a star, a nightmare and the night of my life | adopted by heathers fic

CHAPTER 9

Sushi had come and gone all too quickly. Now, Alice and Evan were sitting with me in the backseat of Ryan's jeep driving to my old apartment. I quietly narrated the directions to Ryan, nerves buzzing through my body, not in excitement. This time, I would dare say there was more dread lingering in the back of my brain.

"We're here," I finally said, my voice barely above a whisper as I spotted the apartment building. I hated this hellhole so much. Too many bad memories.

"Okay, let's go through this once more," Evan began, "Alice, you'll wait here as a getaway driver just in case."

Alice nodded, trading positions with Ryan as the rest of us exited the car.

"Ryan, Violet and I will go up to the apartment to get her stuff," he continued, "I'll go inside with Violet and Ryan will wait outside."

"Like a ninja," Ryan grinned charmingly. I smiled softly, as much as I could when I knew that my dad would probably get his hands on me, or worse, Evan and Ryan. Hopefully, he went out like he usually did. It was nearly midnight after all; the four of us had gone back to Ryan's apartment to wait out my father's probable disappearance.

With a few quiet words of parting and encouragement, I began to lead the two actors through the apartment complex. This was such a stupid idea, but there was no way I was gonna let them call the police or CPS. I didn't want to go through all that paperwork and stuff. Knowing my luck, Leo (and maybe even Dad) would manage to hunt me down soon enough. Just a matter of time.

Finally, we came to number 707. The apartment itself.

"Is this it?" whispered Evan. I nodded. Everything was silent; you could literally hear a pin drop. Ryan made some distance between himself and the apartment door, then I used my key to unlock it.

Evan waited just outside of view as I slipped in.

Where was he? Oh...

He wasn't home. I silently cheered while beckoning Evan to enter the apartment and see the disastrous pigsty it was.

There was blood splattered on the living room carpet, traces of the metallic liquid lurking on the wooden floors too. The smashed bottle from the other day had not been cleared up yet. I rubbed my cheek absentmindedly where I had been hit.

There were a few new additions to the chaos, most notably the shattered coffee table, complete with emerald green decorations (booze bottles). One of the adjacent couch chairs had been flipped over too, and there was a new hole in the wall most likely from my brother.

"How did you live in this place?" Evan mumbled.

"I didn't," I said, "It never felt like I was alive here in the first place. It was like it drained the life and soul out of me."

"I'm so sorry you had to go through all that," Evan sighed.

"Doesn't matter," I replied grimly. It was all in the past now, right? Plus, like I said before, there were different kids with different problems out there, all of which were probably worse than mine.

I made my way toward my room, ensuring that no one else was home. The door to the master bedroom, the one that my father stayed in when he had enough energy to get off the couch, was wide open, showing nothing but beer bottles and the unmistakable scent of smoke and booze.

Leo's door was shut, as usual. He got insanely defensive when anyone even talked about his room, so much so that he once broke my finger slamming his door on it. Of course I hated Leo to hell and back, but damn, he was strong. It was more terrifying than impressive.

My room was a congregation of dark clutter: dirty clothes, monthly postcards from my mother, Maths worksheets, notebooks, discarded wrappers, fantasy stories, random posters, blankets, unpolished academic trophies... Just pure mess.