Tonight, We Collide

Tara sat inside a crappy motel room with Peter, she smiled at her son as he flipped threw the television channels.

She was proud of him, and he was proud of her.

Tara still couldn't believe she did it, that she finally broke the invisible chains that held her down, she was able to breathe again. The freedom soaked into her lungs. She wondered if this is how a new citizen felt, so filled with pride and accomplishment.

She couldn't help but laugh.

Peter looked at her bewildered, "Why are you laughing Mom?"

She hiccuped, "Because, I just related our escape to obtaining an U.S citizenship," She said giggling more as she said her thoughts allowed.

Peter joined in, "You know, I wish you would've done this sooner," He said.

"Why?" Tara asked shocked.

"Because, I like it when you smile, and you haven't really smiled since I was three years old."

"For a hormone raged teenager you sure do act like a forty-year old, you know that?" She said hugging her son.

He smiled, the same smile Pete had held back in the days of Wilmette High. "Yeah, well, as I like to say, I'm a midget in a kid suit," His smile widened and Tara laughed.

They sat together that night, just laughing and talking about old times, days when she used to take him to the park, and old Star Wars discussions. Tara had missed this, missed being able to feel like herself again. She promised herself then that she would never back down.

As she looked at the dingy paneling in the hotel room, and its beat up oak furniture. She couldn't help but smile. The puke orange carpeting brought her hope, and even though she feared she would catch herpes from the floral bed sheets, she didn't care.

Tara was finally able to stand up on her own, she finally told Patrick no, and even though there were more battles to come, in the single night she held with her son, the laughter they shared, she didn't care if Perez Hilton came back into fame and beat her with verbal banter, she had these moments of bliss and freedom. These were things she would never forget. Not in a million years.

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Joe, Pete, and Andy all sat in the basement of Patrick's house. They watched their friend pace in front of them.

Back and forth, back and forth, Patrick went, he kept rubbing his forehead and ruffling his hair. They all didn't dare to say anything to him. They wouldn't admit it, but as Patrick fumed with pent up anger, they feared him and the monster he had become.

Patrick kept mumbling as he paced. He had never really told the guys why Tara and Peter had left. They all knew she hadn't been cheating on Pat and had left for another man.

But they all subconsciously knew about the verbal abuse Patrick gave to Tara. All three of them had watched their once strong, hard headed, stubborn, annoying friend, and in Joe's case, sister, turn into a ghost of her former self. Tara would barely give her opinion, or stand up for herself.

She only did Patrick's bidding.

The guys could only hope that she had finally snapped and stood up for herself and her son.

Joe and Andy knew that Peter had probably made a scene about Patrick not being his real father, that he was being a smart ass just like Pete would've been.

The boy was too much like their best friend sitting next to them, and Joe and Andy pondered why Pete was so blind to it.

Joe thought maybe Ashley slipped him some form of a blinding sedative--but that was just a crazed theory he had thought of in a drunken haze.

Andy knew Pete was floating down the denial river and would refuse to see the light until it was shoved into his eyes.

Pete just thought the same as Joe and Andy in the Tara situation, he had known the light she had held in their teenage years.

Hell, he had felt that light when he took her virginity, he wouldn't deny it was probably the best sex he had ever had, but he would never think on it for to long, he was a happily married man.

Most days.

The three boys all knew Patrick was emotional abusive, and they too feared him.

They all hoped Tara had run faraway, because the glint in Patrick's eyes told them all he was wanting to get Tara and Peter back, even if he had to use force.