe her but now you’re here admitting it.”
You reached into your pocket for your vape, desperate for something to take the edge of the conversation off, to make you feel calmer. 
You pulled it out and Leah’s face immediately pointed inwards.
“How many times do I have to say no vape at the table?”
You frowned, shoving it back in your pocket. 
“It was just a bit of weed mom, it’s what kids my age do.”
Leah shook her head. 
“It wasn’t just a bit of weed, I’ve been smelling it on your clothes for weeks and trying to tell myself I was being delusional because you’d told me you were just on the vape, that you had no interest in drugs and yet you were lying to me, you have been for a while bubba and I don’t know how to feel about it to be honest. I thought we were closer than most parents and kids, I thought we had boundaries and that I was giving you enough space, and now I don’t know what to think.”
You pursed your lips, struggling to find words. 
“And if you’re lying to me about weed then what else is there? What else is there you aren’t telling me because there has to be more. I let you drop football, I relaxed on the school because I know you were struggling but this doesn’t work if you aren’t honest with me.” 
You really didn’t know what to say, your mind was in a million different places, the container underneath your bed, the joints on your windowsill hidden behind the curtains, the three vapes in your bedside table, the drug dealer numbers in your phone, what had happened last night, the meth track mark on your arm. 
“Nothing, it was just some weed, I just wanted something to take the edge off, it was no big deal.”
Leah’s eyes closed for a second and you knew this was all about to get a lot harder. 
“Except it was a big deal because you’ve been doing it behind my backs for weeks, I’ve tried to be understanding bubba, I have, I know it’s been tough for you with me and Jords breakup, you’ve had a really hard year, I let the vaping slide, I let your attendance drop at school, but drugs bub, it’s no joke.”
You took a deep breath. 
“It’s just some weed, I don’t know what you want me to tell you.”
Leah wants to say that if you’re this relaxed about being caught doing weed then she doesn’t want to know what else you’re hiding from her that would make you less relaxed, but she keeps it to herself, or for this moment at least. 
“I want you to bring me whatever you have of it, I won’t have you smoking illicit and illegal substances underneath my roof.”
You figured there were worse things that could happen, she could find your stash, she could take your vape, she could ground you or make you go to school. 
“Okay.”
Your mom nodded, happy she had at least won a small battle. 
“After lunch.”
You nod again in agreeance, looking down at the caesar salad in front of you and stabbing your fork down onto it, picking up the different pieces of lettuce and chicken scattered throughout. 
You make it through half the meal before you grab your bowl and pick it up, walking into the kitchen to do you washing up, your mom follows behind you, her bowl empty. 
You take the dish from her, cleaning it out and stacking both of them in the dishwasher, knowing whats to come now. 
You slow yourself down on the stairs giving her the time to follow behind you as she dragged her bad leg up every individual stair. 
Leah had been putting in hours everyday for her rehab, it was her main focus, over everything else. 
Eventually the two of you made it to the top of the stairs, and eventually to your bedroom door.
You hesitated before opening it, you couldn’t remember the last time Leah had been inside it, way before her acl, ever since she’d gotten injured she’d been avoiding the staircase. 
You opened the door, hand pausing on the cold metal doorknob for a split second before pushing it open. 
Your room was still freezing, you didn’t miss how your mother shivered from the breeze that hit her face immediately, coming straight from the open window. 
“Jesus kiddo, you trying to replicate antarctica in here? You know I pay good money for heating, right?”
It’s a lighthearted joke, yet somehow it hurts for you, you don’t know how or why, you just know that it does. 
“I like it cold.”
Leah looks at you, both brows furrowed inwards. 
“Alright then polar bear.”
You try not to flinch away when her hand reaches up to ruffle your hair, it’s something she’s done to you since you were a kid, it feels wrong now though. 
“Let’s just get this over and done with.”
You walk over to your windowsill, reaching behind the curtain and reaching for the bag of joints that you have stashed behind the material. Leah frowns as you walk back over to her, shoving the bag into her hands before she can even ask. 
“This is all of them?”
She looks completely unconvinced, you probably would be too, most kids don’t give up their drugs willingly. 
“Yes.”
Leah looks at you, eye to eye, like she’s trying to reach into your soul, or read your mind. 
