After a week of constantly seeing Izzy, even if it was mainly only in the morning and on the couch at night, her absence in the apartment was still extremely noticeable. Dani seemed to be more open and care-free when Izzy was around, so now that the seven year old was back at home with her mother, her hardened exterior resurfaced.

Even though she seemed to lack emotion, she was actually beginning to talk to me more frequently. Without Izzy around on Monday morning, she clearly thought less about what she wanted to say, which surprisingly worked in my favor because it meant that I could catch a glimpse of what she was truly like.

And I truly didn't mind the real Dani Parker.

Something told me that my opinion of her was a bit stronger than just 'not minding' her company, but I refused to admit anything of the sort to myself. What good would it have done? She was quite obviously attractive; her green eyes were captivating, her rare smile was gorgeous, and her voice...

Her voice sent shivers down my spine.

But all of that was irrelevant anyway when I didn't know what I wanted, and what I wanted wouldn't have mattered anyway when I knew Brian was still very much so in my life. The texts didn't stop.

I finished restocking, tossing the last box in the cart and steering it into the aisle. Running a hand through my hair, I tilted my head against the row of shelves and breathed out. My phone in my back pocket had been going off all night, and I had only needed to read a few of the texts to know that Brian was drunk off his ass. No surprise there.

I read the few at the top of my lock screen.

I'm not fucking around Rebecca.

You're fucking making Sara upset and now I have to deal with it. Come home.

I hope you realize there are fucking consequences to your actions.

None of his texts really bothered me, that is, until the most recent one popped up on my screen and my eyes scanned over the words quickly.

I don't know where you are, but you and I both know you can't hide forever. You can play this game with Sara and I, but please understand that when you lose, there will be repercussions. Come home, Rebecca, and I promise I'll keep my hands to myself. IF you come home tonight. I'm outside.

The knowledge that Brian was outside the grocery store, assuming he wasn't lying, scared the shit out of me. It didn't bother me because I was terrified of him hurting me, but because Dani was shopping here tonight and he couldn't see me with her. She shouldn't have had a role in any of this.

A semi-familiar voice caught my attention, causing me to jump and nearly drop my phone. I looked up to see Lucy standing in front of me with her hand on her hip, smirking. She was wearing light, partially-ripped jeans with a black Sleeping with Sirens tank top, and her dark hair rested over her right shoulder. "So this is what the legendary Beca Harrison does with her free time, huh?"

I stopped myself from wincing at her words, and instead tried to focus on the fact that she was trying to joke around with me. "I know I played it off like I have a life back there at the mall, but I guess you caught me."

She smirked, making a comment that slightly contradicted what she had said to me at the mall. "Don't worry, I'm not entirely turned off. I don't know about you, but I find a bit of work ethic every now and then sexy."

I raised my eyebrow slightly. "Is that right? I guess I'm out of luck then."

"Believe me, you've got more of it than I do. I really should get a job... but then again.."

"What's the point, right?"

She smirked, chuckling softly. "Yeah, right."

I actually did enjoy being around Lucy, but I still found that I had to force the smile on my face. It wasn't natural. It wasn't real; not like it was when Dani drove me to smile.

Oh bloody hell...

I adverted my eyes from Lucy's briefly, glancing past her to see a familiar tall blonde strolling in our direction. Her piercing green eyes were already on mine, burning through the back of Lucy's head. When I met her gaze, she seemed to press her lips together and mask her current expression with something unplaceable.

And then she walked right past us, but not before tilting her head downwards at me and nodding. "Rebecca."

When she was out of earshot, Lucy whistled lowly and smirked at me. "Damn Beca, if you've got women that look like that after you, I stand no god damn chance."

"I thought you weren't looking for a relationship?"

She smirked and shrugged, seeming to dance around the topic lightly. "Seriously though, like I'm not one of those people, really, I'm not, but where can I get one?"

I rolled my eyes. "Luce, come on."

She held up her hands. "What? I told you, I prefer not to think of myself as one of those douches, but dude. Who is she?"

