I sat in my window, looking out onto Sunset Blvd. as the rain poured down. The weather was a perfect reflection of how I was feeling; dark, gloomy, and absolutely no sunshine. This past month had been horrible, my dad lost his battle with cancer, my mom succumbed to her grief and became an alcoholic, and my twin brother, Avery, ran away because he couldn’t stand seeing mom drunk. My mother had been getting more and more drunk as the weeks went bye, and she was starting to become aggressive at the slightest aggravation.

I’m supposed to go to a concert this Friday, with my best friend Madison (a.k.a. Maddy), but I don’t think I can. I have to keep a constant eye on my mom, to make sure she doesn’t do anything. Maddy has been a lot of help through all that has been going on. She’s been coming over to keep me company and she gets my school work whenever I take a day out.

“Hey,” someone said walking into my room, it was Maddy.

“Hey, Mads what’s up?”

“Nothing, you set for the concert Friday?”

“I don’t think I’m going…” I said refocusing on the rain outside.

“Aww come on you have to go! We’ve been planning this for two months!!”

“I know…but I have to look after my mom, she’s been doing pretty bad lately and-”

“You’re mom is always passed out by four on Fridays! The concert is at seven so we’ll leave for the Arena at five and we’re all set.”

“I don’t know Mads…I really think I should stay home…”

“Katie, answer a question for me, when was the last time you did something for yourself?” she crossed her arms and gave me a look that said “Well?”

I sighed, defeated, “Probably before my dad died.”

“Exactly, so just go to the concert, have a good time, and just forget all of your problems, just for ONE NIGHT!”

“Yeah…I guess you’re right…” I looked up at her and she was wearing a victorious grin. “Alright, I’ll go.”

Chapter 1

On Wednesday I was early to school; I had gotten into a fight with my mom late the night before and wanted to get away from my house as soon as possible.

I got to my locker and took out the books I needed for my first three classes. I shut it to see Maddy leaning against her locker (the one right next to mine) with a big grin on her face.

“Guess what!” she said, way too excited for this early in the morning.

“What?” I asked, barely awake.

“I bought meet and greet passes last night on EBay!!”

I suddenly became fully focused on what she was saying, “You mean, meet and greet, as in we get to go backstage after the show and meet Aaron?!”

“Uh huh,” she said nodding her head.

“Ohmigod!!” I said. “That’s awesome!!!”

The rest of my day went bye pretty smoothly. Same teacher’s being a pain *ahem!*EnglishandAlgebra*ahem!* and the same people being royal pains *ahem*CassyNickelson*ahem*.

After school I was heading out to my car when I heard someone call my name. I turned around and it was the guy that completed my and Maddy’s “best friend trio”, Todd Klark.

“Hey Kate!” he said jogging up to me. “How’s it been?”

“Eh, can’t complain.”

“Well…that’s better than it was the last time I asked you…”

A smile tugged on the sides of my mouth. “True,” I agreed. “You need a ride?”

“Do you mind? My car’s in the shop.”

“Again!?” I asked with a groan.

“Yeah, transmission’s shot.”

“Oh man, that sucks. Hop in.”

We drove to his house and he asked me if I wanted to stick around. He and Maddy were the only ones who knew about the extent of my mom’s problems, everyone else just considered her a hopeless drunk. You see, the reason why she started drinking is because she’s been Manic Depressive her entire life…she just seems to be in a really long ‘depressive’ period.. They had also been the only ones out of all of my “friends” to be there for me when my dad died and when Avery flew the coop.

Me and Todd watched all of the Final Destination movies while we did our homework and ate pizza. Todd and I were in 6 out of 7 classes together so we pretty much had the same GPA ergo, we stayed in all the same classes. Maddy, however, was practically a genius and she was in all AP classes.

By the time I got home my mom was passed out on the couch with an empty bottle of Gray Goose in one hand. Come to think of it…I rarely ever saw her without a bottle in her hand. I took the bottle and put a blanket over her. I missed my old mom, the one who took me out for ice cream on Wednesdays and who used to let me stay home even if I wasn’t really that sick. I pushed all of the, now painful, memories away; she’d been almost constantly drunk for the past three weeks and it wasn’t doing her bad liver any justice. I asked her to get help, but all she did was call me a stupid whore and slap me straight across the face. That did it, the memory of my once beautiful and peaceful mother slapping me in the face triggered the tears. I cried continuously, unable to stop, throughout my shower and getting into my bed clothes. And once again, as I had done almost every other night, since the night my dad passed, I cried myself to sleep.