“Bubba, this is your chance, I’m giving you an opportunity to be straight with me, and whatever you tell me or give me I won’t be mad about. I might want to sit down and question your decisions, but I won’t be mad. Teenagers are stupid, they make mistakes, they try new things, I get it. Be honest with me bubba, please.”
You didn’t really know what Leah was insinuating, but it was clear that she knew there was a bigger picture here. 
“That’s it mom.”
You had to tear your eyes away from her, you couldn’t handle the way that she was looking at you, the mix of disappointment, resentment and worry mixed into her blue irises. 
“Bubba, don’t make me search your room, don’t make me have to ground you, don’t make me have to call Jord and get her to turn the car around to help me out.”
You brought your eyes back to Leah’s. 
“That’s it mom, I don’t know what you want me to tell you, I don’t even know what you’re talking about.”
You were lying through your teeth and the fact you couldn’t look eye to eye with Leah would have been enough of a warning sign of that. 
“Drugs bubba, that’s what I’m talking about, you’re lying straight to my fucking face right now, I don’t know what about or why but you are.”
You didn’t know what to say, you weren’t going to admit it, you couldn’t, but you needed to say something. Fuck, you were so fucked. 
You tried to spin it in your head, tried to think about how you could make this work out. You were caught, you were done, this was bad. 
Your eyes darted to below your bed, rookie fucking mistake. 
Leah caught your line of sight, and you knew as soon as she did that it was all about to go to fucking shit, that you were done for. 
“Lia.”
Your mom’s voice was urgent, a yell that had the swiss woman bounding up the stairs in a matter of seconds. 
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. 
You were so fucking fucked. 
You were frozen in your spot, your mom’s eyes looking at you like she’d just been stabbed in the heart. 
“Bubba, you can get whatever you are hiding from me or I will get Lia to tear this whole room a part, I’m not fucking around.”
You felt torn down the middle, your brain couldn’t think, you felt the same sickness sink in from this morning, instead of it being withdrawals from drugs though it was the realisation that your whole life was about to be turned upside down. 
You tried to think, tried to think about how you could spin this, make it a little bit better than it really was. 
Lia looked more uncomfortable then possible, you wished a blackhole would randomly pop up and swallow all three of you. 
Something hit you, it wasn’t a full resolution but it was better than what you currently had going for you. 
You walked over to your bed, with unsteadier legs then last night when you were so drunk the world was spinning, crouching down when you got to the edge, feeling for the familiar container that held all of your deepest darkest secrets, or at least that’s how it felt. 
It took you back to a time when you’d made Leah check under your bed everynight for the monsters under your bed, now though she was looking for the monsters in your head, the monsters that had turned her little perfect girl into whatever you were now. 
Your hand eventually met the hard plastic, you pulled it out, biting down on the inside of your cheek as you stood up and sat down on the edge of your bed. 
Leah took a couple steps closer to you, standing directly in front of you. 
“Look, it’s not mine, I only did it twice, my friends bought it over, I swear.”
Half of it was true. 
“Open the box, bubba.”
You felt your throat tighten, you felt like you were going to vomit, or pass out, or have a heart attack. 
“Mom, I didn’t want to, I don’t even like it, I just did it because my friends were, I swear.”
It was also another half truth. 
“Bubba, open the box.”
You bit down even harder on the inside of your cheek, reaching for the edge of the plastic box and opening it, revealing the two baggies of white powder inside of it. 
Leah’s face fell, in a way that you’d never seen, you’d seen her disappointed before, this wasn’t it, it was something else entirely and you weren’t sure what. 
“Bubba.”
Your mom was a overly emotional person, you couldn’t handle her crying right now though, you couldn’t do it, you couldn’t deal with her pretending she gave a shit when this was the first time in months that it felt like she cared, and it was all because of Jordan, not on her own volition. 
“I swear mom, I swear, it’s not mine, I promise.”
It wasn’t a lie, it hadn’t started out as yours, you’re friends had left it behind after a weekend hangout and had never asked for it back, so it technically wasn’t yours, technically. 
“Bubba, what is it?”
Leah reached for the box, picking up the two bags, the bags that you felt like held your whole life together. 
“Cocaine, it’s just a little bit of coke, my friends were using it before parties, I didn’t like it, it made me feel dizzy and it hurt my head.”
The cocaine bit was a lie, but the fact you didn’t like cocaine wasn’t, it was the kind of stimulant which put you into over drive, the high lasted no where near as long and it made you feel like you weren’t making sense.
