For Real? ✅

Chapter 26

(A/N: Guys, please skip the part in italics if you don't want to read violence/abuse/ rape, especially for younger readers... Remember: you have been warned!)

TESS

I find myself glancing at a picture of my mom on my phone.

She's sitting in the garden, under her apple tree, the pink blossoms bringing out the pink in her cheeks. I'm next to her chair, laughing at the joke my dad was cracking, my arms around her neck. She has a warm smile as she looks at me, her eyes soft.

It was taken a week before we knew that she had cancer.

I shake my head, as I ponder over to watch over Leah and Greg.

'They're fine', dismisses the voice in my head. 'You should worry about yourself'.

Were they? I didn't know yet.

For one thing, Leah was dating Adam.

Adam White.

My mom knew about him, somehow.

I find myself trembling as I think of the very day it all had happened.

*****

9 months back, a month after Tess's mother died.

My mom had died. I couldn't even give her a proper goodbye.

I look at the pink flower in my hand. It reminded me of the apple blossom in my mom's garden.

Faraway, in another universe, I hear cheers of the finished football game. I sigh and turn the flower over in my hand.

"You didn't watch the match?" asks a deep voice.
I immediately look up to see a guy looking at me.

"Um... I'm not interested", I say dully, hoping he'd leave me alone.

"You're Tess Heartwood right?" He asks, sitting down next to me.

He knew who I was?

"Yeah...You are?" I ask, feeling bad for not knowing him.

He gives me a cute boyish grin. "I'm Adam White."

We go on to talk for a few minutes, and I find out that he seems really sweet. It doesn't take him long to get to the fact that my mom had died a month ago.

I mean, he was charming and I couldn't stop myself from opening up to him.

"No Tess, you need to lighten up. What you need is a drink with me. Just one drink." He replies, his hand on my face.
"Your mom wants to see you happy. I can make that happen." He says confidently, putting an arm on my shoulder.

I put the flower in my pocket and finally nod, which makes him excited.

Two hours later, I'm heavily drunk. Adam was saying something about his dad and how he told him to never leave a drunk girl at the bar by herself.

"I'll take you home", He said. He wrapped his arms around me and put me into his car.
I don't remember agreeing to his offer, but I went along with him, Adam could do no wrong, could he?

Weariness washes through me when we reach his apartment. I fall straight into the couch, and Adam chuckles at me.

"Are you feeling better now?" He asks sweetly, collapsing on the couch.
I realise that he's drunk too.

"I think," I say giddily and laugh again.

"You think... Which means you aren't," He sighs softly.