~Friday Night (Approx. 4 P.M.)~

I had finally finished getting ready, after much debate over which top should I wear with which bottom and how I should do my hair, the outfit I had settled on consisted of a brown Fox polo and a Khaki mini skirt. The doorbell rang and I ran downstairs to get it before it woke up my mom who had just fallen asleep.

I opened the door and Maddy was standing there looking amazing as always. She had a talent for making plain Jane’s look like super models. But every time I’d ask her to do my makeup and clothes for me she’d always say the same thing, “Trust me hun, you do NOT need it,” I usually left her alone after that.

“You ready to go?” she whispered, keeping one on my mom.

“Yeah, lemme’ just get my purse,” I grabbed my new purse off the coffee table and we headed out to the car. “Your mom let you take her car?” I asked grinning. Her mom almost NEVER lets us take the Mustang out. It was navy with leather interior, and we both loved it!!!

“Yeah, she said, ‘I think that you’re trustworthy enough now to be allowed to take out the good car,” and handed me the keys.”

“Nice!” I said. We hopped in the convertible, put the top down, and began our drive to the concert.

Chapter 2

We got to the concert and the line was already halfway down the block. “Wow, I had no idea this many people liked him!” Maddy said as we walked past all the excited teen girls with signs, hats, shirts, and other Aaron Carter paraphernalia.

When we got to the end we started talking with the group of girls in front of us. It turns out they’d driven for 5 hours just to come see this show. I smiled to myself and thought Aaron may not have half the US after him anymore, but the fans that he does have are pretty damn loyal ones.

The line started moving and before we knew it we were inside the venue and scrambling to get as close to the front as we could. The group of girls we met turned out to be a lot bigger than I first thought, they’d had another half up at the front of the line, and we were able to go straight to the front because they’re group stretched from there all the way to the back.

The concert was great, even the opening acts were good. Maddy and I both got to touch his hand and he even kneeled down and held Maddy’s hand for a bit while he sang One Better.

While the crowd cleared out Maddy and I stayed behind for the meet and greet. We were told to wait in the front, but no one else was there. “Come on,” Maddy said. “Let’s go find him ourselves.”

She had a mischievous smile on her face and I didn’t like it. Whenever she put that smile on, we always ended up getting in trouble. “I don’t know Mads, the security guard told us that the meet and greet people should wait here. Maybe we should listen for once…”

“Katie, Katie, Katie… if that guard told you to go jump off a cliff, would you?”

She had me there, besides, a part of me kinda’ wanted to go and actually take a chance for once.

We snuck behind the stage and began our snooping. We walked by several doors listening for any life inside, of which, we found none. We kept walking and must’ve not been paying attention because at one point we turned in opposite directions, and didn’t’ notice. I continued on, not knowing Maddy and I had separated, and made sure to stop and listen for any sign of life. I finally came to a door that had a sign on it, it read ‘Aaron Carter.’ My heart sped up instantly, “Mads!” I whispered excitedly. “Mads, we found it!!!.....Mads?” I turned around and saw that she wasn’t there. “Oh boy…” I said to myself.

“Can I help you?” I heard a slightly familiar voice ask. The second I recognized it my heart skipped a beat.

I slowly turned around and came face to face with Aaron. “Uh…hi, I was just looking for my Maddy friend…err, I mean….my friend Maddy…”

He smiled and gave a little laugh. “Well, I’m sure she’s around here somewhere. Why don’t ya come in and have a drink or something.”
“Thanks,” I said, following him into the dressing room.

“You look familiar, have we met before?” He asked pulling a Pepsi out from his mini fridge and handing it to me.

“No, I was in the front row at the show though, you sang to Maddy, she was the girl standing next to me.”

“Oh yeah, that’s right,” he said. Reclining on the couch that was against one of the walls, he stretched out his arms and legs. “Have a seat and tell me about a little about yourself, what’s your name, where’ya from, stuff like that.”

I was surprise by how normal he was, I was half expecting him to grumpily shove an autograph in my hand and slam the door in my face. I did what he asked and gave him a short synopsis of my life. Excluding, of course, that my mom was an alcoholic.

“Wow,” he said, sounding serious, a few minutes later when I was done. “That’s tough, sorry about your dad…”

“It’s okay, it’s still hard, with it just being me and my mom, but I’ve gotten used to it.”