You were hoping she would believe the cocaine, inevitably, cocaine was a pissy drug. Leah would have been at thousands of parties were cocaine was handed around, hell, you were fairly certain your mother had taken plenty of it. Cocaine was less addictive, good cocaine was also stupidly expensive, the value of it was fucked. Meth was cheap but a thousand times more addictive, cocaine was a better like. 
“Lia, get rid of it.”
Your mom handed the bag of joints over to Lia, as well as the bags of drugs, shoving them into her hands like they were burning her hands. “I don’t even know what to say to you bubba.”
Your mom looked genuinely at a loss for words, her eyes kept darting between your eyes and your hands, which were shaking in front of you. 
“Mom, I promise, it was only a one time thing, really, I was just keeping it for my friends.”
As soon as the tears started spilling down Leah’s face you knew it was about to get bad. 
She walked over to your desk, pulling the chair out from it and dragged it across the room until it was directly in front of you, your mother taking a seat. 
Her hands came out to rest on your knees, they were shaking like yours, not as badly but still shaking, though for different reasons you assumed. 
“You told me the weed was a one time thing, that was a lie. I don’t know what to believe anymore, you’ve put me in a impossible situation, bubba. On one hand, I want to believe you. I want to believe the kid I raised, on the other hand you haven’t given me reason to. You broke my trust, you lied to me, you broke the house rules. I don’t ask a lot of you, I let you get away with more than your ma would let you, and I was fine with it because you were showing me you were a good kid, but now I honestly don’t know what to think. You told me it was just the vapes, I thought you were using a little bit to much nicotine and now it turns out that you’re smoking pot and doing drugs. You’ve been hiding and lying and I just don’t get why. Why bubba? Tell me why.”
Big tears were dripping from your mothers eyes, big, wet, fat tears pooling in her icey blue eyes. 
“I don’t know, okay? I’m sorry mom, I’m really sorry. I’m sorry. I love you, I didn’t mean it, it was just some fun, it was a one time thing, I promise.”
Leah pursed her lips, the same way you were, the sleeve of her shirt was pressed to her face, picking up the tears that were dripping down her jaw. 
“I’m going to go and call your ma, this is a discussion we need to be having together, I need her here for this.”
Little did they know how bad it really was. 
Leah stood up, you thought she would just leave, heading back down to make a call to your ma that would inevitably change your life, instead, she sat down next to you, her arms opening up. 
You leaned into her side, letting her wrap both of her arms around you. 
“I’m sorry mom, I’m sorry.”
It was the only thing you could think of saying, the only thing that sounded right coming off the tip of your tongue. 
“I love you so much my beautiful girl, we’ll figure this out, your ma and I, we’re all going to figure this out.”
Leah held onto you for a little bit longer, her arms tightening onto you like you were holding her down to earth, like she would float away if she didn’t. 
Eventually she let go, her face was puffy and red, her sleeves were red and she sounded all sniffly. 
“I’m going to go and phone Jord, we’re going to sort it all out, we’ll figure this out, okay? We’re both here for you, we both love you so much, you’re our little girl.”
You found it weird how easy it slipped off of her tongue, you wondered if she actually believed that she meant it, you wondered if when your mother said it that she meant it without really meaning it. There were words but there were no actions to support those words, just empty syllables and letters all formed together in a intricate lie. 
You watched as Leah limped her way out of your room, her bad leg trailing behind her good one, rule number one of parenting a child you now know is drug addicted, never leave them alone in a room they can escape from when you’ve just confronted them. 
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formulamuppet · 1 year
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Charles: were you dropped on your head as a child?
Max: bold of you to assume I was even held
Charles:...
Lando:...
Carlos:..
Daniel: Max, we’ve talked about this
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coockie8 · 17 days
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If you're going to insinuate that a CSA survivor is a predator over cartoons, you don't get to whine when you get trauma dumped on ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
You made your bed, bitch, lie in it.
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thepeacefulgarden · 2 years
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You are allowed to say "no" when you don't have the bandwidth for them, or when you know that whatever it is they're dealing with is better dealt with by a therapist than you. Healthy venting respects this, whereas dumping tries to make you feel like a bad person for saying no (or trying to say no). Healthy venting does its own emotional labor; dumping tries to make you do someone else's emotional labor for them.
