Branwen smiled as she walked away from the room and continued down the hall. Caleb and his mother were adorable. Branwen was surprised Evelyn didn't pressure Caleb more about his use of his powers. Considering she would have seen the deterioration with her husband, Branwen would think Evelyn would want to do everything she could to discourage Caleb using.

She also couldn't understand how she hadn't picked up on Caleb's attraction to Aria. She was usually better at seeing when someone was interested in her friends than she was at noticing when they liked her.

Pogue being an exception. She had known the moment she saw his staring at her that he was interested. She just hadn't believed it was her he was interested in. Lots of men stared at her, a fantasy in their heads about the mysterious, half-naked woman and what she would do for them. It was a club and there were loads of perverts out there.

But he had pursued her. Relentlessly. And that had scared the shit out of her. She knew she was beautiful. She could be a lot of things if she chose to. But she'd never had anyone go to such lengths to get to her. And then it finally happens and it's someone she's not supposed to have anything to do with. That was just Branwen's luck. She finally finds someone that she's interested in and he's interested in her and it's someone who she has been taught to condemn since her earliest teachings.

Branwen finally found the kitchen, the monstrosity that it was, and got herself a drink of water. She instantly spit it back out when Caleb spoke from right behind her. Creepy bastard.

"I'm sorry about Pogue."

Branwen wiped her mouth and turned to face Caleb. "It's okay. I understand why he's mad. I still think he's overreacting, but I regret letting things get so far."

Caleb narrowed his eyes. "Are you saying you wish it never happened?"

Wasn't she? Didn't she? "No." She admitted truthfully. "I'm just realizing that I didn't prepare myself for any of the aftermath and I'm one of those people who doesn't do well when I'm not in control of a situation."

"A control freak." Caleb smiled.

Reluctantly, Branwen laughed. "Yeah, I guess that's exactly what I am."

"You aren't going to leave, are you?"

Branwen frowned. "Leave? You mean bail on Thanksgiving?" When Caleb nodded she shook her head. "That would be rude. Besides, it's not like we have a car to leave in. You drove."

"There's a garage at the back of the house. It has several cars. They're at your disposal. I wouldn't bring you here and leave you stranded."

Smiling, Branwen took a sip of her water. When she swallowed she realized she had been more dehydrated than she's thought. "Thank you, for inviting us. It's been a little dramatic so far, but it's nice to be somewhere where people actually care about being together for the holidays."

"You never see your family?" Caleb asked, leaning against the island and crossing his arms.

"We see Aria's parents on Christmas day but Aria's really my only family now."

"Things with your mother were really that bad?"

Branwen sighed. How did one describe her mother without detailing the powers? "My mother is important. Her job is important. And she's traveled all over the world because of it. She usually took me with her unless she wouldn't be there long and then she'd leave me with Aria's family. But with my mother, she always had this vision about who she thought I should be. I didn't have a choice in the matter. Whenever I failed to live up to the person she had me destined to become, she took it as a personal failure. She would say she must have failed at teaching me something. She always blamed herself, but somehow that always seemed worse. Made me feel worse."

"She was a bitch." Aria said from the doorway.

Branwen smiled as Aria came over to join them and Branwen held her hand. "She could be a bitch. And I felt bad because you shouldn't feel that way about your mother. The resentment for how she made me feel responsible for me not being able to be what she wanted only drove me to feel more resentment. Resentment about her expectations, about how her need for me to be something I wasn't drove me to feel like I constantly had to measure up to standards I didn't believe in. Resentment about who I was because it wasn't who she wanted.

"And my dad wasn't around. She had driven him away years before. He was forced to leave our community because she had told everyone he was a horrible person. So I spent any moment I could get away from my mother with Aria and her family, who are wonderful, supportive people." Branwen smiled at her best friend. They weren't blood related, at least not in the past few centuries, but they might as well have been sisters. "They became my true family and when I finally couldn't be around my mother and her bitterness, Aria decided to come with me and her parent's helped us sort out our arrangements and leave."

Caleb shook his head. "Our lives seem so horrible until we hear someone else's story. I lost my father but I still have my mother and she is loving and supportive. I couldn't imagine not having her to rely on."

"Yeah, well, I wish I could blame all this drama on my childhood but I have to take responsibility for my actions. I should probably apologize to Pogue for yelling at him."

