reckless | mgc

twenty

Addy laughed really loudly, bumping her way through everyone to move toward the living room. She was having the time of her life drinking and laughing and dancing with people without having to worry that Michael was just around the corner to fuck up her life again. She was beginning to wonder why she hadn't done this sooner.

"Luke!" she giggled, making eye contact with her blonde friend sitting on the couch, walking over and sitting next to him. Some of her drink sloshed out of her cup and onto the floor, but she just laughed and ignored it. "I didn't know you were here!"

"Addy!" Luke giggled back, his signature drunken smile plastered on his face. You could tell that Luke was drunk from a mile away. "Yeah, I didn't know you were here either! Is Calum here?"

"He's somewhere," Addy said, waving her hand in the other direction and taking a sip of whatever was in her cup. She didn't even know what she'd poured in it, but it tasted alright so it was fine.

"Cool," Luke shouted over the music, his smile still there. He scooted a little closer to her, putting his arm around her shoulder. "How's Michael?" Luke was interested to hear what she had to say about him, and he had already seen Michael at the party. He was determined to ruin the entire night for Michael by making one move.

"You know we broke up," Addy shouted back. "He's a fucking asshole." Luke smirked, loving to hear her talk about him like that when he was still oh so in love with her. "How did you really find out that we broke up anyway?" Luke was about to respond when he saw a familiar head of bright red hair walk toward them. Michael was staring straight ahead, watching everything that Luke and Addy did carefully. Without any warning, Luke pulled Addy forward and smashed his lips against hers, making sure Michael saw everything when he walked by. Addy giggled into Luke's lips and pulled back, only a few seconds after Michael had flipped Luke off and walked out of the room. She hadn't seen him.

"What the hell was that for?" she giggled, wiping her mouth off with the back of her hand.

"Nothing," Luke said, praying that she would be too drunk to remember it in the morning. Luke stood up a second later, picking up his drink and walking out of the room.

-

"And then you kissed me," Luke finished, shrugging his shoulders from across the way. Addy's eyes widened and she pressed her hands against her face, not believing what she'd done.

"So we were dancing and I just leaned up and kissed you? Luke, oh my God," she said, shaking her head. "I'm really sorry. It didn't mean anything, I hope you know that."

"Of course," Luke laughed. In the end he was never interested in her, just looking for any possible way to piss Michael off. He knew that Michael wouldn't bother to talk to Addy about it, even if Luke had made it look like it was her fault. Michael just wasn't that type of guy. "It's fine. It was kind of funny."

"Oh my God," Addy laughed, blushing. "I'm so embarrassing when I'm drunk."

"Me too," Luke said, his eyes landing on her car parked in her driveway. "Oh," he said. "I drove Calum home last night too. I saw you and Michael leave so I thought you probably wouldn't be back to grab Calum." Addy nodded, that made sense. She was really trying her best to act normal, but even looking at Luke was so much harder. Now, knowing what she did, Addy couldn't believe she hadn't found out sooner. She'd been told countless times that she was incredible at spotting a liar, sometimes even being told she'd be a kick ass detective. But somehow Luke had stumped her - he had completely earned her trust and snuck past her senses with all of this.

"Oh," she said, biting down nervously on her bottom lip. "Thanks."

Addy kind of zoned out, thinking about how much money Michael owed Luke and how much danger they could both be in. She knew Luke would never personally hurt her, (they'd gone through way too much together) but that didn't mean no one else could. She wasn't sure who she could trust these days. Was Michael even telling her the truth? There was so much she was confused about, but for some reason she believed Michael. She hadn't even known him that long, not nearly as long as she'd known Luke, but things were just different between them. He just seemed trustworthy to her. Then again, he did lie straight to her face about needing her, but she knew it was only to protect them both. She had to stop thinking about everything for a little bit. She had to go talk to someone.

"Hey Luke?" she asked, and he looked up at her, nodding once to signal he was listening. "I have to run to the store really quick, we're running low on some stuff and my parents are gone all weekend, so I have to go."

"Oh, okay," Luke said, reaching behind him to open up the window. Addy glanced behind him into his bedroom, which seemed alien to her now. "I'll catch you later, okay? See ya." He crawled back into his bedroom and closed the window, not even turning around to wave or make a dumb face like he always did. In fact, he pulled the shade and left his room, leaving Addy to feel more alone than she ever had.

She crawled back into her window and closed it too, reaching up to pull the shade closed before letting out a sigh and dropping her shaky hand to her side. Addy knew that there was a way out of this, and she had it sealed in a little jar in her kitchen.

-

"Yeah, I've known for a year," Ashton said, leaning against the wall of his bedroom. Addy had called him, telling him that she needed to talk. She came over to his house, introduced herself to his parents and they went upstairs, Addy ending up spilling it all to him. Ashton and Addy had grown really close really fast. They weren't really best friends, more like outlets for each other to rant about their shitty problems with no worries. Ashton was quiet, collected and cool. On the outside he was a loud, funny, attractive young guy with a lot of potential. Don't get her wrong, he really did have a lot of those qualities, but he was so much more than that. He loved quotes and he was really, really wise for someone his age. He just knew a ton more than Addy would have guessed and it was pretty damn cool.

They talked for a long time. Addy talked about the breakup and the party and the confession and the talk with Luke. She told him about how she felt scared but she loved Michael, a hell of a lot, and how she wanted to help him through this.

"I just, I feel like it's now my responsibility to get him out of the mess he's made," Addy said.

"Don't feel that way," Ashton said. "It's bad for you. It'll eat you up. It's not your responsibility. He dragged you into the shittiness."

"I know," she sighed, pulling her knees to her chest. "I just want us both to be okay for once. And I have money, like, my parents keep over a thousand dollars in emergency money in a jar in our kitchen. I kind of just want to take it to Michael and tell him just to use it. My parents would never notice. The stupid jar's been sitting there since I was born. We never needed it."

"Oh my God, really?" Ashton said, leaning forward. "No, Addy, you can't just take your parent's money to get him out of this. I mean, maybe talk to him about it? I don't know, Ellis, I'm sorry."

"It's fine, like you said, it's not our fault. I just, I don't know. I want us to be okay."

"You will be," Ashton said, reaching out to touch Addy's knee. "Maybe not for now, but eventually." Addy nodded, letting out a shaky sigh and closing her eyes.