HE SAID HE LOVES ME! *jumps all over the place, then sits down again, takes a deep breath and keeps writing*

Good, I needed to let that out.

Enjoy and review.

Sorry for the delay once again, at least I've written a long chapter haha

I slept with one eye opened that night -not really, but I did woke up every twenty minutes and saw grandma coming in and out several times-, too afraid that George would do something to me while we were sleeping. I kept picturing him with a knive, appearing at the foot our bed, staring at me with deep, black eyes like the devil. I think I've watched far too many horror movies with Danny on Friday nights. I was feeling so tired when I decided to finally get up at around 7 a.m.; I could hear the dog crying dowstairs in the garage, waiting until someone woke up and let him out of that cold, dark place. I wouldn't want to be there if I was him either, even less by myself. I felt sorry for him and took him to the back garden, hoping he wouldn't destroy all my mum's plants or I'd have to pay for that.

After having breakfast on my own -it was weird to have so much peace in this house-, I watched TV for a while and greeted my family as one by one the all came dowstairs to have breakfast. When uncle Daniel sat dangerously close to me, I escaped from him afraid he'd want to start a conversation or finished the one we'd started yesterday. Instead of that, I joined Stephanie in bed again; she'd woken up and was waiting for me to come back. I lightly pressed my lips into hers once and then said hi.

"You woke up early, and yet you still look tired" she said

"I couldn't sleep" I said.

"Did you have a nightmare?" she said and run her skinny fingers through my messy hair.

"Something like that..." I said.

She kissed my cheek and smiled "Aw, my poor baby. We'll have a nap this afternoon then, ok?"

"Sounds good" I said.

She stood up and I couldn't help staring at her legs; God bless her short pijama. I can't wait until we go back to hour lovely home, if you know what I mean...

"I'm going to have a bath" she said "My back hurts"

"Ok" I said "I'll be downstairs"

I kissed her lightly once again and made sure uncle Daniel wasn't in the living-room anymore, then sat on the couch again and tried not to fall asleep while watching TV. I was an easy target here and, though as much as I wanted to sleep, my safety was first.

George came down, followed by her sister, Leah. They looked at me once, but didn't even say hi to me, just kept walking towards the kitchen. I would have to watch my back all day long.

After a couple of minutes and almost falling asleep, I decided to get a cup of coffee. George was sitting in a chair, looking at me as I put some coffee in my cup. I couldn't help feeling something wasn't right. My aunt was next to him, reading, with a cup of tea in her hand. My lips were laying over the cold porcelain, George's eyes on me. As soon as I tasted the coffee, I spit it in the sink.

"What are you doing?" my aunt asked confused.

"What did the coffee had!" I said horrified, she thought I was talking to her.

"Just honey and some sugar" she said innocently. I hesitated, looking down at the cup of coffee... Well, now I feel stupid.

"Oh..." I said.

I could tell George wanted to laugh.

"Well, it's horrible" I said.

"Then dont drink it" she said, slightly offended. I blushed, put down the cup of coffee in the sink, and walked towards the couch again. God, it was so hard to keep myself awake. I was watching the news, though I could hardly concentrate, Jazzie was staring at me curiously which made me wonder from time to time if there was something in my face, it was a very uncomfortable feeling. At least I trusted my sister enough to be sure that she wouldn't let our cousin do anything to me if I fell asleep.

"Take a nap if you want" she said after a while "I'll wake you up if I leave"

"No, I can't sleep. Believe me, I've tried. I keep picturing George trying to murder me" I said.

She giggled "You're so dramatic. Ok, he is evil but-" a piercing scream made her stop and I got on my feet so fast when I recognized the voice that it made me dizzy for a moment, though I kept moving. She stood up two and followed me upstairs, my aunt behind us. I ran towards the bathroom, where Stephanie was supposed to be taking a bath -that'd been like more than half an hour ago- and opened the door without even knocking. She was in fact naked, standing in front of the mirror, horrified, her hair... Bright pink? Before I could close the door again, my relatives had already seen her.

"Oh, my God, Dougie!" she yelled at me and closed the door, hitting it against my forehead. That made me a big more dizzy again.

"I'm sorry!" I shouted, my cheeks probably pink, but not as pink as hers had to be.

"What happened to her hair?" Jazzie asked.

"What happened to your hair?" I asked, feeling a bit stupid, like I was talking to the door.

"I don't know, I don't know! It's pink! IT'S FREAKING PINK!" she shouted from the other said.

"I know" I said "Babe, put a towel around you and let us in"

"No!" she shouted.

"Come on, open the door, baby" I insisted as I run my fingers through my hair nervously. What the fuck happened. How the hell does someone dye their hair by mistake?

"Maybe we can still remove it" my aunt shouted, so Steph could listen. A second later she opened the door, but only let my aunt and sister in. A few minutes later, the rest of my family was by my side, confused.

"What happened?" my uncle asked.

"Honestly? I've got no idea" I said. Did that just really even happen?

