Chapter Two

You don't know anything about love! Her mother screamed.

You don't know anything about commitment, either! Her father fired back.

The two Stevensons have been fighting since her father started coming in late from work six months ago: coming home all tired, woozy and irritable, and her mother blamed him for going out with his female officemates and partying 'til he dropped. In that state, he would, of course, retort with vicious words that Marlene had never heard of before, and that would start hour-long fights. She would cry herself to sleep because she didn't know why her father would do such things to them and why her mother would even fight that way when she should really be tending to him when he comes home.

Marlene is now sixteen, having already outgrown her childlike sweetness; all of that to be replaced by the maturing lady she was. She'd taken a slightly darker tint in her paint job (although it made no difference to Lightning; he still saw her physically as the same seven-year-old he'd met nine years ago), and was curvier than her kid self (still, Lightning can't see her differently either). Through the years, she'd grown into a feisty young girl with a strong attitude. Her personality evolved from sweet, shy little girl to assertive, intelligent woman.

That late afternoon, Lightning and Marlene were waiting in her room, waiting for the storm to pass. Marlene couldn't help crying softly while he sat there. All that made her hold on was his calming presence, and it helped her to not wail furiously or to barge in her parents' room to join in the fight.

Lightning nuzzled his friend gently, and she leaned against him, tired, stressed out, and feeling hopeless. He pressed against her, trying to shut away the sounds of shouting from the room across the hall.

Lightning, also sixteen, also took on a darker shade of red (although Marlene hadn't noticed), as well as a change in voice (it sounded the same to Marlene), and his features seemed more 'manly' than before (she hasn't noticed this, either). All throughout the years, his personality also changed: from adventurous little twerp to handsome, average-minded, stubborn, semi-reckless young fellow who liked challenges and who knows what he wants. This type of attitude made the girls in their high school feel faint as he passed by and smiled at them.

Mr. Stevenson barged angrily out of the room and out into the hall, fuming. Her mother trailed after him, screaming profanities, and they had another clash. Finally, her mother just stormed back into the room, packed her things, and left out the front door. Her father yelled, 'Good riddance!' and slammed the door behind her.

Marlene didn't know what to do. She was confused and hurt and stressed out, and with the hardest term of senior year, she didn't know if she could survive the pressure. In the nights that came, nightmares left her hurting in the mornings, and father and daughter were haggard with lack of sleep. Her grades started slipping, and she didn't care. She felt empty inside, like she was living a nightmare she didn't want to be in. She took up simple home cooking lessons when she could to make up for the things her mother was supposed to do, but it also helped keep her attention away from reality. But on weekends, when there wasn't anything to do in the spic-and-span home, she would just ask her friend to come with her to the special hideaway they found years ago. They would just sit there silently, watching the sun set and the stars appear. No conversation was needed. Lightning didn't know how to comfort her. The only solution was to accept the reality of the situation: her family, her beloved family, was broken. Through all that silence, Lightning thought how lucky his own parents were.

But that was not to last.

About a month after the last time she saw her mother was the day her father and mother agreed to divorce their marriage. Unfortunately, that day was the start of the McQueens' own fights. It was Lightning's turn to feel hurt and confused. Marlene can only stand by his side, knowing all that can help him was her own presence. There wasn't anything to keep his mind off the situation. He was afraid of losing one of his parents. Would it be his mother, too, or his father? After two months, his mother left, too.

He begged his mother to leave the day she did, but nothing would deter her from what she wanted: freedom from what she thought was the prison that held her from her true potentials. She told him many vicious things that he never heard of and never wanted to hear, and from his own mother at that~ Marlene had to pull him back from the fight before he got hurt, but nonetheless, he got hit by his own mother trying to make him back off. For many nights, he too cried himself to sleep, ad the nightmares started to plague him. They both showed up in school badly shaken and extremely tired from the nightmares. They barely ate, and were looking a little thin. When even the teachers noticed, they sent them to the school counselor. When even he couldn't help them, he called a friend of his, a head doctor, and asked him to help them.

The three had a large argument about the situation; the two were stubborn enough to still say that they haven't recovered, but what have they achieved from living in the past? The head doctor tried to convince them that they should look to the future instead. After the meeting, the two left the campus with new determinations: they would follow their dreams instead of living in the past, they would try their best to be what they wanted to be in the future, and to do that, they would need to finish their studies first.

That one small step did them good in the long run.