Hey guys and gals, so this is a re-upload for the first, second and third chapters. I made all three of the first chapters i wrote fairly small so i decided to combine the three into one and re-upload it! Nothing changes, i just wanted to fix some grammatical errors aswell and thought that this way might be easier. I'm also thinking of doing this with the following chapters but we'll see. If you are new to this story, welcome. I hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer- Only own my O.C :(

Her long tinged red hair fell short on her shoulders as her deep blue eyes stared blankly out the window, still wet from the tears that had just stopped flowing. She allowed herself to slowly let her eyes shut; each blink falling deeper into slumber.

"She's only sixteen Derek! Sixteen!" Addison said just above a whisper not to wake the sleeping teenager in the back. She leaned back into her seat and let out a deep sigh. "I don't know what to do anymore, what do we do?"

Derek looked up from the road to check the rearview mirror. There she was his baby, his baby girl. Payten had always been a daddy's girl, Although she loved her mother she had always had a more intimate and loving connection with her father and everybody knew it. "I don't know Addie, maybe we should call Amelia…."

A scoff came from the passenger's seat as Addison shut down the option of calling her sister-in-law for help with their rebellious daughter. "Are you serious Derek? Amelia can't even help herself, how do you expect her to help our child that refuses to admit she even has a problem?"

Derek let out a slow but long breath as he entered the driveway of his very large Seattle home. Addison had always wanted the finer things in life and their house was no exception, they had starting building it around 6 months after Addison had followed him back to Seattle. Of course, it had been a long ride to get back to the point where they were in their relationship right now but everything had worked out for the best. kind of.

Payten Grace Amelia Shepherd was the stunning 16-year-old version of her mother, She was skinny and tall with hair that fell to her shoulder blades. She had inherited Addison's hair color and body shape but that was about it. Her eyes were identical to her fathers along with her personality. She was easy going, sensitive and always eager to explore her surroundings. She loved the outdoors and she and Derek would go fishing every Sunday, a tradition they had started when she was only 4 years old. But as she grew older Sundays became every second week then every third it had eventually lost meaning to the girl as she was never home from Friday afternoon until late Sunday night.

"Addison, look at her. She is black out drunk, she reeks of cigarettes and dope. She has vomit in her hair and she barely made it to the car, who knows where she would've ended up tonight if the police hadn't shut that party down but I know that. Actually, I'm positive it wouldn't be anywhere remotely safe for a high, drunk 16-year-old girl!... I'm calling Amelia tomorrow because I haven't touched any type of drug outside of a hospital in my entire life and I know you haven't either… She needs help. The kind we can't give her Addie," Addison nodded in agreement after hearing her husband's rant taking one of his hands into her own.

"You're right Der… I just Ahh... you're right," she let out defeated.

She woke up and instantly wished she didn't. Her head was pounding and it felt like she could hear it in her ears, she scanned the room and her stomach instantly dropped. How did she get home?

"Shit," she muttered under her breath.

"Shit...shit...shit...shit!" she said throwing the covers off herself and running over to the denim country road bag sitting on the ground by her closet. She had taken the bag to the party with her so she could leave her clothes and drinks in it until the end of the night. She also left one very important thing in it that she hoped; no prayed was still there. She unzipped the bag in a matter of seconds and scanned through the contents, "Where is it… Where is it?!" she huffed and groaned as she couldn't find the small bag that contained the remains of her pills.

"Are you looking for something?"

She jumped at the sound of her aunty's voice suddenly filling the room, She could feel her heart beating faster in an instant.

"No, I was just uhh I was looking for my phone charger. Is mom…"

She was cut off instantly by Amelia,

"No, your mom and dad got paged to the hospital. They just wanted me to stop in and check that you were alright; Y'know not too hungover," Amelia smirked at her niece.

Payten sighed in relief knowing she could avoid them for just a few more hours was definitely reassuring she had to get her story straight. They were gonna be so pissed, She was snapped out of her thoughts when Amelia spoke again.

"So, how was your night?"

