Fifty Shades of Trouble
Summary: What if there was a fourth Grey child? Broken from a past much similar to Christian's, Letty was a timid young child, but as she grows, the teenage Juliette turns out to be nothing more than Fifty Shades of Trouble. How would having a teenage sister change Fifty during the Fifty Shades Trilogy? How would he handle seeing his sister spiral dangerously close to his rock bottom?
Okay, okay, I lied. Mia will be in chapter twelve, not this one. This wound up being longer than I expected, but don't fear, all of our favorite characters will reappear in chapter twelve.
Also, please note this was posted on Friday, so don't freak when I don't update tomorrow. It has been one HELL of a week (i.e; being questioned by police and having five meetings with the dean (one MTWThF) because my roommate is psychotic). I feel like this week has lasted for about two and a half years but it's Friday now, and I only have one class on Saturdays (sigh), so let's hope nothing catastrophic happens anytime soon.
Thank you guys for all your reviews! It means a lot!
Chapter 11: Wine Drunk
"People, I have discovered, are layers and layers of secrets. You believe you know them, that you understand them, but their motives are always hidden from you, buried in their own hearts. You will never know them, but sometimes you decide to trust them."
― Veronica Roth, Insurgent
Letty POV
The week sort of dragged on. I took quizzes and tests, I had two kickboxing training sessions, and another soccer practice, and on Friday, Macy and I walked to the parking lot where Dad was waiting for us in his car. The only unordinary thing about this week was how paranoid I was about Mom and Dad potentially knowing something more had happened Saturday night. I would watch how they were towards Macy carefully. If they were completely normal, I would know it meant they really didn't know.
"Hey girls." Dad greeted us.
"Hey Dad." I smiled.
"Mr. Grey." Macy greeted.
"Macy, I have told you a billion times by now, call me Carrick." My father chuckled.
"Carrick." Macy corrected herself with a smile.
Dad was treating her normally, as always. He also seemed to be in a really good mood today, just by his tone of voice. He must have settled in court this morning. He had a big law suit he was working on.
"How was school today?" He asked as he began driving.
Macy and I jumped into a description of the day, laughing as we told him about the fight that had broken out at lunch. Luke and Damon, the two boys I had danced with (a fact we left out to my father) had literally brawled over Vanessa. It had taken multiple teachers and coaches to pull them apart. Dad would probably hear about it at his next board meeting, depending on what the principal decided to do discipline wise. If an expulsion or any serous disciplinary action was in question, it was brought to the board.
Dad shook his head as we finished the story. "Boys just need to learn to think before they act."
"See Letty, this is why I like your Dad better than mine." Macy joked. "Dad would have been encouraging a brawl over a pretty girl."
"Dad doesn't like for disagreements to be solved with violence." I laughed. Especially not given Christian's past, and how many fights he had been in during his school years. I would leave that out of the conversation for now though. No need to diminish Dad's good mood, even slightly.
When we got home, Gretchen already gone seeing as Mom had her coming tomorrow for dinner, giving her today off, and Mom still at work, Macy and I quickly went up to my room to put her things down and get out of our school clothes.
"We could go hit the courts." I told my friend as I pulled on a sweatshirt. Macy and I always loved playing tennis together. Our competitive side always came out. "Or we could take some shots. Dad got the goal fixed last week."
My soccer goal, a regulation sized one, had been damaged in a particularly bad storm a few weeks back, but it was up now.
"Let's go play tennis." Macy told me.
This required her to switch from the clothes she was originally putting on to a pair of leggings and a hoodie. She complimented a pair of my new Nike leggings and then we made our way downstairs, heading outside. We were stopped by Dad before we left the house.
"What do you two want for dinner tonight?" Dad asked us.
"Macy?" I asked my friend, not really caring what we ate tonight.
"Oh, uhhh, I don't know." She shrugged.
"Mom's cooking." I told her. "Mac and cheese?"
"Music to my ears." She laughed. My friends were all just as obsessed with my mother's famous macaroni and cheese as I was.
"Anything with it?" Dad asked me.
"Whatever Mom feels like." I told him.
"I'll call her and let her know. She should be home soon. Dinner at 7:30 okay?" He asked.
"Sounds great." I told him.
"Works for me." Macy nodded.
