Loving My Best Friend ✔️

{t h i r t y t h r e e}

Addy

I never thought that walking up a driveway could be so terrifying.

My cheek was still bad from yesterday. The girl can hit hard.

"Sofia, I don't think I can do this," I mutter, trying to calm my racing heart.

"Then I'll help you." She states, her hand reaching for the doorbell. She pushes the button, and I take a few deep breaths. "It'll all be okay."

The door slowly opens, to reveal Sofia's dad. "Sofia! Addy!"

He opens the door fully, pulling us both in for a big hug. I slowly embrace him back, visibly seeing my hands shake.

"Hi, dad." Sofia breaths out, a refreshed look on her face.

"Hi, Mr. Reid. How are you?" I ask, trying to rid my voice of any shakiness.

"I'm good, I'm good. How are you two doing? We have a load to catch up on." He speaks, clapping his hands together. He leads us inside, a soft smile on his face.

Sofia squeezes my hand, sending me a look. "We'll tell him once we sit down." She whispers, and I lightly nod.

"Sofia, you said you needed to tell me something important. What was it?" Her dad asks, folding his hands and sitting on a chair.

I sit down next to Sofia, and she places her phone beside her. "Dad, we have some bad news.."

"Oh no, what's wrong?" He asks, a worried look written on his face.

"It's about Claire." She pauses, looking at me. "And us."

"What happened? Are you hurt?" He asks, staring at our faces. I glance at Sofia and shake my head slightly.

I couldn't tell him what his own daughter had done. It would be too hard for me, I never told anyone about something like this.

"Dad, yesterday, where did Claire go in the evening?" Sofia asks, his hands shaking.

"She said she was going for a walk, to get some fresh air and think." He replied, and I tensed up.

"She came over to Sal's house, and wanted to talk to Addy." She began, her hand dropping to her lap. She reached over, reassuringly squeezing mine. "I need to show you a picture."

She grabs her phone and pulls up the picture of my cheek. Bright red, in the shape of Claire's hand.

"This is Addy's cheek, from yesterday." She tells him, and I can see him putting the pieces together. "The slapped Addy three times. The first time was because Addy had supposedly stolen some boy from her. The second time was because Addy and someone else didn't acknowledge her. The third time, she said was just for fun."

"Claire did that?" He asks, in disbelief.

"S-she did. I know why, we know who the people are." I manage to speak out, my eyes reaching his. "I had supposedly stolen Cameron Parsons from her, even though he made the choice of breaking their relationship off. Sofia and I hadn't acknowledged her in high school, mainly because we didn't know she was related to Sofia at the time."

I sucked in a sharp breath, breaking eye contact.

"Claire!" He shouts, and I look at Sofia with wide eyes. She looks at the stairs, as she silently scoffed and rolled her eyes.