My head shot up in disbelief. How could he--? Did he not see--? My hand! There was pain. Pulsing pain that just kept at it. I brought my hand into my field of vision. It was at an angle that was not natural. When I went to put my other hand on it, like it would help the pain, he grabbed my wrist. He didn't squeeze hard. He sighed and lifted me to sit on the island. Then he started rummaging through cabinets like he didn't know where anything was.

"Trevor--he--"

"Shut up." He snapped. He probably didn't even notice that he was still growling.

I put my head down looking at the awkward pinky. I didn't do anything wrong. I was the victim. Why the asshole attitude? He put a roll of white cloth-like tape by my leg. He braced himself on the counter, both hands gripping the granite on either side of me so hard his knuckles were white. Any more force and the granite countertops I loved so much were going to be dust.

"What was that Casey?" I detected a definite tone in his voice.

"That was your father trying to... force himself on me." I stated sharply.

His eyes narrowed, obviously not liking me taking his tone.

I glared right back at him. "If you hadn't been so boastful about getting exactly what you wanted from me--Owwww!!" I jerked my hand away from him. He set the pinky while I yelled and boy was it pounding.

"Give me your hand." I shook my head and held it to my stomach, cradeling it there. "Casey." He said gently as he put his hand around my small wrist, "I wasn't boasting. They insisted-"

I cut him off, "Becky insists on details but you don't see me spilling my guts over it."

"I'm not ashamed of it. Why are you?"

"Why would I be ashamed?"

He jerked my wrist and wrapped the tape around my ring and pinky fingers. He was splinting my broken pinky. Something he didn't need to do.

He sighed. "I'm sorry." I nodded. I knew it wasn't easy for him to say sorry. He took a few deep breaths and pulled me closer to him, pulling on the bruises--that I now knew--were definitely there. He felt my body's slight jerk when he pulled me to him.

When he tried to lower the skirt to check out why I had the reaction I did, I jumped off the counter top. "Becky's coming."

"Casey--"

"Later." I begged. He just nodded and took my unbroken hand in his.

He gently tugged me over to him and wrapped both of his arms around my neck. He made sure that he was kissing me when Becky came in with her back dragging behind her.

She sighed with a huge smile on her face, "Oh give me a break." Her eyes glanced at the bandaged wrapped around my fingers, "What did I miss in the whole 5 minutes I was upstairs?"

I shrugged, "Me being me."

She shook her head and heaved the bag onto her shoulder, "You need to be less clumsy."

I nodded in agreement. Grayson grabbed the bag from her hand as she passed. He had much less trouble with her heavy bag.

School, like the end of the year every year, was a blur. It was over just as quickly as it began. We didn't have to drop off Becky at her house tonight which was a plus. I got to take off the bandages sooner.

Grayson fell onto the couch as soon as we walked in. I unwrapped the bandage on the way to my room.

"You should leave that on for another day or two." He hollered after me. Trevor and Conner were both out of the house. The rest of the guys had other plans for their Monday afternoon. The house was empty.

I sat on Grayson's lap when I came into the living room bandage-less.

"Better be careful." He warned, not taking his eyes off of the cartoon he was watching. I nodded and laid down next to him. If he could relax, so could I.

Once I finally got comfortable, he moved. Go figure. He propped himself onto his elbow.

"I almost forgot." He mumbled to himself.

He pulled down the hem of my skirt.

"What are you--" the bruises. I couldn't hear him breathing.

"Grayson?" His eyes were clouding over. He was getting mad that I had bruises. I didn't feel like the tool Trevor suggested. I felt wanted. I turned on the couch and sat up so I was looking at him, face to face, chest to chest. "Grayson?" I asked again.

He blinked a few times. "What?"

"You alright?"

He nodded and rubbed my hip. "Sorry." He offered a small smile, eyes unfocused still.

"I'm not complaining."

He sighed and met my eyes. "I should've been there."

I shook my head, "No one could've known what was going to happen."

