"I just don't feel like one of the guys there anymore, you know? Does that sound dumb? Does that sound, like, you know, really gay?"

"Gay? Don't be a moron."

"You know what I mean."

"Not when you talk like a jackass I don't."

"Cal, dude…."

"Sam you're better than that. You're not that guy. Don't be that guy, don't be that asshole. Gay isn't another word for you feeling like a retard so…."

"Retard? Oh, sure, that's really PC….." challenged Sam, ashamed of his own misspeak but not ready to let Calvin make the same mistake. Though different in age, background and often opinion the two boys were lightening quick to call each other out and to pull each other up by the scruff of the neck when required. "Okay so I was out of line there. So I said it wrong. My point is that school sucks. I hate those guys. They're idiots. They can't see past the chair and I want to punch them in their stupid, ignorant faces."

"Hey, hey where'd this all come from?" asked Calvin, as the two meandered through Central Park and he tossed stones into the shrubbery at their side. "When did you get so angry Stabler? When did you start sounding like…."

"You?" smirked Sam, increasingly proficient in handling his wheelchair and spinning to a halt as they reached a clearing. Running the wheels back and forth, tilting his head from side to side he laughed, "You know what I think it was pretty much around the same time I would up on two wheels and figured out who my real friends are."

"That's not you though. That's not who you are."

"It is now."

"Nah, nah you're just this quiet, sweet, awkward little dude. You're awesome but you're not angry."

"You've been gone a long time Cal."

"Yeah…." taking a perched seat on a nearby rock Calvin looked through aviator sunglasses at his younger friend and nodded slowly, "… yeah."

"I might only be a junior but you know what I feel like this thing has put a million years on me. I just can't take all their crap the way I used to. I mean most of the kids in my class always were idiots but I just lost patience or something. They're pathetic. All they care about is having the latest sneakers or which rally girl is baking them stupid cupcakes or which base they went to Saturday night. They don't get it."

"That chair salt your game?"

"What?" asked Sam, frowning slightly as hair that badly needed cutting fell in his eyes.

"I mean I know your legs don't work but, like, other stuff…." shrugging thick set shoulders Calvin smirked, man to man, "… how's that working out for you?"

"You're an idiot."

"I'm asking."

"What is this? Like freakin' Oprah or something?" spreading his feathers, craning his neck, feeling a little uncomfortably hot Sam avoided his friend's eyes. He felt awkward. He felt incredibly awkward. Yet somehow, in the beat of silence that followed after he felt relief. He was close with his parents but not that close. He couldn't talk to Olivia the way his sister could. He admired Elliot, he loved his father dearly but this was not a conversation any teenage boy wanted to have with family.

"Dude I'm not saying you're fucking Hugh Hefner so relax. Don't have a seizure. I just wondered if you could get it up…." so calm, so casual, so unassuming Calvin shrugged "….that's all."

"It's weird."

"Yeah?" there was absolutely nothing in the way that Calvin looked at him that made Sam feel uncomfortable. It was strangely organic. It was so easy, so candid, so raw and so honest. He truly felt in that moment that he could have said anything and his friend wouldn't even flinch.

"I guess sometimes, maybe, sort of. I don't really have that much to, you know, like, compare to. From before I mean. I was just a kid. I just played football. I didn't really care about girls and stuff."

"They're not ever gonna get it, bud."

"Huh?" asked Sam, understanding now what Eve had always complained about. It was like Calvin had whole conversations in his head. He was far quicker, smarter, shrewder than people gave him credit for and though he wasn't a man of many words his mind ran a mile a minute. Behind that brooding gaze was a wealth of experience. A profound understanding of the limits of the human condition.

"Your little friends in high school. You won't ever get them to understand. They're not capable of it. They didn't have to grow up overnight the way you did."

"It really sucks you're in the army."

"Does it?" smiled Calvin, flashing a white toothed grin and casting an affectionate gaze on the boy he had grown profoundly fond of.