"Yelling at him? You didn't even raise your voice." Caleb said. "She's the one that slapped him." He pointed to Aria.

Branwen looked at her best friend, shocked. "You slapped Pogue?"

"Nobody yells at my best friend and gets away with it." Was all Aria said.

Branwen rolled her eyes. "Yeah well I need to start explaining myself better."

Caleb smiled. "Well overall I think you explained things." He held up his fingers as he checked things off. "Year in Ipswich, check. Kiss in club, check. Meeting in classroom, Check. Oh, wait," he held up his fourth finger. "Why did you come to our dorm? I find it hard to believe it was just for an essay, and I doubt it was to get invited to Thanksgiving."

Branwen forced a smile. No, Thanksgiving had not been on her mind, nor had Pogue's essay. But she couldn't very well admit what had been. So once again she sacrificed her dignity for the coven's secret. "I guess I just had to see him again. I had been thinking about him and being your typical girl I had to know if he'd been thinking about me." So she had been thinking about him, just not for that reason.

Aria squeezed her hand understanding the cover Branwen had to create. "I'm sure you were just over emotional after the fire." Branwen had to stop herself from rolling her eyes. There had been very few moments in her life when Branwen could be called 'overemotional'. You didn't grow up with an ice-queen for a mother and still come out of puberty with reckless emotions making your decisions.

"That's right!" Caleb said. "I completely forgot. Tell me about this fire. How'd it happen?"

Aria and Branwen looked at each other before looking at Caleb. "The authorities are looking into it. They thought it was just an accident but," Branwen coughed at where Aria's words were going and Aria looked at her before continuing. "But the power went out and there was nothing to cause a fire."

Branwen knew from Aria's tone of voice she had been about to suggest that it was more likely someone after them, but suggesting someone was after them was a little too aggressive of a position to take. "They think it was mischief. Someone playing around and getting in over their head." Branwen quoted the police officer.

"So what are they doing about it?" Caleb asked, sympathetically.

"We are filing an insurance claim. But there's nothing else we can really do."

"How are you going to survive while you wait for the claim to go through?"

"Our boss had allowed us to occupy the apartment above the club for now and we had most of our important documents in a safe they recovered from the wreckage."

Caleb looked at Aria. "Can your parent's help you out at all?"

"They really don't have much themselves."

Caleb turned to Branwen. "And your mother really won't do anything? You said her job is important. She must make good money."

Branwen wanted to laugh. Not a funny laugh, but maybe an ironic one. Considering the order to burn the house had most likely come from Branwen's mother, asking for help would be pointless, and running back home probably being the desired outcome of the attack, Branwen would not give her mother the satisfaction of the coven coming to their rescue. There would be far too many strings attached.

Besides, Aria and Branwen had managed their money well. The school had offered to do what they could. Branwen and Aria would be fine for the time being. "That bridge was burned." Branwen said, shrugging. She sighed. "So that's the whole boring story."

Caleb smiled. "I would hardly call it boring. You guys have more drama in your life story than Pogue does."

"What's Pogue's story?" Aria asked and Branwen used to zap her. Aria jumped, releasing Branwen's hand. When Caleb looked at her she just smiled. "Got a shock. Must have picked up some static somewhere."

Caleb smiled but continued. As he did, his attention turned to Branwen and his tone grew sad. "Pogue doesn't talk about himself much and I think it's mostly due to not wanting any questions about his past. It isn't all sad. His parents were perfect for each other. They loved each other in the way that so few do. The moment they met they fell in love. Pogue's dad, Benjamin, was on leave from the army, volunteering as crowd control at a riot and his mom, Daphne, was there to help cause the riot. They were on opposite sides of the barriers, but when their eyes met they both stopped shouting and disappeared into the crowd. They were married a year later after Benjamin finished his tour. They bought a little house and settled down; Benjamin was stoic and serious but Daphne was laid back and softened him. I remember them being such opposites and yet everything they did complimented each other.

"Benjamin taught all us kids about survival in the wilderness and told us war stories when we stayed at Pogue's. Then Daphne would come in with popcorn and sodas and tell Benjamin to stop scaring us. But we loved it." Caleb sighed. "Then when we were around eight, Benjamin got called back to the forces and while he was away, he went missing. They couldn't find him. Both my dad and Tyler's dad went over looking for him. While they were gone, Pogue's mom got sick. It started with a cold and then doctors soon realized that she had undetected cancer. Leukemia. It grew quickly. By the time we got word that they had found Benjamin, Daphne was dying and Benjamin didn't make it back in time."

