"My name is Tate Langdon. You all are instructed to call me Mr. Langdon, but I hate formalities, so please call me Tate."

Violet's head snapped up to meet his gaze. Tate was barely able to keep the surprise he felt under control as he realized who she was, and vice-versa.

Oh, I am definitely going to enjoy English this year... Violet thought as Tate finally took his gaze off her's, tints of blush heating both of their faces.

VI

The car ride home was silent and Vivien didn't mind. Violet sat in the passenger side of her SUV in a daze. Her eyes slightly glassy barely registering the fact that the car was in park and her mother had shut the door but left the front door open. Hailie, her mother's Yorkie, barked wildly until Violet slipped back into reality and exited the car with a huff grabbing her messenger bag from the back seat.

"God, shut up Hailie."

"She speaks! Speak again bright angel!" Vivien replied with a smile.

"Quoting Shakespeare. Can't say I pegged you as a poet." Violet replied flopping back on the couch exhausted. Her eyes raw and itchy from lack of sleep. Hailie jumped on her lap sitting obediently.

"I was quite the Shakespeare fan back in high school, but whose to say I haven't read his work after I graduated."

"Have you?" Violet questioned, massaging Hailie's belly as her sounds of delight echoed in her ears.

"When I got pregnant with you. Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, my two favorites by far. I used to read aloud, hoping you could hear me and become a fan too. Your father down right despised it you know." Vivien looked to the dusty table next to her daughter and began to spritz a rag with cleaner before scrubbing it.

"Maybe that's why Hamlet's my favorite book. Because of you."

"Maybe. Why not Romeo and Juliet?" she asked curiously.

"Uh, well, Romeo liked another girl who rejected him, took Juliet as a rebound and 'fell in love' after knowing each-other three days. Then, killed themselves. Please don't get me started on the Montague's and the Capulet's, they're even worse than their kids." Vivien laughed.

"Well, since you put it that way, Romeo and Juliet were a little out there." Violet laughed genuinely for the first time in months. She wasn't used to the feeling at all.

"So here's the real question." Vivien began. Violet rolled her eyes playfully.

"How was school today, Violet?" Violet finished for her as Vivien's red hair swung forward in a nod. "It was okay I guess. Nothing really to tell. Food's shit though."

"Teacher's nice?" Tate's face flashed in her mind as she almost smiled.

"They're eh. Just annoying, droning and talk too much."

"Typical High school, huh Vi?" Violet thought about it and decided taking a much more different meaning to answer her mother's question was the best bet.

"Not in the slightest." She smirked before she put Hailie on the ground despite her whimpering. Running up the stairs as she did so.

"I'll be down later maybe. I have Homework." she called over the railing. Vivien smiled.

"Okay sweetie. Call if you need help."

"Mom?" Violet called.

"Yes?"

"Thank you." Violet's door closed and her rock music began to play. Vivien chuckled to herself and picked up Hailie.

Maybe moving across the country was the best idea for Violet and it was exactly what she needed.

Maybe.

VxTxVxTxV

"Hello? Anyone home?" Tate called walking into his mother's house, finding Constance in the kitchen lighting up another smoke. Her hands shaky and weak as she lifted the cancer stick to her lips.

"Welcome back home, Tate." Her voice was cold and calm as Tate took a seat across from her.

"Where the hell did you go, mom? Why didn't you stay with me until I woke up? Maybe give me an explanation of why you waiting so long to tell me you had cancer." His voice was bitter as she smirked unforgiving at her son.

"Sorry. But you should know mommy doesn't cottle." Tate scoffed.

"Why did you wait so long to tell me? Were you ever planning to tell me? Or was I gonna walk up here one morning and find out from your neighbors?"

"Oh, Tate, you're still so dramatic. I say, you should've done acting classes during college, not some willy-nilly teaching gig that doesn't even last you. You have so much potential, my precious baby boy. God blessed me with you, why waste your talents teaching uncaring, barely educated brats who will end up working at the local fast food place down town? You're better than that."

"Oh shut up mother! This ISN'T about me and you damn well know it. Stop changing the subject and tell me why you waited this long." Tate growled impatiently.

"Because I figured you wouldn't of cared either way if I lived or died. Your hatred was so painfully obvious when you were a boy. When daddy left, when Larry came, it was all so fucking predictable. You weren't happy with me then, and you aren't happy with me now. You have an obvious reason to hate me and all I ask is what is the reason?"

"You really want to know why I hate you so much? Why I have always fucking hated you?" Constance closed her eyes, as tears dripped down her face sullenly. She's been waiting for this ever since Tate could talk. Now she was going to hear it.

"Because you're a vengeful, spiteful, bitch. When dad left you, you were supposed to stay strong for me, but you couldn't even do that. All you did was cry and drink, along with taking it out on me. Then you replaced dad with Larry Harvey. That man took my father's place and you let him! You let him hit me, You saw the bruises and the gashes and you fucking let him mutilate me! You sat back and watched him with that same fucking glass of Chardonnay you drink now. It was YOU. You chose a man to make you only you happy because you're too SELFISH to think about the safety of your child!" Tate was close to sobbing now as his tone had risen after each word. Constance said nothing but looked down to her empty wine glass.

