[edited]
The next day at school, Ethan and Grayson frantically ran up to me as I'm at my locker.
"Emmy! You have to help us!"
"Hey, guys. What's up?" I smile.
"Emmy! Addi found out about our YouTube channel, and now she's mad at us." Gray says.
"So?" I'm confused at this point.
"We hadn't told her about any of our social medias, and she's pissed that she was in some videos, including maybe a prank video," Ethan replies, neither he or Grayson making eye contact.
"Hold on a sec. You guys hadn't TOLD HER?!" I cry, flailing my hands.
People from the hallway are now staring at us, and attempting to listen to our conversations, so I pull the twins down the hall and to a quieter place.
I look closely at their faces. They have obvious looks of guilt.
"Explain," I say calmly.
"Alright," Grayson begins, "So when we saw Addi again that day at the skate park, she didn't even once mention knowing who we were, so we decided to play along with that. She didn't know, and we didn't bother to tell her. We really just didn't want her to treat us differently."
"But," Ethan continues, "That's all come back to bite us in the ass. She now hates both of our guts, and she broke up with me."
"SHE DID?!" I shout, once again causing people to look towards us.
"Emmy," Grayson hisses, "Could you possibly keep it down? We don't need the whole state knowing."
"Sorry," I apologize, "She really broke up with you, Eth?"
"Yeah," he nods his head sadly, "She barely gave us a chance to explain or apologize. Emmy, we really want to fix this."
"So what do you two want me to do. If she didn't listen to you, I doubt she'll care what I say," I argue. It's not that I didn't want to help them out, I was just afraid that after all this Addi would be mad at me too, and I seriously didn't want that.
"Please," they begged, "Can you at least try. Tell her that we're sorry and that she means the world to us. Please."
"Have you called or texted her at all?"
"No answer. She hasn't even opened the texts."
"Alrighty then, I'll see what I can do. I'll talk to her after school."
"Thank you so much," they smile gratefully, choking me in a big group hug.
We part as the bell rings. Grayson gives me a kiss on the cheek before running off to his chemistry class, and I make my way to gym.
* * * *
After that school day ends, Max runs up to me in a rush.
What is it with people running up to me today?
"Max, please don't tell me you have a problem you need help with too," I say, groaning.
"What? No," he looks at me in confusion, "I just wanted to remind you that the both of us are staying after school tomorrow with Coach to get in some extra practice for state."
"Oh shit. I totally forgot. Alright, guess I'll be there," I say.
"OK, see ya," he waves, walking away.
I run to the car, where Elliot and Evan are waiting. "Took you long enough."
"Oh shut up and drive. I have things to take care of," I retort.
"Hey! What's the magic word?" Elliot taunts from his place in the driver's seat.
"Elliot Malcolm Samuels, I swear to freakin' God if you don't start this goddamn car right now, I will-"
"OK, ok, chill the fuck out. Jesus Christ," he shakes his head in annoyance.
"That's what I thought."
We arrived at our house about twenty minutes later, and I ran straight up to my room. Luckily enough, my parents were not home, or else my mum would definitely have started getting nosy.
I decided to call Addi right after I had changed.
She picked up on the fourth ring, "Hello?"
"Hey, Addi," I chirped, trying to pretend nothing was wrong.
"Hey, Emmy," she said, sounding depressed.
"Addi, look, I heard about what happened with Ethan and Gray. Do you wanna talk about it?" I offer sincerely.
"Uh....I don't really know. Are you just going to try to convince me to forgive Ethan and Grayson?" she questions, hesitation evident in her voice.
"No! No!" I say a little more forcefully than intended, "You're my friend too, Adds. If you wanna forgive them, that's your choice completely. I'm just telling you I'm always here if you need someone to vent out your thoughts to. I would hate if you left New Jersey upset."
I can almost hear her smile, "Thank you so much, Emmy. I can't tell you how nice it is to have a friend right now."
"Are you free right now? You could come over if you wanted to," I say.
"Ok. I'll be over in about ten minutes."
"See you then."
She hung up, and I hurried downstairs to tell my mum that I was having someone over. I met Elliot and Evan on the way, "Hey, you two!" I yell, getting their attention.
"Look, Addi is coming over right now, and she's really upset about something. Can you please be sensitive and not bother us?"
"We'll think about it," Elliot smirks.
"I'm serious," I say sternly, glaring at them.
"We get it, we get it," they put their hands up in mock surrender, "We'll be down in the basement anyways."
"Thank you."
The doorbell rings at that moment, and I quickly shove both of them into the kitchen before running to the front hall and opening the door, where a dejected-looking Addi stood.
I quickly wrap her in a hug, "How're you holding up?"
"Fine," she simply says, giving me a smile. I can tell it's forced though.
"Let's go upstairs," I say, taking her hand and pulling her up to my bedroom.
She sits on the bed, and I sit across from her.
"You wanna explain to me what exactly happened?" I say, trying to give her a sympathetic smile.
"So, from the very beginning. Yesterday, I sent a picture of me and Ethan in New York to one of my friends back in Minnesota. I had been so excited to tell her about everything, right?"
She continues, "But I didn't exactly get the response I was expecting. She told me that she knew who that guy was, and that he was a really popular Viner and YouTuber, along with his twin brother."
She sniffles, and I can tell it's paining her to retell the story, "So she sent me the links to all their social medias, including a YouTube channel, which included a prank they pulled on me a few weeks ago."
"Aw, Addi. The twins never told me either," I tried to empathize with her, "I knew by myself."
"I know. They're so popular, I'm just really shocked I'd never heard of them, you know."
"Addi, so I just wanna know. What precisely is upsetting you?"
"I'm mad that they didn't tell me, Emmy. I miss the old days when we were so close. And they told me that they wanted everything everything to be like it used to, but if they truly wanted that, they would have told me as soon as we met," she tells me.
I nod my head, frowning. I run my hand down her back, attempting to comfort her, "Addi, what Ethan and Grayson did wasn't cool at all, and I totally understand where you're coming from, but you guys are best friends, and are you really going to go back to Minnesota when you're upset?"
"Emmy, I really don't want to, but I just need some time to think about everything, you know?"
"Yeah, definitely. Go wash your face and clean yourself up," I say, pointing her to the bathroom.
She comes back a minute later, looking better, but her face is still flushed and red.
"Thanks so much for listening to me, Emmy. I love you," she hugs me.
"You bet, Addi. If you need anything else, don't hesitate to call, alright?" I emphasize.
She laughs lightly, "Gotcha. Thanks again."
She leaves, and I sit down to think about the whole situation. I think I finally know what to do, but it's gonna have to be done just right, or else it could all fail.
I pick up my phone to call the Dolan twins.
Let's hope this works.
~ ~ ~ ~
SONG OF THE CHAPTER: Shot Me Down
ARTIST: David Guetta ft. Skylar Grey