TW: CONTENT THAT READERS MAY FIND DISTRESSING - DETAILS A SITUATION OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE. PLEASE READ WITH CAUTION OR DO NOT READ AT ALL IF THIS MAY IMPACT YOU.

*3am - 90 mins prior*

The glamorous end to my night is holding Kate's hair back as she empties her stomach into our toilet for the 2nd time.

I think that means I'm getting the hang of this best friend thing.

She sits back on her heels, already regaining some of the color in her face as I stroke her back to comfort her.

"I've never been more grateful to you than I am now." she confesses with an adorable hiccup I stifle a laugh at.

"For being your personal hair tie?" I quip.

She shakes her head but stops abruptly slamming her hand over her mouth and closing her eyes at the motion induced wave of sickness hitting her.

"It's ok, deep breaths ok? In through your nose and out through your mouth."

Kate opens her eyes, a look of panic on her face at the thought of opening her mouth.

I gently peel her hand off her face, "Copy me Kate. In..." I take a deep breath in and she follows, "And out..." she repeats this action with me several more times until her breaths become shallower and she sits down properly, her back against our bathroom unit.

I grab the glasses we keep on our bathroom counter and fill one with water from the sink. I give it to Kate and make sure to tell her to take small sips instead of gulping it down whilst I fill my own cup. I know she probably knows not to chug it but she's 5 drinks in so I air on the side of caution that she might neglect to remember that.

"So you were saying you're grateful to me?" I sat, sitting down opposite her and leaning my back against our glass shower wall after I flush the toilet for her.

I'm not looking for Kate to sing my praises. I'm trying to distract her from her nausea and stop her dozing off in case she's sick again.

Funny the things you pick up being a surrogate parent since  age 16.

She giggles and hiccups again, "I'm grateful you sent Sam home. Not sure he'd ever want to kiss me if he'd gotten a front row seat to my vivid outpouring of love for our toilet."

I chuckle in response, "I wouldn't blame him for not kissing you right after but I don't think there's anything you could do to put him off. He looked like he won the lottery when you asked him to dance."

"He did, he won the lottery of me." Kate replied, pressing a hand to her chest in emphasis.

"Amen to that" I say lifting my glass of water in toast.

"I may not have gotten a kiss, but I saw that you did miss Lexi-Lou." she said, rotating an accusing finger at me.

Oh yeah, I'm definitely impersonating a tomato right now.

"We didn't kiss." I defend, my voice quieter than I wanted it to come out.

"Maybe not in my eyesight but you seriously expect me to believe he didn't drag you away to ravish you?" Kate spills her water as shuffles closer to me.

"I'm going to give you a pass for thinking I'd sleep with Mason, let alone in the back of a club because you're tipsy"

"Oh please, you looked pretty into his hands on your waist and lips on your neck!" Kate retaliates.

"Jesus Kate, were you even dancing with Sam? How did you see all of that?!"

"Everyone did" she giggles, "We're all pretty invested." Kate swivels round and lays down so her head is in my lap and she's staring up at me. "The Mason and Lexi show is my favourite soap opera. Even better than Grey's Anatomy and you know I love Meredith Grey with my whole heart."

I do know that. Why do I know that? Because Kate spent close to the last 2 months forcing me to watch every episode after I thought she was talking about a type of tea every time she spoke about the 'Grey' family.

"I don't know why everyone's so interested. We're nothing special." I huff, thoroughly peeved the spotlight is on me. I was always happier in the shadows.

Kate snorts, "Yeah right."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I ask, Kate's beady eyes looking up into mine.

"You started day 1 here with an showdown in the middle of his hockey house and almost 2 months later you've got some kind of backwards friendship going on that has it's own list of term and conditions. You can't blame us for wondering what'll happen next. You guys are like a really complicated romance novel and I'm desperate for a kiss in the rain scene but I'll settle for steamy shower sex."

I choke on my water and narrowly avoid spitting it all over Kate. I push her off of me and leap up, spitting it out into the skin and coughing a few times while I take in some much needed air.

