Chapter Twenty-Six

There is something poking my cheek. Maybe if I ignore it, it will go away.

"WHAT DO YOU IDIOTS THINK YOU'RE DOING?!?!" I heard a voice that sounded an awful lot like TC. I cracked my eyelid open to check. Yep, that's her. Oh, look Caveman and Magnet are the ones who woke her up…idiots. I shut my eyelid back and snuggled farther into my make shift pillow which also happened to be Hype.

I'm going to punch whatever is poking my cheek. I raised my fist and swung in no particular direction. Yes…contact.

"Geez, Twist, what did I ever do to you?" I heard a wheezy voice coming from a boy that I did not know the identity of. Nor did I care at the moment. Prolonging my sleep was my main priority. What on Earth? WHO is doing that? I decided to open my eyes. I found my target: Armpit. Sadly it was Twitch that I hit. Oops.

"What do you think you are doing?" I asked in a low voice. I was tired.

"I thought you were dead."

"Wrong answer." I shut my eyes again and turned away from them.

"Oh. Huh?"

"Leave me alone or your body will never be found." I was desperately hanging on to my unconscious state.

"Sorry Twist, but it's time for school," X-Ray said coming over and trying to lift me off the couch. I sat up, but he was going to have to physically remove me from my position on the couch.

"I don't care about school. Besides, it's Friday, let's ditch."

"Silly little sister," Lewis' voice drifted over to me. "How can we ditch when it is at our own home?" He scooted X-Ray to the side and threw me over his shoulder.

"Lewis Arnold Robinson! Put me down this insist," I growled at him.

"Sorry Em…but you need a shower," he said while 'lovingly' throwing me into my tub and turning on the cold shower. Then he ran. Good thing too, because when I'm done, he better pray that I'm in a better mood.

When I finally returned to the living room, I was ready to kill Lewis. But when I entered the living room everyone else was already working on today's assignment. I might as well do the work now and kill Lewis later. Preferably before my date with Squid. I sent a glare towards Lewis and started on my work. Math. Ew. Not cool.

Question number one: What is the blah blah blah blah…

This is going to take forever.

10 years later (okay, more like 4 hours) everyone was finished. I hope I never have to see another Calculus problem again. Lewis fled the house to go surprise Gia during the school's lunch hour…whipped. He probably won't get past the office. I started putting up the laptops while everyone was leaving. I noticed Squid hanging behind, and he started to help me with the laptops.

"Hey Hun," I said pecking him on the cheek. That reminds me: get Armpit back. "What's up?"

"Well, I just wanted to make sure you still wanted to go out tonight," Squid said to me shyly.

"Why wouldn't I still want to go out to night?" I asked confused. Squid is still in his mood.

"I don't know, maybe you wanted to hang out with Sarah or something," he said with a sigh.

"Alan, I want to go out with you. I want to be with you tonight, not with anybody else. I don't care what we do, as long as I'm with you," I said taking his face in my hands. "Is everything okay?"

"Yes…maybe…no, not really," he said quietly. "Mom's been drinking again. It's getting really bad." Oh no.

"How bad is really bad?" I asked with worry.

He turned around and lifted up his shirt. There were bruises all over it.

"Do you want to stay here tonight?" I asked him sensing his unspoken question.

"Yeah," he said dropping his head.

I did the only thing that I could. I gave him a shoulder to drop his head on. We sat on the couch while the TV play cartoons that we watched when we were too little to know hardships. I was laying down in a similar fashion to Hype's, while Squid rested his head on me as I had done to Hype. I was absent mindedly stroking my fingers through his hair. I don't know how long we stayed like that, but it was somewhat dark out. Lewis wasn't home…probably at Gia's house. I felt Squid's breathing slow down as he fell asleep.

"We'll figure something out tomorrow," I whispered to no one. I wish I could help him more, but he refuses to accept any major form of help. It must be really bad right now because he would never just accept my offer without a fight. I just continued running my fingers through his hair and watching old re-runs of Bugs Bunny until I fell asleep with him.

~*~

I felt myself being brought out of my sleep, and I opened my eyes to see Squid's staring up right back at me.

"Hey," I whispered.

"Hey," he whispered back while putting his head back the way it was. "Sorry we didn't go out tonight."

"I told you that I didn't care as long as I'm with you," I said resuming my task of combing his hair with my fingers.

"But, I'm supposed to be able to take you out whenever," he said sitting up and pulling away from me.

"And I don't care about going out. Why do you all of a sudden?"

"Because I'm your boyfriend!" Squid said standing up quickly. His voice rose a little too. "I'm supposed to be your support system, not the other way around."

"Is that what you think? Because you're the guy you're supposed to offer comfort but not accept it. Alan, I'm your girlfriend. I like the fact that you come to me for support, and that I know I can come to you," I said softly and standing up slowly. "You are no less of a boyfriend because you tell me your problems. I want to know your problems, so I can help you go through them."

Squid sank back down on the couch with his head in his hands. I slowly lifted his chin up, so I could look into his eyes.

"Alan Smith, I love you because you're you. Don't you for one second think that I'm going to leave you because you have problems. We all have problems, and we're going to work through them together." I bent over slightly and gently kissed him on the lips. "Let's go upstairs and go to sleep. We will figure out what to do in the morning about your mother."

I led him up the stairs and into my bedroom. We fell asleep with his head on my chest and my fingers running through his hair.

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evongreen07: Yeah, we do too. Technically they aren't allowed to kick them out because everyone is intitled a free education. But some administrators are bitches with no time on their hands are find loop holes to kick those students out. Like excessive tardies and stuff. Thanks for the review and adding this to your alert list!

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Thanks to everyone who is reading this story!!! PICTURES OF CHARACTERS ON PROFILEif you didn't read the last message.

Love always,

Dee