A Different Kind Of Dysfunction - A Shameless Fanfiction (Book One)

It was the smallest thing that tipped her off.

A click.

Barely audible.

Tessa had been looking for a pair of socks — just socks — in the shared dresser she and Lily rotated through.
It was mid-afternoon, the apartment unusually quiet. Rory was out. Sophie was at the Gallaghers’. Adeline had passed out on the couch after a brutal overnight shift.

Tessa opened the second drawer.

She heard it then.

Click.

Not from the front door.

Not from outside.

From behind her.

She turned just in time to see Lily sliding something into her jacket pocket.

Fast.

Too fast.

Tessa blinked. “What was that?”

Lily froze.

Then — too casual — “Huh?”

Tessa frowned. “You put something in your pocket.”

Lily’s face was a perfect mask of boredom.
The one she used when she was lying.
Tessa knew it like a mirror.

“Just ChapStick,” Lily said. “My lips are cracked.”

Tessa didn’t push.

Not then.

Not out loud.

But the knot in her stomach tightened.

Because Lily never used ChapStick. She hated how it felt. Always said it made her lips “feel like wax paper.”

---

She let it go.

For now.

But that night, after Lily fell asleep on the edge of the mattress they still shared — back-to-back, just like when they were little — Tessa waited. Breath shallow. Listening.

She slipped out of bed at 2:14 a.m., careful not to wake Alyssa.

She opened Lily’s jacket.

Felt inside the pocket.

Her fingers brushed something small. Plastic.

She pulled it out.

A pill bottle.
Label peeled off.
Not prescription.
Just generic.
Light. Rattling softly with three small white pills still inside.

Her chest tightened.

She shoved it back before she could start crying.

---

She didn’t tell anyone.

Because if she said it out loud, it would be real.

And if it was real, everything would start breaking again.

So instead, she watched.

The next day, Lily was fine.

Smiling, even.
She helped Adeline with dishes. Walked Alyssa to school. Laughed at something Rory said.

Totally normal.

But Tessa saw it.

The little flickers.

The twitchy fingers. The dry mouth. The sudden quiet when no one was talking.

And the way her pupils looked... wrong.

Not big.

Not small.

Just off.

Tessa said nothing.

Just curled up next to her that night and pretended nothing had changed.

Even though everything had.

---

She didn’t sleep.

She kept thinking about that bottle.

Where it came from.
What was in it.
How many were already gone.

And the worst part?

She understood why.

Because the pain didn’t stop.

The screaming. The pressure. The feeling like every breath was borrowed time.

Addiction didn’t need a reason on the South Side.

Just an opportunity.

And a place to hide it.

---

The next morning, Lily was up before anyone.

Pancakes on the stove.
Music playing low from her phone.
Big smile.

Too big.

“Morning, sunshine,” she said when Tessa walked in.

Tessa stared at her.

“You okay?” she asked.

“Perfect,” Lily said.

Tessa nodded slowly.

Then walked to the bathroom and locked the door.

And cried.

Quiet.

So no one would hear.

---

She knew what was coming.

She just didn’t know when.

And she didn’t know how to stop it.

[Word count: ~537 words]