Opening the heavy screen door, Adrian released a heavy breath. She lifted her arm and trembled to knock on the door. She reassured herself there was no reason for her to be nervous as she awaited someone to respond to her knock and let her into the house. Among the sound of the local 8 o' clock news she heard an even paced set of footsteps coming her way.

Once the kind face behind the door was revealed, all her anxieties melted away. "Hello, sugar," welcomed a petite woman wearing glasses. "Can I get a hug, dear?" Mrs. Conlon stretched out her arms towards the girl, who without hesitation promptly leaped onto the little women and hugged her around the shoulders.

When she tightened her squeeze onto this lady who was practically her second mother, she felt Mrs. Conlon's muscle stiffen under her embrace. She let go quickly and apologized. "I'm so sorry! Did I hurt you?" She felt guilty, because she knew that if any person didn't need more pain, then that person would be Mrs. Conlon.

"No, no, you gave me a lot of loving just like my Thomas does. You both don't know your own strength." There was a twinkle in her eye when she spoke about Tommy or maybe it was her mentioning Adrian and Tommy together that brought out this expression. "It's great, because you're willing to give more love than you know you're giving out!" Mrs. Conlon felt her shoulder showing, so she adjusted her floral blouse in a rapid attempt to hide her fresh purple and black bruise from Adrian's eyes.

Adrian pretended not to notice the marking, because not all kids were fortunate enough to have happy parents who got along like hers do. Sure, her parents bickered, but her father would never touch her mother, and they always resolved their problems. Tommy had told her about how his mom was a "victim" who never fought back, which was so different from Tommy. He was a fighter and was always fighting, but there was only one man he didn't battle and that was Paddy Conlon, who kept up the appearance to everyone else that he was an overall fine man. Other than Mr. Conlon's occasional angry, intoxicated outbursts towards his wife, he really wasn't a bad guy. It was a little difficult for Adrian to form an opinion, because no one else outside of the Conlon family knew what was going on there, and she hadn't even talked to anyone about it. She wasn't going to break Tommy's trust, especially since she knew she was the only one who he could talk to.

"Where's Tommy?" she asked stepping onto the shag carpeting.

"He's building the fire for the party, but I hope he doesn't end up setting himself on fire," worried Mrs. Conlon. She gestured to the backdoor that was through the kitchen. Adrian nodded, but before she could get to the kitchen she'd have to walk through Mr. Conlon's view of the television set.

She started to say something to Mr. Conlon, but he spoke up first peeling his eyes away from the screen. "He's a tough boy, Amy. That fire couldn't hurt him. Shit, the flames straight from Hell wouldn't have a chance with that kid," he drunkenly muttered. "Satan would go down hard against my boy. Ain't that right, Adrian?" Mr. Conlon glanced over at her.

She let out a little giggle, because Tommy's dad was more than right. Tommy would literally give the devil himself hell. She then passed by Mr. Conlon in his armchair, gave him and his wife a wave, and traveled onto the hardwood floors to make her way to the backyard.

As she went outside, she heard a few clunks as Tommy tossed fresh cut pieces of wood into a pile that was encircled by large rocks. He heard the door shut, so he quickly picked up his last log and gave out a groan throwing it into the center. Tommy straightened his back and used his wrist to wipe off the sweat from his brow.

Before Adrian traveled down the steps to go over to him, she paused for a moment and stared at him from behind. It had been a while since she had seen his body. Every time she had seen him recently at the gym, he was wearing a hoodie and baggy, athletic pants, but now he was wearing a fitted gray tank top and his usual athletic pants. She hadn't seen his body in a few months, but it appeared he had gained more muscle since. Adrian couldn't help but to take it all in, because before she thought it wasn't possible to find Tommy more attractive. In an instant her butterflies came back with a fury flying around in a whirlwind inside of her stomach.

He had always been athletic, but he had clearly begun growing into a man. She saw his shoulders were wider, his arms were arguably massive, and his upper body tapered into his waist. He was bulkier and no longer as lean and slender as she remembered. Sweat has dripped off the back of his now noticeably thicker neck and down between his shoulder blades dampening his shirt with a small patch of sweat. He turned around revealing a chiseled jaw that she didn't seem to notice before.

"Hey, Adrian, how's it going?" Tommy asked breaking her concentration. "Before you come down here, could you grab that yellow bottle for me?"

"Huh?" Adrian mumbled. She looked on the railing to see a yellow, plastic bottle that read "Charcoal lighter fluid." "Oh, yeah," she said, but when she went to grasp the bottle, she knocked it off. Frantically, she lurched forward to catch it and tripped down the porch's steps. Miraculously she caught the bottle. She fell on her knees, but before she could pick herself up, Tommy was there grabbing her hand and placing his other on her waist. She blushed at his touch.

"You all right?" Tommy helped Adrian stand.

"Yeah. . . but look I caught it." She shook the lighter fluid.

"That's my girl," he said and took the bottle from her.

Am I? Adrian asked herself.

"Welp, I hope this isn't a sign of what tonight's gonna be like." He shifted his weight and placed his hands on his hips.

She wrinkled her blow waiting for Tommy to continue.

He looked over at the pit. "The fire can wait." He headed towards the steps and gestured for Adrian to walk before him and left the fluid on the bottom step. The two walked into the silent home, where Adrian was expecting to at least hear the sound of the television with Paddy lounging in the living room, but there wasn't anyone to be found.

Tommy moved to the window which faced out the driveway. He saw his dad's Cadillac was gone and so he assumed Mr. and Mrs. Conlon went out of town in an attempt to spend time on their issues and to work on their relationship. He told Adrian that he wants the trip to work, but the issue of being an asshole can't be fixed over night. He left the window and escorted Adrian towards upstairs.

She knew how hard it was for Tommy to share, and so whenever he did, she always tried to acknowledge what he said, but she didn't want to ask any more of him. "I really hope they figure it out," she admitted following him. "Mrs. Conlon really deserves better." Tommy stopped and looked back at her. Worried she had said the wrong thing, Adrian began to stutter.

"It's okay. You're right, she does," he acknowledged and then continued his way up.

As they arrived at their destination Tommy and his brother's bedroom, Adrian surveyed the room. The room was plain but was full of trophies and had a couple of Steelers' posters on the white walls. There were two twin beds on opposing walls with simple matching sheets. She had never been in his bedroom before, because usually she saw Tommy at their school or the gym, but he had been in her house several times.

Tommy crouched down next to the bed on the right. He rummaged under it, even though Adrian doubted there would be much under there, seeing as Paddy was a former marine and he ran a tight ship. He grunted and slapped his hand on the hard wood floor patting around for something until there was a small thud. A sports water bottle filled with a golden brown liquid came rolling out from under the bed, so Adrian used her foot to catch the mysterious drink from falling onto the staircase.

"What is that?" Adrian bit her lip, because she knew exactly what it was. It was whiskey from Paddy's liquor cabinet that Tommy had put into one of his water bottles, but she hadn't even tasted a drop of alcohol before, so she was nervous again. Her mom had done a good job at keeping alcohol away from her, but this time her mom wasn't there.

Tommy picked up the liquor and held it close to his heart. "You're spending the night here, right?"

Releasing her lip and standing tall, Adrian looked the boy right in the eye and said "Yeah."

A smile grew across Tommy's face presenting his charmingly crooked teeth. "Good," he spoke softly. He looked down in an attempt to hide his happiness, but then he looked up again raising his eyebrow and caught her eye.