We sat in silence for a minute before Aaron said, “So what exactly were you doing back here? You’re not part of the staff are you?”

“Uh…no. I was just looking for the place that the meet and greet was being held.”

Aaron grinned and let out a little laugh.

“What’s so funny?” I asked.

“There is no meet and greet.”

“What!?” I asked as my mouth dropped open. “What do you mean ‘no meet and greet’?! Maddy bought passes on eBay and everything!”

“Well, they’re fake-”

“Oh sh –t.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Maddy isn’t exactly an expert on stealth, then again neither am I, but that’s beside the point. She’s bound to get seen by a security guard or something and when she is, she’ll give them the faux tickets and probably make a big scene when whoever it is tells her that they’re fake…that is if they don’t try to arrest her for trying pass off those fake passes as real ones…and if they do try to arrest her…”

“AHHHHHHH!!!!” Maddy screamed as she came charging through the door.

“…That’s gonna’ happen.”

“Hey uh...Katie?!” she asked when she saw me. “Where’d you go?! I was looking everywhere for you,”

“I’ve been here, with Aaron.”

“Yeah well that’s all great,” she said taking a quick peak out the door. She obviously hadn’t heard the ‘with Aaron’ part of my sentence cause if she had, she’d be screaming. “But do you remember that time in eighth grade when I called Tom Smith a fat hobo, then you said, ‘One of these days you’re going to piss of the wrong person’ and I just laughed and said, ‘they can just bite me’?

“Yeeeah,” I said, my eyes narrowing suspiciously. “Mads, whadidya do now?”

“I uh…I pissed off the wrong person…” Just then a huge banging came at the door. “OHMIGOD!” she screamed and ran to hide behind me.

The door burst open and a HUGE guy with a shirt about 3 sizes too small came in and yelled, “I HEARD HER, WHERE IS THAT LITTLE-” He spotted Maddy behind my back and pointed one oversized finger at her, “THERE YOU ARE! I GOT YOU NOW!”

Aaron stepped in front of the man and said, “Relax, she’s with me.”

“But she-!” he began incredulously.

“I know, she has fake tickets, she bought them from some ass on eBay and got ripped off.”

“That’s what she said but do you really believe-?”

“Yes I do believe them, and even if they are lying, which I doubt they are, it won’t make much of a difference to anyone anyway.”

The large man stomped off in a huff, apparently disappointed that he was denied giving one of us ‘punk faced kids’ a good “talking to”…which pretty much involved calling our parents-well Maddy’s anyway-and having them come down and yell at us.

Aaron and I turned to look at Maddy after a few seconds of silence and she was sitting there with her mouth wide open.

“Y…You’re Aaron Carter!!!” she exclaimed.

“Nice observation,” I joked; Aaron laughed.

Chapter 3

Maddy and I couldn’t believe how down-to-earth Aaron was. We always imagined him as the stereotypical teen millionaire-or kid of a millionaire-, as in the whole “if you don’t have money I don’t want anything to do with you” attitude. But he was anything but that, he was nice, funny, smart, and actually cared about his fans, unlike a lot of celebrities.

“So, are you guys from L.A.?” Aaron asked, taking a sip of his coke.

“Sorta’,” Maddy answered. “We live in the suburbs.”

“Oh, so your parents are pretty well off; financially speaking.”

“Yeah,” Maddy answered. Not my mom, I thought. She’s slowly wasting away in self-pity and grief. Pretty soon my dad’s life insurance money will be gone, then we’ll have nothing to live on…

“Kate, are you okay?” Aaron’s voice snapped me back to reality.

“Huh? Oh, yeah, never better,” I put on a fake grin and nodded, to try and cover up what must’ve been that depressed look I get when I think about my mom and how badly she’s been doing.

“We’re gonna’ be in town for one more night, cause we have some extra time before I need to be in San Francisco, you guys wanna’ go somewhere tomorrow night?”

“I don’t think you can handle the both of us,” Maddy joked.

“Well then, I’ll bring a friend. One of my dancers, Eric, has been wanting to hit up a club, maybe he’ll come.”

“Is he hot?” Maddy asked with a grin.

“You tell me,” Aaron went into his bureau pulled out a head shot that was attached to a résumé.

“Good Lord!!!” Maddy half yelled. “He’s gorgeous!”

