Six

Present Day.

For the first two days of her vacation, Courtney had no idea what to do with herself. She had cleaned the entire house, read several books, even went shopping, which had never really been her thing. She had no idea how on Earth she was supposed to fill in the next five days alone, but she was determined not to spend a day doing nothing.

Luckily she didn't have to organise anything for the Wednesday, since she had already set up an appointment with her therapist. She had been seeing him ever since her and Robert had been having marital problems. She had failed to mention it to him, of course, since he had always insisted there was nothing wrong with their relationship. Funny how that was part of the problem.

"You're bored," her therapist Noah told her when she went in on Wednesday, as if that was an acceptable diagnosis.

"It's more than that," Courtney sighed. "All this time by myself... It's freaking me out. I'm thinking about everything I've done wrong in my life and it's making me wonder what the first mistake was."

"Everyone's life is a mistake, honey," Noah assured her, not exactly comfortingly. "I don't exactly want to be sitting her solving people's problems, but that's how things panned out. People who think they're happy are just too stupid to see that they aren't."

Courtney sat up, annoyed. "Can you just for one session at least pretend that you're good at your job?" she asked of him. Noah rolled his eyes but nodded in agreement. Courtney lay back down with a sigh. "I just feel like there's something missing. I don't know how to have fun anymore."

"Do you remember when the last time you had fun was?" Noah questioned. Courtney thought for a moment, staring at the ceiling but not really seeing it as she tried to remember.

"Probably not since I was seventeen," she replied after a couple of minutes. Noah nodded as he wrote down some notes. Courtney twiddled her thumbs patiently as she waited for him to tell her what to do.

"Okay, here's what I want you to do," Noah instructed. "You're going to go to the house you lived in when you were seventeen. You're going to write down all of your grievances, and burn them."

Courtney raised an eyebrow at him. "That's it?" she demanded. "That's your whole plan for me to feel better about myself?"

"How about I prescribe you with some anti depressants as well?" Noah offered without looking up from his clipboard. He handed Courtney the prescription and she scowled, snatching it from his hand and storming out.

Past.

Courtney and Duncan had been going steady since the Monday after the dance. Duncan had met Courtney out the front of school with a wooden skull he'd carved himself and asked if she would be his girlfriend. She had accepted of course, despite the weird gift, much to the disgust of Heather and delight of Bridgette.

Not that Heather could really talk, since she had also ended up in a relationship with her date from the dance. It was a purely physical relationship, as far as Courtney could tell, as they spent every recess and lunch time making out and she never saw them talking to each other. It had only been two weeks and Courtney already knew it wasn't going to last long.

"I give it another month, tops," Courtney said knowingly as her and Bridgette saw Heather and Trent making out on one of the benches in the yard.

"I hate to be pessimistic, but I think you're right," Bridgette agreed. "Heather will get bored and poor Trent will be heartbroken.

"Nah, everyone knows Trent is actually hung up on some girl he met when he was at boarding school last year," Geoff informed them as he and Duncan joined their girlfriends on the grass.

"Why didn't he stay there then?" Bridgette wondered.

"His parents couldn't afford it," Duncan replied. "He writes her letters but I don't know if she replies. It's kinda creepy if you ask me."

"He's also obsessed with the number nine," Geoff added. "He has to put nine x's and o's at the end of all his letters. It's some kind of messed up."

"I think it's sweet," Bridgette countered, but Courtney screwed her nose up, definitely on Geoff and Duncan's side.

"Hey babe, want to come to mine after school tonight?" Duncan asked Courtney.

"I wish I could but I have to study. My parent's would kill me if I came home late two nights in a row," she said with a sigh. "They already don't like our relationship enough as it is."

"So just go home and then sneak out your bedroom window," Duncan suggested. "I can pick you up around the block and we can grab something to eat at Joe's while we wait for ma to finish work. I really want you to meet her, babe. I think you'd get along."

