"Tober, get up! I'm hungry and we need to go mail your demo."

"Ok, I AM kind of hungry. Where do you want to go eat?" I asked her as I got out of bed. I was looking through Brynna's closet when I realized that she wasn't answering. I turned around to find my best friend staring at me. "B? Hey, snap out of it!"

"Who are you and what have you done with my best friend? The October I know didn't use to get up in the morning without a fight."

"Yeah, well, that was before my mom died. A fight with my father usually ends up badly, as you've seen. I learned rather quickly to not debate with him."

"Oh Tober, I still wish you had told me when it started but the important thing is that you're safe."

"For now" I mumbled.

"Huh?"

"Nothing, B-let's go eat" I said as I went to the desk to grab my demo. However, I wasn't just met with one envelope, but a pile. "Jeez, B, you think you made enough copies?"

"Well, I know we were only going to send it to one but after you told me about your dad I didn't think it was smart to risk that one company not signing you. I figured the more companies we sent it to, the greater chance you had of getting out of here."

"Oh, that makes sense. I guess we should go to the post office first then."

With that we set off to the post office. Once that was done we jumped back into the car and drove to our favorite diner. We were just about to leave when I saw him-standing outside by Brynna's car staring at me.

"Brynna…he's here" I whispered.

"What? Where?" She didn't see him, I knew she didn't. When I didn't answer she continued, "Well, let's leave then."

"We can't! He's by your car" I was starting to feel tears stinging my eyes. Brynna immediately got her phone out and called her dad to come get us. She explained the situation to him while I just sat and stared at the table. I didn't even notice Brynna hanging up the phone.

"My dad's on his way. He said to stay inside-your dad won't try anything here, it's too risky."

About 10 minutes later Brynna's dad pulled into a parking place and came in to get us. When he saw us he immediately came over and gave us hugs.

"Are you guys ok? I didn't see him outside."

"Yeah, we're ok. We haven't seen him since I got off the phone with you" Brynna replied. Good, maybe he left. We walked out of the diner and started to head towards the car. I was sandwiched between Brynna and her dad and we were almost to the car when we saw him.

"Hey, Rick! It's been awhile. I didn't know you were here too. I just came to pick October up-she called and said she didn't have her car." I tensed up at his forced niceness. Brynna and her dad must have noticed because Brynna linked her arm with mine and her dad put his hand on my back.

"Oh, well we're going back to the house to finish up October's demo" Rick answered, unfazed.

"Well I need her to come home with me, now. Let's go October" he said meanly as he grabbed my arm rather forcefully. Rick immediately put one arm in front of me and the other on my father's chest.

"You're not taking her anywhere, Steve"

"You give me my daughter now or I'll charge you with kidnapping"

"No you won't; and besides, she's 19. She doesn't legally have to live with you anymore. So the way I see it, you have two choices. You can leave and leave October alone, or you can stay and have abuse and assault charges brought up against you".

Wow, Rick is my hero.

"Yeah, right" my father scoffed. "Who's going to believe a stupid 19 year old? You have no proof." At this I lifted up my shirt to reveal the bruises from the previous night. His smirked immediately faded.

"This isn't over, October-I WILL get you back" he sneered before walking away. I couldn't help it-I started crying. Rick pulled me into a hug and just let me cry.

"Shh, it's ok Tober-it's all going to be ok. You can stay with us as long as you want…you used to practically live with us anyway. It will be nice to have my second daughter around more." He had always thought of me as a daughter. I even used to call him dad.

"Thanks, dad" I softly smiled.

It felt good to day those words again without being afraid.