The End of Innocence

Chapter Thirty-One

Chapter Thirty-One

November 10th, 2017

ADELIA IS TOO afraid to ring the bell. She's realizing now that this always happens. She couldn't ring the bell at Layla's house that one day, and now she's standing on another front porch, her fingers shaking as she reaches them towards the little button that will change her future forever. Just as she's about to touch it, she sees Tanner coming across the street, her head down. You can almost see the stream of anger radiating from her. Thank God, Adelia thinks. Someone actually wants to be here less than I do.

"You're five minutes early," Tanner says, stomping up the steps. She's still in her pajamas, and her hair hasn't been brushed or washed, likely for days. "I wasn't planning to leave the house yet, but you looked so scared that I had to come get you."

"Ring the bell," Adelia says. Her hand is still there in midair, shaking so quickly that it looks like it's being jerked up and down by some invisible being.

"No way," says Tanner. She crosses her arms and taps her foot on the ground, looking up into the gloomy sky. "I'm not spending more time with her than I have to. I don't even know why I agreed to come today. I never want to see her again."

"She didn't do anything, really," Adelia points out. "It was Liam who kidnapped Eleanor. She just asked him to. It's not the same thing. She was probably joking, you know. He's such a freak. He would be the type to take that the wrong way."

"Whatever," says Tanner. "Elly wants to forget about it, but I think she should tell the police the truth. Right now they think it was all Liam. They even think Liam kidnapped Serena. It's ridiculous," she adds, rolling her eyes. "Serena's going to get off scot-free."

"She's learned her lesson, I'm sure," Adelia argues, even though it doesn't make any sense. Tanner is right. Serena deserves a punishment.

"You're still going to be like that, aren't you?" says Tanner. She picks up a twig from the edge of the steps, and snaps it into tiny pieces as she speaks. "A suck-up to Serena." Snap. "She's not the boss of you, you know." Snap. "She's just a sniveling little brat—" Snap. Snap. Snap. "—and that's all she'll ever be." Tanner throws the pieces to the ground, kicking them off the porch with the feet. Adelia watches them scatter on the front walk. There are five of them. It's like there's one for each girl in their group of friends.

Tanner. Adelia. Layla. Emerson. Serena. All broken little pieces of the same fucked-up friendship.

Tanner has a point, of course; she always does. Adelia lets Serena to have power over her that isn't justified. But how else can she keep all of her friends? If she doesn't listen to her, they'll drop her. They'll have no use for her anymore. She stares down at the doorbell, wondering if maybe she should just walk away, go home, but then it is ripped open by someone on the other side.

"Serena," Adelia whispers.

She didn't get a good look at Serena when they ran into each other at the Whole Foods, but now she sees that Serena is different, like on off-brand version of herself. Her hair has grown, but she herself looks almost like she's gotten shorter. Maybe it's just that her muscles that used to be so defined are nearly faded away, replaced with bony arms and legs. How could this have happened in only a couple of weeks? Serena's wearing skinny jeans and a white sweater that Adelia remembers picking out with her a couple months ago. It was cute then, but now it hangs off of her, looking huge on her thin frame.

"Adi," Serena says, as if she wasn't really expecting her to come. "Tanner." She nods to each girl in turn.

"Hi, Ser," Adelia says. She wants to hug her friend, but she can't. She can't let Tanner think she's going to let Serena do whatever she wants anymore, because she's not going to.