Posted originally on the Archive_of_Our_Own at https://archiveofourown.org/
works/710588.
  Rating:
      Explicit
  Archive Warning:
      Major_Character_Death, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
  Category:
      F/M, F/F
  Fandom:
      Glee
  Relationship:
      Kurt_Hummel/Adam_Crawford, Rachel_Berry/Finn_Hudson, Blaine_Anderson/Kurt
      Hummel, Adam_Crawford/OMC
  Character:
      Kurt_Hummel, Adam_Crawford, Rachel_Berry, Finn_Hudson, Blaine_Anderson,
      Burt_Hummel, Carole_Hudson-Hummel, OMC
  Additional Tags:
      Genderswap, Genderbending, Femslash, Alcoholism, Sex_Abuse, domestic
      abuse, slut_shamming, Pregnancy, Homophobia, Sexism, Oral_Sex
  Stats:
      Published: 2013-03-06 Chapters: 1/3 Words: 5389
****** Switzerland ******
by duchessofdublin
Summary
     Addie was in love. Kit was too, but just not with her. Addie can't
     wait for her but she will.
     AKA
     Genderbent!Kadam AU
Notes
     This was for femslash February and it's March so I'm hiding but
     better late than never, eh?
     Please heed the warnings!
     Unbeta-ed. I apologize but if anybody wished to beta I would love you
     forever!
See the end of the work for more notes
Addie remembers being eight years old and having her nose broken by her
brother. They were outside on the swings where the sun was high and leaving
patches of hot, red skin and fuzzy heads. The neighbours were lying on the
broken, dirty grass in nothing but shorts and a bottle of water pulled from the
back hose. It was the summer of 1999 and she was sweating through hand-me-downs
of a ripped shirt with her tangled blonde hair in a low plait and was screaming
at Henry, her brother who thought since he was three years older than her he
could hog the ball. He had pushed it under his own sweaty shirt bent away from
her shouting over his shoulder, their younger brother, Winston giggling and
trying to get in their way.
Addie pushed at Henry digging her nails with dirt under them into his arm until
he shoved back at her, screaming at her to bugger off but she didn’t listen and
moved Winston out of her way who jousted with a pout and told him she would
tell mum.
He didn’t listen and tried to run and she knew he was being stupid then as
everybody knew she was the fastest runner in their school, the whole town. She
out ran everybody leaving them to skid on the gravel as she turned crazy
corners, leaving them breathless and she puffed with happiness. She once out
ran a sixteen year old boy who claimed to be the toughest boy as he trained for
football every other day and he was on the hurling team, she didn’t care for
his boasts and she ran. She felt the wind whipping her hair, roughing up the
tangles even more; she felt the pain in her legs as the boy was hot on her
heels and she growled and ran faster. She eventually realised nobody was behind
her and whipped around quickly and saw only in the far distance Henry and his
mates cheering and booing for her equally.
She didn’t stop and she won because of it. The boy was stupid and tried to fool
her. Addie was no fool. She then felt him burst from around the corner, his
fingertips bruising her shoulder as he tried to ream her back but she twisted
her shoulder out of his tight palm and felt the power reach her legs and gave
the final sprint.
She won and she got a punch from the sixteen year old boy, he was no man for
his boasts and over pettiness and a lecture from the head nun over being a real
lady and not to be acting like she was, but she didn’t care. She felt a grin
spread across her face and Henry had to carry her home on his shoulders as she
couldn’t walk. Winston yipping at their heels, acting all huffy and puffy for
missing the race as he was in the other playground, Henry acted all
disapproving before saying atta kiddoand nicked her under her chin with his
knuckles. Addie burst with laughter and demanded to be carried home.
