First shameless fanfic. I don't know if this will last but let's see how far this goes. I love crazy shit, but I love justice more, and I write crazy shit so this is perfect for me. Also if you don't like crazy shit as in the show's events and my own events and details of mental disorders and therapy along with mental healing and maybe 'religion' mentions if I'm going to have to politically bend, *major personal irritated eye roll* this story won't be for you. Maybe not modern views or whatever but hey, everyone has a story to tell. But it's not overbearing and it'll be influenced by my own experiences but definitely changed in environmental standards.

Also I realized that in the show for the first half of the episodes it is December 2010 but I went off the first episode air date which was January 9th in 2011, this threw me off so I had to do more edits than I wanted to. Mature warnings for future sex, racial slurs, and violence. But, anyways…

…

December, 2010

…

Growing up in the south side of Chicago you were destined for many things, including murder, suicide, drug addiction, alcohol addiction, sex addiction, mental instability, sexism, gentrification or poor education and most of all becoming your parents, especially within this household, becoming Frank and/or Monica Gallagher. That had been a conjoined fear for a while among the clan of Gallagher children but fate seemed to have other plans instead.

I had believed I had been… better than the rest of my family for a while until the unforgiving worldly trials and personal growth lessons of adolescence and teenhood smacked me in the head with a nail-infested two-by-four slab of wood. I had believed that I would always hold onto the fairytales of my fantasized youth of union and familial love and peace, it seemed to be the case at the end but things still weren't… the way I had wished for, prayed for. Things are… okay, living in my new small family home in Louisville, Kentucky a few neighborhoods away from Kevin and Veronica Ball and their twin girls with my little brother Liam. But I shouldn't start here with this story, not yet, at least, I should start at the beginning. The beginning of what seemed to be a million and one endings of those wishes and dreams of familial peace and fully broken generational curses, I guess until Liam and I.

I felt like my life started on a Monday in December of 2010, and the corresponding events of future years which had influenced this new sense of purpose after the death of a close friend. I seemed to have fulfilled the day Liam got accepted into his dream job the day after graduating from Graduate School in the Ivy League. I was thirteen and less than three months shy of my fourteenth birthday, five years before my destined success unfolded before me, I was up early like I always was with Debbie; she was ten and an adorable little redhead. She struggled with emotional support and intelligence, but that's what it was like living in a highly dysfunctional family in the South Side, but Debbie was sweet and she was maturely booksmart for her age and she knew how to budget. But we all were, except Carl, well… Carl was exceptional in his way. I was already showered and ready for school, I already had something to eat for breakfast and I was biking over to the high school to get a check out more books at the library. I pushed myself harder to pedal on the bike I had stolen about two blocks back, the crisp chill air prickled my face as I accelerated in speed and felt the bike moving smoothly under me. At this moment, I thought about my life.

Normally, I would be disappointed, angry and hurt to think about my family but this morning I didn't think about my parents, I just thought about my older sister, Fiona who recently turned 21 a couple of months ago. I looked like her twin that took seven years to brew in Monica's stomach, the same long dark brown hair, facial features and body type but I prayed that I would get bigger boobs and butt in those short split seconds. My older twin brother Lip, we just turned 16 in late July, and younger brother Ian is turning 15 in May. Lip was a genuine asshole but he had his good moments but those were rare, Ian and I got along better but I got along more with Fiona and Debbie. I never had too many close relationships, that was definitely because of my parents influence but I've always been a loner. I would rather stay home and spend time with Debbie, Liam reading books or watching movies and/or talk with Fiona, if Fiona was home. Fiona was the only one in our family that stepped up to take care of six kids and she sacrificed her education and her emotional and physical support to provide financially to make sure we were all breathing and safe.

In this moment I felt grateful peace that spread a lighthearted smile as the bike rolled effortlessly across a back road entrance to another block with the busy streets to my left. The sky was blue, and the morning sun was bright and refusing to warm up the Earth, snow and slush blanketed the city with a crisp, frigid wind that would leave me fighting to stay warm the rest of the morning. This city was dirty and unforgiving but at times, like this moment I was forced to appreciate the beauty of city-life. I weaved in between pedestrians effortlessly, never interrupting their track of direction to their personal destinations. I sat on the seat, and fixed my jacket and 80s headphones and music player before lifting up and pedaling to accelerate in speed.

