I've met naïveté, she is young and so hopeful. With a round face and wide eyes that gleam with starlight, she believes the best in everyone. She has a smile that shows all of her teeth and a warmth that no fire can match. She is doubtless in her beliefs and she gets frustrated easily. But she lives with all of her heart and soul. Pain has sired her but he has yet to taint her heart. Those she holds dear can only pray that he never does.

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Do you realize what your voice does to me?

Do you ever think of the kids we used to be?

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It had been two weeks.

Two weeks, and I had called everyday. I was sitting on the Gallagher porch smoking and waiting on Lip and Ian to come home. It was about six in the afternoon so Carl and Debbie were running around in the house and Fiona had just gotten in from work a while ago. I was more watching the smoke rise from my cigarette than anything when I heard the front door open.

"Hey! What are you doing out here?"

"Just thinking, I just got off the phone with the home. Still busy." Fiona sat down next to me on the step and grabbed my cigarette.

"She's probably just still mad, she can't hold a grudge for too long." I stared at the road for a minute. I had never told her about my mothers grudges and kicking me out, even though I had stayed here at the Gallagher house when it happened. It was now or never.

"You remember when I was younger, and I stayed here for a few months?" I asked her.

"Of course."

I could feel my face burning so I was staring down at my feet on the old steps.

"My mom had kicked me out."

"What?" She asked, I could hear the hard edge in her voice.

"Yeah, she uhm, she caught my dad trying to..." I stopped.

"Trying to what." I was silent for a moment. My eyes were glossing over and my vision blurred.

"Please don't make me say it," I whispered. She mumbled to God under her breath and pulled me into her side. We sat like that for a long while, my head resting on her shoulder and her chin on my head.

"She said I was an abomination, a husband stealing... a husband stealing whore," I said choking on my words.

"You were only thirteen," she said as if she was trying to make me see it wasn't my fault.

"Not when it started," I said. She was silent as she waited for me to continue. I had to wait a minute to collect myself.

"He started coming in my room when I was nine."

"Four years Lydia? Why didn't you tell anyone? Why didn't you tell us? We could have helped you," She said. She almost sounded scared.

"It was my fault," it was as simple as that.

"No." She said firmly, "a nine year old girl against a grown man doesn't stand a chance."

"I could have locked my door. Or Like you said I could have gone to you, or—"

"Stop. For four years your father attacked you in your own home. And she didn't notice. God—" she choked off her sentence. "Do the boys know?" She asked.

I nodded slowly. "I didn't tell them until after he died."

"They would have... we should have killed him." I looked down.

"The night she kicked me out, I had locked my door. I was scared that I was... that I was pregnant. He tried to open my door but when he saw it was locked he started banging on it, he was drunk but he could still pick a lock... I tried to tell him that I thought I might be... and he started yelling at me and he grabbed me, he didn't care. My mom ran in and she just started screaming, at me and him, I told her everything..."

"And she kicked you out?" She was angry now. I nodded.

"Jesus, Lydia."

"She told me to get out. To get out and leave everything because she didn't want to support one of my dads whores. So I left."

"And you came here," she said.

"No..." I said slowly.

"No? Where did you go?"

"To the park... for a week."

"Lydia," she said in shock.

"Lip was walking home, and I didn't see him coming or I would've hidden. He ran up and started asking where I'd been, why I hadn't been at school or anything. I told him I didn't have anywhere to go, so he brought me here. I couldn't face you guys. I didn't have the answers to any questions you would've had. A couple of months later my dad died."

"Oh, sweetie." She hugged me harder "I wish you'd have told me. Why did you go back?"

"She was sick. No one knew it, but she was, and he had just had his heart attack and was in the hospital nearly dead. She needed someone to take care of her because she couldn't. She said she was sorry, that it hadn't been my fault."

"Because it wasn't."

"I was just glad she let me come back."

"I could kill her, hell I wish I'd killed him."

"His heart and her liver kinda beat you to the punch."

"Not yet really, I mean she is sittin in that home," she said with a fake pondering tone. I chuckled softly and she smiled at me.

"Thank you. For listening, I mean."

"Tell you what. Why don't you come out tonight. With me and V. We'll go to the club and we will dance until our feet fall off. Sound good?" She raised her eyebrows at me and smiled again.

"Yeah," I said with a laugh. "That sounds amazing."

"What sounds amazing?" Lip asked as he and Ian walked up to the porch. Fiona and I looked up almost shocked to see them, even though that was my whole reason for being out here.

"A night out, me and Fi were just talking about my mom and grudges," I said glancing at my feet. When I looked back up Ian was giving an understanding nod and Lip looked a little pensive.

"A night out could do you some good, Lip was about to head out he's going to tutor Karen Jackson."

"Karen Jackson? What does she need tutoring for? She has straight B's."

"She's got a C in Physics, needs a B." Lip said with a quirk of his eyebrow and a knowing smile.

"God I don't miss school. Or the bitches in it, especially Karen Jackson."

