All Of Your Flaws

Part Seven

Morning came far too quickly. Addison's alarm was blaring at her to get up after what only felt like a minutes of sleep. If she was being honest, the only thing Addison felt like doing was saying 'Fuck it' and going back to bed where she would stay for the rest of the day. Sadly there was the tenacious force to be reckoned with that went by the name of Brigid Turner. Therefore, instead of burrowing under her covers and sleeping until noon, Addison got out of bed and got ready for sixth form, grumbling all the while as she did so. She was coming downstairs when a car horn beeped from Addison's driveway. Brigid was waiting for her. Addison hurried through the hallway but not before her father stopped her before she could make it out the door.

"Is everything alright Addison?" her father asked giving her a concerned look. It actually took Addison a moment to place the look as that of concern because his father hadn't looked at her like that in a long time.

Addison actually couldn't help but scoff at her father's look or her question. "You're asking me this now? I'm going to be late if I'm not careful." She said.

"I heard Eric and Aaron got into a disagreement last night." His father said gravely.

"How would you know that, you're never here." Addison muttered.

"Addison, just tell me what happened." Her father said with a sigh. He pinched the bridge of his nose with an annoyed look.

"Yeah, it started out between Eric and Mark then progressed to Eric and Aaron then back to Eric and Mark. You could have stopped it if you had been there but, shock of all shocks, you weren't there. You're never there." Addison snapped. There was a time she would have held her tongue around her father but she hadn't had nearly enough sleep the night before.

"Addison-" her father started to say in a pained expression but Addison just shook her head and opened the front door.

"Dad, I'm going to be late if I'm not careful. Can we do this another time...if you actually have the time?" she said hoping that by saying that it would be the end of their conversation. Her father gave her another pained expression but nodded his head.

"I'll see you later for dinner." He said, though Addison highly doubted her father would be back from work in time to witness the bloodbath that was the Harper family dinner.

"Yeah sure" Addison muttered under her breath before hurrying out the house towards Brigid's car. Thankfully she was holding out a large paper cup of coffee which Addison took without a second thought and took a very liberal gulp of its contents despite the scalding heat. She could feel her tongue begin to blister but she did not care; if anything the pain helped her feel human and alive for just a few fleeting seconds until the inevitable numbness would consume her again.

"Wow...you look like you needed that." Brigid remarked once they were in the car and she had backed out of the drive. Addison took yet another gulp in a way of agreeing with her. "How many hours sleep did you get?" Brigid asked sounding concerned.

"I don't know; three, maybe three and a half tops." Addison said with a shrug of her shoulders. Brigid sighed loudly but didn't say anything else. Addison tore off a piece of Brigid's bagel and handed it to her when she came to a red light. Addison could never eat this early so Brigid had stopped trying to make her eat in the car weeks and weeks before.

"Thanks. Why couldn't you sleep? Things aren't getting bad again are they?" Brigid asked glancing over at Addison for a moment. Her large eyes were full of concern and Addison thought that Brigid really was the only person in the world that she truly cared about as her concern was like the knife to the gut.

"No...no things are f-"

"Don't say 'fine' because you know how much I hate it when you try to say you're fine." Brigid said quickly. "I've known you for too many years to know that they are not fine. Is it your meds or something like that?"