"She's not that attractive," I muttered under my breath, glancing behind me but realizing she had already disappeared.

Lucy slowly raised her eyebrows at me. "Are you sure you're gay?"

"One-hundred percent gay, Luce, but she's my biology teacher." I nodded my head towards the front of the store, gesturing for her to walk with me as we talked, and she complied willingly.

"She's what? Beca I've been going to our school for over three years, how have I never seen her?"

I shrugged. "I don't know, she's young. Maybe this is her first year."

"I'm really regretting taking environmental now."

"She's not very nice. You're not missing out on all that much." I felt a little bad as the words came out of my mouth, but even if I was aware of how much her stoic, bitchy exterior could shift in such little time, she was always the same in class. I wouldn't have been surprised if she posted her class motto outside her room and it read, 'Do your work and don't piss me off'.

"Who gives a shit about nice.." she whispered as we made it to the front of the store, both of us immediately seeing Dani standing in line. I stood by the cafe, leaning against the wall as Lucy stood next to me, and I could feel Dani's eyes on me but I tried not to look up.

That was, until Lucy nudged me and tilted her head, gesturing simply to the man who had appeared beside her, his height quite obviously his most noticeable feature. I looked up at him as Lucy spoke.

"This is my brother Tanner," she said, leaning forward slightly to bring her lips closer to my ear. She whispered, "He's a dick but be nice because he's my ride."

Tanner rolled his eyes, shoving Lucy so that she stumbled back a little, but she only smiled. "I heard that you ass." He turned to me. "I'm not that much of a dick. Nice to meet you..." He trailed off, and I realized he was waiting for my name.

"Beca," I finished, shaking his hand.

He nodded and then slung and arm around Lucy's neck, drawing her closer. "We gotta go."

"Later Beca. Do me a favor and let me know before you're about to get frisky with your Victoria Secret science teacher over there so I can join in, alright?"

I widened my eyes, smirking a little bit and playfully striking her right shoulder. "Dude!"

She laughed, pulling out of Tanner's side-embrace to throw an arm over my shoulder and pull me into her. "Ah I'm just messin'. But in all seriousness, leave the teacher out of the equation and I'm interested."

Then she winked at me, and her and her brother were gone. Dani appeared next to me, holding a cloth bag full of groceries in either hand. She pulled her lips into a thin line and tilted her head at me. "Was I not supposed to hear that?"

I immediately blushed, realizing we had been talking about her, literally in her presence. "H-how much did you..?"

She shook her head. "Enough... you guys were speaking a little loud, you know."

"Lucy was speaking a little loud. I know how to keep my voice down when it's necessary.."

"Rebecca."

I looked over at her, bracing myself to be yelled at for even joking with Lucy about the fact that we could somehow be involved. She spoke, "What does Lucy know?"

I furrowed my eyebrows, shaking my head. "Nothing?"

She moved closer to me, speaking lower. "You haven't told her about... us?"

"Uh... no? I promised you I would never tell anyone, and I generally don't break my promises Dani."

She shifted her stance. "So talking about sleeping with teachers is normal for students to do?"

"No," I answered. "But Lucy thinks you're hot and I disagreed because I was uncomfortable... so she decided to tease me about it, I guess."

Dani's expression shifted into one that was unplaceable, and she simply nodded her head towards the door and started walking. Other than making sure I hadn't spilled any information, she seemed unfazed by what Lucy had just insinuated, which was odd. It was actually really odd, but I decided against commenting on it. Instead, she spoke up next to me.

"So, you going to go for it?"

"What are you talking about?"

She raised a single eyebrow. "Oh come on, she was quite obviously hitting on you."

I shook my head, "No, she was just messing around. Trust me, I spent an afternoon with her not that long ago and I can tell, that's just how she is."

She rolled her eyes, looking away. "Yeah, I bet that's just how she is, with you."