"It's not the worst thing ever having you around."

"Is that right?"

"Shut up."

"You sound like your sister."

"How is that, by the way? How's that going?" but as soon as he'd asked Sam realised that Eve was probably the only subject imaginable that the two of them were not going to be able to speak of. She was beyond even their fraternal bond. "Okay, my bad, touchy subject."

"Not really."

"You miss her?" he couldn't help it. Though he may not have realised it yet Sam had his mother's acute awareness of others. Their feelings, their thoughts, their innermost fears and desires. Where Eve was a talker he was definitely a listener, not just to the sounds but to the body language, the facial flecks, the emoting beyond words.

"Nope."

"Liar."

"Look do you wanna go eat something? I'm hungry. I could eat a steak right now."

"Sure, sure whatever…." nodded Sam, reaching for his wheels and narrowing his eyes, "…but for the record she's been a real pain in the ass since you left. I'm thinking that's your fault. So, you know, in case you were wondering? I'm pretty sure she doesn't miss you at all either."


"Cal it's me, it's Eve, I know it's late. I know it's really late but I'm at this stupid prom party and it's awful. It's just bad. It's so bad. I came here for my Mom. She was so heart set on me going to prom and then my friend Chloe said it would be fine. She said we'd stick together. Only we're not together. She's upstairs in some bedroom at this house party we're at getting with some college guy she brought as her date even though we were supposed to be each other's dates. So now I'm just sat here like a total idiot in this stupid dress and I hate it. I hate her and this stupid, stupid night and I miss you. I miss you Calvin. I don't even care if it makes me sound pathetic. I don't care if we're broken up and it was all months ago for me nothing's changed. I still love you. I still want you. I want you here, now. If you were here then we'd just be making fun of these idiots and laughing and I miss that. I miss how you always make me laugh. How anything is something with you. Like, just going to the store or the park or getting ice cream or watching a movie. I miss all your action movies and the way you always hog the popcorn and burp all gross when you've chugged your soda. So if you miss me, even a little bit, even at all. You could come here. You could come here and we could hang out and just even be friends. I mean there are guys. I've had dates. I'm not asking for anything. I just miss you so, well, that's really all I have to say. I'll text you the address and just if you want to see me. If you want to, you know, I would like to see you. I would really like that. Okay, well I'm gonna go now because I'm a little buzzed and I think I've been talking for a really long time and the beep is just gonna cut me off so….."


"I just feel like any guy who keeps snails as pets has something to hide."

"Is that your professional opinion, detective?" smirked Olivia, drying her hands on a tea towel. Dressed down in jeans and a clean white t-shirt she had never looked more attractive to Elliot who watched her from across the kitchen. Leaning nonchalantly against the refrigerator he, once again, marvelled at how lucky he was.

"It was a dumb movie."

"Sammy liked it."

"Yeah, yeah he did didn't he…." smiling warmly Elliot recalled how Sam had laughed and laughed as they'd watched the bizarre comedy earlier that evening. "I just keep thinking about Mouse though. The last time I did this was with Lizzie and God love her she was such a goody two shoes back in the day I didn't have to worry a thing."

"She let you believe she was a goody two shoes."

"Are those jeans new?"

"No…." with a twisting smile she arched an eyebrow, "… why?"

"I just think I'm gonna enjoy Mrs Stabler's mommy wardrobe that's all."

"Elliot!"

"Sorry, I'm sorry…..he grinned, moving across the kitchen and grabbing for her waist, "….nah, nah that's a lie I'm not sorry at all." Shamelessly stealing a kiss he didn't care one ounce that she was fixing him with her best disapproving glare.

"Get your paws off me!"

"Say that like you actually mean it…." he challenged, as she melted into him and returned his kisses lovingly, "… yeah, no, I didn't think so."

"You know I reckon Evie must be having a pretty good time at prom after all. I was so sure she'd send out an SOS like a half hour in she was so adamant she didn't want to go. Maybe it isn't such a stupid, trivial tradition after all, huh?"