Henry knew she was fast so he was stupid to run but he must have been desperate
he be up one on his sister so he ran. She didn’t understand she thought him
stupid and chased him, Winston running along his little chubby legs trying to
keep up. She continued to shout at Henry for him to stop and to give it upbut
he didn’t listen and she called him an idiotand leaped at him, her arms winding
around his neck from behind him, legs flying momentarily before pushing to dig
to into his lower back and pulled.  He stumbled but tried to keep running, one
of his arm grabbing her forearms and digging his nails in, the ball dropped to
the ground bounced once and began to roll away. Winston chased it with a wobble
of his short legs.
Addie went to release her hands when Henry reached behind him and grabbed the
back of her shirt and tugged her over shoulders, flipping her onto her back
with a thud. She groaned but stared upside down at Henry who was red in the
face and frowning, she reached for his ankles to try flipping him but he beat
her to it and dragged her up by her loose baggy top. She cursed for being so
small in times like this.
He leaned in real close and his eyes that matched their fathers stared back at
her and he called her a childand shook her. She rattled; her thin arms
swinging. She stared blankly back at him. He then shouted at her for her to
grow up and she needed to stop with all these childish games and just let
somebody else have fun sometimes.
She saw his eyes grow brighter in the sun and he had a horrible flush to his
cheeks, darkening his freckles till they looked like a rash crawling down his
neck and across his forehead. He shook her again and his knuckles were white.
She then whispered who you speaking to Hen, to me or yourself?She could be
horribly cheeky sometimes; she had enough cracks off the ruler from the nuns to
prove it. Henry and she were always cracking jokes at each other. He was more
sensible maybe, but they only really had each other and Winston now so they had
to cling close.
Henry’s eyes widened and that’s all the warning she got before he swung his
fist back and connected with her face with a loud crack that rang loudly in the
garden. She felt the blood almost instantly pour down her face, leaving her
lips sticky and her nose numb. She pressed her palms trying to stop flow; she
saw through her tears Henry stumbling back and his hands shaking; just like
hers was. Henry started to breathe heavily, his chest rising and dropping
faster than it should be normally. Winston came almost out of nowhere. Addie
didn’t realise his giggles and toddler mumbles stopped until he collided with a
screech at Henry’s knees and began banging his little chubby fists against his
thin thighs and started screaming. Addie could make out meanie and boldand poor
Addie. She went forward to grab at him; to comfort him. She still felt the
blood, it was mingling on her clothes but she needed to calm her baby brother
above else.
Henry looked at her with broken eyes looking behind his age and she opened her
mouth of a silent cry; watching him drop to his knees and reach for Winston;
his hands locking around his back and clutching him close. Winston put up a
fight his nails digging into Henry’s neck leaving half-moon creases, his breath
stuttering to a stop. Addie didn’t know why until over the sound of the buzzing
lawn mower across the estate and the flicking of the breeze in her ears, she
saw Henry’s shoulders shaking. Addie dropped her hands, wiped them on her
shorts leaving a bloody trail of fingertips and crouched down beside to him.
She knelt beside him, her hand hovering over his back feeling the heat pulsing
from it and tried to understand. She couldn’t. He glanced at her out from under
Winston’s floppy hat they screwed on his head this morning despite his protests
and his blood shot eyes met hers. He held out a hand and a whispered sorry, she
clutched at it and pulled both her brothers towards her and the blood across
her face and clothes.
I’m so sorry, AdHenry whispered against her temple and she held him tighter.
Winston squished in between them taking in the silence and his head under
Addie’s chin and his small fingers wrapped around Henry’s.
Henry didn’t tell her why he hit her, she knew he would eventually. Maybe not
today but maybe soon, so she sat in silence. On the front garden where the
grass was dry and rough against your palms, where the sun was hot and left you
tight in your skin, where the other rich kids got to play with water pistols
and pools and drink all kinds of cool lemonades, where the neighbours ignored
the Crawford children who lied in their blood and dirty, cheap clothes and
stared at the passing children with longing and hate and pity.
Henry’s sobbing left Winston’s blond curls moist and left Addie clutching them
just the little bit tighter.