When I got to school, I parked the bike and walked towards the doors and let myself into the quiet and peaceful building of the lacking educational system of the south side. I straightened out my jacket and backpack as I walked towards the library, when I made it to my destination I immediately began searching for a selection of five books. I picked up two fictional books based on historical events from the War, two books of fictional romance one published in 1998 and one published in 1862 and then a self-help book for pleasing people and living in freedom of confidence. The last book I was going to have to hide from my siblings, they wouldn't understand why I wanted to read it, they would never understand. Debbie would understand, Veronica would understand and so would my best friend, Marcus Spencer.

Marcus has been best friends since we met on the playground in first and second grade, and he was a naturally beautiful person, and son to his ambitious single mother, Alicia, who raised him well. Alicia grew up in New Orleans in a massive family, like massive, but she grew up differently than the Gallaghers then Monica. She grew up in love and she was extremely strong willed which had scared and irritated me at the age of twelve, but she had became a maternal figure after a very heated but forced and needed conversation that started as an argument. But she had treated me like her child, it may have been out of line but Alicia had been there since I was six and she never chose to give up on me, on my family but she kept boundaries which led to that conversation at the age of twelve. I had been angry with her for a while but as of lately I have been grateful for it, and I was grateful she still chose to stick around and allow her son to be my best friend.

Marcus and I were always trouble makers but we kept it to a minimum in childish antics, since we were thirteen every summer we were at camp or going to the countryside of New Orleans to visit family. This previous summer we went to New Orleans, Ian had wanted to join and Alicia was more than happy to let him tag along. Those three weeks in New Orleans were one of the best, we did as we always did, experienced and learned the culture, listened to passed down stories of their familial generations in slavery or traveling from Africa to Jamaica and then to Illinois in the 1930s. I loved hearing about history, especially the truth and not the watered down and justified stories in history textbooks, they taught me how to cook, they taught me more for growth and success than Frank and Monica could. Sometimes I had to remind myself to be very grateful to be loved by a woman that met me at the age six because her son wanted me to be his new sister. I had to remind myself that being cared for by wonderful people that had very reason to leave chose to stick around because of me, I had to remind myself that it wasn't all just because of me.

Alicia had been there for Fiona at times with Liam, so she could take care of him in the way he needed to be because of his skin tone. Veronica's influence wasn't much help but she helped somewhat in the emotional department.

It was hard to admit in this neighborhood to be truly cared for and not used or abused, but Alicia and Marcus had always been different from everyone else. Marcus was hard to describe but that's why he was my best friend. We were odd sheep, outcasts in a neighborhood of dysfunction but community. Marcus had a lot of friends over the years but none truly stuck like ours, he's had a couple girlfriends and had sex about too many times to count on my fingers and of course he has his flaws but I also had my own. Our friendship progressed over the Thanksgiving break from a brother/sister friendship to a one night of lust and stupidity. While I had spent a night at his house while his mother was working a night shift, things had gotten heated between us randomly and next thing I knew, Marcus was taking my virginity on his mother's couch. I couldn't tell you what led to it but it happened, it didn't hurt long, not long enough to hold it over his head as a secret frustration but it was good. I had nothing to compare to but I know for a fact that after a couple times that same night I felt a familiar sensation to self-inflicted sexual pleasure.