"Whatever, I'm not interested dating," I responded, sighing. And then I shifted my eyes to the right as we walked out of the grocery store, immediately seeing a black mustang and remembering Brian's text. I had completely forgotten about it when Lucy showed up and distracted me, but my breathing hitched in my throat when I saw Brian leaning against the hood of his car, a beer in his hand. His head turned and I could guarantee that his eyes were scanning the parking lot for someone. I didn't even need to guess who it was he was looking for, and when Dani spoke, she was quite obviously startled by the force I began exerting on her body.

"I don't think she was necessarily referring to dating y-" she began, but I pushed her body in front of mine so she was out of view of Brian and pulled her to the right, rounding the corner of the building. I pulled her so that she spun around and flattened against the wall, my arms braced on either side of her head as her bags dropped to the ground.

She looked at her fallen bags and growled, "What the hell Beca?" I was too worried to speak, and when she looked up and saw my expression, hers completely changed and she brought her hand up to cup my cheek. I felt my skin tingle and I widened my eyes, but she didn't seem to notice the effect she had over me.

"What's going on? You have that look in your eyes..."

I bit my lip, looking down and away from her until she dropped her hand. I breathed, refraining from answering her momentarily. I thought about Brian's text, and I considered my options. As if I had options. I could stop threatening Dani's life with my presence in her apartment by going home with him tonight, and I wouldn't have to worry about him touching me. At least not for a while. The one good thing about Brian was that he never lied to me, so when he said he wouldn't hurt me if I came home tonight, he meant it. I absolutely knew that I would eventually come crawling back, and the longer I waited, the worse it would be when I did return.

As if Dani could tell what I was thinking, she lifted her head over my arm and around the corner to see Brian leaning against his mustang. He was waiting, like a fucking predator lurching around for their prey to come out of their hiding place, which I was very close to doing. I separated myself from Dani, standing back before taking a deep breath and stepping one foot onto the pavement where Brian would be able to see me.

Dani pulled me back immediately, switching our positions so that I was flattened against the wall and she was pinning me down. "Where the fuck do you think you're going? With him? Rebecca, no."

I shook her off my wrist, pushing her back. "This isn't up for debate. I'm really glad to have had a break from him for a while, so thank you, but I need to go back Dani. He's going to find out that I'm living with you, and then he's going to find out where you live, and then he's going to hurt you-"

She grabbed my shoulders, lightly pressing me against the wall and cutting me off. "Why don't you understand me when I tell you that I don't fucking care? Look, I know you probably think I'm a heartless, over-controlling bitch, but you're not going back there. I'm not going to allow it, and I'm not sorry for looking out for you. Just stop, okay? You don't need to do this."

I started to protest again, "Yes I do Dani. You don't understand-"

She cut me off again, not having any of it. "Stop! I do understand, okay? I've seen what he's capable of putting you through and the fact is, I'm not going to let it happen again. I'm going to go get the car. Promise me you'll stay here where he can't see you. Promise me Beca."

I lowered my eyes. I didn't want to promise her.

She placed her hand beside my head, bracing herself, and then brought the index finger on her left hand to my chin, lifting it so that I was forced to look at her. I stopped breathing, staring up into her eyes.

"Please, Beca." She was begging me, which was hard to wrap my head around. I could never have imagined her begging anyone for anything.

And for that reason, I went against my better judgement and promised her.

I stayed right where I was that Tuesday night, and I knew that eventually, I'd have to deal with the consequences of doing so.

****

"I heard you and Lucy ran into each other on Tuesday," Andy said, nudging my shoulder as we sat in art on Thursday, both of us shading our own drawings.

"Yeah, I saw her at work."

She raised her eyebrows. "Don't sound so enthusiastic. I think Lucy likes you, you know. And you should probably take that as a compliment because from what Logan tells me, she doesn't get 'crushes' very often.. or.. at all."

I nodded slowly, internally sighing. Honestly, it wasn't that I didn't want to see where things with Lucy could go, I just couldn't and I also couldn't tell anyone except for Dani why. "She's... cool.."

Andy seemed to get the point. "I take it you don't like her back?"