"Mason and I-" I cough again so take a sip of water to help and start again when I'm more composed, "Mason and I are not in the middle of some great elaborate love story."

"So you're telling me you wouldn't have let him kiss you if he's have bitten the bullet tonight?" she asks arching an eyebrow from her cross legged, pixie looking state on the floor.

"Of course not!" I defend.

Way too high pitch and way too quickly. 

"Oh sure but him kissing your neck wasn't crossing any line at all?" Kate retorts.

"That was different! It was the heat of the moment, he was trying to relax my anxiety."

"Oh I bet her knows a lot of ways to relax you." she said, another girly giggle escaping her smirking lips.

"Drunk Kate is way too honest for my taste." I grumble, mentally cursing my imagination for betraying me and immediately giving me 4 different scenarios of how I could have been 'relaxed' in Seb's office.

Horny bitch.

"Drunk Kate just says everything sober Kate is a pussy to say. I like her." Kate sighs wistfully.

I think that's something nearly everyone could say they have in common with her - that they wish they could let their thoughts out at any given time, regardless of the audience or consequences. I know I do.

I crouch down in front of her and take her hands in mine to reassure her, "I like both Kates. I'd just prefer if they didn't call out horny Lexi."

She snorts, "I'm not sure I've met horny Lexi yet."

"Oh you have. She was on full display tonight." I scold myself.

Kate gasps, "So you admit Mason makes you horny?!"

Well shit. 

Note to self, Kate's drunk right now - not dumb.

"Ok Katherine, bed time for you." I say, hauling her up from the floor and steadying her on her feet.

"Ooooo I got full named, I'm in troubleee." she giggles.

I leave her leaning on the counter and turn the main light on so I can take her make up off for her.

"What the fuck?! Where did the sun come from?!" she yelps, covering her eyes with her hands.

I laugh as I pull out the make up wipes and sit her down on the toilet.

"Don't you laugh at me Turner. I thought headaches were meant to come the morning after, where's my all night buzz?!" she groans.

I begin wiping off her make up gently, "I don't think you drank enough for that Kate. Welcome to the early hangover club."

"Ugh I want my money back. Cancel my membership." she grumbles.

"Sorry we have a no returns policy." I retort.

"Figures." she scoffs.

"Think of it this way, you'll sleep most of it off, have some greasy food for breakfast and then be all dandy again by midday."

"Whoopie, lucky me." she yawns.

I bin the wipes and walk her into our bedroom.

"Permission to strip?" I ask.

"No need to ask, I'd strip for you any day sexy-Lexi."

"I see Sam's rubbed off on you." I chide as I unzip her skirt and she pulls her top over her head.

She snorts, "Not yet he hasn't."

My gasp turns into a giggle, "Well now I've met horny Kate too."

She extends a hand to me, "Pleasure to meet you."

I shake her hand, "The pleasure shall be yours soon if Sam has any sense."

She mime a cross over her body and holds praying hands up to the ceiling, "Here's hoping."

Kate takes her own bra off and pulls on the night shirt and shorts I throw at her. She quite literally falls onto her bed when she trips over one of her shoes, giggling the entire time.

"Shhh! You'll wake Lia." I say as I pull her covers up over her.

"Ah boohoo, the killjoy could use some laughter." she says.

I say nothing to that comment, knowing she means Lia no ill will from it.

"Goodnight Kate." I say but as I walk about her hand shoots out and wraps around my wrist, "You ok?"

Kate suddenly looks serious, "I'm going to say this with all the love in my heart while I still have liquid courage."

"Ok?" I reply.

"Mason's a dick." she starts and I chuckle.

"This I know." I reply.

"I know. He's a major dick with serious grudge problems... but if he makes you happy, if he makes you feel safe Lexi, then I support you 100%."

I know I must looked stunned from how she continues.

"I know I know, you say it's nothing. But don't shut down something that could be amazing because it's scary." She yawns and pulls her bedding up over her shoulder, releasing my hand, "Because you deserve amazing Lex"

I feel quietly strangled by tears I'm not shedding so I nod instead of replying and kiss Kate's forehead.  