I waited and waited, I could hear them talking inside the bathroom but I couldn't make sense of the things they were saying, also water running constantly. I've got no idea how long I'd been waiting. I was patiently waiting outside, my back against the bathroom's door. I was going to end up falling asleep like that... This was weird, as far as I know, Stephanie's never dyed her hair, why would she try to dye it now? And pink? How can you get confused with that? You have to be really stup-

Oh, wait a minute. Oh, fuck.

"George!" I stood up in a blink, furious. I walked towards the kids' room, but they weren't there. I looked out the window and saw them playing in the garden with the diabolic, little dog. I could feel my fists trembling out of anger.

I turned around to walk out of the room and towards the garden when I saw it, they didn't even hide the evidence; there was a black and white bottle from one of those famous brands of shampoo and that kind of things that women get crazy about laying in his bed. I grabbed and read the label; yes, pink dye. The bottle was rather empty. How the hell did these kids manage to get this?

"Jazzie" I said, once I was in front of the bathroom's door again. I felt like an idiot, talking to the door "I think I've found the dye"

She opened the door a little bit and looked at me confused.

"Hey, that's mine" she said, then looked back up at me, looking a bit afraid "I swear to God I didn't do it, I know I can be a bitch but I've never gone that far"

"I know, I found it in the kids room"

Jazzie first raced an eyebrow, then opened her mouth to speak, but close it again. She just stared at me for a moment, kind of in shock "Wow" she finally said "Wow... They are... Crazy. Why do they do that?"

I opened my mouth but close it again quickly; how could I explain this to her without revealing I was going to propose to Steph?

I couldn't.

"I don't know" I lied "Maybe they thought I was going to take a shower"

Jazzie took the bottle from my hands and sighed "Why didn't I figure it out early?" she said "It was so obvious. No wonder why we couldn't just wash it away or something... It's long-lasting semi-permanent dye. As the name implies, it has the longest life remaining even after more than 20 washes, depending on the brand. This one if oh-so-freaking-great, poor Stephanie. I wanted to dye my hair but mum wouldn't let me."

"Pink?" I said "Why did you chose pink?"

"I wasn't going to dye all my hair" she rolled her eyes and sighed, then closed the door out of the blue, almost hitting my face with it.

I didn't see that coming.

She opened it again just a moment later "You'll want to wait in you room, this is going to take a long time, bro"

I sighed, buried my hands on my pockets and walked towards my bed. I closed my eyes and when I opened them, everything was darker, I'd barely realized I'd fallen asleep. Steph was sitting next to me, a towel over her head. I took a deep breath and sat in the bed, feeling a bit lost.

"What time is it?" I asked.

"Six o'clock I think" she said.

"Six!" I repeated. I ran my fingers through my hair and stared at her. She looked like she'd been crying. "Baby, how are you?" I asked in a soft voice, speaking as sweetly as I could.

She just nodded and took my hand. I caressed her cheek with my free hand.

"Did they manage to remove it?" I asked, not sure I wanted to know the answer, but then again, I know nothing about that kind of stuff, I'd always had someone else to dye my hair.

"A bit" she said "Your sister said I must have spent too much time with it and didn't notice it"

I felt so guilty, this was all my fault; of course I wasn't the only target, they could use Stephanie too to piss me off. My sweet Stephanie...

"I'm sorry" I couldn't help saying.

"Sorry for what? It wasn't your fault" she said.

I hesitated "Sorry for opening the door like I did, I should have knocked" well, that wasn't entirely a lie, I had to apologize for that too.

"Oh" she said "It's ok... I just hope your aunt or sister never say anything about that ever again" she cheeks went red.

"Can I see...?" I asked, not sure I should have.

She took a deep breath "I guess you'll see it sooner or later"

She took off the towel and looked down, embarrassed. Her hair was still pretty much pink, though you could still see some parts with her natural light brown hair. At least the root of her hair wasn't pink. It didn't look that bad now. It wasn't good, but it wasn't terrible either.

"I look awful" she said in a whisper. I took her face in my hands and forced her to look at me.

"No, you don't, Steph" I kissed her lightly once "Do you believe me?"

She hesitated "Maybe"

"You look a bit like a badass" I laughed and she giggled. It was so good to see her smile again "So how long is it going to be like that?"

"I don't know" she said "I don't want to think about that either" she sighed "I just don't understand how this all happened. Someone must have changed the contain of the bottles and forgot to tell us"

"I'm sure that was it" I swallowed; oh my God, I just lied to her. I don't think I've done that many times, but I knew it felt absolutely horrible. I had no other choice! If I accused the children, she'd want to hear all about my accusation and right now I couldn't explain myself, not to her or anyone.

She closed her eyes and rested her head on my chest.

"I just want to..." she sighed "Forget about it"

I nodded and kissed her now half-pink, half-brown hair. I would have to do whatever the kids wanted, I couldn't risk Stephanie again, I couldn't foresee what they'd do either because I had no idea wheter they would go on tormenting her or me. I'd have to be their slave or tell Stephanie the truth... I wasn't ready for that, not just yet.

"I'll take care of you, babe, just relax now" I said, feeling so guilty. I felt like George's puppet. And all because of a ring.