Bevin giggled as she brought her car to a stop at the red traffic light. She checked her make up in the rearview mirror before adjusting her phone's earpiece.

"Baby, I miss you," she cooed.

From the other end of her cell line, her boyfriend chuckled.

"Bev, you just left me like 15 minutes ago."

She pretended to pout.

"I know but a whole 15 minutes without my Snuggle Muffin seems like 15 years."

"Whatever you say, Ma."

"Do you miss me too?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I guess I miss you."

"And you love me, right?"

He looked around the River Court, hoping Junk, Fergie and the other guys weren't paying him any attention. He did love his girlfriend, a fact he was not ashamed of but they had just spent the last hour making out, making googly faces and cooing to each other, all to the amused delight of the guys. And Skills Taylor did have a reputation to protect.

"You know I love you, girl."

A huge grin spread across her face.

"That's what I'm talking about, baby. I love you, too. In fact, I totally love you more than you love me."

"Bevin…"

"Unless, you love me more. Right, Pooh Bear?"

Skills rolled his eyes. He did have a basketball game to get back to.

"Alright, yeah."

"Alright yeah, what?" she prodded.

He lowered his deep voice.

"I love you more."

"Goody!" Bevin clapped her hands together and squealed with delight. "Listen, baby, I'm turning onto my street right now. I'm gonna give you a call a little bit later. Maybe we can hang out."

"Sounds good to me."

"Great! Well, have a good game and I'll talk to you soon. Love you, miss you."

"You too, Shorty," he hung up the phone.

Pulling into the family driveway, Bevin parked the car, leaning back against the headrest. She sighed with contentment. She'd had other boyfriends before. In fact, it always seemed like she had a boyfriend by her side. But this guy was different. Skills was special. They had a lot of fun together and no one had ever treated her with such kindness and respect before. He was a true gentleman in every since of the word and the sex was nothing short of mind blowing.

She got out of the car and hummed a happy tune. Life had been going so great lately. The only damper had been the sudden misfortune of two of her closest friends. Bevin had been there at the party along with everyone else when one of Brooke's darkest and most embarrassing secrets had unexpectedly come to life. On top of the humiliation, she had lost Chase. Then just days later, Shelly Simon had broken poor Mouth's heart right in the student parking lot in front of everyone. It was all too sad. She felt for them and of course she would be there for them. She only wished she could take the love she and Skills were feeling and just put a little bit of it in the Tree Hill water system for everyone to drink. It certainly what have made for some happier people. Walking to the back door, she let herself in, noticing that both her parents were home. Stopping by the kitchen for a Diet Coke, Bevin kicked off her shoes and headed upstairs to her bedroom.

"Bevin, dear, is that you?" she heard her mother ask from the living room.

"Yeah, Mom. I'm going upstairs."

"Can you come in here, please? Your father and I would like to speak with you."

She turned on her heels and joined her mother and father. Bevin had always been close to her parents. They had a close knit family that got along and she had always been thankful to be blessed with two loving, sweet, understanding parents that also spoiled her rotten.

"Hey, Mom. Hey, Daddy. What's up?" she asked casually as she took a seat.

Her mother began.

"Bevin, we have to talk."

For the first time she noticed the terse, troubled looks on their faces. Normally they were as bubbly and happy go lucky as she was but the tone of the mood let her know something big was on their minds.

"Okay. Um, what's going on? Is everything okay?"

Emily Mirskey cleared her throat.

"Your father and I have noticed that you haven't been around a lot lately. I know you're busy with school and cheerleading and other activities but you had mentioned something about a new boyfriend."

A huge grin broke across her face.

"Yeah. His name is Skills, remember? Skills Taylor. He's so awesome. We have been hanging out a lot."

The mother and father exchanged worried glances.

"And why haven't we met this young man yet?"

She shrugged.

"I don't know. I mean, if you guys want to meet him, it's totally cool. I know he wouldn't mind. Besides, you'd love him."

"And just how serious is this relationship?"

It was hard to control her giddiness.

"I'm not sure. Pretty serious, I guess. I mean, we're totally in love."

"In love?"

"How could I not be? Oh wait until you meet him. He is so fine and he says and does the cutest things…"

"Just what kind of name is Skills?" Bevin's father spoke for the first time.

Bevin shrugged.

"It's just a nickname. He got it from his friends a long time ago because he's so good on the basketball court. His real name is Antwon."

"Antwon?"

Emily lowered her head.

"Oh God, Joshua. It must be true."

Bevin narrowed her eyes.

"What must be true?"

Her father looked right at her.

"This Skills or Antwon or whoever he is, is this young man, you know…is he, is…"

"Is he what, Daddy?"

Joshua Mirskey could hardly spit it out.

"Is he black?" his wife finished for him.

"Yeah," Bevin didn't miss a beat.

"Oh no," the both murmured at the same time.

Bevin made a face before starting to laugh.

"I get it now. Mom, Daddy, is this some kind of joke?"

Her mother fought back tears.

"No, young lady, this is not a joke. In fact, there is nothing remotely funny about this situation. It also wasn't funny when we received several phone calls from the neighbors that a, that a…black," her voice lowered to a sudden whisper as if the word black were a swear word. "…boy had been seen leaving our house a few times when we weren't home."

"Mom…"

"Bevin, don't speak. Please. This is heartbreaking and embarrassing. How could you do this? To us? To yourself? Why?"

