It was almost summer. Once summer started, your dad was much more relaxed than during school time. That meant you might be able to actually leave the house to do more than go to work.

You'd seen JJ a few times on the way to or from work, but it wasn't more than a passing glance. When he drove past you with the rest of his pogue friends or when you looked out the window of your work to see him zooming down the marsh on John B's boat. You really tried not to think of him, tried not to feel his lips against your neck, but between the mindless monotony of work, the hours of endless school, and the long and restless nights, sometimes it felt like there was nothing else to think about.

Before JJ swept into your life like a tidal wave, your mind went into autopilot as you went about your day. You could just do your tasks without thinking, but now it seemed that all you could do was think. A part of you wondered if he was intentionally avoiding you. He did say he had a habit of pushing people away.

The other part of you knew that part of you was an idiot because the only time you weren't at home was when you were at work and the restaurant you worked at wasn't a place JJ was likely to visit. Besides, you never told him where you worked. You were being paranoid, you told yourself.

You also tried to tell yourself that it didn't matter if JJ was intentionally ignoring you because there was no way Dad would ever, in a million years, let you so much as hang out with someone like JJ. Your dad wanted you to hang with people like Rafe, which you very plainly told him was never going to happen. Still, since your dad had every intention of making your life a living hell, he invited the Camerons over to your house one day.

You might have screamed when he told you.

He told you to dress your best and you almost threw on a hoodie and sweatpants, even if it was getting hotter with every day. Sweating for hours would have been worth it if Dad would never invite the Camerons over again. Unfortunately, Dad and Ward Cameron worked together, Kid had a crush on Wheezie, and you actually liked Sarah, so you decided to at least brush your hair and do everyone the decency of wearing something other than sweat pants.

You came downstairs in a summer dress that fell just above your knees. When you looked in the mirror and realized that spaghetti straps probably weren't the best formal attire, you threw a t-shirt on underneath and hoped it was good enough to get out of a beating tonight.

You helped your dad make dinner (mostly with the things that didn't require cooking). Kid set the table and for a moment, it almost felt like you were apart of a normal family. Your dad had been especially nice since he and Kid came back from the mainland, which was surprising. You were hoping to stay on his good side so you could maybe ask to go out sometimes during the summertime. But she would have to wait and see how dinner went.

You plastered on a smile when the Camerons first walked in the door. You gave Sarah and Wheezie hugs and shook Rafe's hand amicably, smiling despite how hard he squeezed your hand. You gave Rose a hug as well and Ward planted a kiss on top of your head. Ward was a pretty cool guy and, as far as you were concerned, a pretty good dad. Sometimes you wished he was your own father, that way, you wouldn't wake up in fear every morning. But, that was life.

Your two families joined at dinner, which went pretty well, until the second course.

"Rafe my boy, is that a bruise under your eye?" Your dad asked. You froze halfway through spooning some garlic mashed potatoes into your mouth.

"Oh, yes," Rafe said after clearing his throat.

"Whatever happened?" You wished your dad would stop asking questions. Still, you tried to look engaged in the conversation as to not give yourself away.

"You should ask your daughter about that," Rafe said. Shit.

"Elma?" All eyes turned to you and you plastered a concerned smile onto your face.

"I don't know what you're talking about," you said, giving your head a little shake. You saw Wheezie raise her eyebrows and hide a smile behind a roll of bread.

"You don't remember socking me in the face?" Rafe ground out through his teeth, his knuckles turning white as he clenched the knife in his hand.

"No, I don't."

"Elma, what is this about?"

"Your daughter, sir, attacked me the other night at a-"

If Rafe said anything about a party, you knew you were never getting out of this house until your dad died. So you switched up your lie.

"Oh right," you said with a sickly sweet smile. "I remember now. I hit you after you insulted my mother."

Your dad's confused demeanor switched suddenly. You could feel the air in the room turn like the winds during a storm. Mentioning your mother was one way to win your father over. Yes, she had abandoned you all, but your father still loved her and she was still perfect in his eyes. How that worked, you weren't entirely sure, but you sure as hell knew how to manipulate it.