Henry didn’t stop crying till the sun was dying down, it cooling on their skin
and leaving Winston shivering. Henry stood with shaky legs, a broken sigh and
strode into the darkened house without a backward glance. Winston looked at her
with such sadness and a question held in his large golden eyes, Addie sighed
and brushed a sticky hand against one of his curls I don’t know Winnie.
He nodded with more understanding than his years, frowning after Henry then
stood on wobbly legs and walked into the house; the sliding door closing with a
click.
Addie closed her eyes and lied back in the grass, bloody fingers tracing
patterns onto her stomach.
===============================================================================
Addie remembers being thirteen years old and sitting in her kitchen, watching
Winston swirl his spoon around his cereal. She had to go hungry this morning as
there wasn’t enough to go around and she would rather Winston get food than
she, her bones felt heavy and her tongue numb but she would hold strong.
Winston was oddly silent as Henry fumed in the corner roughly scrubbing his
hands from grease. The weather was whipping outside with rain pounding against
the windows, Addie dreaded walking to school. It was a forty minute walk with a
short skirt and dolly shoes, she would be soaked to the bone before she reached
the brass doors of her school plus she had to bring Winston to primary school
and he will stop at every damn puddle and study it before splashing it.
Henry was at a loss of whether to go to school or not. He was sixteen and he
could leave if he wanted to, well Henry didn’t want to, Addie knew he wanted to
become a construction civil engineer but Henry claimed they needed money. Their
parents no longer worked and they had to deal with stains in the rugs and the
shouts in the living room. Addie tried to muffle them out and she taught Winnie
a game where if their parents were doing something notoriously bad he would put
his hands on his ears and sing the Barney theme song and if they were still
screaming he would close his eyes and picture go off on an adventure with The
Tweenies while Addie rock him back and forth whispering into his hair, her eyes
squeezed closed.
Addie remembers seeing the bruising on her dad’s lip and temple for the first
time. She sat in the living room reading, a great tome on her lap as she curled
in the afternoon sun that lazily flickered through the blinds, her hands warm
and her mind lost when her mum stumbled in. She held a bottle of whisky in one
hand and was muttering angrily into another. She had stopped and stared at
Addie, she snarled at her to leave the room before taking a gulp from the
bottle, the amber liquid staining her wispy blonde hair. Addie heaved the book
up and skidded around her before going into the kitchen.
The boys weren’t home as Winston was still in school and Henry off somewhere
with his ‘mates’ smoking fags and causing mayhem at the shops, so she expected
nobody to be in the kitchen she stopped short at seeing her dad curled in a
chair head in hands and crying softly. Addie’s dad was a kind man, he was short
and had black curly hair that ran down to his shoulders, his large fingers that
dug into his stubble chin and he had a soft smile. He wasn’t a loud man leaving
that to his wife and he drew a lot, that’s where Addie had gotten her talent.
She watched her father in the lazy spring morning sit on a wooden chair in the
dewy grass ignoring the horns from cars and the screams of the neighbourhood,
and drew anything that caught his muse. He drew them a lot, his children,
bathing them in shadow and lights that shown them prettier and plumper then
they really were.
Addie didn’t really get along with either of her parents but she could relax
around her father. He raised his head, blinking slowly when she placed the tome
on the table and across from him, she slide to rest her chin on her folded
forearms and stared at him, her eyes crinkling at she smiled at him.
He breathed slowly, his broken lips parted.
“Are you okay, daddy?” She asked softly, his eyes got brighter; wetter.
“Oh, darling.” He whispered. She nodded and his still parted mouth opened on a
sob and he reacted. He reached over and placed a palm on her arm, fingertips
curling, holding on and he couldn’t open his eyes, Addie gathered his palm in
both of her small hands and inhaled his scent.
He had large palms with ink well stains, rough patches of signs of his working
on their home, his nails bitten like Winston, held in her soft, small palms
that stroked and clung on.
“You’re way beyond your years.” He said, voice broken.