"Sam said he's had no text from her either so…." they both knew that of any of them Eve's most honest text would be to her brother.

"He's lining up the sequel in there…" said Olivia, stroking at his face and then holding his cheek while she kissed him again, "…. you gonna come watch with us?"

"Are we sofa snuggling again?" asked Elliot, because he could bear to sit through just about anything as long as he was doing so with Olivia in his arms. "Can I bring beer?"

"Yes, but I could stand to lose the running commentary this time. You're not nearly as hilarious are you think you are, even after a beer."

"I disagree, but okay, let's go see where the adventures of Snail Boy will take us next….." he chuckled, heading for the fridge in search of beer before following her back into the living room where Sam had lined up their next movie.


"Hi, hey, excuse me…."

"Oh well hi there gorgeous, who are you? Are you from school? I don't recognise that face. That's a good face. You're cute. You're real cute."

"I'm looking for Eve Stabler?"

"You are really cute….." gushed the clearly beer buzzed teen as Calvin rolled his eyes and peeled her from off of his chest, "… you wanna fool around?"

"No, no I do not…." he muttered, depositing her on the nearest chair and indicating for her marginally more sober friend, "… she's gonna need a water, Blondie, can you get on that?"

"Do I know you?"

"I really just need to find Evie?"

"Oh she's in the kitchen!" came the guffawing snort from a boy unable to meet his mouth with his red solo cup of beer, "Dan Rogers is having seven minutes in heaven with Little Miss Stabler in the broom closet….."

"Where?" asked Calvin, unceremoniously pinning the drunk teen against the wall and glaring at him hard. "Where is she?"

"Kitchen!" repetition was not what Calvin had meant, but at any rate he soon found his own way there.

"Hey! Dude!"

"Shut the fuck up…." mumbled Calvin, rolling his eyes and wading his way through a sea of drunken teens. "When the hell did kids get so damn whiny? When'd you all lose your stones?"

"Hey! Hey, man, what you doing? Get out! It's not been seven minutes yet!"

"Yeah, no, don't give a shit…." said Calvin flatly, bursting into the kitchen broom closet and towering above the indignant seventeen year old who leapt in the doorway. "Move."

"Cal?" she knew that voice. Even behind the wall of beer and vodka, even with her heart rate slowed and her stomach churching she knew that voice. She had never been so relieved to hear anything in her life. "Calvin is that you?"

"Bambi?"

"Seriously man what's your deal? She's mine!"

"Shut up, asshole…." snapped Calvin, throwing a heavy forearm against the teenagers chest and flattening him against the wall, "… shut the fuck up before this becomes your seven minutes in hell."

"Hi…." swallowed Eve, grabbing for his t-shirt and wrapping her arms around the blissful warmth and comfort of his thickset waist, "… hi, hi I'm really drunk."

"Can you walk?" he asked, holding her waist and steading her. Bending slightly to catch giant pupils floating on those familiar blue eyes he narrowed his gaze, "You good? You okay? Hey? Hi? Talk to me?"

"I love you."

"Oh, okay, yeah…." he smiled, scooping an arm around her waist and holding her upright, "….let's get you out of here."

"You're a real dick, man."

"Yeah?" snorted Calvin, shaking his head with a blood boiling anger that tensed in every muscle as he looked at Dan Rogers with white hot contempt. "You think you're a real man here, huh? She's barely fucking conscious and you're a sick little bastard."

"I…."

"Calvin leave it, it's fine, please? Please, don't? Please just take me home?"

"You have no idea how she just saved your life, worm."

"Cal!"

"You so much as look at her again?" holding Eve tight under one arm Calvin held the other outstretched, pinning the boy to the wall and tightening his broad palm around his windpipe, "And I will break your neck. I will break your fucking neck."

"Okay! Okay! Man I'm sorry! I'm sorry I won't I swear!"