"All you ever did was hurt me mom. I wanna scream at how much I fucking hate you, despise you, I wanna rip out your fucking heart just to see if it's as black as it seems to be whenever something wasn't set to your standards. You made me want to cut myself deeper, and deeper, until I stop breathing because you treated me like I was a piece of shit all those years ago! I wanted to die so badly because of you. Look at what you made me do!" His vision was blurry with un-shed tears, he ripped up his sleeve to show her the multiple healed wounds of marred flesh that would never fully go away.

"Look at it." His tone had quieted some as Constance's eyes opened and took in her son's flesh. Her chest heaved as a sob ripped at her throat. Tears falling freely down his face as he realized he was crying in front of his mother. "Sickening. isn't it?" he questioned.

"I'm not your perfect son. Nor will I ever be. I blame you for so much, every wrong doing, or fucked up thing I ever do was your fault. I want to say you're the reason I have hatred flowing through me. I can't." Constance's eyes met his.

"I can't blame you fully. I hate myself too. I hated scarring myself because i was too fucking weak to stand up to you. Mom, you weren't a mother to me, you shouldn't of had kids if you couldn't care for, or love them. That's what I thought when I paid through school and you said you wished I was someone else. Someone you can be proud of. Remember when you said that to me? Because I wanted to be a teacher and you wanted me to become a doctor or a lawyer. Even when I was out on my own...you still wanted to control every aspect of my goddamn life. You were never there for me. But you know what? I can look past that. Because I love you regardless of all the shit you do. I still love you, mom. I do. Not because you have cancer. But because we bleed the same blood. We're human. We make mistakes. But you aren't leaving this world with a child who hates you. You will leave this world safe. You will die...loved."

Constance in a fit of hysterics lunged at her son, hugging him as if he was going to disappear at any second. Her sobs muffled by his shirt, the black makeup staining it. Tate whispered into her hair, trying to calm her. Tears streaked down his pale skin as well.

"I love you so much Tate. I always have and always will. I was no mother back then. I am no mother now. But despite everything I put you through, Larry's put you through, I apologize. I can't fathom why I ever allowed that man to put a finger on you. God may not forgive me, but at least, you, my baby boy, can and does find it in his heart to do so. Tate, you are the light of my life. I don't ever want you to forget that. Please, don't. Maybe this is God's way of making me realize what I am losing."

They were mother and son, crying together in a fit of mourning. Mourning the past and all it's wrongs, mourning the future, in understanding death. Tate knew one thing, and one thing for only.

He loved his mother, and she loved him too.

TxVxTxVxT

It was seven that next morning as Violet strolled through Tate's English classroom to find his back turned to the chalk board as he wrote down things about the new book they would most-likely be studying. She took a seat behind him hoping to not disturb his concentration on what he was writing. After a minute, he stopped to look down at his handwritten notes to finish up.

"Oedipus, huh?" Her voice clipped, causing Tate to jump back momentarily surprised until he realized who was taking.

"Violet Harmon? What are you doing here?" His voice was light, monotone, and his eyes were red and bloodshot looking as if he hadn't slept in a week.

"I came to see you, Tate. I was the girl you gave the water bottle too. You remember, the girl who ran like a madwoman down the street." she replied.

"Yeah. I remember you perfectly. What do you need this early? I don't have you until the end of the day."

"I don't know, to talk I guess." she replied, reaching into her green bag, pulling out a chilled water bottle and setting it on his desk. Tate didn't see as he walked to the back of the room to shut the windows. He smiled at Violet but it hadn't reached his eyes.

"Student's usually come for tutoring only." She smiled back. "What were you running from when I last saw you anyway, Violet?" Tate asked, stretching his aching joints.

"I was running from the ghost of my past self." Her eyes bore into his bloodshot ones as she circled the desks one by one until they were so close, she could smell the axe on his clothes. "I'm sorry." she whispered gently holding out her wrist. His eyes caught sight of the gashes that littered her skin.

"How did you know?" he whispered, his voice breaking slightly.

"Your cuffs are rolled up. I knew you went through some shit when I looked into your eyes in your car. You're just...readable. I guess."

"You don't know me."

"I don't have too, Tate. You can't help the thoughts that run through your head. I know what it's like to crave death. Watch the blood slide down my skin. Feel myself fall unconscious and wonder why I woke up alive and breathing. We aren't that much different, though we aren't that much alike either." She glanced at the clock behind Tate's head, seeing the bell was about to ring.

"I need to go. I'll see you in class." Violet grabbed her bag and slung it over her gray cardigan and walked to the door. Tate stood emotionless, staring at nothing.

"Tate?" His eyes flickered to hers. "If you need anything at all, I'm here." And she was gone. Tate wondered if she was really there or not, his mind had to be playing tricks on him. The bell rang in his ears, as he ran his fingers through his hair and forced a fake smile on his face as students came piling in.

It would just be a few more hours until Violet would be in his presence again.

He wanted to know her.

He wanted to trust her. He wanted to trust a student he barely even knew. As the last of his students came in, he walked to his desk. His eyes catching a chilled water bottle by the stacked papers of his lesson.

For the first time in days, Tate had a reason to smile.

Whew! Another chapter done! There is a lot going on just like I promised! It was tough writing Tate and Violet for this. I had a good idea of where I wanted them to go. Let me know what you all think!

I will try to update by Friday!

4-5 Reviews for chapter 7 :)