Now, we really headed outside, and past the pool house where the tennis court was located. I grabbed two racquets from the small shed as well as some balls and tossed a racquet to Macy. "Best of three?" I asked, knowing that with dinner at 7:30, we had plenty of time for at least two matches, three if one of us one each of the first two.
"You're going down Grey." She laughed.
"We'll see." I laughed right back.
Macy and I were chatting as we played. It was a little difficult to do this, because you had to quite literally yell for the other person to hear you, but we had mastered holding conversations on the tennis court after being friends for so long.
"So Luke and Damon?" She asked.
"What about them?" I asked right back as I served the ball to her.
"Well, given last Saturday, you couldn't have been happy they brawled over another girl." She shrugged as she hit the ball out of bounds.
"15-Love!" I called before serving again. "They mean nothing to me." I assured her.
She snorted a laugh. "Yeah right. Two gorgeous senior boys have their eyes on you and you don't care?"
"Two boys that leave for college at the end of the summer?" I reminded her. "Nope, not getting involved. Plus, my parents would kill me if I got in a relationship with either of them."
"So who do you have your eyes set on then?" She called as she scored on me.
"15-15!" I called as I served again. "I don't know to be honest. None of our friends, that's for sure."
"Alex would be disappointed to hear that." She laughed.
"What about you? Any guys caught your eye?" I turned her into the subject instead of myself.
"I really want Ross to pay attention to me." She admitted. "But I'm forbidden fruit to him. He and Liam are best friends."
"Why get into a relationship before he leaves for school?" I asked, genuinely curious. Surely she wouldn't think after he left for college he would still date a high school girl.
"I didn't say I wanted a relationship." She added as I scored on her.
"30-15!" I called, serving another one to her. "You're not saying you want a hook-up, are you?"
"I mean, I wouldn't complain." She laughed.
"You want to lose your virginity to a one-night stand?" I asked.
"Oh, don't you tell me you haven't considered it after tequila." She told me.
"Considered it after some tequila is one thing. Still considering it sober is another." I added as I scored again. "40-15!" Another serve.
"Hey, don't judge. It's not like people our age don't hook up." She defended herself. "I mean Sammy for God's sake. What's she on now? Guy number five this year alone?"
"Yeah but Sammy also gets her heart broken every other week." I added, scoring the winning points of the first game.
It was Macy's turn to serve this time. "Love all!" She called, hitting the ball to me. "But she said having sex feels amazing."
I froze for a split second, allowing her to score as a faint voice in the back of my head resonated. It didn't when you were little.
I shook the thought, gaining my focus. "You're distracted today Grey. That was an easy point." Macy laughed, seemingly un-phased by my little momentary freeze. I shook it off. "15-Love."
I hit the ball back to her before speaking again. "I just think there's more to sex than pleasure." I added.
That was part of why I had no plans of having sex anytime soon. I thought sex should be about love, not about the pleasure you get from it. if sex isn't about love, then can you really feel the pleasure part? That with the memories even messing around had brought before had me waiting until I found someone who loved me to have sex. No meaningless hook-ups for me.
It was in January, one of the first parties since Christmas break. We were all frozen, but wore our short dresses anyway, no pants to offer some warmth. I was very tipsy, mostly on tequila, and found myself in a bedroom with a sophomore, Vince.
"You're so hot Baby." He smiled as he kissed me again, more sensual than he had in front of the others.
His hands found my breasts, and I giggled, grinding against him as I kissed right back.
My dress was off with that simple giggle and he was staring at my chest. Panic soared through me. He saw the scars, I know he saw the scars. But he didn't seem to care. He just reached for my panties, smiling as his thumbs began pulling them down.
The minute his hand cupped me, the panic really sat in. My heart was racing, I had to get out of here. Tears began rolling down my cheeks.
"Stop!" I snapped as memories of the same thing happening with Man when I was a little girl hit me like a ton of bricks.
He moved his hand and looked up at me. "What's wrong?" He asked.
"Just…just stop." I told him.
"You're such a fucking tease!" He snapped before getting up and leaving, not another word.
I scrambled to get my dress back on, sitting on the floor as I cried.
"You really are distracted today." Macy sighed as she scored again. "Is something bothering you?"