“I know, daddy.”
“You’re so smart. I’ve never seen somebody so smart. You will take care of this
family; you’ll stop this broken mess from crumbling. You’ll get little Winnie
to college and you’ll get Henry to stop fooling around and you’ll reach
everything you ever wanted.” He said his bright eyes on hers.
“What if I can’t?” She whispered. He squeezed one of her hands and smiled,
dirty brown teeth showing, eyes crinkling.
“You will.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m hundred percent certain you are going to move on.”
“What about you, daddy? Will you move on?” She said, childhood innocence
marring her features.
Addie’s fathers face saddens and said “I’m here to stay, baby, I can’t go
anywhere.”
She nodded heart heavy and placed her cheek on his hand again. The sounds of
his tears silent and the stumbling in the living room muffled. She thought of
her father’s paintings and smiled, eyes crinkling.
===============================================================================
Henry got suspended once when she fourteen years old. She remembers being in
the playground, ignoring everybody and whispered old songs to herself, designs
being drawn into the gravel with stolen chalk from an old classroom when a
shadow fell over her, blocking the sun that finally came out from hiding after
weeks hidden behind anger, grey clouds. She glanced up and saw Ms. Matthews
staring at her with pulsed lips and a heavy brow before stating in a droning
voice that she was to go to the boys’ secondary school on the down street. The
other girls around her started muttering amongst themselves and shooting
glances in her direction. She stood with a brush against her skirt and high
chin and followed Ms. Matthews to gather her things then walked her to the
entrance. The whole yard at this point was staring in her direction. She got
clear instructions on not to dawdleor talk to any boysnot in the school.She
waited until she rounded the corner with her bag strapped to her back and a
high chin; she glanced behind her once more to the sneers and disapproving
stares.
Then she ran.
The bag flapping against her back, hearing a hallow sound of her empty school
box rattling around, her dolly shoes slipping and sliding as she dodged the
corners. Henry never allowed himself to get caught, he only smoked behind the
sheds, or stole from the shops that had more money than needed, or drank in
darken parks that he could easily hid within, or pissed in places where there
was no cameras so she knows it was something big and it was something that
scared her.
Henry got worse as the years went on, forgetting to pick her up from the
library claiming he had somewhere else better to be, he stopped doing his
homework or did enough not to get in trouble, he stopped studying, he stopped
coming home for hours or even days without notice, he stopped tickling Winston
till he cried for mercy, he stopped smiling at Addie and calling her kiddo, he
stopped even sitting in the room with their parents, he brushed off dad’s
concern and sneered at mum who dozed with a wine bottle in the corner, he
stopped even talking to his old mates. He was lost to Addie and she didn’t know
how to find him.
When she arrived at the brass doors that were locked, she rattled them leaning
back to see if anybody was in the darkened hall. The sun was dying away,
promising to rain. She shouted and went to rattle it again when a hand stopped
her. The knuckles were swollen and cuts ripped along the edges. Addie spun
around at stared at Henry. He smiled weakly, wincing at the pull of the cut in
lip, a bruising around his eyes already swollen shut. He held the straps of his
bag in one hand as the other dangled at his side.
“What the fuck did you do Henry?”
He shrugged staring down at him feet dragging across the gravel.
“No, listen, you cunt what did you do? Why are you in shit?”
“You really shouldn’t swear, Addie.” He mumbled.
“You can’t give fucking parenting advice anymore, can you?”
He seemed to blanch at that, his eyes rising to look at her. She held them,
hers own hardening.
“Why did you hit somebody, Hen? Why did you hit them for god’s sake?”
“I-I can’t remember.”
“You can’t remember?”
“Yeah.”
“Bullshit.”
“I’m not lying.” He said, knuckles tightening at the bag strap.
