You and Me, Kid

○ Chapter 24 ○

"Dad, I'm meeting up with Harrison and Beth!" Autumn called up the stairs. It had been a couple months since her mother's passing, and she was still struggling. Her therapy sessions with Ms Claire no longer covered the shooting that happened at her elementary school when she was six, or the feeling of betrayal and abandonment she felt when she saw her ex-best friends run away from her and left her behind. Instead they now covered how best to deal with her mother's death.

"Alright," he called back. "Be safe and call me when you want picking up!" Calling back an affirmative, she headed out the door and down to the park where Harrison and Beth were waiting for her.

"Hey, what's up?" Harrison greeted, hanging upside down in a tree. Autumn merely shook her head, amazed at how he hadn't fallen down yet as she noticed that Beth wasn't at the park yet.

"You're an accident waiting to happen, Harri," Autumn said while rolling her eyes, giggling as he merely stuck out his tongue before his eyes widened and he came tumbling to the ground, landing with a comical 'oof' sound. "Hate to say it, Harri, but I told ya so."

"Oh, shut up," he huffed light-heartedly, accepting the hand she held out to him. "Beth can't meet us, she's grounded."

"What did she do?" Autumn asked, tying her hair back as they walked towards the swings. Beth was known to have the most laid-back parents out of the three of them. When Autumn would be naughty as a kid, it was always her dad that sorted it out. Her mother never did. Heck, her mother was probably the reason she got away with some of the shit she pulled as a kid. Now that she was... dead, it was a sick reminder to Autumn that there were some things she couldn't do anymore. "Doesn't she have the most laid-back parents out of everyone in our grade?"

Harrison shrugged. "She does, but her brother joined the military recently and they were super strict with him apparently."

Immediately Autumn understood. "And now because they can't get to Michael with their strictness, it's gone onto Beth." Harrison merely nodded. "They didn't even pay attention to her when Michael was around. This must feel weird for her. Did she even do anything to get grounded?"

"Nope," Harrison shook his head, his blonde hair waving in the wind he caused. "All she did was ask them to leave her room one time and bam! She's grounded for a month and a half."

"A month and a half?!" Autumn yelled incredulously. "That's harsh, why the fuck did they ground her for a month and a half just for telling them to get out of her room?!"

"We've met her parents, Autumn, you know what they're like. Besides, they're dicks who can't stand the idea of their kids having privacy. Probably the reason Michael joined the army in the first place, to be honest."

"Probably, it would make sense."

As they continued to chat, they decided to mess around on the apparatus in the park for some time before going back to Autumn's for some lunch and to swim in the pool in the back yard. They played in the pool until teatime. After which Pete took Harrison home whilst Autumn did her homework and got ready for bed.