Falling Helplessly

Chapter 29 | Scrapbooking

29

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ISABELLA

I open my apartment door to blaring music and Addy scream-singing. I walk down the hallway to her room and see her folding clothes and do a double-take.

"Hey," I say, but she doesn't hear me. "Addy," I say again.

No response; she just continues to sway her body back and forth to "Anaconda" by Nicki Minaj.

"Hello!" I scream, and that gets her attention.

She screams loud in horror before turning around to me. "What the hell!"

"Sorry! You wouldn't respond, so I had no choice!" I laugh, tossing myself onto her bed. She walks over to her phone and hits pause. The room instantly goes silent, and I sigh with relief.

She jumps onto the bed beside me. "So how was it?"

I don't answer, instead, I hold up the condom wrapper.

"Wait, is this what I think it is?" She grabs it out of my hands, and I bite my lip, trying to stifle a laugh.

"You did it! You had sex!" She throws herself off the bed to get a better view of me. Her face illuminates with excitement. I honestly think she's happier about this than I am. Of course, I'm happy about it though. It was everything I could've wanted it to be.

"I did."

"Yes, I'm so happy for you." She runs over to her dresser and pulls out an enormous book.

I raise my eyebrows curiously. "What is that?"

She turns to me like I've lost my mind. "My scrapbook."

"Scrapbook? Since when did you get a scrapbook?" I sit up.

She doesn't answer right away. Instead, she digs around in her junk drawer for something. "Ah-ha!" I hear as she pulls out a random glue stick.

"What the hell are you doing?" I question as she applies a copious amount to the blank page.

"Keeping memories." She holds up the condom wrapper before sticking it to the page. My face twists into disgust and concern. She did not just glue a condom wrapper to a scrapbook.

"Addy, did you just glue the wrapper to a scrapbook?"

She quickly shuts the book and runs over to me, pressing her pointer finger to my moving mouth. "You'll thank me one day. Now tell me how it was, don't leave out details either."

There's no use in arguing with her, so I just spill everything. The entire time I was talking, she sat like a statue, listening intently and asking questions as no other person would. I'm quite thankful for such a weird but amazing best friend.

Especially a best friend who scrapbooks a condom wrapper. She's a keeper.

After we talked about Miles, I ask her how Jasper is. They had one of their first intense arguments the other day, so I was pretty concerned about how they were doing.

Jasper had come over at a bad time. And by a bad time, I mean Addy's parents had stopped by and they were having a full-fledged fight. Addy is a tough cookie most of the time, but not with her family. That's her weak spot.