𝙇 𝙄 𝘽 𝙀 𝙍 𝘼𝙏 𝙀 𝘿

24 L I B E R A T E D 24

24 V 24

Liberty doesn't date studs, or, at least I've never heard about her dating one before, A'livia had told me the night of my mother's big event.

Before I had to run off and save Liberty from whatever escape her mind was trying to chase, I had been talking to her best friend that night, asking some questions about her. What things she liked, this and that. Even though at the time, I could never see myself asking her out because I was so disturbed by her, I knew that was probably my only opportunity to ask about her...so why not.

Now, I'm glad I had a little bit of background info on Liberty. I understood she was more than what met the eye, her stealing urges aside. Judging off of what Liberty had told me earlier today, I'm just glad I didn't mention her issue to A'livia, since her best friend didn't know.

I watched her, fast asleep, laying across two bean bags, as I sat on the last one left. I guess all her hits had finally kicked in. But now I was left awake and almost sober, watching some show on Cartoon Network about bears.

"Vonna? Liberty? Y'all doing okay?" my mother asked through the doorway, peeking her head in.

"Yeah. Liberty's asleep. I was just watching TV."

"Y'all want anything to eat? A pizza? Some leftovers?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'll ask Liberty if she wants pizza."

"When y'all decide on how many y'all want and the toppings, let me know, and text it to my phone. Me and Mrs. Coolmen are still working in the study."

"Has dad messaged you today?"

"He said he should be coming back home soon," my mother said, a tinge of stress in her face. "Just give him some time, love."

As soon as my mother left the room, Liberty's head popped up. I damn near jumped. "Is your dad in the military or something?" she asked.

"How long were you awake?" I asked, holding my chest. "Your mom woke me up when she came in, but I didn't want to get up in case my eyes were red."

"They aren't," I assured her. "Are mine's?"

"No. The eye drops work good. I was just being cautious," she told me. "But where is he?" she asked curiously.

"He, um, left because he needed a break from the family for awhile. An incident happened here and, I guess he just needed his space," I shrugged.

"An incident?" Liberty's eyes widened. "Like a murder?"

"Liberty, you have some things you don't want to talk about, and I have mine," I settled with that.

"Sorry," she mumbled.

"You feel more...awake?"

"Yeah. You wanted to move around your room now?" she asked. "Yeah," I stood up, stretching. "Let's figure out what we wanna order though, first. You wanna pizza, right?"

"Yeah. That's cool."

"Domino's? Little Ceasar's? Papa John's? Pizza Hut? Marco's? Mod Pizza?" I asked, pulling up my messages with my mom so that I could text her our order.

"Can we get some wings with the pizza."

She leaned against me, peering over my shoulder to look at my phone. Something tingled inside of me like butterflies, and that made me curious.

"Sure."

"Marco's. Can we get the wings from Wing Stop? Or is that too much?"

I shook my head. "No, no. That's cool. I want to get some chicken tenders from there. We can order their Parmesan tender things."