Brendan stood there in the hallway, holding clothes up over his head, a blank look on his face. She'd rather steal his clothes and let him keep hers then talk to him about what Wayne was doing to her. Slowly, he lowered the clothes, sighing softly. Dropping them outside the door, he knocked, "You can have them."

She opened the door and picked up the pile of clothes, sending him a glare before shutting it again, presumeably to get dressed.

Brendan stood outside the door, resting his forehead against the wall with his hands shoved deep into his jeans' pockets. Lily stopped when she exited his room, fully dressed in her own clothes, looking much more like herself. Her hair was still wet, but she'd pulled it back into a pony-tail.

"Is it that bad to where you can't even talk to me about it?"

Lily froze, replying stiffly, "There's not thing to talk about. Wayne's just a little demanding some-"

"Dammit, Lily," Brendan clentched his fist and stepped back from the wall, worry and some anger in his eyes. "Why the hell are you just putting up with this? He's an asshole and obviously he's hurting you, but you're not doing anything about it." He turned to her and grabbed her arms, holding them tightly, but not hurtfully.

The way he was looking at her, so full of concern, just like he did when they were dating. When his love for her gave her life another meaning...

"Why does it matter to you? Why didn't you say anything to me before tonight? Did you wanna wait around until something bad happened to me, which wouldn't have happened if YOU hadn't have broken up with me for some bullshit reason, and THEN decide to swoop in and rescue me?" Lily cried in outrage, pulling away from his grasp. "Right now, the best thing you can do for me is to take me home and pretend we don't know each other and we'll never speak again."

"I can't do that, Lily. I can't just let you go back to him. That would make me just as guilty as me doing the same things to you." Brendan replied quickly.

"So what? I really don't care. Why should you? He'll dump me when he goes off to bigger and better things in college. He's my burden until then."

"But why the hell do you want him? You just said he was a burden. Break up with him, it's not like he'll not move on or something."

"Because then he'll be around and I'll have to think again."

"You'd rather he violate you every night than think? Think about what? What could be so bad that you have to be abused and raped to keep from thinking about it!"

"YOU! Ok? Whenever he's hurting me, or around me, or talking to me, I think about that and not how badly YOU hurt me! You breaking my heart was the worst feeling I've ever had! Bar none!"

Lily covered her mouth, shocked at what she'd just said.

Brendans eyes widened and he took a step toward her, "You stay with a guy who hurts you, because I hurt you?"

"I don't wanna talk about this anymore. I wanna go home," Lily whispered, her eyes stinging with tears as they avoided his.

"Lily... I... Uh..." He needed to think. "I'll take you home..." Fishing his keys out of his pocket, he started toward the door, herself on his heel.

He took her to his car and made sure she got in before going to the driver's seat and sliding in. The ride home was completely silent and Lily seemed lost in thought until he pulled into her driveway and she snapped out of it.

She removed her seatbelt and opened the car door, but stopped and shut it again, not all the way, looking over at him, "Look... Brendan, don't tell your dad about any of this. Please. And just forget about everything that was said tonight. It's late and I'm sure things will be much different in the morning." She said softly, not even giving him a chance to reply before she opened the door and stepped out.

He made sure she got to her door and inside safely before driving back to his appartment, his mind filled with everything that had happened tonight. He'd won the DDR tournament and was going to New York in two weeks, his ex-girlfriend was apparently raped and/or being raped by her new boyfriend and oh yeah, it was all his fault for breaking up with her.

It wasn't really all his fault. More like, ninety percent his fault. The rest was Anthony's... Anthony was the one who convinced him to break up with Lily because he kept telling Brendan that he was seeing her with other guys. True, half of her friends at the time were guys but he never thought she'd cheat on him with any of them.

No. They were in love.

Quite a mysterious feeling indeed. Along with jealousy and anger, the two feelings that caused their seperation. It started slowly, Brendan told Lily that Anthony was talking about seeing her with other men. Lily denied it and they laughed it off. But Anthony came up with a new story every week. Anthony was his best friend, why would he lie? It had to have been the truth, right?

After Anthony finally made the suggestion that she'd actually slept with one of them, Brendan left Lily, temporarily happy to do so. That didn't last long...

A week later, he walked in on a situation that included Anthony hitting on Lily, then asking her out. Her reply was a swift 'no' and dumped soda upon his head.

Brendan asked Anthony why he wanted to go out with her if she was A. his ex-girlfriend and B. who probably cheated on him. Anthony laughed at him. Laughed at him. "Dude, you didn't deserve her. She was too hot to be dating someone like you... You didn't even take the proper advantage of the kind of relationship you were in. C'mon, man."

Brendan had never been suspended before that day and that reply. Suspended for assault, but the charges were quickly dropped, thanks to his father. No one talked to him much after that.