𝙇 𝙄 𝘽 𝙀 𝙍 𝘼𝙏 𝙀 𝘿

36 L I B E R A T E D 36

36 V 36

I stared upwards at my bedroom ceiling. So this is what it's like to be in love, huh? It's like a game of tug o war with preselected teammates that at first glance seem to be promising but end up dragging you through the mud in the end.

Scratch that. That's probably not the best example.

"Vonna, I'm home! I'm making tuna casserole and macaroni," my mother called out from downstairs.

"Lovely," I mumbled. "Okay!" I then called out.

Out of nowhere, my mother's head popped through my doorway. "I'm glad you're keeping up with your room now. It's still clean from the last time that lil girl came over. Now, what's wrong sugar boop?"

"Don't say that ever again, Mom," I scoffed.

"It's cute and I made it up on the spot. Don't do too much," she rolled her eyes.

"I'm fine. Just a little stressed about a quiz coming up," I lied. "Well, I heard August's daughter is pretty smart. Why don't you ask her to help you?"

"I don't really want to talk to her right now," I grumbled. My mother shot me a sympathetic look, "Trouble in paradise." I blushed, "How did you know?"

My mother gave me a knowing smile, "A mother always knows."

My phone suddenly started to buzz.

"Answer that. I'll be downstairs if you need me," my mom said, "and uh, your dad wanted to tell you something once you're done. He should be home in a few."

"Okay."

I pulled out my phone, seeing that it was a bunch of distraught messages from Liberty. I immediately hopped up, grabbing my jacket and slipping on my shoes. I called her phone, jogging down the stairs in search of my mother's car keys.

"Hello?" Liberty answered in a thick tone. I could tell she had been crying. "Where are you? I'm on the way," I told her quickly. "In front of my house. With all that I could carry. She told me to come back and get the rest of my shit by the weekend," she sniffled.

"I'm on the way. Just send me your address."

"Okay," Liberty's voice cracked a little.

I hung up on her and found my mother in the kitchen. "Can I take the car for something real quick?"

"Sure. Be safe," she pecked me on the cheek.

"Thanks, Mom."

I grabbed the car keys off the counter and left out the front door, almost running into my own father.

"Tryna kill your old man, huh?" he chuckled. "Where you off to in a rush like this?"

"One of my friends need my help," I explained vaguely, "Mom told me there was something that you needed to tell me?"

"Oh, yeah," he rubbed the bottom of his chin. "Your uncle was pronounced dead in Arkansas. He was found in the middle of the woods. Nobody knows who did it," he told me, the look in his eyes sending chills down my spine. "His daughter and her new family were put into witness protection, but I got this back for you." He dug into his jean pocket and revealed my necklace.

It glittered underneath the warm sunlight, much like my eyes right now, as they watered. "Thank you, Daddy," I mumbled, hugging him tight.

"Anything for my daughter," he promised me.

"I gotta go-

"I know. Stay safe," he reminded me, tipping his hat as I took off down the walkway to our driveway.

I hopped into my mother's SUV, and put in Liberty's address. I definitely hadn't improved her day at all, but this whole thing just had to have ruined it entirely. Her parents must have been mad at her because of the whole stealing revelation.

I pulled up to her place in ten minutes tops.

I found her on the lawn, holding her suitcases with a sullen face as her mother yelled at her from the porch.

"Liberty!" I cried out.

Her head snapped up and the floodgates instantly began to start. "Vonna, you came," she said quietly.

I didn't spare a glance at her mother as I helped her get her things into the vehicle. "Where are we going?" she asked. "I don't know. But somewhere where you'll feel safe," I promised her.

"Don't come back," her mother shouted one final time, as Liberty and I settled into the SUV. I drove off, only stopping a block away to ask Liberty what happened. I handed her old pizza napkins as she cried her heart out to me.

"At first, she was quiet after I explained to her what I had been struggling with. She thought I was gonna tell her I was pregnant or I had committed a really big crime or some shit, then she started going off on me. Talked about how I shouldn't even be doing some, and I quote, hoodrat shit when we had life so good. She told me I was ruining everything she had planned for Ramyn and me, so that we could be ahead in life once she passed away. Then she called my dad and he," Liberty blew her nose, "he joined in on bashing me."

"That's fucking crazy. So they verbally attack you because you're going to them for help," I say.

"They need a break from me, she said. I should never come back though. That's contradicting as hell, don't you think?" she laughed, a bitter expression on her face.

"I can ask my mother if you can stay with us for awhile, Liberty," I offered.

Her crying had stopped, but a numb expression was now on her face. "It's fine. I don't wanna intrude on your family or whatever. I'll just find a shelter or some shit-

"Liberty. No. You're staying with us. I don't care if my parents don't like it, I love you too much to see you in pain and to not know that you're safe," I told her firmly.

All that you could hear in the car for awhile was the quiet whir of the air conditioner and the sound of cars and trucks passing us by on the neighborhood street.

"You love me, Vonna? You mean that shit?"

"I don't play games with nobody no more. I promise you. I promise you with all my heart that my intentions are good. I'm not the Vonna I was all those months ago. Time has changed me," I vowed.

"I don't have a choice but to either believe you or don't. I guess I believe you, Vonna. If shit turns left, then just know that I got hands too," she told me sternly. "And thank you...for coming to get me today. Even after everything I had said to you earlier today with the whole Beatrix thing."

"I don't care if you hated my guts through and through, I'd still come and make sure you were alright, no matter what," I said.

"Vonna, I'm just scared that I don't love you as much as you love me. You're always going on and on about how you'd touch the stars for me and this and that, and all I know that I feel for you is attraction and butterflies."

"We don't have to want each other on the same level, Liberty. There's no rules to dating, and if there is, then fuck em. We'll do what's best for us and fuck what anybody else gotta say. If what we got working works for us, then why not keep doing it?"

"Huh, so I guess you're Liberty now?" she smirked, some life coming back into her eyes.

"Why you say dat?" I frowned, confused.

"Calling yo self my girlfriend when I haven't given you my decision yet," she pretended to be offended.

I blushed. "Sorry, it's easy to forget."

Suddenly she looked so beautiful to me, sitting in the passenger seat of my mother's vehicle, her face puffy, but her beauty shining through nevertheless.

"No...it's fine. I think I've made my decision anyways," she told me, reaching out for one of my hands.

Which is, I thought excitedly.

"I think we should..."