You don’t know why you even keep trying with Natalie.

Sure, she was the best person in the entire world to you. She had a heart of gold and was startling selfless. Her heart was so soft. She couldn’t hurt even a fly. She barely raised her voice and always started crying when arguing. She hated being yelled at.

But that all went out the door when it came to Travis or her drugs. Even before the crash, Natalie had her demons and substance problems. But it just got worse after. Losing all of her friends and everything else she witnessed fucked her up even more. You tried your best to be there for her, but that’s all you could really do. You couldn’t force her to get help because that famous saying was true: she had to want it for herself.

As someone who grew up barely scraping by money wise, it didn’t get any better when she started spending her money on hard drugs and alcohol. And there were things with Travis. Natalie was too sweet to cheat unless it was with Travis for some reason. God, they were both good people but somehow brought out the worst in each other.

You hated all of this. Hated the pain Natalie had been going through ever since she was born. Hated that drugs were her comfort. Hated her relationship with Travis. You just wanted her to get better and, selfishly, wanted her for yourself.

You didn’t know what you were going to do with Natalie. You never did really, but this was different. This wasn’t the girl you grew up with.