"She's not fucking yours….." floating through various states of cognizance Eve knotted her brows and concentrated intently, hoping desperately he was about to claim her as his own.

"Please don't kill me!" squeaked the increasingly alarmed teen in Calvin's grip.

"She's not anyone's, she's not a possession; she's not a piece of fucking meat….." warned Calvin with a steady, determined calm as he released the younger boy and waited a beat before finishing, "…. and if you breathe one word of whatever happened in this closet I will find you."

"Nothing happened! Nothing happened! I wasn't even in here with her!"

"Yeah, yeah….." nodding slowly Calvin tightened his grip on Eve and added, "… that's what I thought."


"I love you."

"Yeah, yeah you said….." chuckled Calvin, not listening to a word Eve said as she slurred her words at him sat on the curb outside the Stabler house, "… hey, hey keep your little hands to yourself."

"You like my little hands….." she teased, her thick fan of dark lashes batting drunkenly as she lolled against his shoulder and stroked at his thigh, "… you love what my little hands can do."

"Evie!" he snapped, grabbing for her wrist and throwing her hand back into her own lap. "Are you done throwing up? Are you empty yet? We can't go inside till you're finished."

"I really, just, really love you and you keep telling me to shut up but I'm very serious. I am a very serious. I'm serious very. I love you. It's not going away. I've been waiting but no. No it is not. It's just here, there, still…. "

"Here, drink this…" unscrewing the top of a water bottle he reached for both of her hands, wrapping them around it and encouraging it in the direction of her mouth, "… hold it, seriously, like, with your fingers. Grip it."

"Fingers, that's funny."

"Oh my God kill me now."

"You should do that thing, that tongue thing, with your tongue in my…."

"EVIE!"

"Oh your shouty whisper voice…." snorting a giggle and then hiccoughing she grinned over at him and bit her lip, "… my Mom does that when she's mad. Are you mad? Don't be mad at me. I love you. You're so pretty."

"Sit still, don't wiggle…." he instructed, dead pan and determined as he held a gentle hand at the nape of her neck and put the water bottle to her lips, "… drink, swallow."

"I always swallow."

"Bambi I swear to God…." he murmured, shaking his head and closing his eyes with restrained despair and tried patience.

"I want you back Cal. I do, I do I want you back. I don't know how or care or what? I just want you and these arms and you have really good arms and your stupid face is stupid and so cute and….."

"Drink, again, come on, attagirl."

"Cal I don't….." blinking slowly she leant forward, bracing her elbows against her knees and realising for the first time where she was sat, "… I don't feel good."

"No kidding."

"I'm serious everything's spinning."

"Yup."

"Don't leave me?" he panicked, still not quite sober enough to realise he never would.

"Course I won't leave you, you idiot. Just breathe, yeah? Fresh air is your friend right now. Fresh air and this water so keep drinking."

"If you hadn't showed up when you did….." the dark dawn of reality was deeply sobering and turning to him she swallowed a rising wave of nausea.

"Yeah, well…." he sighed heavily, rubbing with a repetitive, soothing motion at her back and stroking her hair from her shoulders. "He hurt you?"

"No."

"He touch you?"

"No…." she choked, looking away and feeling hot stinging tears burn at her eyes.

"Don't you lie to me."

"Nothing happened. I'm fine. I don't want to talk about it"

"You don't have a choice….." said Calvin quickly, turning sideways and grabbing gently for her face, stroking at her tear streaked cheeks with his thumbs and murmuring, "… look at me and tell me that? Look me in the eye and tell me he didn't touch you?"

"I….." grabbing her, hard, drawing her into his chest and holding her fast against it Calvin held her. Held her like he never planned to let go as she whispered tearfully, "Just over my shirt, it's fine."

"I'll kill him. I will kill that little bastard when I…."

"No!" partly because she was mortified even in her drunken state and partly because she believed him capable of it. Through the mist cloud of alcohol and tears in her eyes she looked at Calvin in that moment, stared deep into his eyes, and felt the breath leave her lungs. He would kill for her. It was not an idle threat. He was capable of it and his feelings for her were still, in whatever form, unspeakably strong. "I'm fine! Please, please God don't you do anything stupid. It's not that big of a deal."