"Rafe!" Ward barked.

"What? No!" The poor boy was obviously confused as to how the table got turned on him so quickly.

To up the ante, you sniffled, refusing to let yourself blink so tears would brim at the bottom of your eyes.

"He called mom a...a...oh, I don't want to say it," you said with a quiet sigh.

"You're not falling for this!" Rafe shouted.

"Rafe, shut up!"

"What did he say, sweetie?" Rose asked, reaching out to sympathetically take your hand.

"He called her a...." You lowered your voice. "A slut."

Your dad stood suddenly.

"Gerald," Ward said, standing as well and putting a hand out. "I don't think Rafe meant it and whatever he said, clearly Elma here made him pay for it."

Your dad was smoldering. Rage made his hands shake by his sides and for once, that rage wasn't tunneled at you. Sarah elbowed you lightly and when you looked at her, you could almost see a smile on her face as Rose yelled at Rafe and Ward tried to talk your dad down from killing him then and there.

"Ah, chaos," Wheezie mused, chewing on another piece of bread. Kid's cheeks reddened.

The arguing died down eventually and they all went back to eating peacefully. Rafe glared at you the entire rest of night and every time you met his gaze, you simply raised an eyebrow. By the time dinner was over, everyone was exhausted and had no brain capacity to play games as they usually did. As the hostess, you walked the Camerons to the door as your dad and Kid started to clean up the dining room.

As before, you hugged the girls and Rose as they left. Sarah whispered an invite to a party in your ear as she hugged you, which you were glad for. 'Going over to Sarah's' was always a good excuse to get out of the house. Your dad almost always let you go. Ward said nothing but put a parting hand on your shoulder. Instead of just walking by like he should have, Rafe grabbed your wrist and pulled you in close, trying to emulate a hug.

"Never throw me under the bus again," he hissed in your ear.

"Then don't pick fights you can't win," you whispered right back. He let go of you with a huff and stormed out the door. You shut it behind him, resisting the urge to slam it.

"What was that about?" Your dad asked, leaning against the wall. You smiled sweetly.

"Olive branch," was all you said. He nodded slowly.

"I love you for defending your mother-" The words stung and caused your smile to falter for a moment. "But you shouldn't go around punching people, especially my partners' son."

"I understand, Daddy," you said, walking over to him. Kiss ass? You bet. Anything to get what you wanted and all you wanted was to get out of this house. He put an arm around you and kissed your forehead, making you want to vomit.

"Why don't you go to bed? Bradford and I can finish up down here," he said. You glanced over to Kid, who was grinning like an idiot. He must have said 'bye' to Wheezie before she left. The little kid's smile forced your fake one into something almost real. You nodded before stepping away from your dad.

"Hey, kiddo?" Your heart exploded at the nickname, pulse racing. You hated it when he called you that because it felt like something a real dad would call the daughter that he actually cared for. It felt too close to love to make you comfortable. You turned slowly to look at him again. "I love you, you know that?"

You nodded again, but your fingers went for the scar on your hand. He said he loved you, but you knew he didn't. Maybe he defended you from Rafe tonight, but tomorrow he might bash your head into the wall.

You walked to your room like a slug, barely picking your feet off the ground. As soon as the door was closed, you tore the dress off, standing in just the t-shirt. Pulling off the dress was like taking off a weight and tossing it on the floor was like breathing fresh air. You weren't ready to sleep, no, there was too much rattling around in your head to sleep. Instead, you turned the radio on in your room, keeping it at just the right volume where your dad wouldn't come in, but just loud enough to drown out your thoughts.

The first song got you out of your funk. The second one got you moving your hips. By the third, you were jumping around, screaming the words silently into your hairbrush. You weren't a dancer, never had been, but when you let the music guide you, it didn't matter. The beat thrummed through you, moving your body as it pleased.

You were deep in a song when you heard a tap at your window. It startled you out of the flow, but when you looked outside the window and saw no one, you were tempted to start dancing again. The tap came again so you turned the music down and watched the window carefully. The third tap came from a rock that you saw, so you walked over to your window and opened it, peeking your head out.

