Her mother's reaction is exactly what she expected.

Suze is distraught at the news, probably because it wasn't that long ago she went through the exact same thing with her.

She tried to reason with her daughter during her brief return to their home to pack up more of her belongings.

"Are you getting yourself pregnant on purpose? Cassie, this is serious! A kid is no joke."

Cassie moved through the house like a tornado, both literally and figuratively. She grabbed personal belongings in a frenzy, whizzing past her upset mother and concerned sister.

"Have you lost your mind?" Her sister had interjected, only to receive back a silent piercing blue glare. "So you're not going to talk to me? Huh? Look at what you're letting Nate do to your life!"

"You should've thought about it before you humiliated me on that stage. What kind of sister writes a secret play about you?" Cassie had screamed Lexi's way before ripping an ice skating prize ribbon off the wall.

"The play was not just about you, not everything revolves around you Cassie!"

"Oh really? Your whole play was about me and Rue's dad's funeral. And you know why? Because your own life is so fucking boring that you have nothing to write about."

"Don't speak to your sister that way!" Suze tried to diffuse the situation between her daughter. "She's a writer! She writes things!"

"How is it fair, mom? She stood on that stage and tried to ruin my life, because she's jealous I've actually lived a life, that I actually have someone who loves me."

"Who? Nate Jacobs? Please, he is a trash human being and you're delusional if you think for one moment I want to be you. A high school student, pregnant with her best friend's boyfriend's baby."

Cassie had chosen this moment to lift up her suitcase and make her way down the stairs, as though she was walking away from Lexi's reasoning. But those last triggering words had her turn around at the bottom of the stairs to yell out.

"For the last time, they were BROKEN UP!"

"Okay, girls- ENOUGH! You're sisters, you should forgive each other and move on."

Cassie had taken a good look at the scene in front of her, at the big divide between her and her family. At the imposing staircase representing the distance between herself and the two women in her life. At her mother standing by Lexi's side protectively.

As though she was the villain. Fine, she thought, I can play the fucking villain.

"She's not my sister, she's dead to me."

"CASSIE!"

"My whole life, all I have done is protect you and defend you and listen to your problems. And the one time I do something for myself, you decide to cut me out of your life?"

Lexi could not stop the tears running down her face. Sure, she had expected Cassie to be upset. But not to hate her. Her heart felt like it was crumbling.

Cassie had given the two one final look before opening the door and leaving them behind, with Lexi's words lingering in the air like a heavy fog.

As she loaded her things in the car, Suze had come out to share some last parting words.

"Listen to me," She had forced her daughter to look her in the eye. "I don't care if you hate me or don't want to talk to me, if at any point you feel scared or alone and you need to come home- you come home, okay?"

Cassie had shrugged herself out of her mother's hold and not responded to her offer. She got into her car and drove off without a second glance at Suze.

She waited until she got to the lights.

Once she was at the lights, she let her tears run free.

She cried the whole drive from her family home to Nate's house.

And when she got to his', she dried her tears and put a smile back on her face.

It took her back to when her father was lying in a hospital bed and her Nana had told her to just keep smiling, that even though he couldn't see her, she should keep smiling.

It wasn't hard, it's what she always did. When she would watch her parents fight at a party, she would smile at her relatives. When her body was riddled with pain while she ice skated, she would smile at the audience. When boys made her feel uncomfortable, she would give them an uneasy smile. When her father would be falling asleep at the wheel when driving them home, she would smile at Lexi. When her mother would pass out at the dinner table, she would smile at her friends.

Keep smiling, she would always think, keep smiling and you will be okay.

When she walked in, Nate would ask her how it all went.

She would just smile and say fine.

He would place a hand on her still flat tummy.

She would nestle in his arms.

And she would be okay,

Save me, 'cause I'm still sinking and you've got a harbour close to the shore