"You wanna talk to Livia about how it's not a big deal? Because I swear if she knew she would…."

"I can't argue with you right now, please, I just can't….." falling back against his chest she grabbed at the soft material of his old black hoodie and nuzzled her face into it.

"Alright, okay, you're fine, you're fine….." now was not the time, he realised that, and so again he just cuddled her gently a while. Then, when she had gone a reasonable time without even retching he quietly coaxed, "You think you're ready for bed now? You think we can get you inside?"

"My legs feel like jello. I don't think I can make it yet. Maybe a little longer…." it was only partly her shaking legs, but mostly it was just that she just didn't want to go inside. She felt safe here. She remembered now how in his arms nothing else mattered. Nothing felt as bad, as difficult, or as painful.

"Nope, nah, come on, you gotta go to bed. First thing tomorrow your Mom is gonna check up on you at Chloe's house and you gotta have slept this off before then."

"I can't…."

"You don't have to…." he smiled, jumping up from the curb and then bending down he scooped her up like a floppy rag doll and gathered her into his arms. With a strong arm around her waist and the other tucked under her knees he carried her light frame swiftly down the driveway and through the house.

"Cal I don't feel good…."

"Baby you have no idea how not good you're gonna feel tomorrow morning…." smirked Calvin fondly, not unkindly, as he set her down on the bed and she closed her eyes and winced against the growing throbbing in her head. "Here, where'd you keep your aspirin? I'll get you a glass of water, this bottle's empty."

"This is tricky…." she slurred, when he returned a few moments later with a glass of cool water. Setting it down on her bedside table he spied painkillers on her dresser and retrieved them. Eve, meanwhile, struggled to free the clasp at the top of her zip that held her dress together at her shoulder blades.

"You look like a dying salmon."

"Hey!"

"Flip flopping around on that bed like a little fish on the deck."

"Are you gonna just laugh at me or are you gonna help, asshole?" chuckling to himself Calvin shook his head. Crossing the room he grabbed at her wrists and dragged her to a sitting position.

"Here, can you sit a second? No? Oh, crap, hang on….." as she swayed and waivered he flopped down onto the bed and propped her up. Sitting behind her he reached a hand to her bare tan shoulder, resting it gently as his right hand unfastened the clasp and traced the zip down her back.

"Thanks…." she swallowed, in a hair raising moment of sobriety as she turned eyes over her shoulder and met his.

"You're welcome…." he murmured barely audible in his response as they stared at one another in the darkness and spoke wordless volumes.

"I'm gonna throw up again…." brought them back to stark reality however as he lurched for the waste bin and held her hair as she heaved into it.

"You're alright, you're okay, just breathe it through." He had nursed more than his fair share of drunks in his time and never such a pretty one. Stroking at the now bare small of her back with a broad palm he calmed her, soothed her with soft utterances of reassurance.

"What the hell is going on in here?" came Elliot's voice suddenly from a new open doorway. Loud, angry, his blue eyes widening horror as he found Eve half-dressed and vomiting and Calvin clearly sober and in complete control.

"Babe what….." gathering a robe at her front Olivia, messed hair and makeup free joined the scene. "Calvin? Evie? Evie, baby what happened?"

"She's fine, she's just a little drunk she's…."

"She is not fine!" gasped Olivia, rushing across to the bed and taking over from Calvin as nurse.

"What the hell did you do to her?"

"Dad!"

"Get out."

"Dad….." but too weakened by her constant retching and the onset of a deep, drunken sleep Eve hadn't the energy to intervene as Elliot manhandled Calvin from the house. She couldn't bear Olivia's look of horrified concern or her father's anger and so she simply said nothing.


"So that's it, it's done, just like that. Simple, easy, just an envelope on a desk."

