22

"So Joella, there's something I've wanted to ask." Zacky stated, he rode with Joella and me on the way back home.

Thankfully we was able to get my car started, it just needed a new battery.

"And what's that? Sorry Zack, my heart is solely Matt's now." She joked turning in the front seat to look at him better.

He chuckled shaking his head and snapping his fingers, "Damn." He then got serious, "I've noticed on your dad's desk, a family picture of you and your parents. But I've noticed you look nothing like him. Why's that?"

"Well that's because technically he's not my blood father." She took a deep breath out then continued, "But he's the only father I've ever known. Him and my mother met when I was a baby, my biological father was murdered when I was only a few months old. He stepped up and took me under his wing. And when I was around 2, he made it official by adopting me after him and my mom married. He was the dad he didn't have to be." She smiled.

"Babe that's amazing." I smiled as I grabbed her hand and kissed the back of it, "Sorry to hear about your biological dad though."

"It's okay, hard to be sad over someone dying that you've never known." She gave me a reassuring smile. "Joseph has been the best father a girl could ask for. And when I went through my drug problem, my parents were patient with me. I knew they wanted to cut me off but they couldn't bring themselves to go through with it. Then when I almost overdosed on a mixture of coke and crushed depression pills, they were both by my side the whole way, supporting me while I got better. Me overdosing was a wakeup call to stop taking that road."

"Why'd, how'd you get into drugs?" Zacky questioned.

I noticed her glanced at me then down at our hands as she rubbed her thumb over my knuckles.

I could tell she didn't want to really talk about it, "Hey, you don't have to explain." I told her as I glanced back at Zack through the rearview mirror who mouthed sorry. That's not why I glanced at him though.

"No, it's fine. I uh, well the pills were prescribed to me then someone who I thought was a friend introduced me to the coke as a release from my thoughts. This guy, who I was dating, I thought he loved me but it turned out I wasn't the only one he was loving. I found out he had a girl already, along with a kid also. About that same time I found out I was." She cleared her throat, "I was pregnant. So I did the only thing I could think of, I tried making myself miscarry and when that didn't work I did the next thing. I knew I couldn't carry the baby to term. I didn't want to bring it into this world on a lie so I went to a clinic and had an abortion." She sniffled as I tightened my grip on her hand, not out of anger but as a comfort squeeze. "I never told him what I did. Just broke off all contact with him. The stress of everything made me depressed so I got some help, who put me on the depression pills. After a while my body got used to them I guess. I had found out about crushing them and snorting them so that's what I did. Then that friend, Ashley, she introduced me to coke and we'd do that together. Then when I decided to get clean, she had no use for me anymore. And that's when it dawned on me, she was using me, the money, to get it because I was the main person to buy it for her."

"So you haven't touched it since? That's amazing." Zack smiled.

"Not exactly." She then looks at Me.

I could tell in her eyes she was asking if it was okay if she mentioned about her and Brian so I nodded some to let her know it was okay, Zack, along with the rest of us, knew Brian has done stuff like that.

That's when she continued "I did have a relapse not long ago. The night me and Matt was at each other's throats. The night I kicked his ass at pool." She couldn't help but giggle, "When Brian took me home. We were drinking more there. I was only going to bring out the weed I had, when I seen that I still had some coke left. Only a few ounces. I lost the urge and we uh we both did a line. The next day I realized what I did, so I instantly went to a meeting. Matt found the stash and thought the worse, that's why we fought. Brian came to me wondering if I had heard from him since you guys couldn't get a hold of him. And thankfully he, Brian, helped talk me into disposing of the rest, which was only an ounce or so left."

"That's fucked up man. Why would he do the drug with you if he knew you was in recovery like that." Zacky grumbled.

"That's because he didn't know so relax Zack. No one knew at that point about my past except my parents obviously. He didn't know until a few days ago is when I came clean about it. And on our way up here, he said he felt horrible that he did it with me and that if he known I was in recovery he would have turned me down when I had suggested to do a line."

"Oh." Was all Zack could muster out.

"Yeah." She sighed with a nod.

Once I dropped Zack off, I took Joella to her place. I put the car in park, turning in my seat slightly and just smiled at her.

"What?" She giggled.

I grabbed her hand and intertwined our fingers together and kissed the back of her hand, "My respect for you went up majorly on the ride back here. The way you were able to openly talk about what you've went through."

She shrugged one shoulder, "Why hide it, it's part of who I am. It's made me who I am today."

With my free hand, I cupped the side of her face, smiling she leaned her face into my hand more as she rest her hand on mine, "An amazingly beautiful woman, inside and out."

I leaned closer while I brought her face to mine and our lips crashed together.

After a few minutes of our make-out session she broke away, "I feel like a teenager right now." She giggled.

"How so?" I chuckled.

"Making out in a car after my boyfriend drops me off at home instead of us both going inside." She smirked.

"Oh, makes sense." I chuckled, "Well then I've got to do the gentleman thing and walk my girlfriend to the front door."

So we got out, grabbing her hand again, I led her to the front door.

"So this is where the boy and girl kiss again after their date before she steps inside." I smirked, playing into what she had said in the car.

"Usually, but there's a problem with that statement. We're not on a date and technically we haven't even been on one yet."

That's true, we haven't had an official one yet. All the times we have hung out it was either with our friends, me being sick, and us in bed together. A thought then popped into my head, we need to have one.

"Well." I grabbed her hips and made her lean against me, "We need to fix that. Go on a date with me tomorrow night."

She acted like she was going to turn me down with her expression but then grinned, "I'd love that."

"Then it's set, you, me and a date, tomorrow night." I then kissed her softly.