Janet gave us her friend Mary's address and number. We called and she told us to meet her at her house this evening. Since we still have a lot of time to kill, we decided to go out for lunch.

"Do you remember the diner we used to go to? They got some awesome new menus. You're gonna have a food-gasm, Ems!" Matt exclaims excitedly, staring into the road as he's driving.

I cringe when he said that. "A what now? I'm gonna pretend you just didn't say that."

"What? A food-gasm?" Matt turns his head to me. "Its like orgasm but you know with food because its too delicious." He turns his gaze back to the road.

"Ugh I think I just lost my appetite." I gag. "I don't think you're supposed to use food and orgasm in the same sentence." I shudder at the thought of it.

"Just you wait. You'll get what I mean." Matt smirks as he drives into the runway of the diner.

When I see the diner, nostalgia immediately hits me as memories of my childhood plays before my eyes. The diner still has the same cosy feeling to it. Its not fancy like those restaurants in New York but it still has that warm feeling. We take a seat closest to the window.

"Hi! What would you like to order?" A young girl, chewing a gum, comes over to us. When she sees Matt, her face widens into a smile. "Hey Matt! I didn't see you there. Where have you been for the past week? You didn't come for lunch." She says, her eyes sparkling as she talks to Matt, biting the top of her pencil.

I shake my head at the girl. She is so smitten with Matt, its kind of amusing to watch.

"Hi, I was in New York to visit my friend. This is Amelia." Matt turns his head to me. "Amelia this is Brie." He says turning to look at the girl.

"Hi nice to meet you." I smile at Brie. She just gives me a fake smile and turns to look at Matt again. Uh okay, if she thinks giving me attitude is going to get her anywhere with Matt, she's wrong.

I just roll my eyes at her. "Uh hello?" I wave my hand in front of her, cutting her from the flirting with Matt. "We're ready to order." I tell her.

"Fine. What do you want?" She rudely remarks.

I'm about to give her a piece of my mind when Matt cuts me off. "The usual, please. For both of us." He says, smiling at Brie.

Matt is always so nice to everyone, even to strangers. I swear, some day he's going to be in trouble because he's too nice. "She's so in love with you." I roll my eyes.

"What?" Matt chuckles. "Brie's just a kid."

"Oh trust me. She loves you. I can tell just by looking at her."

"But you can't tell when it comes to Lucas, can you?" Matt says.

"What?" I snap my head up to Matt.

"Ems, I'm not gonna say the words. But you know he cares about you right?" Matt thanked Brie, as she comes with our food in her hands.

I waited until Brie left our table before answering, "Matt he didn't even wanna hear me explain. I know for sure he can't stand me anymore." I purse my lips. "He hates me for lying to him." I tell Matt.

"Maybe he's just shocked at the time. I think maybe you should talk to him again." Matt defends Lucas.

I can't believe he's defending him. I know it was my fault for lying to him in the first place but he should've at least tried to listen to my side of the story first.

"I called him a hundred times already. He won't answer any of my calls. Plus why are you defending him anyway?" I say, starting to feel upset that Matt would defend Lucas in front of me.

"No Ems, I'm not defending anyone. Its because I care about you okay? I know you try to hide it but I can see that you're really torn about how things ended with Lucas." Matt calmly states.

I sigh, knowing that Matt's right. I hate to show my emotions when it comes to me. I'm not good at dealing with my emotions so I tuck them away, pretending to be okay in front of people. That's how its always been. If I were any good at displaying emotions, Matt would've found out about my abusive step mother a lot sooner.

"He doesn't wanna talk to me. What am I supposed to do?" I look away, thinking back to how Lucas told me to leave when I confessed to him. My heart aches just thinking about it.

"I'm sure he'll come around. Maybe he just need time." Matt tries to reassure me. I love him for being optimist but deep down I have a feeling Lucas won't ever forgive me. He has too much ego to see past my troubles. But I don't blame him.

After we finished our lunch, we head back to Matt's car. The ride to Mary's house is strangely silent. A lot is going on in my head right now, I'm worried whether Mary would be able to help us. I can't help but wonder what Lucas would be up to right now. Would he be in his office? Or is he still busy getting drunk?

"Ems I think we're here." Matt cuts me from my thoughts.

"Okay. Which one is it?" I ask, looking at the row of houses in the neighbourhood.

