Truly Free // COMPLETED

22. Losing

This is Addy's room. The song goes at the end but whatever and yeah ok enjoy and vote and comment and yeah sorry continue:)

I can hear a door shutting softly in my half concious state. It could be anyone, but I'm not about to get up and check. I hear whispers from two different voices, but my mostly - asleep ears can't pick out who they are. Someone walks softly across the floor and squats down to my level next to the bed. I feel a large, rough hand move a small piece of hair behind my ear. This causes me to open my sleepy eyes a little.

"Good morning sunshine," Gray's sweet voice says. I smile and open my eyes a little more. He speaks again.

"It's only nine o'clock, I'm sorry, but we were gonna get breakfast, and we wanted you to come and spend the day with us, is that okay?" I nod and he smiles.

"Okay, well then you need to get up and get ready. Dress warm, please, it's cold. It's going to rain all day, too, so bring a rain jacket and wear your boots," he explains softly. I love this kid. I nod again and sit up, to see that Aaron is standing at my door with a smirk, his eyes flitting between me and Gray, who is getting my jeans, boots, and jacket out of my closet.

"What shirt do you want to wear?"

I run my hand through my messy hair and clear my throat, man it's early, but at least he's being a sweetheart about it.

"Uh, the peach one with the pattern thing on the back," I say, waving my hand in the air in the direction of my closet. He gets the shirt out and lays it on my bed. I get out from under the covers, and praise Jesus Christ that I didn't take my pants off in my sleep. I hurry to the bathroom with the clothes, and Aaron and Gray sit on the bed while I get ready.

When I come back out, I have on my top, jeans, and fuzzy socks, and I go sit at my desk to do my makeup and hair. I do like usual and pull my hair half back. There's no point in straightening it because of the humidity and the rain. As I begin my minimal makeup routine, Gray and Aaron go through the agenda for today.

"Alright," Gray begins. "First, breakfast at Waffle House, and then we'll go...."

He continues on with the explanation and I nod along and agree with the plans. When I'm finished, we run on down to the kitchen, where I grab a sticky note and leave a message, telling my parents where I'm going.

Mom and Dad,
spending the day with Gray and Aaron
don't know when I'll be home
I'll try to bring back groceries when I come home
thx :)

- Addy

I leave the note on the counter, and we leave the house, keys in hand. We decided to take Gray's truck because he has a bench seat so we can all sit together. We get on driving to Waffle House, laughing and screaming along to the radio the whole way there. When we get to the restaurant, Aaron hops out before me and holds the door open for me. Mama raised him right. Once we're seated and we've ordered, we get into a conversation about music and who we like and don't like until our food arrives.

We continue the conversation while our breakfast. I'm really glad that Aaron came down this weekend. It's nice to have someone else besides Gray, not that I'm tired of him, because I'm not. I love the kid, but he must get tired of hanging out with just me all the time. Even if he gets tired of me, he's pretty much all I have.

How pitiful.

We finish eating and pay for our food. Gray, of course, paid for mine because he "already had the twenty out." But, really, he never lets me pay for anything when we're together.

It's raining when we walk outside so we run quickly to the truck, even though I'm protected by my jacket and hood. We hop in, me in the middle again, buckle up, and head towards our next destination: the grocery store. Once we park in a spot, we head in, quickly grabbing items my family needs at the moment. Eggs, bread, cereal, grits, butter, milk, and all the rest of my list are thrown into the cart as we hurry down the aisles. When we reach the shelves with soap and other bath products, I see Satan and her sidekick looking through types of conditioner. Gray and I tense up a little bit, but I relax slightly remembering the events at school yesterday. Maybe they just won't bother me.

Yeah, I'm dead wrong.

"Oh my God! Addison, hi," Nat calls as we go past her. I grimace with my back turned towards her. I whip around and flash a smile.

"Hey, Nat. Hi, Ashley."

"Addison, since when did you drag another innocent civilian into your pity party? Another guy, too! I think it's safe to say you're kind of on a war path of turning cute boys into freaks," Ashley says, showing us her perfectly white teeth.

Gray groans and tells me to ignore them. I do my best and continue on down the aisle, Aaron trailing behind.

"Honestly, I thought you'd be doing better than this, Corley. I get that you could have any girl you'd want, but you settle for a depressed, A-cup virgin, who only lost weight because we told her to," Nat sneers with a smirk.

And there it is. I quickly turn around to face my tormentors, not caring if I cause a scene in the grocery store.

"Okay, you've dished out some decent insults in the past, but that was just tacky. When are you gonna get it through your thick, extension-filled heads, that I'm NOT fat, I'm NOT a whore. I've had enough of your drama and I've let it go on for too long," I finally finish, turning back to the boys and pushing the cart away, until I hear a whisper behind me.

"I think she's still a little upset that her precious brother got himself killed. Kid shouldn't have been drinking that night."

And then I snap.

Whipping my small body around, I lunge towards Ashley, the one who whispered. I'm prepared to rip her hair out one fistful at a time, but two large calloused hands yank me back. I didn't even get one good hit in, but I startled her enough to stumble and land on the ground all cattywampus.

"He wasn't drinking, someone hit him!" I yell at her. A few people turn to look at the commotion, but Ashley is laid on the floor, dumbfounded.

"Easy there," Gray whispers soothingly in my ear, calming me instantly. I take a deep breath and go to check out with the boys. When we're safely out of the store, I burst into tears, sobbing into the open air over the girls in the store. Gray tosses they truck keys to Aaron and he loads up the groceries quickly while Gray and I hurry to get in the seats and out of public.