I had forty-five minutes to kill before homeroom and I had planned on reading instead of psyche pondering sexual encounters and the radical changes in my life that were leaving me anxious about these new changes and if… I wanted them to be this way. I never considered romantic or even lustful feelings towards Marcus but I don't know, that night everything just felt… right for it to go that route. Now I wasn't so sure, I had considered that I had finally succumbed to the urges of hormones and the fact that I knew Marcus better than anyone so I hadn't been worried. But it was just that, I know Marcus better than anyone, my best friend can be an asshole but lately he's more of a slut than usual, I was really hoping that his hormones didn't fully clouded his judgement to realize that he was my best friend and well, he had been my first kiss. That's late for a Gallagher, but the fact is, I'm different… I know I am because I didn't think the way my siblings did, I mean we don't think the same period but the views of sex and love and the whole shabang. I had been a virgin for a reason, never had a boyfriend or a first kiss until November 29th of 2010. I've always been bullied and these were reasons I didn't get along with Lip, Lip would know what to do. He would know how to feel, Fiona would but… I didn't want them to know I had sex, not yet at least, I have been trying to make them believe for three years now since I started birth control that I wasn't and I wasn't dating Marcus along with it.

Speaking of Marcus, he just turned the corner of the busy hallway with two of basketball teammates, laughing, joking. The smile on his face was like… a million dollar smile, his skin is so… healthy and like molten dark chocolate. He was rugged in facial facial features but also soft. Marcus, him, his looks and his skin was a plus but it's just him, or maybe it was that clingy attachment to him from popping my cherry. I wanted to do it again, I wanted it do again at this moment, maybe I could be bold enough to act cool and ask him to skip class as we did sometimes. Maybe propose the idea whenever or wherever we decided to go without getting caught by faculty or parents. I never looked at him this way, like I wanted lick his skin, touch his skin, the fascination and the growing desire set my heart in a soft flutter. He was so tall and just absolutely delicious, my lower sexual regions began to moisten and throb, I wanted to feel him again.

A few quick images of sexual fantasies flashed before my eyes for a few brief seconds, Marcus' head was turning towards me from a comment of one of his buddies who just made eye contact with me.

Oh, shit. My heart jumped into my throat when Marcus locked eyes with me and he kind of stopped for a couple of seconds, like hesitation from breaking eye contact. I believed I squeaked like a mouse as my heart leaped into my mouth, a nervous mechanism I have picked over the years along with a stutter. I ducked into my homeroom class and walked briskly to my seat in the back and sat down.

Idiot. I mentally cursed myself.

The school day went the same as it always did, boring and uneventful, except for me avoiding Marcus in shared lectures and/or the lunch hour. This hasn't been the first day I've been avoiding me and he hasn't come looking for me either, that hurt a little bit but it wasn't right to wish he would come looking for me to quiz me.

I went straight home after school and worked on assignments before I started thinking about the day and the feelings I've had all day, feeling some sort of way about the change in my friendship with Marcus that we haven't talked about. Not like I had been giving us any chance to talk, I felt like being close in his presence would make me vomit or spaz. I never would've believed that my friendship with Marcus would lead to us having secret but safe sex, I know Marcus as if we had lived in the same house our whole life, I could say that our house was the other's second home. I mean, Marcus was there throughout all of my parents fights and their absences, he was there when I got my period for the first time, he may have been grossed out at first but his mother didn't allow any stigmatism towards the female body and hated the stereotypes of how to raise a man. I remember this example clearly, I remember when I didn't hear from Marcus for almost a week when I got my period at ten during the summer, all I know is that he had a conversation with his mom and he just had time to fully understand what she was talking about because he didn't. Marcus… as I have said is different, he's always been kind but during those years his mother had been in contact with his father and he had courted dated visitations because Alicia wanted Marcus to know his father. But Marcus' father had other plans, he had never been around from the beginning and I had wished he would stick around and actually try to learn how to be a father to Marcus but he just left him damaged and traumatized by things he wouldn't talk about.

I started to think about that night, how it started and how far it went. I remembered the first kiss clearly that turned into more until I was in his lap and the kisses turned into makeout. His mouth had strayed from mine to my neck and throat while his hands rubbed my thighs up towards my hips, I was turning into putty in his hands while I fell into that thick haze of arousal. My heart was racing in my chest and my nostrils were filled with Marcus's freshly showered scent, his hands groping and caressing my hips and waist, his hands sliding under my shirt and they gripped my waist. That was something that made me go limp and begin to submit to him, his mouth left mine to return to my neck to indefinitely leave hickeys on my neck that I have been covering up. What I remembered most was feeling him move inside me and his scent, I wanted to do it again. I felt my heart physically pick up in pace in my ribcage and I inhaled deeply, snapping my out of the flashback.

