Addie POV

The rest of the week was painful and slow. Tom is in and out of our house, he sleeps in my mom’s room, and she constantly finds excuses not to sleep in the same room as him. I think he is getting tired of it, and soon he will snap. Aggie looks thiner by the end of the week.
Sometimes I am awoken by the shouting coming from the living room, and Aggie comes in my room and we get ready for school together, without speaking. Twice I almost go out of my room to shove a sharp object through Tom’s eyes, twice Aggie stops me.
And so every day is worse and worse. And even though it seemed like an eternity, only a couple of days passed since Tom walked into our lives again, and it was Friday now.
I wake up to Tom’s voice “I don’t care that you have to get up early! I do not appreciate being woken up by your stupid alarm, Erica!”
It’s an hour before I have to get up, but his shouts jolt me up. It’s not enough that i have to listen to his loud TV Programs and talking during the day and late nights, but I can’t even get more than 5h sleep per night!
Half asleep, I get up, open my door and shout louder than I thought I could possibly shout in this half-conscious state “SHUT UP!”
I then slam my door, and there is peaceful silence for a couple of seconds. And then he continues shouting. At my mom. For my disrespect. And then I hear a hard slap. I feel like my body is drained of blood, and I hear my mom trying to muffle a scream, while Tom just keeps rating about respect.
And that is where I draw the line.
I open my door and just let the words flow out of me, I do not even think before I start speaking “What the hell do you think you are doing? What? You blame my mom because I spoke up? Because you cannot STOP. YELLING. FOR. FIVE. GODDAMNED. SECONDS?! No one wants you here, get the fuck out!”
Ok, I may or may not have gone too far.
He charges at me, like, literally charges like a bull, and my mom tries to grab his arm but that doesn’t work. Ok, so I may or may not have made him really mad. He has some serious anger issues.
I run to my room and close the door. It’s dark in my room because it’s barely dawn.
I may or may not have made things worse. Crap. I should not make decisions half-conscious.
My door is locked but that doesn’t stop him from banging on it with his fist.
“Come out here, right now! How dare you speak to me like that?! You little delinquent, I am your father!” And he goes on and on, and then I hear my mom.
“She is just sleep deprived, she was half asleep” She makes excuses. I am shaking with fury. I want to be able to defend myself, but I just ran. I ran like a scared child!
The voices move to the living room, and by the time my alarm goes off, my mom has left and he went back to bed to continue his sleep.
I barely convince my self to tone down on the adrenaline, and go to sleep, when I have to get up for school. There will be a whole weekend of him. Three days. I roll myself off the bed and get to my bathroom. I take a shower, get dressed and leave my room. Aggie is in the kitchen eating cereal, her eyes are red and puffy.
“You made it worse” she says to me, and then gets up to clean her bowl.
“We need to stand up to him, Aggie. We can’t just keep living like this” I say a little too loudly.
“Keep your voice down” She says, anxiously looking at the stairs as if he is going to materialise on them.
“That’s the attitude I’m looking for. Except direct it at him, and we’ll have progress” I say smiling, trying to lighten her mood.
She rolls her eyes, grabs her bag and heads for the door. I go after her and lock the door behind us. I see Calum go out of his house, and when he sees us he gives us a small wave as if to say ‘Sorry I can’t give you a ride, your dad sucks’
I smile and go after Aggie. She is already walking towards school, and I walk a step behind her in silence.
Her steps are heavy and speeding, her arms are crossed and call it what you want, twin mind-reading or whatever, but I know she wants to say something, and I already know exactly what it is.
“Spit it out” I say, not even bothering to try and catch up.
“I just think you made it worse! You will be in trouble when we come back from school, mom will have to take the heat, all because you couldn’t keep your mouth shut” She says, trying to stay clam, but ending up raising her voice at the end of the sentence.
“Okay” I say.
“Don’t ‘okay’ me!” She says, stopping abruptly and turning around to face me. I almost walk into her.
“What do you want me to say? That I’m sorry?” I say mirroring her crossed arms.
“For a start! And in the future, keep your mouth shut. We know the drill, we have been doing this for a long time, there is no need to make it worse” She says, straightening her back, and keeping her chin up.