She could tell that her Aunty knew exactly how her night was, that her parents picked her up from the party she was probably incredibly wasted and they had told her all of this so she could give her the talk of life. Payten rolled her eyes before answering her well knowing Aunty.

"Do you really wanna know how it was or do you wanna go back and tell them how I said it was the biggest mistake of my life and that I'm so sorry and will never do it again?" she said in a mock apology.

Her Aunty let out a soft chuckle before walking over and sitting at the head of her bed, She patted the space next to her and Payten glared at her questioning whether she was being played or not before standing and making her way over to take the spot next to Amelia.

"Listen, kiddo because I'm only gonna say this once" Payten could hear the sudden seriousness in her Aunt's voice and it gave her a bit of a fright.

"I do, know how your night went. Not because your parents told me, but because I have had many many like it before. When I was your age I overdosed and nearly died; if it wasn't for your dad I probably would've. I know that feeling you get like it's just you, like nothing else matters in the world, like there is nobody else, but that will only last so long before you need another hit. Before you need to feel it deeper. Trust me I know that feeling. That feeling was my best friend for years," Amelia stopped speaking and dug into her pocket before pulling out the small bag of pills and holding it up for Payten to see "But this, this is not a good friend to have Payten, This ruins lives."

Tears started to roll down cream colored cheeks as Payten sniffed and straighten back up. Although she was a lot like Derek she was a Montgomery as well and was always told to show no weakness. Crying was a sign of that. She coughed and took a deep breath before she spoke. "I know it's not… I know that but I just.. I need it now, I didn't before but it feels like I do now that I need to have it and then everything is okay everything is normal again when I get that rush…"

Amelia let out a sigh of relief and pulled her niece into a tight embrace, Payten could feel tear drops falling onto her shoulder and felt instant regret. She had hurt her aunt, she had never ever seen her cry before in her whole life. Her aunt Amelia was the strongest, bravest person she had ever met and she had never seen her cry.

Amelia pulled back a moment later and looked directly into Payten's eyes.

"How did it start?"

Payten considered answering her Aunts question but immediately sided against it getting off the bed. She wiped her face of any tear residue she might've missed "I'm not talking about this with you," she said with no hint of remorse for the woman trying to help her.

Amelia was surprised with the sudden change in her niece's behavior, almost like a switch. "Payten," she tried again.

"Can you leave now?" Payten snapped.

She could see the anger and hurt in the eyes beneath Amelia's furrowed brows; she watched her stand up from her position on the bed and make her way toward the exit of Payten's room.

"This conversation isn't over," Amelia said as she got closer to the girl leaning against the door. Payten rolled her eyes at that remark and shut the door with force as soon as Amelia had left.

That was close she thought, she couldn't let anybody in. She would repeat every word to her mom and dad she couldn't really trust her could she? No way will she let herself slip like that again. Payten walked back to her closet and searched through the heap of clothes that had piled up outside its doors in search for the khaki jacket she had worn to the party the night before. Once she found it she emptied its pockets in search for her I-phone, All that she found was a piece of gum, a bottle cap and a black and red lighter. She let out a huff in frustration and then realized it must have been confiscated once she got home last night.

This wasn't the first time Payten had gotten in trouble; actually, when she thought about it, it had almost become a routine. She made her way out of her bedroom and down the long hallway until she reached her parent's den. She cracked the door open slowly and snuck inside. Again this wasn't the first time she had taken her phone out of its "hiding spot" she quickly found where her mother had intended to conceal it after the first or second time it had been confiscated.

She turned it on and it buzzed about 12 times within the minute, she had 5 missed calls from her parents and 2 from her aunt. Scrolling through her texts there was one from her friend, Jess asking "how much shit are you in?" Payten tapped back a quick reply "Who cares? Round two on Friday, right?" No matter how much trouble she was in, even if they tried to ground her they weren't even home enough to make sure that she always was.

There were a couple other messages asking if she was alright and if her hard-core parents hadn't killed her. The one that stood out the most to Payten and the most significant to her was a text sent by her boyfriend Josh. He had asked if she was busy tonight and of course she said she wasn't.

