"I told you I don't do trouble" I said with a shrug, laughing when he eyed me.

"You ditched school with me," he said, opening the door for me and I entered the cla.s.sroom "how do I get detention and you get a warning? That isn't even fair."

"I have my skills," I said as we took our usual seat in the back of the cla.s.sroom. Avian put his backpack on the table and sat next to me.

"Or you're just a teacher's pet" he said, nudging my side and I glared at him, rolling my eyes.

"I don't know what you're talking about"

"Sure you don't."

I ran my tongue over my teeth and was about to respond, but Mr. Darwin walked in then, carrying a load of papers in one hand.

"I need you in your groups to work on your projects" he said, placing the papers on his desk. He sighed and pushed his gla.s.ses up his nose, before placing his hands on his waist "now people."

There was a lot of shuffling around as people struggled to get to their partners; Avian and I sat patiently and silently in our seats as we waited for the rest of the cla.s.s to get settled.

"Are you sleeping over?" Avian placed his lips near my ear and whispered.

I felt a s.h.i.+ver running down my neck.

I automatically moved away from him slightly and turned to look at him

"I think I'll go home" I whispered back and he looked uncertainly at me

"Are you sure?"

Was I?

I had two options; I could go home to stay with my mother and her boy toy, someone who had almost raped me, but there was also a slight chance that they would not be there.

On the second hand, I could go sleepover at Avian's but after the constant chills he'd been giving me recently and the constant b.u.t.terflies that magically showed up whenever he got too close to me, touched me or whispered in my ear; I didn't think I would last one more night.

"I'm sure" I muttered meekly and looked at Mr. Darwin who cleared his throat to get our attention.

"I'm sure you have started some of the work," Mr. Darwin said as he walked around his desk to the chalkboard "so please bring out whatever you have so far."

I looked at Avian and he m.u.f.fled his laughter, glancing at me in amus.e.m.e.nt.

"This is your fault" I hissed silently, and pulled out a sheet of paper from my bag. He looked in disbelief at me and also pulled out a piece of paper, placing his bag in the center of the table.

"You were in my house the whole weekend! We don't have anything planned because you were too preoccupied with Lexi, watching 'Flintstones'"

"I didn't have a choice! If I tried to get out of it, she pulled 'The Look'" I muttered.

Avian sn.i.g.g.e.red, and then covered it up with a cough when I turned to glare at him.

"I know, I'm sorry," he chuckled, writing the topic "The growth of bacteria" at the top his piece of paper "okay, let's brainstorm"

"Doesn't bacteria grow on spoilt food?" I asked and he wrote on the paper "we can just put food there to spoil."

"I doubt it's that easy," Avian said, rolling his eyes "this is Mr. Darwin we're talking about. Nothing is ever that easy. He'll want a lot more than that"

"Okay, so what is your idea genius?" I asked, rolling my eyes at him. He smiled and pulled out a plastic bag from his backpack.

"Well, last night after you had gone to bed, I looked it up online."

I cut him off. "You looked up "the growth of bacteria?" I asked, smirking at him. He rolled his eyes and ignored my retort.

"And I found this experiment that should be fairly easy to pull off" He pulled out a bunch of items out of the plastic bag.

"What's the experiment called?" I asked, looking over his shoulder at the piece of paper he had printed off the internet.

"It's called growing bacteria in Petri dishes" he said as he handed me a copy of the printout.

I rolled my eyes "How original"

"It wasn't my idea," he sneered and stared blankly at me "but it's easy so we're doing it."

"Yes father" I retorted sarcastically and he poked my side, causing me to laugh out a little too loud. Mr. Darwin glanced up from the papers he was grading.

"When the two of you are done fondling each other," – the cla.s.s sn.i.g.g.e.red – "you can get on with the a.s.signment at hand."

We muttered an apology and I glared at Avian, who just snorted.

*****

"I'm home," I called out as I stood in front of the door, silently waiting to see if anyone responded.

When no one did, I sighed in relief and walked towards the coat rack to hang up my jacket.

As I pa.s.sed the living room, I stopped and stared at the couch "Like me"

I s.h.i.+vered slightly and ignored the voice.