“Well, I’m sick and tired of being walked all over, so excuse me, but I am not gonna take this anymore.” I say, and walk away from her. I can hear her footsteps behind me.
We don’t speak until we reach school and she doesn’t even say goodbye as she joins Ashley and Chris. They give each other a weird look and I don’t know if it’s about me or about Aggie, but I say nothing as I enter the school.
I see none of my friends until lunch. When I come outside where we sit at our usual table, I see Mikey and Lucy already sitting there. Mikey sees me and smiles. I can see the pity in his eyes.
No one mentions anything about my dad unless I mention it first. I do get phone calls from them through out the day, more than usually, and I pretend I don’t know that they are checking up on me in turns. And then I always get a call from Calum before I go to bed, wishing me good night, and telling me that I can call him any time. It’s kind of exhausting when people try to tip toe around you and you have to pretend you don’t know they are doing it.
“Hey, hey!” Lucy says, as she turns and sees me.
“Alright, so” Luke comes up from nowhere before I can greet anyone “so I’m in English and my phone rings and almost gets confiscated but whatever, and then after class I call the number like what’s so important that my phone almost gets sacrificed? Anyway, so I call and it’s some dude that’s like ‘Hey this is Robert, we met a couple of months ago, on one of your gigs?’ and I’m like yeah sure? And he goes on like ‘Well we need someone to open up this club-pub thing in Sydney, and we need a band of young people, so if you’re willing to, we’d like you to do it’ and then he goes on and on about like where it is and dude!!!!! It’s like an actual GIG!!!” He finishes. He is so excited I almost get hyper just by looking at him.
Michael and him then start talking about song lists and how this could be a break and me and Lucy get excited as well.
Calum joins us at one point, sitting across from me. They fill him in on the possible gig and he gets almost as excited as Luke. I haven’t seen him that excited…ever.
“So when is it?” he asks, still smiling.
“Well, we have to confirm by tonight, and it’s this Saturday” Luke finishes.
“What?!” Mikey almost jumps.
“Yeah, it’s a bit last minute, but I mean we can do it!” Luke says with such confidence I almost believe him.
“Yeah yeah, we’ll just band after school and get a setlist” Calum says, tapping Luke on the shoulder a few times.
“This is all very exciting” Lucy says “We’re invited, right?” She smiles at Luke. He blushes a little. I think he just realised that he got so excited and giddy in front of her.
“Yeah, of course!” Luke says.
So for the rest of lunch time we talk about the gig, and Lucy plans out their setlist. I don’t know how she knows their songs, but it looks like she has extensive knowledge.
“I should just be your PR” She says, and puts her palms flat on the table.
“Well…we don’t have one” Calum says “Maybe we need a PR?” He looks at Mikey and Luke for confirmation.
They get excited, and when the bell rings we make plans to meet at Ash’s after school, so they can band and Lucy can announce her PR ideas, whatever that means.
I walk to class, and I hear running footsteps behind me.
“Hey” Calum catches up to me, his backpack falling on one shoulder.
“Hi” I say, continuing to walk to my classroom.
“You alright?” Before I can roll my eyes, because I’m getting tired of people asking me that “I mean, I heard yelling this morning. You. I heard…I mean, I heard you yelling this morning” He says.
“It’s all good” I lie. Honestly, people need to stop asking me if i’m okay.
“You coming after school, right?” He says, and doesn’t even wait for me to answer as he turns the corner and continues towards his own classroom.
The rest of the day goes by slow. I find Aggie outside after classes.
“I’m going at Ash’s” I say to her. She looks at me as if I have betrayed her. “What?” I say.
“Seriously? You cause all that drama this morning, and now you are not even going to show up to even witness the aftermath? Like it’s not even your problem?” She says, crossing her arms, her brows furrowed.
“Aggie, dude, I’m saying this for your own good - do not pause your life because he suddenly showed up. Show some rebellion. He walks all over us because we let him” I say smiling. I have no clue where all of this is coming from, but i believe it as soon as it comes out of my mouth.
“You are so selfish” She says and walks away. I feel a little bad. I feel bad because mom will always let Tom do what he does to protect me and Aggie. And I feel bad because Aggie has to go home, and be alone in the house with him.