Dr. Flynn's words, his little quote, echoed in the back of my mind for a minute. You do have a story inside you; it lies articulate and waiting to be written- behind your silence and your suffering. Could I talk to Macy? Tell her about Vince? She was my best girl-friend. She had told me the first time she messed around with a guy. Maybe I should tell her. But then I would have to tell her why I panicked. Did I trust her enough to tell her what happened when I was younger? Not even my parents knew the details of that.
"Just nervous about exams coming up." I lied.
"You'll do fine." She laughed as she hit the ball back to me. "You always do."
Mom came to greet us after she arrived home, hugging my best friend, confirming that she and Dad definitely didn't have any anger towards Macy, and probably didn't know what had happened a week ago.
In the end, Macy actually beat me, for the first time ever, winning in the third match. We quickly both got showered and cleaned up for dinner, getting to the dining room right at 7:30. Mom had made macaroni and cheese as well as broccoli and had some fruit salad.
We got started on dinner. At first, when I brought new friends home for dinner, they were always nervous eating with my parents. I guess they could be a little intimidating, even to kids raised in the same social class I was, but people always warmed up to them quickly. Macy and Rocklin especially were right at home at dinners.
"Elena is coming for dinner. She should be here any minute and then we'll get started." Mom told us as we took seats.
"Mrs. Lincoln is coming?" Macy asked.
I internally cringed. I had never been a fan of Elena Lincoln. Everyone else in my family, and my friends that had met her, like Macy, seemed to adore her, even Christian, but she rubbed me the wrong way. I only spent time with her when I had to, but hid my dislike for her well in front of my parents.
"She is." My mother smiled at Macy's excitement.
And so the bitch arrived, in all her little happy, prim, and proper, snobby glory. I pretended to be happy to see her as she embraced me lightly, and apologizing to my parents for her tardiness. Apparently, she got held up at one of her salons.
It was actually kind of funny to think about Elena eating something like macaroni and cheese. Never did I think I would see the day that happened, but I managed to get to witness it. I'm not sure if Elena liked the food or not, but she ate it without complaint as she spoke to my parents.
Eventually, she and Macy were talking about how much Macy wanted to dye her hair, but Macy's mother wouldn't let her because she thought the red would look fake. I shook my head a bit; how could her parents be so relaxed about some things, and so strict on something like hair color. They were fine with leaving their kids alone for weeks, but when it came to Macy dying her hair strawberry blonde, it was like the end of the world.
"Well, why do you want to dye your hair?" I tuned back into the conversation as Elena was asking Macy that question.
I had to hide a snort of a laugh. It was most likely because Ross was into redheads.
"I don't know. Just ready for a change I suppose." Macy shrugged.
I burst out laughing, unable to hold it in, and got a glare from my best friend, and a confused look from the adults at the table. "Sorry." I got out through giggles.
"What on Earth is so funny?" Dad asked me.
I responded by laughing more and shaking my head, unable to get words out of my mouth. "It's nothing. I'm just odd is all."
"She's got that right." Macy joked as she shook her head at me.
"Well personally, I think you would look beautiful with whatever hair color you choose." Elena told Macy. "However, you should obey your mother. If she does agree, ask Letty here to bring you to the salon that does her hair. They're very good at making dyed hair look natural."
"Maybe if you ask my mom, she would agree." Macy told me.
"Probably so." I nodded.
"Why would you asking make a difference?" Mom asked.
"Look at it this way, if I asked you if I could go get a piercing or something, you would say something along the lines of 'not over my dead body', but if Macy asked you if I could go get a piercing we would 'talk about it'. Moms are always more reasonable with friends around." I shrugged as I ate another bite of broccoli.
Mom laughed a little. "When have I ever agreed to something because one of your friends asked and I didn't?"
"Two words: cartilage piercing." I smiled.
"Mom, please!" My seventh-grade self begged.
"No." She shook her head.
"But Mom, I really want it. Everyone has one." I sighed.
"If everyone jumped off a bridge, would you jump too?" She asked.
"We were going to get them together though!" I exclaimed, looking to my best friend.
"Yeah, I'm way to scared of needles to get one without someone else." Macy nodded her head in agreement.
"We'll talk about it." Mom sighed.
And we did talk about it, and I did get my cartilage pierced. Only to have it get infected in a month and Mom had to remove it and get one of her coworkers to prescribe antibiotics. But that was beside the point.
