"There's a difference between what a woman wants and what a woman needs." Jackson puffed smoke rings out of his mouth fiddling the cigarette between his two fingers.

My eyebrow rose. "Oh yeah?" I leaned over pumping my cancer stick against the ash tray before leaning back and taking another puff billowing smoke around me after the inhale.. "And what do they need?"

Jackson smirked looking up into nothingness. "Woman have developed a fantasy that in order for life to be fully sufficient and satisfying they need a husband who is charming, generous, basically everything we are truly incapable of ever being, they wish for us to marry them and provide them with children." He pointed his cigarette at me squinting his eyes for drama. "We, of course, supply to their needs for their daddy issues, loneliness, and the back lash of heartbreak." He smashed the butt of his smoking device into the tray twisting his slim fingers repeatedly as he talked. "In reality all woman need is a good choice of wine and a friend who is always willing to lend her his own two fingers."

"That's horrible." I shook my head chuckling as I leaned forward once more to follow his steps in smashing the cigarette out.

Jackson shrugged a serious facial expression washing over his skin. "How's your sister?"

I nodded dazed by the question. "She's good."

"Is that creep still…" he looked at me. "You know-touching her?"

"No." My fingers snapped against my knee several times until I met his eyes with mine. "Not anymore."

"You're parents still refusing to acknowledge the guy is a sicko?" It was the first time I had every really heard Jackson's voice monotone. I think he was afraid of asking me such a subject.

I sighed reaching across the table to grab the bottle of vodka. "My mother is too defensive of my father and my father is too defensive of Martin. It's like they're protecting each other." I poured the hard liquor into a glass cup. "Sick bunch the lot of them. They deserve each other." I brought the cup to my lips sipping the clear liquid in it cringing at the strong taste. "That's nice." The cup clinked against the wooden table as I set it down. I wonder if he would ask more.

"Is she taking everything well?" Such an interesting topic. "With you leaving and all?"

"She understands." I tilted the glass back once more after picking it up. "She cried awfully lot. I would have brought her up here with me but she has school, and the university life is no place for a sixteen year old." The cup was drained.

Jackson took the burden, filling the glass up himself and setting it back on the table in front of me. "She's a nice girl, your sister, very pretty."

I winced. "Please, Jackson I would appreciate if you did not describe my sister as pretty at the moment." He nodded looking down realizing how touchy the subject was by the reaction of my fist curling around the glass cup. The cool surface was against my lips. "And anyways she is nothing less than beautiful." I drained the remaining content of the cup.

"When are you going back home?" Changing the subject. Such a clever move.

Once more I filled the container up with vodka swirling it around in its hold before sipping on it. My fingers were already beginning to tingle as the alcohol rushed through my blood stream. Good. "Soon." I slid the glass onto the table asking Jackson to refill for me which he gladly did. I remember meeting him in my earlier years bonding over such games as hockey and Call of Duty. When the topic of collage came into the picture he was instantly by my side blabbering about going to the same university. I did not mind though. Going to some distant place? It was best to have someone you knew or in any case, someone you liked. Jackson was the, what was the word? Oh yes, Jackson was my best friend. I had many other friends; some I cannot remember the names of, but friends none the less. Not one of them comes close to my heart as Jackson, none of them were as loyal and comedic and completely idiotic as he was. "Maybe another year."

"A whole year?" his eyes widened. "Do you think that's safe?"

"Why wouldn't it be?" I set my glass down folding my hands together.

He frowned."Well your sister can't really survive on her own."

"Why must my sister always play a factor in what course my life takes?"

Jackson refused to make eye contact. "She just got over being molested for three years and your parents don't really show any sign of caring about that so who knows if the creep is really gone. She is a poor, innocent, weak girl and you are releasing her into the world to fend for herself?"

I sighed ignoring his statement. "How's Amanda? Or who is it this week?"

"Delilah." He chuckled pulling out another cigarette from his pocket and lighting it up, "And she is great for the night. I am thinking of ending it though…she has become terribly clinging requesting we go on a date to that new restaurant that just opened up down the block." He inhaled harshly releasing the smoke out of his nose. "What's the name again?"

"Tom Billy's." I smiled tapping my fingers against the cracked wood of the table. "Best Burgers You've Ever Had!"

Jackson shook his head bumping the ash off the cigarette. "Thinking of using the old 'it's not you it's me' sort of thing."

"I am sorry we don't get on too well…" I trailed off always hearing these words.

"And the shazam." He rolled his eyes. "Honestly you think I could be more original."

"You are as original as it gets Jacks." I winked playful pushing away from the chair and walking to the kitchen where my phone laid connected to the outlet by my charger. I waited until the minute section flipped over turning the time to 10 o'clock. Then my phone buzzed; like it did every night.

"Keegan…" She was crying. "Keegan please come home."

