"The worst part of holding the memories is not the pain. It's the loneliness of it. Memories need to be shared."
― Lois Lowry

Reese's POV.

"Ty! What the hell?" I yell making him laugh harder and Irene, on the other hand, is trying not to laugh while I'm driving the car. Oh yeah, some teenage tell-tales of mine are being laughed about and my best friend is having an amazing time making my girlfriend laugh.

"Do you remember when you made your mom's birthday cake for the first time? You were like 13," Ty starts and I glare at him via the mirror while Irene next to me is just grinning with excitement. "He was so determined to make the cake overnight while his mom was asleep that he fell asleep on a bag of icing and the next morning, his mom found him in the bakery kitchen with icing on his face and the cake half-eaten! While Reese was feeling guilty about the whole situation, turns out his sister, Addy was the one who ate it!"

"And what's funny is that he had to explain why one side of his face was stained blue for the next two days!" I roll my eyes at the whole embarrassing story once again but at least it was the least embarrassing. "Awe," Irene gives me a cheeky smile making me smile back at her, only at her. Ty knew better than to talk about Addy.

Well, we've still got four more hours to make it to LA and we have no idea what to expect. The three of us fall into a comfortable silence and I slip my hand into Irene's entwining our fingers while I drive down the empty highway. We didn't need words, as much as Ty tried to make the whole Alex thing not get our head, the thoughts are inevitable. That's me talking about myself, I can't even begin to imagine what is going on in Irene's mind especially after the nightmare that scared her enough to not sleep most of the night.

How much do I know Alex again? Enough to hate him.

"So you never told me about Addy?" Irene asks breaking the silence but only once she noticed that Ty has his headset on. Addy. The amazing little sis to me and the most amazing kid my parents could ask for.

"S-she was an addict and only two years younger to me," I choke out those words as I blink away the tears not looking at Irene but she already knew the story wasn't going to be good.

"It was my fault, I-I was selfish and left to grad school while I knew she was alone. She was all alone and no one except me knew that, not even our parents. Her best friend by then met with an accident which left him in a coma for a year and a half. While we all moved on from it and we were just hoping for the best while trying to make our own lives work, Addy realized she was in love with him. I knew it, I knew she was slowly distancing herself from people and she was depressed. She stopped answering my calls and after two weeks I went home for the holidays just to find out that she overdosed that night and until then no one knew she was on drugs. Or I was being ignorant to that thought," I take a sharp breath while Irene is silently just listening and rubbing comforting circles on my hand. I glance at Ty noticing he's asleep before stopping the car aside unable to drive with my blurry eyes.

Letting out a shaky breath before finding my voice again, "She was sent to rehab while my parents were blaming themselves for not noticing her addiction. Little did we know she was already far too gone, she got sober in half a year and got better when her best friend, Finn finally got out of the coma. We all were relieved seeing Addy so happy but that only lasted a day, Finn had something called a surge."

I notice Irene's grip on my hand tighten as I blink away my brimming tears, her eyes never leaving my face, "That was the last time we saw her and Finn, she confessed her feelings and things were good or at least it seemed that way. The next day, Finn couldn't make it through, and Addy..." I breathe out before getting off the car trying to get some fresh air with Irene following me to the back of the car.

Taking deep breaths, I look at Irene who's just standing close enough just to wipe my tear off my face while I lean into her hand before pulling her close into a hug, "S-she overdosed that day and t-that killed her,"

"I-it was all my fault,"

"No no Reese it wasn't your fault," Irene tries convincing me while wiping off my tears with her still in my arms. Its been so long since I shut that phase-out of my mind because I wanted to be there for mom and dad. Irene is the first person I spoke about it in almost five years now. My breathing calms down with her hand caressing my cheek. The afternoon sun shining bright enough to make Irene squint her eyes.

"That's when I got into street fighting but that didn't turn out very well either, Ray and Ty helped me through the phase. Though Ty was the one who got me into the whole street fighting thing, he was the one who helped me out too and he's been more of a big brother to me in many situations," I let out a sigh as Irene places a kiss on my chest. Only she could comfort me through this pain right now.

