Fly Until You Crash

The next morning, Addie woke up on the cold floor of the frat house, with few other bodies surrounding her. She had a headache and wanted nothing but to eat, but as she looked around Justin was nowhere to be seen. She trudged up the stairs and outside, but didn’t see his car.

“Did he seriously fucking leave me here,” she muttered as she dug around her purse for her phone. She quickly dialed Slade’s number. “Hey, could you come get me? The jackass fucking left me here.” Slade yelled and cursed Justin, but hurried to retrieve his friend.

“My mom’s in the middle of cooking breakfast if you wanna come over. We can plan how we’re going to kill this guy over waffles and eggs,” he half joked.

“I’d love to. And I’m sure it was an accident or something, I’ll ask him later,” she replied, shrugging it off.

“Wait, you’re still gonna see him? After he abandoned you at some college? That’s not right, dude,” Slade stated, getting angry at how stupid he best friend was being.

“It was a mistake, and I easily forgive. No big deal.” Slade had no idea why Addie was letting this slide so easily. She was the type of person to hold grudges, especially over something like this. He dropped the conversation, not wanting to hear about anything that happened the previous night. “You’re pissed at me, I can tell,” Addie remarked, sighing. “I know that you hate hits kid and this fuels that hatred more, but he’s a good guy.”

“Addie, something could’ve happened to you last night after he left and no one would’ve known. How the fuck am I supposed to trust him after ditching you at some sketchy party, with a ton of people you don’t know? That’s not cool, and if you can’t see that maybe it’s good for you to stay with him,” Slade shouted. He could see by Addie’s expression that she was hurt, more by Slade than what Justin had done, but what was said needed to be. “I understand that you like this kid, but is it really worth it?”

“I don’t care if it’s worth it, I need to do things for myself and on my own, whether you like them or not. You’re not my babysitter,” Addie spat. Slade was shocked by this surge of confidence that had come over Addie, she never lost her temper or used that tone of voice. Something had changed within her over the past two weeks, and Slade didn’t know if he liked it or not.

“I know that I can’t tell you what to do, but I’m going to do my damn best to protect you as best as I can, and this guy is no good.”

“I’m not listening to you. I’m staying with him.” There was nothing more Slade could do but sit back and let Addie make her own mistakes, and pray for her not to go too far. With her hard head and determination, he knew that she would do anything she wanted just to prove him wrong. He had a terrible feeling about where Addie was headed.