Crash
CONTENT WARNING - Another heavy chapter - please refer to opening chapter's content warning if you are sensitive to severe drug use and mental health issues.
I glared at Eyeball. "Jesus Christ man what the fuck are you thinking?" I pulled him out of the office and shut the door.
"Dude I don't know it just happened! She threw herself at me, what was I supposed to do?"
"Not bend her over the couch and fuck her!"
Eyeballs eyes grew big. "No man it didn't go that far...I mean I didn't-."
"The woman is clearly all sorts of fucked up and you think it's a good idea to cop a feel?" Eyeball went white. "Man if you'd have seen her you'd know this was not on me. It was all her. She said some messed up stuff, man I didn't know what to do. I figure with someone that unstable you just follow their lead. Man I think she was really trying to end it…" his eyes were wide.
"Yeah I got that impression too."
Eyeball rubbed his face. "Heavy shit man, I just feel bad the prom queen has to deal with this."
My mind snapped back to Rory on the other side of the door. I wondered how the hell she was going to manage getting her mother and sisters all home in one piece. The look in her big brown eyes when she first arrived was etched in my mind and despite the completely fucked up timing I couldn't help but notice how hot she was. Maybe it was the lack of pussy I'd just been discussing with Eyeball, maybe it was the complete insanity of the situation with her mother and the car wreck, but something inside me started to soften and I realized that this situation would probably go easier if the Homecoming Queen wasn't handling this alone.
"Eye, go see if you can move her car around to one of the empty bays. It's on display for the whole town to see where it is. When you're done, the sisters are in the shop. Go sit with them and give them whatever candy or soda they want, I'll figure out how we're gonna get them out of here."
"You want me to babysit the Scanlon sisters?"
"Try not to tell them you just fucked their mother, alright?" Eye shot me a dirty look as he jogged over to Ashley's car. I went back toward the office and cracked the door open.
"Get your hands off me! Can't you just leave me be!" I heard Ashley's slurred voice. "We have to get you home, I'll pull my car around. You just need a shower and to get to bed." Rory's words were hollow. She knew her mother needed a lot more than that. Ashley continued to nonsensically yell at her daughter as Rory again tried to reach out to pull her off the couch.
"Mrs. S, she's just trying to help. She wants to get you home alright." I stepped closer. I wish I had the sense to just call the cops when she hit the barrel. This wouldn't be my problem then. Or maybe it would have. The Cops coming to Tommy's wouldn't be good for anyone, god knows what kind of weight he had stashed in the house. It was too late now. This was on me and the Prom Queen to get through.
Rory stood up. She looked like she'd just gone a dozen rounds in the ring against a prize fighter. She pulled me aside. "Listen I don't want to put you out anymore than I already have but-." She cut off before she finished her sentence. I gathered that she stopped before she said "I need your help."
There was the look again. Fuck, why did this girl need to look so hot in a crisis? I sighed, knowing I was about to get roped into more bullshit. I locked eyes with her and tried to ignore a weird flutter in my stomach as I did. She took a deep breath and continued. "I can't let them see her like this...can I leave the girls here for a little bit so I can get my mom home? I know you aren't a babysitting service but everyone I can call is gone for the holidays and I…" Her voice cracked as she trailed off. I could see a million thoughts running through her mind.
"Deal with your mother. The girls can stay here or I can drive them home later if you want…"
Good going Merrill, get yourself in deeper. I don't think anyone would ever mistake me for being an overly compassionate kind of guy, I'd picked one hell of a day to start doing favors for my fellow man. I'd been in some fucked up situations in my day, but I'd always managed to turn the other cheek and look out for myself. Something about this was different. These goddamn Scanlon girls and the big brown eyes they'd stare up at you with made it near impossible to keep them hanging. My mind flashed back to Amanda telling me I'd gone soft, and in this moment I had to admit she wasn't wrong.
Almost like clockwork, she stared at me with those chocolate brown eyes. "I can't ask you to do that."
"You didn't ask. Your mother is a ticking time bomb and you need to diffuse it. You can't do that and cart around those kids." She bit her lip. "And don't thank me, just figure this shit out. Do you want me to pull your car around?" She nodded, as if in a daze.
She reached into her bag and pulled out her keys.
"Alright mom, Ace is bringing the car around and then we'll get going."
"I told you Lauren I'm not going anywhere." Ashley sat defiant on the couch.
