TW: It's Been a Long Time Since I Came Around

[Adaryn Breslin]

Dated: March 20th, 2015

It had been five days.

Five full days of "off-the-grid" therapy, as she ended up referring to the disappearance as, after her mother had made it quite known that there was no place for Adaryn in her life. Carly was well, at least, but she barely even remembered her. There was no fear in the 7 year old's eyes as Adaryn tried to speak to her younger sister, but there wasn't necessarily full fledged recognition in her eyes. The little girl grew up to have their father's blonde hair and mother's blue eyes. It was a beautiful reunion until she showed up and ruined it all. Told her to basically get away from her and her daughter, and if she didn't she'd make sure there would be consequences.

That was it. That was all that her mother said before disappearing with Carly pressed close to her side. At the time, Addie had strayed away from Eloise while she looked for fabric and whatnot and Addie looked for pencils and things of the like. But it was in that singular moment that Adaryn needed to just get away. Get away from Pilot Ridge. Get away from the memories. Leave, and leave the pain behind. The short encounter she had with Eloise was probably incriminating in her thoughts, but she didn't care.

Adaryn had left and withdrew cash from her account before heading to Montpelier, Vermont by bus and paying for four nights at a cheap motel when she had gotten there. Her phone turned off, and four days of exploring ahead of her, Adaryn spent her time discovering the capital and clearing her head. Addie, shortly after arriving, decided that she'd put her hair in a ponytail and cut her hair to her shoulders. It just happened, but after it was all said and done, Addie was happy, relieved, and calmer.

The days were spent clearing her head, trying to come to grips with the fact that there was no going back home. She had no home except for Hammel, and it took a few days for her to realize this. Adaryn had no parents. She had no family. But she did have friends, and a boyfriend that she cared about so much.

In that respect, it took so much she had to not text him. To not text Eloise, either, even though she was blowing up her phone, except for once. It said Need alone time. Im fine. and that was it.

Addie couldn't risk outside influences in this trip. She needed to be alone and see the potential in a life without her. She needed to come to grips with it, and people would only get in the way.

However, after it all, she had come back on a Friday. It was 30 degrees and Adaryn was huddled in a jean coat as she waited outside the door of the Twin's residence. After the initial knocks, Adaryn held her hands in her coat pockets and her head down to combat the cold that was creeping down her spine, unsure if it was from nervousness or the chill from the air.

Adaryn hadn't said when she was coming back, and she certainly didn't let them know that she would be here at this moment, so she could only hope they wouldn't hate her.

[Thomas "Monroe" Montgomery]

Monroe was not okay. He had not been okay for the past five days. It felt like longer than that. He'd finally gotten back to normal sleep patterns, well normal for him. Meaning he was sleeping, and somewhat at night like he should be. Zeb and Chase were working hard and he was working hard because he was so grateful for them and maybe he actually wanted to change how he was living. But sleepless nights had returned quickly when Eloise had said she'd been shopping with her and she'd acted sort of strange and then following that, there was no reply to his text messages or his calls. Monroe wasn't the type of person to frantically text or call someone, not like Eloise, but he'd done his fair share of it over the past several days, especially at odd times of the night when he found himself sitting up in bed, a cup of coffee on his nightstand and a heavy feeling in his chest, like something horrible had happened to her. Or like she'd run away and wasn't going to come back. Brief thoughts passed through his head, like what if he'd scared her away? That one was the most torturous.

Nights he worked at the dinner, he spent his downtime drowning himself in coffee and staring at his phone, waiting for her to call or text. Anything. And then when he'd gotten home, Eloise had told him that Adaryn had texted her. It wasn't much, but at least Eloise had gotten some ease. As for Monroe, he wasn't even sure what her text meant. He tried to keep calm, but it bothered him endlessly that Eloise had gotten a text and he'd received nothing.

And now he was really beginning to worry because it wasn't like she'd gone away for a day, it had been several. He was so worried and he found it hard to pay attention to anything. He was currently laying sprawled across the sofa, hair mussed, staring through the television rather than watching it.

Why couldn't she just send him a text? Did she think he wouldn't worry? Wouldn't care? First he was worried, and then he was angry, and now he was...he wasn't sure. His cycling of emotions had led him to believe that he loved her. That he was in love with Adaryn Breslin.

He didn't hear the first knock, or the second, still staring through the television until he seemed to come back down to earth. And then he rolled off of the sofa, annoyed, as though it was Eloise, and she had forgotten something. Like a change of clothes, just in case.

[Adaryn Breslin]

It had been a few minutes since she had knocked on the door the first time, and Adaryn was sitting there freezing on the porch. It wasn't as cold as it once was, but even still, the biting cold was still enough to want to walk away and go back to her dorms and not saying anything.

However, she was here and she needed to tell them in person, so Addie opted to knock one last time to see if anybody was home, and if not, she'd just leave and hopefully catch the bus back to Hammel. It wasn't the ideal situation, but anything was better than the suspense and the Vermont cold. Anything.

Adaryn pulled one hand from the pocket of the coat and knocked the six knock jingle type of knock that she always made and stepped back, hoping her last and final time would not be in vain, but as the cold still hit her cheeks and caused them to redeem, she began to lose hope that somebody would come to the door.

"Please," Addie whispered, "Please be home."