All Of Your Flaws

Part Twelve

Over the course of the next several weeks, Addison found that she was slipping into an easy routine. One she never attended to slip into. She tried so hard to deny it of it but in the end, it crept up on her. Routines used to be something she shied away from because they reminded her too much of being in the hospital and the few faltering weeks after when she'd come home. It reminded her of being woken up every single morning by Aaron, she had refused point blank when it came to having Eric or Mark wake her up, and being given the medication she'd been on back then.

This routine, however, was different...it was almost happy even if that was unnerving. Happy things didn't happen to Addison. Happiness wasn't something she felt that she deserved.

She would wake up after a few hours' sleep and take her morning dose of medication. She'd meet up with Brigid, always with coffee from Bowen's, and they would drive to college just like always. That was apart from the mornings she saw her therapist. That part of her routine would not change. It was once she got to college when things would start to change. Once there, she'd socialise with Niamh, who she didn't actually mind the company of unlike most people she knew.

Niamh was bright and funny, she always had something interesting to say and she got on with both Brigid and Lisa with ease, which had initially surprised Addison. Brigid had her moments of seriousness, that was probably why she and Addison could be such good friends, and that had worried Addison because Niamh wasn't the most serious of people unless you said something awful about Star Trek or Wonder Woman. Lisa was so different from Niamh that it was amazing the pair could even have a conversation but apparently living with Dylan had given Niamh enough knowledge about Led Zeppelin for her to have Robert Plant related conversations with Lisa easily. Apparently, they both had the same views on RAO Speedwagon much to Dylan's obvious distaste.

At lunchtime they would eat in the art rooms as it was always less crowded than the cafeteria and didn't smell like week-old pizza; Dylan would sometimes join them and seemed to form a friendship with Lisa that was mainly based around friendly insults and eye rolling. After the night she'd spent sleeping on the Willis's sofa Addison started to see them as people she could possibly get close to if she ever allowed that to happen. Maybe that was part of the problem.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, she would attend her cross country meetings like clockwork. Occasionally, she would see Niamh or Dylan sitting in the stands with Brigid drinking from steaming paper cups during the evenings she'd started running again. She'd stopped during the harsh winter as the snowfall was too great but now that they were slowly entering spring, it was warmer and there was less chance of having Aaron sneak up behind her and shove snow down Addison's hood. Occasionally, Brigid would join Addison on her runs so she could time her, though more often than not, she would end up trying to engage her in a conversation either about Dylan. Addison avoided talking about Dylan because it seemed like the easier thing to do. Brigid however, was persistent and pointed out that the fact that Addison would rather hear her talk about Brett than have Brigid ask her questions about Dylan said an awful lot.

The last thing Addison wanted was to talk to Brigid about Dylan because then that would she would have to define whatever was going on between Dylan and her.

Once he'd discovered that caffeine was pretty much Addison's life force, Dylan had taken to leaving the campus at lunch to go to Bowen's to pick up coffee for him and Addison to drink in art. Dylan must have asked Brett about how Addison took her coffee because the damn sugar to cinnamon ratio was actually perfect. It was that small gesture that first started to show Addison how the Willis', especially Dylan, saw her as a friend. The thought really was fucking terrifying.

Addison had never been good with opening up to people. When she was eleven his first therapist, the one her father made her go and see because of her mother, had suggested it was because she suffered from abandonment issues. Addison had suggested that said therapist go back to whatever school he'd gone to because it was painfully clear that she would have some issues with being abandoned. Her mother had just left. It was after that when Addison tried to point out that she really didn't need to go to therapy. Her father had agreed back then much to Addison's, and the therapist's to some extent, relief.