Branwen felt her nose tingle, a sign that she would soon tear up. She couldn't imagine how little Pogue had felt, let alone Benjamin, finally making it home to find his wife dead. Branwen had a lot of her own pain from watching her father be killed by the people who had once been his family. But her pain was somewhat soothed, although wrongfully, by her belief in karma. Pogue, an eight year old little boy, would have no solace when watching his mother die, having his father lost at war.

Caleb's voice was deep and solemn as he continued with the end of his story. "Benjamin started… drinking. He dedicated himself to finding a way to change a fate he couldn't come to terms with. But with every failure he… drank more. And it wore down his body until there was nothing left but a bitter old man. Pogue had already spent most of his time at my place so when Benjamin finally… drank himself to death, my parents took him in. He was fourteen, so once he turned sixteen he got his own apartment. He didn't like relying on my parents. He's always been independent. He has his family home still. It's been in his father's family for ages, but he doesn't like being there too often. I imagine it feels empty without anyone else there."

Branwen shook her head. "I had no idea. I mean I knew when I was here that Pogue was staying with you, but I didn't know the whole story." She also hadn't missed the pause Caleb had made before he brought up Benjamin's habit. She knew without doubt that it hadn't been alcohol Benjamin had used to numb his pain, but his powers. And despite all the horrible things she had been taught, she couldn't blame him. She didn't know what she would do if she lost someone she cared about. God forbid anything ever happen to Aria, because Branwen would be a useless mess.

"Pogue's a lot like his father. He doesn't talk about his feeling, he likes to pretend like nothing gets to him. And that's served him quite well over the years."

"And then Branwen happened." Aria said and Branwen glared at her. "What? It's true. Did you see how upset he was?"

Caleb laughed. "Yeah. Then Branwen happened."

Branwen glared at both of them. "It was a kiss. I didn't ask for this."

"But you did run away instead of dealing with it." Caleb said. "We don't like to talk about it because we could lose our man card," he smiled. "But we don't do well with rejection or girls implying that we care about them a lot more than they are about us. And Pogue is worse than most because he didn't have his parents there in his teen years to tell him how to understand his feelings. He doesn't know how to deal when he likes someone and they don't like him back."

"But she does like him back." Aria said, taking a safe step away from Branwen as Branwen glared at her best friend and her big mouth again.

Caleb looked at Branwen but she didn't sign on for the feelings talk so she wasn't going to confirm or deny anything. Not that she had to with Aria going around telling everyone how she felt. Caleb smiled, clearly interpreting Branwen's reluctance. "That's not what she told him earlier. Despite saying you enjoyed the kiss, you implied that it was random and didn't mean anything. You said it didn't matter. It mattered to him. He spent the next month going to that club looking for you. I don't know what it is about your kiss that got him, but there was a connection he obviously couldn't let go of."

Branwen looked down at her hands, remembering the tingling feeling. She didn't know if that's what had Pogue so worked up, but if she really thought about it, she knew that she had felt something more. But she had a year of watching him in school to back up her attraction. Why was he so worked up when he barely knew her? She thought back to Caleb's story of Pogue's parents. It had only taken their eyes meeting. Their eyes had met from the opposite side of the confrontation, like enemy camps, and they had known they were in love.

"So what, he pissed now that I didn't fall in love with him at first sight?" Branwen asked with more sarcasm than she'd meant to.

Caleb raised a brow at her tone but shrugged. "I don't know. He went home before I could talk to him about it."

Branwen looked at him. "But you said he didn't like it there."

Shrugging, Caleb frowned. "Apparently he likes it there more than he likes it here right now."

Way to lay on the guilt, she thought. She had let things get so messed up that she had chased a guy away from his friends and family at Thanksgiving. She really did know how to drive men crazy. Sighing, she took a drink of her water, sat her glass in the sink and headed for the kitchen door.

"Where are you going?" Aria asked.

"For a drive." Branwen replied, leaving the room and heading for the garage.

"His address is in all the GPS units." Caleb called after her.