“I’m your fucking sister, Henry; I know when you’re lying! Your eyes widen
slightly and you always look to the left. I can read you like a fucking book
and tell me why I had to leave school to come pick up my grown brother who
clearly got in a fight, and why you’re always ignoring me and leaving me alone
when you used to always hang out with me, your pathetic freaky sister.”
“You’re not...” He trailed off.
“Whatever. Answer the question.”
“He called me a…” He mumbled, head lowering.
“A what?”
“A fag.”
“A fag?”
“Yeah and I’m not fucking one, Addie. I’m not.” He said, taking a step closer
to her. She stood tall and understood.
“What if you were-“
“I’m not though.” He burst out, she raised her palms.
“If you were, hypnotically, would it be wrong?” She said softly. “Would you
hate somebody if they were?”
“I don’t know anybody who is.”
“If somebody, let’s say me for instance, was gay would you hate me?”
“No-I don’t know, I just- can’t you understand that I’m not?” He snapped.
“Henry, listen to me closely, it’s okay if you are though.”
“I’m not; stop putting words in my mouth-it’s sick.” He moved even closer to
her.
“It’s completely natural actually, Winston knows-“
“Winston knows nothing he’s only fucking ten years old and he’s a fucking
idiot.” He said, sneering.
“Leave him out of this, you prick. He loves you y’know not that you would
notice and I’ll love you no matter if you’re-“
“Godfuckingdammit Addie I’m not how many times do I have to say this?”
“Well you’re acting pretty defensive, maybe you’re hiding something.” She said
shortly.
“I ain’t hiding anything.” He grabbed her and pulled her close, his teeth
pulled back in a snarl, their noses touching.
“What you going do, hit me just like mum?” She said, mockingly, feet dangling
above the ground. He dropped her and stumbled back, face whitening, sneer
melting.
“I wasn’t-I didn’t mean-“
Addie crossed her arms and one of her lips curled. “Just because you’re in a
middle of a crisis doesn’t mean you can shut us out. Look, Henry, what I’m
trying to say is we love you and if you love boys- let me finish, or girls or
both or neither we’ll love you and just got to accept that alright?”
Henry shook his head, eyes dodging hers.
“Alright.”
Addie eyes softened and her arms dropped, her moved forward her hand hovering.
“Is that all why you hit him?”
Henry nodded, glancing left.
“Stop lying.”
He smiled tightly; looking up at her through one of his lashes and shook his
head.
“I don’t want to talk about it. I’ll tell you some day just not today.”
Addie hugged him, his hands dangling at their sides, her chin tucked against
his collarbone. “Okay.”
Henry gently moved out of her grasp and jerked his head, pointing out through
the gates.
“Do you want to get some crisps? I have enough money saved up from the corner
shop if you want.”
“You better get me two for running here in a skirt.” She winked at him, he
seemed to relax, his knuckles uncurling from his bag.
They walked to the local shops, the shopkeepers keeping a close eye on the two
bloody, broken children who stumbled in buying crisps and an ice-pop between
them. Addie watched Henry out the corner of her eye wince if he moved too fast
or bit his lip by accident. They sat outside on the bench covered in graffiti.
She didn’t ask any more questions and he didn’t give her answers. She sighed
and rose to get up, claiming they needed to go get Winston then, she was
stopped by a hand on her forearm, fingers curling just like their fathers.
Henry stared up at her, his blood shot eyes glancing all over her face.
“I love you, Addie. I wouldn’t be able-”
She smiled and patted his hand.
“I know.”
===============================================================================
Addie remembers watching her brother graduate. He was eighteen and it been a
year since their mum walked out of the house with a smash of a beer bottle and
a wordless dry sob from their father. He started to get fatter and he smiled
more and everything seemed better for a few moments. He started working again
and cleaned up the house. The rooms now striped from wallpaper and a rug with
cigarette burns thrown out. All the bruises littering her father was fading
from black to yellow to a flushed peach. Winston seemed lonesome after their
mother, he sulked and wanted her to be coddled like she used to. She only
seemed to blink away from the drunkenness that always surrounded her when he
was with her. Henry hated her; he never could stand her and the slurs she threw
at him. Addie got defensive over him since the 'incident' and that only seemed
to spur their mother on more if Addie butted in so Henry glared at her and
shoved at her to mind her own business, so she did.
