The End

I was speed reading one of my English assignments at the kitchen island, Marissa having distracted me from it the previous night, when Seth slid in complaining to his father about his head. Part of me knew that I should cycle to school and stay in the library until I'd finished the book, or at least skimmed through the cliff notes. However, the other part of me knew I wanted to see how it was going to play out.

"Do I have a fever?" he groaned feeling his forehead with the back of his hand, "I think I might have a fever and, or, the chills."

"Since when?" I asked him.

"Since recently." He told me shooting me an evil glance clearly meant to shut me up before trying to get the attention of his father.

"And this has nothing to do with Summer and, or, Anna?" I asked him, not looking up from my book.

"You," I glanced up to see him pointing at me, "quiet and Dad, I really don't feel well."

Sandy motioned for Seth to come closer so he could feel his forehead. "You don't feel hot." He shrugged.

"How bout cold or clammy?" Seth asked him.

"I hear the summer flu has all those affects." I told him folding down the page of my book and closing it and pulling out the milk cartoon. "I hear anna-biotics are real good for that kind thing." I smiled at him before draining it.

"You know Kirsten hates it when you do that." Sandy sighed at me. "And if you really don't feel well I guess you could have the day off school."

"Are you serious?" I waved the milk carton around, gesturing wildly, "He's just doing it to avoid Summer and Anna." I stopped waving the empty container when I realised Sandy and Seth were watching me with a slight look of fear. "Sorry." I said sheepishly, throwing the carton in the trash. "I'm still not smoking, I'm a little edgy."

"Okay." Sandy said, shaking his head before turning his attention his attention back to Seth. "You're going to school, before Alex throws a fit." He smiled at him, patting him on the shoulder.

"Hey," Kirsten walked into the kitchen, also in her dressing gown. "how come your not dressed your gonna be late?" She told Seth as she brushed past him going to the coffee.

"And so are you," Sandy pointed his coffee cup at her, "or is that what ladies are wearing these days to yogalaties?" Sandy asked her. "Taryn called to remind you that today is the first day of your yogalaties workshop."

"Okay Mom...yogalaties?" Seth frowned at her.

"Ugh! I don't know if I'm gonna go, I'm not feeling well."

"See it's contagious!" Seth pointed around the room.

"You know, honey, you might still be a little hung over."

"From what?" Kirsten asked him

"Uh gee, I don't know getting drunk and passing out on thanksgiving." Seth shrugged.

"You really are my family now!" I smiled at her.

"Hey!" she pointed at me, "I had two glasses of wine."

"I heard ten." I smiled back at her. "And that was just the Merlot."

"Right from now on you and Seth don't talk without me supervising the conversation." She said throwing a bagel at me. "And I'm sure Julie Cooper has spread word around town that Kirsten Cohen now has a drinking problem." She told Sandy.

"Which is why you have to go to yogalaties, cause you know those chatty old Newpsies will just assume that you're at home sleeping off another bender." He laughed.

"And Summer and Anna will assume your to afraid to face them." I told Seth smugly.

"Hey I'm not afraid of Summer an Anna alright."

"I hear Summer suffers rage black outs." I smiled at him.

"...well I'm not afraid of Anna."

"So you're going to school?" I asked as I threw him the bagel.

"And you're going to yogalaties?" Sandy asked Kirsten.

"You just like saying that." She sighed at him.

"Yogalaties?" He shrugged. "I kinda do. Yogalaties." He smiled at me.

"Yoooogalaties." I repeated.

"You know what I wanna know-" Kirsten turned to Seth.

"Yogalaties?" Sandy said still smiling.

"Is why these two are so smug!"

"Because for once they didn't do anything wrong." Seth frowned taking a bite into the bagel.

"That's true." Sandy walked back over to me. "Here's to ya!"

"Back at ya." I smiled knocking my coffee cup against his.

"Enjoy it;" Kirsten smiled at us from across the island, "because knowing the two of you, it won't last long."

"Yogalaties."

"Yogalaties." I repeated.


Marissa was sitting opposite me in history class, sliding her bare foot up and down my leg teasingly whilst passing me notes, all of which made concentrating on Mr Bendis incredibly hard.

"Your class presentations will account for one third of your final grade," he told us walking around our tables dropping down instruction sheets, "along with your term papers and of course the final-exam. I'll be dividing the class into two person teams-" Marissa suddenly started writing again, "each team will be responsible for presenting a detailed account of a pivotal event or period in European history-" she slid it across the table, I watched him turn round to issue papers to the back of the class before reading it.

