15 - anything for that smile

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Disclaimer:

Mentions of physical and verbal abuse. When I say mentions, I mean that characters are talking or thinking about it in this chapter, if I don't say mentions, it means that there are scenes that include the subjects.

If you are triggered by any of these topics, you can skip this chapter. I don't want to make anyone feel bad, but this is crucial to the plot and these subjects will also appear in later chapters but in different contexts.

Of course, when they do, I'll always alert you with these disclaimers, don't worry.

If you don't want to skip the chapter, I'll put stars like this ** to mark the part where the theme is most present, but there are small mentions of it in later paragraphs.

Charli's pov

"Come with me." I get up and offer my hand for Addison to take.

She takes my hand, and I take her upstairs.

We go into y/n's room, which I can see she hesitates about for a while but enters it with me.

"Sit on the bed." I say, and she sits down.

I lean down in front of her, and grab both of her arms.

"What's wrong?" I ask.

The moment I say those words, tears start to flow down her face.

I get up and sit next to her, I gently use my hand to turn her face towards me and wipe her tears away.

She hugs me and rests her head on my shoulder, I hug her back, and a couple minutes later, maybe two, she collects herself and stops her tears, but I can tell she's uneasy.

She takes a deep breath and moves away from my shoulder and out of my grasp.

"Charli." She says, her voice breaking a little.

"Yeah?" I ask.

"Will all of this stay between us two?" She asks.

"Of course. I won't say anything without your permission, ever." I reassure her, and she takes another deep breath.

"I'll talk, just wait a little." Addison says.

"I am here, take as much time as you need. Talk when you are comfortable to." I say.

"I just don't want to cry again, so I'll calm myself down." She says and I rub her arm to help.

Her breath slowly becomes steadier, and she calms down.

"I'm ready, I think." She says.

"Okay, I'll ask, and you answer?"

She hums in return.

"Okay, I felt you were a bit off after the whole supermarket thing, what happened?" I ask.

"You were there, right?" she asks.

"Yeah, I was." I answer.

"Well, that. That happened." Addison says.

"Yeah, but there were a couple of minutes where y/n and I sat outside, then when we came back, Dixie was about to punch Cynthia in the face. What happened while we were gone?"

"I didn't fully listen, but she talked about you, about me, about Dixie, she said some really fucked up things. Why does she treat all of you like that? What happened? Why did she say she has experience with Dixie being the type to hurt her? What was that all about?" Addison asks.

I then remember what happened last year.

"This is a long story." I say.

"Tell me, please." Addison says.

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