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Calum drives us back to his house so that I can pick up my car. Again.

I'm completely content just watching him drive as I sit in the passenger seat.

"Enjoying the view?" he asks raising an eyebrow at me.

"Maybe. Don't worry, I'll stop." I say, blushing and dropping my eyes from him.

"I don't mind." he says chuckling and I giggle at him.

"Conceded much?" I ask jokingly and he responds by flipping down the sun visor and sliding over the flap covering the mirror to look at himself, one hand on his chin, pushing his face from one side to the other faking arrogance while one hand remains on the steering wheel.

"I like you." I blurt out quietly and I immediately regret it.

If I could just stop the words from coming out of my mouth once in a while I'd be in a hell of a lot less trouble. If there's one thing I'm missing it's a freaking brain-to-mouth filter.

I'm surprised when he says "I like you too." glancing sideways at me as he puts the sun visor back up and puts one of his hands on top of mine that's resting on my thigh. I flip my hand over and interlock my fingers with his.

"I like you a lot." he adds and I reply with "Ditto."

We finally pull into his driveway and I get out of the car before he can open the door for me. By the time I shut the door though he's standing in front of me.

"I really wanna kiss you again. Can I kiss you again?" he asks quietly with his eyes trained on my mouth.

I put my hands on his neck and pull him down to me in response.

He pushes me back against the car as he deepens the kiss.

"Stay the night again." he says breathily, breaking away.

"I can't." I sigh.

"Why not?" he whines, resting his forehead on my shoulder.

I can feel his heavy breaths on my neck and his dark hair tickling my shoulder as I say "Because my parents are gonna be upset enough as it is. They may not give a shit about my well being but they care if I'm gone too long. I found that out the hard way."

He steps back and I stare down at my shoes.

"See you soon, though?" he asks and I swear I can't feel my own pulse because my heart is beating so damn fast.

I nod furiously, locking eyes with his.

"Like, maybe I could give you a ride to school tomorrow?" he says nervously.

"I'd love that." I say, leaning up to peck his lips once more.

We exchange goodbyes as I get into my car and drive home.

...

My mom's passed out across the kitchen table.

Too many Xanax, I guess.  

I just walk past her, she'll wake up when her jaw hurts from resting on the table.

On my way to my room I hear my dad shuffle into the hall from the living room, blocking my path to my bedroom and he's obviously drunk.

He starts ranting in a slurred voice about how I'm never home to watch over my mom, what a whore I am,  what a low-life I'm gonna be when he kicks me out, and how this is all my fault, and finally he starts asking me why I'm home so late.

I roll my eyes, sigh, and try to get past him but he throws his weight around and blocks me.

Then he's in my face screaming at me and I'm just staring at him, numb to what he's saying.

Tuning people out is a skill, but it's an extremely helpful one.

Then he swings at me.

I duck and since he's so damn plastered his reaction time is too slow to correct himself as he slams his fist into the wall hitting a picture frame and sending glass shards flying everywhere.

I vaguely take note that it's an old family picture.

The perfect metaphor for a broken family like ours, I suppose.

Then his knuckles are bleeding and he's screaming even louder but I'm stalking up to my room numbly.

After I get to my room and crawl into bed I pull my knees into my chest.  

I lay in my unmade, messy bed, not bothering to change into pajamas.  

My ripped skinny jeans and Nirvana t-shirt are comfortable enough for tonight.  

Tonight I don't care.  

I stare at the ceiling for what feels like hours while I listen to my dad still bumbling around downstairs, cursing God for his busted knuckles and all the world's problems.

He deserved it, I think to myself, then immediately feel guilty which clearly violates my policy of not caring. So I close my eyes and try to sleep.  

Sometimes, if I'm lucky, while I sleep my subconscious doesn't care about what's happening in my life, and so therefore sleep and I are the best of friends.  

...

I wake and the day is just like any other but I find myself feeling excited to see Calum again.  

As I walk down the stairs for the umpteenth time, I jog past the TV that is tuned to the history channel. Since it's on the history channel I know my dad's somewhere around here which surprises me - he's usually at the bar down the street at this time in the morning.  

I have a firm belief that he goes to the bar this early in the morning to avoid seeing me before school.  

When I was little I accepted the idea that he wasn't actually at a bar, but at work like he always fibbed to me. Needless to say by the time I hit my teen years I knew good and well where he was, and it definitely wasn't work.   

To be completely honest I don't care where he is, who he's with, or what he's doing. I stopped caring a while ago.  

I walk into the kitchen and swing open the fridge door to look inside.  

I sigh when I see what's inside - a carton of milk and ketchup.  

I wish they'd stock the damn fridge once in a while.  

I pick up the carton of milk and swoosh it around in my hand to judge the amount of liquid inside.

It's empty.  

Why is there even an empty milk carton in the fridge?  

I angrily throw the carton back into the fridge and slam the door shut again with a grunt.  

I walk toward the front door but peek my head into the living room first.  

My dad sits atop his throne. That is, he's sitting in his worn out La-Z-boy, Jack Daniel's bottle in-hand, Marbloro in the other.  

I curse under my breath and continue to the front door, not bothering to be quiet.   

I sit on the curb in front of my house waiting for Calum to arrive.  

When he does I get in eagerly.  

"Hi." he says.  

"Hey." I say, looking at him.  

"What's wrong?" he asks and last night comes flooding back into my mind.

"Nothing." I say, dropping my bloodshot eyes away from his.  

"Don't lie to me." he commands, putting the car back into park suggesting that he won't move without an explanation.  

"I just have really shitty parents. But you already knew that."  I force a chuckle.

"Why do they treat you this way?" he asks, looking concernedly at me.  

I inhale a deep breath and prepare myself "They blame me for my sister." I say as I fiddle with my fingernails.  

"I didn't even know you had a sister." he says quietly.  

"Mm-hmm, a brother too." I mumble "He moved away, though. Couldn't stand seeing my parents this way."

"What happened to your sister?" he asks.  

"She, uh, died in a car accident. It was a freak accident but they say that it's my fault that she was even there in the first place because I was in the car with her." I say as a tear moves down my face. "I didn't mean for anything to happen, but they don't get that. At all. They don't get that I miss her just as much as they do." I choke out. 

"I'm sorry." he says, grabbing my left hand and pulling it up to his lips, planting a soft kiss to it.  

"No, I'm sorry for dumping that on you. And for crying, again." I say between sniffles.  

"I told you, I'm here for you. You're not dumping anything on me. But you shouldn't cry, you're too pretty to cry." he says lifting my face with his hands.  

"And you're too cheesy." I say giggling despite the tears running down my face.  

"Indeed, m'lady, shall we go to school now?" he responds with a thickened accent.  

I nod and keep ahold of his hand as he drives to school, clinging onto the hope that he actually will be there for me. And clinging onto the idea that I'll be there for him too.

A/N: Whoa, Jackie, geez. And oh, Calum, aw.

So, uh, nobody probably noticed but I couldn't upload a chapter yesterday 'cause I was sick :( lame.

I missed you bunches though.

And I'm baaaaccckkkk!

We're already on chapter 10! Can you believe that?

Anyways, thanks for reading! Vote and comment, please! It makes me like, super happy :) As always, a new chapter's coming soon!