"That was a disaster." Mom laughed, probably thinking of the piercing itself, and Macy having to be held down to get hers done. I think I was pale going into mine, but I did it so Macy wouldn't be the only one.
"Poor thing, I think I remember that." Elena added. "I have this memory of a little one crying on the sofa at your beach house, Carrick holding her down, as you got that earring out."
"Still hurts to think about." I rubbed my upper ear.
"I still don't understand why mine was fine. Not to complain about it being fine, but we had the same person do ours." Macy told me as she moved her hair to show off the little golden ball she always had in it.
This put Mom into medical mode, talking about different types of skin, different ways things are cared for, and so-on. I stopped listening a few sentences in. I wanted to go into medicine one day, or at least I do right now, but there was only so much I wanted to know about the way piercings could become infected.
After dinner, Macy and I were forced to endure having company, and continuing a discussion with Elena as she drank another glass of wine, my parents drinking with her.
"Oh, you should let the girls have a glass Grace." Elena told my mother. "They are growing up after all. Macy, you're fifteen now?"
"I am." Macy agreed.
"And Letty will be fifteen soon. It's only a matter of time." Elena smiled.
"Do you two want a glass of wine?" Mom asked, shocking me a little. Even at social events, I hadn't been allowed to drink a glass of wine or champagne.
Macy and I looked at each other and I shrugged. "Yes." I agreed.
"Your parents won't be angry with us over this, will they?" Dad asked Macy as he got up.
"No sir, they don't mind a glass of wine here and there when we're home." Macy promised him.
Dad left, returning shortly with two glasses filled about half as much as they were for the adults in the room with red wine. If only it were full of something harder instead.
I think my parents, and Elena for that matter, were shocked by how quickly we drank the wine. In hindsight, we probably should have drunk a lot slower seeing as this was supposedly an occasional thing for Macy, and a first for me, but the wine was like drinking juice compared to the harder stuff we usually indulged in. I could barely taste the alcohol.
"Eager girls." Elena chuckled. "You may have a few more wine fans on your hands in a few years."
After Elena left, Macy and I excused ourselves to go upstairs. We wanted to get ready for bed and to watch some movies. Once we were in pajamas, we sat on my bed, the TV playing Twilight, but we were more focused on painting each other's nails.
"I like Mrs. Lincoln." Macy offered nonchalantly.
"Yeah, I can tell." I told her.
"You don't?" She asked, her eyebrows scrunching up. "You always seem to get along with her at events and you seemed to tonight."
"Getting along with someone for the sake of my parents' happiness is different than liking someone." I shrugged.
"At least we got wine." She added.
"Yes, at least we got wine." I laughed.
"Girls!" Mom knocked.
"Come in!" I called.
"Just poking my head in to say goodnight." She told us with a smile. "You two don't stay up too late. We're headed for the airport at 5:30."
"We won't." I assured her. "Night Mom!"
"Night Grace." Macy smiled.
Mom left and Macy looked at me, a sort of devious look on her face. "You know, you guys have a fully stocked cellar."
"And?" I asked.
"Well, surely your parents wouldn't notice one missing bottle." She added.
I thought about this. Dad and Mom always, and I mean always asked for whatever they were drinking specifically by name to Gretchen or to whoever was fetching it from the cellar. Would they notice if something was missing? They probably had several bottles of their favorites, fewer of the ones for special occasions.
"Let me think about it for a second." I told her.
Could you get drunk off of fancy stuff like wine and champagne? Dad kept the harder stuff, the bourbon, rye, tequila, vodka, brandy, and such locked away in the liquor cabinet in his office. It was habit after having Elliot and Christian in the house as teenagers. I knew he would realize that stuff was missing, so we would have to go for wine or champagne. How much of that stuff did you have to drink to get wasted though?
"Okay, we are safe on wine and champagne and stuff in the cellar as long as we have several bottles of whatever it is, but we can't drink anything harder. That's locked away in Dad's study." I finally told her. "How much wine and champagne does it take to get wasted?"
"I guess we'll find out." She laughed.
"If my parents are up and ask where we're going, we are moving movie night to the theater." I told her as I grabbed a various assortment of movies from my movie shelf.
"Do your parents keep soda in the house?" Macy asked.
