𝙇 𝙄 𝘽 𝙀 𝙍 𝘼𝙏 𝙀 𝘿

7 L I B E R A T E D 7

7 L 7

"Thanks for the ride home, Mrs. Coolmen," Jeredine told my mother as we both sat in the backseat.

After my very short smoke session in the bathroom earlier, I had went to the library to talk to Jeredine and cheer her up a little. Now, she's back to normal, and my mom even offered her a ride home since her people were gonna be a little late picking her up today after school.

"No problem, sweetheart," my mother said happily.

I think my mom had a special place in her heart for Jeredine. I believed she saw her as a second daughter. "Liberty, you got work today?" my mother asked a few moments later.

"No. I'm taking off to chill with some friends. I haven't had a break in awhile," I explained.

"You told your boss that?" Jeredine asked.

"No. I told him my allergies were acting up," I shrugged.

"Shame. Shame. If you worked for me I'd know when you were faking calling in sick," my mother smirked.

"I get it from you," I gave her an overly cheesy grin.

"Y'all two look so much alike," Jeredine stated, "that same Coolmen smile."

"In that case, she gets her smile from her daddy. That's why it's so darn adorable," my mother gushed.

"Mom. Please," I pleaded. "Don't embarrass me."

"Isn't she the cutest thing, Jeredine?"

"Yeah," my friend said sheepishly, looking down.

"Jeredine, don't let my mother bully you. She's always trying to make people nervous and embarrass me," I rolled my eyes. "Not true. Remember that time when you were 11 and I stood up to those bullies for you."

"That's exactly my point," I laughed.

"Hush," my mother laughed along with me.

"Oh, right there," Jeredine pointed at a pale bricked house. "Right here," my mom repeated, turning into the driveway.

"Alright. You girl's have nice, responsible fun," my mom reminded us. "Call me when you need me to pick you up. Or, let me know how you're riding home."

"Bye, Mom."

"Bye, Mom."

"Ughh," I rolled my eyes, watching my mother laugh and pull out of Jeredine's driveway.

We started walking towards her front door once my mom turned the corner. "Amy and Onella on the way?" I asked. "Yeah. I think they're walking home today or taking the bus. It might take them a little bit longer," Jeredine told me.

I rubbed my hands together, the inevitable feeling of excitement blossoming through me. "I can't wait until we go out."

"You sure you should keep doing this?"

"What do you mean," I frowned at Jeredine, walking into the house and heading upstairs to her bedroom. I didn't give her anymore room to talk, putting in my earbuds and texting Amy and Onella to hurry up before she started lecturing me again.

Defeated, I watched Jeredine resign to playing her Xbox until the others came.

"Guess who's here!"

"You leave your front door unlocked?" I turned to Jeredine. "No. Amy's just good at picking locks," she grumbled. We both went downstairs to meet our two friends. "Took y'all long enough. When do your people get home?" I asked Jeredine.

"Late tonight. We have time. I'll leave my Xbox on, and my bedroom door locked. I already got the recording on my phone of us laughing like a bunch of teenage girls to play over and over. And since my phone will be here, they can't track it. I also decided to put some background music on my speaker to make us hanging out in my room seem more convincing."

"Jeredine, you are a dangerous woman," I told her solemnly, laying my hand on her shoulder. She only shrugged it off, obviously not in the mood for my sarcasm today, and that action didn't go unnoticed.

Onella glanced at me, as if to ask what was up with Jeredine, but I only shrugged. Like I would know?

"Walking this time?"

"Yeah. But you can't slow us down this time, Onella. When we say run- run," Amy said seriously.

We all filled up on some light snacks before heading out the door. The day instantly felt better as we began our long descent towards Lower Aster Waters.

Don't get me wrong, there's no rich or boujee side to our town, and there's no shady or poor side, but Lower Aster Waters was known for a thing or two.

"Y'all got y'all bags?" Onella asked.

"I got on sweats, and my hoodie. I'm good," I said.

"I got my mini backpack," Jeredine told us.

"I brought my satchel," Amy said.

"We hitting the same stores?" I asked, "Or splitting off?"

"Last time we split off, someone had trouble remembering when to meet back up and they almost got us caught because they had smoked right before they went inside," Amy glared at Onella.

"I'll pair up with Liberty. You and Jeredine can go it alone or together, if y'all want," Onella shrugged, appearing unfazed.

I couldn't hide the expression of annoyance that crossed my face. I didn't necessarily liked to be paired off, but sometimes that could be a benefit.

"Actually, I was hoping I could go with Liberty," Jeredine proposed quietly.

"You're too new to this, and I'm honestly the best person here to take you under my wing. You're coming with me Jeredine. One way or another, you'll be paired off with someone. You're too inexperienced. You might get caught, and who knows if you'd snitch."

"I wouldn't," Jeredine said defensively.

"Amy," I said in a cautious tone.

"C'mon. Me and Liberty will take the Main Street shortcut," Onella pulled me by the hand away from the other two, taking us down the ever-busy Main Street.

"So...any cute girls in your classes?"

"You suck at small talk, Onella. What are you trying to leech out of me now? I don't know any gossip. I'm not that interesting of a person. So what is it that you wanna know," I rolled my eyes.

"Actually...it's not something that I wanted to know. It's something I have to tell you: The group wanted me to talk to you about something," she said tentatively. "Yeah, like what," I asked, looking through the windows of each shop we passed.

"About your...urges."

My eyes snapped up to hers.

"Y'all were talking about my problems...like y'all don't have some of your own? Maybe even more?"

"Yeah, but our problems aren't illegal," Onella whispered as we passed by a looming female cop.

"So you don't have a weed addiction, Onella," I crossed my arms, looking over at her. "You didn't almost overdose on the shit?"

"I'm slowly waning off of it. But who doesn't have one nowadays," she shrugged. "Innocent kids," I smirked. "I am innocent- Wait, no! You will not distract me and go off topic. We think you should take a break," she added softly.

"No. We all do the same thing. Why am I the only one being singled out," I threw up my hands. "Why do I have to stop and everyone else doesn't?"

"Because you're the only one who has an addiction to stealing," Onella stated with a hard expression.