One Story, Four Lives, and the Thing that Changed Them All

I don't know who my dad is. My mom never told me. You know what she did tell me? The reason why I wasn't aborted is because she found out too late. She tried to kill me after that. Drugs, drinking, falling. Everything short of the extreme. The only thing that kept me alive and fetal alcohol syndrome free was the fact that whoever she had fucked to create me was a pixie (yes, men could be pixies, too. How do you think they reproduce?)

Had it not been for that tiny factor, I wouldn't be here right now, writing this for you.

And had it not been for Amelia, I would probably be off fucking and doing drugs.

Amelia likes to believe that I saved her after her mom died, but Amelia was the one who saved me. And not in a lesbianic romance sort of way. Her lifestyle, even minus the parents, made me want to succeed to be able to accomplish that. Not to mention she fed me, clothed me, and got her chauffeur to chauffeur me around until I could drive myself. And then she paid for half of my car and my driver's Ed and pretty much everything else I needed until I got my job at the pet store.

She always talks me up, but she deserves a lot of credit, too.

"Come on, Ma," I said, lifting my mom off the couch and half-dragging her into the bedroom. She reached a hand out, leaning to get her cigarette resting in the ashtray. "No, Ma. No cigarettes in bed."

"Useless," she growled at me. I ignored her and laid her down on the bed and pulled the covers over her. She mumbled something rude at me, but I just left, closing the door tightly. My phone buzzed.

I dashed to go get it, hoping it was Vinny, but it was Amelia. Apparently she had some news that she wanted to tell me and I had to go pick her up to go shopping. I smiled, excited for another excuse to leave my drunk mother to rot in her bed and climbed in my shitty vintage mustang, Sally, that broke down pretty much every other day.

**

We shopped for a while, Amelia laying her sad future on me and I taking it, because that's what I do. That's what I love to do. I then tried show her some upsides of the situation, even throwing in how Aiden was so much better than Jake, but she just ignored that.

I hated Jake. I didn't trust him. Something about him was just off, like he wasn't set straight. I could see him snapping some day, hopefully not on their kids. Hopefully they wouldn't last long enough to have kids. Long story short, I really dislike Amelia's boyfriend.

The guys showed up when we were eating. I was excited to see Vinny, but the timing could have been better. Amelia was still grieving about her loss of hope and I was still trying to warm her up to the idea of Aiden (even though my current method was failing). They started talking about who was going to pick up Thea, Amelia's little sister, from daycare. Amelia couldn't do it because she didn't have a car, and the guys couldn't help her out because they all had preseason football practice. I offered to take her to go pick up Thea, then I started drabbling about how sad Sally has been lately because she hasn't gone anywhere and could do with the exercise and how much I loved her even though she was a piece of shit, but I had to stop because I knew that I was just going on and on and also that she had spotted my hand on Vinny's knee.

There's nothing going on there. I pinky swear. Even though it looks like something. It's not. Nothing. Okay there is. But her best friend and her ex? That spells out the recipe for disaster. So we have decided that there is nothing going on there. And especially now. With all the shit going on in her life. she doesn't need this. Maybe it'll happen after high school, college maybe. We'll see.

I jumped up to go get Sally from the parking lot, leaving the tension at that table behind me. I got outside just in time to see the tow truck pull away with a miserable-looking Sally. And fuck to the yeah my car has emotions. I looked at the police guy, frowning.

"That's my car," I said dejectedly.

"You parked in a handicapped spot," he said, pointing to the painted cement.

"But there's no sign! I didn't know," I replied.

"Look, sorry, but the law's the law." He handed me a ticket. "You can go get it out of impound later." I watched him get in his cruiser and drive away, feeling absolutely pathetic.

I walked back to the group, now standing outside the front doors. I pasted a smile on my face, not wanting to dampen the day anymore than Amelia's father had already.

"Sally got towed because I parked in a haaaaaaandicap spot," I said, pouting a bit over my grin. "I didn't fucking know. Rude disabled people putting their parking spots where they shouldn't be," I joked. "Gaaah."

"Well shit," Amelia said. "I guess we can call Fredrick-"

"I'll take you," Vinny interjected. "I can be late for practice."

"Coach is gonna be pissed," Spencer said.

"Coach loves me," Vinny replied. "Let's go." Me and Amelia followed Vinny to his four-door pickup. I sorta hung back, not wanting to rush the front seat, but smiled a bit when Amelia willingly took the backseat.

**

Me and Amelia were hanging out in her kitchen, bored out of our minds, about an hour after we picked up Thea. The boys wouldn't be done for another hour and a half, so we decided to call over some people. So we invited the whole fucking gang. The WHOLE fucking gang. Brace yourself for this.

