Chapter 12 is now up! Read and review!

General POV

Peyton and Mercedes walked out to the Jacuzzi to find Nathan and Lucas looking at each other like they were about to kill one another. Mercedes took off her towel and got in. Peyton did the same and as soon as the towel was off Luke's eyes were fixated on her. The look on his face was priceless.

"I'm guessing he likes it." Mercedes said smiling looking at Peyton.

They both giggled and Luke's face turned beet red.

"What Is that Peyton?" Nathan asked pointing at the portfolio.

"Oh! It's Mercedes' portfolio. Did you know she's a model?"

"Was a model." Mercedes corrected.

Nathan and Lucas both moved over to Peyton to look at the pictures. She open the book and began to flip through the pictures. Most of them were of Mercedes in lingerie or bathing suites, but some of them were just shots of her beautiful face.They were all very impressed.

"Wait..." Nathan said looking up from the pictures and up at Mercedes.

"What?" She asked

"Don't you have your bellybutton pieced?"

"Yeah."

"Then why isn't it pierced in the pictures?"

"God Nathan! You must really have studied her to notice that her bellybutton wasn't pierced." Peyton said playfully.

Nathan's cheeks turned red and he looked down at the water. Lucas and Peyton were laughing.

"They digitally removed it. They don't like the models to have their bellybuttons pierced." Mercedes said smiling.

"Oh, well their amazing." Nathan said moving back to her.

"Thanks. Glad you like them." She said moving a little closer to him.

"You gonna tell me about your brothers now?" He asked

"Sure."

Peyton put the portfolio safe from the water and fell into Luke's arms. They both sat there listening.

"Umm... I was 2 weeks old and my real mother decides that she didn't want me anymore so... she leaves me on a black womans doorstep and left. That's how I got my name by the way. Anyways... She raised me along with her other 6 children until I was 5. When she had her 7th baby she couldn't handle all of us anymore, and I don't blame her. Her husband beat her up all the time and sometimes in front of us. She was always bruised up... it was hard then, but... then things got a lot harder. They didn't have a lot of money, and for them to be raising 7 children of their own... they just couldn't afford to raise another. So one night he put me in the car and I fell asleep. He drove for a while and when I woke up I was alone. I was 5 years old and it was the first night that I had ever slept on the street. I didn't know what I was doing, I was little, so... I just walked and walked and cried. I finally fell asleep in some alley. A few days passed by and I hadn't had very much to eat or water or anything so... I passed out on the corner of the street. That's when Q, and D found me. They nursed me back to health as best they could. They gave up everything they had for me. It wasn't easy for them because they were trying hard to survive too but... Q didn't care he spent the last of his money to make me better. When I got better D wanted to leave me again but... Q didn't want to. He knew I wouldn't survive on my own. So they took me in, they raised me. That's why they are my brothers. I grew up with them and they did anything for me just like I would do anything for them."

They all sat there in silence. They were all pretty shocked.

"So you lived on the street?" Nathan asked breaking the silence.

"Yeah" she answered running her fingers through the water.

"Do you regret any of it?" Lucas asked

"Some of the choices I made I do but.. I was younger, we all were."

"Like what kind of choices?"

"Joining a gang, that's something I regret."

"You were in a gang?"

"Yeah, all of us, my brothers too. But we all gave up that life. It was to dangerous. We're not a part of that world anymore."

"Did you ever get hurt?"

"Of course I did. I have a couple of scars on my belly. You can barely see them now but... yeah I got hurt."

"So that's what he meant." Nathan said out of the blue.

Mercedes turned to look at him.

"What are you talkin about?" She asked

"That Jose guy, he said that no matter how much you tried to distance yourself from it you would always be a part of that world."

Mercedes looked down at the water without a word. And her cell rang. She picked it up and answered.

"Hey que paso?" They all listened to her side of the conversation. "Si manana. No se si me va dar tiempo, pero si puedo entonces voy para ya. Si ya se. Yo no le dije que fuiste tu quien me dijo. Te lo huro. Pues aver cuando me vas a visitar. No te awites. Yo te envito. Ite laters den. Bye."

She hung up and put her phone away, and turned to look at them again.

"You speak Spanish?" Luke asked

"I am Mexican Luke."

"Well yeah but... I thought that maybe you didn't know..."

"Yes I speak Spanish. A couple other languages too. The whole modeling thing."

Just then Brooke walked out.

"Hey Z there is someone here to see you." She said getting closer to them.

"Ok." She answered getting out and grabbing her towel.

Nathan got out and Lucas and peyton followed. She walked into the hallway and found Michael at the end of it by the door. She walked up to him and stopped. Nathan was close by with the rest of the crew.

"What are you doing here Michael?" She asked

"I came to apologize. I still want us to be friends Z." He said walking closer to her.

"Are you kidding me! How could you even think we could still be friends!"

"I know I hurt you Z. You don't know how much it kills me. I think of you everyday and it drives me insane that I cant be with you anymore."

"Maybe you should have thought about that before you slept with Jennifer! How is she by the way?"

"I don't know, I haven't talked to her."

"Oh! So you just tapped it and left."

"You know it's not like that. I miss you and I want everything to be ok with us. I still love you Mercedes."

"Then you shouldn't have slept with my best friend!"

Nathan now understood what she had meant when she said that she knew what if felt like to be hurt by someone. Lucas knew why it was hard for her to forgive him at first. She two had been cheated on by her boyfriend for her best friend. Sandy walked down the stairs and walked over to Brooke.

"What's going on?" She asked.

"Sandy!" Michael asked surprised

Sandy's eyes got big and she tried to hide herself behind Brooke. Mercedes looked at Michael confused.

"How do you know Sandy?" She asked

"She's my girlfriend." He whispered

Leave you in suspence much?... LOL! If you want to know what happens next you'll leave me a review. What do you want to happen next? Leave me a review and let me know. Shout out to OTH-Lucus'gurl! Thank you so much for your reviews! Hope you like it!