Suddenly it hit her. They had been right about one thing…it definitely wasn't a laughing matter.

"Oh my gosh, you two are serious," she thought out loud.

"Of course we are serious."

"I didn't tell you because I didn't think it would matter. I mean, you guys aren't racists. You never raised me to be prejudiced. And I've had plenty of friends over to the house who were black, white, Latino, Asian, Middle Eastern…everything. You were always nice to them."

"That's because they were friends! You weren't dating them!"

"But Mom…"

"Oh God, are you having sex with him?"

Bevin looked horrified.

"Mom!"

"On second thought, I, we don't want to know. Don't answer that. You've been on the Pill since you were 14 to help regulate your periods. If you are…I can't even say it, at least you're protected. Oh goodness, this is just absolutely dreadful. We can't believe you, Bevin."

"And I can't believe the two of you. I mean, who are you and what have you done with my parents? I have a wonderful boyfriend that I love and he loves me. So I didn't tell you he's black…now you know. Why should that even matter?"

"Because it just does."

"Why?"

"Because of society. And because of the consequences. Because it's wrong. Because you should stick to your own kind, need I go on, honey?"

"Oh God, Mom, did you just come back from a Klan rally or something? Do you even hear yourself? What consequences? You mean whispers and stares? Well, big deal. Screw society! Skills and I have already dealt with that. We see how some people react. Yeah, they seem to have a problem with it but everyone is entitled to their own opinion even if it is an ignorant one. We let it be their problem, not ours. And it's not wrong. Tell me, what is the harm in two people loving each other? I mean, I could be out here doing a lot worse things. And stick to my own kind? What kind of backwoods, 1930's crap is that?"

"Your father and I are not racist. We have black friends of our own. It's just that we don't want our only daughter dating…"

"You mean the bigoted, nosy neighbors' gossiping means more to you than your own child's happiness?"

"Of course not. That's not what we said."

"Then what are you saying exactly?"

"I'm sure this Skills is very sweet but wouldn't it be better if you found a nice, cute white boy to go out with? What about that Evan Williams, the young man from Cove City? He seemed like a nice young man. He was also from a good family. He was handsome and polite and…"

"White?"

Emily cleared her throat.

"Well, yes."

"Okay," Bevin nodded. "So you'd rather me date Evan than Skills, right?"

"Yes."

"Why? Besides, the race thing."

"Evan is a good guy. Skills…we know nothing about him or his family. For all we know he could be a thug or a gang member or a dope dealer."

"Fair enough. That's your own opinion and you have a right to that but let me tell you a little bit more about your golden boy, Evan. Evan is a jerk! Evan has no respect for women. Evan used me for sex, then left me in his room and sent his creepy friend upstairs to hook up with me next. That's right, Mom. He passed me around like I was a toy or something. He even called me a slut. And he had the nerve to do all this as his girlfriend was waiting downstairs for him. Then he tried to explain his sorry self to me at Tric and when I wouldn't leave with him again, presumably for more bad sex, he grabbed my arm and wouldn't let go."

"Oh Bevin…"

"You know who came to my rescue? Skills did. He defended my honor and he fought for me. After that, we became friends. The more I talked to him, the more I realized what a great guy, what a great person he is. And for your information, all your ignorant stereotypes are wrong. He isn't a thug and the only so called gang he runs with is Mouth, Lucas, Fergie, Junk and the rest of the guys at the River Court. He doesn't do or sell drugs of any kind. He is a total gentleman who is smart and talented and sweet. Most of all he makes me happy. Skills treats me with respect and he makes me feel like a princess every single day. And I love him. I am madly head over heels in love with him and I'm not ashamed of that. It just really hurts that you'd want me to be with a white guy that treats me like dirt rather than a black guy who treats me like gold."

"That's not what we meant."

"It sure seems like it. You're crying, Daddy is angry…you'd think I just told you two that I have cancer or something."

"We love you, Bevin, more than anything. Of course we want you to be happy. Making mistakes is part of growing up. At 17 and 18 you think you know everything, but sweetheart trust us when we say you don't. As your parents, it is our job to protect you. This little phase you're going through just isn't right and we can't sit by and do nothing. Skills may be a great guy but he is not the guy for you."

"Mom…"

"I'm sorry, honey, but we forbid you to see him anymore."

Bevin's jaw dropped to the floor. She couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"You can't do that! Mom! Daddy!"

Joshua Mirskey looked his daughter right in the eye.

"Your mother is right."

"Whatever! You can't keep us apart! We're in love! I won't do it! I won't stop seeing him!"

"Very well. Then you are grounded. No television, no telephone, no car, no credit cards, no cheerleading, no other extra curricular activities, no visits from friends. You are to come straight home after school."

"You can't do that to me! You're being so unfair! I didn't do anything wrong!"

"This hurts us more than it hurts you, believe me, Bevin. We're only trying to protect you. Later on you will thank us for this."

"But…"

"Our minds are made up, now the choice is yours."

Bursting into tears, she jumped up and brushed by them, running upstairs to the sanctuary that was her room. She couldn't believe what had just happened. It was like she didn't know her own mother and father anymore…perhaps she had never known them. Skills had warned her. He had tried to tell her they would face tough opposition, even from family. Never in her wildest dreams would she have imagined he would have been so right. And now her heart was breaking. Only one thing was clear. Bevin Mirskey had a choice to make, a decision no teenage girl in her position should ever have to face. All she could do was cry.