"Mom please, you just need to get home."
"Is your father there?"
"He wasn't when I left. I won't even tell him about the car, I'll tell him you got hit. We can cover it up, it can be our secret." The desperation in her voice grew with every word she spoke.
Ashley's eyes narrowed. She looked tempted by the proposition but doubtful of Rory actually doing it. She sat in thought for a moment and I saw her face turn. A wicked grin painted her face.
"You're lying to me. Just like you lied about breaking up with Nick and how you lied about quitting cheerleading. You are the reason I'm like this. I gave you everything and you've done nothing but spit in my face for it. You're nothing but a disappointment." Rory took it on the chin, it was clear this wasn't the first time her mother had tried to cut her like this.
"You did this to yourself. Don't blame me." Rory stood up, staring coldly down at her mother. The comment agitated Ashley who popped up and stood with her face inches from her daughters. It was impossible not to notice how much the two women looked alike, especially with matching looks of defiance on their face.
"I wish I had hit that gas pump, then you'd be sorry." Ashley continued to push her daughter and fill her mind with thoughts that everything that was happening was her fault. I'd expect any other girl to be crying in the corner hearing their mother speak to them like that, but not Rory. She was cold as ice and barely flinched at her mother's harsh words.
"Well I'm glad Eyeball Chambers got in your way and that rubbing your disgusting half naked body on some high school boy was motivation enough to stop you." I stifled a laugh at Rory's comment, I didn't expect language like that out of the homecoming queen. Ashley didn't find it as funny as I had and flew into a rage. I saw her wind up with an open hand to slap Rory across the face. I jumped toward them but I didn't need to. Rory had unexpectedly quick reflexes. She caught her mother's hand in her own before her palm hit her cheek and grabbed it tightly. I was impressed, I'd been in my fair share of fights and had gone toe to toe with guys who didn't have reflexes like that. "You hit me once and got away with it, it wasn't going to happen twice." Rory snapped.
Ashley moaned as Rory wrestled her down on the couch. "Get the car Ace!" She yelled as her mother thrashed beneath her. Shocked, I backed out of the room and headed over to the car. As I ran to Rory's car, I peeked into the shop and saw the girls giggling at Eyeball, who looked like he was midway through some crazy story. Luckily he distracted them enough that they didn't see me hop into Rory's car and drive it around back.
I headed back into the office where Rory continued to wrestle her mother on the couch. "Ace thank god you're back! Get this wild animal off me! I swear I didn't raise her to behave this way!"
"It's time to go home Ashley, why don't you let me help you to the car?" I was desperate to diffuse this situation, the charm had worked on Ashley before I hoped it would work again. Ashley managed to push her daughter off her and was still for a moment. She looked up at me and raised her hand to me, as if to ask me to help her up. I took her hand and helped steady her to her feet. I handed Rory her keys. She opened the door and ran outside to open the passenger door. I helped Ashley get in the car.
"You're such a gentleman. Thank you for treating me like a lady, and not like a wild animal like my daughter does." She shot Rory a glare as she slammed the door.
I stood face to face with Rory. The image of her smiling up from the homecoming ballot flashed in my head. It was hard to believe in this moment that it was the same girl standing before me.
"Can you give me a half hour to get her home? I can get her cleaned up and give her something to sleep. Hopefully the girls won't have to see anything else…" she trailed off.
"Yeah they seem like they're having a great time with Eyeball, so I think they're ok considering everything."
"I don't know what I would have done if you weren't here." Fuck those big brown eyes again. Even in all of this insanity, there was no denying the girl was beautiful. "Don't worry about it. Might need you to back up this story to Tommy when he wonders why we unexpectedly closed…"
"Shit I'm sorry. I'll do whatever I need to do to make this right by you, I swear."
I shook my head. "Just get her out of here." She mouthed thank you as she walked to the car. I watched her drive off and hoped she'd get home alright. I stood out back and lit a cigarette and started to process what happened. Ashley could have blown up the whole place, I could be dead right now. I slowly walked over to the shop, preparing myself to deal with the Scanlon sisters.
I unlocked the shop and the girls were giggling up a storm. An hour ago they'd almost been killed and now they're all hopped up on sugar and joking around with eyeball. "Ace is back!" Olivia bounced around.