"Love you sis." She mumbles, drifting off to sleep seemingly as the words are said.

It feels good to hear it, to be loved by a friend so dearly. I miss hearing Heather say those words to me but I don't feel guilty hearing them from Kate. They mean something different here, not more or less. Just different.

I take my dress off and pull on sweatpants and a baggy Greenday shirt. The make up wipes are still out so I quickly wipe off the little bit of make up I'd thrown on while Mason hounded me to leave.

When I get back to my bed, my phone is lighting up with an unknown number. I press decline and open my moisturiser, rubbing it up my arms.

But the screen lights up again. So I decline.

And again. Decline.

And then again before I can even put my phone back down.

I swallow my unease as I answer the call, even if it's just to tell the person to choose a different number to prank.

"Finally! Jesus I knew you were anti-social but you could at least pick up when I call."

My heart begins beating wildly.

Why is he calling?

"I don't have your number saved." I reply timidly.

He scoffs down the line, "Of course you don't"

I clear my throat and centre myself as I listen to partying in the background, someone yelling for a new keg while music blasts through my phone speaker.

"What do you want Jason?" I ask aggressively, finding my strength.

"Now that's not a very sisterly tone is it Lexi?"

"I'm not your sister." I snap

"The Court documents say otherwise little one." My stomach lurches at his nickname for me but I don't have time to bite back before he steals the breath from my lungs, "I was just ringing to ask why Heather's home."

"Home? What do you mean home?" I ask frantically, my anxiety and fear in overdrive.

"Dad rang me and said Heather came home to surprise you. He's not happy about it Lexi, sounded pretty pissed off actually."

I don't even answer him. I'm already grabbing Kate's car keys as I shove my feet into sneakers by the front door and run out of it, not caring that it slams behind me.

I've never felt less guilty for using some of the money I'd planned to use for Heather for putting myself through Driver's Ed than I do putting Kate's car in gear and shooting out the parking lot.

I call Heather three times en route. She doesn't answer once.

I call the home phone twice. No answer.

My next instinct surprises me because it's Mason I consider calling. But I instantly decide against it. If I did I'd be inviting him into the part of my life I'm purposely shutting him out of.

Besides, I can handle Derrick. I have before and I will again, especially if it means protecting my little sister.

I drive like a lunatic but the roads are mercifully quiet because no idiot other than me is awake right now. It means I make it back to my childhood home in a record 8 minutes and am through the door within another 20 seconds.

"Heather?!" I yell into an eerily empty house.

She must be a asleep. God I hope she's just asleep.

I run up the stairs, taking them two at a time and burst into her bedroom, a wave of relief washing over me because the door's not locked. Where I expect to see her sleeping form is a perfectly made bed, cold to the touch.

Heather knows Derrick is a drunk but I protected her as much as I could from the even less desirable aspects of his character, often sending her to friends' houses when I could sense his mood changing. Unlike me, she had several back up homes to choose from. Derrick used to make comments about getting his hands on something exciting and fresh. So I'd fight back more, make it a challenge for him. If he was entertained by me he wouldn't go looking for her. It was all worth it if he never went looking for her.

She wasn't stupid and she knows he's a bad person and a shitty father figure, but would she really consider the danger she was putting herself in by being alone with him here? I couldn't hand on heart say she would and that fear for her vulnerability was what was driving me right now.

"Heather?" I call out again as I run down the stairs, "Heather where are-"

I stop suddenly in my tracks when I round the corner and come across Derrick sat at the kitchen table, opening a bottle of beer and adding to the tower of bottlecaps he's created. I count at least six and that doesn't bode well for me. The more he drinks, the worse his mood gets.

"Well if it isn't my ungrateful bitch of a step-daughter herself, in the flesh."

His words were a mess of slurs and dramatic swings of his hands as he turned his head to face me.

"Where's Heather?" I ask, trying to calm my nerves and digging my fingernails into my hands to control their shaking.

"Who's Heather?" he slurs in reply, winking at me.

I see red.