It was 1.47pm and Payten was getting ready to meet up with Josh and his two friends Dom and Chris. Josh was two years older than Payten. They had met at a party about 6 or 7 weeks ago; he had his own car and everything. Payten had planned to be picked up around 2. That was of course until she heard the front door being unlocked and a moment later hearing the sound of heels walking on wood. Her mother was home.

She quickly threw on her black tank top, matching her black jeans and maroon converse chucks. She pulled her red hair into a high ponytail that sat at the top of her head and tied a rain jacket around her waist just in case. She did live in Seattle after all. Not long after, she heard a loud knock on her door and answered with an irritated "Come in,"

Her mother opened the door and noticed the mess that spread across the floor and all over the bed. She then saw her daughter that was sitting at the end of the bed dressed like she was ready to go out somewhere which made her chuckle softly. A confused look was plastered on Payten's face when she watched her mother laughing at what? At her?

"What's so funny?" Payten spat out.

The bitterness in her voice gave Addison abit of a shock but she stood her ground and her expression showed that she was seriously angry.

"Why are you dressed like that? Do you actually think you are leaving this house?" Addison said grinning.

"What would you rather me wear mother? A slutty skirt and ugly fucking grandma blazer like you?" This made Addison seriously mad and Payten could see it from her instant reaction.

"You are grounded, you are not leaving this house for 2 weeks! You will not talk to anybody, no friends, no parties, no drinking, no drugs and no damned cigarettes! Do not think that you can do whatever you damn well please and not get punished!"

Payten wasn't paying much to what her mother had said and simply shrugged "Are you done?" she asked. She looked over at the alarm clock on her bedside table that displayed 1.54 pm, she was still going to leave whether Addison liked it or not.

"Clean your room," Addison said trying to keep her cool before turning around and slamming the door.

Payten took out her phone to send a quick text to Josh, "I'll meet you at the end of the road, mom's home so don't come up the drive xx,"

A few minutes later she heard the shower down the hall turn on. She grabbed her wallet off the top of her drawer and tip-toed down the hall and down the stairs until she reached the front door before slipping outside.

Josh was waiting like she had told him at the end of her road. Leaning against his black Toyota Corolla with a cigarette in his mouth. As she reached him he took the cigarette from his mouth and exhaled a large cloud of smoke before bending down to give her a long passionate kiss. After a minute, she dropped back down to her normal height and grabbed the ciggie from Josh's hand with a wink. She jumped in the passenger's seat as they set off for the local high school bleachers.

The school was empty and Josh's friend Chris had brought his portable speaker. As the music was playing; the group of four were talking, smoking and laughing. They had been there for a few hours before Chris pulled a bag of weed out of his jean pocket and handed it to Dom. Dom opened a small leather brown bag and pulled out papers to roll the weed with and also a dark blue lighter. They were all sharing and passing around the joint until Payten remembered that her aunty had her bag of Oxycodone...shit.

"Hey babe," Payten made a puppy dog face with her glassy eyes looking up at her boyfriend. Josh looked down at the red haired sitting in between his legs he chuckled at her impression of a child's begging voice.

Kissing her forehead, "Yesss," he said mocking the tone she had just used.

"Can you pretty please get me some more oxy?" Josh pulled his head back and pretended like he was thinking about it.

"Hmm. It'll cost you," he said with a wink slowly stroking his hand up and down her thigh.

Payten jumped up from her position between Josh's legs and sat face to face on his lap planting a kiss on his cheek, then jaw then neck, whispering a small "Please," in between each kiss. Her teasing game was interrupted when the guys sparked up a small pipe with white powder at the bottom.

"I'll bring you some tomorrow babe," Josh said tapping Payten's rounded ass as she got off his lap to have her hit.

It hit her hard. She started to hear her heartbeat in her ears, the rush plastered a smile on her face. Dom passed her the last of the bagged powder so that she could 'survive' until she can get some more oxy sometime tomorrow.