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tales-from-sysblr · 10 days
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posted a thing about a group of endos being ableist (not even blaming all endos, just pointing out the weirdness)
and some endo came into my replies trauma dumping saying its MY personal fault their friend tried to kts (never seen this person in my life and try my best not to int with endos. and if i do its never in a weird way. occasionally in an ACTUAL* debate way, but never in a dumb rude way. dont fuck with that shit. and the rest of the sys doesn't post abt sys shit at all. whenever we see an endo we just fucking block so we don't accidentally interact)
but apparently its OUR fault their friend tried to kts because apparently anti endos were mean to them or sum and they kept saying random shit as instead of anything of actual substance or on topic to my post.
i am an alter with VERY low empathy. couldnt bring myself to get guilt tripped by some rando who obviously has no regard for others and just puts triggering shit into random replies instead of saying anything with substance.
so note to any endos reading: trauma dumping onto random people isn't a valid argument. get debate lessons please i beg of you. i would respect someone who actually tries to come onto my post to have a convo, but never someone who does weird shit.
.
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deesi-academia · 1 year
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Get. Therapy.
Please.
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traumatizeddfox · 2 years
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i hate the word trauma dump because now people are afraid to reach out, or talk to someone about their trauma. Not everything is trauma dumping, its okay to talk about your trauma, and i don't think we should be shaming people who talk openly abt their trauma. Like yes there is a place and time for everything, but also let ppl just vent it out ?
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crazycatsiren · 11 months
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My blog isn't for trauma dumping.
Your traumas are valid. But I don't know you and I don't want to be involved.
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sweetdreamspootypie · 3 months
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Yet another PSA from your friendly neighbourhood ward nurse
If you or a close person ends up in hospital please check in and make sure we have your contact details correct.
We go over the personal info form with all newly admitted patients, but these days most people don't have phone numbers memorized, and even though we check, contact numbers for next of kin often don't work when we try to call you.
Check your phone and make sure you've got an emergency contact number set up
Make sure your important people are clearly labelled (I have my people saved by actual name, but then also labelled with relationship like mother and housemate, and have them starred as important contacts)
Check in with your older relatives or neighbours - make sure that they have this set up in /their/ phones as well
And if they are older and at risk of becoming confused when unwell, it may be worth setting up their phone so it does not require a password
I don't know if that's official recommendation or not
All I know is that the other night, we had a new admission brought in by his neighbour, who had checked on him because she hadnt seen him in a few days
She found him collapsed at home - weakened because of Covid
None of the contact numbers we had on file for his family worked
He collapsed again within an hour of us receiving him
He was dead within 5 hours
The only person we could call was the neighbour who brought him in
The only reason we managed to contact his family at all was because he had his phone in his pocket, it didn't need a passcode to unlock, and the doctor could go through the numbers that shared his family name
Please
Wear a mask
Get vaccinated
Check on your neighbours
Check on your elderly and at risk community members and family
Go through safety precautions with them - make sure they have these things set up
Help them set up their phones so they can easily use them even if feeling confused
That's the difference between dying alone or not
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mikushimada · 8 months
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Seven words,
Seven stabs and followed hurts,
A fountain filled with blood
That's when I wake up
☆ Written by me ☆
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☆ Explanation: the sentence which is written in the picture has seven words. if these kind of words ends up unrequited, they would be seven stabs pointed to your own heart. “waking up” in here can have different meanings and I'll let this one up to you.
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samkerrworshipper · 18 days
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have no fear
jordan nobbs x reader, leah williamson x reader, arsenal x reader
part 2 of beautiful girl series -> pt. 1 -> pt.3
warnings: drug addiction, drug use, angst, pain, mentions of sexual assault, little bit of fluff if you look really close
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So with every last piece of strength that you had in your body, you pulled the door open.
“Hey chicky.”
You tried to smile at your ma, you did, but it was hard.
“Hey ma.”
You knew you had to look like a wreck, you hadn’t had time to look in a mirror on your way down, but you knew that you must look like a complete mess.
Jordan brought you into a hug before you could do anything about it her little arms squeezing your body as tightly as you thought she could manage.
She forced her way into the house before you could say anything about it, walking her way into the kitchen and leaving you close the door behind her.
“Le said you were out last night.”
You followed your ma into the kitchen, walking straight to the coffee pot.
“You want coffe?”