I storm over to him and swipe his beer bottle off the table, hearing it smash on the floor as the tower of bottle caps clatters with it. I lean down so I'm in his face, gripping the edge of the splintered table for support.

"If you've hurt her, I will tell everyone exactly the kind of man you are. I hear alcohol's pretty hard to come by in jail. So tell me right now... where is my sister?" I spit.

Derrick stands up slowly from his seat, never losing eye contact with me and I know what's about to happen. I won't get away with speaking to him like that but I don't care what happens so long as I get my answer. I know from experience there's plenty of places here she could be hiding by choice or because he trapped her there.

He raises his left hand and swings it, the back of it smacking the left side of my face with enough force to push me into the kitchen cabinets behind me. My cheek burns as tears involuntarily well in my eyes but I don't get time to blink them back before I'm shoved roughly to the side, falling into a pile of trash that's collected by the back door. 

I take the impact on my right hip and shoulder but it's a sharp pain that shoots through my right arm that makes me audibly react. I grunt and breath heavily, cradling my arm against my chest and trying to quickly observe the damage. It's glass. There's a shard of glass from a whiskey bottle embedded in my arm.

I don't have the opportunity to scramble away before Derrick is down at my side, pulling my arm away from my chest and putting his bodyweight through the knee he's placed on my stomach. It makes it hard to breath and the difficulty only increases when he roughly yanks the glass out of my arm. I can't stop the scream bubbling out but I know no one who hears it will care. They never did before.

Derrick punctuates his words by thrusting the bloodied glass in my face, "You spilt good beer, you bitch." He increases the pressure on my stomach, causing me to grunt at the pain caused, "That means you owe me." He leans down until I'm choking on his musty, booze filled scent and his lips graze my ear, "And I know what I want as payment."

I struggle against his grip, a panic attack digging its claws into me but it only makes him laugh in my face.

"The little slut isn't even here." he laughs cruelly and my heart simultaneously sinks and starts beating again.

I was set up. Heather's not here. Jason really is following after Daddy dearest.

"But you are." Derrick places a rough kiss on my mouth, ignoring my attempts to get away and biting down on my lip as I struggle. He pulls back long enough to smirk, clearly feeling as though he's won a victory over me, "The more you struggle, the rougher I'll be... or is that what you want hm? You been whoring yourself out at College? Learnt some tricks me for did ya?"

My insides churn, vomit rising up my throat.

Not again. I swore never again.

Fight back Lexi. Fight him off.

I feel around with my left hand on the floor, seeking out anything I can use to defend myself against this pig who weighs at least three times my weight. My hand falls on another bottle, bigger than a beer bottle but not too heavy for me to lift.

I just need a window. I need him to get off me long enough for one good swing.

And I get just that.

Derrick lifts his weight off me, still grasping my right arm but freeing my body as he attempts to swivel around to hover over the full length of me.

I act quickly and with no real direction swinging the bottle in my hand and clocking the side of Derrick's head hard enough so that he goes down like a ton of bricks. I scramble away from him as he rolls groaning to his back, a thin line of blood trickling out his ear.

I worry for a moment that I've done some serious damage but he's gradually blinking away his haze. He'd never go to the cops anyway - he knows that would sign his own arrest warrant.

I drop the bottle and stand, breathing heavily the entire time. I'm about to exit the kitchen when a hand wraps around my left ankle and pulls me off my feet. I go down hard on the same side I previously fell on. The only difference this time is I feel my head collide with the house's old wooden flooring. The pain that blossoms makes me feel sick and black spots dance across my vision as I hear myself groan and flop onto my back. 

My head is spinning and my body feels weak. I haven't taken a beating like this in months but the pain feels as familiar as an old friend. Only this old friend I have no intention of making peace with.

I blink away the fuzziness and kick Derrick's fingers around my ankle enough times for him to release me. The alcohol combined with the hit I got in are having their effect, much to my advantage as he struggles to move as quick as me even in my disorientated state. I force myself to stand, using the staircase to properly pull myself up and take deep breaths as I walk on shaky legs to the front door.

Derrick spits expletives after me as I leave but I block him out, focusing on putting one foot in