She grew taller. Long gone was the petite, small girl. She shot up like a pole
bean over the summer, legs becoming long and arms stretching. Clothes not
fitting over her ample chest and jeans squeezing her hips, boys leered at her
when she walked by and men whistled when she walked around in shorts. She hated
it but she soon learned that lonely shopkeepers were too busy looking down her
shirt to notice her stealing small items. Henry didn’t approve but he was her
big brother after all. He gotten taller too, his shoulders filled out and his
dark blonde hair becoming shaggier. Winston was still cubby and short but she
reassured him he would grow much to his disbelief.
Their father was crying when Henry finished school and was filling out
university forms and collecting references from local people and his secondary
school. Henry called him a sap and hugged him; it made his father give him a
manly slap on the back but continue crying anyway. Addie smiled and went to
find Winston, last seeing him in the living room. She finds him in the back
porch with a stuffed teddy in his lap and looking gloomily out at the dark
garden. She sits down gingerly beside him but he doesn’t even glance in her
direction.
“A penny for your thoughts?” She said. He sighed and fiddled with the bunny’s
ears.
“I’m just sad is all.”
“Why are you sad, kiddo?” She asked, playing with a loose string off her top.
“Hen’s leaving, and we’re gonna be all alone.”
“Not all alone, you still have me.” She bumped shoulders with him.
“I guess.” He breathes.
“I’m not that bad, am I?
“It’s not that, it’s just that-you’re a girl, right?”
“I was the last time I checked.”
“Well you don’t really understand what I’m gonna go through, like I know you’re
here for me to play football and clean me up and play HALO with me at the local
library and you know do guystuff but you’re not a guy so y’know.” He said down
at his hands.
“So you’re saying you like me to be there but I’m not really here for you like
Henry?”
He turned to look at her quickly. “No that’s not it at all, what I’m trying to
say is-god I don’t know. Just Henry and I have been like this.” He crossed his
fingers “And me and you are the same but it’s different because you’re my
sisterand he’s my brother and I just want to be a guy sometimes y’know?”
“Yeah, I think I getcha. You want some guy to guy times instead of sisterly-
brother love?”
“Yeah like it has nothing to with you being a girl ‘cause like you could beat
with me at any time and that’s terrifying but y’know I want to be a guy.”
She laughed and ruffled his hair. “I just hope someday you’ll be able to
understand yourself.”
“I understand myself perfectly, thank you very much.”
“You’re welcome.” She said back cheekily. He reached over and pulled her into a
hug, clambering up into her lap. She poked him in the side, leaving squirming
away. “You’re not light y’know.”
He stuck out his tongue at her.
She smoothed back his hair and pressed their foreheads together. “We’re in this
together okay? When Henry leaves we’ve got each other, us versus the world.”
“You promise?”
She held out her pinkie watching him lurch forward and grasp her pinkie in his
own then they both wrapped their index fingers around the other, skin crinkling
and as one leaned forward to kiss their thumbs to finally seal the deal.
“I promise, Winnie.”
Winston was clutched to her side as they stood at the bottom of the garden; it
was a bleak and boring afternoon underestimating the biggest even to happen to
either in a long time. One of their trios was leaving. Their dad was helping
Harvey strap in a bag into the borrowed car of his mates for the travelling.
Addie held one of Winston’s hands in hers, thumb stroking his whiten knuckles.
With a final push, the bag finally leaped into the backseat and Henry stood
back with a half-cocked smile. He seemed lighter when he realised he was
leaving this place, Addie selfishly thought to keep him there to help her with
their dysfunctional family, she wanted to cling to his leg like a child and
begging him to stay but she knew he wouldn’t; couldn’t. He would probably never
smile again if he stayed but Addie felt she never would leave this place if he
went.