“Yeah he is!” I agreed. Eric had great hair, it had a natural looking wave that seemed to be the style of choice for sexy men these days. He had a strong jaw and piercing blue eyes that seemed all the brighter due to his contrasting dark hair. And his skin had an almost perfect tan, one that was gained by a lot of time in the sun.

Maddy flipped to his résumé and read, “6’2”, not bad, no criminal record-”

“I don’t think you should be reading that,” I said to her.

She looked up at Aaron, “Do you mind?”

“No, go ahead,” he said, leaning back on his couch.

Maddy continued to read, “Home town of Tampa, graduated from Tampa High, very nice,” she concluded.

Maddy handed back the head shot and résumé and said, “I definitely call that boy.”

Aaron laughed and said to me, “Guess that means you’re stuck with me,” he flashed a smile that made my insides melt. “I promise to make the night as painless as possible.”

I smiled, I had to; he was absolutely adorable. “Thanks, I appreciate it.”

“No problem,” he took another sip of his soda and there was a knock at the door.

A short woman with a business like composure came walking into the room, looking down at a clip board. “Aaron you should really tell me next time you-” she froze when she saw me and Maddy sitting in front of Aaron. “Who are these young ladies?”

“Oh, hey Ellen, this is Maddy, and this is Katie,” Aaron said pointing to both of us as he said our names.

“Nice to meet you both, I’m Ellen, Aaron’s tour manager,” she came up to us and shook both of our hands. “Now like I was saying, you should really let me know next time you’re going to climb a support beam and jump off like that. If you had tried to go up one of the weaker ones, we would’ve had a serious problem.”

“Sorry El, won’t happen again,” he said with an innocent grin.

“Okay, good. I’ll see you all later; I have a crap load of work to do for the San Francisco show Sunday.” She walked out of the room, closing the door behind her.

“She seems nice,” I said, looking back at Aaron.

“Yeah, she’s really cool. Unless you’re late for something, then the fangs come out,” he smiled at me and, once again my insides took to the consistency of apple sauce.

We talked for a while longer about everyday things. Music, hot spots down town, good restaurants, etc.. Maddy’s phone cut Aaron off as he was talking about a great burger place he knew of.

“Hello?” she answered. “I know what time it is…yeah, she’s with me…don’t worry mom, we’re on our way home, we stopped to get some food and now we’re stuck in traffic…it’s L.A. mom, there’s traffic at every hour of the day and night…okay we’ll be home soon…love you too…bye.” She clicked her phone shut and looked from me to Aaron. “That’s our queue to screw.”

“Yeah I kinda’ guessed,” Aaron said. He followed us to the door and gave us both a hug and a kiss on the cheek. “It was awesome hanging with you guys, I’ll see you tomorrow. Eight sound good?”

“Yeah that’s perfect,” Maddy said.

“Great, we’ll go grab a bite and then hit the club at like nine or nine thirty.”

“Awesome, see you then,” she said walking out the door.

“Hey Kate,” Aaron called after me when we were half way down the hall.

I turned to look at him, “Yeah?” I asked.

“Promise me you won’t spend the entire night flirting with other guys?”

I laughed and I could feel my cheeks turn a slight pink, “Only if you don’t spend it with all the girls.”

“Deal,” he said with a big grin.

“Good,” I said and turned to continue walking with Maddy, only when I heard his door close that I stole a glance at Maddy, she was barely containing her laughter.

The Next Night

I went over to Maddy’s house around four to start getting ready. We told the boys to pick us up at Maddy’s house, for obvious reason. Mads and I both decided to go with sexy outfits, but not over the top. Mine included a denim mini skirt and a tight fitting Hollister tee.

Aaron and Eric came right on time. They came in and met Maddy’s parents, Eric was tall, dark and handsome, but I still preferred Aaron.

After all the introductions were done we went out to the car; Aaron was driving, I was in the front passenger’s seat, and Maddy and Eric were in the back. We decided to go to Applebee’s for dinner, I got the Oriental Chicken salad and Maddy got buffalo chicken fingers, she was a spice freak, anything that had the word ‘spicy’ in it, she would eat. Aaron and Eric both got barbeque Ribs.

Aaron and I split a piece of Apple Pie a la mode and Maddy and Eric got a hot fudge brownie Sundae.

The check came and I tried to grab it, but Aaron beat me to it. He put a card in the little black book thing and handed it right back to the waitress.

