"What was that about?"

He just dragged the to the back of the canteen, a place where Eric knew they would be alone.

"Eric wha-"

She was interrupted by Eric's lips crushing hers as his hands traveled under her shirt unclasping her bra making her moan when his fingers roamed in her breasts making her push closer to him gasping when he turned so she would be tucked between him and the wall.

"No." Calleigh murmured taking a step back.

"Cal?"

"No, I… I can't, sorry."

Eric stared shocked as she clasped her bra again.

"What did I do?"

"Nothing, it's me, I just, not now, not here."

"Why not?" Eric almost spat getting angry.

"because people can see us."

"Yeah right, people don't even come here."

"They can."

"No Cal, people don't come here period!"

"Are you mad at me!?"

"No. No, I'm not."

"You sounded mad."

"I'm not o.k!"

"I don't want o have sex with you, you got to respect that."

"You don't want to have sex with me?"

"No."

"You thin k that's what this is about?"

"Yes."

"It's not!"

"Then explain me, because if you start taking my clothes off it's because you want to have sex, and if you got mad after I said no, then it's logical to assume tha-"

"Don't you bring logic to this!" he interrupted.

"Explain it to me then!" she shouted back.

"This is about you don't trusting me!"

"What!"

"Yeah!"

"I trust you!"

"Then why every time I ask you a question about your life you run away?!"

"I do not!"

"No?! I asked you about your parents, what was your answer? I don't want to talk about it. I asked why you left Louisiana, and you lied! I asked you why you were used o beeing called a bitch, you say you don't want to talk about it either!"

"Maybe because there's stuff that I don't want to think about!

"Those are perfectly normal questions Cal, the kind of questions you would ask anyone to know him!"

"Fine do you want to hear does answers?!"

"Yes!"

"My dad is drunk most of his life! He hits me, my mum gets drunk, I take the fault! I left because I was sick of being beaten up by two drunks that I have to live with, that I hated but I loved, I wanted to escape that! Why am I used to being called a bitch?! Because that's what I heard every day of my life! I heard it from my mum! I heard it from my dad! I heard it from the jerks who had no idea of what was going on!"

Eric tried to reach her to clean up the tears that streamed down her face but she just backed of even more.

"Cal… I…"

"You're sorry?!" She shouted between sobs.

"Yes, I am, I had no idea, please try to understand."

She sobbed even more when Eric hugged her tight, supporting all her weight as she grabbed him in a hug too crying uncontrollably.

"Shh. It's o.k., all that it's gone now." Eric soothed running a hand throw Calleigh's back

Eric sat pulling his girlfriend to his lap until her cries calmed.

"Are you feeling better?"

"s-sorry."

"Hey, I was the jerk, why are you the one who's apologizing?"

She smiled lightly at his jokily tone.

"There you go, a smile."

"Don't leave me."

"I won't."

"You promise?"

"I swear. Now, let's get out of here, I start smelling fried things."

"No."

"Why not."

"I don't want people to…"

"o.k., I got an idea, no more classes today."

"Please."

"I would never saw this one coming, Calleigh Duquesne asking to skip classes."

"Let's just get out of here."

"Sure, you wanna go home? Watch some movies?"

"Yeah, yours or mine?"

"Mine."

"o.k."

Calleigh cleaned the tears of her face and putted on a fading smile as they walked to the bus stop, got in bus and then in Eric's and Speedle's house.

"Here we are."

Eric pulled her to his bedroom where he putted some movie on not even looking at the title and laid with Calleigh, putting a couple blankets over them.

"Eric?"

"Yes?"

She snuggled more into him hiding her face.

"Please don't tell anyone." She begged.

"Sure."

"Not even speed, your mum or whatever o.k.?"

"Yes, I won't tell anyone." Eric whispered hugging her tighter. And they looked at the screen in time to watch someone being shot at.

"Hum… Cal?" Eric called.

"Yes?"

"Would you mind if I ask something?"

Calleigh sighed but shook her head no."

"How… your parents… how bad did it got?"

"What?"

"The beating, what' the worse that happened?"

She took a while to answer but when she did the response almost shocked Eric.

"Once, they were arguing on the top floor. I tried to break them apart, and they… my mum pushed me. We were really close to the stairs so I felt."

"Oh. Were they long stairs?"

"30 steps."

"You felt all the way down?"

"Yes."

What were the… damage? "

"I hit my heads really hard, fractured my skull, and my clavicule. I passed out and bleed a lot, If Mealla hadn't come check up on me."

"Hum… Me what?"

"Mealla, it's my grandma's name, it means lightning."

"Oh. She checked up on you?"

"From time to time, she knew what was going on in that house, and we had planned on going for a walk that afternoon."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

"But, your parents didn't take you to the hospital?"

"No, they were too drunk."

"Cal… that's… I'm sorry for bringing this up."

