A/N: Uploading the last chapter nearly had me in tears because it wouldn't work and I don't know how to use the stupid new Wattpad layout and basically I had to rewrite the last bit 7 times and it got shorter and worse each time so I'm sorry but I couldn't handle it and I was way too frustrated to handle it. Anyway. Rant over. Chapter begins. And let's hope this time it uploads all of it.

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I was standing against the wall by the front door, tapping my hands nervously against the plaster. Rylie was on her way to my house and I was internally freaking out. Well, externally freaking out too.

After school I had put on my favourite punny t-shirt about homonyms and a my nicest pair of black sweats. I had tried to read a book before to calm my nerves but failed, so I had my reading glasses pushed to the top of my head.

And then there was that faint, hesitant knock on the door I'd been waiting for for the past ten minutes. I took a deep breath and lifted away from the wall, turning to the door and twisting the doorknob.

There she stood, looking so different and at the same time, no different. She wore her glasses which suited her perfectly and her hair was up differently than usual.

She was looking as nervous as I was minutes ago, but as soon as I saw her all my nerves vanished. She was an instant calm.

"T-this was no-ot what I was expecting," I said, mentally cursing for my stutter. I suppose I still had some residual nerves somewhere or else I would be speaking smoothly.

"How come you're stuttering?" She asked, frowning. "You don't stutter much really."

I scratched the back of my neck and bit my lip. "I-I only really s-stutter when I'm nerv-vous, now."

Her lips lifted into a small smile. "And the glasses?" She asked, walking ahead of me. I closed the door and followed her up the stairs.

"Only for r-reading." Dammit. Breathe, Max, just breathe. And stop fucking stuttering, I thought.

"Oh," was all she said, and then she ascended the ladder to the attic. It was a bit of a mess but she didn't seem to notice, thankfully. We sat down at either end of the couch and looked at each other.

"Uh, how about QnA?" Rylie suggested. It was a great idea, especially because we were supposed to be our real selves and what not. It was much harder than I thought.

We asked mundane questions back and forth until it came to the one I should have been more prepared for.

"Why do you have your mask?"

I didn't want to answer that question but I knew I needed to. Rylie had told me all about her past with her mother so it was only fair I tell her about the devil in my life.

I was fidgeting, trying to figure out how to put it without scaring her. And without scaring myself. She noticed my hesitation and said, "You don't have to say if you don't-"

"No," I said, cutting her off before she could give me an out. "I should say this."

I took a few more deep breaths, looking down at my hands. "Okay," I paused to take another breath. "My Dad was a really great person," I started, although the words felt like poison on my tongue, even if it was the truth. "Until I turned ten, which is when he started drinking. He had a serious problem. At the start, none of us really noticed. But then. Then he came home one night, after an evening at the pub."

The visual in my head was so real, I didn't even realise I was telling the story anymore rather than reliving it. Dad coming home drunk, with Dustin and I sitting on the porch steps waiting for him to come home. We were too young and the girls and Mum had disappeared somewhere.

He had stumbled past us, the smell of alcohol clinging to the air around him. It was disgusting, but Dustin and I, we didn't notice. We ran to give him a hug and then.

Well, that's when he hit us for the first time.

"As the drinking got worse, so did the hits. We got all of it because we wouldn't let him hit Hazel and Hayley."

There he was in my mind, staggering towards the girls. Hazel was only young then, but it didn't seem to matter to the man I called my father. Dustin and I couldn't let him do that, so we told them to go to their rooms.

And one night, the last time I saw him, he had come home late with a baseball bat and had swung. I could see the baseball bat inches from my face again so I jumped, squeezing my eyes shut like I had that night. "The only thing that stopped the bat was his brother, my uncle, who saw what was happening and stopped the bat, taking my dad out of the house and never letting him back in."

I didn't realise I was staring at Rylie until my eyes came back into focus. Her eyes were watering and I knew mine were too, and then she did the only thing she could and hugged me. It was the type of hug that you need in times like those, ones that make you believe everything is alright.

She hung around that night. After a while she moved back to her spot on the couch and we chatted about more light hearted things until dinner was ready. Then we had dinner and after, she taught the twins how to play twinkle twinkle little star on the piano.

"Goodnight," she said, hugging me. I couldn't help the smile that lit up my face as I hugged her back.

"Night Ry," I said quietly, before kissing her hair and letting her go. I didn't care if I was being obvious about my feelings towards her, I didn't care if she knew. I just cared about her and it was getting increasingly difficult to hide that.

"See you tomorrow," she called over her shoulder as she walked back to her car. I was grinning like a moron while she was probably just looking normal and not super-happy.

I waited until her car's lights disappeared from view before I retreated into the house. Mum and Hazel were still at Hazel's piano recital and I was unsurprised to find the twins still trying to play twinkle twinkle little star. They were four year olds, I swear.

I leaned against the doorframe and watched them muck around, the sounds reverberating around the room sounding nothing like what they were trying to accomplish.

"You guys are so great at that," I said, surprising the both of them. "Seriously, well done."

They turn to me with their eyebrows raised, mimicking each other's expressions.

"So, you and Rylie, hey?" Hayley asked, her lips twitching into a smirk.

"Finally got together, huh?" Dustin's green eyes lit up with mischief. I didn't get annoyed at either of them though, I kept my calm which was unusual.

"No, we're just friends."

"Bullshit," they say simultaneously.

"I'm serious."

"Well you need to do something about that then, little brother. Haven't I taught you anything?" Dustin asks, crossing his arms to emphasise his tattoo sleeve.

"Not at all," I teased, matching his stance. "But I don't know. I might do something, I just have to wait and see if she likes me, I guess."

They both look at me dumbfounded, mouths hanging agape and eyes wide. "You're kidding me, right?" That was Hayley.

I shook my head, making them realise I was being dead serious. I didn't understand why they were so surprised.

"Fuck man, I thought you knew," Dustin frowned, turning to Hayley.

"Yeah. A week or two ago she kinda said that she liked you. I just figured you knew."

For a minute I'm filled with hope and excitement but then I stop myself, rolling my eyes. "Yeah right. Har har very funny guys." It was just like them to play a trick on me like this.

"We're not kidding." Dustin's tone was serious and if it gets to the point where I know Dustin is serious then it's serious.

"Wait, what?"

"God, you're so thick," Hayley smirked, rolling her eyes. "Listen to me. Rylie likes you."

I was speechless, my brain not functioning. And then it clicked and everything started working double time.

"Holy shit."