"Hello?" You whispered into the night. Was hello the best you could think of? Now you were surely going to get ax murdered by whoever, or whatever, was throwing rocks at your window. You scowled into the night and were about to turn back inside when a familiar face popped up onto the roof below your window.

"Maybank?" You said his name louder than you should have, but he was the last person you expected to throw rocks at your window at ten o'clock at night.

"Hey," he said with a lopsided grin.

"Get in here," you said, grabbing him by the shirt and pulling him inside. You shut the window and turned around to scold him for being so stupid but before you could say anything, his hands were on your cheeks, his lips against yours.

And once again, you melted away. The riptide, the salty waves, the sand, the ice cold water. Your stomach rolled, your lungs screaming for breath, but you didn't pull away. It was the sound of creaking floorboards outside your room that finally broke you away from him. Your eyes went straight for the door. When no more sounds came, you finally relaxed, sitting on your bed with a sigh.

"What are you doing here?" You asked him. JJ jumped backward onto your bed, leaning back and putting his hands behind his head.

"I wanted to see you."

"And if my dad finds you?"

JJ sat up and placed a kiss against your shoulder. You sighed to cover a shudder.

"I'm very quiet," he whispered against your skin.

"Maybank-"

"What happened to calling me by my first name?" He asked with a knowing smile.

"I've never called you JJ," you said, crossing your arms in defiance. You knew perfectly well you had, but it was a moment of weakness and it wasn't going to happen again.

"You did," he said, kissing your neck. "When I-"

You stood, stepping away from him.

"You don't get to break into my room and start making me feel all-" You waved her hands in the air as if that explained what you were feeling. Leaning against his hands, JJ tilted his head to the side with a goofy smile on his face.

"Don't look at me like that," you said, crossing your arms again.

"Like what?"

"Like I'm-" Like I'm someone you actually care about.

You were both quiet, soaking each other in, waiting for the other to make the next move. The song on the radio changed.

"I like this song," JJ said, jumping up from the bed. He reached out to take your hands, but you refused. "C'mon. I saw you dancing just now. I know you can."

"I only dance when I'm drunk or when no one's watching," you said. "At least when I think no one's watching."

JJ grinned at you, stepping forward to the beat. It took all of your strength not to laugh or even smile at the way he moved. You knew that he was just trying to make you break, but you weren't about to give in. He took your hands in his and started to move to the beat, dancing like a middle school boy. You pursed your lips to keep from laughing.

"I would be better if you were leading," he said, laughing at himself.

"Oh no," you said, a smile betraying you. "You're doing wonderfully."

He ran one of his hands up your arm until it was cradling your neck. You tried to move away by turning your head, but you didn't really want to move away from him.

Who needed alcohol when you had JJ Maybank to intoxicate you?

"What are you doing here?" You asked him again.

"I told you." His thumb brushed against your jaw. "I wanted to see you."

"Why?" You asked him. "I thought you ran away from people so you didn't hurt them?"

"Couldn't stay away," he said, his lips getting steadily closer to yours. You should move away, should put as much distance between you and him as you could. If he was the boy who ran to protect others, you were the girl who ran to protect yourself. Survival was the key. If weren't around, who would protect Kid? If you weren't around, who would Dad turn his anger toward? And if you didn't get away from JJ now, how fast were you going to fall?

"Fuck you," you whispered before moving forward the slightest bit that it took for your lips to meet his.

He didn't taste like alcohol this time. You knew he had gone surfing today because he was much saltier than before. You lifted your hands, knocking his backward hat off of his head so you could run your fingers through his hair. For a boy who always smelled like the sea, his hair was soft. The harder you pressed yourself against him, the harder he held onto you. He curled his fingers around your waist and you knew that it would leave marks, but you didn't care. His other hand rested against your collarbone, circling around the base of your neck like a loose necklace.

When you parted for air, you threw your head back, gasping, but JJ didn't stop. He nipped at your chin and jaw with his teeth and shit it felt like you were going to explode from the inside out. The ocean roared in your ears, your gut, your heart. You pushed him backward, putting your mouth on his once again. You led him backward until he hit the bed and the two of you toppled over. Somewhere between standing and falling, JJ flipped you around so when your back hit the bed, you were underneath him.

