She was sitting on the kitchen counter in a thong, staring at the fridge.
We didn't clean out her fridge. We cuddled all night.
We overslept though, and she woke up to her phone.
Her boss from the pet store was calling to tell her that she was fired for skipping work.
She's pacing around the living room, fully dressed, her hands knotted in her hair, staring at her pile of bills on the coffee table.
I've offered her money.
I've offered her everything I can, but she keeps declining.
"I'm going for a drive." She mumbles.
"Abby," I sigh.
She ignores me and walks out.
ABBY'S POV
I drove around and ended up at Walmart again, and now I'm driving, trying to figure out what I'm going to do.
I'm startled to find myself parked, not in front of my parents house, but Zeke's.
All the guys are here anyways.
I'm literally ready to kill myself.
What better place to go than family?
All the guys' cars are here.
I get out, holding my keys tightly in my hand, and I don't knock on his door, I just let myself in.
All the guys are here, except Liam.
Zeke is here, and Mason, Shaun, Brody, Max, Mike, and Drew.
They all look up.
"Abby?" Zeke asks.
I shut the front door.
"Sorry, I should've knocked."
"It's alright. I'm sorry, okay?"
"It's fine. I don't give a shit about that anymore. You guys are family. Whatever."
ZEKES POV
She's pacing.
I'm worried.
"Abby, are you alright? Where's Liam?"
"I left him at my apartment. I-I-I-I need to rant to somebody that isn't going to offer to help me."
Mason sits up.
"Well we can't promise we won't offer, but rant away."
She takes a deep breath.
"I'm so fucking stressed. I fucking- I overslept today, and I got fired, so what little money I had coming in is gone. I've got fifty two dollars in savings. All my bills are already a month late. The electric bill is two months late, and I got all my bills in the mail today. I'm trying to plan this wedding, which I don't have any money for! I'm going to lose my apartment, and the car, plus my credit is going to be shit! I don't know what the hell to do! And Liam just offers to let me move in with him, or to help me pay, but no, I can't let him do that, which means I'm going to be the failed twenty-four-year-old moving back in with her parents. My sister is more successful than I am. It's a struggle to get out of bed. I'm so depressed from it. I literally wanted to drive off a fucking bridge today. I don't know what to do!"
Liam said Abby was stressed.
I didn't know it was this bad.
"And even worse, I'm getting that urge I had back in high school for drugs again."
I don't know how to help.
I don't even know what to say.
The house is quiet for a really long time.
"Abby, you need to learn how to admit you can't do something on your own. Accept Liam's help. Does he know it's this bad?"
"No. He thinks I've just had a little trouble. He doesn't know I'm behind on everything."
"I think you should tell him how bad it is." Mason says. "And you're not a failure because you might have to move back in with your parents. You're a twenty-four-year-old college graduate who is starting to get her life in order. It's okay to struggle."
IZZY'S POV
Abby doesn't realize she butt dialed me.
I put her on speaker, and Mum and Dad and I, and all of Liam's family, and all of our family, and Liam, who came over here frantic, heard every single word of that.
We're all quiet for a long time.
LIAM'S POV
I'm at loss for what to do.
I've never not known what to do before.
I've known not how to help her stop crying, but never not how to help her through the darkness.
I didn't know it was that bad.
"It's not okay." Abby says to Mason. "It's not okay to struggle. I'm getting married in less than a year. I don't want to be like...a deadbeat wife."
A deadbeat wife?
She said she almost drove off of a bridge.
"Text Zeke. Tell him Abby buttdialed Izzy and we heard all of it. Tell him to get everyone over here." Mr. Robinson says.
I pull my phone out and text Zeke.
Zeke: she didn't want you to know
Me: idgaf
Zeke: okay
I hear him sigh. "Maybe you should go talk to your parents."
"And be the disappointment? I think not. I should run away."
"That's not the answer." Mason says.
It's quiet for a long time.
"Alright." She sighs. "Fine."
I hear quiet for a minute, the sound of a door, the door shutting, and engine, and then just silence.
"I don't-" I cut off, shaking my head. "I've never not known how to handle a situation with her, but I'm at loss."
It's quiet for a long time.
A couple minutes later, Mason walks in, with Abby, and Zeke, and then all the toher guys.
She knows.
She knows we know.
She bites her lip, rubbing her arm.
"Take your phone out of your pocket." I say quietly.
She looks scared.
She pulls her phone out of her pocket, and stares at the screen.
ABBY'S POV
They heard it all.
Everything.
Me talking about being a failure, wanting to kill myself, being a deadbeat wife, wanting to run away...
LIAM'S POV
I feel so heartbroken.
She got low enough to get to that point and she didn't come to me.
She didn't even ask for my help.
It's completely silent in the house.
Everyone is like, waiting for me to say something.
I can't. I feel like somebody shoved cotton in my mouth, filling my entire stomach and lungs with it.
I'm staring blankly at the floor.
I can't think. I can't think.
"Liam..." she trails off.
I lift my head to look at her.
She looks really upset.
I'm making it worse.
I'm making it worse.
She's going to want to kill herself.
"Do you..." I clear my throat. "Do you remember when I came and found you in Australia?" I whisper.
"Yeah." She says, so quietly that I almost don't hear her.
"What did you promise me? Do you remember?"
She looks down.
"I promised you I'd never kill myself." She mumbles.
"Yeah..." I mumble. "You did. You promised me that."
"I'm not going to, Liam." She whispers.
I shove my hands in my pockets, studying her.
"The fact that...that you got so low, low enough that you'd want to do that. That you'd want to do that to yourself..." I shake my head. "I can't live without you, Abby. You know that."
"And you don't have to."
"You didn't come to me." I say.
"I mean, technically-"
"Abby, I'm not dealing with technicalities. I knew you were having trouble. You told me that. You never told me how bad it was." I'm upset and frustrated.
"Because you always try to help me!" she says, frustrated.
I bite my lip, shaking my head.
Fuck, I'm so angry.
I'm so angry at myself for not noticing how different' she's been acting. I'm mad at her for not coming to me.
I'm mad at everything.
"Abigail, sometimes you have to ask for fucking help!" I say, exasperated.
"I don't want help Liam."
She's mad too.
"Alright." I nod. "Then nobody is going to help you." I shrug. "You can figure this out on your own. When you decide you need help, you know where I live." I look at the rest of our family. "Don't help her. If she can't come to me, don't help her."
"Liam." Abby mumbles.
"No. I'm not kidding. How do you expect us to get married when you can't even come to me?"
I walk past her, careful not to touch her, and walk out the door.