"Eye, get the sign back on. We gotta open back up now that things are cleared out." He leaned over and flipped on the sign and I turned the "closed" sign back to "open." Explaining this to Tommy was going to be interesting.
"Where's Rory?" Kendall shot me a worried look.
"She took your mom home."
"Is she coming back for us?" Olivia's face fell.
"She asked me to take you home in a little bit. She wanted to get your mom to bed."
The girls exchanged looks. Kendall took a deep breath. "She's alone with mom?"
"Yeah until I take you home."
Kendall furrowed her brow. "We can't leave Rory alone with her, we have to go now."
"We'll go soon, she just wanted to get your mom settled."
"You don't understand. I know you think I'm just a dumb kid but I know what's happening here. My mom is all messed up and if she almost just drove into a gas pump with us in the car. She might hurt Rory we can't leave her alone!"
This kid was truly terrified. The little one started crying again. Fuck! How did I get myself into this!?
Against my better judgment, I grabbed my keys. "Eye you good here? I'll be right back." Eyeball nodded, clearly dazed after the afternoon's events.
Kendall sighed in relief. I walked out the door with the girls in tow. If anyone in Castle Rock saw the sweet little Scanlon kids getting in Ace Merrill's car, the cops would get a phone call. Little would they know the little ones were probably better off than her older sister right now.
The girls jumped in my car and we drove out of the lot. I took the turn up to Castle View as Kendall directed me to their house. I wasn't surprised to see a gigantic white house with a red coronet parked crookedly in the driveway. It was easily one of the biggest houses on the hill, complete with a backyard overlooking the country club. From the outside it looked perfect, but I knew the real situation on the inside was anything but.
I parked on the street in front of the house and turned to the backseat to look at the girls. They were pretty quiet on the ride, you could almost feel them mentally preparing themselves for what was ahead. We walked up to the unlocked front door and I took a deep breath. I hoped I'd given Rory enough time to calm her mother down...
"Jesus Christ, they're back already." I heard Rory's panicked voice from upstairs as Kendall pushed open the front door. "Stay there and calm down, do not move Mom seriously!."
The little one moved toward her oldest sister's voice and I instinctively grabbed her shoulder.
"Why don't we give your sister a minute..." I pulled Kendall back as Rory appeared at the top of the stairs, white as a ghost.
"Rory what's happening?" The older one's lip trembled as she asked a question I was certain she didn't want to hear the answer to.
Rory shuffled down the stairs and put her arm around her sister and guided her into the kitchen. She was pale and breathing heavily. She knelt down in front of her sisters. "Listen, Mom's still not feeling well, I need you girls to promise to stay down here okay? Ken, make Liv a snack and go sit in the living room okay? Just promise you won't come upstairs." Rory's voice cracked as she guided the girls into the kitchen.
Her eyes met mine and her gaze stung me. She grabbed my forearm and nudged me toward the hallway. "I am so sorry to put you out like this..." a crash from upstairs interrupted her. The girls jumped up "Stay downstairs!" Rory yelled as she bolted up the stairs toward the noise.
Kendall ran up to me, "Please go help her, I know it's really bad up there she shouldn't be alone. I'm scared." Ahhh fuck. All I wanted to do was get out of that house but the terror in that little girl's eyes made me stay. One more crazy move and I'd call the cops and it would all be over.
I quietly walked up the grand staircase. "What have you done?!" Rory's voice rang out from behind the slightly ajar door. I stepped closer and peeked inside.
The crash we heard was the breaking of glass, I noticed shards strewn across the floor. Some of the glass was sitting in small pools of blood.
"Can't you just let this end for me?"
The words were hoarse. I leaned into the bedroom further and looked to my right. I saw Ashley slumped in the doorframe between the bedroom and adjoining bathroom covered in blood. She had smashed a vase on the bathroom vanity and had dug the shards of glass deeply into her forearms and wrists. Blood quickly soaked her clothes and the carpet beneath her. I scanned the room for Rory, who was on the phone next to the bed, screaming her address into it. When she saw me, she motioned for me to take the phone and she hopped across the room and tried to wrap a towel around her mother's bloody arm.
I held the phone to my ear and an emergency dispatcher was confirming that an ambulance was on the way before the call disconnected. I looked for the receiver to hang up the phone
"Why are you doing this? You could have just left if you were unhappy, why did you do this?" She fumbled with blood soaked towels, trying to wrap them tightly around Ashley's bloody wrists.
