No Escape

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Lily and Adrienne were sat in the movie room. Adrienne had a baby monitor in her hands as the two of them watched a couple movies. Holden was upstairs in her room sleeping. Charlotte needed to be back at the foster home. The two of them were finally getting to have some girl time.

The movie room was a big room with a projection screen that took up a majority of the wall opposite the doorway. It had a whole bunch of seating options like couch, bean bag chairs, there were even some air mattresses and sleeping bags in there. There were a few cabinets that held popcorn and other movie snacks in them, a microwave, and a mini fridge.

Lily had noticed that Adrienne didn't seem very happy. She hadn't for a week or so. She did what she had to, but her attitude was completely different. Lily turned the volume down and turned towards her, "is everything okay?"

"Everything is just peachy," Adrienne said without looking towards her. She was hurt and angry. It was a dangerous mix of emotions for one to feel. Especially for someone with heightened emotions. She hated that she let her father's words affect her like this, but she couldn't help it.

"Adrienne, look at me," Lily requested. She sighed and gave in. Lily grabbed her hands before asking, "what's wrong?"

She sighed again and started explaining, her voice wobbled, "my dad, h-he's ruining everything. Tearing my family apart."

"What happened?" Lily had never seen her friend like this, so down and negative. Adrienne always had hope.

"Remember how I told you that we had been arguing and I lost respect for him?" Lily nodded, letting her continue, "well, it's because we've been having these family meetings all the time and he pushed the limits too far last time and said things no one should ever say about anyone. Jackson almost fought him. My dad's divided us. It's no longer a family. There's nothing he can do to fix this."

Lily had noticed that there had been some distance between the Tyler children and their mother, but she hadn't known that it was their fathers doing. The man barely spoke when she was around. He kind of just glared and always had a discontented look on his face. Lily was told that he always looked like that, but she wasn't convinced. When he did speak, he'd taken to making rude side comments; they were general enough for no one else to catch on to what he meant, but based on the content of them, Lily knew they were directed towards her.

"I'm sorry things are like that. It's not fair to you." Lily tried to console Adrienne, but she didn't think it helped at all. "You've been through enough; you don't need the extra stress. You know I'm always here for you if you want to talk about anything. You're like family to me. You, Charlotte, even Jackson. You're all I've got."

"Thank you. That means a lot to be. And I know it'd mean a lot more to Jackson," Adrienne smirked evilly before she got this far away look in her eye. Lily had learned to recognize this look; it meant they were mindlinking with someone.

"No! Adrienne don't you dare!" Lily yelled at her.

She laughed at her, "too late!"

Lily scoffed, "I can't believe you would do that to me. Traitor!"

"You'll thank me soon enough."

"Yeah, right!" The two of them giggled at the situation and went back to watching the rest of the movie. Adrienne was grateful that her distraction worked. She didn't want to explain everything to Lily. It hurt her to even think about it. Lily had already been through too much; the last thing she needed was another person who didn't believe in her causing trouble in her life.

As the movie ended, the two of them could hear Holden fussing over the monitor. Adrienne went upstairs to grab him as Lily cleaned up the mess they had made. After a few minutes Jackson came in to help her. They cleaned in silence but every once in a while, Lily saw him with a small smirk on his face out of the corner of her eye. Adrienne is so going to get it later!