[female she/her] Welcome to Aurora Bay, [ZEHRA KAYA]! I couldn’t help but notice you look an awful lot like [BURCU ÖZBERK]. You must be the [TWENTY NINE] year old [ARTIST]. Word is you’re [CREATIVE] but can also be a bit [CLINGY] and your favorite song is [BOYFRIEND BY DOVE CAMERON]. I also heard you’ll be staying in [CRYSTAL COVE CONDOMINIUMS]. I’m sure you’ll love it! [Squishy, 30+, NZST, she/her, cancer] *Esma Demirci ex-best friend/lover WC*
Triggers: Abandonment, death, cheating, divorce, abuse
Zehra began life in Turkey, she was born there but soon moved to California. Her parents needed somewhere to go so they went to Aurora Bay because it seemed like the right move for the family at the time. Zehra did work hard in school trying to get herself to a point where she was doing well in school but her attention span wasn’t the best and it resulted in her always getting behind and unable to catch up. Not long after her thirteenth birthday, her parents announced they were getting divorced, instead of taking it well Zehra kept making disappearances and finding ways to hide.
Eventually, it came to a point where she had to decide who to live with and she chose her father, however, he wasn’t coping well with the divorce, and ended up drinking himself to death. Zehra at the time was sixteen, and she had no idea what to do, so she rang the emergency number after finding her father and she was relocated to live with her mother.
Zehra throughout all of this had found a sweet, kind boy who treated her like a princess. He gave her all she could ever need and he also let her stay over when she needed room to get away from all the family drama. It didn’t help that Esma, the best friend who was staying there at the time was starting to look nicer and she found herself being more attracted to her boyfriend's best friend than her own boyfriend. Zehra tried her hardest to resist, wanting to make sure that she wasn’t going to hurt her boyfriend, but at the end of the day she had fallen for Esma, and there was nothing she could do to change that.
Their little affair went on for two years, and the sneaking was exhausting, she had been planning on telling her boyfriend the truth about what was happening but she always found herself delayed and never able to find the right moment. The night her boyfriend died he had offered to give her a ride home because he was going past, but she wasn’t ready to face her family again. She spent the night buried in Esma’s arms, finding comfort in being together with her. When she heard the news every shred of guilt and resentment washed over her and while she tried her best to face it, when Esma ran she couldn’t help but feel even more guilt, and she now had to face it all alone.
Her boyfriends family all worked hard to try and support Zehra, the funeral was the hardest part, she had to pretend nothing had happened and that she wasn’t in love with his best friend that disappeared. Zehra tried her best to get herself to a steady, healthy point, but everything she tried was met with pain and another closed door. She put all the pain and guilt she felt into painting, ending up making some beautiful distressed-looking paintings that put her name on the map when it came to the art world. She continued her work on her paintings, getting to a point where she was perfecting the style that she had built up for so long.
Eventually she took time away from the bay, choosing to take the time to perfect her art and take on a few extra jobs, one of which was sign writing for businesses, it’s where she met someone who she really did fall for very quickly. It was a whirlwind romance, with her being lovebombed and then he began cutting her off from her friends and family, slowly working his way into her mind and then when she would try to cut things off he would correct his behaviour and be good for a month or two. This continued for a few months and it was right back to before. She found out she was pregnant a few months into the relationship after he had been replacing her birth control with placebos. She got stuck in this loop again, staying until the baby was born. But it took him laying his hands on her before she finally left him and took their baby with her.
She moved back to the bay a month ago, still stuck and struggling to make it through the rough patch. She’s been using the pain to make more art, and she’s still worried about meeting anyone in any capacity other than friends. She’s still longing to meet up with Esma again because she wants to get an explanation and perhaps catch up again to where they used to be. She's confused on how to be the best mother she can, but she's trying to do her best for her baby.


















