Dependent on You

Chapter 25

Chapter 25

Third Person

The following day, when Adrian had awoken to the sun's rays bleeding through her eyelids she rolled out of bed and trudged down the stairs. She soon discovered her parents didn't wake her because they had no intentions of bringing her to school, nor would she be going for a long while. Her dad's temper was a hot one and the night didn't cool it. He was itching to stomp down to the school and demolish it into nothing but crumbling bricks and broken ruins.

When Adrian saw him on the couch, his angered irises melted into softened sap as his arms outstretched beckoning her to come sit with him. She did ambling over and sitting on his lap, letting him cocoon his corded arms around her as he paused the television. She snuggled into her dad's chest, his warmth a blanket amid the cold lingering on her skin. Her captain wasn't angry with her; he was angry with what those girls did to her. She wished she hadn't said anything, but keeping Elliot a secret was avidly more important to her.

"How'd you sleep, princess?" He asked in his concerned fatherly voice, kissing her temple.

Adrian signed, searching the room for her mother before bringing her gaze back up to her father's beautiful aquamarine eyes. "Fine." She mumbled, brushing a stray piece of hair out of her face as the lie passed through her lips. She had been restless all night. "Where's mom?" It was strange she hadn't seen her mom yet, her mother always greeted her in the mornings with death by kisses and hugs that cut off your circulation. Usually, she would be right with her father, snuggled up next to him drinking her morning coffee.

"She's paying your school a visit and when she's done there she's heading straight to her lawyer's office." Adrian's face went pale, paler than the pigment she already was. She knew her mom was upset, but she didn't think she'd get lawyers involved. What would the students at school think of her then? How would she ever be able to walk back into school again without being made fun of, or getting dirty looks, more so than she already does? "You're lucky she wouldn't let me join her or that school would be dust in the wind and those girls, not even a whisper. Either way they won't get away with what they did to you."

Adrian didn't doubt a word her father said nor the sharp tone of his voice. She'd seen the fury on his face just seconds ago and she was glad he had masked it for her. She wanted to tell him the girl who started it had already been taken care of, but that would lead to questions about Elliot so she kept her mouth shut. Elliot was a forbidden topic to talk about around her parents. She wouldn't risk him, not when he meant so much to her. The thought of him being taken away from her was something she couldn't even think about.

Releasing a shaky breath, all she managed to say was, "Oh."

This is exactly what Adrian didn't want to happen. She wanted those girls to stay a long-lost secret in the back crevices of her mind where she could eventually forget them as if they were just mere specks of dust. Now that would never happen, now everyone would know the embarrassing thing those girls did to her.

Her father must have sensed her shift in moods because he stood up, picking her up like nothing with him, and began striding to the kitchen. Before she could question him, he smiled a handsome smile that she adored. "Do you hear that Adrian?" He asked as they entered the kitchen, her father carrying her bridal style. She shook her head confused. She didn't hear anything except for her beating heart. Adrian's father chuckled. "You can't hear it?" He repeated, eyes alight.

Adrian tilted her head to the side, not having an inkling of what her dad was talking about. She heard nothing at all. Maybe he needed hearing aids."Hear what?"

He set her down gently on the kitchen island, eyebrows furrowed with what Adrian presumed as amusement. "The ice cream—it's calling our names." He told her, pulling open the freezer and taking out a half-gallon of strawberry. Adrian's favorite flavor.