"Okay," Courtney agreed, giving Duncan a quick kiss.

"Aw, that's so sweet!" Bridgette sighed dreamily. She turned to her boyfriend. "What are we doing tonight?"

Geoff shrugged. "I dunno, making out in my car like always?" he offered sheepishly.

"For some reason that still appeals to me," Bridgette said.

"Okay, if I'm not getting any study done tonight I should really do some now. I'm going to the library," Courtney announced. She kissed Duncan swiftly before standing up. "I'll see you tonight?"

Duncan nodded and Courtney hurried off to do her homework.

As promised, Duncan picked Courtney up a block away from her house, and when she got in the car she started freaking out.

"I've never lied to my parents this much before," she told him worriedly. "Surely they're going to figure out what I'm doing. And then what?"

"Relax, Court," Duncan said, putting his hand on her knee comfortingly. "They're not going to find out. And if they do, what's the worst they can do?"

Courtney nodded, trying to breathe slowly. "You're right. Nothing can go wrong," she agreed. She smiled at him and he kissed her before turning his music on.

"Recognise this?" he asked, then started singing along to 'You Shook Me All Night Long'. It took Courtney a moment but when she realised what it was she started laughing.

"Is this the song that was playing on our first date?" she replied, though she knew she was right. Duncan nodded, still singing, and she began to join in with the parts she knew.

"So I guess we can call this 'our song'," Duncan laughed. Courtney sighed but she was still smiling.

"I guess we can, much to my disappointment." She winked at him as he looked at her with fake hurt. She laughed and he smirked at her.

"Nah, I get it. Ma's not much of a fan either," he told her. "One of the many reasons I think you'll get along so great.

They pulled up at Lazy Joe's and took a seat at their usual booth. Almost as soon as they sat down a short, thin woman with dark hair came running over to them. Courtney immediately knew she was Duncan's mother.

"Oh sweetie, is this the girl you've been telling me about? She's gorgeous! Hi Courtney, my name's Martha but you can just call me ma," Duncan's mother gushed.

"Thank you, it's lovely to meet you," Courtney said sweetly.

"Don't let her fool you, she's not as nice as she pretends to be," Duncan warned his mother jokingly. Courtney gave him a playful slap on the shoulder and Martha laughed.

"I'll get you kids some burgers," she told them, and went out the back to get their meals.

"So?" Duncan asked, a bit nervously, not something Courtney was used to. She could tell this was important to him.

"Well for the two seconds I've known her, she seems nice," she told him truthfully. "I can tell we're going to get along great.

After they'd finished their meal and Martha had finished her shift, the three of them went back to Duncan's house, a small one story house next to a trailer park, where Courtney met Duncan's two younger brothers, Nelson and Bryan, and they all stayed up late watching movies together.

It was strange how well Courtney seemed to get along with Duncan's family, since they came from such different backgrounds, but they acted as if she was already a part of the family even though her and Duncan had only been dating for a month.

"I'm really glad we did this," Courtney told Duncan as he drove her home at one in the morning. "I like your family. They're so welcoming."

"I'm glad we did it too," Duncan agreed. "Ma seems to like you, and so do Nelson and Bryan."

Courtney smiled at him. "I can tell that this was important to you."

Duncan nodded. "Yeah, thanks for doing this for me," he said, a little embarrassed. "If there's anything you want me to do that's important to you, let me know. You know, that's what relationships are about, or something."

"I'll let you know," Courtney assured him. She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek as Duncan parked the car around the corner from Courtney's house. "See you tomorrow?"

Duncan nodded and kissed her on the lips, not satisfied with the peck on the cheek. She got out of the car and walked quickly home to sneak back in her window. It seemed as though the longer this relationship continued, the more Courtney felt better about herself, and after meeting Duncan's family it had improved her mood more than she ever thought possible.

Sorry this update took a bit longer than usual, I'll try to make the next one pretty fast :)