“You didn’t even look at it,” I said.

Aaron shrugged with a smile and dipped his fork of apple pie and ice cream into the butterscotch sauce that came with the desert. “Try this,” he said to me. “You’ll like it, I swear.”

At the Club

We walked into the club and it was surprisingly alive considering it wasn’t even ten yet. The dance floor was crowded with people, and it pulsed to the beat of the techno music that played through what seemed like a thousand speakers throughout the club.

Aaron kept close to me, holding my hand, as we walked through the crowd of people on their way to becoming drunk. When I looked back Eric and Maddy had already started grinding, I smiled at the cute couple as Aaron wrapped his arms around my waist and we started to copy our friends’ moves.

A little over an hour later, around eleven o’clock, Aaron and Eric said they had to go to the bathroom. Maddy and I took a seat at one of the few tables they had in the club. We were there for no more than thirty seconds before some drunk guy and his friends came over and started hitting on us.

“Hey hot stuff,” one said. “Ya’ wanna come ozer here and give me some *hiccup* lovin’?”

“Eww!” Maddy screeched. “Get away from us you drunk loser!”

“Maddy!” I half yelled half whispered. “Take it from someone who knows drunks, when they’ve ‘had a few’ DON’T INSULT THEM!!!!”

“Wudidja call muh?!” he yelled, red faced.

“Uh…a very nice business man who doesn’t want to kill us and get blood all over his just as very nice suit?”

He let out a growl at Maddy and turned his attention to me. His expression softened to that of a pathetic drunk that thinks he’s sexy. He got right in my face, smelling stunk of liquor and vomit, the smell of a true drunk, he said, “You ’er’un prettyyyyyyy lady. *Hiccup* Whatduya say we *hiccup* go back to my place and haz a lil party in yer pants?” he straightened out and waved his hands in the air.

I was an expert on how a drunk mind thinks, pretty much all you have to do is talk nonsense and their wasted minds will make some sort of sense of it for you. That in mind, I said, “Sorry, I’d absolutely love to, but I need to go home and clean my toaster oven so it won’t attack my dog.”

He gave me a blank stare and grumbled, “I f- ckin’ hate toasters...” and walked away with his buddies in tow.

Maddy and I burst out laughing, “That was great,” she said, wiping a tear from her eye. “I need to learn the language of the drunk.”

Still smiling, I looked over towards the direction of the bathroom to see what was taking the boys so long and sure enough, they were rushing over.

“You guys okay?” Eric asked. “Maddy, why are you crying? What did that jerk off do?!”

“We’re fine,” Maddy said. “Thanks to the amazing genius sitting next to me,” she pointed to me and kept laughing.

“Why what happened?” Aaron asked, taking the seat next to mine.

“He was wasted and Katie told him something about a toaster and he was like ‘I effin hate toasters’ and stomped off.”

“Wait…what?.” They both chorused, obviously confused.

I explained to them my theory of drunks and how their minds work, when they finally understood what was so funny they laughed too.

When all was well we went back to the dance floor. After another hour and a half dancing, we headed out to find something else to do. I was walking next to Maddy and Aaron came up behind me and took my hand; Eric did the same.

We walked down the crowded street and saw a small 24 hour café. “You guys wanna stop for some coffee?” Aaron asked. We all nodded and walked into the small and quaint café.

It was really nice, soft jazz music was playing through speaker stations around the café. We got our drinks and went to sit on one of the couches in a small corner. Aaron and I took one side of the couch, Eric and Maddy the other.

We sat, talked, gave each other our numbers, and drank our coffee’s for the next hour. “Hey Mads,” I began, leaning forward to see around Aaron.

“Yeah?”

“Why hasn’t your mom called yet?”

“I told her I’d be out late,” she laughed and put down her cup. “Come on I gotta’ pee and I need you to come in case some drunk guy tries to rape me in the bathroom.”

“What good will I be against a drunk guy bent on raping you?”

“Two things, a translator, and if need be, a shield,” she grinned and grabbed my hand, dragged me into the bathroom.

“Okay, so I told my mom I was going out with you and two guys and she brings me into her room and is all ‘I know that you’re still a little young, but sometimes you just can’t control your urges,’ and I was like ‘MOM! IT’S JUST DINNER AND SOME DANCING!!’ but she gave me this anyway,” she pulled out a condom and I cracked up laughing.

