“Yeah,” she nods and looks back up to Ember, “I fucking knew you were a badass.” She grins.
“Did you want to come with us this weekend?” Ember asks her, “ I would feel better if you did. I don’t want you here in this town alone.”
“Because of this Talia bitch, right?” Adri rolls her eyes.
“Yeah.”
“I want to come and see you fight,” Adri locks her gaze on E, “and I want to see how you kill them.”
“Wow.” I breathe out.
“What?” Adri looks at me.
“You’re just different from what I remember.” I shrug.
“Maybe it’s time you faced that.” She says.
“You’re right.” I nod, “maybe it’s time I got to know you again.”
“I’d like that.” She smiles.
“As touching as this is,” Vin stands up. “I need to fuck my girl and get some sleep. Be up at five.”
Asshole has me smirking.
E starts giggling and follows Vin out of the room. She turns at the doorway and gives us all a look, “don’t do anything I wouldn’t do kids.” Then she’s gone with a wink.
“I think she’s basically given us permission to kill just about anyone that looks at us wrong.” Adri snorts and both Emmett and I start laughing.
“Did you want to stay here tonight or you want me to drop you back at home?” Emmett asks her while twirling a piece of her maroon dyed hair around his finger.
“I should go home and pack a bag. I didn’t think I’d be going to New York.” She squeals a little.
“I think now that you know the whole story,” I begin, “maybe you should start staying here instead of being alone in that house.”
“I’m not alone,” she protests. “I have Carol and Richard.”
“The driver and the cook?” I ask her.
“They are my family, what would they do if I’m not there?”
“Oh, I dunno,” Emmett starts, his voice laced with sarcasm. “Have a vacay?”
“We’ll discuss it more in New York.” I nod standing to go to my room.
“Yeah sure, along with what the fuck you two have planned for this…” she waves her hand around between us, “situation.”
“We’ll get there.” I head out of the room and call out behind me, “goodnight.”
I don’t want to stick around and get sucked into a conversation about confessions and bringing shit to light. I’m still finding the light on the shitstorm that was and is my life, I’m not even ready to fully tell my story to anyone.
About twenty minutes later, I hear the front door open and shut, signaling their departure. As happy as I was that they are meshing and finding love in one another, I want to be a part of it. Adrianna was always in my peripheral, even when I wanted nothing more than to curl up inside myself and die, she was there. Yes, I let her go, but I had my reasons.
That night, after my father set up that ‘meeting’, I was at the lowest I had ever been, but I had promised to go to Danny’s party with Adri. I knew Vin wouldn’t be there because his mother had put him to work at the restaurant on Friday nights. I knew my night would be clear of his drama and I could spend it with her.
After the situation inside my father’s office, I was in no mood to be in public and I should’ve listened to my intuition but I was overcome with stress, sadness, and a soul wrenching hatred. I hated my father with a passion that could bring down an entire army, I wanted him dead and at the time, I could only hope I would grow the balls to do it one day.
I remember chugging half a bottle of expensive bourbon from my father’s study and then walking to Adri’s house with the other half in my hand. By the time I had reached her house, I was severely intoxicated. Adri could tell I was drinking but she wasn’t aware of just how much. I saw her look me up and down as I stood on her front porch, her brown eyes more expressive than any other I had ever seen.
She was home alone again, her parents had started making it a thing since the beginning of the school year, only popping in once a month for a week to make sure she was okay.
Fucking chumps.
She didn’t say much to me as we walked to Danny’s, just frequent glances out of the side of her eye. I knew she could sense something was wrong, we were just that close. Adri didn’t know the extent of how bad my home was. How brutal my father was and how much my mother hated being there.
Most of the night was a blur, but I did remember the main points. Being intoxicated finally made my balls drop and I initiated a kiss with Adrianna. I was so happy when she reciprocated. I know a lot of the night was making out with her, but I vaguely remember Stacey showing up. I don’t know how she got my attention but I could tell by her face it was important.
Stacey was a grade eleven student at Precious Blood Academy and her mom was dating Coach Halbert. I remember being in the bathroom and when I came out Stacey grabbed my hand and dragged me into a bedroom. She had clearly been crying and I remember feeling slightly nauseous from the copious amounts of alcohol I had consumed. The events are fuzzy in my brain but Stacey basically told me Coach raped her and when she tried to tell her mother, she called her a slut. To be fair, there were rumors that Stacey was free with her body. She said she found pictures in Coach’s desk of all the guys on the team, some of us in the shower but mostly they were of me in different stages of undress.
By the time I came out of the room, Adri was long gone. It wouldn’t be until Monday at school that I would know
