Abby

CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE

"I'm thirty-one days clean today." Abby said. Their visits were still so hard. "It's a personal best for me." She added quietly. It hit them right where it always did. She hadn't been off drugs for thirty-one days straight in the last nine months. It broke the hearts they were trying so hard to mend.

"Congratulations, Abs." Aaron was the only one who could say it. But that was more than enough for Abby.

"Thank you. This is the hardest place to stay clean. I feel like if I can do it here, I can do it anywhere." She was really trying to be positive. Everyone seemed extra somber today. "What's going on?" She asked. "Everyone seems... depressed?" She guessed. "More so than usual at least." No one spoke. "It's settled in, hasn't it?" Still silence. "There was the funeral, court, the chaos, the sentencing. And now school's over, lacrosse is over. The dust is settling." She wasn't wrong. She also didn't know they'd packed up her room first in anticipation of the move. Packing up her things, it was like she'd been erased from their lives, their home.

...

He waited in the kitchen with his phone. He got the best reception there. It was 5:27. Abby would call in three minutes.

...

She kept her head down and her feet quiet on the way to the phone. She needed to call Aaron at 5:30. It was the only thing keeping her going. She'd kept their visits extra positive. Upbeat. But she was drowning in there. She was nearing the wall lined with pay phones, her heart beating out of her chest. Her palms were sweating, her breath panting. Almost there.

"Oh look, it's Abby." The blood drained from her face as a girl stepped in front of her. The girl's two friends grabbed each of Abby's arms and dragged her into an empty room.

...

5:32 and she still hadn't called. He tapped his foot nervously, willing the phone to ring.

"A watched pot never boils." His mother lectured, sitting down across the table from him. His father did the same. He didn't even acknowledge her.

...

"Did you have enough time to think about my offer?" The girl asked. Abby swallowed hard and controlled her breathing. This girl could smell fear a mile away.

"No, thank you." Abby said. The girl holding her right arm burst into laughter. She stopped short when the ringleader glared at her.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to imply that you had a choice." She sneered. Abby tightened her resolve. She wouldn't let her family down. Not again. Not for this.

"I'm not doing it." Abby said, remembering the night she went to resolve Jace's debt. She stirred up the confidence she'd had going into that night. Except she was saving herself this time. Abby didn't even see the punch coming, but boy did she feel it. It came from her left and spun her head so hard she felt the snap in her neck.

"You have one more chance to do the right thing, Abby." And Abby knew she was. And she knew that because she'd made the right choice, she'd make it through the scary nights and the lonely days. She'd be okay.

"No." One word, and it ignited a fire. Abby didn't scream. She just thought of Aaron, and how she needed to make that call.

...

Jennie had finally convinced Aaron to go to bed. She knew Abby wasn't calling that night. But why?

...

The phone rang promptly at 5:30 the next evening.

"Abby!" Aaron yelled with relief, picking up the call immediately.