Julian and I woke up that morning to a loud knocking on his bedroom door. Julian rubbed the sleep from his eyes as I sat against his head board, the blanket covering the bottom half of my body since I was wearing Julian's t-shirt and nothing else.

"Hey, dad, what's goin –" Julian didn't have time to finish because his dad had walked in the room and took him by the elbow, making him leave his room. I grabbed my shorts from the floor and slipped them on as I put my ear to the door to listen what they were saying. I heard mumbling, some grunting noises, and I stepped back when I began to hear yelling. Minutes later, I was sitting back on the bed and Julian walked in, slamming the door shut.

He didn't say a word to me as his nostrils were flaring in anger. He put on a pair of jeans, a t-shirt and shoes. I looked at him, worry, skepticism, and concern filling my eyes. When he finally took notice of me, he sighed and sat at the edge of the bed. He motioned for me to come near him and I obliged. He put an arm around me as he placed my legs over his lap.

"Angela, I've got to go, okay?" He whispered.

"What? Why? Where?" I asked.

"I'll explain everything later, just go back home. I love you, alright?" Julian put both hands on my face as he looked at me intently. I knew he was about to go to Rip to try and reason with him, he knew I was going to stop him but before I could, he just sighed, kissed me on my forehead and left. I sat on his bed for several minutes before grabbing my things and running out of his house and into my own. I saw my parents sitting in front of the TV, trying to act nonchalant.

"Are you guys happy? Julian's gone and I don't even know where he went! Do you even care if I'm happy or not?" I yelled and my parents looked back at me with a perplexed look on their faces.

"Honey –" My mom started.

"No, don't honey me, Mom. My whole life you guys are always trying to find what fits your standards, always trying to find what's best for me, always trying to think that every decision you make for me is always the best, but guess what, they're not. I'm doing my best here to try and get Julian clean and of all people, you two, my own fucking parents, can't even be there to support my decision."

"Watch your language, young lady!" My dad yelled.

"I'm not young anymore, dad! I'm not your little princess anymore, okay? I know I'm disrespecting you guys, but how do you think Julian feels when all you both ever think about are the drugs that he's hooked on? He's trying his damn best to quit and that's all because of me! He's doing this for me, but I guess you guys are too oblivious to realize that he's actually a good guy, huh?"

"Angela, look –" My dad started, but I just interrupted him again. I didn't want to hear what he had to say, I didn't even want to hear him apologize.

"No, I'm leaving to find Julian. I'm not coming back for Christmas. If you have a problem with Julian, then I guess that means you also have a problem with me." I walked away up to my room and began packing. I made sure to lock the door so neither my dad nor my mom would be able to come in and try to reason with me. I had called Clay and within fifteen minutes I was leaving my house, placing my luggage in the back of Clay's car and left. I didn't even say goodbye to my parents and somehow I felt guilty for doing that. I knew I shouldn't have yelled at them, but I just couldn't take it anymore.

"Have any idea where he might be?" I asked Clay.

"Maybe at Rip's. We're going to pick up Blair and then look for him, alright?" Clay reassured me and I nodded, looking out the car as we drove to Blair's house. We got to Blair's within record time and she sat in between Clay and I. We rushed to Rip's house and just as we got there, I was about to get out of the car, but Clay told me to stay put. I shook my head and ran up to Rip's front door and opening it carelessly. Clay was right behind me and just as we saw that there was a small party going on, we acted calm, but deep down, panic and worry was raging in us both. We didn't find Rip, but we managed to go down a hall and Clay opened the door slowly to find Julian giving oral sex to another man.

My eyes widened and tears began to well up in my eyes. Clay picked him up by the shoulders as Julian dressed quickly. When Julian saw me, he looked down and didn't have the urge to make eye contact with me. I knew he was embarrassed right now, but I didn't care if he was giving head, the only thing I cared about was why he was doing that. We ran to Clay's car and since we couldn't fit, I had to sit on Julian's lap. We speeded our way through traffic, making sure that Rip wasn't following us and took the first opening to a freeway to leave LA. Blair had snuggled closer to Clay as night fell and the four of us inching closer to leave the city. Julian had placed a hand on my thigh, but I didn't make any movement. He nuzzled my neck and I just wrapped my arms around his neck as I cried into his shoulder silently.

"Hey, shh…I'm okay, we're okay." Julian whispered in my hair as he ran a hand up and down my back. I pulled back enough to look at Julian and he wiped away my tears that had fallen. "I didn't do any drugs while I was there. To be honest, I was tempted, but I thought of you and resisted," he admitted.

"Don't leave me like that ever again, please."

"I won't, I promise I won't." Julian leaned up to kiss me and I wrapped my arms around his shoulders to pull him closer. He parted my lips with his tongue and began an endless battle with my own. He bucked his hips up involuntarily and pulled back with a shy smile on his face. "You don't think lowly of me, do you?" Julian asked as I rested my head against his shoulder.

"No, but why did you do it?"

"That was one of the few ways to pay back Rip…" he whispered and I nodded, not wanting to get into detail.

We were leaving LA, leaving the drugs and alcohol, leaving our parents, leaving our lives, but what's best was that we were leaving together.