"What? Elsie you gotta elaborate!"
"Just come down to the bookstore right now!"
Laken and Adleigh hopped off the couch and hurried to get their shoes on. Laken shoved the leather journal into her rucksack and ran out the door.
When they arrived at the bookstore, the lights inside were dim. They pushed the door open to see Elsie crying and Mr. Trodd trying to comfort her. As much as Adleigh wanted to say she disliked Fionn because he disliked her, she was worried for him. She and Laken made eye contact and nodded not needing to explain why. Adleigh bolted up the stairs into the loft where Fionn sat shaking against the shelf. His head was in his hands and she could hear his fast paced breathing from the landing of the stairs. A panic attack. She hesitated to get closer. Her breath hitched as she advanced towards a spot beside him. She placed one hand on his shaking back to make her presence known, and she began to speak softly.
"Fionn look at me please."
Fionn's head lifted weakly, and he closed his eyes tighter. Adleigh continued to rub his back in figure eights trying to stop his shaking.
"Now breathe. Inhale for four and Exhale for four."
Fionn's hand continued shaking on his knee and his back tensed when he inhaled. On his exhale, he let out a shaky breath. He repeated his actions and his breathing began to regain normality. His body was still curled in a ball, but now Adleigh was running her hands through his hair. His tears wouldn't stop pouring.
"Fionn," she cooed, "you're okay. You'll be okay."
She pulled him closer to her letting his tears drip onto her shirt. As he began to regain his sense of reality and calm down, Adleigh still didn't know what had caused the event.
"Why did you have a panic attack?"
All she had as a response was him sleeping. She slowly placed his head on the bean bag beside him. His entire body was entirely too heavy for her to fully put on the make-shift bed.
She crept downstairs to talk to the others about what happened. She felt like a nanny putting a toddler to sleep except she was younger than him, and he was perfectly capable of putting himself to sleep.
"Mr Trodd, did Fionn happen to mention anything before having a panic attack?"
Elsie spoke up instead, "Woah woah woah! That was a panic attack? It looked like he was seizing that's why I called."
Before Adleigh had a chance to respond, Mr. Trodd did, "Fionn was looking for his journal I believe. Then all of the sudden he dropped to the floor and started shaking. It was like his knees gave out."
"He does love that journal though, Dad. He's carried one like it since we first met him."
Laken and Adleigh looked towards each other with panic filled eyes. They caused the poor boy to go through this. After what they had read, they both wanted to make it up to him no matter how much Adleigh disliked him and vise versa.
Laken mouthed a 'tell them the truth' to her idiotic best friend.
"I have the journal."
The Trodd family gasped, "You what?"
"I took it to see why he was being so rude to me. I know it was stupid. I feel terrible."
Mr Trodd placed a hand on her shoulder.
"Give the journal to me immediately. I'll just say I found it somewhere he didn't look."
Adleigh hugged him tightly and muffled, "You're a lifesaver."
She handed over the book to Mr. Trodd but was stopped by a groggy voice.
"Is that my journal?"
Elsie spoke quickly, "Yeah, we just found it."
Fionn sprinted towards the book and hugged it closely to his chest. He didn't recognize the fact that Adleigh and Laken were standing right behind him until he whipped his head around.
"What is she doing here?"
Adleigh knew this was directed at her, but Laken defended her.
"She is here because she heard you were having a panic attack and decided to have a heart. Build a bridge and get over it."
Fionn looked confused.
"You mean that wasn't Elsie rubbing my back earlier?"
Elsie groaned, "No, nitwit, that was Adleigh! Why would I touch you? Ew."
"So you mean the girl who I'm convinced stole my journal decided to help me over something that was primarily her fault?"
Laken stood up for Adleigh again, "She didn't steal your stupid journal. If she did she would've kept it to show to everyone in your "Critism and Theory" class. I would've supported it too after seeing how you're treating her."
Adleigh stayed silent the whole time. She couldn't bring herself to stand up for herself or let alone explain what happened. You can't just tell someone 'oh yeah by the way I stole your journal to figure out why you're a douche'. Who even does that?
Fionn sighed and grabbed his yellow raincoat off of the coat hanger in the front of the store. He pushed the door open and took one step out before turning around and speaking to Adleigh.
"Don't touch me or my journal ever again."
/\/\/\
HEY GUYS I FINALLY UPDATED!! This chapter sucks sorry. Hope you enjoyed it though! I'm gonna try to update more consistently I've just been busy this week. Ahhh I'm running out of fionn content catch me SCREECHING. I hope everyone has a fantastic day/night! Love yall!
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