𝐑𝐞𝐝𝐚𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐲

𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐑𝐓𝐘 𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐄

Adrian Newman

"Was it necessary for him to cut that much of her hair though?" I ask. Sophia looks at me with a shocked expression, almost like I offended her. What did I say?

"Adrian, you do realize that he was dying right?" Sophia asks in a tone that makes my question sound stupid. Jeez. I shrug my shoulders. "The last thing he was thinking about was her hair length. He was trying to save her from Mother Gothel. Besides, Rapunzel looks so pretty with short hair."

"I know, it was just a question," I say. Whenever I comment on one of Sophia's movies, she gets so defensive. Sophia gets up and takes the DVD out and puts it back in its case. There's a knock at the door. "I'll get it." I stand up and walk up to the door. I open it revealing, Jeremy. He's holding a white suitcase. How does he know where I live? Oh, wait. He brought me here once. How could I forget?

"I assume Miss Hope is with you." I nod my head to confirm. Jeremy hands me the suitcase. "It's some of her things, Mr.Ashford wants to talk to her so if you could please let her know, I'd appreciate it."

"I'll let her know," I assure. He pats my shoulder and leaves. I close the door and pull the suitcase inside. Sophia's putting on another movie. I take a glance to see which one, Five Feet Apart. I just bought her that one a few days ago. We haven't watched it yet. "Don't play it yet, let's watch it with Hope." Sophia nods her head. I walk to my room and knock on the door.

"Come in," Hope says. I open the door and she's laying down while looking up at the ceiling. She turns her gaze to me, and it falls to the suitcase. She furrows her brows in confusion. "Where'd you get that?"

"Jeremy dropped it off," I answer. "It's not a lot but you can get your other stuff later on." Hope stands up and shakes her head no.

"I wasn't planning on staying here," Hope says.

"Are you going back with your parents?" I ask. Fuck. Why did I say that? Guilt floods me. I didn't mean to. I'm just used to calling them her parents and it slipped out. I deserve a slap to the face, right now.

"No," she says softly and lets out a sigh. "I was gonna ask my aunt to take me in. I don't wanna be a burden." What? How could she think that? I take both of her hands in mine and shake my head no.

"You're not a burden," I assure. "You can stay here for as long as you want, I don't mind at all."

Hope wraps her arms around my neck and whispers, "Thank you." I hold her tightly.

I need to talk her into speaking to Mr.Ashford. I don't mind if she doesn't want to talk to Ella, but Mr.Ashford wasn't a bad parent. He's more of a parent than Ella ever was. Yeah, he probably hates me but I don't want Hope to hate him for it. "You should talk to Mr.Ashford," I suggest. She pulls away from the hug and stares at me.

"I will," she replies. "Tomorrow." I feel immediate relief when she says that.

"Are you in the mood to watch a movie with me and Sophia?" I ask. "It's a romance movie," I add. She nods her head with no hesitation after I mention the genre.

Hope Ashford

I pull out another tissue from the Kleenex box. I sniffle. Sophia reaches for a Kleenex too. We're both a crying mess. This is the first time I'm watching Five Feet Apart and I've never been so hurt by a movie until now.

I rest my head on Adrian's shoulder and he places his hand on my knee, rubbing it with his thumb. "He was my favorite character," Sophia says. "She never even got to hug him." If I knew I was gonna cry this much, maybe I wouldn't have agreed to watch the movie.

"I don't even know if I cried this much when you rejected me," I whisper into Adrian's ear. He looks at me with a jokingly annoyed face. I laugh and wipe my tears with another tissue.

Once the movie is all finished, Sophia and I sit at the table. I'm helping her with her homework. Trying to. I forgot most of this. How did I graduate? I'm searching almost everything up on my phone. Once I find the answer, I remember the steps. Kind of.

"What's high school like?" Sophia asks.

"Has Adrian not told you?" I ask.

"Adrian had no friends in high school, so he had a very lame experience," Sophia says. I look at Adrian who's sitting across from us looking at Sophia with an offended look on his face.

I laugh as I turn my gaze away from Adrian to look at Sophia and say, "I was surrounded by a lot of people who were only my friends because of my money so it wasn't great, but I know you're a very likable girl and you'll have friends who like you for you."

"I certainly hope it's better than middle school," Sophia says as she finishes solving the equations on her paper. Adrian gets up and heads to the bathroom."I've never told this to Adrian but boys are so mean sometimes."

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"It's just," Sophia sighs. "So many girls in my grade already have their period, they have nice bodies and I'm just not as pretty as they are. My friend's boyfriend always picks on me saying I'm flat-chested and that I look like a third-grader."

Hearing her talk that way makes me so sad. It reminds me of how insecure I used to be when I was in middle school. She's right though. Middle school boys are so cruel. I hated them so much.

"Boys are stupid, especially middle school boys. and their words don't define you. You're the prettiest thirteen-year-old I have ever seen" Sophia throws her arms around me catching me off guard. I squeal a little out of surprise and hug her back. After hugging for a minute we pull away. "And for the record, periods suck. I promise you, you're going to hate it." Sophia laughs and gets back to doing her homework.