“What are you doing after school?” I ask her, before she can be out of earshot. She stops and walks back to me, a little too fast and angry.
“I am going home.” She says and her eyes are daring me to ask why. Why is she going home when she can go with either Marissa or just..anywhere but home.
“Come with us” I make the impulsive decision to invite her. There has to be a reason why she doesn’t want to be around Marissa but I don’t think she was ready to answer me.
“What?” She is taken aback by this.
“Come with us. It’s not like a super secret exclusive club. We just sit in Ash’s garage. They are going to band and we just talk and…eat Ash’s food” I say. I realise I actually want her to come with us.
Before she can answer, Mikey shows up. We still haven’t actually talked about the kiss. Every time I think about it I get uncomfortable.
“Cal’s waiting in his car” He says, and looks at Aggie.
“Well?” I ask her. Mikey picks up the situation pretty well.
“We don’t bite” He says to Aggie. She then nods. And we are off to the parking lot. Mikey removes his hand from my shoulder as we approach the car. He sits in the front and I open the door for Aggie.
“There’s no room” She says. Does she sound disappointed? Or maybe a bit relieved? Not sure.
“We’ll make room” Mikey says from the front, and looks at Lucy and Luke expectantly. Lucy squishes closer to Luke, which I don’t think bothers him one bit, and Aggie and I squeeze next to Lucy.
We drive off, and in a couple of minutes we arrive at Ash’s. The grage door is propped open. I text mom that both me and Aggie won’t be home after school, and then we are under the garage door, and inside.
They break the news to Ash and all of them look like little children getting excited about candy.
“Why aren’t you with Marissa?” I ask Aggie, when no one really pays attention to us.
“ She was bitchy today…” She says, standing awkwardly. Lucy makes herself comfortable on the bean bag, picking up Michael’s snapback and putting it on her head
“Why?” I ask. I am starting to get uncomfortable. We have so much tension between us, I am surprised no one notices.
“They’ve been…bitchy to me this past week” She says, looking down, pretending she is busy with the pockets of her coat.
“So…?” I probe her.
“Ashley and Lucy had a confrontation or something, and now they are being all bitchy to me, because you hang out with Calum and because Ashly and Lucy have a bad relationship” She blurts out, tripping over some of her words, because she wants it all out. “So there. Gloat all you want” She says, and looks down again.
“Correction” Lucy says from her comfortable position on the beanbag “I have no relationship with Ashley. She is irrelevant to me as the R in Marlboro”
“Sorry that your friends suck” I say to Aggie finally. She rolls her eyes, and sits on the ground next to Lucy’s beanbag.
I notice Ash and Luke come back from inside.
“Alright, so” Luke says “Tomorrow we have to go to the pub at around 5ish, for like soundcheck and shit. We need to play for an hour and a half from 10 to 11:30, and then there’s gonna be like a DJ or something, and we’re gonna be in the VIP section with alcohol and all that!”
They all high five and start talking about how they’ll feel like rockstars and what not.
“Um…guys” I say, and they turn to me, all four of them smiling “You might want to ‘band’ if you want to be the least amount of ready for tomorrow” I point out as I slide down the wall and sit on the ground.
“Yes, good idea, let’s go” Ash says.
And so they band and they play their own songs, and some covers of bands like Green Day and Blink 182, and then something more pop-ish like Bruno Mars and what not.
And before we know it it’s around 9pm and my mom is calling Aggie.
“Hello” She answers. She hasn’t spoken a lot while we’ve been here. They are all polite to her, except Michael, he is a bit passive aggressive, but it’s all light hearted and at times I don’t think she is that uncomfortable.
After she finishes her conversation, she announces that we are leaving, without asking me, but I can just assume what the conversation was - mom telling her that our ‘dad’ is ‘worried’ about us and we need to go home.
“Imma stay, make sure these losers practice” Lucy gives me a salute, still wearing Michael’s snapback.
“I’ll walk you out” Michael volunteers and immediately I feel dread. We seriously need to talk about that stupid kiss. I look at Calum and I see him playing with his strings, not paying any attention to us. Something tells me he is trying really hard to seem that way.
Aggie says a faint goodbye and steps out from under the garage door. As Michael and I follow her, the noise from the instruments starts off again, and I can hear Lucia trying to talk over it.