No one really drank soda in my family. Most of my friends didn't either, so Macy wouldn't know if we had it or not. "Club soda I think. Dad uses it to mix something. Why?"
"If you mix alcohol and soda it gets into your bloodstream quicker. I would assume wine or champagne, while it may not taste good with club soda, would get us drunker quicker and easier." She explained.
"It's probably in the garage. We can grab it on our way down." I told her.
We got a few bottles of the club soda, and headed to the cellar, not crossing paths with either of my parents on the way. I tried to think of the kinds of wine and champagne my parents had a lot with dinner. Those were our safest bet to not be caught.
"Pouilly Fumé is probably our best bet." I told her. "That or Pinot Grigio. Bollinger Grande Année Rosé or Prosecco if you are thinking more along champagne instead of wine." I had fetched my fair share of bottles of all four of those. I knew we kept them stocked.
"Let's do Pinot Grigio?" She asked.
"Good with me." I agreed.
I grabbed a bottle, and some cups from the bar that was seldom used in the basement. It was used more when Dad was younger, before I was adopted according to Elliot. Usually when he had people from the firm over. These red solo cups could be a decade old for all I knew, but I didn't really care.
"Cheers." She laughed after pouring us each a drink.
"Cheers." I clicked cups with her.
The first cup, we drank a little slowly. The club soda really did ruin the taste of the wine. So the second cup we chugged. Before I knew it, the bottle was empty, but we were still just barely drunk. So we moved onto a bottle of champagne. I didn't check the name beforehand, a little too tipsy to care, so after the bottle was gone, we were probably more drunk than tipsy. One more bottle split between the two of us had as wasted, but I was sober enough to clean up, and dispose of the bottles where they were always disposed, and drag us upstairs.
"Well Grey, at least we got to get drunk one way or another tonight." Macy slurred.
"Night Mace." I giggled as I rolled over to go to sleep.
Maybe I wouldn't dream tonight. Maybe I was drunk enough to not remember if I did dream. One could only hope.
…
…
"I'm sorry." My three-year-old self cried.
"Crying is going to get you hurt worse!" Woman snapped as she slapped me across the face, and put a match to my arm, making me sob. "I SAID SHUT THE FUCK UP!"
"Is she being difficult?" Man snarled.
"Isn't she always?" Woman asked.
"I'll handle her from here." Man told Woman.
Woman left. It was just me and Man. I hoped he wouldn't make me help him feel good again. It hurt so bad. Man kicked me in the ribs, hard.
"You're going to get what's coming to you!" He snarled.
…
…
"Hey!" Macy's voice was desperate now. "Wake up!"
"Sorry." I mumbled as I sat up.
"I thought I was going to have to get your parents! You were shaking and thrashing. I didn't know what to do." She sighed. "What's wrong? What was your dream about?"
You do have a story inside you; it lies articulate and waiting to be written- behind your silence and your suffering.
That little voice in my head sounded again. My subconscious wanted me to talk to her. Or maybe the leftover alcohol did. Either way, I shook my head at the thought. I couldn't tell her about that. Not ever.
"I don't remember." I lied.
"It's already 4:45." She told me. "Your parents want to leave in 45 minutes so we should get showered. We smell like champagne."
I nodded in agreement. Macy got showered first, followed by me. I chose my outfit more carefully this time, my headache too bad to have Mia's scolding of my clothing choice worsen it. It wasn't much. A flowy long sleeve blue shirt and white ripped jeans, but the matching blue sandals would make the outfit pass Mia's fashion test, or at least keep her from complaining.
So the hangover from being wine drunk wasn't nearly as bad as a normal one. That was good for future nights when I needed to relax. But apparently being wine drunk didn't end the nightmares either. I wonder if I could get my hands on some harder stuff to keep at home. I could surely figure out somewhere to hide a stash where the maids or Mom wouldn't find it.
Once Macy and I were ready to go, Macy in a much more Mia approved dress, we headed downstairs. Mom and Dad were having bagels with cream cheese and salmon. My mouth watered at the sight of them.
After eating a bagel each ourselves, I found myself in the back of Mom's car, seeing as it was the biggest, my best friend and I trying to act normal as the sun hit our eyes, successfully giving us worse headaches than the dull one we had from our wine drunken night.