I ran a hand through my hair and gazed down at the kitchen table, I never thought this would happen to me. Between us. I know that it's dumb and I should just accept it but this isn't easy for me. I… Frank and Monica always leave, and I lost all love and respect for them, I don't want Marcus to leave, I don't want to lose him and I didn't want sex to change everything between us. I guess that's what I've been worried about, losing him because of this. I didn't know if I should let it happen again just because I wanted to, but I wanted to and I still wanted us to be close. I inhaled sharply and my mind quietened, I ran my hands through my hair again and dropped my chin into my palm and turned my head towards the back door hearing a knock.

I looked at what I had been doing, I was reading one of my romance novels at the kitchen table while Debbie, Carl and Liam took over the living room. Lip was upstairs and Ian was at work. Fiona was out with Veronica. I got up from the table and walked to the back door, unlocked it and opened it to Marcus standing on the other side.

My heart jumped into my throat. Marcus looked tensely anxious. I wasn't expecting him to come here.

"Can we talk?" He asked in his almost baritone deep voice with a husky hint.

I nodded. We needed to figure this out. I stepped aside to let him come in.

"Yeah, come in."

We sat across from each other at the table and looked at each other awkwardly for a moment before he started the conversation.

"Is everything… all right?" Marcus inquired folding his arms on the tabletop, he glanced around swiftly indicating his point.

I nodded again, picking at the skin around my nails, "yeah. Yeah, everything is fine."

"Then why are you avoiding me?"

I didn't answer right away. I dropped my gaze from him and leveled it on the wooden tabletop, I shrugged awkwardly and shrunk in my chair as I leaned back.

I shrugged again, "I don't know. I just…"

"Savanna… you've been avoiding me since break… I don't understand."

I inhaled sharply and crossed my arms, and shrugged awkwardly again, "I know, I know. I just… I never… thought we would ever have sex. I never even considered… that we would."

"Is that a bad thing?" Marcus asked, assessing me with an unreadable expression.

"I don't know." I shrugged.

"You don't know?" he asked, his tone was slightly offended.

"Yes, Marcus, I don't know. I feel like everything is complicated now and I don't know if I like it."

Marcus sighed, "everything wouldn't be complicated if you just talked to me."

"It's not that easy." I mumbled, I thought he hadn't heard me but he did.

"How? We've been friends since first grade." Marcus retorts a little frustrated.

"But this is different. Everything is different." I defended, weakly, tightening my arms across my chest.

I was very worried this conversation would go sideways and I didn't want that, I didn't want to be in a fight with Marcus.

Marcus scoffed, throwing his hands up and also crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair, making eye contact with me again, "Different how?"

"We had sex, Marcus. I can't just fly past that." I said with a bit of an attitude and my eyes breaking çontact with him and traveled around the room as I stuttered mutely and hesitated from saying something else.

My response only railed him up one level, "I can't either, Savanna." He fumbled for words for a few seconds and his eyes met mine again, they were frustrated. He inhaled deeply through his nose keeping eye contact and his posture relaxed, and refolded his arms on the table, "I know that it wasn't planned and I never considered having sex with you either but having you avoid me the past couple of weeks haven't been easy. I mean, shit, I thought I was losing my girl."

My girl, that was his term for solidifying my place in his life, a spot in life that couldn't be replaced that the spot he holds for his mama. My girl right now seemed like the literal term girlfriend at this moment but I understood what he meant. It was stupid to have avoided him in the first place but I couldn't change it and besides by the look on his face, everything was perfectly fine. Little worries always turned into nothing and we just… clicked, like a hundred tiny puzzle pieces.

I turned my head from him, glaring into the half bathroom while struggling to stifle the smile on my face. His soft chuckle broke the battle of trying to be stoic, I turned back to him and kicked his shin under the table as his soft chuckle followed with a deeper huskier fit of chuckles as he did that thing he did I didn't even want to describe. It set my heart fluttering.