"It might've been simple Liv but we both know that nothing about this is easy."

"I am officially retiring from the NYPD."

"Yup."

"Six weeks and it's all over."

"You sound like you're having regrets?" asked Elliot with quiet concern, as the two stood together on a bustling New York street outside One Police Plaza. "Are you? Because I reckon there might be like, a cooling off period on these things. You could get back in there and…."

"No regrets Elliot…." she murmured, looking to him with a misty eyed smile, "… no regrets."

"Sure?"

"I am going to look after our son. I am going to learn how to knit. I am going to take walks and classes. I am going to kick our boozy little girl's ass several more times before she leaves for college so I can sleep at night when she's gone."

"Oh she was just sick as a dog still yesterday. I think that may well be punishment enough."

"I really just can't believe that it was Calvin who got her into that state. I can't believe that was really what was going on in her bedroom. Can you?"

"I don't want to but…."

"I mean I know those two are like magnets for each other but he wouldn't cross a line. He just wouldn't."

"He is twenty years old and he's been cooped up on an army base with all that that means for the past eight months. Liv you forget that I know guys like him. I was guys like him. He gets back here all chocked up on frustration and hormones and sees Mouse all blue eyed and besotted and it's just so easy to…."

"She hasn't talked to me about it. That's really, really not like her."

"I know but…"

"If he'd really done what you want to believe he did. If he really tried to take advantage of her in that state then she'd be devastated. She'd be just inconsolable, truly she would. That kind of betrayal of her trust? She's not afraid of him. She has never been afraid of him even when she should've been. Not even when we were scared to death because she was so young and naïve and he was anything but."

"Like I said I don't want to believe the kid is capable of that but you saw what I saw. Her drunk out of her mind like a little rag doll and him undressing her. What was he even doing there? He wasn't at prom. What was he doing in her bedroom when she was supposed to be at Chloe's place?"

"I think that these are all really good questions babe, I do, I just think that they're ones we should be asking Evie not each other. I think that the fact she hasn't answered them already is a pretty good indication that we may well be assuming zebras here."

"I know where our heads are at but where's your heart? Gut feeling, what'd you reckon? Is he like his cousin? Have we been wrong giving him the benefit of the doubt all this time? Is Calvin the guy everyone thinks he is?"

"No."

"Okay….." said Elliot, not disagreeing but still nervous.

"My heart says that kid wouldn't hurt a hair on Evie's head. My gut says there's more to this. I don't know what happened but the fact that I don't makes me sure that what we walked in on was innocent. I don't know how she got into that state or how she would up with him not Chloe after prom but something isn't right here."

"Damn right it isn't. That boy hand her half-dressed and half conscious. He could've done anything to her and she'd have been powerless to stop it."

"She's barely said a word since it happened. She won't even look me in the eye."

"You're not reassuring me here, babe."

"It could just be her being embarrassed to admit she had way too much to drink and got herself into that state."

"Or she could be scared to tell us that something God awful happened in that bedroom….."

"Calvin isn't a perp, Elliot! He wouldn't do that. He just wouldn't."

"Are you sure of that? Could you bet your life on it? Because we're betting Evie's….."


"You boys have fun?"

"What do you like have a sixth sense for him or something?" asked Sam, rolling his eyes with a knowing chuckle as he navigated his way in through the widened Stabler doorway. He and Calvin had only been halfway up the driveway when his sister had appeared at the front door. She had either recognized the roar of Calvin's truck or been waiting for their return. Either way the tense dance the former couple were doing was exhausting to his simplistic fifteen year old mind.

"There's soda in the fridge. I went to the store. You coming in?" she asked, her eyes dancing on Calvin as they lingered in the doorway and Sam left them to it. "My parents won't be back for another hour or so. I know things are awkward with them but….."

"They are?" asked Calvin curiously. They had barely communicated since her prom night, save a few texts to ensure she was still alive the following day. She had been mortified not only by her drunken state but by the wild declarations of still burning love she had made. They weren't untrue, she just felt deeply embarrassed at the way she had expressed herself between bouts of vomiting. "How's that?"

