Mara's POV:

I skip into the kitchen. "Hey guys!"

They're all stony faced and refuse to look me. Rolling my eyes, I offer my younger brother a high-five. "Hey, Ryan. How was your first day of school?"

He sighs, "Bad. My crush is now officially dating someone."

I throw him a look full of pity, "Aww, that's alright. She'll come to you eventually."

He shakes his head, "Can you tell me how to get a girl to like me?"

Before I can answer, my sister does it for me, her voice bitter and full of loathing. "Don't you get relationship advice from her, Ryan. You don't want to go asking help from two-faced bitches that break their sister's hearts by cheating with their sister's boyfriends."

My mouth drops wide open, and I retort, "Come on, Selena, it's been months, and I did you a favor. If it weren't for me, you'd be married to a bastard who'd go to clubs every night and ride every single girl that has a sexy ass and big boobs."

My parents harshly reprimand me, "Mara, your thirteen year old brother is in the room! None of that talk! Ryan, off to your room. We are having a serious discussion."

Selena bursts into tears, "Why do you have to be so darn mean to me, Mara? You knew I was dating Jake, and we were engaged. How could you sleep with my fiancé?"

I clamp my mouth shut, feeling extremely guilty. "Oh my god, Selena, how many times do I have to tell you? Jake forced me to drink a bunch of alcohol, and he was the one who dragged me into a room. For your information, I never tried to seduce him or anything like that. He was the one, who was completely sober, who put a bunch of alcohol in my system, threatening to hurt you if I didn't oblige, and sleeping with me. I was too wasted at that point to have any common sense to not sleep with him."

Selena shakes her head slowly. "Bullshit, Mara. Jake would never do something like that. He loved me like nothing else, and he always treated you like a little sister. There's no way in hell he fed you a bunch of alcohol and forced you. Besides, wouldn't this be considered rape if he forced you?"

I practically yell, "I never stopped him or said that I didn't want to, so of course it's not considered rape."

"Well, why didn't you stop him?"

I seethe, "Because as I already said before, I was too wasted to make any right decisions."

Selena rolls her eyes, "You're the biggest liar I've ever seen, Mara. Jake would never do something like that. I know it. The only reason he slept with you was because you seduced him."

I count to ten in my head, "For the last time, no, I did not seduce him; it was the opposite, really. But since you think that he's such a goody-goody angel who'd never do anything wrong, why aren't you forgiving Jake?"

Her face turns stony like ice, "Even if you did seduce him, he had no right to give in to that and sleep with you."

Tears slide down her cheeks, "We both vowed to only sleep with each other, but he broke his promise without a thought just because a girl seduced him. He cheated on me, and it may not have been his fault, or initiated by him, but you and I both know very well that he could have stopped it. He could have denied you."

I try to protest, "Mara, I swear, it's not my fault. But I'm sorry anyways. Why won't you believe me?"

She shakes her head, "Just go, Mara. I never want to look at you again."

I burst in tears, "Mom, Dad, do you at least believe me?"

Caleb looks torn, while Hanna simply looks disgusted, "Mara, I'm sorry, but this is outrageous. We all knew Jake; he was such a good, polite young man, and I know he'd never do something like that."

"Great, so now you believe him over your own daughter?" I say dramatically.

My mother's face softens, "Mara, I'm sorry, but you've been known to lie, and you've gotten in trouble so many times. Besides, some of your friends' parents informed me that you've been sleeping around with other boys to hurt their girlfriends. What's to say you're not doing the same exact thing to your sister?"

I choke out, "Mom, I would never do that to Selena. I don't even lie to you anymore."

Caleb shakes his head, "You still lie, Mara. I know about Violet, Jake, Dimitri, Xander… I could name hundreds of other examples where you've lied to us recently. You sneak out of the house, you used to do pot, you drink alcohol, you sleep with other girls' boyfriends to make them break up. You've turned into some abysmal creature, Mara, unlike the sweet little girl you used to be. How can you expect us to believe you?"

My mom continues, "And Jake was a perfect young man. We've had him over for dinner for so many years, and I know for a fact that he truly loved Selena. Plus, he always thought of you as a little sister. He never touched drugs once in his life, unlike you, he had no alcohol until that day, and he was committed to Selena, unlike you. I'm sorry, but all the evidence points against you. Are you seriously expecting us to believe that Jake forced you when he was absolutely crazy about Selena and committed to her?"

It's true; Jake did seem to be over the moon about Selena, and it was hard even for me to believe he wanted to sleep with me.

I shake my head slowly, "I just can't believe you guys won't believe me. You know what, I deserve a better family."

Grabbing a coat and my wallet, I dash out of the house, only glancing back to catch a straggling glimpse of my mother's shocked face.

As I jog along on the sidewalk, I pretend not to care, almost like I never really liked my family and wanted to disown them all along. But in reality, I feel devastated.

I have no clue where to go. I mean, I can't exactly pop back into the living room and say, "Hey guys. I'm back." There's this pang, this emptiness in my heart. I really don't want to leave my house, but what other option do I have? Selena doesn't seem on the track of forgiving me anytime soon, and my parents are probably already rejoicing at the thought of me, the 'abysmal creature,' according to my dad, gone from the house.

I round the corner to Walnut Street, ringing the doorbell to my best friend Kate's house. She opens the door quickly. "Hey…uh Mara."

She seems really uncomfortable, so I greet her, "Hey Kate. Can I come in?"

She hesitates, "Uh…I don't think that would be such a good idea. What are you doing here?"

A look of annoyance passes across my face. Why is she being so rude and cold towards me. "What's going on? We're bffs."

She snidely remarks, "Were bffs."

"What?"

She sighs, "Mara, let me blunt. Frankly, you're getting a little boring. Besides, I never liked those games you used to play."

"What games?"

She hunts for words, "Does it really matter? We're over, Mara."

I sigh, "Please Kate. I just sort of walked out on my family, and they're not exactly going to welcome me back with open arms if I return home. They're all really mad at me, and I have nowhere else to go. Can I just, I don't know, crash at your house for a few days until things cool down?"

She shakes her head, "Sorry, no can do, Mara. My parents are out of town, and they specifically said not to invite anyone over. And my boyfriend's here; we were planning to spend the weekend together, by ourselves."

I roll my eyes, "Don't you think you should choose your friend over some dumb boy?"

She hisses back at me, "First off, you're not my friend anymore. And he's not just a dumb boy."

"Who is it?"

She smiles sweetly, though I can tell it's fake, "Oh, so you want to know who it is. Honey! Honey!"

She turns around and calls him.

A scrawny boy with shaggy brown hair and cute blue eyes rounds the corner, yawning. "Yeah sweetie?"

My jaw drops open. He drops the piece of toast he's holding and quickly gestures to me, "I can explain. I—"

Kate cuts off his rant, turning to me and smiling a sweet, tormenting smile. "You're not the only one who can play boyfriend stealing games."

Bam! She slams the door in my face, and before I know it, the tears start sliding down my face. I curl up into a little ball and sit there on her front steps, crying my eyes out. It's not long before I fall into a daze. After what seems like hours, I vaguely notice a black car pull up next to me. Someone with a soft voice and muscular but gentle arms lifts me up slowly, leading me to his car. And then everything goes black.