My father always used to tell me that no one would ever truly love me for who I was because of where I came from. 

He always taught me to question everyone and everything around me, because there was always that chance that someone could be using me for my money and my family's connections instead of actual, real friendship or love that they felt for me. 

And saying that to a ten year old?  Well...that can really fuck someone up. 

It was only after getting into basketball and being part of a team that my viewpoint of the world truly shifted and showed me just how wrong he was. 

My teammates were the ones who lifted me up and actually helped patch me up after a few too many rounds with dear old dad. 

So that was why when Calvin confronted me about Gracie, I couldn't lie to him. 

There was no way he'd ever sell me out to the bastard after seeing what he'd done to me, considering the fact that we'd both played in the same circuits together pretty much our entire lives, he'd pretty much always been my teammate in one way or another. 

It was easy to tell him the truth. 

Especially when his teasingly curious brown eyes tried to pull a reason from me for not having officially set up a night in which my roommate and new girlfriend could hang out and get to know each other. 

"You don't do girlfriends, Kalen.  Is there a reason this one's different?  Or are you just pretending she's not your girlfriend because at this point, it's pretty damn obvious."

"Yeah, you're right.  I didn't do girlfriends, for a lot of reasons.  The main one being my fucked up family.  But we're going to do this slow, and quietly.  I don't want my dad finding out about her, for obvious reasons."

"Oh, yeah like when he tried to get you to marry that one girl you dated in high school just because he thought it would be an easy way to get her family to agree to sell their business to him?  Wild."

"Well...that's one reason, yeah."

I shuddered at the memory of being seventeen and told that I would need to figure out a way to make a girl fall in love with me so quickly that she'd want to marry me straight out of high school. 

That was one beating I'd taken gladly in order to avoid that fate. 

"Okay, so taking things slow and keeping them quiet.  Does she know this, though?"

"Do you really think I'm that much of an asshole, dude?"

He laughed before whipping his white sweat towel at me while the rest of the guys finished up in the locker room. 

"Hey, it never hurts to double check.  Anyway, once you start making the real money, you can just tell your dad to fuck right on off and that you don't need his blood money anymore, you can go and get married to this girl and have a shit ton of her babies."

"Well I don't know about that many babies.  We can start with however many she wants to give me and go from there."

His eyes almost popped out of his head at my straight face but it was all over when he cracked a smile. 

"You almost had me there, I'm not gonna lie."

"What?  Yeah, I'd love a family in the future, but right now I can barely see two feet in front of me, let alone what could happen years from now.  How about this--you and Nate can take all the babies and marriage talk, and I'll be the supportive best friend from the sidelines?"

"I hate you."

My phone started ringing in my bag and I shoved his shoulder while I tried to dig it out. 

"No, you don't."

"Hm...no, I really don't."

We were still laughing as I dug my phone out, but the grin was wiped from my face the moment I recognized the caller ID. 

"What?"

"It's my father."

"Shit.  Well, aren't you gonna answer it?"

Answering it could've gone multiple different ways. 

It could've been a reminder to keep doing his bidding, or it could've been confirmation that he knew that he was with Gracie and that he was disobeying his orders. 

It could've been anything, and I was so fucking tired of doing what he wanted. 

The phone stopped ringing and I sighed in relief.  

Hoping against hope that he would leave it at that, I pocketed my cell and slung my bag over my shoulder, turning to Calvin.

"Nope.  I don't think I'll be answering him for a while."

"I don't know if that makes you stupid or accidentally suicidal.  I guess we'll find out sooner or later."

"Guess so."

And then it was time to go to the library to sit in the corner and pretend to do my work while I actually stared at my girlfriend from afar.

Only when I got to the library, she wasn't in her usual spot like she normally was every day. 

She'd just texted and said that she was there with her roommate and that they would probably be studying for a few more hours. 

So then where the fuck was she?

***

"Alright, if you'll just follow me through these doors please."

The fluorescent lighting of the campus police station were harsh and flickering, the atmosphere reminiscent of dingy old buildings with water stains and mold growing behind hidden pipes. 

"Sir, I'm not sure what this is about, but is she in some kind of trouble?"

One of the security guards flicked his head back to Franny who hadn't left my side the entire time, anxiety coating her eyes that she usually decorated with blue eyeliner. 

"I'm not really at liberty to say right now.  Your friend can wait out here, but you'll need to come with me through here."

"Wait, but--"

"Now."

"It'll be okay, Franny.  I'm sure I'll be right out and this is just a misunderstanding."

Even as the words came out of my own mouth I didn't believe it. 

Trouble sure did seem to have a way of following me around, didn't it?

