I walked into the kitchen to see Grace doing her homework at the table, it was unusual for her to be around in the evenings she was normally with Debbie.
"Hey, how come you aren't hanging out with Debs today?" I asked opening the fridge and pulling out the apple juice.
"She's at Sheila's today, you know Karen's mom. She's teaching Debbie how to make a cake." Grace told me as she closed her book over.
"You didn't go with her?"
"Grandma wasn't here so I didn't want to go without asking her first, it doesn't matter anyway because I've baked with grandma loads of times." Grace replied putting her things back into her bag.
"Come on, we can watch tv while we wait for grandma to get home." I urged brining my glass of apple juice with me.
"Is grandma ignoring you? She's never home when you are unless you're in bed and you're never here when she is." Grace pointed out just as I switched the tv on.
"Of course she's not, you know how busy she is with the bakery and then she goes to the homeless shelters with some of the leftover food." I lied and thankfully Grace seemed to buy it this time.
"Yeah you're right."
Around two hours and passed and it was after nine o'clock, we heard the front door open and Grace jumped slightly. Grandma appeared in the doorway of the living room, she took her bag off and left it by the door.
"Hey girls, you need to be getting to bed soon for school." Grandma greeted solely keeping her eyes on Grace.
"Yeah I'm going to go now, I'm really tired." Grace yawned and stood up from the couch leaving me and Grandma alone.
"When are you going to stop this?" I questioned with a sigh.
"I don't what you're talking about Bethany." Grandma simply responded picking up the remote control to turn the tv down.
"Oh really? Then explain to me why I've had Grace asking why we're ignoring each other?"
"Look Bethany, you could've been in serious trouble. Your whole future could have been thrown away over a silly fight at a party, you're a smart girl. I don't want to see that go to waste." Grandma stated and I held back the urge to roll my eyes.
"I know, I promised I wouldn't get in anymore trouble and I haven't. We can't ignore each other when we live in the same house." I clarified and she nodded her head.
"Yes I know, I'm sorry Bethany. Go on and get some rest you'll need to be up early in the morning." Grandma apologised but I noticed how tired she looked too.
"Is everything okay with you?" I wondered hesitating in the doorway.
"I'm fine darling, don't go worrying about me. Tina called in sick so we were short staffed." Grandma answered and I immediately felt bad for her.
"You should've called me, I would've come in or now that I think of it. Fiona has been looking for work maybe you could give her a few shifts here and there, she can even take some of mine if you can't fit her in elsewhere." I suggested and grandma raised her eyebrows.
"I never thought of poor Fiona, I hope this isn't your way of trying to get out of work." Grandma accused although her face was amused.
"I swear I'm not, I just know that the Gallagher's have been under a little more pressure when it comes to money lately." I replied and Grandma frowned.
"I'll have a talk with Fiona tomorrow and see if she'd be interested, now go get some sleep. I'll see you in the morning."
"Yeah, goodnight." I quipped, I watched as grandma headed into her room and closed the door behind her.
I headed for the stairs but stopped after spotting a huge, black truck parked outside of the Gallagher's. I walked towards the front door looking through the glass at the side, I saw Lip's dark figure at the side of the house. He was smoking and then I saw him forcefully punch a tree in the yard, my eyes widened as he kept doing it clearly hurting himself.
I gently cracked open the door and slipped out with making too much noise, I wrapped my arms around myself as I crossed the street not thinking to put my coat on. He hadn't seen me yet, but I was startled as he hit the tree as hard as he possibly could.
"Fuck!" Lip shouted falling to his knees in the snow.
"What the hell is going on? Stop or you're going to hurt yourself." I warned walking over to see if he was okay.
His knuckles were busted with fresh blood, the grazes looking deep enough. The cold air probably only adding to the stinging in his hands.
"Come on get up, it's freezing out here." I urged gripping his arm, he stood up and ran his hands through his hair.