I sighed pressing my back into the counter. Jackson looked up from the table catching my slight distress. He knew my body language enough to tell who it was and what was going on. "What is it this time Rose?" She was silent; I could barely hear her breathing. "Rose." I straightened up. This was the fourth time she pleaded with me to come back home, but she always dismissed it before the call ended. This was different. Something in her voice was stranger like she was scared of speaking it too me. I was usually the only one she told her secrets too, she trusted me and I gave her full ability to do so. She was my sister. No one was ever going to care about her more than me. I would never hurt her like many men do to woman, Jackson being a perfect example. She meant the world to me and she was too much of a precious girl to have gone through so much trouble. I went to hell and back to make sure she never was upset again. I comforted her when she cried, I sang to her when she had nightmares, I had beat up her assaulter. I had become her protector something parents could never do, especially ours. Rose and I had to stick together.

Suddenly her muffled breathing came back into my ear. "I-I…it's-he…Martin."

"What did he do?" my grip on the phone tightened as I fled the kitchen already searching for my coat. Whenever he was involved there was going to be a problem.

"He hit me."

I nearly dropped the phone at her words. "He what?" I was fuming. I threw on my coat grabbing my keys from the pocket. This was the last straw. He was done for it now. Hitting a minor was defiantly a charge I could place under him in the police station with proof. I did not bother packing any clothes knowing if I decided to remain at home she would come with me to gather my things. I was never going to leave her alone again. "Tell me everything." I slammed the apartment door closed leaving Jackson alone with his own thoughts to figure out the situation.

On the other line she took a sharp intake of breath. "He thought I was pregnant and he hit me in my stomach." Her voice trembled. "I think something's wrong." Her sobs hit my ears as I started the engine of the car. "Help me Keegan."

"May I help you?" He didn't deserve an answer. All he deserved was my fist, so that is what I gave him. I beat him into his doorway pushing him back onto his hard wood floor. "Keegan may I ask what the problem is?" he tried to be polite, but I was not as naïve as my sister may have been. His hand was grasping onto his bleeding nose as his eyes stared up at me; eyes that saw my sister at her most humiliating point. I tried to control myself but those eyes, those hands, that mouth, everything had infected my sister. Every last bit of him. I lost it.

"You know very well what you did." I don't think he knew my sister would every really tell me he beat the pregnancy out of her. I don't think he knew or guessed how I would react. He must have known I left for university, but I don't think he anticipated me to ever come back. He knew how much this town plagued my life. I don't really remember what happened after that. All I remember was hearing my sister screaming at me to stop, I remember seeing the flashing lights of the police, and I remember his blood splattering onto my skin. I could not stop. It took half-of-a-dozen police men to pull me off the sick bastard, and a sixteen year old girl to calm me down. I lashed out to get at him as they yanked him away after I tried to explain everything to them through angry teeth. They knew, I had reported him more than enough times for them to know he needed to be locked away. She removed her jacket trying to rid my knuckles of her assaulter's blood but it would take a good scrub from something other than a woman's coat. After finally giving up hearing the sirens roar off into the distant with Martin in the back she wrapped my bloody hand in hers leading down the sidewalk. "Are you scared?"

She did not look at me. "Of what?"

"Of me?"

Her eyes trailed along the concrete. "Of course not. You're my big brother. I need you to beat up the guys who break me."

We did not stop until we reached the ice cream parlor I always took her too when Martin always came around. It was our safe haven. I ordered for the both of us as she found or designated booth, but this trip seemed different. Something was off. She was clearly still extremely distraught by the doctor's visit she had not just hours before I had attack Martin. I slid into the booth across from her holding our desserts. "Hey it's alright." I grabbed the top of her hand seeing the sadness written in every one of her features. "You don't really need kids anyways."

She sighed picking at her ice cream. "Yeah…"

"He's gone now Rose," I tried to make her catch my smile. "He can't hurt you anymore. They got him locked up nice and tight in that prison." Still no response. "Mom and Dad will come around soon. They are too blind to see what has been going on these last few years. Don't worry about them."

Rose finally looked up at me. "Are you leaving again?"

"I have too." My smile fell. This was why. "You know that. I have to go back to school and get my degree. Once I graduate and get a job you can come live with me okay? Does that sound alright?" I lied to myself realizing I was leaving her alone once more despite my internal promise.

She nodded looking down. "I guess…"

"How's school?" I changed the subject.

"Stupid." Her fingers moved the spoon around the ice cream glass as she grumbled.

I smirked. "It pays off in the long run." I stared off into the small parlor. I grabbed her hand. "Come on let's take a picture before I go back."

If you want to know what Keegan looks like he is portrayed by Jack O'Connell (a.k.a James Cook from Skins)

And Rose is portrayed by Behati Prinsloo.

Younger Rose is portrayed by Kiernan Shipka

Lot's of love xoxo-Kate