Seeping Wounds

XXXVII-End

A few weeks after Addison and I started dating Eric dumped Mia. He said he wasn't ready for a serious relationship. Mia was upset but not really surprised, she was a good sport about it and didn't let it bother her.

Addison and I were both surprised that Eric was such an asshole. He didn't even tell Mia to her face he just texted her and that was that. Mia said that he had been shaken badly by the time Addison had been in the hospital in a coma and Mia was running back and forth trying to hold herself together.

Maybe that was too much for Eric.

It wasn't going to be too much for me. I reassured Addison of that. She was worried about hurting me and I knew that when she died I would be devastated but it would be worse to give her up.

To all of our surprise Addison made it through the rest of high school without anymore serious injuries. She ended up in the hospital a few times for minor things like biting through her lip in the night and cutting her arm on the sharp corner of a desk. Nothing was close to life threatening and I was grateful for that.

Addison had told me what Sierra had told her about Nick. I was pleased to hear about it because I'd been feeling slightly guilty even though it was Nick who ended the relationship with Addison. I wanted to see him as happy as I was. I wanted the entire world to be as happy as I was. Addison made me happier than I thought it possible to be.

Anyway Nick and Sierra didn't actually start dating until Nick asked Sierra to prom at the end of grade 12. We were surprised that it took them that long but Addison and I took a while too so we didn't say anything. 

Prom was fun, Mia ended up going without a date because there was no one she wanted to go with. We spotted Eric at one point, he was being screamed at by the girl we guessed was his date so we turn around so as not to get mixed up in it. Mia was smothering her laughter the whole time.

I went off to university to get a law degree. Addison went for a music degree. I went to law school and she went to teacher's college. We both had three year programs to get through. It was difficult but we made our long distance relationship work.

True to her word Addison was there the day I met my parents again. I didn't recognize them, the last time I had seen them I had been ten and terrified.

We sat and stared at each other for the longest time before I couldn't take it anymore. I screamed at them, every hurtful thing I had ever wanted to say to them. I hated them for what they had done to me. They didn't apologize and I didn't expect them to, they never cared. When we left Addison took my hand, I really had needed her there. I needed her strength and her support. Addison was always so sure of herself and at that moment I really needed it.

I never saw my parents again. My father was killed in a jail brawl and my mother would eventually manage to commit suicide.

Claire and Derek were always there though, waiting for me to come home. They were my real parents. Claire didn't need to give birth to me for her to be my real mother.

Nick and Sierra didn't realize they were going to the same college until after they got their acceptance letters. Nick to our surprise was training to be a chef while Sierra was going to be a pilot. None of us saw that one coming.

Mia took a year off to work but would eventually get her degree in journalism and be hired by a local news channel.

It took me six months to find a job at a law firm, I enjoyed the work and was able to live close to home. I still liked to be close to Claire and Derek, not to mention Addison. She had more trouble finding a job, teaching was a hard area to get into but Addison was determined to get in. I knew that she would be an incredible teacher and that the students would love her. After a year of trying Addison found a position as a music and history teacher at a high school just outside of the town where she had grown up.