Another Alternative

Thanks For The Memories

TRIGGER WARNING: Abuse Mention

Grace's POV

I watched Mamrie's eyes dart around the wall behind the bar from my stool next the Hannah and Chester's booth. I was leaned against Hannah with my arm around her and one of her hands in mine. It'd taken a while to find Hannah's first aid kit and set Chester's hand. I think we got done around four in the afternoon. That's when Mamrie decided we all needed a drink.

"Great collection, Hannah." She shouted over her shoulder to us.

"Thanks, dude." Hannah and Mamrie seemed to be cool now, and I was pretty happy about that. But the joy of that was overshadowed by the sinking feeling I got every time Chester avoided my glance or disregarded something I'd said. At this point if had enough, so I decided I didn't have to be there.

"Hey," I nudged Hannah's shoulder and leaned a bit closer. "I'm gonna go help Mamrie with the drinks." I pressed a kiss to the top of her head, gave Chester a small nod and tried not to notice the way his jaw moved in disdain. "Yep. That's about right." I muttered under my breath before walking over to Mamrie.

"How's Awkward Fest?" She picked a bottle I didn't recognize off the wall and checked the label, grimacing and putting it back.

"Shoot me now. Chester won't look at me and Hannah isn't even noticing." I sat on a barstool and buried my head in my arms. "When did everything get so, weird?"

"I don't know, sweetie, but I'd sure as hell like it to go back to normal." She searched around the wall for something good, failing and settling on a brown-tinted bottle I didn't recognize. Wow, I really need to learn the contents of these bottles. I thought to myself, lifting my head and wincing at the stabbing pain in my neck.

"Hey, you okay?" Mamrie turned and looked at me quizzically.

"What?" She gestured to my neck. "Oh, yeah. That's nothing, I just slept weird, I guess." Liar. I hadn't slept at all because of that pain. I tried not to think about how it got there. It hurt too much.

-

"Fuck, Grace." Chester turned around and rubbed his eyes. "How can you be so fucking stupid?!"

"Calm down, Chess. Please." I reached for his shoulder but he hit my hand away.

"Don't you fucking tell me to calm down, woman." He shook his finger at me, a little close for comfort. "This is all because of you, you pathetic excuse."

Tears pierced my eyes as he raised his hand. I shut them, thinking maybe it would dull the pain. I knew it wouldn't.

-

"Grace?" Mamrie snapped me out of my memory, looking at me with one eyebrow raised.

"What?" I tried to slow my breathing enough for her not to notice what had happened. I failed.

" You kinda spaced out for a moment." I thanked God for Mamrie's innate ability to know when I didn't want to talk about it.

"Sorry." I laughed and tried to discretely wipe away tears that weren't there.

Mamrie plucked another unknown bottle off the wall and grinned. She searched around and finally just shouted to ask Hannah where the shaker was. As soon as she had it she made countless jokes about what she was putting in it and I laughed a little too hard at all of them. We kept like that for a while until the drinks were made and we brought them over to Chester and Hannah.

"Voila!" I exaggeratedly set the glasses down in front of them, huge smile plastered on my face. The smile quickly faded when I saw the look on Hannah's face. A mix of confusion and heartbreak and everything I never wanted to see again. "Han?"

"Um, I was just talking to Chester and he, uh, he mentioned something kind of strange." My heart sped up and my breathing became more intense.

"Oh?" I managed to squeak out.

"Yeah." Her voice was soft, but not without purpose. A million thoughts were running through my mind. He could've told her anything.

"Were you, um," She let out a breathy, humorless laugh. "Were you with him? That first night?"

Oh god.