We could do the crusades.

"-now I've already had quite a few a partnership requests-" Mr Bendis continued as I grabbed my pen and started to write back, "however, in all fairness to the other students I will select the teams myself at random, okay."

I looked across at Marissa knowing that we were not going to be allowed to work together, she clearly had the same thought as she leant across the table and scrunched up her note to me.

"Lauren and Kenny the French revolution, Alex you will be working with Luke-"

"Like fuck I will." I didn't realise I was standing until I looked around the class room and found all pairs of eyes upon me. I looked back front and saw Mr Bendis pointing to the door. "Going." I said simply shoving my books quickly trying to shake the eyes from me.

"I will be expecting you to still be outside the principals office at the end of this period." He told me as I opened the door.


I was sat on the uncomfortable waiting room chair for fifty-three minutes, just waiting and hugging my bag. Mr Bendis walked past and into Dr Kim's office, just two minutes later he was out and I was told to sit back down and wait for my guardians to arrive.

I watched as the Cohens walked into her office and waited for my fate to be sealed. I was amazed I was in so much trouble for just swearing at a teacher, however, I couldn't exactly explain why I'd sworn at Bendis; that would just lead to more swearing when I told them about Luke. Furthermore, the fact that I'd refused to press charges against him would just hold me in weak standing with Sandy. So I simply sat, waited and hugged my school bag as I watched the Cohens walk in and then out of Dr Kim's office.

"So which one of you is going to be good cop?" I smiled weakly at the Cohens opened the door.

"I have to get back to the office." Kirsten told Sandy not looking at me.

"So do I." He replied simply. I watched at they tried to have a conversation without words about who was going to deal with me. "Flip for it?" Sandy eventually sighed.

He pulled out a coin and Kirsten called it in the air, before kissing Sandy on the cheek and walking out of the building. I stood up and rearranged my bag, trying to act nonchalant, I had only seen Sandy look so disappointed at me once before and I'd been wearing a jump-suit at the time.

"Car, now."

Sandy waited until we were on the road before laying into me.

"What the hell do you think you're playing at, you're at private school you don't swear at teachers. They don't care what the problems you had with Luke Ward were, especially if your difficulties are just over Marissa. You just got to shut up and deal with it." I didn't look at him, though I knew he was waiting for a response, I simply stared out of the window watching the world go by. "You've been suspended for the rest of the day." He told me eventually.

"So we going home?" I asked him, confused by the route we were taking.

"You wish."


Sandy had me clerking for him all day, which was legal speak for him making me his bitch. I was lifting boxes between his and Rachel's office all day, fetching coffee and bagels and when he ran out of jobs for me to do he made me re-paint the conference office on his floor. Seeing as he didn't have the authority to authorise that, I painted over it in the existing colour.

Sandy let me out at five, the same time detention let out, with bus fair and directions to the nearest stop. I actually felt like the hired help rather than the adopted child.

When I got in my back was killing me, the rumbling engine of the bus doing nothing for the aches I had developed working for Sandy's law firm. I headed to the kitchen and found Seth sitting at the table doing his homework.

"Summer and Anna are friends." He told me, slamming his book shut. "They came out of the bathroom, together then they went off to the library together! Together!"

"Aren't you even the slightest bit curious as to why I have paint in my hair?" I asked him, "Are you that self involved that you didn't notice me not in school today?"

"You swore at Bendis, everybody's talking about it. The last time that happened – you know what I don't think that's ever happened before." He put his hand in the air for a high five which I simply ignored choosing to head into the shower to get the paint out of my hair. "Come on, Alex, these are two people who hate each other brought together by their even greater hatred of me! Its like Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader teaming up to destroy the emperor." Seth said following me into my room.

"And clearly we're back to focusing on you." I sighed pulling a towel from the rack. "If you can shout above the noise of the water running and my shower radio then I will be listening," I nodded at him, "but I have to shower and head over to the Ward's to work on mine and Luke's history presentation. And if you can remember correctly whenever I'm in house with Luke I either get beat up or go to jail." I walked into the en suit and quickly shut the door, knowing it was going to hit Seth's face.

"That's cool." He shouted from behind the door, "I'll tell you about my problems some other time."


Once showered I walked through the yard to my bike hoping to avoid Seth, he was the last thing I needed. Right now I was going to the house of a person who hated me because I was gay, there was the small issue of me stealing his girlfriend, but I don't think that it helped that I was gay. I didn't care to hear about Seth whining about girls.

