Some Thorns, Some Roses

XII | A Faithful Hand to Hold

Seething, she was seething as she watched me open the front door to reveal the one and only Atwood Humphrey. 

Death. Absolute death. 

I even heard Perris, who is usually unnoticed and nonreactive, snort at the misfortunate of my shaky plan. I sent daggers his way with my eyes, showing him this was not the day to start interfering or adding his two cents in. 

Atwood looked like the Atwood we lost. The smirk on his lips was gone and the hostility that were regularly received from him vanished. It was very refreshing and it gave me hope that he was attempting to extend an olive branch to repair our friendship. 

The banana that Seraphina was eating was placed aside and the pieces in her mouth seemed to dissolve at his presence. "Why the fuck is he here Serena?" she asked me calmly, not taking her eyes at our past best friend. 

"Because as I said, I invited him here." 

"Sarcasm is only going to dig you further than six feet, so stop fucking around Serena. What the fuck is he doing here?" she reiterated, becoming even blunt with me. Her eyes voided of all emotions and she immediately assumed it was about another topic. "Did something happen?" 

"Yes actually... I missed one of my best friends." I was honest and I took a step closer to her and then she finally looked at me with confusion. "Things happened and I'm tired of holding this grudge. I miss him and so do you." 

"And that means nothing if he doesn't give two shits about us!" she yelled, pointing at him dismissively and then folding her arms across her chest that was rapidly rising and falling from the rage she was feeling. 

From the volume of her voice, the other people in my house got concerned and came downstairs to see what was going on. It was PJ who came down with only his gym shorts on and disheveled hair. He was obviously sleeping and we woke him up. 

I instantly felt bad because I knew it was always hard for him to fall asleep. If he was taking a nap, he was probably really tired. PJ hardly ever naps... 

"Sorry for waking you, go back to sleep." I advised him gently, sounding like a mother trying to get their toddler back to sleep. I walked over to him and put both of my hands on his shoulders, steering him back upstairs. "We won't be loud anymore." 

"Doesn't matter." was all he said and then looked at who was standing in my living area. "What's going on?" 

"Good fucking question." Seraphina snapped, looking at PJ for a second with harshness that wasn't purposefully directed to him. Then she looked right back at Atwood. 

PJ instantly looked at Seraphina with a worried look and then gave Atwood a threatening one. He didn't even know if Atwood did anything, he was just reading Seraphina's face and going off of that. "Did he do something to you two?" he asked, pointing his chin at Atwood quickly with a scrunched up face. 

"No." I replied quickly, knowing that PJ would like start a fist fight with Atwood in the kitchen floor. "Just-"

I sighed because things were getting out of control and I wasn't very good at bringing things back to a neutral point. My head dropped back, looking to the ceiling in annoyance and semi defeat. The moments like this made me really want to cry because it made me miss my oldest brother who would immediately be able to remedy this problem. My eyes only glossed over for a minute before they closed. 

When I opened my eyes, I got determined. "Angel. It was fucked up for me to trick you here and I'll be the first to admit that. I am truly sorry. He's here now and things were said that were not meant. You said some fucked up things and you didn't mean them. Let's please resolve at least that..."