How to Fall... Without Trying To (GirlxGIRL)

Leslie

We arrive at Adrianne's townhouse at 645p.m., but when we get there she doesn't answer her door.

"That's strange" Aria looks through one of the windows, "You said she didn't answer her phone?"

"Nope" I shake my head, "I even tried on our way here"

"Damn" Queen shakes her head, walking around to the side of the townhouse to see if she can see from the backdoor

"What's this?" Aria looks at the doorknob closely, "Is that blood?"

I look closely at the doorknob to see that there is, indeed, blood on the doorknob, "That's it, we're going in"

"Yea, we might want to" Queen comes back around the corner, "There's blood in the kitchen too"

Shit, Adrianne! What is going on?!

Queen pulls out a debit card from her wallet, then uses it to jam on the side of the door to get the door opened. We enter the house and look around, for a second before walking into Adrianne's hallway to find her boyfriend, Nathan, sprawled out on the floor with blood pooling next to him

"Holy shit, call the cops!" Queen shrieks, "Look around to find Adrianne!"

"I'm going to check if the neighbors heard or saw anything!" Aria runs out of the townhouse

"What the hell went on in here?!" I look around frantically, looking to see if there are any clues at to what could have happened. I walk into the room to find the rooms fine, everything looking in its place.

"He's waking up" Queen calls from the hallway, "Nathan? What happened?"

I walk back into the hallway in enough time to hear Nathan spew something about Adrianne attacking him and something about a pipe.

"What?" Queen looks at him confused, "All I got was Adrianne and a pipe"

"Same!" I nod, just as I hear police sirens, "The cops are here?"

"Sounds like it" Queen looks down at Nathan, "Where's Adrianne?"

Nathan says something incoherent, swearing a few times, as he tries to get up off the floor but fails

"Lay down, you dumb ass" I shake my head, "You've lost a lot of blood"

"Good riddance too" Aria arrives back into the house, looking down at Nathan with disgust, "Leave his ass on the floor and come with me"

We follow her out the door just as the cops arrive at the townhouse, they rush past us to Adrianne's neighbor's townhouse, and I get a sickening feeling in my stomach, "Aria, what the hell is going on?"

"Apparently a lot" Aria looks angry as we enter the house behind the cops, seeing a beat up and broken looking Adrianne crying in the arms of an older woman

"Adrianne!" I rush over to her, but a cop throws her hand out to stop me

"We need to talk to her first" The cop tells me

"We are entitled to comfort our friend while she's questioned" Queen steps up, looking the cop in the eyes, "She looks like hell"

"We see that and we will get to the bottom of it" The cop doesn't move their arm

"Justin" Queen doesn't waver, "Move, Power Trip"

"Power Tri-" The cop looks at Queen for a second before finally coming to a realization that makes him move out of the way, "Of course, go ahead"

We rush over to Adrianne, carefully pulling her into a group hug, "Are you okay?"

"There is so much I have to tell you guys" Adrianne tells us, and I notice she has a bruise around her eye and a cut on her lip, looking worse and worse the more I look at her

"You'd better explain it to us and the cops then" Aria tells her

Once we let go of Adrianne, she starts talking to the cops about the events that went down. Apparently, Nathan has been abusing her for the past few months and none of us even realized it because she kept it to herself. The metal pipe that he was talking about, was used to hit her whenever she stepped out of line, and she's been covering the bruises with make up or coming up with lame excuses as to where they came from if she couldn't cover it. Once she is done, she instructs them to find her phone so they can see the pictures from the progressional abuse she has suffered over the past few months, even recalling a few doctor's visits they should look into where there are apparent photos. She tells them that she didn't realize it would get worse until it was too late, and he threatened to kill her if she told anyone or said anything to anyone about what was going on. The cops write everything down, one even recording the whole statement on a recorder. When they are done, they cuff Nathan to his gurney and take him to the hospital

"Damn it, Adrianne! Why didn't you say anything or even hint towards this craziness?!" I demand, tears rolling down my eyes, "You could have been killed!"

"She's right" Queen wipes a tear from her eyes, "This is the scariest shit ever! Adrianne, what the hell?"

"I'm sorry, you guys" Adrianne sobs, "I didn't mean for it to get this out of hand! I really thought I loved him"

"That isn't love, babe" Aria shakes her head, "I'm going to strangle that man with my bare hands"

"I'm just going to kill him" Queen says angrily, "Stuff him in a box and dump it in the open with weighted rocks"

"Drive out on a boat to the middle of the ocean to drop him so no one finds him" I add, "That actually sounds like a plan, what are we doing if he gets released because he's white and rich and likely will get out on bail?"

"You're right, we need a plan" Queen nods, "Fuck him up so he never does this again to anyone else"

"I say we tell the press, fuck his whole career up" I smile, "Then we definitely personally fuck him up"

"I'm with that plan" Aria nods

"Guys, thank you for being here" Adrianne tries to give a half smile, trying to be strong in front of us but she knows that we definitely know her better than that, "They want to take me to the hospital to get me looked at"

"Okay, we'll ride behind you"

A few hours later and we find that Adrianne definitely needs stitches for the back of her head, on her arm, and they have to glue the cut on her lip because it was busted. They tell her the bruise on her eye will be there for a little bit, but there isn't anything torn in her eye so she should be fine. Adrianne's commander met us at the hospital and they have a discussion before she leaves the hospital

"What's up?" I ask her, suggesting the conversation with her commander

"They are going to allow me leave until I recover" Adrianne tells us, "I'm going to go into an abuse treatment center for a little bit, get some help to make sure I recover like I'm suppose to"

"So we're going to have a few weeks without you or communication with you?" Queen frowns, "I understand that you need to recover, but will we be able to visit?"

"I'm sure you are" Adrianne assures us, "What's recovery without my best friends by my side?"

"You're right" I nod, "Especially us gorgeous ass women of color and power"

"She's right" Queen smiles, "We need to stand by you through it all, with all the power in this world"

"AVs assemble" Aria laughs

"When do you leave?" I ask

"Two days" Adrianne shrugs, "I wanted time to spend with you guys before we're limited"

"Yea, that's a good idea" Queen nods, "These next two days are all about you"

"Am I getting the hints towards a slumber party correctly?" Aria raises her eyebrows

"Slumber party? We're not teenagers anymore" I laugh, "It's more like a play date"

"Fucking Leslie!" Queen bursts into laughter

"What?" I raise my arms, "I'm just saying"

"Slumber party was a better explanation for it" Adrianne laughs