Well here is the next chapter! I'm already working on the next hoping to have it up by the end of the week. Thanks for the reviews and I hope you enjoy the chapter!
I stayed in my room most of the rest of the week, I didn't even want to look at anyone in my family, or not in my family for that matter. I had no idea what I would possibly say to them, and there was nothing I wanted to hear from them that would help me figure things out.
I didn't really do all that much but sit and think about a lot of things. I think I did too much thinking, because I began to over think things. I started analyzing everything that had ever happened since I had been back. I realized that they didn't really hate me, at least not entirely, which I guess I should have realized before, but I guess I was just so hurt. I knew this wasn't going to be easy for me; I was still going to be myself around them, well the self I have always been around them. I didn't know how to be anything else, so for now I knew nothing was going to change.
Kate had been over to see me, but I didn't talk to her, I had my door locked and pretended to be sleeping. I heard her talking in the hallway to Pogue. "What is wrong with her? What did you guys do?"
"Kate, we didn't do anything, she freaked out on us the other night. I guess she blames us for her parent's deaths." Pogue sounded defeated and worn out. I didn't want to listen to them talk about it. I knew I wasn't going to get away with this behavior much longer. Eventually one of them was going to break into my room. My vote was for Caleb, he had been the one that wanted to chase after me the other night.
After a couple more days I knew I was right, there had been more than one knock on my door that day and they were getting more urgent. I decided it was time to come out of my room, it was going to be awkward and the longer I waited the worse it was going to be.
It was a Friday morning and I knew my aunt and uncle would be at work, so that meant only my cousin and or the guys would be here. I had a feeling they had been avoiding the house though, not wanting to put up with me. I hadn't really heard them around all that much, but I knew someone was home.
I got up and took a shower, not in a hurry to do much of anything. When I walk out of the bathroom I was surprised to see Kate was sitting on my bed.
"I see you finally decided to get out of your room." I could tell she was pissed.
"I decided the longer I waited the worse it was going to be, so I thought why not today."
"What is going on with you?" Now she sounded really worried.
I sighed and sat on my bed, "I don't even know, I have just been thinking a lot."
"What happened the other night between you all?"
I told her most of the details of what had happened, the ones I could remember anyway, I had tried not to think about it all that much.
"You can't blame them Grace, the accident wasn't their fault."
"Wasn't it? We never would have been on that road if it hadn't been for the fact that my parents felt they had to leave. If my aunt and uncle weren't trying to tell my parents how to raise me, none of this would have happened."
"Grace, you don't know that, there is no way to know what might have happened if they had stayed around here."
"I do, they would still be alive."
Kate didn't say anything at first, she probably didn't know what to say, I couldn't really blame them for what happened to my parents and I did know this, but I had to blame someone. I sighed and lay back on my bed. "They don't hate me." I said half to Kate half to myself. I was still trying to convince myself of this fact.
"Of course they don't. They never would have taken you in if they had. They have actually been really worried about you over the past week. Actually they are always worried about you. The guys don't know how to handle the situation, I mean come on they are guys after all. They still see you as the 12 year old girl that got whisked away in the middle of the night, the one they never got to say goodbye too, you were just gone."
I sat up with a confused look on my face "How did you know we left like that? I never told you that."
Kate paused for a moment, probably trying to figure out how much to say. "I heard the guys talking about it before."
"How do they remember that? I barely remember that, not that I really cared, I wasn't a big fan of them when I was young either."
"What happened to make you guys hate each other so much?"
"You are the one that says they don't hate me."
Kate rolled her eyes, "You know what I mean."
I shrugged. "I don't know, I guess they were just always so annoying, they were around 24/7 and I hated it. I was never on my own and I could never get away from them. Even when we were younger they always kept boys away from me. I remember there was one boy that lived down the road that would always try to play with us but every time he would get close to me the guys would push him away. I remember hating it back then, I find it funny they are still doing it now though, they haven't changed much."
"You do realize that-"
"Yeah I know don't say it" I cut Kate off. "Like I said I have been doing a lot of thinking. It has just been hard for me to wrap my brain around everything, it's a lot to change the way you see people."