"She seems cool," Lip said with a shrug. I quirked my eyebrow nodding.

"She's Billy Marshall cool."

"Alright Lyd," Fiona said as she stood from the porch. "Let's go get ready for tonight I gotta tell V you're coming with." Fiona pulled me to my feet and up the stairs.

"I'll see you guys later," I said to the boys. Ian looked smug and Lip looked confused. Good. He needed to be wary.

Karen Jackson was a bitch. A whore sex-addict who didn't care if a guy was in a relationship, and who didn't do relationships herself. I know for a fact that she was getting it from Billy when he and I were together. It makes me shudder just thinking about it. She would hook Lip quick. And she would crush him. Unless he was smart about it.

"What was with the animosity?" Fi asked as we walked up the stairs to her room.

"She fucked Billy when we were together. And about four other guys that I know of at the same time."

"You know for sure?"

"Saw it. Behind the SaveMart on 42."

"Jesus, I mean there ain't any shame in getting it but that's a lot of plates to balance."

I gave my eyebrows a jerk and nodded.

"I just don't want her claws in Lip. She'd crush him."

"You sure it's not just a little green monster?" She joked.

"Why would I be jealous?" I asked incredulously.

"Oh come on, Lyd. Like you don't have at least a small thing for Lip."

"I do not!"

"Oh please. We all see it! Well maybe not him... but I actually think he has a little crush on you."

"We've known each other for years, Fi. If he had any sort of crush on me he would've tried something by now."

"So you've thought about it?" She asked with raised eyebrows and a huge smug smile.

"Not in length, jeez," I said laughing. She smirked at me and started rummaging through some clothes on her bed.

"So does Lip know she gets around?"

"Hell if I know, he'd probably find it attractive."

"You think?" She asked, truly perplexed.

"I definitely think."

"Gross... well I'm gonna run call V, tell her to get her ass over here and help us get ready."

"Ok, I'm borrowing a dress!" I yelled as she headed out of the room and down the hall. I started searching through her stack of dresses and saw one I loved immediately. It was a mid thigh burgundy dress that almost looked like blood. It had two thin off the shoulder lace sleeves with lace embroidered along the plunging neckline and along the bottom. It was beautiful.

"Okay! V said she had to grab a few pairs of shoes for us to try— Oh! Is that the one you want to wear? That would look great on you!"

"Yeah I really like it, what about my hair?" I asked her holding the dress up to myself and quirking my head.

"Oh down definitely, maybe we could get V to curl it!"

"Okay, yeah, I like curls," I said with a laugh and a big smile. Fiona grabbed her huge bag of makeup from the corner and we set to work as we waited on V. We had just finished applying foundation when V walked in with a bag of shoes and her curling iron.

"Shit, you two are going all out huh? What's the occasion?"

"Morale booster," Fiona said.

"Alright, sounds good, you got that fake ID kid?"

"Never leave the house without it," I said smiling.

"That's what I'm talking about now let's curl that hair, you keep up that makeup."

We spent the rest of the hour curling and powdering and smearing. It was oddly relaxing. Soon we were done and trying to pregame in the kitchen. The whole process had taken about three hours so it was nearing nine or ten. We were all standing in the kitchen, dolled up to the nines, trying to take shots out of cereal bowls.

Fiona was wearing a simple black dress with straps two fingers wide and a cute pair of heels. V was wearing a short low cut strappy dress and heels up to her thighs. I was genuinely relaxed.

"Damn, where's the party?" Ian asked as he came down the stairs, we were heading out soon and he graciously offered to watch the kids.

"We are the party," I said with a smirk.

"You sure look like one," he said smirking. "You look great, Lyd." I blushed and smiled behind another shot.

"Alright girlie, save the rest for the club, you know someone's gonna buy us drinks!" V said as she took my cereal bowl and put it in the sink. Suddenly the backdoor opened and Lip came in tossing his book bag to the side.

"Hey, woah—" he stopped staring. "You uh, you guys look nice."

"Thanks! By the way you and Ian are on kid duty. Homework, teeth, bed!" Fiona said looking at him, Lip was still glancing at me every so often.

"Yeah, you guys have fun," he said nodding.

"Alright girls. You ready?"

"Definitely." I said as V nodded behind me. We started for the door and Lip started for the stairs.

"Hey!" He called before I got all the way out the door, I stuck my head back in. "Be careful." He said with a stern face.

"We will," I said smiling. "Don't worry!" He nodded and stared as I shut the door with a smile and raised eyebrows. I get the strange feeling that he even stared at the door after I was gone.

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Hey you guys!! I hope you like this chapter! I've started posting this story on Fanfiction as well, under LivingLiberation because I wanted to see if it would do well there!

I think I'm going to skip the night out because obviously we are getting into the first episode here! They'll meet Jimmy Steve at the club and the ball will start rolling!!

Thank you for reading!! Drop me a like or a comment any time!!

Thanks!