“Didn’t really need to walk us out” I say. Aggie is already slowly walking in the direction of our house.
“Umm, yeah I know” Mikey says. Great. Now it’s uncomfortable with him as well. “I feel like we need to talk” He says, his voice a bit low.
“Yeah” I confirm. Not even going to pretend I don’t know what he is talking about.
“I feel like we’re really awkward with each other now” he says, barely looking in my eyes. “And we shouldn’t. I mean, yeah…we….you know, but we were both really really drunk, and…” He looks at me for help.
“Yeah” Is all I manage to say. Great. This is going great.
“And I mean, you like Calum-“
“I never said that” I cut him off. I don’t know why, but I don’t want to admit it to him. I barely admitted it to myself.
“Sure, sure” A hint of a smile plays on his lips.
“You coming?” I hear Aggie’s voice.
“So we’re cool right? Can we not be awkward anymore?” Mikey says, scratching the back of his neck with his hand.
“Yeah dude, we’re cool” I say, which may be the lamest sentence that I have ever produced.
“Alright. I’ll see you tomorrow. You’re coming to our gig, right?” He smiles, back up towards the garage, from which music is still coming.
“Wouldn’t miss it” I say and walk towards Aggie.
She doesn’t say anything while we walk, and when we are in front of our house she slows down, as if that will prolong our home coming forever. It doesn’t.
We open the door and we hear the TV, a loud commentator is talking about a football game or something. Not sure. Mom is in the kitchen, and it smells like meat and spices, and I can also hear other male voices. Mom’s face is unreadable as we enter.
“Who’s here?” I ask, as Aggie and I approach her.
“His friends…they showed up 10 minutes ago” mom says. Her face is still unreadable. But I don’t have to read her face to know what she is thinking and feeling.
“Get some dinner, and go to your rooms” She says, stirring a pot with pieces of meat and vegetables.
Aggie goes to the fridge and takes out a plate which has her dinner on it, something mom made prior to Tom’s friends arriving - chicken, rice and salad.
“Are they staying over?” I ask not moving. Aggie pinches my arm as she passes me and puts down her plate on the kitchen island, removing the clear foil from it.
“I don’t know. Maybe” mom says without facing me.
I glare in the general direction of the living room. And then I’m walking to my room, angry, fuming, and i close the door and lock it.
I get some texts from Mikey through out the evening asking my opinions on songs and which ones to play tomorrow and stuff like that. I try to fall asleep but I can’t - the TV and the voices from the living room are too loud. I wonder where mom is going to sleep tonight. The living room will be occupied, as will her bedroom. I hear footsteps upstairs and I hear a door open and close. Pretty sure mom went into Aggie’s room. Highly doubt it that she minds.
And a couple of hours later, around 3 or 4, the voices disappear and it’s only the faint sound of the TV. Everyone seems to be asleep. I lie and stare at the ceiling and try to come up with a way to get Tom and his friends out of here. I have a short-term solution, not what I was looking for, but it will have to do. Doubt it that Aggie will want any part of it, and the less mom knows the better, so I’ll have to do it alone. Somehow. Not sure how.
I wake up the next day at around 10. Someone tries to come in my room. Thank god I locked it last night.
“What’s behind door number one?” I hear a southern accent from the person trying to enter my room.
“It’s Adelaide’s room” Tom answers. Disgust layered in his voice.
“Which one was that one” The man stops trying to come in.
“The bitchy one” Tom answers again. The ‘bitchy’ one?! Excuse you.
The voice move away from my door, and I cannot make out their conversation after they are in the living room.
I get up and wash my face and brush my teeth in the bathroom. I get dressed in sweats and an old grey t-shirt which is a bit oversized. I honestly do not know why I have so many oversized t-shirts when all I use them for is sleeping or just wearing them away from the public eye.
I get out to go to the kitchen, but it is occupied by my mom, who’s making waffles, and some dude, which looks familiar but I can’t be sure. Tom’s friends - they are all ugly, white, middle aged, balding men.
“Morning sunshine” He says to me. My mom looks uncomfortable, and warns me about talking back with just one look. She has a weird red bruise on he arm. I swallow my anger. I want to spill his coffee all over his face. Give him the old fashioned third-degree burn.