"How did you even know I was out here?" Lip asked throwing his cigarette on the ground and stomping it out.
"I saw the truck outside your house and then I saw you, who's is it?"
"My fucking mother." Lip grumbled, he headed back towards the back of the house.
"Wait, come back to my house. It's clear you're angry about something and I doubt you want to go back in there." I offered and he stopped walking.
"Why are you doing this?" Lip questioned grimacing from the pain in his hands.
"Because we're friends and your hands are torn to shreds. You won't find a better first aid cabinet in the whole of the south side than at my house, it's the perks of living with a sixty eight year old who has enough medicine to get through a pandemic." I claimed and Lip hesitated for a second before following me.
"You know I can see your nipples through your shirt." Lip teased making me blush, I crossed my arms over my chest.
"Pervert, my eyes are up here." I shot back but Lip only smirked at me.
"We have to be quiet." I added gripping the handle of my front door, Lip just nodded and I opened the door slowly.
I slipped inside and held it open for Lip not trusting to not slam it behind him. I put my finger over my lips to remind him to stay quiet, I shut the door and locked it. Lip followed me upstairs and into my room, I told him to sit on my bed and wait while I got some rubbing alcohol and cotton pads from the bathroom.
I had never seen Lip that angry before although I knew it must directed towards his mom. I've never heard him or Ian talk about her before and I had a feeling Lip probably won't want to talk about her.
I grabbed the bandages too, but I don't think Lip would even leave them on. I closed the bathroom door and crossed the hallway into my room, Lip was now stood at my desk flicking through one of the novels from my bookshelf.
"I didn't know you read." Lip mentioned placing the book back on the shelf.
"I don't as much anymore, come here and let me see your hands." I responded gesturing to the bed.
Lip sat down next to me holding his hands out towards me as I poured some rubbing alcohol on a cotton pad.
"Want to tell me why you were beating a tree up?"
"It's complicated." Lip grumbled and I scoffed at him, I had realised a long time ago just how complicated his family could be.
"I'm sure I'll just find out off Ian if you're not going to tell me." I mumbled back holding onto his hand as I wiped away the dried blood from his knuckles.
"Shit that hurts." Lip hissed through his teeth, but he didn't pull his hand away.
I continued cleaning the blood away, they were deep little cuts all across his knuckles some light bruising to go with it. There was silence between us, but I didn't mind. It was like I could force him to tell me what was going on, I picked up another cotton pad and poured more rubbing alcohol on it ready to move to his other hand.
"My mom is trying to take Liam." Lip revealed and I stopped what I was doing and looked up at him.
"What? Surely Frank won't let that happen, she can't just show up and take him." I claimed and he let out a dry laugh when I said Frank's name.
"He's the reason she's back, he's trying to get some settlement money but he needs her to sign too. Mom's girlfriend Bob said that she'll sign the settlement agreement if we let them take Liam." Lip explained and now I understood why he was so angry.
"What are you guys going to do?"
"I don't know right now, I really don't. All I know is I'm not letting them take Liam." Lip stated and I cleaned his last knuckle.
"She left us and now she comes back and decides she just wants one of us, it's fucked up." Lip added as I put the cotton pads and rubbing alcohol on my nightstand.
"Lip, you're the smartest guy I know. If anyone can find a way to stop this you can." I pointed out and a faint smile rose to his lips.
"I wish it was that easy, but I don't know..." Lip trailed uncertain, I sat back down and placed my hand over his giving it a squeeze.
Lip's eyes stared at me almost as if he was searching for something then before I even knew what was happening he pressed his lips to mine.
Author's Note;
Another update for all of you, I'm really enjoying writing this book. I'm trying to add a few more of my own scenes that link with the original plot but I won't be sticking word for word to the exact scenes just the timeline as best as I can.
I would really appreciate it if you guys voted and feel free to leave a comment about what you thought or literally anything you want. Thank you all.
UNEDITED