"Night, Ron." She said, grabbing her keys out of her purse and walking towards the exit. The short chubby chef just nodded her out, smiling and saying something about cute kids. She laughed, walking across the parking lot and getting into her car, realizing how insanely tired she was once she actually sat down in the front seat. She'd just gone to school for the first half of the day, until five, and then went to work until eleven. The day had been long, tiring, and full of stress. All she wanted to do was go home and sleep.

Of course, that wouldn't be so easy. She'd have to go home, take care of the laundry, do the dishes, and entertain Christian for some period of time before he'd even think about letting her go to bed. He always complained about how she was never around, working so much. But since Christian didn't have a job, and Gen was out of work for the time being, she was supporting them all with her waitressing job at a little pub downtown, and they needed all the money she could make.

Christian was her boyfriend, for almost six months now. He was a tall, slender, dark haired and dark eyed Italian boy, who had been one of her first friends in England. They'd met in her music theory class, he a more cocky sophomore, and she a bumbling underaged freshman. Christian was four years older than her, but had apparently found something he wanted in the sixteen year old. Christian had asked her out after a week of the music theory class, with a corny pick up line and an offer for a cup of coffee. Shortly after that, she had met Gen. Gen was a freshman too, one who was in all of Rowenna's classes and had offered to help show her around the school. She was taller than Rowenna, but not by much, and had black hair, and slimming features. Rowenna and Gen got along so well, it was almost scary.

Two months later, the three had decided to stop living in their individual flats, and move in together. But not a month after they had actually moved in with each other, Christian got fired from his job, and a month later Gen followed his lead. From then on, it had been Rowenna who was paying all the bills.

She pulled into their garage, sighing and turning off the car wearily. The lights were still on, she noticed, as she looked up at the window of Gen's bedroom. So someone was still awake.

Rowenna got out of the car, walking up the stairwell to the apartment on the third floor, heaving her school bag behind her. She still had homework to do, too, she remembered. After the dishes and the laundry, she thought, almost crying at the thought. She opened the door, tossing her bag on the floor with her keys and shoes, and flicked on the light switch. The doorway to Gen's room was open wide, and she stood there, frozen in shock.

Moaning. There was moaning. And there, in front of her eyes, was her boyfriend, having sex with her best friend. Apparently, the clamor of the door swinging shut behind her made the two realize that she'd come home, because they both looked up, shocked. She grabbed her keys and her bag, and pulled her shoes back on slowly, turning around and facing the door as she heard the scurried rush as the two most important people in her life tried to disentangle themselves from one another. "Ro, wait-" Gen shouted at the slowly closing door.

She walked back down the stairs, tears welling in her eyes and blurring in her vision. There was a funny feeling in her stomach, and her throat was finding it hard to stay open and allow her to breath, but she could walk down the stairs, if she went slow. By the time she reached the final landing, Gen and Christian were both fully clothed and were running down the stairs after her. She walked through the front door of the apartment building, both of them hot on her heels. They finally caught up with her once she got to the car, opening the door and putting in her bag, getting ready to get in herself.

"Rowenna, hold on baby-"

"Don't call me that." She muttered, shutting the door. Damn it. The window was still rolled down. She searched through her pockets for the keys, avoiding looking at either of them.

"Rowenna, you don't understand, we were going to talk to you about it, but-"

"But what, Gen?" She snapped, as she pulled the elusive keys out of her coat pocket. "You didn't feel like telling me you were using me?"

"Sweetheart, we weren't using you..." Christian tried to argue, but she shoved the keys into the ignition and revved the engine.

"You were fucking my best friend while I was working my ass off to make sure you both had a place to live. I think that counts as using me. I'm not that naiive, Christian."

And with that, she rolled up the window, backed out of the driveway, and drove away from them both.

--------

She had spent that night sleeping in her car by a beach, and made a resolution that she was going to go home, back to Japan. She set up an exchange of schools with her college, finding a college close by Domino City that she could attend, and packed up all her stuff into her van. Christian and Gen had tried to tell her to stay, that they had just wanted to try it out...they even claimed to have wanted to try a threesome. But being around them both, either at the same time or by themselves, made her nauseous and so angry she thought she would kill them. She wanted to go home, and that's where she going to go.

Of course, when she had gotten home, no one had given her that warm of a reception. Her mother had hucked a sake bottle at her head, and her father had only 'let' her stay the night once she got back to Japan because he passed out on the floor in front of her before he could take a swing at her. The only one who seemed genuinely happy that she was back was Joey, and even so, he seemed to have grown slightly more distant over the years. That was to be expected, she had been a continent or so away. His relationship with her still being strong as it was, was amazing, all things considering. Hell, she was even amazed he was up for the idea of living with her, now that she'd gotten her own place secured.

But he was. And now they were going to find out if he was going to be there legally, or illegally.

As Rowenna pulled up in front of the school, she saw her brother's slouched figure, leaning against the building. She beeped once and he ran over to the van, jumping in as fast as he could manage and throwing on his seat-belt. "Let's do this."

"Okay." She replied, smiling weakly at him. She wasn't sure this was going to turn out the way she wanted it to, but she sure as hell wasn't letting him stay with that bastard of a father.

The car ride to the DSS office was pretty much silent, the two siblings sitting in their own private thoughts, worries, and anxiousness. Once the car pulled to a stop in the parking lot, and she put it into park, Joey looked up at her. "I'm sure it'll be fine, Ro. I promise."

"I hope so." Rowenna laughed.

"Hey Ro?"

"Yeah?"

"You never told me...why did you come back?"

At this, she sighed. She had just spent the past twenty minutes remembering exactly why she'd come back. But she laughed, deciding she didn't want her little brother to try and save up money to fly to England so he could beat the living daylights out of a scrawny Italian and wanna-be emo girl. "Because I missed being home." She replied.

"All right. Let's go."

)(Okeydokey, one more chapter to go! Sorry it took me so long to update. ; I try my best. I got DSL now, and I'm out of school, so I should be getting done with it fairly soon, I promise!

Joey: It'll go faster if she gets reviews, though.

Pengwinn: Oh so very subtle. :rolls eyes.: Whatever, thank you for reading!

YFFSM,

Pengwinn)(