Having my Father's new address came in very handy for keeping people with cameras off my back. I don't know what they were hoping to find at my Mother's house – some kind of sordid betrayal or another, most likely – but they didn't find me. I'd been bumming in his spare room for a month.

There was no Annamarie at the new place. It turned out he couldn't stand much more of her; the grass wasn't greener after all. We had more than one conversation over takeout about his feeling dumb for giving his family up and he started sending funds over to Mother to help take care of his kids again. Anna was the one who had a problem with him helping out, apparently. She wanted him to focus on their 'growing' family. Now that plan of hers was down the toilet.

Izzy and Max came over a lot. Max slept over a couple times but there wasn't a whole lot of room in the apartment. When he'd got the place our Father assumed he only had to cater for himself. It was pretty nice in there all the same and he was happy about being able to funnel more into college funds.

"I don't think I'm going to college." I told him as offhandedly as I could, flicking through the help-wanted ads in the paper. I'd quit my job after my workplace went online. People kept turning up for reasons which varied between on looking, asking personal questions and shouting abuse. Some of them were just hunting for Magnus, but he hadn't returned to JJs. I had a feeling that place I had the meet with Anna was his new go-to shop.

"Oh, me too!" Izzy added from her place laid down on the floor where she'd had an earphone plugged in. She got up on her elbows and waved a hand like she was answering a question in class.

She had quit work too. She said that she hated it there without me and wanted to do serious bodily harm to gossiping newcomers. However, unlike me Izzy wasn't too worried about finding more work. Mother told her she could either up her grade average or get another job. She emailed three different extra-credit projects to her teachers that month.

"You can't just give up on life altogether." Father said, taking the paper from my hands right as I was about to circle an add. "Set an example."

I groaned. It wasn't the first time this conversation had come up either. I held my hand out uselessly for him to give the section back to me. It wasn't happening. "I'm trying to get a job aren't I?"

"Use the computer to look later." Max said, jumping up into the seat next to me with a games console in his hands. It was an old game I completed when I was a kid and he was stuck on a level. I tried to help him out without looking completely immature. I doubted that it was working.

I'd actually been boycotting computers more than I used to. Of course, I wouldn't see anything bad online if I didn't go searching for it, but I didn't trust myself not to search for it just yet.

"There's plenty of time for work when you're done with College." Father insisted. He never let up over it. Guess he wanted me to do something that didn't completely disappoint him.

"I don't want to be dependant for that long." I argued. "I do want to move out you know."

"Wait 'till the hype dies down." Isabelle got up and sat on the table. I think she did it just go get on our Father's nerves. Pushing her luck was her new favourite game; just because we were all getting along better didn't mean that he was forgiven. Isabelle had had a lot less time to get used to the revelation of what he'd done. It was fresh to her. I couldn't very well blame her for her raw reaction. Mine had been pretty unpleasant too.

I was still working hard, internally, to get over the detestable thing he'd done. It helped that we were speaking more, that I was living with him. That he let me hide from the world at his place at all.

He was trying to make things better, so we had a common goal. He'd realised that what he did was wrong and a sorry was always better late than never. In the beginning all I'd wanted was for him to feel bad about what he did. Now he felt awful.

I must sound like a bad person for wishing misery on somebody, but it was just better that way. He was a more decent person when he felt regret for the time he wasted and all the upset he'd caused. He even met up with Mother to talk properly and finally give her the real apology that she deserved. I know because Izzy had listened in through the wall the whole time and relayed the whole thing back to me.

Now she was leaving that headphone in her ear just to be antisocial and get under his skin. She'd forgive him, though. In a way I think she already had. It must have been difficult to be mad at him for not wanting his kids when everything he did lately was to help them.

I reached up and tugged the hairband out of her plait, she swatted my hand away.

"I haven't applied anywhere." I said with a shrug. "I didn't even think about it this year."

I knew what Father would want to say to that. I knew that he wouldn't, though. Wouldn't point out that I had other things on my mind over the year; like older men who liked to wear glitter. It pretty effectively brought the conversation about my future to a halt while I helped Max out some more.

Honestly, I wasn't sure why I was being so stubborn over it. It would probably be a good thing to go away and focus on more studying. Stay in a dorm and meet people who didn't already know me.

But it just wasn't what I wanted to do. Graduating had felt like the last of the kid in me slipping away. The real world isn't like the life of Teachers and cliques and clubs. It's... Bigger. Why would I go back into the system again? What was I really going to learn other than how to sit for long periods of time and zone out on dull-voiced teachers?

There had to be something else out there for me to do with myself. Something that wouldn't ultimately result in people recognising me and saying I slept with a Professor to make the grade.

Maybe, like Izzy said, when the hype died down. I mean, it couldn't last for that long…

My phone started to ring so I excused myself and walked out into the hall between apartments. Even there I wasn't sure I was eavesdrop-safe.

"Hello?" I said cautiously, not recognising the number.

"Don't hang up."

In hindsight, of course it was Magnus. Who else would it be?

Sorry if you were expecting "Don't Hang Up", I wrote the wrong title in the description before. That one is coming next. I hope you liked this chapter, anyway, I'm concerned about it being slow. Thank you for reading, as always.