It was coming on 1 AM, and George Clark had spent the last hour yelling at Andy and Allison, who sat on separate ends of the sofa in the living room, taking his harsh and cruel verbal beatings. Andy and Allison didn't look at each other. Andy still wasn't wearing a shirt, and Allison's hair was all ruffled as she struggled not to yell out or cry.

"What the hell do you think this will accomplish, Andrew? Do you think a college is gonna give you a free ride if you knock up some little chickee-poo and have a kid to clean up after for 18 years?" George hollered. His wife, Andy's mother, Kathleen, stood in the doorway, looking ashamed and tired. Andy's twin little sisters, Corinne and Leigh, were watching the tirade from the top of the stairs. Allison could see them out of the corner of her eye, and they were giggling like the 10-year-old idiots they were. George continued, "And you, young lady!"

Allison squeaked her fear. Andy wanted nothing more than to reach out his hand and hold hers for comfort. But if Andy even leaned the wrong way, George would keep hollering. "Yeah, you! What would your father say if he found out you were screwing around? I'll tell you what he'd do, he'd throw you out on the street, especially if you got knocked up. I swear, you'd better not be showing up on our doorstep in 4 months tellin' us that you're pregnant!"

Either that, or he'd go back to reading his paper! Allison thought to herself. How rude is this man? Who speaks like this to company…even in THIS circumstance?

"I hope damn well you were using protection, because if I find out that you're knocked up," he threatened Allison. He then quickly turned to Andy. "Or if YOU have some venereal disease, I'll kick YOU out, and you can forget about college and life! You two can live out of a pickup truck under the I-97 overpass! I'm not having the snobs at the country club muttering something about me being a grandfather before I'm 50!" George was redder than an apple, and he was twice as moist. Allison felt an urge to deck him building up inside her, but she knew that if she even tried, George wouldn't hesitate to knock her lights out right there in front of Andy. She stayed put.

Kathleen shuffled into the living room and touched George on the shoulder. He let his wife pass. She had something to say.

"Now, George, I think Andrew and Allison are old and mature enough to have used a condom, right, Andy?"

Allison shot a glance at Andy. She begged and pleaded in her head for Andy to lie and say they had.

But Andy couldn't lie in front of his parents. He was physically incapable of lying in front of George and Kathleen Clark. It was just his nature and how much his parents…especially his father, intimidated him. He shook his head. Allison pulled her knees up and tucked them under her chin, wrapping her arms around her shins. Maybe she could find her happy place…

George went from red to blue to purple to tie-dye all within a matter of seconds. He did, however, remain eerily quiet. Andy looked at Allison, about ready to purposely psyche herself out so she could wake up somewhere else. He swallowed. He hated his weakness.

"I think Al should go home and get her sleep. She can deal with her parents in the morning," Andy said. Kathleen looked at George a moment, who nodded at her.

"Very well," Kathleen said. Andy stood up and walked Allison to the door. George and Kathleen were within sight, but not earshot, so Andy could mutter a goodbye.

"Al, you're so lucky. Your parents won't care," said Andy.

Allison silently nodded. "I'll see you in school tomorrow?"

"Don't count on it," said Andy. "My dad'll punish me by making me spend the whole day at the gym at the country club weight training, all while he barks in my ear." Allison squeaked.

"I have no regrets, you know," she said. Andy nodded. He wanted to kiss Allison, but he knew that would only make his father develop a brain aneurysm faster. Instead he patted her shoulder and opened the door. Allison didn't look back as she began walking down the street. He house was over 4 miles away, but she could hop a bus on the 24-hour line at the stop on the corner a block down the road.

Once she sat on the bench at the bus stop, Allison looked back at Andy's house, still visible from where she sat. Andy was probably going to get neutered after George got done with him. She felt guilty. Andy had been right about her parents. She could get pregnant with Andy's quadruplets AND get Chlamydia and her parents wouldn't blink. It wasn't right. Andy was getting reamed down the street, and he'd wake up in the morning and have a huge block of tension between him and his family. Allison got to wake up and just live life how she normally did. Nothing would change for her on account of this night.

She had just lied to Andy. She did have one regret…

…Allison knew she'd regret getting Andy into this degree of trouble.

"Andrew Thomas Robert Clark, what the hell am I gonna do with you?" George moaned to himself as Andy came back into the living room. "You have two little sisters to set an example for, your big brother would never have done this!" He said, his voice oddly calmer.

"Adam's in Kenosha, dad," Andy muttered. "Getting pelted with trophies and medals," he added bitterly under his breath.

"So he is," said George. He looked at Kathleen, who looked sternly at Andy.

"Andrew, I really hope you learn from this. I know we're not at religious as some families, but you still need to know what right from wrong is. I'll sit with your father in the morning and we'll decide what your punishment is—"

"—that won't be necessary, Kath. I think we should move the date to next weekend," said George. Andy didn't understand. What date?