"It's o.k. next thing I know I woke up in a hospital bed with a furious grandpa and a teary grandma looking at me."

"Did you went back home?"

"No, I stayed on the hospital for a few days, I had a concussion and they didn't wanted me to go and walk around."

"Must have driven you crazy."

"No, it was better than being at that house."

"Yes."

"So when I got out Mealla and Ailín, my grandpa, took me to their home and hid me until my shoulder and head were o.k."

"That's nice of them."

"They saved my life."

"I have to thank them when they come here for Easter."

"They'll love you, you know."

"Why?"

"Because I love you mostly, but because you care about me, I mean, you kid of protect me you know?"

"Yes, I guess I do."

"I only had them to protect me, they freaked when I came here because I was all alone."

Eric chuckled noticing a smile on Calleigh's lips that faded quickly."

"You know" she whispered "the doctors said that if they hadn't found me, in half an hour I would probably be dead or dying because of all the blood I lost."

"I owe them my life then."

"Your life?"

"You're my life, they saved you."

"I'm not your life Eric, we're just teenagers, we don't even know what life is."

"Maybe, but right now you're my life, so right now I owe them."

"I'll tell them."

"You parents didn't came to look for you?"

"Yes, Aílin tried to talk to the doctors and get my custody, but they said that I had to be with a social worker and they had to have proofs that I was being beaten."

"Wasn't a fractured skull and a broken harm enough?!"

"No, I could have simply felt down that stairs."

"But your parents were there, and they did nothing!"

"They couldn't prove it, we could fill the report and alert the police, but they had no proves. Most likely they would get my custody and it would all remain the same."

"Most likely, that means that there was a chance."

"I didn't take it. I told them I wanted to do this on my own, that's when I begun to gather money and making plans for leaving."

"Let me guess, they were totally against it."

"Yes, at first, but then they understood that it was something I had to do by myself."

"Cal, how long ago was all this?"

"about a year ago."

"You were sixteen?"

"Yes, I had just turned sixteen."

"Oh, so it took you about half an year to gather the money?"

"Yes, I worked, babysitting, walking the dogs, cleaning houses, all that, and I had about 500 bucks, but I wanted to come, and that money was enough for the flight, and maybe even for a room here, but my grandparents, they brought this late birthday gift thing and gave me 2 thousand dollars, 2 thousand dollars Eric! I was shocked."

"Wow, that's a lot of money."

"I know, but they insisted on me taking it, and I needed it, so I'm going to pay back every cent now."

"That sounds like you."

She chuckled kissing his lips.

"I'm sorry that I lied to you."

"I know."

"If you have any question, you just have to ask, and I would rather you to do them all now, I don't want to think about that anymore."

"when did it started?"

"I was about 5 I think."

"how can they treat their own kid like that?"

"I don't know. I thought it was normal, that everyone lived ilke that, but then I started to think about things, little things, like the other kids with their parents on the park, or going to birthday parties, I remember this onec, it was parent's da at school, you know, when your parents go to your class and say what's their job and all that?"

"Yeah"

"Everyone's parents went, everyone's but mines. The teacher punished me because she thought I failed on warning them and that was the reason they hadn't come."

"Why didn't they go?"

"Because they thought it was stupid, that school was suppose to make us learn and study, not a playground."

"that's stupid."

"If you think about it it's not that stupid, I mean, the kids go to school not parents, if they want to know what their children are doing they ask the teacher."

"Yeah, but it's suppose to be fun, it's not even real school, they're 6 years old kids, not adults."

"I guess, but it was enough for me to start to invent excuses like they're in the hospital or, they had a really important meeting or something."

"first time I gave any excuses was in school trips, we are 4 and my parents aren't exactly rich so all the schooltrips that you had to pay a lot of money I wouldn't even tell my parents about."

"that's mature of you."

"yeah, you regret it when everyone goes canoeing, and climbing and all that and you can't go."

"didn't your parents found it odd, that your sisters went to school trips and you didn't."

"they didn't go either."

"Oh."

"yeah, they only went to the finalist trip, and they would manage a way to get some of the money."

"wow."

"yeah, what about you, any school trips story?"

"no, I never went to any."

"really?"

"Yes, I never wanted to anyway"

"every kid wants to go to at least one schooltrip."

"nah, I didn't went along with anyone so it would be kind of boring."

"how can a pretty girl like you don't get along with people?"

"I was jealous of them, they were always talking about stiff that they did with the family, vacations, birthday parties… I was kind of afraid that they asked me about it too because I would have to lie, and if they found out they would hate me."

"I see."

"are you mad at me because I won't have sex with you?"

"No, don't ever think that, I'm happy because you feel comfortable in saying no."

"I will say yes, it was mostly about us being at school really.

"Yeah?" Eric whispered at her ear making her shiver.

"Yes."

"is that the yes we were talking about just now?"

"Yes"