Jordan had always been the stricter of your two parents, probably because she saw you less, Leah was the one who had to do the hard yards, constantly fighting with you over the biggest and smallest things.
“Tea please, how late where you out till, who were you with?”
You turned the machine on, trying to hide your annoyance at the immediate interrogation.
“Did you come here to see me or question my choices?”
You pulled two mugs from the shelf, reaching for the kettle and pouring enough water in before reaching for a tea bag.
“I came here to see you chicky, and catch up with you, I want to hear about what’s been going on.”
You dropped the tea bag into the cup, reaching across the island to hand it to your ma.
“I was out with a few friends.”
You pulled your vape out of your pocket, hoping that it would help to soothe the insistent memory of the events of last night and push it from the forefront of your mind.
“What’s that?”
You looked up at Jordan curiously, one of your own eyebrows raising.
“What’s what?”
You looked back at the coffee machine, watching as your mug slowly began to fill up with the brown mixture.
“Since when do you vape?”
You pulled your mug out from the machine, setting down on the island so you were facing your ma.
“A couple of months, why?”
You reached for the sugar container, taking the spoon out of it and dropping two spoonfuls in.
“Does your mother know?”
The shock in Jordan’s voice was so obvious.
“Yup.”
It was all good and well for Jordan to judge Leah’s decisions with parenting you, but at the end of day she’d been the one to leave, refusing to take you with her, insisting that life in London was better for you and that passing you back and forth between Birmingham and London every week wouldn’t be fair, she left you.
“How’s football been?”
The pivot in conversation should have helped, but you knew that it wouldn’t as soon as the words had left her mouth.
“I stopped playing.”
Jordan frowned at you.
“Since when?”
You brought the coffee up to your lips, finding solace in the warm liquid.
“A while ago.”
You wished she’d drop the topic, she seemed to be becoming more disappointed by the minute.
“Why, you were great, you were one of the best a the academy.”
You were one of the best because Leah spent all of her afternoons coaching you, because she knew the coaches, because she knew what she had to do to make you better, not because you were naturally gifted or because it came easy to you.
“I didn’t want to.”
You ried to answer her with some finality, to make her drop it and move on.
“How about school, how are your gcse’s going?”
You wanted to lie to her and tell her it was good, that you were on track to get all A stars like you’d planned.
“I don’t think I’m going to do them, my attendance isn’t high enough.”
Jordan’s face plummeted, her jaw going slack as she looked at you.
“What? I thought you wanted to go to college, that you were planning on doing medicine or law or english lit.”
You hated that Jordan had this preconceived version of you in her head, from when she left, from when she used to travel every weekend to see you, when you were doing everything to try and be the perfect kid for the both of them.
“Plans change.”
You kept your eyes downcast, scared to look at her and absorb the disappointment.
“What do you plan to do, without an education and your football? Do you plan to just live with your mother forever? Do you plan to use her until she’s old and retired? You can’t just live your life like that chicky, you need a goal, a aspiration, something you want to do with your life.”
It was the same conversation Leah had tried to have with you, one you’d ignored.
“I know ma.”
Jordan looked at you with disapproval.
“It doesn’t seem like you do, what are your plans, what are you spending all of your time doing?”
Getting high, crying, regretting your existence.
“I don’t know Ma, look, you don’t get to come here for the first time in a month and try to act like you give a shit about what’s going on, Mom’s been through it and I’ve been trying to support her, I’ll figure it all out later.”
Jordan looked dismayed, to say the least, her finger twirling the teabag inside of her cup aimlessly.
“Lovey, your mom is in a lot of pain right now, she doesn’t deserve to be taken advantage of, I understand you might be going through your own pain but it’d be nice if you could try and be a bit better for her.”
You wanted to yell at jordan, tell her that you were hardly the fucking problem, but you couldn’t, not when everything that had happened in the last 24 hours was circulating non stop in your mind.
“Look, I understand that I’m not the kid you wanted, that I stopped playing football and I’m not doing what you wanted me to.”
Jordan stopped you before you could say much more.
“No it’s just that months ago you were fit, you were reading and writing and playing football, you were smiling and spending all of your spare time with your mom and now it’s like all of that’s changed and you’ve just become this person I don’t know anymore. Can you blame me for being surprised? This isn’t you, This isn’t my kid, this just isn’t you, chicky.”
You couldn’t look at Jordan, you just couldn’t.
