Can't believe I'm posting my 20th chapter! Thank you all so much for the continued support, it means so much :) And thank you to my friend/editor for the prompt on this chapter; I've had a touch of writer's block for weeks, hence why I haven't been updating (that and an abundance of math to do). Anyway, enjoy!

XX

I think both the wedding and the changes that had come with it had put everyone in happier spirits. It hadn't been just the name change that had put me in such a good state of mind; the whole atmosphere of the house had brightened a little more, even though not much had changed, when you think about it. And it's not like it was a bad environment before the wedding; it was just that little bit happier now that there was no more pre-wedding, or even pre-surname change, stress. To me, the latter aspect was, and still is, really, the best part of it.

I'm pretty sure the entire population of Los Angeles was overly aware that I had changed my last name. I might as well have worn a nametag everywhere I went. It's not like I had completely despised my name before, but I much preferred this one, and not just because it sounded better. It had been my way of distancing myself from my dad even more. That whole concept is what had held most of the appeal.

It had been close to a month since the wedding, so summer was very quickly approaching, and I still hadn't spoken with my father since the whole discussion (could anyone really call it that, though?) about my new name. Honestly, I had thought that was pretty great. I hadn't been bothered about calling, either, which was weird, but I was smart enough to not question it. I had definitely learned from past mistakes.

As sophomore year was coming to a close, there was nothing too exciting going on; it was just the same old stuff with a lot of extra studying on top of that because of the final exams that were fast approaching. I was perfectly content with life being uneventful; the past year had been rather eventful, to say the least. A lot had been thrown at me, and as disgustingly cheesy as this will sound, I'm certain it had only made me stronger in the long run. I guess I had learned a lot about myself, and about other people in my life, too. Even though a lot of it had been awful at the time, I think part of the reason as to why I was so happy then was because I had gotten it all over with, and in the end, I had myself figured out just a little bit better. I was more than happy to be happy, if that makes sense, and it was nice to look into the future with a bit more certainty about everything.

"What's in that box?" I asked curiously as my mother had walked through the door after work one day, carrying an awkwardly large cardboard box in front of her.

"You're never going to believe this one, Morg," she said, sounding slightly annoyed.

"What? What is it?" I asked excitedly, my mind wandering, raising my expectations dramatically by the second. She set the box down carefully on the couch, and I looked expectantly at her, waiting for the response.

"A friend at work is moving into a new apartment, and, of course, the new place doesn't allow pets," she explained, still sounding annoyed. I, on the other hand, was far from it.

"Oh my god!" I exclaimed, basically jumping up and down. "Is it a dog? Or a cat? Wait, is it neither? Maybe it's a lizard! I don't really want a lizard. What is it?" My mom and Jerry, who had entered the room out of pure curiosity as to why I was yelling about dogs, cats, and lizards, were trying to suppress the laughter that I was causing.

"I assure you, I wouldn't bring a lizard home. Although I really don't want this thing, either," she replied, and I raised an eyebrow.

"It's a dog then, right? You hate dogs. But I'm glad it's not a lizard. That would be really weird. What's its name? I think you should take it out of the box. If I was it, I wouldn't want to be stuck in that box much longer…"

"Morgan. Stop talking," Jerry said, the two of them still laughing.

"It's not a dog. I'll take it out of the box if you promise to stop talking so loud." I nodded, covering my mouth with one hand and gesturing towards the box with the other. "Its name is Jasper, and I'm pretty sure it's the most miserable feline on earth." I smiled and tried to contain my joy as she lifted Jasper, a small, gray and white tabby cat, out of the box.

Unlike most other sixteen year olds, I had never had the experience of a family pet. Before the divorce, it had simply been a non-starter, and after, that had stayed pretty much the same, with an occasional glimmer of hope. My mom had never liked dogs, which prompted me to argue that we could get a cat, but there was always just a flat out refusal at that notion. Before, I had learned to accept the fact that I would be pretty much the only person in the world who didn't have a pet growing up, but I still would've gladly accepted one. I had always doubted the potential of that, though. Now that there was an actual cat in my own house, presumably here to stay, I couldn't have been happier.

"Two things. First of all, who names their cat Jasper? Second, I think you would be miserable, too, if someone forced you to stay in a box," I quipped. She handed me the cat, and I happily accepted him. He was none too happy to be near me, but I felt quite the opposite. This was probably the most exciting thing to happen ever.

"We get to keep him forever, right?" I asked, sitting down with the animal that was going to be my new best friend. Well, that's what I had thought, but I doubt Jasper had agreed.

"The word 'forever' makes him sound even less appealing," my mom commented. I looked up from petting my new found friend.

"Hey! He's nice, see?" I reasoned, hoping she wasn't going to change her mind.

"I'm glad you think so. We can keep him, as long as he's not too much extra work for Jerry and I. That's where you come in," she replied. I nodded, scratching Jasper's ear.

"Of course. I'll take very good care of him," I smiled. He was just a cat; it's not like he was going to be that much work.

"Are you still going to say that after two weeks of having him?" Jerry asked. I rolled my eyes.

"I was waiting for that. Yes," I said dramatically, letting the cat jump off of my lap before he scratched my arm off. He hadn't originally been as friendly as I was hoping him to be. We would totally be best friends eventually, though. "I can't believe I finally got a cat! I'm the only one of my friends who didn't have a pet, you know."