"You are okay?" He asked you. Instead of responding, you grabbed a fistful of his shirt and pulled him closer. You could feel his smile pressed against your lips and your stomach flipped in a thousand different directions. One of JJ's hands rested on your knee as he settled between your legs. For half a moment, you felt a twinge of fear enter your system. But when you felt JJ's teeth graze against your lower lip, the fear went away, replaced by the storm that raged every time he touched you.

Your mind was empty when JJ was kissing you. It was like everything else melted away and it was just him. The weight of his body wasn't like the heaviness of pain or worry or anxiety or fear. He was a welcomed pressure, keeping you grounded, together. Everywhere his skin touched yours was a pressure point, relaxing but keeping you alive.

The mood once against shifted when JJ started to slide his hand up your leg. As soon as his hand started to move, it was the only thing you could feel. You tried to push past it, tried to ignore it, tried to fall back into the current, but you couldn't. His hand inching its way farther up your leg was the only thing on your mind as you attempted to pretend that it didn't bother you. You had to get over your aversion to sex eventually, right? Why not now?

You barely realized when JJ pulled away. He hovered just above you, but you wouldn't meet his eyes, mind still on his hand. You just needed to suck it up, to push through. It wasn't until he moved his hand from your thigh that you really realized what happened. You turned your head to meet his eyes, but could only handle it for a second. The same shame that you felt when you had first told him weeks ago burned within you once again.

It ate away at you, from the inside. You were damaged goods, you knew that. But all you wanted was to be like every other girl your age who could happily have sex with as many people as they wanted without being filled with crippling anxiety.

You rolled out from underneath JJ, who moved his arm to let you go with a sigh.

"I'm sorry," you said, sitting on the edge of your bed with his back to him.

"Not your fault," he said. "I shouldn't have pushed."

You breathed out heavily, pressing your hands against your eyes. Your legs bounced beneath you, trying to shake out the anxiety. A portion of you wanted JJ to just leave so you knew that he wasn't looking at you anymore. You weren't sure you could bear it any longer. But he didn't leave. You felt the bed dip underneath him as he moved across the bed to sit next to you.

"I'm sorry," you said again.

"Don't worry about it." You glanced at him and he was grinning like nothing happened. "I can take care of myself."

You scoffed and your lips twitched upward. Even in the middle of wanting to die of shame, he still somehow managed to make you smile.

"You're disgusting," you said, giving a quiet laugh. JJ echoed your laugh, casting his eyes to the ground.

"Thank you for understanding," you said, sucking in a breath in hopes of steadying yourself. JJ planted a quick kiss on your shoulder before flopping back onto the bed. You laid back beside him with a sigh.

"What's your favorite color?" You asked him when you felt the silence had gone on for too long. JJ hummed, glancing down at you. He rolled his head to the side and narrowed his eyes. You copied the movement, mocking his scowl.

"My favorite color is...whatever color your eyes are."

You let out a laugh and rolled your eyes.

"I'm serious, Maybank!" You said, your smile sticking. When you looked at him again, you found that he hadn't looked away. "What's your favorite color?"

JJ pursed his lips and sighed.

"I've never thought about it?"

"Never thought about your favorite color?"

"No, never seemed important."

"Well," you said, looking up at the ceiling. "What's your favorite thing in the whole world?"

"Weed, probably," JJ said. You looked at him with a raised eyebrow and tapped his shoulder with his fist. "Okay, jeez, something else. I like surfing and hanging out with the Pogues, I guess."

"So the ocean!" You said with a smile. "You like the ocean."

"Yeah, I guess."

"So, blue, like the ocean?"

"Maybe."

"Alright. Well, you think about your favorite color and get back to me," you said.

"Why?" he scoffed.

"Because you said it was never important, but it's important to me." JJ turned his head to the side to look at you again. He was silent for a moment, like he was thinking about what he was going to say next. There was a second when you thought he might say something, but then he looked back up at the ceiling.

"What's your favorite color?" he asked.