"I mean because of the other night and all…."

"Huh."

"Cal I know I said a lot of things and…."

"You were wasted Bambi. We all say dumb stuff when we're that gone. I've forgotten it all."

"You have?" she asked, a little saddened. If had remembered the general theme of her ramblings she wouldn't have minded. In fact it would've made it a whole lot easier to figure out whether he still felt the same way. As it was she could do nothing but retreat, assuming he did not.

"Were your parents pissed?"

"They weren't thrilled. The next day wasn't the most fun I've ever had on a lot of levels."

"Yeah, yeah I'll bet…." he chuckled, imagining just how truly horrendous her first real hangover must've felt. "You talk to your Mom about seven minutes in heaven?"

"No…."

"Are we just gonna stay out here, by the way? Not that I'm not loving awkwardly standing here with you. I just figured we could maybe hang with the Samster? Grab a soda? I have this sick picture of my first solo flight that I reckon your Dad might dig."

"Yeah, no, I mean I'd love to invite you in but I just don't think it's such a good idea that you're here when they get home."

"Why?" he asked, genuinely unclear. "You got some family thing happening or?"

"It's just they're still pretty mad about the other night and…." it hurt her, it physically hurt and shamed her to see the realisation dawn on his face. Nodding his head and flashing a dark smile Calvin closed his eyes.

"Oh, oh I see. I get it."

"No, no it isn't like that it's….."

"So you're telling me that two sex crimes detectives don't think I took advantage of their drunk seventeen year old daughter?" he challenged, understanding just exactly what she had meant. Elliot and Olivia had assumed the worst in him and she had let them.

"I…."

"You're a little shit Evie."

"Cal!"

"No, no you don't get to pull those eyes and that face with me. Not this time. This time you're in the wrong and you know it."

"I was just so embarrassed! I was so ashamed and they just think I'm their perfect little girl and I….." as her voice broke it was all so much more than being drunk on prom night, it was the whole world opening up and her being so scared to jump off the cliff, "…. gosh it's so stupid, so chicken shit an stupid but I just didn't want to disappoint them. I was just so scared to have them think bad of me so…."

"So you figured you'd just let them think I'm a sick son of a bitch instead?" snarled Calvin angrily.

"Calvin I'm sorry, I'm so sorry I didn't think…."

"I've worked my ass off trying to change their mind about me Evie. I have busted my balls for a year to convince your parents that I'm good enough for you and then you pull this crap? You throw it all away in one night because you'd rather have them think I'm a total asshole than tell the truth? That you had one too many beers and got yourself in trouble at a party?"

"I know I screwed up! I know I did and I'm sorry but….."

"You did screw up, you really fucking screwed up and it sucks. It's just shit because I think we both know that we're not done here. This thing between us? You and me? It's not over."

"It isn't?" like a firefly glowing in the twilight there was a glimmer of hope. Yes she had been a coward, an idiot, a child, but he still loved her. Even when he was boiling mad at her she could see that much in his eyes. "Cal I love you, I am still in love with you and…."

"Yeah well you know what you've got a real funny way of showing it."

"I'll tell them it wasn't how it looked! They'll know it's the truth, they know you! I swear to you Cal, I promise, once I tell them what really happened they'll be fine. It'll all be fine and…"

"I'm not so sure it will Evie."

"But…."

"I have done everything you ever asked. I have jumped through fucking hoops to be good enough for you. You know what? This time I'm the one who deserved better."

"I know."

"I deserved to have you in my corner. You owed me that. Not even as your boyfriend, just as a friend, just as a fucking person. I deserved to have you stand up and say he wouldn't do that. He would never do that and you know what Livia, you know what Elliot, you know he wouldn't."

"Calvin I'm sorry. Please? Please?"

"I gotta go…."

"Cal!"

"Let me go Bambi, don't follow me."