No Escape

Chapter Thirteen

A week had passed since everything had happened with the police. Since Lily had been staying with Jackson and his family. Yes, it had all been real. Lily had woken up that first morning completely disoriented, so much so that she began to panic. Jackson barged in seemingly trying to help but it just made her panicking worsen. Lily didn't want him anywhere near her.

As soon as her brother had mindlinked her, Adrienne rushed to the room that now belonged to Lily and knocked before opening the door. Taking in her friends state, she hurried to Lily's side. She was having a panic attack. Adrienne helped her to regulate her breathing, wondering what had happened to cause this to happen, and reassured her that she was safe.

Lily was grateful for Adrienne's help, but she didn't believe her one bit. She could never be safe. She was stuck in this weird cycle of believing that she was hallucinating all of this and reminding herself that she wasn't dreaming or hallucinating. That this was real life.

It took a few days, and Lily was still wary of it, but she was slowly getting used to it; she didn't have to remind herself as often. There was a lot of weird things that went on there. A lot of people lived in the Tyler house . Not just the family, a lot of Jackson and Adrienne's friends lived there. And Lily know that guys, especially in their teenage years, didn't like the idea of shirts but at that house it was too much. They walked around shirtless all the time! Sometimes they would leave the house fully clothed and come back just in a pair of gym shorts. It was the same with the girls; they'd leave the house in one outfit and return wearing something completely different. It made Lily suspicious.

Not only that, but some of the girls were extremely rude, not just to Lily, but Charlotte as well. They would look at the pair of them weird and whisper to one another. It was as if they thought it was wrong of Lily to be there. Charlotte had told her that a lot of the kids didn't like her because she was different from them.

Jackson noticed most of these things when he was around her; he didn't want to leave her side, but he did have Alpha training and duties to attend to. He tried to be as understanding as possible, but he couldn't help his curiosity. He knew that Adrienne couldn't tell him everything as she didn't know some things, but he also knew that it was difficult for her to talk about it. He tried asking Lily, she never answered unless it was something she could nod or shake her head to respond and didn't give too much away. He didn't want to push her further away though. He loved having his mate around, her presence calmed him after being separated from her for so long. He only wished things were different, better.

The only person Lily ever spoke to was Charlotte; she felt that it would have been wrong of her to keep silent around her. Charlie didn't deserve that. She needed someone to talk to that wouldn't turn her back on her or hurt her. And that person was Lily. She loved that. However, it meant that Lily had to smile a lot. She didn't ever mean it, but it took a lot of her energy to fake it. Lily knew if she stopped smiling it wouldn't only upset Charlotte, but Jackson, his parents, or someone else that lived there as well. That was the last thing she wanted to do. Who knew what kind of trouble it would land her in if she upset or offended them?

Some of the guys hung out with her a lot. Lily thought that they considered her their friend. She didn't think that, but she let them think so. She was uncomfortable around them and questioned everything she or they did, but deep down she enjoyed not being alone. It was weird to her considering all of the shitty things that had happened in her life because of men. Granted, she wasn't about to let her guard down around them, but it was nice for her to not feel terrified every second of every day. They knew how to keep her mind off of worse things, even though she never said anything to them.

Especially Jackson. He was really sweet and always attempting to make Lily smile and get Charlie to laugh. Lily could tell that Jackson had grown on her; Charlotte loved him. Jackson was oddly protective of the two of them. Whenever they were with a group of people and other guys were staring, looked at Lily for too long or Jackson said they were checking her out, or if someone was picking on Charlie or giggling and laughing behind their backs he got this angry look on his face that scared Lily every time and a faraway look in his eyes. It was odd.