Ashley began to slump down against the wall. "This life has been pointless for quite some time, I wanted to be sure I at least made a grand exit."
I felt sick to my stomach. I felt gross for listening to this, but didn't feel right leaving either. I watched Rory pull off the shower curtain in one swift motion, using it to replace the blood soaked towels at her mother's wrists. Ashley was weakening but continued to push her daughter. "It's funny that this is what it takes to get you to care. At least I'll die finally getting to watch you try your hardest to not disappoint me." Ashley's words were cruel and cut deep, Rory sat there stoically, holding the blood soaked curtains around her mothers forearms.
A loud bang on the front door interrupted the tension and Rory mouthed "The girls...please keep them away from here." I ran downstairs as the paramedics entered the house and marched up the stairs. Kendall instinctively jumped up after them but I caught her and held her back. The tiny girl thrashed in my arms as I walked her back to the living room where her younger sister sobbed into the couch cushions.
How the fuck did I end up here? I sat down on the couch and the little one unexpectedly cuddled up to me and cried into my shirt. I was silent.
A couple cops walked in the open door and immediately looked at me on the couch with the kids. "Ace Merrill, do I even want to know what you're doing here?" The cop sneered at me like I was here to rob the place.
"He saved our lives, that's what he's doing here. Go help my sister!" Kendall had jumped up from her seat and pushed the cops toward the stairs. A bewildered look appeared on Officer Mitchells face as he stepped toward the staircase.
"Go check on Rory, I won't follow you I swear." Kendall stared at me and motioned toward her mother's bedroom. Reluctantly I stood up and followed the officers up the stairs. I stopped behind them at the entrance to the master bedroom and watched them remove their hats.
A paramedic had just stood up and shook his head. Ashley laid their lifeless, her lifeless body slumped in her daughter's lap. Rory was soaked in blood. The other paramedic put his hand on her shoulder and she slapped it away. She looked up and made eye contact with me. Her eyes were empty and I noticed her body trembling. "Get her off me." She whispered as the medics knelt and pulled Ashley's body off Rory's lap. She slowly stood up and stumbled toward me. "Are they alright? Did they hear..." She was drenched in blood, her words unsteady.
Officer Mitchell cut her off and started peppering her with questions. She ignored him and walked closer to me, grabbing my forearm and guiding me out of the room.
"Miss Scanlon-" she whipped around. "Jesus Christ, I'm sitting here soaked in my mother's blood. I literally just watched her die. Do you think you could give me five minutes before we play twenty questions?"
The room went silent. "Merrill, I need a smoke." She walked out of the room and beckoned me into another bedroom. Officer Mitchell's eyes didn't leave me as I followed her down the hall. I reached into my pocket and pulled out my smokes, her shaking blood soaked hand pulled one out of the box. I grabbed one too and took out my lighter.
Rory sat on the edge of the bed, silently dragging on the cigarette. "I'm sorry I dragged you into this. I obviously didn't realize it was going to be this bad." Her eyes focused on me.
I had no idea what to say or do. She placed her cigarette down on the bedside table and unexpectedly stood and removed the blood soaked shirt. She stood there in her bra and stained jeans and fumbled through her drawer for a clean top. I felt like I was on an LSD trip or something. An hour ago I was pumping gas at the station, now I'm up on the view in the homecoming queen's bedroom while she undressed, moments after her mother's suicide.
She seemed completely indifferent to my presence and I admit, I couldn't help but stare as she slipped on a T-shirt and dug around her closet for a clean pair of jeans. She slid off the blood soaked jeans and I couldn't look away as she kicked them off her ankles. Vince was right, Rory did have a great ass. Admittedly this wasn't the best time to notice this, but I'm a man and she was a half naked girl standing in front of me, not sure what more you could expect.
She picked up her cigarette and took another drag.
"I'm sorry." It was all I could muster.
"For what? Checking out my ass?" Her snarky comment caught me off guard, but I saw her lips try to hold back a smile.
"I was referring to what happened next door. You undressed in front of me, can't blame a man for looking."
She looked at me and burst out laughing. "Is this not the most fucked up surreal thing you've ever seen?"
Her laughter initially made me uncomfortable, but I softened into a weak smile. "Yeah I didn't expect to end up watching you undress until I at least bought you a milkshake or something." She laughed harder. "You have no idea how bad I needed that. I feel like I haven't laughed in months…" she trailed off as the situation on the other side of the door clicked into focus.