"I-I-I-shit," I glared at the table top and huffed. I inhaled through my nose and made eye contact with Marcus, "I didn't know how to feel about it. I mean… I think it's because of…" I glanced around the room and shrugged.

"You can't go through life thinking everyone is going to be Frank and Monica. I mean, I've been here, my mom's been here. You know you're my girl, Anna, whatever we decide to do or don't do. We're too strong to fall apart over this."

I heaved a sigh, I put my elbows on the tabletop and dropped my jaw into my palms laying my fingers loosely to frame my face. "I'm sorry."

Marcus smiled crookedly and leaned forward, "I forgive you. And I'm sorry."

I dropped my arms and my eyes furrowed, "What for?"

He smiled slyly cocky, his body moved slightly, he was swinging one of his knees side to side as one of his warnings of something devious was going to come out of his mouth.

"For ruining your dream of losing your virginity to Anthony Mackie."

I rolled my eyes and snorted sitting back in my chair and crossed my arms again over my chest.

I shrugged, "It wasn't going to happen anyways." I smirked at him

We sat there for a few seconds, he mimicked my posture and his gaze intensified to a heated impishness and then it turned serious again.

"So, do you…" he hesitated. I think I'm the only one who sees him hesitate before he speaks. "Do you want to be my girl or be my girl?"

Two different girls and in these few short seconds before responding, both my girls sounded great but being his girl and having sex with him again and… maybe… maybe I needed to avoid him to realize I had feelings for him because I didn't just want to be his best friend.

"My girl," I answered, crossing my leg over the other nervously, and making nervous eye contact with him.

Marcus smiled that million dollar smile, "Okay." He leaned on the table top again, "You want to go get some McDonald's?"

I smiled in confirmation.

…

When we got back from McDonald's, I didn't realize how late it was until we both walked into the house with everyone up and in the living room with Veronica sitting on the couch cleaning up some older sketchy white guy.

"And last but not least, my twin, Savanna and her dark chocolate girlfriend, Marcus," Lip jokes, tipping a beer to his lips with his harmless sky smile pulling the corners of his mouth.

"Fuck off." Marcus tormented back while flipping him a middle finger.

"Yo, Veronica! You got my keys?" Kev called out as soon as he opened the front door and passed Marcus and I opened the foyer door into the living room, finding the guy in close proximity of his woman that instantly made teddy bear Kev jealous. "What's going on here?" Kev closed the foyer door.

I gawked for a seconds before I turned around to Marcus stepping out onto the porch.

"I gotta go. I'll see you in the morning." Marcus says when I stepped close to him and wrapped my arms around him and he returned the hug.

"This is Steve," Veronica replied, drunk as shit and loudly. "Decked the bouncer at Purgatory to defend my honor."

"Okay," I replied, "I'll see you in the morning."

"Give me a kiss." Marcus instructs, I could hear the smirk in his voice.

"Yes, sir." I smirked, tilting my head back to gaze up at him feeling heat coat my cheeks.

He bent down while I reached up on my tippy toes to kiss him. When his lips met mine, it felt like it did before, like I was struck by lightning that left my heart racing like a horse in my chest. I walked back into the house and headed for my room.

"Jimmy Cl–? Well, Jesus, man, put it there. Respect." Kev shook hands with this… Steve.

I walked over to the kitchen and looked around for my book before going up the stairs.

"Guy just stands there. Doesn't really do any–"

My room, well, I was sharing a room with Fiona until Frank's last bender, we had gotten an 80s style L shaped bunk bed and the room was divided by a curtain divider. The curtain was thickly stitched to block out whatever my sister does with guys because she's a freak, but it didn't do any justice to the noise. I was too old to share a room with Debbie and the only other available room was Franks, and well, it's Frank and the room had been switched because his original bedroom was bigger and well, it didn't work before. It was kind of useless when the divider was knocked down during a rushed and aggressive altercation that left me traumatized. Hearing Fiona have sex was difficult enough, but seeing it for those slip seconds was even worse, this room provided a bit more space to not have that happen again. But it still didn't quite work since we started to butt heads a lot more than usual light bickering here and there. So during Frank's last bender and since he didn't use his room or his clothes, we moved me in his room and disassembled my bed so it would be on the floor instead of a high bunk.

