A/N: WOW! Thanks for all of your feedback on my last chapter, it really put me in the holiday spirit! Here's the defining chapter of the whole story. This one is IMPORTANT, so pay close attention. I enjoyed writing this chapter a ton, so here you are! (:

Chapter Three:
Where the Monsters Are

The next day, I wake up to Jade at the doorstep of my trailer.

"Jadelyn. What's wrong?" I rub my tired eyes; trying to decipher what emotion I'd be battling with today.

"Beck." She whines, "I miss you. My family is driving me insane. They wanted to spend the whole day Christmas shopping yesterday during black Friday." She enters my trailer on her own, flopping down on the couch.

I sigh. "I'm sorry about last night, Cat and I really needed to get started. A quarter of the term isn't something to screw around with."

"And neither is she." I hear her mumble.

"Jade." I point my voice in a way that she looks up at me, "have you been a bit…" be delicate, Beck, "tough on Cat lately?"
Her eyebrows furrow together, as she tries to think.

"She needs to know who I am."

"You're her best friend. She knows who you are. I'm her friend, you're her friend, that's that."

This processes through her head, and I'm hoping she gets it.

"Alright. But one hint of warning, I swear."

I pull her into a hug and she shrieks.

"What? What?" I pull away, alarmed

"I JUST straightened my hair. Don't ruin it, seriously."

I take a breath and back off.

We spend the next hour or so in each other's company – she talks a lot about the time she spent at Tori's working last night; apparently Trina was having a temper tantrum for not being able to act within the play.

We go spend the rest of the day hanging out, going out and grabbing food, watching a movie in theaters and trying to act normal. Our conversations are basically her talking to me, which I take, aiming to calm the waters between us.

Eventually, she says, "You should take this opportunity to go work with Cat. That way, we both won't be sitting around while the other is busy."

I agree with her, we say our goodbyes.

When I'm driving back from Jade's house, ironically, my phone begins to ring.

Cat.

"Hello?" I ask, curious as to what's compelled her to call me.

"Beck!" I hear Cat say, practically crying out. I hear sniffling and incoherent words following that.

"I'm in the car already, I'm coming to your house. Sit tight, okay? I'm almost there." All of a sudden, there's this urgency within that I can't ignore.

I don't even know why – I don't even know what's causing Cat to be upset, but my intuition is telling me that I need to haul ass over there.

I find an empty spot on the street to park, and jog up the sidewalk to her house.

No cars in her driveway; contrary to the lone car parked there last night when I dropped Cat off.

Hurriedly, I get to the doorstep and knock.

"H-hi." She stutters. She's okay. I'm hugging her, silently thanking that she's physically okay, and she jumps.

Huh? "What's wrong?" I ask, in reference to her jumpiness.

Her bottom lip quivers7 , she looks into my eyes and says, "everything".

I close the front door behind us and let her guide me upstairs into her bedroom, so we can sit and talk.

It's quiet.

"Where is everyone?" I ask as I sit down on her bed; it's a Saturday – I don't see her parents or her brother around at all.

Tears well up in her eyes.

"Oh! Ah! Don't cry!"

"Beck. You know my brother, right?" She replies, sitting next to me and I start to think I know where this conversation is headed (who hasn't heard the stories about the extravagant things that her brother has done?)

"Okay. Well. Do you think I'm a freak?" A whole new question; completely out of the blue.

My eyes widen at the thought of her saying this.

"Cat, No! You're not a freak. What in the world makes you even consider that?"

Her eyes go downcast, and she mumbles something incoherent.

"What happened?" I repeat, in a more determined tone.

"Last week. The day of thanksalotgiving. We were home from school, I was hungry because I skipped out on lunch earlier that day, I didn't eat since I woke up. I grabbed the leftovers from the fridge. Tacos, my favorite. They're so cute, you know, dressing them all up in lettuce blankets and shredded cheese hair…" She stops and takes a breath. " Well, about an hour and a half later, my dad came home. He was unhappy, He saw that the food was gone… he asked me about it, and I can't lie. He gets angrier when I lie, he always knows. So I told him I ate them, and he started yelling. "Are you serious? You shouldn't have ate them! Have you seen what you look like? You're gaining weight left and right!" I told him I was hungry and didn't eat for the whole day. He said I was probably lying with my "so called 'acting skills'" He told me my hair was unnatural and made me seem ugly - no, uglier. So I started to tell him I could always dye it and then he got angrier than me saying he just wanted a normal daughter, that wasn't…" she gulps, and I can see her visibly shaking, "diseased. Not like physically, he meant my going to the nice doctors to help fix my brain.

