Addicted

Chapter Thirty-Eight: Big Step Forward

A few days later, Megan and Jason were sitting on the sofa watching a movie at Megan's apartment.
"I forgot to say, I spoke with Carlos yesterday, you know, about getting back into running again? He said he'd be more than happy to go on runs with me now I'm able to." Megan told Jason happily. Megan used to love running and was pretty good at it but with everything that had happened over the last few years, including her addiction, moving apartments, leaving the system, the shooting and so much more. Now she had recovered, at least physically, it was something she wanted to get back to doing to start feeling better again.
"Really? That's great Megs!" Jason smiled happily. He went to say something else, when there was a knock at the door. Megan looked at Jason, confused, as she wasn't expecting any visitors. He glanced down at his watch for the time before he spoke again.
"You should get that." Jason tried to hide his smile.
"Why?" Megan asked, confused as she stood up.
"What did you buy?" She added, knowing exactly what he was like.
"Nothing." Jason simply shrugged.
"But trust me, you'll like this more." He added, standing up. He followed Megan to the door and watched as she unlocked it and opened it. Little did Megan know, Avery was standing on the other side, nervously fiddling with her fingers. When Owen had pulled up, she had asked him to wait in the car. Jason walked to Megan's side and kissed her cheek.
"I'm going to give you two some space." He simply said, as Megan stood there, a little in shock. She hadn't seen Avery since their argument right before Avery had gone AWOL.
"Okay." Megan whispered, not taking her eyes off of Avery. Jason stepped out of the house and quickly pulled Avery in for a hug.
"I'll come see you later." He whispered in her ear. Avery nodded before he stepped back and walked off. There were a few moments of silence before Avery spoke.
"I don't know if-," she started but before she could say anything else, Megan closed the gap between them and hugged her. That did it. The two girls broke down.
"I'm sorry." Avery sobbed.
"I'm so sorry for what I said."
"It's okay." Megan replied, through her own tears.
"I promise you, it's okay." The two girls parted and wiped their tears.
"Do you want to come in?" Avery looked behind her at Owen's car and saw him nod before turning back to Megan.
"Sure." Avery nodded, smiling slightly. Avery stepped over the threshold, into the hallway and Megan closed the door behind her.
"Let's go sit in the front room." Megan stated. Avery nodded and they both walked to the front room and sat down on the sofa and sat in silence.
"I was so worried about you." Megan finally broke the awkward silence after a minute.
"Not knowing where you were, how you were, then when you were back and refusing to see me I was worried that it was the end of our friendship." Avery looked down, biting her lip.
"I'm not blaming you, God, I would never blame you for that. T.K. and Carlos told me why you didn't want to see me whilst you were in Safe Haven and I can respect that. I'm just-," she took a deep breath,
"I'm just glad you came to see me."
"I want to apologise." Avery replied.
"For what I said."
"Avery, I already told you, it's okay." Megan reassured her.
"Please, I have to do this." Avery pleaded. Megan nodded and motioned for her to continue.
"What I said was way out of line. There's no excuse for it. Yes, I was ill. I was off my meds. I had little to no control but I should've just walked away. I hurt your feelings. I did something I hate people doing to me. I used your past against you."
"I'll admit, it did hurt my feelings. A lot. In the moment I was so fucking pissed off which is why I walked out myself. I knew you weren't yourself and I didn't want to make matters worse." Megan responded.
"But best friends fight. They fall out and they make up." She added.
"It took a couple of days for me to calm down but Ave, I forgave you pretty much straight away and when I saw your necklace on my door handle I was so fucking freaked out."
"I thought you wouldn't want me to keep it after what I said." Avery looked down. Megan stood up, walked out of the room before returning a few moments later with something in her hand. The necklace.
"Here." Megan handed it to Avery.
"I want you to have it back." Avery looked back up and gently took the necklace.
"It will take a lot more than one little sentence to ruin what we have. We're both fucked up in the head. That's why we're friends." They both laughed as Avery put the necklace on.
"Right back where it belongs," Megan smiled slightly,
"And we're not friends. You're like a sister to me."
"Soul sisters." Avery smiled.
"Soul sisters." Megan nodded before they shared another hug.
"So," Megan continued as they parted.
"Stupid question, but how was Safe Haven?"
"It was a lot. It was tough, speaking about everything that has contributed to my mental health going south and all that shit." Avery responded.
"It helped though. A lot. I was formally diagnosed with bipolar so that's been added to the list of my mental health conditions."
"That's good though, right?" Megan asked.
"Yeah." Avery nodded.
"It means they're able to properly treat the psychosis and mania I've been experiencing and hopefully prevent it." She added.
"I also met someone there, she helped me a lot." Megan noticed the blush creeping up Avery's cheeks.
"You like her." Megan nudged Avery with her shoulder.
"I guess." Avery shrugged.
"Her name's Charlotte. She was discharged last week. Speaking of which I've got to text her. We were having a competition to see who could read the most books between her being discharged and me being discharged. Whoever loses has to buy coffee for the other." Avery got her phone out and started typing in Charlotte's number, which she had memorised.
"No wonder you like her-" Megan laughed slightly.
"-she's a reader." Avery chuckled and shook her head laughing.

——————————————————
A/N.....SOOO is there a new love interest in the picture for Avery? Make sure to read ChloeOgradyXo book 'This is The Moment' for more of Avery's story or read on here as I'll be writing Charlotte in a little too! Also, hats off to Chloe as she pretty much wrote this chapter ha-ha! We often use each other's ideas and tweak them into our own versions and this is exactly what I've done here!