“You have no fucking idea what’s going on, you’re never here, the only time you give a fuck about my life is when it’s convenient for you and when you get to judge it. I’m not your kid anymore, you don’t fucking love me, you haven’t wanted me for a long time.”
Jordan recoiled at your words.
“First of all, don’t swear at me, I hope you don’t talk to your mother that way. Secondly, that’s not true and not fair. I’m here as often as I can be. I love you chick, I just think you could be making better decisions. Where were you last night?”
You rolled your eyes, you felt frantic, you could feel your heart beating in your ear and the blood pumping through your veins.
“That’s such bullshit. Trips to Spain to see Lucy are more important then me, huh? Trips to Ibiza to hang out with Caitlin and Katie are more important than me? You criticise the decisions mom has made but you aren’t here, you don’t understand what it’s like.”
Your hands were shaking so badly you had to put your coffee down, the liquid having spilt slightly down onto the countertop.
“Where were you last night, lovey?”
The question made you feel like you needed to puke, and for a second you thought it was just a feeling, but then you felt the bile rising and you realised it wasn’t just a feeling, you were about to vomit.
You rushed from the kitchen as quickly as your weary body would allow, your legs shaking underneath you, threatening to give out, taunting you from below.
You made it to the toilet bowl just in time for your jaw to go slack and the bile that had been rising in your throat to splat against the porcelain. You didn’t look at it, you couldn’t, knowing that it was probably evidence of what had happened last night, the alcohol, him.
You didn’t need to see Jordan to know she was waiting at the door behind you. It was the last way you wanted to spend your couple of hours with her, but it didn’t really matter now you supposed.
You knew you were done when the pressure in your throat dissipated and you finally felt like you could breathe again. You pushed yourself up, flushing the toilet before turning around to look at Jordan.
Your Ma reached out for you first, her hand coming up to your face, gently pressing onto your cheek.
“It’s alright bubba, I’m here, you’re okay, I’m sorry.”
Jordan’s arms opened up and without hesitation you leaned in, seeking out comfort that you hadn’t felt in a long time. The hug didn’t provide the love you were yearning for, it didn’t soothe the part of you that was hurting, but it did patch a hole inside of you somewhere.
You were far taller than Jordan, but she somehow made you feel like a little kid again, your head coming to rest down on her shoulder.
“C’mon, let’s get you to the couch and we’ll talk, huh, one on one, no judgement.”
You felt eight again as Jordan lead you over to the same couch. You felt how you did when you were eight, when your moms sat you down and promised you that they would always be a safe space for you, that you could tell them anything about the past and they wouldn’t judge you and that they’d always be proud of you no matter what, you felt how you did at 12 when your moms sat you down to let you know that the academy had asked them if you wanted to play with them, you felt how you did at 14 when your moms sat you down to let you know that your teacher wanted to put you up a form at school. Except everything was different, it wasn’t your moms, there was nothing to be proud of, nothing for them to tell you you were doing good at.
Jordan sat you down, your head pressed to her shoulder.
“I’m sorry that I was rough on you, okay? I don’t know what’s going on, I’m not here as much as I should be. Can you tell me about last night, bubba, please?”
You didn’t get why she cared so much, your mom hardly cared what you did on your nights out as long as you were home by your curfew and stayed safe.
“I went to a party, okay? It’s no big deal.”
You heard Jordan exhale next to you.
“You didn’t do anything stupid?”
You wondered what Jordan would define as stupid.
“I drank a little, smoked a bit of pot, normal teenage shit.”
You wanted it to be the truth, desperately, but it wasn’t.
“That’s it?”
Jordan knew you were lying, she’d always been better at telling, Leah on the other hand wasn’t as practised in being able to detect when lies were falling freely from your lips.
“Yes, for fucks sakes.”
Jordan only tightened her embrace around you, bringing her as close to you as possible. Leah had stopped hugging you like this when she’d done her knee, it had become harder and she knew you were growing up, she didn’t think you needed her in that way anymore, she was so incredibly wrong.
“Okay, I’m sorry chicky, I’ll stop with the questions. Let’s just have a you and me day, huh? Like we used to. We can go to the cafe that you like and down to the beach, whatever you want, just a you and me day.”
You didn’t want any of that.
“Can’t we just stay on the couch.”
You heard jordan chuckle a little bit.