"He told me that I am a mistake. My mom is wasting all this money to try and fix my messed up brain when I'm hopeless. And now I'm wasting his money, getting fat off of his food." She's trembling hard now.

"I told him I was sorry. And he… He hit me. I'm not supposed to tell you that. He hit me. He's shoved me, pushed me into things and knocked me down before, but never hit me. And once he started, it was like he didn't wanna stop."

She's curled up with her knees to her chin, tears flooding down her cheeks.

"Why didn't you tell anyone?" I ask, gently. I scoop her up tenderly, letting her cry in my arms.
"Legal reasons." She says, and I don't understand.

"That's not even the bad part. My brother went out after work with his friends to celebrate some big milestone at his job, so like he drank a beer or two but he's twenty-four so it's legal. But he came home and heard my dad yelling and things just got bad as soon as he walked into the room and saw my dad punishing me. My brother asked what was going on, and my dad basically said, "Your sister is giving our family a bad name!" and some more not so nice things.

"I tried to tell them to stop fighting, and my dad got angrier. "Stay out of this, you fat basket case!" My brother stepped up in my defense; my dad pushed him so that he fell. He got up and swung at my dad, which then resulted in my dad swinging back. I can't really remember the rest… my mom came home to me screaming my lungs out and my dad and brother rolling around on the floor, blood evident.

"We were at the hospital when I finally came to and realized what all happened… and I guess that my dad wants to press charges on my brother for "attempted manslaughter". He has a broken nose to show, but is claiming a lot more. He has proof that my brother was slightly intoxicated, but hardly. My mom really, really protested it, but my dad said it was his money and his nose, so he wants my brother locked up. So my mom said she wants a divorce.

"They did the pre-trial… that's the day that I wasn't in class. That's why my hair was so dark… and my father basically made it seem like my brother attacked him for no reason. He's being held with a $25,000 bond, something my brother or mom or I can afford." Cat keeps wringing her hands and digging her nails into her hands, trying to distract herself from the obvious.

"I'm going to be all alone for Christmas, Beck. My dad hates me. My brother is in jail. I haven't seen my mom since the day we went to the pre-trial."

I hold her tighter and she's just sobbing. I don't know how to comfort her, so I just hold her till she lets go.

"Thank you, Beck." She's so broken and I just want to fix her.

"No, I haven't done anything."

"You picked me up when I was walking towards Tori's house. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have gone there, played along with the night's events. You even picked me up when I fell apart when Rex and Robbie called me fat."

"You're so strong, much stronger than anyone I know." I tell her, knowing that she's tried to put on her brave face around everyone.

She shakes her head. "No, the monsters come out at night and I'm so scared."

I consider the factors, and regardless of the war in my head, I make my decision up.

"Cat?"

"Stay, please." It was like she knew exactly what I was going to say.

I nod. "I will, but just till the monsters go away."

She pushes her face into my shirt, saying okay, and repeatedly saying thank you.

We fall asleep like that, me holding her tight in my arms.

I wake up, lying with Cat curled up into a ball with me.

I realize I need to get back home; my phone's black out dead and I shouldn't be here, sleeping on a bed with a girl who's not my girlfriend. It's dark out.

Carefully, I release my grip from her, kiss her on the forehead and leave the room without a noise.

As I'm tiptoeing my way down the steps, I hear faint noises from the kitchen and I freeze, watching from the staircase to down below.

I see a figure shuffling in the living room and then go back out into the kitchen.

He stops, picking up a newspaper from a coffee table and I get a good look at him.

This is the man who's verbally, physically and emotionally damaged her daughter to the point of emotional breakdowns. The man who put his son in jail. The man who let his wife run out on him.

It took every ounce of control to stop myself from going down the steps and putting my adrenalin and strength to the test.

I waited until he enters what I assumed to believe his bedroom and sit for a few more minutes until I slip out unnoticed.

Walking out to my car, I look up at Cat's bedroom, hoping she's sleeping well and that she'll be safe for the night.

Ah, interesting how things are developing. If I have any errors in these chapters, I must let you all know that I take these chapters from my master story and put them into separate documents. If I had it my way, I'd publish the whole story at once. Oh well, hope you guys liked this – if I get enough reviews, I should have another chapter up before Christmas!

-thanks!

ihearu