"Fine, but I'm calling my parents just in case it's something serious.  They shouldn't be able to take you back into some kind of creepy interrogation room alone.  It's against the law, or something that they can't keep you detained for more than twenty-four hours without charging you of something.  I saw it on SVU once."

"I think that's for police custody, babes, not for something on campus grounds.  I don't think I'll even be in here that long."

The guard beside us sighed as he pinched his nose with his fingers. 

"No, we aren't real cops.  This will only take a few minutes, and then you can go back to your dorms."

I could've sworn he mumbled something under his breath about 'not getting paid enough for this', but then the door was swinging open and the lights were flickering and there was a man standing in the middle of the room and then the door was slamming shut behind me and then it was just me, alone in the room with this man...this man that I--

"Dad?"

He came rushing up to me faster than I could've anticipated, clear relief shining on his face as he gripped my cheeks in his hands. 

"You're not hurt are you?  Oh, thank god I got to you quicker than he did."

He kept mumbling more things into my hair as he pulled me into a hug that I didn't reciprocate, his words indecipherable as he rocked back and forth, back and forth. 

The smell of cigarettes floated up from him, and the memories just came pouring out of him like he'd been keeping them hidden all these years with his absence. 

There was the time he'd come to a student-teacher meeting as my favorite teacher was describing the award I'd be receiving for my performance in the class and had promptly thrown up on the floor right there because he'd tried detoxing cold turkey. 

Then there was the time he'd decided he was going to sell our dishwasher because we 'didn't need one of those things anyway'.

Then it was when he'd shown up with a strange woman on a school night and he'd made me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and told me to go to bed early.  I was allergic to peanuts.

One after the other after the other popped into my head until I couldn't take it anymore and I shoved him off of me. 

It was almost satisfying to see the shock on his face after what I'd done.  Almost, but not enough.

"What are you doing here?  And why was I dragged in here like I'm some kind of criminal?  You can't do this!  You can't show up to my school and ruin everything, just like you always do!  You have to leave me alone!"

"I...Gracie Bear, come on.  I had to do it this way, or...or else!"

"Or else?  Or else what?!  What more do I have to say to you to get it through your fucking head that I'm done?  I am done with this roller coaster of watching you pretend to get better just long enough to get me to come back again.  I am done sitting by while you destroy yourself and enabling you, because it's never going to get better.  You don't want to get better, because you do not care about me.  All you care about is her, and she is gone now!  She left you, and then she died.  I'm all that's left of her, but I don't seem to matter, do I?"

"It's not about her, Gracie!  Well...well, it is and it isn't.  I know you have something of hers!  She told me, she told me she was going to leave you something if she died young, and I only remembered because I'm getting better.  And I'm sorry, but I told him. I shouldn't have told him, I'm so stupid sometimes, but I told him and now he knows and he's so mad Gracie, I've never seen that man look so pissed, but you have to leave and get away or he's coming for you!  He's coming for my baby and it's all my fault, and there's nothing I can do about it!"

He started pacing, pulling at the strands of his greasy, dingy brown hair as his tattered loafers wore a hole in the musty carpet of the conference room we were in. 

"What are you talking about?  Are you talking about Kalen's father?"

His eyes lit up with recognition before pointing at me as if I'd won a round of charades. 

"Yes!  Yes!  He's been paying for my treatments, you know.  Coming to visit me, making sure I'm in tip top shape.  Been feeding me lies, telling me stories.  Telling me that you and his son are together...disgusting stories.  Even showed me pictures of the two of you, trying to convince me that my little Gracie bear would ever..."

He trailed off, mumbling to himself as he scratched at his head. 

He hadn't ever acted this bizarre before, even going through withdrawals multiple times.  It was like he had been drugged with something else, because this definitely wasn't from just the alcohol, or the coming down from it. 

"Why am I here right now?"

As if he could sense the panic seeping from me he turned on the spot, the fear gathering with the tears in the corners of his eyes. 

"I'm so sorry, bear.  He said you wouldn't get hurt as long as you told him where it was.  I told him I'd talk to you, get you to see reason."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"The money, Gracie.  The videos, the flash-drive.  If you give it to him, it'll all go away and we can be a happy family again."

"We were never a happy family.  And you know what, I don't have any idea what you're talking about."

The door clicked open from behind me but before I could turn to see who else had entered, an eerily familiar voice echoed throughout the room. 

"Oh, Gracie, you and I both know better than that."

***

Author's Note:

What did you think of this chapter?

What do you think will happen next?

Until next time my lovely readers,
Kristen :)

P.S.  For extra angst and pain, I imagine Gracie's father as drunk Woody Harrelson in Hunger Games :(