The Way You Feel Like Home

4. Shower

Dixie's POV

     God she was so dense! You want a partially knit sweater huh?? Like you even cared about it? I'm so pissed at her from last night. Sleeping with Bryce after hearing me explain that he literally beat me up? Like I clearly have proof and I'm sure she's seen all the same videos I have.

    I touched my eye gingerly as I could still feel it stinging a little.
"Here." Avani handed me an ice pack covered in a towel and I held it over my left eye and cheek. Everyone was conversing and laughing, getting ready to leave- except for Addison. She sat across from me on her phone with her legs crossed in a short little dress, scouring. I glanced over the island to see that she had been staring at a text message from Bryce but had not responded. Her face held an expression that meant she was deep in thought. A scarce face, but one I had come to know well. She always thought long and hard about her efforts- something I'd always admired.

     As everyone got up to leave, Addison left last. She looked at me before she got up, probably hoping I would say something to her or say I was going to come or ask her to stay or something. But I really didn't want to be around her right now. If she can't dump Bryce then I can't be around her, period. It's too much. It had already been weighing on me this whole trip, with how shitty he treats her and how little time we were already getting to spend together- she was on him all last night at the party, and he didn't even kiss her when the ball dropped. She huffed as I broke eye contact with her and looked back at my bowl of cereal and I heard her get up and shut the door.

     Later that evening, I was sitting on the couch. Everyone was still gone and this whole time I still couldn't focus on anything but Addison. I finally had time to process what happened. Mostly that me and her almost kissed, as I've been prepared to fight Bryce for months now. But her and I almost kissed?!? I think, at least. And that either we were going to talk about it OR we were going to pretend it never happened. There are so many other "what if's" too. Like if Bryce knows we almost kissed, what's he going to do about it? He didn't text me about it but he might know. Also, how do I explain what happened to everyone who saw the video? Especially if Bryce is going to lie about what happened. What does this fight mean for me and Charli being here? I know Chase didn't care but the manager might. We hadn't even been here a day and I've already screwed this trip over for Charli. It was all so much. The best thing I can do right now, I think, is stay off social media for the time being and probably respond to all the messages. So, I opened my phone and opened imessage.

12 unread messages from Mom.
60 more from Dad.
Oh great. I'll do those last.
10-ish from Bryce.

Okay... "look- sorry for punching you, but you deserved it. i hope addi deals w ur ass bc i don't ever want to see you..."   Fuck that's way too harsh, I don't want to start anything else."look- sorry for punching you, you deserved it, i deserved it whatever. let's just move on." Okay, good enough.

Sent.

Awesome! One down, 80 million more to go...

     After at least an hour of messaging back people, including my mom and dad (which I mostly just told them everything was fine and I'll have to explain later- as well as calming my dad down from what sounded like a panic attack), I only had one message left: Addison.
The "sorry, i didn't know bryce would be here :/"

What to say, what to say... I could be a bitch and keep our little grudge drawn out a bit longer, but I don't know. I know this is all going to suck for Charli too and I already cut it off with Bryce, at least enough to be cordial to each other.

"heyyy" Okayyy...

Sent.

"it's cool, not ur issue. i was way too tired to say anything to him and i'm sure u were too :) hang out later?"