"Just out for a drive"

He replied a smirk on his face

"In a cemetary? Did Aunt Caroline send you?"

"No I'm here on my own, but I am sorry to hear about your mother."

"I'm sure you are"

Haylie answered with a hint of sarcasm in her voice. Owen crossed his arms over his chest as he looked down at her

"You know Haylie you should have some respect for your elders. Are your no-good brothers rubbing off on you? You should tell them they shouldn't be sticking their noses in things that aren't their buisness, it could hurt people that they're close to...oh wait a minute, its too late."

"Wh-what do you mean?"

"Your mother was a fighter Haylie, fought till her death. And maybe if your lucky-"

He leaned down to Haylie's ear level

"I tell you her dying words, I think was something the lines of 'please stop'"

Without thinking she slapped him across the face, catching her arm he threw her to the ground. She sat thereas he got back in the car and left, leaving her to deal with what he just implied.

"Haylie!"

She looked over seeing Michael walking towards her, standing she brushed herself off meeting him halfway.

"Who was that?"

"Just someone-Mike how did mom die?"

"She had been battling liver cancer for awhile, she actually lived longer than the doctors expected. Why?"

"I was just wondering, just something someone said"

Michael didn't know why she was so distraught all of a sudden, and she wasn't going to tell him who that man was. Putting his arm around her shoulders he lead her back to Veronica's car.

PBPBPBPBPBPBPBPBPBPBPBPBPBPBPBPBPBPB

Arriving back at Michael's loft people were already there, dishes of food lined up along the counter. Without saying a word to anyone Haylie went to change back into her jeans and black Ramones t-shirt. Sitting on the bed her conversation with Owen kept running through her mind. Her cell phone rang distracting her from her thoughts, pulling it from her pocket she didn't recognize the number

"Hello?"

M- Standing in the living room, talking to one of his aunts he hadn't seen in forever, Michael sipped on a glass of sparkling water. Sharing memoried of his mother and people sharing their own made him miss her even more, but then he thought of her back in the hospital bed. She hung on to every breath she took and fought so hard, but it became too much for her small delicate body and

"Michael!!"

A shriek came from the back bedroom causing everyone to turn. Michael dropped his glass running to Haylie's call. He stopped in her doorway seeing her laying facedown on her bed crying into her pillow

"What' wrong?"

He scooped her up wrapping his arms around her small frame. She sobbed into his shirt, soaking it with her tears, but he didn't care.

"Please sweetheart, tell me whats wrong. What happened?"

Her wet green eyes looked up into his with such sadness it almost made him cry

"My-my mom is dead."