"So, Aiden..." Uncle John began as we began eating out food.

I swallowed. Uh-oh. Here comes the blow...

"What are your plans for college?" Uncle John asked Aiden.

BOOM! And there it was.

Aiden glanced at me knowingly before turning his attention to my uncle.

"I've already been accepted into the school I want to go to," Aiden replied, casually.

"Really? And which is that?" Uncle John asked quizically.

"Julliard," Aiden replied simply.

Uncle John choked on the piece of fish he had just stuck in his mouth. Aunt Meredith hit him on the back, glaring at Aiden as if it was his fault my uncle choked.

"Julliard?!" Uncle John exclaimed, clearly caught off-guard.

"Yes, sir," Aiden said, nodding his head and nudging me with his elbow. I kept my head down, not wanting to make any eye contact with anyone.

Currently, Laura was making winky faces at Aiden, which he ignored. Simultaneously, she was shooting me devilish looks. I already knew what her plan was. She no doubt thought that Aiden was more than just my 'friend'. And she was making it extremely obvious that she was attracted to him, because, well, any girl would be. He was just an attractive person. What she was going to try to do, then, was 'steal' him from me.

But joke was on her. Because Aiden and I were the farthest thing from 'together'. We were hardly friends. I just kept saying that he was so that my aunt and uncle wouldn't kick him out of the house, which I knew they no doubt wanted to do.

"How on earth did you manage to get in?" Aunt Meredith asked, rubbing her husbands back as he gulped down water.

"I applied early, filled out an application, sent in a video with a demo of a song I wrote and a few weeks later, I got my acceptance letter," he answered simply.

"Julliard is like the best--" Kara began to say.

"School for the performing arts. Yes, that it is," Aiden finished for her.

"You have to be really amazing to get in," Brandon said.

"Well then, they must have thought I was really amazing since they let me in," Aiden answered.

"I bet he is. He just looks like a rockstar," Laura piped up, smirking and winking at Aiden. I could tell he was fighting back a retort. He wouldn't be rude, though. He already understood my crazy relatives.

"I'm not really a rock star. I like acoustic stuff," Aiden corrected.

"Even better. I love indie music," Laura said.

"No you don't. You like Ke$ha. That's like, the farthest thing from indie," Kara pointed out. Laura sent a glare at her for blowing her cover.

"Well, although Julliard is an excellent school, it's still only a performing arts school. The music business is a tricky and unreliable one. What if you can't make it big? What else will you do?" Uncle John asked, interrupting the unnecessary banter.

"Well, music isn't the only thing they do over there. They've got programs for audio engineering and other things of that nature," Aiden said. "I happen to be pretty good at that stuff, which is why that was one of the programs I'm enrolled in, in addition to my music," he added. I raised my eyebrows and looked at him. I had no idea he was into sound engineering. I guess he was more intelligent than I gave him credit for.

"It's still performing arts," Uncle John said.

"No, technically, it's engineering. And I bet you value engineers, Mr. Dubois," Aiden replied smoothly. If I was the same girl I had been a few months ago, I would have smirked broadly at this comment. But my lips seemed unable to form any sort of smile, so I internally smirked.

"I--well--I--" Uncle John stuttered.

"Well, good luck, I guess. Engineers are still secondary to doctors and lawyers. That's what all of my children are doing," Aunt Meredith said.

"Umm...what am I? Invisible? I'm doing my doctorate in Psychology, Mom," Kara said, giving her mother an annoyed look. Sometimes, or rather, very rarely, I liked that my cousins were such enormous bitches. Because occasionally, they would put my aunt and uncle in place, something I only wished I could do.

"Yes, but you're getting your doctorate, sweetie. That's what I meant. A PhD," Aunt Meredith replied, her lips pursed in a fake smile. I knew she was silently telling her daughter to shut up.

"Where are you going to study, Renee?" Laura said, a devilish grin on her face as all eyes fell on me. I swallowed.

The truth was, I had no idea. I had applied to a few places just to apply, but I had no idea if I even wanted to go to college next year. I had every intention to find a job after graduating and moving out with Mikey. I would then work for a year and then attend college, using the money my parents left behind and the money that I would make in the year. I really had no intention of living my relatives forever, especially because I couldn't stand any of them.

I couldn't deal with their criticism, not like Aiden could at least. Because in reality, what I wanted to do was music. I had virtually no other interest. I liked English and Art, but I had no idea what I could do with those. I wasn't great at art, so that was a no. I loved English, but really the only option I had was to teach. And if that's what I wanted to do, I could do that at any school. I didn't need to get into a big, fancy school like Harvard. I was fine with a public state institution.

But I knew that my relatives would mock me forever for this. And I couldn't handle that. But more importantly, Mikey needed a stable home to live in and I couldn't guarantee that I would be able to take care of him if we moved out. So I was left with a decision: tell them the truth or lie.

"I don't know yet. I only just sent in my applications," I responded, feeling my cheeks burn with the attention that was on me.

"I bet you've been too preoccupied writing in your stupid journal to think about applying to college," Laura cackled. I glared at her, feeling my heart race all of a sudden. The color drained from my face and I could feel Aiden's eyes on me. Of course he knew which journal she was talking about. He lived with me at school. He had seen it himself.

But so had Laura. And she had actually read it.

When my parents first died, I used to go to the graveyard almost everyday to talk and write letters to them. One day, as I drove out to the graveyard, Laura followed me in her car. As I sat, writing my letter, I hadn't noticed her walking up behind me. She had been reading over my shoulder and I had begun crying as I wrote. Then she began laughing.

She snatched my notebook from my hands and began reading through the other letters, mocking me for being so stupid for writing letters to my dead parents. She made fun of me all the time now, calling me crazy and delusional. She would tell me time and time again to check into a mental institute because I wasn't right in the head.

But she had no idea of the pain I was going through. Writing to them was my only outlet. I had no one else to talk to. I had no other way of relieving my grieving heart of its torture.

And right now, I couldn't let Laura spill my secret. Not to Aiden. Not now. Not after I worked so hard to keep it from. I had to stop her before it was too late.

"Shut up, bitch," I said viciously. Just as I hoped, I earned a glare from my aunt and uncle.

"What the hell did you just say to me, you dirty skank?!" Laura shrieked, glaring at me from the table.

"Oh, I'm not the dirty skank here, you whore," I replied back. I thanked God that Mikey and Nick had already finished their food and had gone up to their room. I wouldn't dare use the language I was using in front of them.

"RENEE AND LAURA! GO UP TO YOUR ROOMS, NOW!" Aunt Meredith screamed, her expression livid as she glanced back from Laura to me. Laura sent a death glare at me, as did Kara. Brandon was busy texting under the table. I let out a sigh of relief and pushed my chair back, standing up.

That was a close one.

_____________________________________________________________________________

A/N: It's a little shorter than usual, but I think more than enough happened in this chapter.

I see the climax of this story coming up soon. And soon after that, the ending will come. I'll give it 5-7 more parts before the end. If you're lucky, I might even end it within the next few days, but I won't rush it. I wanted to finish at least one of my current stories before finals started. Because I know once December rolls around, I'm going to be in full study mode.

Trinity's going to take a while to end. I've still got a LOT I need to write about for that one. So this is the story I'm choosing to end soon.

Thanks to all of you that have been voting and showing support for this story! It means a lot to me!

So please, comment and vote again!!!

XOXO