I started shaking my head. "It's not that.. actually, she's really cool. And... attractive." Andy looked at my face and laughed lightly, picking up a different pencil as I spoke up again. "And funny, which is pretty hard to come by."

"So what's the problem?"

"I just don't do the whole dating thing." The brunette went to roll her eyes but I stopped her, shaking my head. "Don't give me that look, I just shouldn't be in a relationship right now."

She shrugged. "Hey, it's not my place to say anything. You can do what you want, Beca. Do you want me to steer Lucy in the other direction?"

"No it's fine, I'd still like to be friends with her. Like I said, she is pretty cool."

She nodded and zoned out, focusing in on her artwork as the clock continued to tick. I couldn't help but to think that one day, most likely very soon, this was all going to blow up in my face. I honestly didn't know what Brian could be like towards people other than me, but I did know what he was capable of when drunk and now the number of people I had associated myself with was way too high. Between worrying about Dani, Andy, the group of three that followed her around, and Lucy, the possible situations that were running through my head were driving me insane. I would have been worried about Damon too if I hadn't been so sure that he could handle himself. I had seen him fight once before, and I honestly wasn't even sure if Brian had the capability of intimidating him.

For some reason, I formulated the image of Damon as a professional bodyguard in my mind, and I couldn't help but smirk to myself.

Almost as if he knew I was thinking about him, I heard my phone buzzing and I glanced at the screen to see the unfamiliar number appearing again, words that obviously came from Damon showing up underneath it.

I'm outside your school, I think. Weather's shitty.. so get out here as soon as you can ~ D

I knew there were ten or so minutes left of second period, and I also knew my art teacher payed a lot less attention than Dani. If I asked to go to the bathroom now, I could probably make it outside and back in before the late bell for third period went off. I was really not in the mood to be interrogated by Dani or whatever it is she would do if I was late, so I slipped out of my seat, muttered a few words to the teacher, and headed out the door. I was happy to see Damon again because he was probably the one person I could trust the most right now. He knew more about me than Dani did, after all, he'd been in the system with me.

He was probably one of the only two people that I had ever actually told about my parents.

Unfortunately, the other wasn't alive anymore.

I sighed, shaking my thoughts away because they weren't heading in the right direction. I made sure not to run into any teachers on my way through the school, eventually pushing through the lobby doors and rounding the outside of the school to find Damon in a dark corner of the parking lot where the trees produced a large shadow. I nodded my head to him and he gestured me over, allowing me to sit down next to him under the tree.

"It's about damn time, I think it's about to rain."

I rolled my eyes. "I honestly couldn't have gotten out here any faster if I tried. So, you have the ID?"

He shook his head. "Shit is that what I'm here for?"

Narrowing my eyes at him, I stared until he sighed and reached into his back pocket. "You're no fun, you can't even joke around anymore?"

I smirked at him. "When you make a funny joke, then I'll joke around with you."

He rolled his eyes and I took the plastic card from his hand, turning it over to examine it. It was almost identical to the last one he had made me, although this time, I looked much older in the picture. "Thanks Dame, I owe you one."

He waved me off. "No you don't Bec, you payed me double already."

I shrugged and he stood up, brushing his pants off. "Listen... while I'm out without Lenny worrying where I am, I'm gunna go deliver the last of my current supply."

"Then you're done, right?"

He adverted his eyes from mine, leaning against the tree. "Yeah... about that.."

"Damon..."

He sighed. "By the time the ILP has helped me find a place, I'll be eighteen... and then I'm not going to have any help anymore. I don't have the money right now to own any kind of apartment on my own... I can't stop dealing. I'm so fucking done but.. I don't have any other options."

I felt my heart sinking, mainly because I didn't want Damon putting himself in situations where he could get in a lot of trouble anymore. "Get a job?"

He gave me the most dead-panned look ever, raising his eyebrows. "Really, your suggestion is for me to get a job? With my record?"

"I know, I know, I just... maybe..."

He shook his head. "Yeah maybe, just maybe, I'll apply and they'll choose me for the job over the other two hundred teenage applicants who don't have to