I instinctively felt my pockets for a pack of cigarettes, finding none I simply plugged my headphones into my phone, turned the volume to full and hoped to force all thoughts of Luke out of my head with a seriously load drum beat.

I dumped my bike on the Wards' drive way and walked up and down the path a couple of times before plucking up the courage to actually knock on his door.

"Hi." A horribly happy woman peered round the door, "Alex isn't it?"

"Uh… yeah!" I shook my head. "I mean hi!" I tried to smile back as I held out my hand, which she shook.

"Luke just got home he'll be right down, come in." she said opening the door wider and ushering me in. I stepped into their giant hall and watched two boys, I guess Luke's brothers, fighting over what appeared to be a iguana, or a lizard of some sort.

"That's not real, or alive is it?" I asked pointing at the thing.

"Oh no!" she laughed before turning her attention to her sons "Guys, guys this is Luke's friend Alex." They both looked up and waved. "Alex this is Eric and Brad." She told me as the boys started to fight again. "Who wants a snack?" she asked them exasperated.

"Me!" they both jumped up and down, clamouring for attention, the iguana forgotten.

"Alex?" Luke's mom asked me I was about to answer her when the door opened behind me.

"Hello." A man said, walking past kissing Mrs Ward.

"Dad you're home!" the boys said in unison.

"Whoa ah huh, huh, there they are," he smiled broadly hugging his sons. "How you doing?"

"So can we play some ball later? Please." One of them asked.

"Ah you know what kids, I'm just home to drop off Mom's car," he turned his attention to his wife. "Ah one of the belts was misaligned I had them change the oil too," he turned back to the boys, "sorry fellas."

"Mm." She kissed him again, "Uh you remember Luke's friend Alex, they're doing a school project together."

"We haven't actually met." I said, but holding out my hand nonetheless.

"You're that kid the Cohens took in right?" He smiled taking my hand, I simply nodded. "What's your project on?"

"Spanish inquisition."

"Ooh not one the western civilization's proudest moments. I was a history major at USC," he explained, "and now I sell cars for a living."

"Oh don't listen to him Alex," Mris Ward said putting his arms around him and patting his chest, "he owns three auto dealerships."

"God Mom, brag much?" Luke sighed running down the stairs.

"She's just being proud of me." Mr Ward smiled at him.

"Come on let's do this." Luke sighed nodding upstairs.

"Yeah me too, Gus is outside, I'll see you tonight." Mr Ward kissed his wife goodbye opening the door. "Alex keep him on his toes please. Luke SC Notre Dame this Saturday thought we'd drive up about noon, tailgate."

"Yeah, cool." Luke smiled.

"Alex I don't know if you're a Trojan girl but it's gonna be a good game, you're more then welcome." He told me leaving.

Luke glared at me, as if daring me to agree to tag along, before nodding for me to follow him up to his room.

"Its fine," I muttered to myself, "I'm more of a baseball fan anyway."

Luke opened his room and promptly sat down on his chair at his desk, leaving me standing nervously on the edge. I looked around and saw nothing but sports posters and equipment, except by his bed where there stood a lonely photograph of him and Marissa.

"So," I dug my pockets deep in to my pockets, sinking my head into my shoulders, "this is awkward."

"Yup." He nodded back at me.

"I, uh, didn't get a chance to go to the library, Sandy's had me working at his office all day."

"You know that was pretty cool you know." He kind of half smiled at me, a thing that he'd never done before and so completely unnerved me. "Don't think anyone's sworn at a teacher before, plus Bendis is a total dick."

"Evidently." I sighed, looking around his room once more.

"So how you wanna do this?" he asked nodding towards the small pile of books in front of him.

"Quickly?" I muttered.

"'Cause I got a bunch a books from the library," he continued, clearly not have having heard my response "I pulled some stuff off the web. I was thinking we could do like a screen show on my power book." I simply looked at him dumbfounded. "My dad's got a film scanner at the office; colour laser jet, power point. We could just pull some stuff here and then head over there." He looked away when I didn't respond. "You know or not." He shrugged.

"I don't know all that much about computers."

"You'd rather read of a sheet in front of class?" He asked me with a cocky smile.

"But a girl can lean." I sighed as I watched him boot up his computer, grabbing the top book from his pile and plunking myself down on his bed and flicking through it.


We worked on our presentation for about an hour, me reeling off facts from the books with him typing them up and putting them on power point. Luke saved it all onto his scan disk before we pilled my bike into the back of his truck and headed off towards his dad's dealership.

