The Free (Unedited)

Doubt

Lindsay's POV

The classical music played through my ears softly, but I already had a headache. The dress I was wearing was “barely appropriate” according to my mom.

“I need to take you shopping for a whole new wardrobe,” she sniffed before turning back to who she was talking to.

My dad, though, saw me and his eyes began to mist immediately. We hugged softly.

“You're finally grown up,” he choked out.

“Dad I'm only 16,” I replied skeptically.

He stared at me bitterly. “Well, you have grown up. We made you.”

I stared at him blankly, knowing what he was referring to. I knew he blamed himself for not being there. He had been so busy with his business and us kids were on our own when mom left.

All I could do was stare at him, emotions playing through my mind and on my face. I turned away.

I was at this party because I had nobody to go out with. Amber had plans, and even if she didn't I wouldn't want to annoy her. Laura was with Toby and Lukas was with whoever he was with. I thought it was better to be in a sea of people than to cry in my bed alone.

The party was slow and long, but I mean what do you expect when you randomly walked around with a full glass of champagne that you only have to make yourself look classy?

At around midnight, I was finally tired of pretending I wanted to be at the party. I slowly made my way up to my room, my feet hurting and my dress scratching me all over. As I was walking down the hall, I heard voices faintly talking through a door.

“I love you,” a voice eerily familiar declared before * heard a series of sounds I'd rather not hear.

It was times like this that I wished I had a friend who would let me sleep over sometimes.

I all but crawled into bed, letting the blackness of sleep overtake me.

***

Laura's POV

I was sitting in Toby's car across from him. We were both very quiet, the only sound the wind outside the car, and our breaths.

I had snuck out earlier, knowing Lindsay was hung up, and texted Toby to come pick me up. From there, I used the vines on the wall of our house to climb down, and met Toby. After Toby had fed me dinner, which was at a small sit down place, we ended up here. Now, we were sitting here silently. Then, Toby broke the silence.

“You know I didn't mean to upset you today right?” he asked me, his voice clear, his tone encouraging.

I sighed and turned to him. “I know.”

“And that girl,” he continued,” means nothing to me.” He stroked my cheek. “You're my everything.”

I leaned into his words and embrace. He always knew how to make me happy.

Toby had the natural good looks along with a politician father that made him come from good money. His cheekbones were high, his thick lashes covered eyes that looked like they had all the colors of the forest in them, and his lips were soft and full. The sound that came out of those lips was sweet and sultry at the same time, the alto of his voice carrying undertones of bass that, as time grows, could take over his voice.

I loved his hands most of all. They knew exactly where to go to make me feel a certain way, like right now, the calluses rubbing gently on the skin of my face.

I snuggled up as close to him as I could get and laid my head on his chest, closing my eyes for a second as a satisfied sigh came out of my mouth.

I soon saw him fiddling around with a ring that he had always kept on his finger. I deftly grabbed it out of his hands and held it away from him.