The Girl With The Tattoo

57. honesty

Sophie

"Come in!" I hear Addison's voice from behind the door.

I then open it so that I can walk into her dorm room. I immediately scan everything that I can see, noticing how colourful and bright everything is– It really does resemble her personality. I also notice the amount of Polaroids that she has displayed on her wall. I get to see just how important her friends are to her.

"Pretty cool, huh?" Addison says "They're all from last year."

"They're all your friends?"

She nods "Most of them. They truly did save my life."

And then I watch as she pats the bed to tell me to take a seat "Come on, sit!"

I sit myself down beside her on the bed, slightly confused as to what I'm doing here.

So, I decide to ask her this "So... what did you want to talk to me about?"

"Not much." She tells me "I just wanted to let you know a bit about me before you hear the rumours."

"Rumours?"

"People talk around here. I don't want you hearing some bullshit about me." She tells me.

"Oh..."

And then she starts to clear some things up "I just want you to know the reason why I act the way I do... I don't know if you noticed but I can be a little over the top sometimes, especially when I'm here. It's actually because I drink to get through my life..."

"Let's just say I have a bad drinking problem..." she reveals to me, something that I definitely didn't notice.

I didn't blink an eye at the way Addison was acting the other day. Actually, I thought that it was just her personality. But then again, I never noticed it with my mum to begin with. It was only when my mom would shove it down my throat that she was an alcoholic that I really became aware of it.

"Oh... I'm sorry."

She then says "You don't need to be. Anyway, all my friends know about it but they don't try and stop me. They know that they won't be able to no matter what they do."

She continues "I've been this way for a while now. If it wasn't for something that happened to me then I think that I would actually be okay."

Something happened to her?

And because I'm curious, I decide to ask her about it "What happened?"

"I was in an abusive relationship..." she reveals to me and I can tell that it was hard for her to say "I had this boyfriend at the beginning of last year and he totally ruined my life! I mean, at first he was the sweetest boy ever but as time passed he just became violent and destructive."

She continues to tell me her story "He would act all nice and then the next day he would just start hitting me and hitting me.... I remember begging for him to stop. I- I remember begging for him to love me again. But then he would go back to the nice version of himself and it would be like it never happened..."

"Addison... I- I'm so sorry." I try to show that I'm sorry for what happened to her.

I can't imagine what it would be like to go through what she did. I know that Lexi was cruel but she was always so gentle and I know that she'd never hurt me in that way. I don't know if I could love someone that would hurt me. I would hope that I would be stronger than to let that happen to me again and again.

I can see how much this has affected Addison. Even while she's telling me the story, I can see the emotion in her eyes and how hard it is for her to talk about it.

"I'm sorry, I know I probably shouldn't have told you all of that." She apologises to me "I don't expect you to care about my problems."

"No, I do care!" I try to convince her "I want you to know that I'll be there for you. You can always talk to me."

"T- thank you."

And then she smiles and says "You're really nice, you know."

"Really?"

"Yeah! You didn't have to meet me here today and you certainly didn't have to listen to me talk about my problems." She says "You're probably the only person around here that will actually let me talk about what I went through."

"What do you mean?" I ask her, confused as her friends seem to be really supportive.

"Everyone tells me to move on. If I even mention what happened to me then I just know that they're bored of hearing it. So, I just mask my feelings with humour." She admits that to me.

"That sucks." I say.

"Tell me about it." Addison agrees "Honestly, they're all cunts! That's why I'm glad that I met you..."

I smile as she says that to me. I've never felt like someone appreciates me but I'm starting to think that maybe I could be friends with Addison. I've been through a lot too in my life so maybe we could help each other through things?

And then she decides to lighten up the mood, changing the topic of our conversation "Anyway, enough of me! What did you think about Tyler?"

"Addison!" My eyes widen as she mentions him

"What?! I'm being serious, what did you think of him?! Cute, right?"

She winks at me.

"I- I don't know. I mean, I don't know anything about him!" I tell her how I really feel "I don't find people attractive unless we have a connection."

"Really?" She seems really surprised by that "I mean, I just go off whether they have a big dick or not."

My eyes widen as she says that to me.

"But it's cute that you're all about connections and stuff." She says "That's probably the best way to go about it. Just because they're cute doesn't mean you're gonna get along! Thankfully, I had no trouble with Ryan! Him and I are honestly like the same person!"

"Yeah, you guys seem really cute together." I tell her, complimenting her relationship.

"Hey, thanks!" She smiles at me to show that she appreciates it.

All of a sudden, her phone vibrates and she grabs it to look at the notification. Immediately, she jumps up off of the bed and I can tell that she's in a rush. I furrow my brows as I watch her dash around her room to grab a few things.

"Shit, class is starting now!" She announces "I so can't be late or my mom is gonna kill me!"

"Oh, you better hurry up then." I giggle slightly.

And then she says "Walk me?"

I nod "Sure."

Addison then locks her room as the both of us leave to go to her class. Thankfully, I don't have classes today so I think I'm just going to catch up on some homework in the study room. But before I can do that, I have to make sure that Addison actually gets to her class on time.

"Move, bitches!" Addison shouts at a group of girls who are gathered in the hallway.

"Fuck you." I hear one of them mutter yet she doesn't react.

Addison and I dash to her class yet I can't help but notice her her frantically sipping from her bottle. I'm guessing that she's drinking as I can tell that she's stressed. And even though I'm worried about her, I figure that it's rude if I were say something.