There was The Power Couple Scott and Aryah. They were both elves. BTDubs, all elves are gingers. It is extremely rare for a ginger ta not ta be an elf. Anywho, they're like the real-life Alice and Jasper. And don't get used to these Twilight references. Because I dislike Twilight.

Then there was Grace, a shifter. She was like insanely smart. Like smarter than me which is saying something because Imma mofoin' genius.

And then Emery. Her family was friends with Amelia's family so they were sorta forced to be friends, and eventually she just got sorta sucked into the group. Kinda like Tom.

Oh, Tom. Tom is our resident stoner. Like hardcore stoner. Like you don't even freaking know. Half the time, you can get contact high from sitting in the desk next to him. Sometimes it's kinda fun(; But anywho, we don't know how he joined us. He just kinda appeared.

And then there's Lance, our Gay. He's so flamboyant he quite literally cross-dresses on the weekends when he isn't clubbing with his boyfriend. I freaking love Lance. He's just a ball of fiery fun.

And finally, the Freshman, or, well I guess Sophomore now. She's a little ginger girl that pretty much worships us. I've taken her under my wing, training her to be as awesome as we are. I just feel bad that I can never remember her name. I think it starts with an M. Mary? Mabel? I don't know. We just call her the Freshman. She doesn't seem to mind so I guess it's okay.

We were waiting for everyone to arrive and helping Fredrick practice his baking by eating what he made so he would just have to make more. Fredrick was Amelia's cook, a huge ex-biker/pimp/prison inmate looking guy with an insane amount of tattoos who barely ever said anything and never ever got mad and was an amazing cook. He was making cupcakes for Thea's daycare class and decorating them with flowers and stuff. We were obviously only there to help make sure that the flawed ones were eaten. And maybe some of them didn't start out flawed, but I can't control where my finger goes sometimes. Or my tongue. Or my elbow, but that one was accidental. As was the one with my knee. I'll let you figure out how that one happened.

We settled in the living room when everyone got there. Fredrick wordlessly brought out a tray of cupcakes, like he has a fricking endless supply of them somewhere or something. When I was sure everyone was there, I was relieved to see that Jake hadn't shown up. We turned on Fired Up! and kinda just left it on in the background. Freshman ran between us and the kitchen getting us drinks and snacks and stuff, always so nervous.

At least it want as bad as when she first joined us. She was always so quiet and small-looking. Now, when she wasn't doing stuff for us, she was able to become a legitimate part of the conversation. I was proud of her.

I still made sure she was thanked every time. I hate it when people feel under appreciated, so I make an effort to make them feel over-appreciated.

Spencer, Aiden and Vinny all arrived about halfway through the movie, all still damp from the locker room showers. I really wanted to touch Vinny's hair, but I resisted until I couldn't.

When Amelia was sufficiently distracted with Emery and Aryah, I nonchalantly got up, walked behind the couch where Vinny was sitting and ran my fingers through his hair. I winked when he looked up at me and gestured with my head towards the hallway to the back door. He gave a slight nod and held up a finger. I trotted into the kitchen, narrowly missing running into Freshman.

"If Amelia notices I'm gone, tell her I'm in the bathroom and then come get me. I'll be in the garden." Freshman nodded, green eyes wide. "You're beautiful," I said smiling and touching her shoulder. She scuttled off, a smile playing at her lips. I always felt so victorious when I made her smile.

**

"I'm so worried," I said, my head leaning against Vinny's ribcage. We were laying in the garden behind the house on the lawn.

"Aiden isn't as pissed as you'd think," Vinny said, playing with my hair.

"Because he secretly loves her," I murmured, tying the tiny white flowers, dried from the summer, together to make a chain.

"Oh?"

"It's completely obvious."

"I haven't noticed it."

"Because you're a man, Dear. The way he looks at her. He loves her. But he doesn't know it yet."

"Does she love him?"

"I think so. But she's way more stubborn so it might take a minute." I paused. "She's lost." I shook my head. "She doesn't know where she wants to go, I don't think. She never really has. And now this... I think the part that scares her the most is having her dad finally step in a be a substantial part of her life, telling her what to do. She always talks about when she moves out, but she might as well already be moved out. There's nothing stopping her. Except her."

"You're so deep," he said, a grin turning into a chuckle.

I returned the grin. "You bet your sweet ass I am. Deep as the mother fucking ocean."

He chuckled again and it would have been the perfect moment to kiss him, except Freshman found us and warned me that Amelia had inquired about my whereabouts. We locked eyes one more time, then reapplied our just-friends facade and joined the group in the living room, entering from different entrances at different times.