“Morning” is all I say, as I open the fridge and take out milk. I pour myself coffee and add some milk and sugar in it.
“Aren’t you a little young to be drinking coffee” He looks at me with a predators smile. I take a sip from my coffee hoping I’ll swallow the comeback with it, but no. I don’t. I should really, really, really start thinking before I say something.
“No one asked for your opinion” I say, calmly. He smiles, as if this amuses him.
“Oh, Addie” My mom nervously laughs, as if I said a joke. I don’t smile, I just stare down the dude standing in my kitchen, while sipping my coffee.
And then I smile at him. Not the innocent apologetic smile my mom gives them. No, mine said ‘Sleep with one eye opened. You’re in for a treat’
I walk back to my room with my mug and close and lock my door. Not going to risk it. I open up my door to let some air in. As I do, I notice Calum’s car being parked in the driveway. He comes out, wearing the same clothes from last night, his hear ruffled and sticking out in every direction. He looks really cute with his bed hair and half closed eyes, and he doesn’t notice me. But I notice him, running his hand through his hair, making it worse/cuter, his muscles flexing, and then, right before he enters through the door he looks at my room. Our eyes meet, and we just stare at each other. He glances at the front door of my house, and we have a silent conversation that went something like this
‘Is he home?’
‘Yes’
‘Can I come over?’
‘Yes’
And so before i know it, he is sneaking around his house and going over the fence separating our yard from his, he is in front of me.
“Hey” He whispers. I don’t know what to make of our friendship. I mean one day he is all concerned about me, and I mean he calls me every night, and then we have these weird and awkward moments, and there’s tension between us, which makes me uncomfortable.
I step aside so he can enter my room, and he seems to hesitate for a moment, but then he is inside.
“You just coming back?” I ask him awkwardly sitting on my bed.
“Yeah. We slept over” He answers, ruffling his hair again. I think he is trying to tame it, but again, it makes it worse. “I just drove Lucy home. I don’t think your aunt was really happy to see me drive her home after a night out” He says and laughs a bit awkwardly.
“Nah, she and our moms are being bffs, so I’m sure she doesn’t think you like…took advantage of her or whatever” i say. Why is this conversation so awkward?!


Calum’s POV

She sits there on her bed, with her legs crossed. Her hair is in a ponytail and she is picking her nails absently. I don’t know why I came here. I mean, she did kinda invite me. Didn’t she? I don’t know. I didn’t want to be around her that much today. I feel like my jealousy is at a new level, and I don’t want to be weird around her. I promised myself I would concentrate on the gig tonight. It’s the first one in almost a month, and it’s our biggest one yet.
“You don’t have to awkwardly stand there” She says. I look at her lips as she talks, and then focus back on her eyes. I sit on the other side of the bed, and she faces me. And now it’s even moe awkward. Why the hell did I have to overhear her conversation with Michael last night? It’s like my ears are tuned into conversations I am not invited to that involve Addie and Mikey.
“You’re coming tonight right?” I say, because that’s all I can think of. I need to get out of here, because I feel my blood rushing in my body, urging me to ask her about Michael, basically confront her, and I can’t do that. I can’t act all jealous when it’s not like we have anything more than friendship.
“Yeah. Getting out this house is my priority” She says, looking at her door.
“It’s getting worse?” I ask her. She smiles, as if I asked her a silly question.
“Not only is he making us live through hell, but he has to bring his pervy friends over. I swear to God, if one of them makes ANY unwanted comment about me, Aggie or my mom in front of me, I will start skinning people” She says, clenching her fist, but still smiling, trying to make the conversation light. Which makes her scary.
“Well, be ready by 4ish? I’m driving to Ash’s first to get the guitars in, and then picking up Lucy and Luke. Ash gets the drums and Mikey.” I say and get up from her bed.
“Cool, cool, cool” she says, getting up to open her door for me.
“See you later” I say, and instead of turning around and going I stand there and look at her. As if I’m expecting something.
“Yeah” she awkwardly says. I laugh nervously and walk up to my front door and into my house. She was still standing where I left her, when I enter my house.