He came around the car, dusting off his hands. Dad stepped back and placed his
hand on Addie’s shoulder.
“You sure you can’t stay?” Winston burst out, a wobble to his lip. Addie went
to comfort him but Henry beat her to it. He fell to his knees, Addie got a
sense of déjà vu, and reached for Winston’s face thumbs wiping at the stray
tears.
“Hey listen to me buddy. You’re listening?”
Winston jerked his head in a nod.
“I’m only going away from a while and for all you know I’ll be back pulling at
your hair and eating all your raisins. You have Addie here to look after you;
she does a greater job than I ever will, and dad. He’s great isn’t he?” He shot
a cheeky grin at dad, who shook his head with a roll of his eyes. “And you have
to finish school you want to become a primatologist right? Well you gotta work
for it, no slacking off now. None of that shit and no swearing either okay? You
gotta be the bright and pure one of the group, I’m ready out of that study
we’ll just have to wait and see if Addie goes off the deep end. Don’t be mean
to your friends either; they’ll stick with you till the end if you’re nice,
right? But who am I kidding you’re a horrible little shit.” He started laughing
when Winston leaped at him with a cry of outrage.
Addie watched them with a smile twisted at her lips and a hand gripping her
heart. Dad’s hand didn’t leave her shoulder.
Henry rose with Winston still in his hands and shifted him to his hip.
“Don’t do that he’s a grown boy.” Addie scolded. Henry’s mouth twisted and he
gripped the nape of her neck and pressed their foreheads together. She closed
her eyes on a sigh and fingers gripped his shirt.
“Don’t do that, Addie. Don’t get angry, you’re too sweet for this. You’re the
toughest out of all of us, you kept this fucked up family together. Don’t start
anything stupid.”
“I can’t promise you that.”
He sighed; she felt the breath against her chin. “Promise me one thing. Promise
me you’ll get out of here.”
“What?” she opened her eyes and saw their fathers identical staring back.
“You’re too big and loud to be here. England’s probably not even for you, go to
Thailand or Japan they’re what you need but don’t stay here. You’ll waste here,
you’ve so much potential.”
“You sound like a teacher ‘so much potential.’”
He smiled sadly, she then sighed.
“Promise me, Addie?”
“I promise.” She said weakly.
He kissed her cheek and smoothed her hair, just like she did to Winston so
recently. She felt like crying but she bit the inside of her cheek to distract
herself. He placed Winston on the ground and ran a hand through his own shaggy,
dark mess of hair. He strode over to dad and they held a private hushed
conversation before embracing tightly. Henry’s held on longer than usual but
Addie pretended not to notice. Addie pulled Winston closer to her side and they
both stared at Henry with his back to them as he regarded his car and slapped
his thighs with a laugh.
“I guess this is where I finally say goodbye, eh?”
Nobody said anything and he grinned over his shoulder, his teeth showing. He
climbed in his car, shaking the vehicle side to side. He started the car and
seemed to breath, gripping the wheel between his large palms before looking at
them and with a grin and a wave was gone.
Just like that.
Addie’s heart lurched and she wanted to run after the car screaming for him to
return and never to leave but the car kept on moving and she kept on standing.
Dad cleared his throat and wiped his eyes on the back of his sleeve. “God, look
at us. We’re such a bunch of clichés, come on now buddy.” He grasped Winston’s
hand and pulled him along, he started chatting about dinner as though his
oldest son hadn’t just gone and left for good.
Addie felt a thud of weight rest on her shoulders, her fingertips twitched.
She then saw the boy from across the street with his freckles and ginger hair
smile at her. She smiled fleetingly, watched him wave shyly before returning
home.
She never noticed him before. She did now.
End Notes
     Playlist of sorts :
     http://open.spotify.com/user/1160985826/playlist/
     1tCdmq9AziUCgZls7wAXCJ
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