I make my way to their table and sit beside Adri. They are all looking down at an open file in front of them.
“What is this?” I ask.
“The adoption file I found.” She answers. “There’s some weird shit in here that I just don’t understand.”
“Like what?”
“I think we should wait and show this to E.” Travis mutters.
“I want to look at it now,” Adri stresses to him. “I will show her later.”
“What is weird about it?” I look over her shoulder.
“The fact that Adri was adopted in July but her birthday is September thirtieth.” Vin states.
“Wait… September thirtieth? That’s in like three days.” I exclaim. “Were you going to say anything?”
“Sorry, I just got caught up in everything and to be honest, I just fucking forgot.” She presses her fingers to her temples. “I just want something lowkey, don’t fucking plan a party Emmett.”
“Well, if these papers are correct, we fucking missed your birthday. You’re already seventeen.” I clasp her on the shoulder and grin.
“Actually,” Travis points out, “she’d be eighteen.”
We all lean in and sure enough the year of birth is one more than mine. Adri is eighteen years old if these documents are to be believed.
“Let’s close this up and we’ll figure it out with Ember.” Vin says.
“I’m leaving.” Adri huffs and stands up from the chair.
I look to both Vin and Travis and they shrug their shoulders and get up as well. This is my first time skipping. What am I supposed to do?
“Guys,” I hold my hand out, “shouldn’t we tell Anna?”
Vin cackles and Travis has a smirk on his face.
“No silly,” Adri grabs my hand, “we’re skipping.”
“Adrianna,” Ember says as she reads over one of the papers from the file, “you were born in New York on July 28th, 2001. Given up by mother and no father present.”
“New York.” Travis hums, “Talia.”
“Yeah,” Ember nods, “that’s what I was thinking.”
Adri is sitting in an armchair in Ember’s room and she’s been pretty quiet this whole time. It’s a lot to take in to know your life isn’t what it seemed or what you thought.
I go over to her and kneel, “babe, are you okay?”
“I want to know the full truth. Is it what's on those papers or what was always said to me?” She sounds sad and broken.
“We’ll figure it all out, Adri.” Ember sounds resolute as always.
“I just want to get home.” Adri yawns into her hand.
“I’ll drop you on my way to check on my mom.” Vin says as he stands, grabbing his keys.
“I’m going to hold on to these and continue to look them over.” Ember points to the papers spread across her bed.
“Sure.” Adri waves it off. “I’ll see you guys tomorrow.”
I watch as she leaves the room with Vin in tow. I feel bad for her, these past few weeks have been a fucking whirlwind. To learn that your birthday is completely wrong and that maybe your parents are involved in some shady shit is rough to say the least.
“I’m gonna head to bed.” Travis yawns, “I need some fucking sleep.”
“Me, too.” I nod. “Night Sissy.”
“Night Fool.” Ember says and I chuckle on my way out of her room. I love that bitch something fierce.
“Travis.” I call out.
“Yeah?” He turns to look at me.
“I need to talk to you.”
“Okay.” He shrugs and leads the way to his room.
I step inside and close the door, I watch as Travis takes his shirt off and throws it into the hamper on the side. “What’s up?”
“Uh…” he’s fucking hot, his body is sculpted and his fucking abs look delectable. “Uh… fuck, can you put clothes on?” I snap at him.
He chuckles and pulls on a black t-shirt, “better?”
“No, but I can’t concentrate otherwise.” I grumble.
“What’s up? Or did you come for round two? I’ll warn you though… I’m hella tired.”
“No,” I shake my head, “it’s about something that was said to me today.”
“What?”
“Marlana was waiting for me at my locker before lunch. She told me to tell you that she thinks Shay was raped by Coach Halbert.”
He’s quiet and looking off over my shoulder. I know this fucker did some shit to Travis but I don’t know the extent of it.
He exhales heavily and sits on the edge of his bed, “I guess I believe that could’ve happened. Although, I have known Coach Halbert’s preferences to be more towards young boys.” His voice is small and sounds like he’s in pain.
I sit down beside him and place my hand on his knee. I love him and I want him to feel like he has me, no matter what.
“Coach began sexually abusing me when I was ten years old. It started out small, touches over clothing in exchange for love and attention. My house was a cesspool of hate, my mother was hateful to the core and my father enjoyed dealing punishments. Coach was a distraction from them and to a ten year old, he was a saviour. Who cares if I had to massage him in certain places? I was loved. I was favoured.”
His voice breaks and he buries his face into his hands, “it slowly escalated. Pants were removed and I was rubbing him over his underwear, then they were removed and I was massaging a sore muscle. He covered it up by telling me he was teaching me about my own body. To an eleven and twelve year old, it sounded legit. I didn’t have parents who took notice of me, who cared and wanted to teach me about the ways of life. Instead, I had a coach who took interest in me and I ate it up. I was so fucking desperate for love. It carried on for years, then one day I got home