“How about we go and get breakfast and then we can have a movie day, or we can catch up on the episodes of Love Island, I haven’t gotten to watching the new season yet.”
You didn’t want to go anywhere, you wanted to stay in your safe space, up in your room on your windowsill.
“Do we have to.”
Jordan nodded from above you.
“Fresh air will be good for you. Plus, you want to get a mean hangover then that’s your own fault chicky, it’s best to learn the hard way. Head upstairs and get changed, I need to talk to your mom real quick.”
You wanted to stick around to hear what Jordan planned to tell your mom, but you didn’t want to wreck whatever you had going with her, so you just nodded your head and stood up, beginning the walk back up to your room.
You hated looking at yourself in the mirror.
Because you could act like you were fine, you could pretend you were put together and had your life together and fool yourself but as soon as you were forced to look at yourself it all was clear. There was truth in your eyes and the way they made your body look so vacant, so eerie, it was as if they were the sign that there was no life left inside of you.
You’d always felt out of place no matter where you were, like you never truly belonged. You’d always felt like you were one of those tragic people with no storyline, so you lived watching other people, living through them. To start with it had been your moms, watching how much they loved each other, how they looked at each other, how they spoe about each other, like you were a background character in their story. It worked for a long time, until it didn’t. Until they split up, until you were forced to heal all over again from the home that was breaking around you. All the things you’d been running from before them were back, and instead of feeling like you were safe you knew you weren’t, you knew that no matter how loved you’d felt for the longest time, you weren’;t anymore, you didn’t get to live vicariously through their love.
You scrubbed your face without any real care, scrubbing the makeup, mascara and tears from last night off of your face.
Once you were content that the were physically gone, even if it mentally didn’t feel that way, you stood up from the basin and dried your face, hoping the patting would somehow strip the pain that was painted across your skin, it didn’t.
You moved to your wardrobe next, picking out a pair of sweatpants and a hoodie, as well as your thickest winter jacket. It was the same thing you wore every time your mom forced you out of the house to go on some stupid errand with her or some random appointment. You picked out a comfy enough pair of trainers before pushing your hair into a bun and walking back down the stairs.
Your Ma was talking hushedly into her phone, and put it down as soon as she spotted you descending the stairs.
“Ready to go?”
You nodded, one of your eyebrows up in questioning as you stared at your Ma’s phone.
“I was just checking in with your mom, she says they should be back around lunch time.”
Then Jordan would leave, like she always did.
“I’m not a chore, if you don’t want to hangout with me then you don’t have to be here, I can be left alone for a couple of hours.”
Jordan exhaled, deep enough for a few seconds to linger.
“That’s not fair, I’m here kiddo, I want to spend some time with you.”
You pulled your vape out of your pocket, Jordan could tell when you were lying and you could tell when she was.
“No, you have to spend time with me until mom is back, there is a difference.”
In the beginning, Jordan would come down every weekend, no matter where her game was, just to spend time with her little chicky, as the months and year had passed though, her time with you had become shorter and shorter until you’d only see her if she had a game in London.
“I don’t care, I get it, you’re busy with your new life, it’s whatever. Let’s just get this over and done with.”
Jordan looked like she wanted to say something, but the frown you sent her must have been enough of a silencer.
The two of you walked out the front door silent, down the street silent, all the way to the cafe, completely silent, the only sound to be heard was the cars going by, the sounds of your breathing and the repetitive puff of your lips as you pressed the vape to your lips. If you couldn’t have drugs then it was going to have to do.
When you got to the cafe you had enough courtesy to shove it in your pocket, focusing your attention on your Ma as much as you hated it.
She ordered you your normal, you were surprised she remembered.
“How’d the game go last night?”
You hadn’t tuned into either games, you’d had other things on your mind.
“We drew, it was a good game though.”
You nodded, it didn’t matter much in the scheme of things, Aston Villa weren’t in a title race, weren’t in contention for a trophy of any kind but also weren’t at any real risk of relegation, they were just mid.
“How about mom?”
Leah wasn’t playing, but a part of you still cared about how her team had gone.
“They won, 1-2 to man city.”
You nodded, that was something.
Your food arrived which was a good enough distraction, both you and Jordan focusing your attention on the meals in front of you. A couple of years ago, all of your sunday mornings had been spent here with your two moms, nowadays if you went, which was rare, it was by yourself.