"Dad?" He called out into the showroom as he held open the door for me. "Guess he's not here." He shrugged when neither of us heard a reply.

"Wow." I whistled out as I looked round the room of cars. "Is that the new TT?" I asked him stroking the hood of one of the red Audis.

"2.0 TFSI engine-"

"Permanent four-wheel drive, S tronic direct-shift gearbox." I finished for him. "I love cars."

"Yeah?"

"My dad and brother kinda worked with cars, always bringing them back and tinkering with them."

"They mechanics?" He asked.

"Thieves." I said simply before going over to the black R8.

"12 cylinders." He smiled at me, walking round the other side and hopping in. "Check out the stereo though."

I slid in next to him as he cranked up on the volume of the radio.

"Oh my god I love this song." I smiled as Wiley rang through not only the car but the entire dealership.

"You like drum and bass?"

"I like a bit of everything." I shrugged. "Are we bonding?" I frowned at him after a while.

"Weird huh." He agreed before going back and tapping the beat of the song out on the steering wheel. "Oh look there's my dad." He smiled pointing into the next room where his dad and one of his colleges were chatting.

"Surprised they haven't heard us." I said nodding towards the stereo.

"Sound proofing." Luke explained, shutting the radio off and stepping out of the car.

I followed him towards the offices, still looking round at all the different cars before finding myself walking straight into him. I moved so I could see what had caused him to stop dead in his tracks and wished I hadn't.


I chased Luke out of the building and hopped in besides him in his truck, barely having shut the door when he sped off. The drive back was fast and quiet, dispersed with me fearing for my life as Luke ignored the speed limit and threatened me with everything under the sun to keep me quiet about what I saw.

He dropped me off at the bottom of my drive before speeding off again, taking my bike with him. I simply watched it go, wondering if I'd ever see it again before giving up and walking through the yard to my room. I dropped myself on my bed as the day played back in my head. All of it coming back to one point: that I was right to try and shout down Mr Bendis in history.


"Sorry I'm late," Marissa told me the next day walking into my room. "I slept through my alarm."

"Its okay. I'll forgive you this time." I laughed kissing her on the cheek as I rushed round my room trying to tie the laces to my Chucks and pack my school bag at the same time.

"How'd it go last night? You didn't call me so-"

"We were working pretty late." I sighed as I looked around the room for my English book. "Can you see a copy of Pride and Prejudice?"

"I can barely find myself in this room, doesn't your maid come in here?" She asked, moving a pile of clothes from my chair and sitting down.

"I don't like Rosa cleaning in here," I shrugged as I moved the same pile of clothes looking to see if my book was under them, "makes me uncomfortable."

"So anyway," I wasn't looking at her but I could sense her roll her eyes at me, "you meet his mom? She's really great."

"She's overly cheery certainly." I nodded, "His dad was there too."

"Really?" she asked surprised. "'Cause he's never around, he's got these dealer ships in other cities an he's always travelling."

"Not last night." I sighed. "Maybe I left it in the house."

"Okay." She stood up and put herself between me and the door, "I knew you guys were gonna talk; so what did he say about me?"

"Amazingly enough, Seth, your name didn't come up." I sighed, walking past her and into the house.

"Did you just call me Seth?" she asked, following me into the kitchen. "I am not as self involved as Seth. Hey, Seth." She smiled at him, sitting besides him at the breakfast bar.

"I'm working on my self involvement." He smiled back at her before turning his attention to me. "So how was your date with Luke? Your new study buddy."

"It was good. You seen my book?" I asked him, rummaging around the DVDs on the coffee table hoping to find it amongst them.

"That's it?" Seth called out to me, "No gossip, no cross burning?"

"Yes Luke is in fact the founding member of the KKK, he and his buddy with the glove puppet from South Part write the monthly newsletter." I said, sarcasm dripping from ever word. "Have you seriously not seen my book?" I asked him walking back into the kitchen. "I cannot get in trouble today." I sighed starting to raid the cupboards.

"You really think its going to be amongst the cereals?" Marissa frowned at me. "What is up with you today, you're like tense and stuff. Insanely not like you."

"Did Luke show you his pagan alter?" Seth tried.

"Guys I'm fine, nothing happened with Luke, I just want to find my fucking book." I told them slamming the cupboard shut.

"Hey," Kirsten smiled at me passing me Pride and Prejudice as she walked into the kitchen to the coffee pot, "Rosa found it in the hall, oh and Sandy wanted me to remind you not to leave your bike in the drive way. Why are you all looking at me?"