"I really like a good burgundy," you said, narrowing your eyes. "I mean, if you ever see my winter closet, you'll see just how much I love burgundy."

"I have way too many questions about that statement," JJ said, shaking his head.

"What do you mean?"

"First of all, I'm not sure burgundy is a color-"

"It's a shade of red."

"-Second of all, you have a winter closet?"

"According to my dad, a great way to make up for bruising me up is to buy me clothes. So, yeah, I have a winter closet."

"God, I hate kooks."

You wanted to ask him a thousand more questions about a hundred different things. Sure, kissing him was like nothing else you'd ever felt before, but just being able to sit there and talk to him, to ask him things, to learn about him, was something else entirely. The only person you ever had was Kid and the last thing you wanted to do was let him see the worst things that happened between you and your Dad. You'd had two civil conversations with JJ and already he knew more about you than anyone else. You wanted nothing more than to spend the entire night talking to him.

Unfortunately, your nosey father had other plans.

You heard his footsteps and instantly shot upward.

"What is it?" JJ asked.

"You need to go," you said.

"I think we've been here before," JJ said, refusing to sit up.

"Yes, we have. Come on, let's get you out the window." You ran toward the window and threw it open, only to find that JJ was still laying on your bed. "Maybank, get up!"

"I don't want to."

"JJ, if my dad finds you in here, we're both dead." He looked up at her, tilting his head backward. You were breathing heavily, listening to the sound of your dad's footfalls grow closer. Your heart pounded in your chest.

You were smarter than this, you had to be smarter than this. Letting JJ in here was a terrible mistake. After spending almost your entire life trying to diffuse every situation before it began, you let your guard down for one stupid boy and now this stupid boy wasn't getting out of your room and you were going to pay for it.

Just as your dad was right outside the door and JJ still hadn't moved, your pounding heart stopped. The doorknob was turning. You had to think of something.

Get yourself out of this, you thought to yourself. You can get yourself out of this.

"Don't come in!" You called out. The doorknob stopped turning. JJ sat up, eyeing you carefully with a raised eyebrow.

"Honey?" Your dad said from outside the door. "Are you alright?"

You met JJ's gaze, your own eyes wide. Your heart started thumping again, beating so hard you were sure JJ could see it about to pound its way out of your chest. He gave you a short nod and you breathed in deeply.

"Yeah, Dad. I, uh, I started my period." JJ dropped his head into his palms. You glared at him, sneering your teeth as his quiet laughter got a little bit too loud.

"Oh, um." You heard the discomfort in your dad's voice and he let out a cough. "Do you need any help?"

"No, Dad, I'm okay. I can handle it," you said. "But thank you."

"Just let me know if you need anything," he said. "I came over to ask if you could turn your music down a little bit."

You nodded.

"Yeah, sure," you said. JJ reached over and twisted the knob on the radio, turning the music down.

"Thanks, sweetheart," your dad said. "Sleep well."

"Night, Dad."

You didn't take a steady breath until the footsteps were silent. Once your dad was safe in his room, you turned to JJ with smoldering eyes.

"Get out of my room, JJ."

"You called me JJ again."

"Shut up!" You snapped. "Listen to me, and you listen good. If my dad ever found out you were here, even if he didn't know we were just...whatever. If he knew you were here, you would never see me again because I would be dead, do you understand that?"

"He won't know," JJ said with a shrug.

"You're so frustrating!"

"Ellie...." He stood and walked over to you, but you stepped back away from him, your eyes still narrowed.

"All my life, I've done everything I can to stay alive, to just live to the next day," you said. "And you walk in and fuck it all up. I can't...I just want to survive, JJ. And I can't do that if you're constantly putting all of that at risk."

"What's the point of staying alive if you're not doing anything with that life?"

You sighed, pinching the bridge of your nose.

"What do you mean?"

JJ took another step toward you and this time, you didn't step away.

"You can't just survive and not live a little every now and again."

You shut your eyes, hands shaking as you put them over your cheeks to try and steady your trembling jaw.

