Only Friends (Only Friends Book 1) On Hiatus

Chapter 9: Woke the Fuck Up

It's been a week since everything went down with my dad and mom, since I embarrassed myself in front of Grey, and since I sat in that quaint little dinner with Josh. I got home that night to a eerily quiet house. It wasn't something that was uncommon but this time I got a weird vibe from the silence.

Needless to say my weird vibe (like they always are) was correct. I walked past my dads office, peeked in and saw him hunched over at his desk. His fingers pinched the bridge of his nose and on closer inspection I noticed silent tears running down his face.

They were getting a divorce, I found out. My reaction was a mess of emotions. Should I be happy? Sad? I didn't know how to process it in my brain.

I skipped school the rest of that week to help dad pack his stuff up and move. In that week I got multiple texts from Rose asking where the hell I was. But I didn't get even one from Grey.

It kind of hurt my feelings, but I dismissed the situation with the thought that maybe Rose explained everything to him and he was giving me space. I knew deep down that that was highly unlikely but it helped me sleep at night. Sometimes you just have to lie to yourself until you eventually start believing it.

However here we are. Tuesday had rolled around and I needed to go back to school. Dad dropped me off at the entry way and before I exited the car he stopped me.

"I'm sorry, Leanne."

That's all he said, but  I knew what he meant. He was sorry for everything. He hates himself for what had happened to me. Knowing that fixed one of the many cracks in my nearly shattered heart. I needed to hear that.

I only nodded, not knowing what to say in reply. He seemed okay with that so I continued to get out of the car closing the door lightly and turning to look at the school. My palms were sweaty and gross. I didn't want to be here.

I started walking however I didn't get very far when I was suddenly tackled full force by a very small body.

"I missed you so much you bitch!" But she looked at me with a glowing smile on her face. 

"I'm sorry."

"Are you okay?"

I simply nodded and like my father she understood and carried on telling me all the gossip that I missed in the week I hadn't been in school.

I couldn't hold back the question beating around in my brain. "Where's Grey?"

She looked at me solemnly. I felt like hot liquid had just poured in my stomach. I knew that look and that look wasn't a good sign. In fact it was an indicator that I needed to brace myself for the terrible news that was to come.

"Grey hasn't been in school since Wednesday, Lee."

My heart sunk. Anyone else would have most likely blown it off saying eh, he probably just skipped school. But those people, they didn't know Grey like I knew Grey. They didn't know that when he missed those weeks of school that something was happening, something that no one would expect to come from his perfect cookie cutter family.

My face paled and my lungs hurt. I needed to get to his house as soon as possible. It was times like these that gave me an achey feeling in my body. It was where reality came crashing down right in my face. It scared me to no end. I worried myself sick until I knew that everything was going to be okay again.

"Rose. Have you talked to him? Have you tried at all to get ahold of him?" I asked her frantically. Panic was rising in my chest. My breath coming out in short spurts like I had just run a marathon in the Sahara Desert. I didn't think it could get any worse until I watched her head shake slowly back and forth.

But I had already known that answer.

I ran. Probably looking like a complete and utter fool, but I didn't care. I didn't give a damn if I looked like a fucking lunatic. I had to go there.

It took me ten minutes but it felt like hours, days until I finally caught sight of that perfectly spotless red door. I took the steps up to the porch two at a time and knocked frantically on the hard wood.

His mom opened the door already knowing that I would bolt right in she had given me plenty of space to do just that.

I sped past family photos hung neatly on the wall. In some of them you could even see me.

My favorite was one that I looked like I was part of the family. We were all at the beach the summer after my parents and I moved here. Grey was openly welcoming but still a complete brat. His mom had snapped the picture right before he had thrown me into the ocean. My face was priceless. But I loved it.

I didn't even knock before barging into Grey's room and upon spotting him tackling him much like how Rose had tackled me not even half an hour previously. The bandage on his arm  didn't leave my sight until eventually his arms looped around my waist and held me tightly against him.

No words needed to be said. I knew. And he knew. But he was okay and that was all that mattered to me.

I felt a teardrop land on my neck and shortly after Grey's body began to shake with uncontrollable sobs. I backed him down onto the bed.

As intimate as that may sound. This boy was broken and he needed me. My mind told me other things. I needed to back off. I needed to give him space. He's only going to think you still love him.

But he pulled me closer if that he as at all possible.

I shut my brain off, tuned out the nagging my conscious was giving me. And I let him hold me I let him cry his eyes out into my sweater. I let him know I was there.

I kissed his forehead and rubbed his back trying so desperately to stop the horrible heart breaking sobs, and when he had finally calmed down I grabbed his arm that was clutched in a death grip around me and brought the bandaged wrist to my mouth giving little butterfly kisses to the jagged lines carved into his skin.

That was when my mind decided to flip my world sideways.

I was still hopelessly madly in love with Grey Cross.