at the edge of the cliff || ✔

chapter fifty: old friends

at the edge of the cliff

chapter fifty: old friends

My hands were clammy. My heart was racing. I was feeling very nervous about this. "Just- wait here." I tell Grayson getting out of his car. I feel him watching me as I get out but I ignore him, staring at the building in front of me.

What if she isn't even here?

I feel a tug on the ends of my hair and look over to see Grayson standing next to me. I look up at him confused. "You'd been standing here for a while. I assume your nervous. Figured I'd just come with, ya know, moral support shit." He shrugged. I just nod and grab his hand, pulling him into the school. No, not our school. A school on the complete other side of town, basically in the next town. "So you wanna tell me what we're doing here?" Grayson says looking around the hallways. The walls had a few posters and papers scattering the walls, but other than that it was pretty empty, very clean. The completely opposite of out school really.

"I'm looking for someone that worked here years ago, before my mom got arrested. Her name is Karen. She's a teacher." I mumble slowly walking down the hallway, Grayson right beside me. It was Friday, so we were skipping school to come to another school. I'm guessing all the students were in the classroom.

"But who is she?" He questions making me roll my eyes. I wasn't in the best mood today. I was very stressed. We're going to pick my mom up at noon tomorrow, so I'm trying to get everything ready. And I spent all day debating on weather or not I wanted to come find Karen just because I wasn't sure if my mom wanted her there or not, but after a long argument with myself, I called up Grayson to come with me to find this lady who hopefully still has the same job because if she doesn't I have absolutley no way of getting in touch with her.

"She was my mom's best friend. Ya know. . .before-" I trail off. I walk past all of the middle school classrooms, thankful that the teacher's names were above the door.

Karen grew up with my mom. They met when they were twelve and from what they told me, they just clicked. They've been best friends ever since. Karen would always come over when I was younger, before all the beatings started. She would have to wait until my dad wasn't home because he hated people at our house. My mom told her it was because when he got off of work he was tired and didn't want anyone but his family with him. That couldn't be farther from the truth. He just hated my mom conversing with anyone. I didn't really know why, and I still don't. But she would always come over when he was gone, and she was great. I always thought she was nice and when I was little I thought she was so fun. The last time I seen her was when I had to stay with her for a few days in between a foster home and a group home because they didn't have a place to put me for a while. But after that I lost all contact with her, and honestly haven't really thought about her since because of all the stuff that's been happening to me. I know she knows that my mom was arrested and why, and I vaguely remember her even trying to bail her out, but apparently with attempted murder its not that simple.

"Oh." Grayson says. A loud bell erupts through the halls and little thirteen year olds begin flooding into the corridor. Grayson grabs my arm and pulls me against the wall out of the way. The kids stare at us as we walk by. I scan all of them, looking for one that seemed nice enough. A blond haired boy walked by, a little behind the group, so I grabbed his bag and tugged at it a little. He spun around wide eyed and confused. He was a little bit taller than me despite begin much younger.

"Hi. Can you tell me where Karen Morgan's room is?" I ask him. I feel Grayson standing behind me.

"Very last door." He points to the end of the hall. I nod and thank him letting him scurry off. I glance up at Gray.

"Okay. So she does still work here." I mumble heading down the hall. There was still a few kids in the hall who gave us looks as we passed by. When we came to the last door I see her name on a sigh above the door. I peak into the room and I suck in a breath. There she is. She looks the same as I remember. My mind starts to crowd with memories of my childhood with her and my mother. Grayson sees I'm making no effort to move so he takes it upon himself to knock on the open door. Karen looks up from gathering papers off of the desks and sees us. She smiles.

"How can I help you guys?" She asks taking up the last few. Grayson gives me a little push making me step fully into the room. I hold my breath as Karen walks over to us. The whole time her eyes are trained on me as she thinks, probably remembering where she has seen me before.

"Hi." I breath out. As soon as I speak its like it all clicks for her. Her eyes go wide.

"Isabella?" She asks, setting down the stack of papers. She pushes her glasses from on her head over her eyes as she looks at me. I nod. "Oh my Gosh! Wh-what are you doing here?" Her face is stunned as she slowly pulls me into a hug. I awkwardly hug her back. "How are you!?" She asks pulling away.

"I'm good." I nod clearing my throat. "I- uh- just came to talk to you. . .about. . .my mother." I say slowly not sure how to go about this. I mean I haven't seen her in so long. Her face falls as she nods, her eyes flickering over to Grayson like she just now noticed he was there.

"Okay." She says. I sigh.

"She is getting out of jail tomorrow." I start. Karen raises her eyebrows.

"So she has been in there all this time?" She asks sadly. I can only nod.

"Yeah, you know she would call you if she had gotten out." A small smile twitches my lips. "But she gets out tomorrow and I was hoping you would, ya know, come by? To surprise her?" I ask timidly. Her mouth falls open before a grin takes over her face.

"Of course! Oh my- I am so excited! I haven't seen her in so long!" I find myself smiling along with her thinking of how happy my mom will be to see her old friend.

"Okay." I nod taking it in. "Okay great. So we'll see you tomorrow." I say. She hands me a sticky note and a pen to write down my number and address. We wave goodbye and just as we come out kids start to go in. "That went well." I comment truthfully, more to myself than to Grayson I think. It went a lot better than I thought it was going to go. Actually, it went perfect. She's coming tomorrow and hopefully tomorrow will be just as perfect.

We step out of the school and head to the car. "So what exactly is gonna go down tomorrow?" Grayson asks. We reach his car and he slips between me and the car to step in front of me to open the passenger door. I was a little stunned because he hasn't done that before, but I just smile and get in. When he slides into the driver seat, we take off.

"My mom was talking about how excited she was to eat real food so I was thinking getting some of her favorite fast food." Something about my mom. She can't cook to save her life which makes sense because I can't either. But she absolutley loved, loves fast food. McDonald's was her favorite, but she loved Taco Bell a lot to along with some more places. So if I know her, she'd love that way more than us cooking her something. "And then I don't really know after that. She'll probably want to just meet and talk to everyone. She's dying to meet Wen." I add. He nods and we turn down my street. A thought pops into my mind. "Did uh- are you staying at home? Like is Chelsea gone?" I ask realizing that he hasn't mentioned anything about it since we've gotten back. He sighs.

"Yeah. Thankfully. She was gone when I went back." He says. We pull into the driveway, but we don't get out of the car. "My mom told me she wanted to leave early. Said she couldn't handle being in that house." I look at him as he shakes his head. He lets out a dry chuckle. "She even told me her new boyfriend was uncomfortable. How the hell did he think we all felt?" His voice held anger as he remembered what his mother had told him. Without thinking I reach over to grab his hand, letting it rest in his lap in a comforting manner.

"I can't even imagine how it was." I say softly. He gives me a fake smile before gently pulling his hand from mine.

"Yeah. It sucks, but whatever." He shrugs like it wasn't anything important. Knowing how it feels to desperately not want to talk about something, I drop the subject. "Go on. I'll see you tomorrow." He nods towards the house. I sigh and get out of the car, giving him a quick but sad smile before shutting the door and watching him drive off.