Kathleen looked at her husband with wide eyes. "You think we can move that soon?"

Andy's heart skipped a beat. Move?

George nodded. "I have no doubt. Slip the movers an extra 50 and we should be good to go. Get some shut-eye, Kath. I'll be up soon," he demanded. Kathleen obeyed and headed upstairs. The twins had long since gotten tired and gone back up to their bedroom. George looked up after her and sighed. Andy felt a pit form in his chest where his heart was. Andy knew his parents' relationship with each other was near perfect. Kathleen and George were devoted to each other…but they felt that because George was the perfect breadwinner and Kathleen was the perfect housewife, and their oldest son was a perfect football champion, that their second son should be perfect as well. After seeing Kathleen disappear upstairs, George turned back to Andy.

"Dad…what's this about a moving date?" Andy asked through gritted teeth. He couldn't believe his father would pull this on him.

"We were going to before Christmas, but seeing as you need a head rewiring, we're moving up to Kenosha, in a week."

"WHAT?" yelled Andy. George cringed for a moment, but no one stirred upstairs.

"You need to get your head out of the clouds. We've got a house a mile down the road from Adam. You need more time with him and less time with your new…aHEM…friends!"

"What are you talking about?" Andy asked defensively.

"The one redheaded girl is fine. I meet with her parents sometimes at the club, but the muscular boy with the shaggy hair always smells like dope! The nerdy kid is too weak, and then there's…THAT GIRL! You think fucking her is gonna make you a better wrestler?"

Andy bit his lower lip and remained silent.

"If she gets pregnant, you're not gonna run away! Clarks DON'T run away! But then you'd be killing your future, so either way, you're screwed!"

"I DIDN'T ask to be born!" Andy felt hot tears well up in his eyes, but he held them back. "Who says I even WANT to be a Clark?"

"Watch what you say!" George warned.

"I'm NOT moving," Andy said assertively.

"Oh YES, you are!" demanded his father.

"I'm almost 18, you sure as hell can't make me do ANYTHING!" Andy said.

"You can't stay around here with that girl! You have better things to think about! She's NOT WORTH YOUR TIME!"

"But she IS!"

"Wake up and smell the coffee, Andrew! I'll be willing to bet that if you spent a month in Kenosha without ANY contact with that girl, you'd forget all about her and never want to go back!" George challenged. He knew that despite how many times Andy denied it, his son DID inherit some of his own competitive genes, and making deals and bets was one of the only possible ways to get through to his second son. Sure enough, Andy looked up from the floor, his eyes glowing with unshed tears.

"Name the stakes," Andy said, annunciating every word.

"You'll come to Kenosha quietly next weekend, and spend a month there without communicating to her or anybody here at all. If by November 1st, you come to me and admit you wanna come back, I'll let you go back and stay with the Brusios, alright? But if you don't mention anything by then, you are staying in Kenosha, got it?" George held out his hand. Andy looked at it for a second in doubt. Was he willing to bet his relationship with Allison like this?

Andy took his fathers hand and gave his word.

"Smarten up and get your priorities straight," George commanded. "Now get to bed. I'm takin' you to the club gym tomorrow to work it all off, so don't even THINK about sneaking off to school to meet with her and exchange numbers! You can go back the day after," George pointed upstairs. Andy sighed, wondering what the hell he'd just done, and marched upstairs. George didn't follow him. He needed a beer.

But he knew he had this bet won. Easily.

Back up in his room, Andy slammed the door and hurled himself onto his bed. In her haste to get dressed and downstairs, Allison had left her big black oversized sweater behind and went out with just her t-shirt. Andy picked it up and rolled it into a ball. He also saw she'd left her bottle of hand lotion behind, and he put it beside the sweater. He found himself staring at the sweater for awhile. He felt like he could take on the world right now. He was confident enough in his own mind to basically bet his girlfriend. He'd win.

But he did still have a problem. He couldn't let Allison know what he'd just done. How was he going to explain such a sudden move? What would Allison say? She he tell her at all about the move? He screwed himself over in so many ways. Why didn't he stop Allison from getting so intimate? He could have told her to wait. He couldn't play the "I'm not ready" card, because Allison knew that Andy had other girls before her (although she wasn't one to judge, so it didn't bother her). But he'd felt himself swept up in the passion so quickly. Now he had to forget about her for a month and trust himself to keep her in the back of his mind log n enough to win the bet against his father and come back ti her…then he'd be free to be with her forever.

God, why couldn't he just stand up to his father like Allison had been pleading for him to do all along? She was going to be heartbroken as soon as Andy told her about the bet. No…not the bet. Just the fact that he's letting his father move him to Wisconsin.

Allison didn't ever have to know about the bet. It was his secret.