I changed out of my current clothes and into pajamas, a pair of shorts and a tank top. I looked at myself in my dresser mirror before laying down in bed for the night.

…

"I feel like a freak." I remarked to Marcus the next day when we passed small shops and businesses walking home from school the next day.

"Why?" Marcus' eyebrows furrowed as he looked down at me walking beside him with my hands in my jacket pockets.

"Sixth period." I replied with an attitude nondirected at him.

"It's one D, Anna. You'll catch up."

"But it's English of all things, a D. I started working on that assignment the night it was assigned. I don't understand. I shouldn't have gotten a fucking D. It's going to lower my whole average."

"Talk to him." Marcus suggested.

"Talk to Mr. Gorden, sewer pervert Mr. Gorden?" I quizzed, "It'll be a whole negotiation on whether or not I deserve more than a D. You heard the rumors, the old prick is probably just waiting for me to stay after class so he could offer 'extra' credit."

"Extra credit. More guzzling his milk dud."

I gagged and Marcus went into a fit of chuckles, "I would rather kill myself." I shivered in disgust.

"You want me to wait for you?" Marcus asks leaning against a pillar of the clinic and stuffed his hands in his pockets.

The clinic, I was here for my check up appointment since I had been experiencing hip pain from a fall during a south side football game in the street that got a bit out of hand with a bunch of hormonal teenagers and/or hyperactive kids, running off the energy of the kids around them. That had been the summer I smoked weed for the first time, late again in that department for the south side or even Gallaghers but whatever, and I should've waited to smoke with Lip and Marcus because I smoked a laced joint that ended up with me getting hurt playing football that summer day. Fiona had almost had a physical conary when Frank asked why I looked like I was on four strips of acid. Yeah that had been an interesting and sleep deprived 72 hours for Fiona.

While I was sitting in the waiting room, Marcus walked in and sat down next to me and leaned close to talk to me.

"Mandy Milkovich just passed by and asked me to ask you if you could meet her at her house at 6." Marcus whispered in my ear.

I turned to him with furrowed eyebrows. Why? Mandy Milkovish is a black haired blue eyed whore whose Ian's age, she shows up to school more than her twin does. Mandy and I were friends for a single school year when I was in eighth grade only because I needed a pad, our friendship ended when she tried fucking Marcus over the summer. Marcus at the time had been the most standoff person I know, he didn't like anyone like in the romance section. He barely had been able to stand me, I think that's when his balls officially dropped and he became an asshole for a little while along with his father trying to come back into his life. Mandy and I tried reconnecting over the previous summer but it didn't work, she was different but I could tell something was still off.

I didn't like it and I didn't want to find out what it was. But why was she asking me to come to her house?

"Did she say why?"

Marcus shook his head twice, "No, but she looked… like a wreck. Red eyes, no makeup, and I didn't see her around school today."

I heaved a sigh and crossed my leg, "Okay. I'll find out what's going on."

"Do you want me to tag along?"

I snorted, "And get yourself stalked and hunted by Terry?" I shook my head, "No, no, it's okay, I got my knife."

…

After my appointment I made my way over to the Milkovish's and knocked on the door, I stepped back and angled to get a view of the street as well as the door. The door unlocked and it opened to an upset Mandy, when she seen me she grabbed her jacket by the door and stepped outside.

"Walk with me?"

"Yeah," I replied not even a heartbeat later noticing her tension.

When we got to the park not far from her house and mine, Mandy made her way towards the jungle gym and I followed, she started to explain why she asked for me when we reached the top and let our legs hang through the holes. I wasn't surprised by most of the things she said she was dealing with at home, things she's been dealing with since she was a child. I was slightly grateful for Frank and Monica but my heart broke for Mandy. The beating, the molestation and even rape at times was more than she wanted to deal with, and then I felt like an asshole for turning her away. She just needed a solid girlfriend.

"I'm sorry, Mandy."

"It's fine, it's not your fault. I just have to get out of this shit hole," Mandy says with a shiver fixing her jacket. "Hey," she turned to me, "I know we aren't that close and you have every reason not to after what I just told you but… can you stay the night? I don't want to be alone."