"Yeah, you're so hard done by," my mom commented. I rolled my eyes, slightly more playfully this time, and got up to follow the cat to wherever he was going.

While Jasper had not been a big fan of me patting him, holding him, or even following him throughout the house, he had been a big fan of taking up my entire bed, even on the very first night he was living with us. You know, I had never thought that such a seemingly small animal had such capabilities, but he did, and I was none too appreciative. Alright, maybe 'my entire bed' was a slight exaggeration, but still, he had no right to even attempt such a thing.

"Hey, cat," I said quietly, not wanting to wake anyone else in the house up. I had elected not to refer to him by his actual name to try and tell him that I was not happy about the current situation. It had made sense at the time, I'm sure. I was just trying to sleep, but somehow, Jasper was both lying on me and taking up half of the bed at the same time. "Go away. Go bother someone else." I tried to push him away, nicely of course, but he responded with hissing at me.

"Hey! Don't hiss at me. If it wasn't for me, you'd probably be at a shelter or something right now. I know that may sound better right now, but they don't have beds there. You can stay here, I guess, but just move," I reasoned. I'm sure the feline appreciated how rational I was being.

"Stop talking to the cat and go to sleep," my mom said from what sounded like downstairs.

"How can you even hear me?" I asked, leaving the cat to have my whole bed as I stepped out into the hallway.

"You're really not that good at whispering," she replied, and I shrugged nonchalantly, mostly agreeing with her.

"Good point," I said. "Why are you still up?" I headed down the stairs, sitting across from her on the couch. When I got back, surely Jasper was going to have sprawled himself out across the entire bed, but I was curious.

"Your dad emailed me, so I stayed up to respond to it." I had scanned her expression, looking for something that would tell me if her response to the email would benefit me or not, but there was nothing.

"About me?" I asked. She nodded.

"What else would it be about?" I shrugged again. There was always hope that it was about something else.

"What is it now?" I asked, already feeling defensive.

"Well, for one thing, he asked about whether or not we had talked about your last trip there. You didn't really tell me about what had happened, Morg," she replied. My eyes darted to the ground; this was not something I had ever wanted to talk about.

"It was nothing," I dismissed quickly. "I'm going back to bed." I started to get up.

"No, stay here for a minute." I had known this wasn't going to be fun. "It really didn't sound like nothing. Do you want to tell me what happened first? There are always two sides," she offered. I sighed. I really hadn't wanted to talk about it at all, despite the fact that she probably wasn't going to get too mad at me about it.

"I really don't want to talk about it. I'm sure you already know what happened," I replied, but I hadn't moved from the couch yet. She didn't say a word. "It was just the same thing, reiterated yet again."

"You told him you hated him."

"I wasn't exactly lying," I mumbled, pushing hair behind my ear while still avoiding all eye contact.

"Morgan," she started, a warning tone in her voice. I sighed internally.

"What?" I snapped. "I said it, and it's done now. Not much anyone can do. It's not like anyone can blame me." Okay, not what I had originally planned to say, but oh well.

"Hey, I'm not mad at you. I wasn't there; I don't know the full story. I'm just surprised you didn't tell me," she replied, and her words had relaxed me in only the slightest way. I, of course, still felt more defensive than I should have felt.

"Why would I tell you? It doesn't really make a difference either way. It still happened, and I still meant what I said, and I don't know if this was included in the email, but I'm never going back there. End of story," I said simply, not caring to elaborate any further.

"It was going to come up sometime, you know that."

"I know that now," I said, starting to get up.

"Alright, I guess we'll leave it at that. For now. We'll talk more later, okay?" she stated, even though it sounded like a question.

"Not much more to say. Goodnight," I said, going back upstairs to my room, where Jasper had probably taken over.

"'Night, Morgan." I rolled my eyes again, and I hadn't even known why. I guess the whole thing was just such a touchy subject, and no matter what, I was going to be offended in some form or another.

Sure enough, the cat was completely sprawled out on my bed (note that it was my bed, not his, but he didn't know nor care about that). I (not so) politely pushed him out of the way just enough that I could contort myself to lie somewhat comfortably next to him.

"This is not going to be a regular occurrence, you know," I told him, glaring at him even though it was almost pitch black. "I shouldn't have gotten up, I know, but still. That was not an excuse for you to take up the entire bed. You haven't even been here for twenty-four hours yet. Do you think you own the place?" I whispered quickly. He had yowled at me when I tried to move him again, so I decided to give up on my efforts.

"You're pretty stubborn, you know that?" I paused. "That's okay, though. I'm stubborn, too. That's how I get myself into all this stuff. It's basically a never ending war. And you're going to be privy to all of the drama now, you know," I informed him, because it wasn't weird to be talking to a cat at all. Even after only a few hours of him being at my house, he had already been turning into my new sounding board. He was a cat, so he obviously wasn't listening, but I had convinced myself he was.

"I just briefly opened up to you, and you still won't move?" Okay, maybe Jasper was someone I could talk to, but this had to stop. I would never be able to sleep again. "I swear, I'll bring you to Vegas next time I'm forced to go there, and I'll leave you there. You may not understand how awful that would be, but you will soon."