We finished laughing and came out of the bathroom to see Aaron and Eric laughing, themselves.

“Okay, what’d we miss?” Maddy asked.

“Nothing,” Aaron said. “Just something some girl said to Eric when he was walking to his room.”

“You guys ready to go?” Eric asked.

“Yeah, I’m exhausted,” I said followed by a yawn.

The boys stood and we put our coffee cups in the dish tray and went back to the car.

When we got to Maddy’s house I realized that Eric had driven his own car there and they had just taken one car out. Smart, now we didn’t have to wait up for him to say goodbye and it didn’t have to be awkward when Aaron and I said our goodbyes.

Aaron pulled in front of my house and walked me up to my door, holding my hand. We got to my door and he said, “Did you have a good time?”

“Yeah, it was fun.”

“Good. Maybe, when I come back, we can do it again?” it was a suggestion, but it sounded like a question.

“I’d like that,” I said with a smile.

“But...uh…next time, do you think it could be just us?” he started to scuff his foot against my front step and he looked so adorable all nervous.

“I’d like that even more,” I grinned when he look at me with relief in his eyes. “Good night Aaron,” I leaned in and gave him a quick kiss on the lips. “Call me when you get back.”

I walked inside and closed the door, I was ecstatic, nothing could bring me down…or so I thought; my mom was awake…and she DIDN’T look happy to see me………

Chapter 4

“Where the hell have you been, you little whore!!” My mom said, grabbing me by my hair and dragging me into the kitchen.

“I went out with some friends, I told you I was going I left a note-”

“Liar!! You didn’t tell me sh-t!!” she pushed me into the island in the middle of our counter. Please mom, no. Please… I said to myself. But I knew my silent pleas were all in vane when she took out the broomstick and started swinging…

The Next Morning

I woke up, sore from head to toe and covered in long, thin bruises. I winced at the effort it took just to climb out of bed. I limped into my bathroom to access the damage dealt this time. Good, I thought to myself. No black eyes or shiners. And they all seem to be pretty easy to cover. I lucked out this time… No one but me and my mother knew about the beatings. Not even Maddy. I told her my mom was starting to get more and more angry, but I couldn’t tell her about the hitting…if I did she might tell her parents, and then my mom would get arrested…I already lost my dad, I couldn’t lose my mom too. No matter what she did. I knew she was a good person…she was just in a rut, that’s all.

I got dressed for work, at Dunkin’ Donuts, and walked downstairs. My mom was passed out on the couch as usual and the little droplets of blood that had gotten on the kitchen counter last night were gone.

I went out to my car and started it up, wincing as a brushed the cut on my arm with the seatbelt. “Ow,” I hissed.

After work I went to Maddy’s house to stay the night. I didn’t want to risk another beating.

“Hey!” she said when I walked into her room. “What’s up?”

“Nothing really, just same old, same old,” I replied nonchalantly.

“Last night was AMAZING!” she said hopping onto her bed and jumping on it.

“Yeah, it was great…” I said. Until I got home, I added silently.

“What’s wrong?” she asked look straight at me. Damn! She knows! RUN! Maddy always knew when something was wrong. She’d been the first to know my dad died, just by looking at me she was able to tell. When something wasn’t good or when something was wrong in my life, she always knew. That’s why she was my best friend.

“N…Nothing…” I stuttered. “Why would you think something’s wrong?”

“Because you look sad, and after last night, you shouldn’t be sad again so quick…” she got up and dragged me to her bed. “What’s going on?”

“It’s nothing…” I said in little more than a whisper. “Just forget about it…”

She sighed and wrapped her arms around my shoulders, squeezing tight, squeezing my bruises and the cut.

“OW!” I yelped, jumping up off the bed. I rubbed my shoulder (where the worst of the bruises was) self consciously.

Maddy stood up, “Kate…?” she said. “What’s up with your arm?”

I looked at the floor and let tears stream down my face. Maddy walked over and lifted up my shirt sleeve. She gasped when she saw my entirely black, blue, and purple shoulder.

Taking a step back she asked, “How long?” I just shook my head.

“HOW LONG!?” she yelled at me. She, too, was crying now.

“A week, maybe two,” I squeaked in reply.

“Oh Kate…why didn’t you tell me?” a sympathetic, but worried, look took over her face.

