What is Home

Chapter Fifty-One

I'd be lying if I said the next few weeks weren't a blur. Each day blended together. It was the same routine every day. The only change was a doctor's visit or a trip to the therapist. Repetition was what kept me sane. I didn't care that every day felt the same because at least I wasn't in pain.

Our football team had made it to the state finals which was coming up this next weekend, but I couldn't even get excited. I didn't even want to go, but I knew I had to. I had begun to focus on Grayson a lot more than I probably should have, and things just started to feel normal, comfortable.

Pierce and I continued our 'hating' each other at school but the moment school disappeared we went back to how things always were. Sneaking behind everyone's backs, because that is what we were good at.

After the state championship for football there was only a short three weeks before winter break and I was looking forward to that more than anything. Back when I lived with my parents, I dreaded it. Having to be stuck in a home for weeks on end with them was difficult, but here I didn't have that problem. I knew I could curl up in my bedroom reading every novel I could ever want. I would be able to find peace, and maybe I'd be able to wrap my head around my life here at Lincoln High.

I had been nonstop going since I got here, one bad thing after another. I needed a cleanse from life and drama. I knew that this new life I had was supposed to be easier, and it was, but I still thought that I would be better than I was. I wanted everything to be easier, less complicated. I did make all the issues for myself though. Therapy, I hoped, would help fix my issues.

Therapy, though I had just started, I could tell was starting to help mend the broken mess inside my head. It was more than just therapy. It was having Pierce back, along with his sister. It was having Grayson for a constant distraction. It was having my siblings back in my life. But most of all, it was having a family that loved me, a family that was accepting all my flaws and learning to handle the destruction I brought along.

Despite the healing process on the slice in my foot, I still made constant trips to the nurse's office. I couldn't lose sight of my best friend. I had made a connection with someone on a level that only Kingston's seemed to break through to. Thankfully, Grayson didn't really question my constant visits. I opened up a bit to him that Mrs. Bradbury, was very good at listening and she was my confidant.

We had slowly begun to join the group during lunch again. It started off slowly joining them every couple of days before it just began the habit to sit with them every day again. I still didn't engage in much conversation. I kept my focus on the food in front of me before leaving to talk with Casey.

Reece and I had grown closer than we had ever been. Even though we didn't have much time, he was going through a lot with Harlow. He had fought for so long for her, that the little attention she gave him during football season was enough to send him spiraling to the future of the two of them. The thing with Harlow, was that she didn't do commitment. She hated the idea of a label. If things were great how they were, why change them? What was the big deal with having to define what her and Reece were?

Reece's thoughts completely contradicted hers. It caused a rift between the two of them. She distanced herself from the group during the week. But she always found herself climbing back to him on the weekends. Her body still supported his jersey on Friday's. Her lips still connected with his after the wins. They were complicated, but still not as complicated as Pierce and I.

The best part of the state finals was that it was during Thanksgiving break. So, we got a break from the monotony of school. We got one day to see everyone from school but that was it for five whole days. We all needed the break from filling our brains with information we would just forget the next week.