Chapter 15: Family

Addison's Pov

I rushed towards the pool not caring about who I ran into, which may have been a bad idea on my part. I ended up bumping into someone that I wasn't sure if I wanted to or not wanted to see.

"Woah," a familiar voice said as I ran straight into him and knocked whatever he was holding out of his hands.

"Manny, sorry, I'm in a rush-" I said barely even processing who I was talking to or what even had happened as I was too busy thinking.

"Wait." He grabbed my arm before turning me around. "Are you okay, there?"

"What?" I asked annoyed as I was scared that Ella would move away from where she was and disappear again. Fear that she would've just gone up and left without fixing everything and only making it worse.

"What's got your balls in a twist?" He asked as the right side of his mouth curled up a bit.

"Nothing- it's nothing-" I was too agitated to notice him pulling me into a corner, and grabbing my shoulders.

"You need to calm down." I said nothing as I looked at him straight on.

"You don't know what you're talking about. This is an important matter that I have to fix-"

"Blah blah blah. I know that this is important to you, but you need to get your head straight, for real." he chuckled lightly as he looked at me.

"How would you even know that?" I asked him.

"You haven't kicked me in the balls yet for touching you like this," he smiled sheepishly before letting go and stepping back a bit. "And you haven't even said shit about my horrible choice in fashion today."

"You're lucky that I'm not in the mood today, or else your kids would've swam back up into your stomach. If it's even remotely possible." I walked away, with a hair flip in mind.

"See you later, hot head." I heard him muttering as, I continued towards the pool.

I walked in seeing the swim team practicing, including the dynamic duo, twin pair, the Gabe-Naomi team that everyone seemingly loves. I walked up to them, seeing Jonah shirtless, and me trying to advert my eyes towards the female attachment.

"Hey Addi-" He smiled as he watched me walk up to him.

"Have you seen Ella?" I asked and interrupted the male before looking around.

"Okay rude much-"

"Look I don't have time for casual conversation bullshit, okay? I need to find Ella. Now where is she?" I asked both of them as I crossed my arms and flared slightly.

"She's in the locker room," Naomi said before walking away to do some laps.

Before I could turn away Jonah grabbed my arm and stopped me in my tracks, his face losing the demeanor that he once had. His eyes were angry, slightly burning in passion, and his eyebrows furrowed together.

"You need to get this fixed,"

"I know that." I scoffed out, "Why don't you do anything about it either?"

"It is not my business to do so." He reasoned, "It between your drug addicted familes, not mine. Alright?"

"This is going to involve you soon enough," I muttered.

"How can you be so sure." He rebuttled.

"No matter how much time you choose, the truth will always come out. And eventually it'll catch up to your family, who aren't angels either." I glared out.

"I'll wait for that time to come," He smirked, "But you better do some shit quick. The stocks are plummeting and I'm not responsible for what my parents could do to your guy's family." his voice becoming colder and colder, he eyes firing up even more, and his shoulder tensed up.

"Your willing to let something bad happen to us? To your other family, to me? To Ella?"

"You don't know what I've done to help you guys out. I'm not the one to blame here." Jonah said averted his eyes and jumped back into the pool.

"I know," I whisper before turning and storming into the locker room.

I immediately spotted the brunette and grabbed her by the shoulder to turn her quickly and harshly push her against the locker.

"What the hell? Addison that hurt-" She started to shake out of my grasp, quickly failing as she is as weak as a paper doll.

"Cut the crap Ella, why did your dad snitch on mine and Zach's dad?" I said as I pushed her more.

"I don't know what you're talking about-" She smirked as she shook her head.

"Oh please. He caught you with Manny and his gang, huh?" I sneered, "Did they distract you enough to cause you to forget about who is, and what is important to you?"

"He threatened their lives. I wasn't going to just let them do that-"

"They are not your problem." I interjected.

"Of course they are-" She stared at me,

"How?" I asked.

"What?" She exclaimed.

"How are their flaws, their mistakes, themselves, any of your fucking business?" I yelled quietly at her.

"They are my friends-"

"Are we not your friends too?" I asked, "Are we not significant enough for you?"

"You guys would't have even acknowledged me if it wasn't for me and Daniel?" she pushed me back, "You all gave up on me a long time ago. Why would I care for you then?"

"We never left your side, even if you claim otherwise." I said pushing her back. "We love you despite everything that you've done. We care about you-"

"Don't bullshit me right now." She yelled, "You all only cared now? When you see that what I'm doing negatively impacted you all."

"You should've told us-"

"You should've called!" She yelled back. "One fucking phone call. Even just saying a quick and simple 'hello', not once in the last three years did you bother to call, or even text me."

"We didn't know what to do-"

"All your doing is making excuses for shit that was inexcusable." She scoffed and pushed me away, "So don't make me feel bad for doing what I think, is right."

"So what consequences are willing to take to cover for them?" I glared.

"I chose to save them-"

"Save them? Let them be, dumbass! Don't let those people influence you to turn on your own people-"

"Own people?!" She exclaimed. "Before I met them I would have agreed with you, but they- they are so much more than what we give them credit for! They aren't mean, they don't judge me for who I want to be, and they don't leave each other, ever." She pointed at me and glared as harshly as she possibly could.

"They don't judge you for blowing your ass on drugs, cigarettes, and alcohol because that's what they do. They grew up that way. You didn't," I said pointing at her, "You started innocently, but at this point I can't even blame Calvin and Henry because you chose to fuck up your own life."

"I'm doing perfectly fine, thank you very much." She laughed sarcastically.

"Perfectly fine?" I gasped. "Bitch do you not see where you're at? You probably aren't going to pass this year because your grades and attendance are absolute shit. You are practically killing your lungs already due to all the smoke, and don't get me started on your kidneys. Your father, though you might not care, is facing life imprisonment for a crime that he was accused for, not even proven-"

"I saw him! I saw him in his lab with your dad-"

"Don't you ever. Mention my father again," I rippled harshest as I slammed her into the locker. "Just because you want to go full out rebellion doesn't mean you have a right to drag us with you. If you're not happy with you choices it's not our price to pay for!" I glared.

"They need to see what they did wrong, not only to me but to whoever else they hurt. I don't want to be the reason why more people who you all think are below us, are suffering. I'm nothing like you all." She muttered.

"That may be the case for you, but what their family in particular has done to you, to us, is not something I would want to take credit for. They caused you to leave your own family behind. I don't care what you believe or who you believe, but the truth of the matter is you just potentially ruined the lives of the people you once called family. And I don't know if that's even comparable to what we did to you." I shoved her shoulder and walked away.