Ch. 22

Tori's POV

I followed Cat to make sure she left the hospital. I then head back to Beck's hospital room, he looks very beaten up still. "Have you looked at your diploma yet?" I ask to get his mind off where we are. "Yes, I have looked at it. I am proud of this achievement but I wanted to walk. I wanted to go down that stage and hear them call my name. I wanted to shake hands with the principal and have people shout 'WAY TO GO.' I wanted all of it. I know it sounds cheesy-but I really wanted to end that chapter of my life the way normal people do. But then I had to go and get myself stabbed. You know Tori, you and Cat didn't have to skip graduation day on my behalf. I wish you would have gone-so at least one of us could celebrate" His eyes were steely and focused. The seriousness of his voice left me almost speechless as I manage to say, "Do you really think I could have walked on a stage knowing you were in a hospital bed with stab wounds?"

"Well when you put it that way, I suppose it is for the best that you didn't go." "Beck, I overheard what Cat said to you about her going to college in New York City and I know she has feelings for you. Thanks for choosing me-but I feel sorry for Cat…"I can't believe I just confessed to eaves dropping.

"I am glad you overheard…I was really uncomfortable when she told me she liked me. She is so on and off with Robbie-I don't think she knows what she wants Tori. She probably got into a fight with Robbie and saw me as the 'next best thing.' So don't go worrying your cute little head over it okay?" He smiled as I looked into those eyes-those baby browns I fell in love with.

"Okay if you say so Beck. So when you heal up what will happen with us? You have a few days left in the hospital."

"Well Tori I was thinking we could just get on with our lives. You could keep living in my trailer…" Suddenly the hospital room became crowded, "Living in your trailer…no way. My baby girl isn't going to shack up with a beat up man like you." It was my mother, damn and she dragged Trina with her. How did they find me? Probably my father.

"Get out of here mother. Go home Trina. You have no reason to come into my life unannounced like you actually care about me" I am so upset Beck and I were about to make plans for the future and they barge in unannounced.

"Well Tori, we have been following the news story about what has happened to you. And we missed you at graduation. So we had to find you. So I went to the police and noticed one who looked like your dad. And it turns out, it is your dad. He wants to come home and be a family again. We can all be a family again."

"Beck is MY family-I don't know you. I am not a child anymore-if I want to live with Beck you can't LEGALLY say anything. If you actually cared about me you would stop pretending that we can be a 'normal' family again. Normal families don't lie to each other, or abandon their children, or make their daughters take their boyfriends to father daughter dances. Get out! I have made my choice and I plan to stick with it."

"Do you really want to stay with this man who can't even protect you? The news said he failed to protect you more than once. Sounds to me like you could be dead under his watch-any predator watching could just take advantage of—"

"SHUT UP MRS. VEGA! Tori said get out and this is my hospital room. NURSE HELP ME! NURRRRSSSEEE" screamed Beck with all his might. Before my mother and sister could move, a nurse waltzed into the room. She was thin and had her red hair tied into a tight bun.

"May I help you?" she snapped with a rather annoying southern accent. "These people are harassing me-and I am in too much pain to deal with them."

"Sure, I will just call security to escort them off the property."

"That won't be necessary, we were just leaving" said my pathetic mother.

"Well I sure hope so, if we ever catch you in this hospital again the cops will be the first ones to hear of it. Harassing a young man who has just been stabbed; the nerve, the humiliation!" The red haired nurse kept on scaring them away as Beck and I continued laughing.

All I knew at this point is that my family knew where I lived and whom with. I knew what I had to say, "Beck, can we move to Canada when you are out of the hospital?"

PLEASE COMMENT: I would like to know if the story sucks at all or if you are getting bored. Thanks and sorry it took so long for me to update I got married and moved away so I couldn't write.