“Mali!” I hear my mom shout after my sister, as her door slams.
“What is up with you two?” I say taking off my shoes.
“Where have you been all night!?” She turns on me “I expect at least a text message telling me where you are, not one the morning after you didn’t come home!” She is in a weird mood.
“You knew I was at Ash’s” i say heading for the stairs.
“Don’t give me that attitude!” She shouts after me “Don’t let it happen again, or I’ll ground you for a month”
“Okay” i say, as I enter my room.
I shower, eat and get dressed. I tell my mom I have a gig tonight, and it’s like she wasn’t yelling at me at all earlier. She is all proud and happy and tells me not to drink because I have to drive, and she wishes me good luck before her and my dad leave to have dinner out. I put on a change of clothes, in case I get really really sweaty on stage, my phone charger and a hoodie.
“Where’s your gig?” Mali asks, leaning on the doorframe.
“In the city” i say, putting my backpack on one shoulder and walking pass her.
“I might come by” She says, entering her room.
“I’ll text you the address” I shout from the bottom of the stars, and put on my shoes. When I go outside, I see Tom, Addie’s dad, outside looking through his car trunk.
We make eye contact, and for some reason, I stare him down and don’t look away. Neither does he. And then my phone rings.
I have to break the eye contact, and look at the ID.
“Hey Luke” I answer, opening the back door and discarding my backpack.
“I’m at Ash’s, packing up the drums, when are you coming over?” He asks.
“Soon. I need to get Addie out of her house” I say, looking at her dad, he is still staring at me.
“Alright. Mikey is almost here. We’ll just pick up Lucy” He says, and I can hear the smile when he says Lucy.
“What is happening with you two?” I ask, entering the driver’s seat.
“I don’t know” He says a bit quiet. I can almost see his cheeks going red.
“Are you gonna pull tonight?” I ask him, turning on the engine.
I look in the rearview mirror, and I notice Tom isn’t outside anymore. He must’ve entered the house while I was talking on the phone.
“I don’t know mate. Are you?” He asks. I am happy he isn’t here to see me blush.
“I’m going for the gig and alcohol” i say. He laughs and when hang up. I call Addie next and I feel nervous. I really need to get my emotions in check.
“I’m almost done” She picks up.
“Cool. I’m in my car.” I say and then we hang up. I wait for around five minutes and after a bit of yelling from her house, the passenger door opens and she sits, putting the seat belt. Her hair is straightened, falling around her shoulders, she is wearing a black high waisted skirt and a patterned loose black crop top. She has her black leather jacket in her arm. She smells of that same perfume from last weekend and I am very happy that my car will smell like her for the next couple of days.
“Drive” she says calmly. Her lips are stained red with lipstick, and her eyes look very green from the dark green eyeshadow and black eyeliner.
I drive off in an instant, heading for Lucy’s house.
“You look nice” I say. She just nods, and looks all gloomy and grumpy. “What’s up with you?”
“I got some really nice comments when I went out” She says. I don’t think she wants to elaborate, so I don’t press it. To make sure I don’t ask her any follow-up questions, she turns on the stereo and picks songs. We get to Lucy’s house and she calls her to come outside.
Lucy exits from her house, wearing black jeans and a red loose top. Her eyes are also lined with dark make up, her hair curled and pinned up.
“Helloooo” She sings as she closes the back door.
We make conversation, Lucy talks about her responsibility as a PR, and that she needs to look all professional and fierce so she couldn’t wear her backless dress and stilettos.
We arrive at Ash’s. Luke and Mikey are outside of the garage, fitting the drum set in Ash’s car. Lucy, Addie and I exit to help bring in the guitars. I notice Luke almost dropping a bag while staring at Lucy, and I notice Ash looking at Luke and laughing.
We take all the guitars and cables and what not into my car. By the time we do, it’s around 4:30.
Mikey get’s in with Ash, and Luke, Lucy and Addie get in my car.
And we drive off, towards the city skyline.
This night should be fun. Hopefully drama-free.

Notes

Guys I forgot that I was writing this and I was re-reading it last night and decided - why not update?
I won't be surprised if one one wants to read it anymore because it's been like a year since I've updated hahahah
Sorry for spelling mistakes and all that jazz.