The meal went on in awkward silence, the both of you clearly unsure how to deal with the pent up awkwardness that had been developing since you’d left the house.
The meal dragged on until the two of you couldn’t pretend any longer and called it done, the two of you standing up and leaving in the same silence you’d entered.
You didn’t mind the silence, it hurt, but not in the same way that it normally did, you were less alone than normal, you felt less out of place then normal.
You were silently praying that your mom got home earlier than expected, to give you the same normal, painful consistency that you were used to instead of this, instead of whatever it is that Jordan was pulling out of you.
The two of you walked back to the house in silence, once upon a time Blu would have been walking in front of you, her little legs patting across the concrete, nowadays though Blu stayed in Birmingham, with Jordan. Leah claimed she didn’t have time for a dog, it had always been Jordan’s thing though.
When you got back to the house, you collapsed down onto the sofa, flicking on a episode of love island before opening up your phone and starting to answer the multiple texts which you’d been leaving on delivered.
First, you replied to your friends, letting them know you were fine and just needed to be home before your curfew, then your mom, letting her know you were fine. Once you were finished updating all of your people, you moved onto aimlessly scrolling, flicking through different social media posts.
Jordan eventually joined you on the couch, her attention on the episode.
You didn’t miss the way her eyes would stray towards you every few seconds, darting away from the tv screen to look at you. It seemed like she was hesitating to say something, like there words on the tip of tongue that she was too scared to say. Jordan was always the silent one, even as you watched your moms relationship die out, she was always the quiet one, Leah on the other hand was always the loud one, always trying to fix problems that were unfixable.
You wanted to prompt her, ask her what her apparent problem was, but you stayed silent, muzzling yourself for the good of keeping whatever peace there was between the two of you.
PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD SEND ME YOUR PART THREE IDEAS, KEEPING IN MIND THAT LEAH POTENTIALLY FINDS OUT ABOUT RS WEED USAGE AND CONFRONTS HER ABOUT IT BUT DOESN'T KNOW ABOUT THE DRUGS
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moss-in-hiding · 8 months
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maybe its something about having to watch someone you lived and saw as an equal begin to hate you and pull away from you as they refuse to tell you why until your relationship is beyond repair but Kaneda and Tetsuo have me by the throat rn
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datamodel-of-disaster · 9 months
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People talk a lot about "trauma dumping" and not burdening casual acquaintances with your deepest sorrows, but...I never hear anyone talk about how that is just one end of a horseshoe, really.
There is also a point where someone has become too close and dear a friend to share your pain with them.
There is a point where you know someone so well that you know what topics they can and cannot deal with, that you can predict when your misery is going to exceed the limits of their emotional bandwidth. And you care about them! You want to protect their energy levels, not drag them down with your pain, respect their boundaries with room to spare, and most of all...
You want to avoid becoming a drain and a burden, because it would hurt too much to lose this person.
So you censor yourself. You keep it inside. You have to, if you want to protect the friendship.
...
Anyway, I'm totally fine and not feeling incredibly broken with nowhere to put the shards, why are you asking?
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januscorner · 5 months
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I feel like we need to take the word trauma dump away from the internet because people are calling literally anything trauma dumping “please don’t talk about that it makes me uncomfortable” “ohh you’re trauma dumping that’s toxic”
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I am a little worried for those in Gen Z and even some millennials who are like, "trauma dumping is good actually." Like, there's nothing wrong with venting to a friend about problems, but expecting your friends to have all of the solutions is not. Getting mad at your friends for not having the emotional energy to stop what they're doing to take care of you is not. Some of you don't realize how exhausting it can be to be that friend always expected to drop all commitments to listen to all of another person's crises.
Like, boundaries are becoming scarce among a lot of you and it really has me worried for your mental health.
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livingfictionsystem · 3 months
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Thinking about all the random adults I would follow around and babble at when I was like eight.
I used to wander to the next block over and just kind of find an adult taking a smoke break and I'd be like "Hi my name is [REDACTED] I've been reading a book called this and it has this character and his backstory is this and it reminds me of how my grandma doesn't love me and makes fun of me a lot, do you wanna see a trick I can do on my bike?"
'My mom didn't come home for two weeks and now she has an apartment somewhere else but it has a pool! Do you like rollercoasters? :D"
Those poor people lmao
-Sparrow Hemlock Harvey
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