He kissed me once. There wasn't the usual spark behind the kiss. It disappointed me to the core.

"What?" He asked when I gave him a look.

"That was the weakest kiss in the world."

A real smile cracked through. Then he gave me the kiss that I was waiting for. I was pulled up from my comfortable position under him, to straddling him. I wasn't complaining. I was having a nice time making out with my boyfriend. He started unbuttoning the front of my shirt.

I shook my head and grabbed his hand, "Nah uh. People are coming home any minute."

As he un-tucked my shirt from my skirt, a low rumbling sound came from his chest. I dare you to stop me, is what he was telling me.

I laughed, "Did you just growl at me?"

He smirked and undid two more buttons. 5 more and the shirt would be open completely.

"I don't know if I can trust you with this privilege Grayson."

"What?"

My hands started buttoning the shirt, but he made sure I wasn't going to be undoing his work.

"I can't have you telling stories."

He laughed, "It makes you more popular with the guys."

I glared, "I don't want to be popular because you're telling stories, that I bet aren't accurate."

His smirk grew, “They aren't accurate."

I glared, this time a bit hurt, "Sorry I'm a disappointment."

I got off of him and started walking away, until my skirt would allow me to go no farther.

"And where exactly do you think you're going?"

"In my room to pout." I crossed my arms over my chest. He laughed.

"You're so cute when you pout." He pulled on the skirt. I stumbled onto the lap I was just on.

"Now...May I please continue?"

I pretended to think. "I don't know."

He smiled and ripped open the shirt. I gasped.

"My buttons!"

He smiled triumphantly.

"Who cares about the buttons?" He voiced his opinion softly.

"I do."

With one hand he slid my skirt up my leg with the other he pulled me by my neck to kiss him. I felt a sharp nail on my side, pressing against the skin of my hip. Then the elastic of the panties snapped in two places in quick succession.

"Grayson!" I lightly hit his shoulder.

He looked around, feigning his innocence. "What?"

"You're bad."

He flashed that feral grin. "You're not complaining." I blushed. The whiz of a zipper made me laugh. "I'm just keeping the options open."

"Very open."

He nodded and left it to me to take it farther.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Jesus!" Mason yelled walking into the room.

"We can't leave you two alone for more than 5 minutes!" Chris added.

I buttoned a button or two on my shirt then laid down to continue with my recuperating nap. Carlos bent on the ground and picked something off the ground. He laughed and held it to his pants. I rolled my eyes.

"Hey Grayson!" He said in an unnaturally high pitched voice. "How do I look in these?" He laughed. "Geez man, you fucked these up."

Grayson hadn't moved. I bet his pants were still unbuttoned. "Throw those away before Conner gets back. And shut the fuck up. We're sleeping in here."

"Well..." Mason said sitting on another couch and turning on the TV. "That's what you get for sleeping in the living room."

"Should we go break in your bed Mason?" Grayson's offer seemed serious, or maybe it was that he was tired.

"There's a box for you Casey."

I opened my eyes and looked over. Our graduation announcements. I had to special order them to fit all our names into one invitation. I sat up and buttoned up the front of my shirt and grabbed two buttons off the ground. I was missing 3 now. I fixed my ponytail as I made my way over to the table Carlos put the box on.

I grabbed the box cutter and sliced the tape. I smiled when I saw it. Casey Anderson, Grayson Meyers and Brian Muse are graduating!

"Grayson, do you have that list?"

"What list?"

"Of people."

He shrugged, rubbing his eyes. He didn't.

"Brian!" I yelled. He came down the stairs quickly.

"What?"

"The invitations are here. Where's your list?"

He pulled the thumb drive he uses for school out of his back pocket. I grabbed it and the box and made my way upstairs to my laptop. His list and mine gave me enough work. There was a lot of overlapping people. I had a program on my computer that made address labels. I had to make labels for Conner since he's not computer savvy at all.

I changed my shirt and turned on my stereo before I got started.