"The first one." Matt answers me, getting out of the car. I follow after him.

Matt rings the door bell, a few seconds tick by before the door opens, revealing a woman with strawberry blonde hair.

"Hi! How may I help you?" She asks before realizing who we are. "Oh you're Matt and Amelia, right? The one who called this morning?"

"Yes sorry for the trouble but we wanted to ask a few things." Matt says.

"No, its no trouble at all! I can't believe you're Janet's son. You look so handsome! Your mother and I used to have so much fun in high school." She coos.

"Yeah." Matt says, scratching his head, looking really uncomfortable.

"Oh where are my manners? Please come inside." Mary smiles at us, opening the door wide.

"Have a seat. I'll get you guys something to drink." She heads into the kitchen, coming out shortly after with a tray of drinks in her hands.

She sets the tray on the coffee table and sits down. "So what is this about?" She asks looking at the both of us.

"Its about Claire. Do you remember her? She used to go to the same high school as you and my mom." Matt asks.

"Yeah Janet said she used to be your neighbour." I added.

"Yes I remember her. But how do know her?" She looks at me, brows raised in confusion.

I look at Matt, silently asking him if I should tell her the truth. Matt gives me a nod, "She's my step mother." I finally say.

"Oh." Mary's mouth forms an O shape, nodding her head slowly.

"Can you tell me what she's like? Or what her family were like?" I ask her again, growing impatient by the minute.

Mary stays silent for a while, as if considering carefully what to say. "She was like any normal girl only she's a bit disturbed." She finally says.

"Disturbed?" Matt and I both ask at the same time.

"Yeah, her father was an alcoholic. Whenever he got drunk, he'd take out his anger on Claire. Poor girl got abused every single time his father came home drunk." Mary says remorsefully.

My eyes suddenly go wide when I heard Mary said that. Its now starting to make sense. Claire was abused as a child so she never learned about empathy. So that's why she did all those things to me, because she was a victim. I almost feel sorry for Claire when I heard this, the key word being almost. Even if she had been abused as a child, that's not a reason to abuse others.

My throat suddenly feels dry, I grab the juice in front of us and gulp it down. Matt looks speechless too. So I ask again, "How bad is it? I mean, did she ever got hurt badly?"

"Yeah sometimes she'd have bruises on her face. When any of us tries to help her, she'd just ignore us or tell us off. She never lets anyone in." Mary says, shaking her head. "That's why we were never able to help her."

"Didn't she have anyone else to help her?" Matt speaks up.

"No, she lived with her father. I heard that her mom and dad never got married. So there's no siblings or relatives to help her then."

I'm slowly taking in what I just heard. I never thought that she would be a victim of domestic abuse. "So then why didn't she finish senior year?" I ask.

"This one time, she was screaming for help. It was already late at night, so I woke my parents up. They rushed over to their house and saw her huddled in a corner. Her head was bleeding. Poor girl must've been so scared for her to scream help. I mean she never ever wanted anyone to help her. So my parents called the police immediately. They arrested Claire's dad for domestic violence. She was taken by social services the next morning." Mary breathes.

"Wow I can't believe she went through so much." I manage to finally say after a long pause.

"Yeah she's been through hell." Mary says silently.

"Thank you for telling us about Claire. We really needed this information." Matt thanked her and begins to stand up. "I think its time for us to go."

I follow Matt out the door, unable to say anything. I stay quiet on the ride back home.

"Ems what will you do now?" Matt finally speaks up.

That's the question that's been on my mind ever since I learned about Claire's past. I know I should hate her for making me miserable for most of my life. But now I'm not sure what to feel. Yes I'm mad at her for treating me the way she did, but now I kind of feel bad for her. She's acting like this only because she was devoid of love throughout her life. Had she been exposed to love and care when she was a kid, I don't think she would have abused me. She would have learned how to love and care about other people, and not treat them as objects.  Just because she was a victim, is that enough reason to forgive her?

*******

What do you think Amelia is going to do?

Do you think she should forgive Claire?

And about violence, its a really sad thing to think about. Anyone can be the victim. Anyone can be the abuser. Its happening even now in some families. If any of our friends or anyone we know is being abused, let us not hesitate to help them. Because no one deserves that kind of treatment.

Let's spread love, my beautiful readers.