Kate smiled, I could tell she was super happy about the situation; it was a lot of progress in her mind. "Ok, well that settles it. We are going to Nicky's tonight."
I opened my mouth to protest but Kate wouldn't hear of it "Nope, I'm not taking no for an answer, it is the day before your birthday and we are going out."
I looked at Kate confused "What day is it?"
"The 27th obviously, did you forget it was your birthday tomorrow?"
"I have had a lot on my mind the past couple days thank you."
"Obviously, now come on get dressed, I'm going to run down to my car and get my stuff. I'm so glad I come prepared." Kate was out the door before I could say a word edge wise. I got up and started getting dressed. I was standing in my underwear when I heard a noise in the hallway. I turned toward my door to find it standing open, Kate must have forgotten to close it, and Caleb was standing there.
I saw his face turn a little red, like he had been caught doing something he shouldn't have. I would have been mad except for he was so cute when he was embarrassed. I walked toward the door "You don't have to be embarrassed Caleb, you have seen me naked, if you wanted to see again all you had to do was ask." I had no idea where that had come from; sure that was how I had always been with Aaron, but not with Caleb. I noticed that Kate had just come up the stairs, she looked from the state of me and then to Caleb, her eyebrow went up in question.
I rolled my eyes and motioned for her to keep coming, "Did you need something Caleb?"
He snapped out of his thoughts "No, I was just passing by when I saw your door was open."
"Ok, well then we are going to get dressed." Kate said as she pushed her way between the two of us.
"You guys going somewhere?"
"Nicky's of course, are you guys going? I mean we can't not celebrate the day before Graces' birthday!" Then Kate shut the door before Caleb could answer. "So what was that about?"
I rolled my eyes and turned to walk back to my closet "Nothing, you left my door open when you left and I didn't notice as I changed my clothes and I guess Caleb walked up. Probably to try and get me to come out of my room again."
"How long have you been avoiding them?" Kate sounded worried, but she didn't really want to let on that she was. She knew I didn't react well to people caring about me.
"I don't know a couple days or so… I lost count a while back."
"Grace!"
I shrugged my shoulders, "What? I was in a bad place, and I had way too much to think about to add talking to them to the equation, there's no way I would have been able to make it through that."
"You over react a lot."
I rolled my eyes not even bothering to respond. I couldn't believe how easy it was for me to get back into a routine with Kate; I guess it was because it was so normal for us. Tonight was going to be a real test though; I didn't know how I was going to make it through the night if the guys showed up at Nicky's. Yeah I had come to terms with them not hating me or whatever, but I couldn't help but think it, it was engrained in my mind.
After about an hour we were both ready to leave, Kate was wearing a black mini skirt with a red tank top and red pumps. She looked hot even though she wasn't wearing anything all that special. I had decided to wear a pair of black skinny jeans and a pink tank top with black ballet flats.
"Grace, you are not wearing that." I looked over at Kate.
"And what is wrong with what I am wearing?"
"You know what I am going to say, so just change it now."
I rolled my eyes and stepped out of my shoes, grabbed my one pair of pumps, they were black and sparkled. I wasn't really a heels person, I was already tall and wearing heels always made me taller than 90% of the guys in the town. Then I took off my tank top to replace it with another one that was a little tighter and fancier, it showed off more cleavage then I normal liked to show but I knew it was exactly what Kate wanted me to wear. "Better?"
"Much" Kate smiled at me and walked over to my jewelry box. She helped herself to a pair of my earrings. Then she took out some for me. After another half an hour we were ready to go. It was a little after 6 o'clock when we walked out of my room. I hadn't heard anyone moving around in the house for a while and wasn't sure if there was anyone home.
"So I'm driving myself just so you know."
Kate looked over at me. "No you're not, we are going together, in my car."
"Kate, please let's not do this again. You know what happened last time, I was stuck driving home with Caleb and it was awkward, please don't do that to me again."
"I won't leave you this time I promise, besides I'm staying at your house tonight, tomorrow is all about you and we are hanging out all day."
"Oh really? So nice of you to inform me of this plan."
"I just did, now come on I'm hungry."
