Chapter 9
Chapter Nine
“What the fuck do my parents have to do with you, Addison?” I ask, my voice a bit harsher than I meant it to be.
I’m used to being angry all the fucking time now. But the way Addison flinches and takes a step away from me makes me feel like shit. Even if she did break my fucking heart, she’s the last person I would ever purposefully harm.
I glare at her. “Don’t act like you’re scared of me, Addi. You know I’m not going to hurt you.”
“I… I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything. I have to go.” She starts walking faster. Away from me.
I follow, catching up to her. “What did my parents do?”
“They helped me. After I left. Well, at least I’m pretty sure it was them. It’s the only thing that makes sense,” she says.
“How did they help you?” I don’t ask the question burning on my mind: why the fuck she left in the first place.
“They really didn’t say anything to you?”
“No.” But I’ll discuss that with them after I walk Addison back to her dorm building.
“Your dad came to see me. At my mom’s. Two days after I left school.
And then, that same day, I got an email from the school telling me I could finish the year out online.
Then your mom called me. And she continued to call me regularly just to check in,” I explain.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t ask them for anything, Lex. I swear.”
“What do they have to do with you being here?” I know Addison wouldn’t ask anyone for help. She never asked me for a single thing the entire year we were friends.
“I didn’t apply to any colleges,” she whispers. “And then I got an acceptance letter for NYU offering me a full scholarship.”
“Why didn’t you apply for college?” Addison’s dream was to be college educated. To break the poverty cycle, as she called it.
“I didn’t think I could do it. Turns out, I was right. I can’t be here.” She walks even faster. I want to question her more, but I don’t.
“This is you,” I tell her, pointing at the building on the left.
“Thank you,” she says. “I’m sorry, Lex, for everything.” And then she’s running inside the building without a single glance back.
Something is wrong with her. Something is different. I just don’t know what. But I think I know two people who do know.
I jog to the parking lot. I don’t care how many road rules I break. I need fucking answers. Now.
I storm past my father’s soldiers and into his office. “Get the fuck out!” I hiss at the two men my father is meeting with.
He doesn’t say a single thing, but both of the men stand and silently leave the room. I slam the door behind them. My father pushes up from his chair and walks around his desk.
“What the fuck are you doing with Addison?” I yell at him, because I’m not stupid enough to yell at my mother, which is why I came to find my dad first.
He leans against the edge of his desk, hands stuffed into his pants pockets and a single eyebrow raised. “Excuse me?”
“Addison, the girl you met all of once, what the fuck are you doing? She told me you went and saw her. She told me you and Mom have been helping her. Why?”
“Because she’s family and we help family when they need it, Lex,” he says.
“She’s not fucking family. She was a friend from school. Then she wasn’t because she left.”
“Did she tell you why she left?” Dad presses.
“I didn’t ask. It doesn’t matter why she left. She left!”
The door opens and my mother walks in. “What are you yelling about?”
I take a deep breath. I cannot lose my shit at my mother. “I saw Addison today. At NYU. Any idea how she got into a school she didn’t even apply to?”
“Oh, good. How was she?” Mom asks. “Did she get my flowers?”
“What? Flowers?” I ask, confused.
“I sent her flowers this morning, a congratulations for making it. She hasn’t had as easy a ride as most kids. Lex, Addison has worked hard to be able to get to college,” Mom tells me. “How did she seem?”
I glance from my mother to my father. “What do you two know that I don’t know?”
They share a look, communicating without communicating. “Whatever her story is, it’s hers to tell, Lex. And I’m guessing by the fact you’re here talking to us, that she hasn’t told you,” Mom says.
“Told me what?”
“I can’t tell you. I’m not going to break her trust like that.” Mom crosses her arms over her chest. “But I can tell you that girl loves you.”
“She left.”
“She didn’t think she had a choice,” Dad adds.
“You know what? Fuck it. You love Addison so much, fine, you guys befriend her.” I storm out of my father’s office and then right out of the house. I don’t give a fuck what Addison’s reasons were for leaving. She didn’t tell me. If she needed help, I should have been the person she came to.
I don’t know where I’m going, but I end up in the college parking lot again.
I’ve already missed whatever classes I had, not that I was planning on going to any of them.
What I want to do is find a bar and get wasted, forget that today even happened.
I don’t need answers from Addison. I don’t need to hear her tell me I fucked up and should never have touched her.
And yet, here I am, standing in front of her door. I had my cousin Dante hack into the college records to find out what dorm room she was in. I shouldn’t be here. I need to turn around and walk the fuck away. Still, my fist rises and I knock.
“Who is it?” I hear Addison call through the door.
“Lex,” I tell her.
Then I hear a chain, and then another, and another. Followed by the deadbolt. Addison opens the door. She looks like she’s been crying. Her eyes are puffy and red.
“Can I come in?” I ask her.
“Ah, sure.” She steps aside and then shuts the door, eyeing all the locks on it before she decides to turn around. Addison then gingerly walks over to the desk chair and sits down.
All I can think is: why the fuck does she need that many locks on a door in a building that already has security?