I didn't think too hard on it. I didn't want to leave her alone, especially when she was this upset. Mandy had to cook dinner for the house when we got into the house, she had me stay in her room until dinner was done, dinner at the Milkovich's was definitely never on the wish list. I didn't even want to repeat it but I stood strong for Mandy. I didn't owe her anything but… I always stand with girls, even if their like Mandy.

…

I rushed into the house the next morning after biking all the way home from Mandy's on another stolen bike. I rushed up the stairs.

"Savanna!?" Fiona called from the kitchen.

"It's me!" I called back, sprinting down the hallway to my bedroom to grab clothes for a shower.

"Where have you been?!" Fiona called, I heard the echoing footsteps of her climbing the staircase.

I rushed into the bathroom and started the shower, I dropped my clothes onto the floor and dashed to my room for my towel. I thought of a lie she would believe since Mandy made me promise not to tell anyone, plus I didn't really want Fiona to know I spent time night at the Milkovich's, it would become more drama than need be. Fiona stepped back and her face was heavy in scrutinization.

"I was at Marcus's." I lied.

"All night?" she asked, searching my eyes.

"Yes."

"Savanna-" Fiona started to scold me.

"It won't happen again, I promise. I should have called, I'm sorry."

"Savanna," Fiona grabbed my shoulders, she assessed me and then her face changed when her brown eyes fell onto my neck. "What the hell happened to your neck? Are you having sex?"

I huffed a sigh and shifted on my feet uncomfortably, I met eyes with her, "Yes," I answered stubbornly honest.

"And you stayed at his house for the night?" Fiona crossed her arms.

"Yes."

Fiona shrugged and used her hands as she spoke, "And you thought it would be okay? You're sixteen, for Christ's Sakes."

"I know! I'm not going to get pregnant, Fiona." I said with a roll of my eyes and walked towards the bathroom. "I take my birth control every morning, so no worries there," That reminded me to go back to my room to find my pack.

I popped a pill out the circular pack and picked up the water bottle I had left in my room from the morning before and took the pill.

"Hey," Fiona says.

"What?" I turned back around to her with an irritated sigh.

Fiona crossed her arms over her chest, her face and body relaxed, "...Why didn't you say anything?"

I sighed and looked at my alarm clock, I had no time to converse right now if I wanted to make it to school on time.

"I can't talk about this now." I remarked walking past her and into the bathroom.

"Why?"

"School." I replied simply.

Fiona sighed and ran a hand through her hair, "Right." She closed the bathroom door and I started to undress to get in the shower.

"How are you feeling today?" I asked Mandy as we walked home together, Marcus walked home with Lip to help Karen board up her living room window.

I was really trying not to let Karen's rep get my head with Marcus, I know Marcus, I trust Marcus. But I didn't trust Karen, I didn't really trust her around Lip but Lip insisted that he knew what he was doing. I had a bad feeling about them but I couldn't really say anything.

"I'm okay, better than yesterday," Mandy replies, she looked better today but if you really stared to notice something, she was still upset.

"Do you want to come over?" I asked.

She turned to me with a whole different demeanor, and stopped in her tracks, "I can't. I have to get home."

"Okay," I say, stuffing my hands in my pockets, "See you later."

"See ya," Mandy says before walking away towards her house.

…

Marcus pulled me onto his lap to sit on the couch the next day after school to watch Shark Week with the family. Carl groaned in disappointment when he went to sit down but Marcus and I took his spot.

"Burgers coming through," Ian announces walking out of the kitchen briskly with Steve with white paper wrapped burgers.

"Uh, Lip. Napkins?" Fiona asks as she changes the channel to find Shark Week.

"I can get it," Karen suggests to Lip.

Lip turned to her, "No, no, no. You sit."

"Only ketchup?" Steve asks and Debbie raises her hand to my left.

"Me. Me," she says.

"Cheese and mushrooms? Bacon burger?"

"That's us," Marcus says and takes the burgers from Steve when he hands them out.