The car ride to school was quiet, Marissa driving intermittently fiddling with the radio station, whilst Seth opened and closed his mouth going to speak before thinking better of it.

"Sorry." I eventually told them.

"For what?" Seth asked, trying to act like nothing had happened. "We'll just get you a pack of cigarettes and we'll be good." He smiled.

"What happened last night?" Marissa asked quietly.

"Yeah Alex, what was the belly of the beast like?"

"Nothing; no fighting, no punching, no homophobia. Nothing." I told them staring out the window and watching the school come into view.

"First Summer and Anna, now you and Luke. The apocalypse is nearing." Seth sighed from the back as Marissa parked the car. "Hey could one of you two, like follow them or something?" Seth asked us as we got out and started walking into the courtyard.

"What?" I frowned, turning round to face him.

"See if they're, you know, talking about me." He shrugged. I simply patted him on the back and continued on the way into the building.

I saw Luke chatting with some other members of the soccer team and went up to him.

"Hey thanks for returning my bike."

"Fuck off dyke." He told me, practically spitting as he did so. "Beat it." He continued when I didn't move.

Marissa steered me along and walked me into the building. "So much for you two being friends." She sighed.

"Something I find oddly comforting." Seth said smiling. "So can we go back to my problems now please people?"

"What problems?" I asked him, shoving Pride and Prejudice into my locker. "So their friends," I shrugged, "its not the end of the world."

"Weird perhaps," Marissa conceded, "given the circumstances, but apocalyptic?"

"We're talking about two people who are united in their hatred of me," Seth sighed, leaning against the lockers, "I think that's the end of the world for me at least."

"Seth," I turned round to face him as I closed my locker, "you screwed them over, get over it." I told him walking down the hallway into the girls' restroom.

I opened the door and once again was faced with a sight I wish I hadn't seen; it seemed that the whole of Newport was ganging up on me and making sure to air their drama's in front of me.

"And Seth was worrying about you two being friends." I smiled dully watching Anna and Summer break away from their kiss. "For someone that wants to keep there sexuality hidden you're going about it all the wrong ways." I told Summer as I fixed my hair in the mirror. "I mean I could have been anyone walking in here."

"We're going to tell Seth." Anna told me, watching my reaction through the mirror.

"We're just waiting for the right time." Summer finished.

"One," I sighed, wishing I'd at least tried to convince the Cohens I was sick, "there's never going to be a right time. And two, why? You don't need to tell him, its none of his business."

"Wow I envisioned that going a whole other way." Summer smiled weakly at Anna.

"Me too," I shrugged, "I'm having a really bad day though, bad week. Fuck," I threw my hands in the air as I opened the door, "I don't even know why I'm here."

"In the restroom?" Anna frowned at me as they followed me.

"In general." I sighed heading into homeroom where I knew Anna couldn't talk to me.


My classes were wonderfully uneventful. I spent lunch just nodding and smiling as I had been for the entire day, some moments doing it better than others. Anna had been trying to catch up with me all day, wanting to impart some wise sagisms that she seemed so fond of; trying to sell Newport to me. The truth of it was, though for the first time I had a future and a family, I didn't fit in.

"Hey," Seth called out to me after sixth period, "I have crazy news for you."

"If you are about to say a sentence with either of the names Summer or Anna; I'm telling you now, I'm not going to be listening."

"No, it's definitely not." He smiled at me as I tried to walk past him to my locker. "Its about Luke."

I instantly stopped dead. I knew what he was going to tell me, I knew it all before he opened his mouth and if he did he was just going to be confirming exactly what I had feared, exactly what I had dreaded ever since I'd seen that fateful kiss.

"I heard his dad's favourite TV show is Dawson's Crack." One of the water polo jocks laughed at Luke across the hall.

"I heard it was Everwoody." His friend laughed back.

"I have to go." I told Seth, quickly readjusting my bag as I attempted to walk past Luke unnoticed.

I got as far as opening the door before I heard Luke yell after me. He called me names, homophobia filling the air, all in an attempt to make me stop and listen. I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply before spinning round and finding Luke, somewhat unsurprisingly, staring me down.

"Who'd you tell?" he growled at me, shoving me into the lockers.

"Nobody, I swear." I told him, once again forced to plead at him to let me go.

"Well you're the only one that knows, was." He continued growling at me before punching me.

My head hit the back of the locker, the pain of that was worse than that in my chin. I slid down until I was sat on the floor simply holding my chin.

"Hey, you okay?" Marissa frowned at me, holding out a hand to pull me up. "What happened to your face?"