"Maybe you can smoke and drink and hook up with girls and speed around in your boat with your friends and call that living, but that isn't a liberty that I have." You let out a shaky breath, hands falling to your sides. JJ kept his gaze on the ground, refusing to look at you. "Look, we can't do this here. Just...I'll see you around."

JJ didn't say anything. He nodded slowly, snatching his hat off the ground and heading off toward the open window. You pressed your lips together into a thin line, wrapping your arms around your stomach.

"There's a party at the Cameron's that we're hijacking this Friday," he said as he climbed out the window. "See you there?"

You nodded.

"Yeah."

You watched as he clambered down from your roof. He ran across your lawn and you didn't close the window until he was long out of sight.

You went to work the next morning, your eyes stinging and mind blurry. Sleeping after JJ left was nearly impossible. It didn't matter how little sleep you got, you needed to work.

It wasn't like you needed money to survive. Your dad paid for food and shelter and a data plan, but if Kid wanted anything other than that and clothes, it usually came from you. If you wanted a new pair of shoes or a tattoo, the money came from your bank account.

All the rest of your money went to your savings, with which you would eventually buy a lawyer after you turned 18 to win custody of Kid, buy a house somewhere, and live far, far away from your dad. You needed to keep this job, maybe even find another one for over the summer, so you could get yourself and your kid brother to a safe home.

This was what you reminded yourself as you drove to work in the truck you begged your dad for last year. There was a reason you never got yourself tangled up in the whole "relationship" mess. It was more than often confusing and took too much brainpower, brainpower you needed to use to keep yourself out of trouble. You couldn't risk your eyes straying from the road you were on, not even for someone like JJ.

As soon as his name popped into your head, it was like the universe decided to test you, to make sure that you really could keep your eyes on the road without succumbing to temptation. Driving to work, this test was literal.

With your windows down, you heard his laugh first. You sniffled and kept your eyes fixed on the road. Focus was key. Keep your eyes on the road, keep your goals ahead of you. You had a plan and no one, not even JJ Maybank, could throw a wrench in it.

But then you glanced out the window and wished you had listened to the universe when it told you to keep your eyes forward.

JJ was standing and talking to someone, carrying his usual smile. You meant to look away before you saw who it was that he was talking to, but you didn't. There was a girl sitting on the railing in front of one of the stores. JJ was standing in between her legs, his hands on her knees. Your heart skipped and you tried to look away again but then the girl, Peeler you thought her name might have been, put her hands on his face and pulled him closer to her. You looked back at the road before you had to see her kiss him.

Keeping your mind off of it at work was like trying to keep seagulls away from baby sea turtles. Despite the fact that, as a Greeter, you spent your entire first shift on Thursdays talking to people, you still somehow managed to spend almost every hour thinking about it. You tried to convince yourself that it didn't matter. It wasn't like you or JJ were dating or anything. Making out a couple of times didn't constitute a relationship in any stretch of the term, so you had no claim on him. You had no place to be upset.

Still, you were.

There was only an hour left in your first shift and an hour after that when your second shift started. Thursdays were always long, but mentally complaining about a boy didn't make it any shorter. You really just wanted the day to be over so you could just go home and crash. You took Fridays off of work to do school and recover from working for 16 hours. You just had to get through the rest of this day and that would be that.

By the time both of your shifts were done, you had already planned out a million ways to verbally beat JJ to death. You spent the entirety of your second shift in the back room washing dishes. Naturally, that meant, not only were you exhausted, but you were sweaty, your hair was frizzy, and your fingers were like prunes. And you wanted to tear someone's head off.

Your drive home was just like any other. You wanted nothing more than to shower and drop dead into your bed.

"Dad? I'm home!" You called as you shut the door behind you. As soon as you stepped inside, you knew something was wrong. Kid was sitting on the stairs, sniffling, and banging sounds were coming from the kitchen.

"Hey," you said, scowling as you walked over to your brother. "Kid, what's wrong?"

When he lifted his face from his hands, you saw the ring of a bruise around his eye and blood began to boil in your system. You straightened your spine, clenching your jaw to keep your rage inside.

"Dad...he-"

You didn't have to hear anything else before you booked it for the kitchen.