She took another drag of her cigarette. "It really happened didn't it. When i get up and open that door, it's all still gonna be in there..." She looked down to the pile of blood soaked clothes on the floor and then looked at me. I saw the color drain from her cheeks.
"It was utterly fucked up. She was utterly fucked up. I'm sorry you had to go through that."
She stared at me for a minute. I winced slightly as I realized that I had officially added Rory Scanlons brown eyes and perfect ass to my list of weaknesses. "Thank you for saying that, for just calling a spade a spade. I feel like that's the one honest thing I'm going to hear for the next few hours."
She put out her cigarette and took a deep breath and walked toward the door to deal with the cops. She took a few steps and I heard the front door burst open.
"Daddy!" Rory jumped up hearing her sisters yell from the living room. "Fuck. He's home. Cops must have called him." She seemed to snap back into reality and rushed down the stairs to meet her father.
I was left standing in the doorway to her room, face to face with Mitchell and Collins. "So Merrill, we never did get your reason for being here...you harassing the Scanlon girl? What is going on here?"
"Gee Officer Mitchell, you've taught me my lesson for trying to be a Good Samaritan. The mother was sauced and nearly drove straight into a gas pump with the kids in the car. She wandered off at the gas station so I called her sister to get them home. She wanted to deal with her mother and asked me to bring home the kids. She'll confirm the story."
"Someone trusted you with their kids?" The officers laughed to one another.
"Clearly it was a crisis situation." I motioned to the bedroom.
Luke and Rory stormed back up the stairs, "How did this happen? Why didn't you call me?"
"Oh gee dad when was I going to do that? When I was pulling her off some teenager at the gas station or when I was trying to stop her from bleeding out?" I felt for the guy in that moment, Rory had an ice cold stare and her words cut deeply.
The cops shuffled uncomfortably in place. "Miss Scanlon I'm so sorry for your loss, do you think you'd be able to tell us what happened?"
"My drug addicted mother picked up my sisters from school high as a kite and nearly killed them by driving into a gas pump down at the service station. Ace is probably the only reason they're alive right now."
Fuck. Instantly all eyes were on me. It became apparent that her father hadn't noticed me standing there. He was clearly not expecting to see the guy who filled his tank last week to be standing in his daughter's bedroom. "We need to go talk to the girls." Rory made a move toward the stairs.
"Miss Scanlon-"
"Jesus Christ Officer with all due respect can you read the room here? Talking to my sisters about what just happened matters a lot more than discussing how Ashley Scanlon downed a bottle of benzos and slashed up her arms." This girl was no joke. She delivered her message bluntly, but with a country club like precision and cut to her words.
"Rory, just go talk to the officers, I'll talk to the girls." Her father stepped toward the stairs.
"No. You weren't here. You don't get to make the decisions right now. I'm going downstairs to talk to the girls. You are going to stay here and make sure that mess gets cleaned up so they don't see anything. Come downstairs in ten minutes and you can talk to them then. Then I will make time for our esteemed police force who seem to hell bent on making me relive the last few hours of my life."
The room was silent. I don't think a man alive would have defied Rory Scanlon in that moment. She took the silence as affirmation and she glided down the stairs.
Luke Scanlon took a deep breath and walked into the bedroom, one of the officers behind him. That left me and Mitchell standing uncomfortably in the hallway. I knew what was coming.
"Alright Merrill, time to have a chat." We stepped back into Rory's room and I sat down in the chair at her desk.
"What in the hell happened here and how did you get in the middle of it? You're on probation son, we'll have to tell the judge about this if there's any funny business going on."
"As I said before, I picked the wrong time to become a Good Samaritan. Ashley Scanlon has come to the gas station drunk or whatever a few times over the last few months. Today she was hammered and nearly drove the Cadillac into the gas pump, kids in the car and everything."
Officer Mitchell's eyes grew wide. "Where's the car now?"
"Parked our back of the shop, parked it out of the way so people didn't talk."
"How did you end up here?"
"I got Ashley out of the car after she smashed it up and sent her to sit in Tommy's office. I took the girls into the shop to call their sister. Rory came down and her mother was in bad shape so she asked me to take the girls home so she could get Ashley settled. I walked into this situation and then you showed up." I reached for another cigarette.