"Luke." I said simply, going back to feeling my lip. "Anyone who thought that Luke having a gay dad would make him any more tolerable of me were mistaken."

"What?"

"Luke thinks its my fault that the school knows about his dad."

"You knew?" She frowned at me. "Why didn't you tell me? Don't you trust me?"

"I just got punched and you're worried about me trusting you?" I simply walked away at that point, before I said something I regretted.


I got home a good hour after I should have done due to the fact that I was walking. Storming off from Marissa was arguably not the best thing I could have done, furthermore just gave her evidence for her and Seth's 'You're not okay' speal. I just needed time and space. I just wanted to get away from it all, them all. Life to an extent.

As I walked in Kirsten called out to me from the formal lounge; "Hey sweetie, you're home late."

"Yeah," I sighed heading into the kitchen, "I walked."

"Why?"

"Couldn't afford the bus." I told her simply from behind the fringe door. "I'm going to hang out in my room 'til dinner." I told her, waving my soda can at her.

"Alex, can you come sit down?"

"Sure," I shrugged walking back into her and sitting myself down opposite, "if this is about the Bendis thing I'm not going to apologise."

"What happened to your face?" She asked me, leaning forward.

"Luke." I sighed, touching my bruise subconsciously as I did so.

"Still not getting on?" I just looked at her. "Are you happy here?"

"Now that one I was not expecting." I sighed, opening up my can of Diet Coke.

"Are you?"

"Yeah," I frowned at her, "of course I am. You guys are… Are you kicking me out?"

"Alex, do you want to sit back down?"

"I knew it, this is the perfect end to the perfect day." I sighed, running my hand through my hair.

"We're not kicking you out." Kirsten smiled, joining me standing. "We just think, maybe that after all you've been through that you might want some counselling."

"Counselling?" I suddenly found myself sitting again.

"With your mom, your brother all you went through at home and then to come here and be in a completely different environment…"

"I'm not crazy." I looked up at her. "I love it here, I love you guys. I know I've been all different and fighty and moody these past couple days but," I was standing once more, "don't make me go home."

"Alex you're a Cohen now." She smiled at me. "Come on, lets get dinner ready."

"And by that do you mean either let me cook or order in?" I smiled weakly at her.


"Ok its just that," Seth began to laugh at the dinner table, "after all the years of Luke calling me gay, I don't know I think its great that now the shoe is on the other actually its on his dads foot but you get the symmetry I'm going for."

"I do like the irony." I nodded at him, "I mean Luke is a homophobic cu-"

"Alexandra!"

I looked over a Kirsten and smiled, "You've never called me by my full name before."

"You've never said that word in front of me before."

"Technically I still haven't." I smiled at her.

"This isn't funny guys." Sandy scolded Seth and I.

"I heard Meredith's already filing for divorce." Kirsten nodded at me.

"I mean how can you get married knowing that you're gay?" I asked "I mean how can you keep that kind of a secret? How can a marriage survive on that?"

"Oh you'd be surprised," Sandy nodded at me but looking at Kirsten, "but eventually the secrets come out."

"And some marriages can handle the truth an some can't." Kirsten replied.

Seth and I looked between Kirsten and Sandy both knowing that they were no longer talking about the Wards. I was grateful when the doorbell rang giving me a chance to get up from the table and out of the horribly awkward situation.

"Hey." Marissa smiled at me. "You doing alright?"

"I think we should go on a break." I told her quietly, sitting down on the front step.

"Because Luke has a gay dad?" she frowned at me joining me on the step. "That was a jo-"

"Don't." I told her, finding myself not only standing but pacing. "You just don't understand."

"Understand what? You never talk to me."

"You found me with a developing bruise on my chin from your ex-boyfriend and you were more concerned with the fact that I hadn't told you, this morning you were annoyed that I didn't tell you that Luke and I didn't talk about you."

"Are you scared of him?" she asked me, still sitting on the stoop.

"My whole life I have been surrounded by people that beat on me. When you know what that's like, ask me that question again." I told her walking back in the house, leaving her simply sitting there on my front step.

"Who was that?" Sandy called out to me having heard the door close behind me.

"Marissa." I said, joining them back at the table.

"She not joining us for dinner?" Kirsten asked. "We ordered plenty."

"Or shouldn't you two be running into the pool house giggling?" Seth frowned.

"Actually we broke up."


ALL WILL BECOME CLEAR. WATCH THIS SPACE.

R&R, thank you. Circus.