Marcus handed me my extra and mushroom burger, and I leaned back against him looking at the tv screen.

"Extra onion, jalapenos?" Steve asks.

Veronica opens the front door and bustles inside, "Me."

"Here you go," Steve mumbled before walking away.

"Thank you. Make room," V says as she climbs over the back of the couch to sit on the middle cushion of the couch.

Carl sat down on the floor and went to grab the nutter butter pack of cookies out of Veronica's lap albut he smacked his hand, "Eh, eh, after you finish your shake and fries." And she looked over at Karen sitting on the armchair awkwardly waiting for lip, "Who's this?"

"This is Karen," Lip replies.

"Hey, Karen. Nice top, what size are you?"

"Shh! Shut up." Fi announces silencing the room to focus on the show as Steve perches on the couch next to her.

…

About a half hour into the show the front opened and slammed closed to reveal Frank walking in the house with dried blood coming from his nose and all over his mouth, chin and his shirt. Not his shirt but Ian's shirt. Fucking thief and he smelt like pure piss and the stench of the outside world. Everyone turned while Steve asked he was okay but I turned back to the tv as he ignored Steve and walked further into the house. Ian got up and walked towards him, having the courage to confront him.

"Hey," Ian called out to Frank whom turned around to him, "Is that my shirt?"

Frank nodded once, turning fully to him, "Yeah."

Ian lost confidence in facing Frank when he took a couple steps towards him, "Uh, I'm just asking."

Frank whirled his head back and threw it forward to collide his forehead into Ian's nose who stumbled back into the coffee table. I got off Marcus who pushed back onto the couch as Fiona and Veronica went to Ian's aide, Debbie scattered to the kitchen and Carl jumped onto the couch to V.

"Jesus!" Fiona shouted.

"Guy at the bar said to pass it on."

Steve got up from the couch and stormed over to Frank, and shoved Frank backwards, "What the fuck is wrong with you, Frank?!"

"Jesus Christ, Dad," Fiona gushed in worry as she checked Ian's nose.

"Marcus!" I shouted getting up from the couch to grab his arm when he went to go back up Steve.

"You're drunk, Frank! Drunk."

"This is drunk?"

"Stop, Steve!"

Lip put a hand on the bottom of a pan Debbie retrieved as I pulled Marcus away and Lip kept Debbie out of the fray.

"This isn't drunk. You wanna see drunk?" Frank demanded.

"Don't do this to your kids, Frank."

"What are you, a tough guy, Steve? You think you're a fucking tough guy? Because you look like a premenstrual Filipino."

Steve stepped forward to take a swing at Frank, Fiona stepped in and pushed him back, "Steve, go. Get out. Hey. Just go." Fiona pushed Steve back again, "Go, please."

"He's shitting his pants. Pussy."

"You're pathetic, Frank."

"Get out now. I mean it." Fiona pointed to the door, instructing Steve to leave.

Frank instigated him with, "Puss, puss, puss. Don't go, come on! Puss, puss, puss! What? You wanna say something, pussy? It's Mr. Joe-Fucking-God-Gift, the pussy!" Steve had already left with a calm shut of the front door.

"Ice," Veronica called.

"It's a bloody nose," Frank said dismissively, "he's not dying."

"Really, Frank?" Veronica demanded as Ian held paper towels to his nose.

"Anybody notice that I'm fucking bleeding?" Frank demanded and no one answered, Frank glanced over at me and Marcus near the staircase. He glanced over again and looked at Marcus and then to me, he looked me up and down before his face continued to twist, "Fucking nigger lover." He grumbled before walking away.

"Hey!" Fiona and Veronica shouted after Frank.

I tightened my hand around Marcus' and put a hand on his chest, "Don't."

Fiona walked towards the kitchen where Frank departed, Marcus left, and Ian went upstairs, and Lip followed him. I ran my hand through my hair as I exhaled through my mouth feeling the adrenaline of the situation wearing off. I stayed downstairs to help calm Debbie and Carl down from the recent violent events that would definitely be burned into their brains for the rest of their life. One event to millions they have already been through and not including the events Lip, Ian, Fiona and I dealt with longer than them.