State Of Grace

Chapter 36 - Renegade

After another night with not enough sleep, Gracie dragged herself downstairs for breakfast with the rest of her family. Every morning they ate together, chatting happily and joking with each other. They were all so at ease with each other. For Gracie, mornings like that one had become rare since the secrets she was carrying had started to weigh her down more and more, but today, though she was tired she felt calm and much less worried about things than she had last night.

Despite Greg's outburst, Jasper was still insisting that his dad wasn't physically abusing him, and she decided to take him at his word. By no means was Greg a good father, that was a fact that Jasper could admit to, but she believed her new brother when he said he's safe at home. In the few hours she'd spent with him, she'd grown closer to him and no longer believed he couldn't be trusted. Yes, he had lied when they first met, but now that she knew the kind of man Greg was, she understood why Jasper wanted to keep it under wraps. He made a mistake, and Gracie would be a hypocrite if she held that against him.

"Morning," Gracie smiled at her family. She was still in disbelief that they were hers and prayed it would stay that way while pushing down the fear that it could all be taken away in the blink of an eye.

"Morning, sunshine," Lilah kissed Gracie's head.

Though she was feeling more upbeat, Gracie was exhausted after staying up late texting with Rachel again, making plans to spend some time together this week, both finally agreeing that it would be better if it was just the two of them. For a moment, Gracie still had hope that Sarah would one day come around, but now it was going to be impossible to get them in a room together.

Sitting between her sisters, she did her best to remain positive and not worry about the day ahead. Gracie and Sarah had fought before, but it was different this time, Sarah was adamant that Rachel was bad news and Gracie disagreed, she saw Rachel for everything she was. Maybe she could get too passionate at times, but at heart, she was a good person, and she truly loved Gracie. She couldn't see how she and her best friend could get past this if neither one was willing to hear the other out.

She didn't want to cancel on her sister, so she had an idea, "Is today just a sister thing or can I invite Elle?" Gracie asked. If she had Elle with her it would give her an excuse to distance herself from Sarah, plus Gracie wanted to spend time with her friend now that she was back from her family vacation.

"Yeah sure," Riley said, "The more the merrier," she smiled.

Stella and Lilah were headed out for dinner and then drinks with their friends, Marco was playing soccer at the park and Danny's boyfriend Ethan was finally home for the rest of the summer, so he'd taken Danny on a date. Maia, Riley, and Gracie had the house to themselves.

Riley had planned for the girls just to hang out and maybe watch a movie later, but when Maia heard the words 'Girls Day' she took it upon herself to transform the backyard into a mini spa, sectioning off several areas for different self-care activities.

"So, we're going to start with some light yoga and meditation," Maia gave her sisters a tour of the backyard, "Then I thought we could do facials over here, nails over there, and then makeup over on the deck because it has the best lighting."

"Makeup?" Gracie said, "Are we going somewhere?"

Before she said anything, Gracie and Riley both knew that Maia was up to something, just by the excited yet mischievous look on her face.

"No, but we have the house to ourselves for the rest of the night, so I thought we could end the night with a little party," Maia smiled.

"A party?" Riley said, "No, moms would go crazy. Can't we just go back to the original plan? Movies, maybe a pizza later?"