Payten could feel her phone buzzing in her back pocket as she munched back a cheeseburger. It was nearly 10 o'clock and she had already decided if she was going to be late home, she might aswell be really late.

As soon as Addison got out of the shower she noticed the silence that rang throughout the house. There had never been a time where Payten wasn't booming her music throughout the house. Payten had been given her speakers for Christmas and everyday before school, after school, night or day, She would be using them. Addison walked into her room and quickly got dressed before checking the bottom draw of her dresser for Payten's phone, it was gone.

She let out a groan in frustration and walked into Payten's room just in case the girl was asleep. The room was empty and Addison immediately called her husband. Derek answered his phone within three rings,

"Paytens gone Derek, I told her that she was grounded and she couldn't leave and now she's gone," Derek could sense the irritation in his wife's voice but could also hear the worry.

"I'm on my way home" He replied calmly.

It had been 9 hours since Payten snuck out of her house and off with her friends. As she approached the front door, her heart rate increased. She began to feel a little nervous but then she remembered the small bag that she had in her pocket and felt reassured. She reminded herself that she'll be fine again soon. She opened the door and brazenly walked inside,

"Hi," she called out casually walking straight past her parents sitting at the kitchen table and into the lounge. She came to a standstill when she felt a firm grip on her shoulder, her heart rate increased as she prepared herself for what was about to happen.

She spun around to see her dad give her a stern look at this she rolled her eyes, She had to stop caring about what they thought of her. She needed to control her emotions, they can't tell her what to do? They couldn't control her she had to take care of herself from the get go they don't care about her. "Don't touch me!" Payten yelled with disgust in her eyes.

This gave Derek a fright and he drew his hand back in surprise. "Payten, I.." he stared at her with confusion on his face, that of course, quickly changed to angry, "Who the hell do you think you are talking too?" Addison had heard the commotion coming from the living room and was by his side in a second.

"Just shut up! Just shut up!" Payten said before slowly backing up from her parents. It felt like they were trying to trap her. Her heart was doing it again, rapidly beating. Her hands were sweaty, it became difficult to breathe. Addison noticed it before Derek, she walked up to Payten ignoring the incessant yelling. She put a finger beneath her daughter's chin waiting for her eyes to meet her own; when they didn't and became skittish she asked the question she already knew the answer, "You're high aren't you?" A sudden loud laugh came from the girl's mouth.

"Well, you're a fucking genius aren't you," the girl said bursting into uncontrollable laughter.

It was 3.47am, she knew because the bright red numbers on the alarm clock filled the whole room and glistened from the windows. She let out a long sigh before using her elbows to prop herself against the headboard of the bed. She ran her thin fingers through her wavy red hair taming the ruffled mess. She couldn't sleep knowing what was going on with her only daughter, her mind was going too fast to sleep thinking about every medical and psychological problem that could be wrong; which made it impossible to stay calm. Before her mind took total control of her, she heard a sleepy mutter from the other side of the bed.

"Go back to sleep, Addie," Derek said pulling his pillow back under his head.

"I can't go to work tomorrow, I have to call Richard," Addison said turning the light on the bedside table on and standing to walk to the drawer across from the bed.

Derek swiftly rolled over and grabbed her wrist gently pulling her back down to the bed. "Addison, it can wait for the morning c'mon. Come here" he patted her spot next to him on the bed and she hesitantly took it.

"She's my baby Derek," Addison whispered fighting back obvious tears. Derek kissed and smoothed the top of her head while in the spooning position he whispered reassuring words into his wife's ear until she eventually fell into a deep sleep.

She woke and instantaneously realized it wasn't by her alarm clock. She quickly eyed the room to realize it was just her, she heard a banging noise coming from downstairs. Addison was annoyed to be woken so soon from her sleep. Derek must've been paged to the hospital, her hunch was confirmed as her eyes found a post-it note stuck to the mirror of her dresser. It read,

"Good morning beautiful, Richard has approved your "sick" leave for the day and I should be home by 9 tonight. Have a good day, love you,"

The simple message brought a smile to her face immediately. How did he do that? She thought to herself; he still managed to send a rush of butterflies to her stomach after so many years with only a few sentences. She was snapped back into reality when she heard the same noise that woke her a few minutes ago.

