Another Way | Adopted by Gerard Way (Book Three)

30

Harley gave in.

She texted Mason again. They'd talked until midnight the past three nights. He'd managed to put her under his spell yet again when he apologized for getting so drunk, promising it'd never happen again, and then said that she could choose where they'd go on their next date.

She told him it was okay, blatantly ignoring the red flags waving in the chill that swept through her when he sent her a shirtless picture.

It was now Saturday; exactly one week since Harley began living in her hoodies. At first, the motivation had been to hide the bruises Mason had left on her wrist—which she'd decided to forgive but not entirely forget—but they had faded within a few days. A hoodie now constantly clung to her body for a completely new reason: it hid it. It was the middle of summer and she was constantly sweating, but her hoodies hid her figure more effectively than her oversized T-shirts ever did. With her hoodies, her reflection wasn't as hazy as it usually was; she didn't feel dangerously dissociated from the person staring back at her.

She was sitting on her floor, digging through one of the boxes of Evelyn's old things, when her phone began to ring.

"Hey, Remi!" she said as she answered the call.

"Hey, Harley, what's up?" Remi asked in her usual gentle yet bright voice.

"I was just reading a bunch of my mom's old poetry notebooks."

"That's so awesome," Remi whispered in awe. "How old are we talking? Like, teenage angst stuff?"

"Definitely teenage angst," Harley confirmed, adding, "This one's from 2009," after checking the number on the cracked spine. "I don't understand how she wrote this stuff. Like, I can barely write stuff for English class, and here she was at my age, already writing shit that was gonna be published."

"Don't fall in the trap of comparing yourself to others, Harley, that's a slippery slope."

"I know, I just... I don't know. Anyway, what's up with you?"

"Well, I'm not doing anything, so I was just wondering if you wanted to do that skateboarding lesson today?"

Harley straightened her back from its hunched over position in excitement. "Yes, definitely!" she exclaimed, already shoving the notebooks and other items back in their boxes. "Meet you on the corner and then we can walk the rest of the way together?"

"Sounds good, see you soon!"

"So, the goal for today is to avoid having you break half of your bones," Harley said, as the pair walked toward the skatepark only a few minutes later.

"Sounds good to me," Remi said. She held a board she'd found buried in her father's garage out in front of her for a few seconds before dropping it back down to her side. "I'm gonna paint this tonight."

"Fuck yeah! What are you gonna paint?"

"I don't know yet. I never usually know what I'm gonna paint before I start. I just lay all the colours that I need out, maybe put on some music to get in the zone, you know? Then, I pick up a brush and see what happens."

"I love that," Harley said, mesmerized. "What kinds of things do you usually end up painting?"

"Well," Remi cast her gaze to the ground as she blushed, "I really like reading poetry and then painting something inspired by that. Like, some specific colours and aesthetics come to mind when I read certain themes, and then I just try and get them out on paper."