I walked back into my house and went straight to the kitchen to clean up. It felt weird. I always used to clean up for fear of Damien. It kind of made me want to just leave a mess. As I fed the leftover pizza crusts to Charlie, I seriously contemplated leaving the mess, but realized that I was too neat for that. I was so deep in thought that I didn't even notice Vivian lurking in the corner.

"Your lipstick is smudged."

I think I jumped about a foot in the air when I heard her voice coming out of the dark. "Shit! No lurking. Damien used to do that. You scared the shit out of me. And I'm not wearing lipstick. Good try though."

"Okay, I was kind of just hoping you'd just cop to making out with the cop, but I guess it'll take more than that."

"Haha. My sister and her puns. You're just too funny. But really, nothing's going on between us," I lied, turning away from her to continue cleaning.

"Turning away just proves that you're lying."

"How can you tell?"

"Because I've known you since you were born. I know all your tells."

"No, not that. How could you tell about Nathan?"

"By the way that he was always touching you. He also looked at you as if you were the second coming. Then there was his frantic search of you simply because you had a fight with your sister. It's so obvious how he feels."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Then there's also that hickey on your collarbone." Vivian pointed to an almost fully covered hickey that I hadn't even noticed. Crap. That seriously wasn't good. I sat down on the chair next to her and tried to not think about how deep I was in this.

"I should probably wear a different type of shirt tomorrow."

"I'd avoid shorts too. Looks like you've got another love bite." She laughed at me as she pointed to yet another hickey that was on my thigh. Seriously. Tomorrow, I was going to kill Nathan. Suddenly Vivian grabbed my shirt and pulled it up, "You got anymore under there?"

I pushed her hands off of me and put my shirt back down as I gave her a menacing look. "I hate you."

"You love me. And you're screwing Nathan Scott."

"I am not!" I shouted, most likely waking up Mike if he had been asleep.

"Hales, darling. How do I put this politely?" She paused as if actually thinking of a nice way to say it, but I knew it wouldn't be. It's Vivian after all. "Inner thigh hickeys don't lie," she finally said. Not exactly poetic, but generally true.

"We didn't have sex," I once again told her. How many times do I have to say it?

"Fine. No penetration, but he totally got you off. Don't lie, Hales."

My face turned bright red. Why do my sisters always have to talk so openly about private things?

"It's okay, Hales. It's only fair. I mean, if Damien cheated on you…"

"That wouldn't make it right. Which is why I can't and won't sleep with Nathan."

"So this thing with Nathan isn't about revenge?"

"Not at all," I told her as I shook my head.

"Then is it about living some high school fantasy?"

I hadn't really thought of it that way, but I guess it kind of was. "Maybe. But it's a lot more than that too. In high school I thought it was all one-sided, but now… he said that he had loved me then."

"Woah. Hold up. Love?"

"I know, right? That's what I thought. I'm not sure if he even meant to say it. I guess it kind of slipped out. But there are so many things he's told me about back then. I think probably the best example I have is the other day when he bought me chicken fingers for lunch."

"So?"

"I didn't ask him for chicken fingers. I didn't ask him for lunch at all. I was staying with him and he showed up at lunchtime with chicken fingers simply because he remembered that I ate them for lunch in high school."

"Okay. That is kind of sweet."

"Kind of? I swear, Damien still probably doesn't know all of my favorite foods. And he would never dream of leaving work in the middle of the day so that he could have lunch with me."

"Maybe that just means that you chose a bad husband."

"Thank you Viv, for always stating the obvious… What do you think?"

"About what?"

"About me and Nathan."

"I don't know, Hales. You deserve to be happy. And if Nathan makes you happy, then I'm all for you two. But I would strongly advise that you stay away from each other until you're actually divorced."

"Thank you." I laid my head on her shoulder as she put her arm around me and it reminded me of how much I needed my family. "I love you, Viv."

"I love you too, Hales." We sat in silence for a while to the point where I thought I might have fallen asleep before she spoke again. "Why didn't you ever tell me? About Damien? I would have helped."

I couldn't look at her when I answered, I never could. "I was embarrassed at first. I thought it was my fault and that I was weak. Then it got to the point where I was just too scared. I never knew what would set him off. It would always get really bad though when family was involved. He'd get so mad when I wanted to hang out with Quinn. I didn't have a way out of it."

"Then how did you get out?"

I sat up, feeling less embarrassed and able to look her in the eyes. "Nathan. I went to the hospital one time and he was there. He automatically became like an overprotective brother the first time he saw me hurt. Another time, I was just wandering the streets beaten up and I ran into him at his house."

"How did you know where he lived?"

"I didn't. He lives in the neighborhood. The next time that it got bad, I needed to get away, so I just walked to his house and he took me in."

"So you've been there that long?"

"No. Didn't I tell you all of this earlier?"

"Yeah, but you didn't really explain that Nathan had saved you from him."

"He did."

"Then in case it wasn't clear before. I definitely approve of him."