“She’s my mom, Mads!! I already lost one parent!!!” I fell to my knees, sobbing. I finished what I was saying in a hushed voice. “I don’t want to lose the other…drunk or no, she’s my mom…”

A knock came to the door, “Madison? Katelyn? Are you two alright in there?” it was Maddy’s mom.

“Mom, come in here for a minute,” she said.

Maddy’s mom came in the room and said, “What’s wrong?”

“Show her,” Maddy ordered. I lifted up my shirt sleeve and Maddy’s mom gasped just like she had.

“What in the world…?” she began.

I took a deep breath and told her everything, from my dad dying (which she knew) to my mom becoming an alcoholic (which she also knew) to the beatings (which she didn’t know).

“Oh sweetie,” she said pulling me into a tender hug. “I had no idea…you should’ve told someone sooner.”

“I was scared,” I admitted. I saw Maddy’s expression go from worried to terrified. I NEVER got intimidated by other people. I was always the one that got into fights with people that insulted my friends, no matter how big the person was. I didn’t have much of a backbone normally, but when someone insulted my friends, it was ON!

“You’re staying with us from now on,” her mom said. “I’ll take you to get your things later. I don’t want you to go home without myself or Maddy’s father, do you understand me?”

“I don’t want to go home without anyone anyway…” I said. “You’re not going to send my mom to prison are you?”

“I can’t,” she said. Maddy’s mom was lawyer, so she knew all about this kind of thing. “Only you can press charges, and since there’s no proof that she beat you, there wouldn’t be much of a case anyway.”

“I just want her to get help…that’s all.”

“She will, honey, don’t worry,” she said in a motherly tone. “We’ll get her some help and she’ll be back to the way she was in no time.”

“Thank you,” I said quietly. “I really appreciate it.”

“I’m going to get us some comfort food,” Maddy said hopping up from the floor. “Chocolate Chip cookies and Cool Whip sound good?”

“That sounds great,” I said with a smile.

~Later That Night~

We finished off all of the cookies and cool whip and started watching a marathon of horror movies, our favorites. We started with the old Amityville Horror, then movie onto What Lies Beneath, and we were just starting the Texas Chainsaw Massacre when my phone rang.

“Hello?” I said into the receiver.

“Hey!!” Aaron said in a cheerful voice. “I just finished the show, I’m totally spent.”

“Haha, how was it?”

“Great, I’m surprised with the turn out. I thought there’d be a lot less people there then there were.”

“Well, that’s a good, isn’t it?”

“Yeah! It’s great!” he said sounding excited. “I just wish that I had someone to ‘celebrate’ with…”

I felt my face turn a slight pink, I wasn’t much of a blusher, and Maddy giggled-like I said, she always. knew when my attitude/emotions changed. “Well…it’s not like we’re going out or anything…I’m sure there’s someone that you could-”

“No, I couldn’t do that. Not after all the fun we had at the club last night.”

“Well…if you change your mind and want to uh…yeah…you can…”

Aaron laughed. “Thanks, I appreciate you not rushing this.”

“Uh…you’re welcome?” I said, not really knowing how to respond to his sudden gratitude.

He just laughed again.

“Yeah…well I’m gonna’ let you go before I embarrass myself anymore…”

“No, wait!” he said, then hesitated a second. “Well…I was just wondering if you wanted to go out again when I got back. Tomorrow.”

“Yeah, that sounds great,” I said, happy that my dorkiness hadn’t ruined my chances of going out with him again.

“Really? Okay, cool. Uh, I’ll pick you up around six then? What’s your address?”

“2690 Sunset Blvd.,” I replied without even thinking. I suddenly remembered what was going on and quickly caught my mistake. “But I’ll be staying at Maddy’s for a few days…my mom’s uh…not feeling well…” Not feeling well!? WTF!?! Wouldn’t that be MORE of a reason to stay with her?! God, I SUCK at lying!!

“Oh okay, so I’ll pick you up at Maddy’s then?”

“Yeah…” I said, getting nervous that he’d start questioning my alibi.

“I’ll see you then, later.”

“Bye.” I said and clicked my phone shut. To Maddy I said, “That was close!!!”

“Yeah it was! Okay, now before we get back to Jessica Biel screaming her freakin’ head off, you’re going on another date with him aren’t you!!”

I grinned and nodded; Maddy let out an overjoyed scream.

[b]Chapter 5[/b]

The next morning Maddy and I went to school. It seemed like it would be a pretty uneventful day, to say the least, until I saw Chad Robinson.