Mitchell stood there silently. He followed suit and lit a cigarette of his own. "And the girls will corroborate this story?" I nodded. He shook his head. "Are you friends with the Scanlon girl?"
I laughed. It hit me that I ended up going out of my way and getting pulled into this mess for a girl I barely knew. "Wouldn't say that. Just in the right place at the right time. Or the wrong place depending on how you look at it." I took another drag of my cigarette. Mitchell stared at me dumbfounded.
A knock at the door interrupted us. A third officer arrived on the scene. I'd assumed there was probably quite a commotion outside and that the full force came out to the Scanlon house. "Mitchell, we have a Tom Carter downstairs, he says he's Merrill's guardian…"
Shit. Tommy's here. Eyeball must have filled him in. I nodded and Mitchell directed me out of the room. I headed down the stairs and saw Rory holding her sisters on the living room couch. Kendall sat with her head on Rory's shoulder, staring into space while Olivia sobbed into Rory's lap.
Another cop let Tommy in. "Jesus Christ Johnny what the hell happened?" The girls popped up from the couch, Tommy hadn't realized they were right there. I tried to pull him into the kitchen. Rory stood up from the couch. "You guys can use my dad's office, come this way." Tommy and I followed Rory down the hallway and into a room behind the kitchen. She stopped and looked at me and then moved her eyes to Tommy. "Don't be too hard on him, he saved lives today. Send us a bill for the garbage can." She motioned to a bar cart in the corner. "Oh and have a drink, you've earned it." She smiled weakly, turned away and closed the door behind her.
Tommy's jaw was on the ground. "Eyeball told me some kind of story but I didn't believe it. Something tells me the truth is more wild than anything I'm imagining."
I started from the beginning and filled Tommy in. Partway through the story, we decided to take Rory up on her offer and Tommy poured each of us a scotch from Luke's bar cart.
"Well fuck me Johnny, you saved those girls lives."
I shook my head. "Don't put that on me. I was in the right place at the right time I guess."
"You should have just called the cops."
"I told myself the same thing about five times. Things just moved so fast I didn't have time. Plus I was worried they'd try to find a way to pin this on me, like I sold her the drugs or some shit."
Tommy laughed. "You gave four kids their age a beating for the ages a year ago and now you're rescuing them. You've come full circle kid."
A knock at the door interrupted us. Rory peeked her head in. "Hey, sorry to bug you."
"We're the intruders here." Tommy smiled. Rory politely smiled back. She looked exhausted, but hadn't looked like she'd shed a tear.
"You guys can hang as long as you like, it's no trouble. I just wanted to let you know to leave out the side door through the kitchen. The neighbors are all over the front door and I don't want anyone harassing you. Cops are trying to get them out of here but it might be a few minutes." I realized this was going to be front page news. The last thing I needed was the world knowing I was here when this all went down.
"Ace, can I talk to you for a minute?" Her voice interrupted my thoughts. Tommy got the cue and stepped into the hallway.
"I don't even know what to say." She walked over to the bar cart and poured herself a drink and plopped down on the chair Tommy was sitting in. "I know what you're gonna say, you aren't gonna want to make a big deal of this. But I owe you bigger than I could ever repay. I'm going to make this up to you." Her brown eyes were serious.
"Don't worry about it."
"No. This isn't negotiable. I'm gonna need some time to deal with this shit but I will find a way to make it up to you." She stood up and walked over to me. "Don't worry I'm not going to hug you and make this weird, I just wanted to thank you again. You saved my sisters' lives and I won't ever forget that." She touched my arm and smiled weakly as she walked out of the room.
Tommy reentered a minute later. He raised an eyebrow. "You and the princess friends now?"
"Not exactly. She wants to make it up to me I guess."
"She does owe you man. She'll probably offer you some of daddy's money, you'd be dumb not to take it." I wondered if that was what she was thinking when she made the offer.
"Poor fucking kids man, some shit thanksgiving they'll be having." Tommy shook his head. I had completely forgotten Thanksgiving was tomorrow. I took another sip of the scotch, that bottle was probably worth more than my car. My mind drifted to Rory, the girl had been through the wringer. I couldn't help but remember the way she laughed when we were in her room earlier. She seemed almost relieved. Not that I blamed her, my glimpse behind the gilded gates of Camelot proved that no one's life is perfect, not even the homecoming queen.