Once there were no more tears to shed, I lift her head to plant a kiss on her lips. It was just full of love and emotions that we both felt. I pull back realizing we're still on the side of the road and we've still got things to sort out and get to.

"Let's go, I can't wait to take you home," she smiles as I said home. I can't wait to share things with her without worrying about Alex. Kissing her forehead one last time, we pull back from each other before heading back into the car. A giggle escapes Irene's lips making me let out a small laugh as we hear Ty snoring.

Putting on our seat belts, I start driving again towards L.A. but I don't think either of us is ready for what's to come. Irene hands me her can of coke to take a sip of while Ty's ringing phone gets our attention. He groans grabbing the phone and answering it but straightens out as soon as he listens to the voice on the other end, "It's Ray, I put on speaker,"

Ty says making me mentally smack my head for not calling Ray in two days now, "Hey Ray!" I try sounding as normal as possible while Irene still gave me a confused look.

"You idiot! Why the hell didn't you tell me you were at Ty's place? What's going on? Why did I find Mr. Toussiant's secretary knocking on my door like an hour ago aking about you and his boss's girlfriend?!" Ray is almost yelling at me and I see Irene holding her head in her hands. This fucking can't be good.

"What did they ask you, Ray?" I ask as calmly as I could.

"They wanted me to let them know if I get to know anything about your whereabouts and why the hell are you so calm about it? What the hell did you do this time around?!" I have no idea what to do now and I can't stop Irene from feeling guilty about this whole situation either.

Letting out a sigh I finally speak up while Ty is giving me a 'you messed up' look while still holding the phone, "Just trust me on this, I'll call you back in a few hours and tell you everything but listen to me, stay away from Ale-Mr. Toussiant. Stay safe okay?"

After a few seconds of my long instructions, "Fine, I'll call you in five hours. You better have a good fucking explanation for all this and Tyler for once, don't let him get into any stupid mess." With that Ray hangs up making me sigh and look at Irene who's still holding her head in her hands with her nails digging into her scalp as small sobs that are barely audible escape her.

I so fucking wish that call didn't have to be on speaker but I also know that Ray insisted so that if Irene was here, she could listen to it too. I look at the small diner on the way and slow down into the parking lot while Ty just gets ready to get off the car to give us some space.

Ty shuts the car door behind him and I take off my seat belt before turning to Irene who's still in the same position. "Irene..." I take off her seat belt before holding her up facing me. Her eyes look bloodshot and her face is wet with tears, I pull her as close as I could across the barrier between us while she cried it all out, "Shh... it's okay, stop crying love,"

"I-its my fault, I can't drag you guys into this," with fear of losing her creeping up, I hold her tight, "Don't fucking dare think about it,"

I say before pulling back and getting off the car to make way to the passenger side of the car, Irene is resting her head against the seat again but her tears never-ending. Still wearing my t-shirt, her hands are wrapped around herself. As soon as I open the door, she pulls me into a tight hug getting out of the car. Still holding her up in my arms, I get us both in the rear seat and close the door, "It's okay, everything's going be alright,"

Wiping her tears with one hand, I hold her still close to me. She just nods into my chest trying to control her tears, the sight of her so broken down in my arms is killing me. I run my hand over her back, rubbing circles as her breathing steadies slowly. Sinking my head into her shoulder as I pull her onto my lap, I feel her fingers running through hair calming me down, "You're my life now, so don't you dare try being a hero in an attempt to protect me from that bastard. We'll fight this together,"

A new set of tears roll down Irene's face, "And you're my life. I love you," she says before placing her lips gently on mine, we didn't need anything more. It feels like I've got everything in the world with her in my arms. Every single day, we learn new things about each other which only makes us stronger together and I wouldn't want anything more than to spend my life with her.

But right now everything starts with getting Alex out of our way by fighting him together. 

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