She cautiously wandered from her room and down the stairs in search for the irritatingly loud banging noise. She froze in her tracks when she reached the kitchen. Standing in the doorway as she watched her daughter up on the bench reaching to the top cabinets with two large pots in her hands. She cleared her throat and watched the girl nearly fall off the bench in fright; this made her laugh slightly only to receive a glare in return.

"What do you think you're doing?" Addison said taking a few more steps into the kitchen still watching her daughter's movements.

Payten gave a simple shrug "I'm soo hungry, why do we never have any fuckin food," she said practically throwing the pots back into the cabinet and jumping from the bench back to the tiled ground of the kitchen.

Addison was taken aback by the disgusting use of words Payten had chosen. "Do you plan on doing any shopping ever?" Payten said eyeing her mother as she stood arms crossed and squinty-eyed. Payten could tell her mother was distinctly mad. She rolled her eyes as she walked over to grab the landline off the hook. Before she had the chance to dial any numbers the phone was snatched from her hands.

"What the hell do you think you're doing, You're grounded remember?" Addison snapped.

Payten tried to grab the phone back from her mother only to be disappointed when her mother held it above her head, Addison's height having a clear advantage. "I'm starving, I want pizza. Are you refusing to feed me? Because that is illegal ya know?"

Addison let out a scoff "Since when do you care about the law? Drugs are illegal, as well as underage drinking and who knows what other things you get up too when I and your father aren't around,"

Payten looked at her mother clearly irritated and uninterested in what she was saying "I. Am. Hungry," she insisted.

"Well, you're not eating rubbish, you have enough of that in your system at the moment. We will go shopping in half an hour; go get yourself ready. Fast," She said watching her daughter drag her feet out of the room and up the stairs.

It took her about 30 minutes to get ready, she pulled on some black leggings and a gray v-cut shirt before quickly sneaking into her mother's room and grabbing her navy blue cardigan. She pulled the brush through her hair applied a bit of foundation, bronzer, and mascara. Finally, she slipped on her black converse chucks before heading back downstairs. 10 minutes had passed as she patiently waited for her mother to return. Addison came downstairs wearing her usual attire of high heels, an elegant dress, and handbag.

"I thought you said thirty minutes?" Payten said tapping her foot on the tiles.

Addison rolled her eyes and walked out the door before yelling "Hurry up," back to her daughter.

It was a silent ride to the grocery store and Payten was bouncing her leg the whole way there, slightly tapping the bottom of the glove box with each kick.

"Can you stop that please," Addison begged still focusing on the road. When Payten started to do it louder it started to piss her off "Seriously? Are you five years old?" She said pulling her left leg back to the floor.

Payten immediately swatted Addison's hand "Don't touch me," She glared up at her mom, "Why are you even home?" She said turning to make brief eye contact with Addison

"Because you need 24-hour supervision until we can trust you to be alone and not do anything stupid and reckless such as drugs" Addison explained as they pulled into the supermarket parking lot.

Payten let out a scoff, "Whenever, not like you've ever supervised me before," she said quickly undoing her belt, jumping from the Jeep and practically running toward the door.

Addison took a deep breath before undoing her own belt and jumping out of the car, locking it up and heading to meet her daughter at the entrance. As she got closer she could see the impatient girl waving her over to hurry up. "Why are you so eager to do grocery shopping," she said finally catching up and walking through the store grabbing a shopping basket,

"Because I'm freakin starving," the Mini-Addison said grabbing a 6 pack of red bull and putting it in the basket. Addison shook her head profusely

"No caffeine," she said taking them out and placing it back on the shelf.

