Escaping you |EDITING|

Chapter 21- Everette

Escaping you

"How are you?" Atlas asks as I pull out of the school parking lot.

She's been asking me that everyday since I had my, breakdown, in New York.

Not exactly my proudest moment to say the least, actually it made me feel quite humiliated and I hated it.

But what was said needed to be said, and I needed to tell Atlas. She deserves to know something like that, even if is achingly painful for me to say it, especially to the person I care about the most.

"I am okay today, honestly."

"Just okay?" She frowns slightly

"Just okay." I respond truthfully. Some days are better than others, today's been fine. I took 2 tests in school which I absolutely bombed, which completely sucked because it's so unlike me, but other than that, I've been okay.

"Okay is okay, okay is progress." She smiles and I nod, re directing my attention to the road.

I get Athena from daycare and get her home, Atlas makes her something to eat while I lay down in her room for a while.

I've been pretty exhausted lately, in every aspect of the word. I stare up At Atlas's ceiling, tracing the small marks and posters running down her wall,

Leah side of the room is more plainly decorated, with a few pictures and vines hung.

I have been doing this a lot, just simply distracting myself with silence and comfort. It's kind of peaceful, the way that I can change the way the I feel from distracting myself from it.

Atlas is begging me to go the therapy. I know that it's only because she cares, and since that is the reason I'm agreeing to go but that doesn't mean I'm happy to do so.

I've tried therapy before. I've tried professional help. I've tried lots of things. Drinking, drugs, been there, done that.

It's a very cliche story.

Atlas walks into the room and lays beside me on the bed, laying her head on my chest and I kiss the top of it and she hums.

"You know that I love you, right?, more than anything?" I ask her, keeping my head pressed to the top of hers and she looks at me

Her green eyes pour into my brown ones as she looks over my face.

She nods slowly and lays her head back down on my chest.

"I love you."

Her voice, her words, her, she's so addicting and I've happily fallen victim to her trap, and a part of me hopes that I'll never escape.

I twist her hair and she rubs her fingers up and down my arms.

"We should do something, get out of the house." I suggest. I'm tired of sitting here, only being able to hear my own thoughts.

"Anything you want." She replies

"That's my line." She laughs at me and I smile, pulling her up off the bed and walking down the hall, grabbing Athena.

"Bringing baby?" She asks and I nod, passing Athena to Atlas

Atlas tickles Athena and she giggles. I take out my phone and take a picture because they're literally so cute.

I sound like a girl.

I sound like my girl.

Jesus Christ.

"Where are we going?" Atlas asks and I shake my head

"I have no idea."

We get in my car and start driving aimlessly, no real destination in sight.

Within minutes Athena's asleep in the backseat and Atlas is leaned up against the console, our interlocked hands pressed beneath her head.

I pull up to an empty parking lot and turn off the car, setting into my seat.

"Would you ever get married, Ev?" Atlas asks randomly and I nod with my eyes closed.

"I would."

"I think I would to. I used to never believe in it, thought it was a horrible idea, but my perspective has changed slightly." She smirks at me as if she's joking but the finality in her voice tells me she's completely serious which makes my heart race.

I smile, laying my head on top of hers

"Kids?" She asks

"Yes, definitely."

"How many?"

"As many as you wanted." I say.

When I process what came out of my mouth I internally freak out. She never mentioned anything about me. I could be taking all of this the wrong way.

I look over at her and see that her smile never falters which makes me feel slightly better, but I am still panicking.

"I think I want 2 of our own, but we could Raise Athena like shes ours to, seeing as if we were to have kids she'd still be under 18, I assume." She says.

All of my worry fades and I look back at my sister.

"2 plus Athena sounds good, I guess she's kind of always been mine anyways." I sigh thinking about the way my parents treated Athena, like she was nothing more than another mouth to feed.

"Where would you want to live?"

"With you?" She nods.

"Wherever you would like to go." I smile

"I think raising a family here would be nice, but New York is what I've always considered home, I think it'd be cool for my kids to be able to do so as well."

"Everette promise me that after senior year, whenever we leave for college that no matter where we go we will stay together. I know it's hard to say now but lie if you have to, just make me feel better because I've been freaking out about it lately." I feel the panic in her voice and my heart cracks.

"I promise you Atlas that no matter what you do, where you go, no matter what happens, I will always do everything in my power to keep us together, even if I don't get to see you for four years. I would still never leave you, and I want you to understand that. Nothing is going to take this away from you, Atlas."

I kiss her, her lips lingering on mine as I pull away.

"I love you." She presses her forehead to mine across the console.

"I love you."

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I can nit explain how much I dislike this chapter but it's been 2 long without one so I needed to write something. I love you guys, just wanted to let you know, and I appreciate everything you've done for me and this book .

I can't wait for more exciting chapters coming up,

But I am sorry to break it to you,

There is only about 15-20 more chapters left.

I thought this book would be longer but it will probably end at around 35-40 chapters long.