Chad was my ex. He and I had a good relationship, but it was ruined when Cassy got him drunk at a party one night and made out with him…the whore. Long story short, I saw them, screamed a bit, and broke it off right there. He was a good guy, but I just couldn’t go out with him anymore. I had liked him a lot and it really hurt knowing that he cheated on me with a-now former-friend. There weren’t really any hard feelings between the two of us, but that’s probably because I can’t hold a grudge to save my life.

“Hey Kate,” he said, leaning against the locker next to mine.

“Oh, hey Chad,” I replied not taking my eyes off of the Algebra homework I forgot to do.

“What’s going on?”

“Nothing really, same old, same old.”

In a hushed tone he asked, “How’s your mom been?”

I froze for a second before looking at him, there was concern in his eyes, and his face was as serious as ever.

“She’s…” I was going to say ‘good’, but decided against it. Chad was a good friend still, not great, but good. The best friend I had out of the entire student body-aside from Maddy and Todd-by far. “…Not so good.”

“Anything I can do? If you need a place to stay or something, we have a guest room that you could stay in.”

“Thanks Chad, but I’m staying at Maddy’s. We’re trying to get my mom some help, but it’s not easy.”

“Yeah, I had an uncle that was an alcoholic, my dad kept trying to put him into rehab, but he wouldn’t do it…” he paused for a moment before finishing. “He ended up rear ending someone and got killed…”

My breath caught in my throat, “Gee,” I said when I was confident my voice wouldn’t crack. “Thanks for that encouraging notion.”

“No Kate, I just want you to know that I know what it’s like…maybe not entirely because I didn’t have to live with my uncle, but still, I’ve lost someone I cared about to alcohol…so if you need help trying to convince your mom to go or something…I could help you out.”

I looked up at him to see if he was telling the truth, his expression was unreadable, but that’s how he got when he was talking about something upsetting or sad to him. So I honored his word.

“Thanks Chad,” I said, giving him a hug. “You don’t know how much I appreciate that offer…”

He returned the hug and said, “No problem Kate, anytime.”

I let go of him and he said he had to get to class, we said our goodbyes and I returned to my homework.


~After School~

Maddy and I walked down to her car and both hopped in, we’d decided that it’d be a waste to drive two different cars, so we took Maddy’s. When we got back to her house we went inside and were greeted by an amazing aroma.

“Mmm…” Maddy said as she walked through the door. “Mom’s makin’ something good…”

“Brownies,” I said. We went into the kitchen and sure enough, there was a pan of brownies sitting in the window above the sink.

Maddy went to take one, “Hold it right there, young lady!”

“Aww man!” she whined. “Please can we just have one?”

“No, those are for your father’s banquet tonight. He’s receiving an award and I promised to contribute something. Don’t touch the batch that’s in the oven now either.”

“No fair,” she grumbled as she walked into the living room. We sat on the couches and watched TV for a while, I did my homework while we were watching TV because I knew I wouldn’t do it after my date. I had just finished my last assignment when my cell rang.

“Hello?”

“Hey,” Aaron said. “I forgot to ask what time you wanted me to pick you up..”

I looked at the clock, it was 4:45. “Uh…how about six?” I asked. “Or is that too early?”

“No, six is perfect,” he said. I could imagine the cute smile on his face. “I’ll see you then.”

“Bye,” I shut my phone and looked over at Maddy. “Can you pick out an outfit for me while I take a shower?”

“Is that even a question?!” she asked, getting up and running upstairs.

When I got out of the shower I looked at what she had picked out for me, a pair of hip hugger khakis, with a green and pink stripped AE polo.

“Cute,” I said approvingly. “Now get out so I can change.”

“You can’t kick me out of my own room!” she said, laughing.

“Oh yeah?” I pushed her out the door and closed it quickly, locking it.

I got dressed as quickly as I could, it was 5:40 when I looked at the clock. I should probably hurry up… So I had Maddy do my make up, and she did a damn good job!

After I put on the finishing touches on my hair, I put on my new flip flops and went downstairs to join Maddy.

“Did your parents leave already?” I asked, not seeing anyone there.

“Yeah, about ten minutes ago, why?” she asked.

“Just wondering,” I replied simply. Maddy and I watched TV for a little bit and at around five past six the doorbell rang.

I got up and Maddy gave me one last grin. I opened the door and standing there was….

“MOM!?!!”