The girl's jaw dropped and look as though she was speechless "Since when?!" the girl spat,

Addison continued to walk down the aisle "Since I said so Payten," she stopped and turned around when she realised Payten hadn't moved "We haven't talked about it yet but we have new rules, wait until tonight and you can hear the rest of them,"

Payten was sending death glares as she spun on her heel and headed in the opposite direction. New rules my ass she thought before grabbing a separate basket. If her mother wanted to try and control what she ate; she would do her own shopping. She loaded her shopping basket with a bunch of potato chips, chocolate bars, fizzy drinks and also a bit of fruit to make a fruit salad. as well as greens to make a salad for school lunches. As much as she loved to binge on junk food, her body image was very important to her; especially at this age.

It had been about 20 minutes since she and Payten had split up. Addison wandered up and down the aisles aimlessly until she saw the top of Payten's redhead at the back of the dairy aisle. She couldn't see from afar but as she got closer she realized that she was talking to someone, A boy.

She approached slowly and gave Payten a fright when she heard her mother's voice. "Payten, who's your friend?" she said trying her best to fake a smile.

The boy in front of her was obviously older than Payten, he had green eyes and short light brown curly hair he dressed almost like a surfer with board shorts and a singlet. He definitely wasn't ugly and she could see why her daughter might've been interested in him. He was though far too old for her, she was only a little girl in her eyes.

"Mom this is my friend Josh," she introduced the two hesitantly,

"Pleasure to meet you Mrs..," Addison accepted the hand that was offered by Josh and shook it steadily. Studying the young boy she could see a spark in his eye and call it, "mother's instinct" but knew that this boy wasn't just a friend and it made her blood run cold.

" Shepherd, say goodbye Payten it's time to go," She said taking a few steps back and observing the two. They both went in for a quick hug and Josh whispered something in her. Addison couldn't quite comprehend what he had said to her and she couldn't look too obvious that she was trying to hear. They said their goodbyes and Addison and Payten made their way to the checkout.

"He's a bit old for you don't you think?" Addison said casually.

"To old to be my friend?" Payten suspiciously questioned her mother.

"Yeah well, it might not be such a good idea mixing with an older crowd at the moment" Addison suggested placing her basket of groceries on the checkout.

Payten rolled her eyes at her mother advice "He's like 3 years older or whatever. it's no biggie," she watched her mother silently judge as she slammed her own basket down as well. "Keys!" she yelled with her hand out toward her mom,

Addison's face blushed as most of the people standing in the other checkout lines were watching the scene unfold "Payten," Addison let out and embarrassed mumble before reaching into her handbag and giving her the keys. "Wait in the car," She muttered angrily wanting to strangle her for behaving like such a brat in the middle of the store.

"Gladly!" Payten sarcastically taunted.

The car ride home was mainly filled with angry words from Addison and bitter back chat from Payten. As they pulled into their long driveway the first thing Payten realized was the car that was already parked up. Her heart started to beat faster the closer they approached the house, her dad was home.

Although she managed to somehow block the emotions she had towards her mother out she somehow couldn't do that to Derek. He was her hero, and he was the only one she wouldn't be able to detach herself from, however hard she tried. She cared about what he thought of her and knew he would be deeply disappointed. She would, however, have to push the thoughts to the back of her cloudy mind for the time being, while she waited for all their anger to be blasted at her.

As the door cracked open she heard not only one but two voices coming from the lounge. She tried to head straight to her room but was diverted when Addison grabbed her arm.

"Not so fast chops, lounge now," she said breaking her fake humor becoming almost too serious but Payten, of course, shrugged it off.

As Payten rounded the corner entering the lounge, the voices immediately hushed and she saw the sympathetic faces of her dad and aunt Amelia.

"Payten, take a seat next to your aunt," Addison suggested seriously.

For the first time all day, she listened to Addison noticing the gravity of the situation. But then she remembered. She realized what she had with her; the secret weapon she could fight with. Josh had kept his promise and she would keep hers as soon as she could get to him that was. She had more oxy. She would be okay again, this was only temporary she reminded herself. She could sit through this and handle it because she could have that rush again when it was done. The storm before the calm? The calm before the storm was a lie. Not long now.

"Payten," she heard in a low whisper that made her snap back into reality. "Things are about to change," Her dad sternly said as he locked his eyes onto hers.