"El, wait!" You ignored Kid as he tried to stop you. But nothing was going to stop your warpath, not today.

You turned into the kitchen, dropping your bag of clothes on the floor.

"Dad, what the fuck?"

Your dad was frantically cleaning dishes, his hands shaking.

"Don't talk to me like that, young lady," he said, not looking up at you.

"What did you do to Kid?" You asked, trying to keep your voice steady and calm. Right now, you didn't really care about escalating. Whenever Dad hit you, you had few issues getting over it. But any time he laid even a finger on your brother, you could never let it go.

"He gave me mouth."

"So you punched him?"

If you hadn't shouted, you may have gotten away with the potty mouth and talking back, but of course, you weren't getting away that easy tonight.

Your dad spun around quickly, throwing the pot he was holding straight at you. You barely had time to dodge it before the pot hit you square in the face. It ding'd off of your shoulder, but adrenaline dulled the pain for a moment.

"You don't get to tell me how to parent my kids," he seethed, marching up to you and putting a finger in your face.

"Smacking Kid around isn't parenting, Dad."

He shoved you backward and you tripped over one of the chairs, knocking your head against the leg of the table. The sting was instant. You rolled over, squeezing your eyes shut.

"Oh, sweetheart, I'm sorry," your dad said, making a move to help you up. You put your hand out so he wouldn't come any closer. He took a step back.

"El!" You heard Kid cry from the entryway. You shook your head, trying to clear your tremoring mind. You pushed yourself off the floor, using the table to get you on your feet. Tears gathered in your eyes, either from the physical pain in your shoulder and head or from the fact that your dad just shoved you to the floor. Your dad stood back, hands in the air.

"El...."

"Kid, stay back," you said, keeping your eye on your dad. You slid your hand off of the table. "I'm taking Kid upstairs."

Your dad said nothing.

"We're going upstairs and you're not going to follow us," you said. Slowly, your dad nodded, stepping back. You shuffled over to Kid and put an arm around him, one part herding him away and one part using him to lean on.

"Are you okay?" Kid asked, tears still in his eyes. You nodded at him and tried to smile.

"C'mon. You're sleeping in my bed tonight."

You woke up the next morning with a headache that felt like a hangover. Kid was curled up on your bed still, the sun shining through the window. When you looked over at the clock, you were appalled to see that it was a quarter past 8. Kid was late for school.

"Shit."

You rolled out of your chair, every bone in your body tight and cracking. Your shoulder ached and there was a dull pain in the back of your head.

"Hey, Kid," you whispered, shaking your brother's arm gently. "You gotta go to school."

Kid groaned, rolling over onto his back. You smiled down at him as he blinked his eyes a few times.

"What time is it?"

"Little after 8."

"I'm already late. I'll ditch today."

"You're not a pogue, Kid. You have to go to school."

Kid grumbled and rolled out of your bed.

"You stink," he said, wrinkling his nose.

"I didn't get to take my shower last night," you replied, arms crossed and a little smile on your lips. You looked down at his face, saw the outline of the bruise again. You tried to swallow the anger that bubbled inside you again at the thought of it. "Let's go, Kid."

Thirty minutes later, you were outside of Kid's school.

"Thanks, El," he said, hopping out of the car.

"Have a good day. I'll see you later," you called after him. With a smile and a wave, he disappeared inside the school building.

The drive back home was peaceful. The sun was out, a breeze blowing through your car windows. The constant thrum of pain in your shoulder kept your mind clear, your eyes set on the road. You pulled up to a stoplight, closing your eyes, letting the sun warm your skin.

"Hey, Ellie!"

Your eyes shot open and you turned the voice. JJ ran over to you, Pope Heyward by his side. Your heart started to pound. Before he and his friend could get any closer, the light turned green and you stepped on the gas. "Ellie?"

Your car sputtered forward before taking off, leaving JJ and Pope in a trail of dust.

***

Howdy ho! I hope all things are going well for you guys. I really hope that you are doing amazing this wonderful day, and if you're not, please feel free to shoot me a message. I want you to know that I'm here for you, no matter what. 

Stay safe, stay healthy, stay groovy!