I walked to the boot rack, took off my shoes, and strolled into the kitchen.

Slowly, I got out a cup to get some water, and opened the fridge, realizing that I still hadn't gotten any groceries.

I sighed and took out a pen from my bag, then wrote "Buy Groceries" on a piece of paper that was stuck to the fridge. With that, I took my cup of water and trudged up the stairs.

As I climbed the stairs, I slowed down and turned around, slowly taking in my surroundings. The house was completely quiet.

It was a little too quiet.

I walked carefully towards my mom's room, and stopped in front of the door. I took in a deep breath then knocked hesitantly on the door, and in response the door opened slightly.

It was currently a little past four pm so she had no excuse not to be home, not even to go out drinking.

"Mom?" I called out in a whisper, slowly making my way into the room.

It had been a while since I had been in here.

A long while.

I reached for the light switch on the wall, and then gasped when I took in the state of the room.

There were papers everywhere, on her bed, on the floor, and the desk. The chair had been turned over and the bed had been knocked down.

I walked further into the room, my heart beating faster in my chest as I placed the gla.s.s of water in my hand on the table closest to me.

"Mom?" I called out again but there was no answer. I walked to her closet and opened it, only to be greeted by nothing. There were no clothes left in the closet, not even her underwear or any of her bathrobes and towels. Everything was gone.

"What happened in here?" I heard Lolita's voice and I walked out of the closet, to see Lolita carefully making her way into the disorganized room.

"She's gone" I said, running my hands through my hair as I motioned for Lolita to follow me back to the closet "She took everything and left. Just like that."

"What do you mean? She can't just leave you. You're still a minor" Lolita said, entering the closet I had just been in. Her facial expression changed from confused to extremely angry.

"I can't believe this," she muttered, as she walked over to my mother's desk and yanked open the drawers.

Anything valuable my mother had owned was gone.

"What do we do, call the police?" Lolita asked and turned to me. I dragged my gaze from the chaos of the room to look at Lolita.

"No," I said immediately, walking up to Lolita "if you call the police, they'll call dad and that's the last thing we need right now."

"Maybe it would be a good thing if dad showed up" Lolita muttered and I looked at her as though she were crazy.

"What? If he found out mom was gone, I would have to go live with him, and his new 'family'" I said sarcastically, using my fingers to quote the word "I can't let that happen."

"So what do we do? You can't just live here alone" Lolita said exasperatedly as she ran a hand through her hair.

"I'm not alone," I said as I walked out of my mother's room "I have you."

"You know what I mean," Lolita rolled her eyes and followed me out of my room "you have to at least tell Rain or Angel. What about Avian?"

"Drop it, Lolita," I said as I closed my mother's room door "they don't need to know about her running away," I walked across the hall to my room "Besides, we should look at the upside in this situation"

"What upside?"

"It wasn't like she was paying my rent or giving me an allowance," I shrugged as I took off the wig and placed it on my dresser "Dad does all that. Is it such a bad thing that she ran away?"

"She's still a part of this family Shay, even after everything she's done to you" Lolita murmured and I turned to look at her.

"I know, I didn't mean it that way," I sighed and shook out my hair with my fingers "I mean, its mom. She'll come back eventually."

"Let's just hope so" Lolita sighed and I turned my attention to her.

"Where were you last week Thursday?"

"Why? Did something happen?" Lolita looked at me with worry.

I sighed and shook my head, not wanting to worry her unnecessarily.

"Forget I said anything," I sighed.

"What happened Shay?" Lolita asked again and I glanced at her, wondering if she needed to know that mom's boyfriend had almost raped me. Almost.

The doorbell rang then, making me jump slightly.

I guess the answer to that question was no.

Lolita looked at me in confusion.

"Expecting someone?"

"Nope," I muttered, walking out the door and skipping down the steps. I stopped in front of the door and sighed, before opening it slightly.

Avian stood there with a nervous smile, one hand buried deep in his pocket, and he wasn't alone.

Lexi stood next to him, her left hand gripping Avian's right one, and she bounced up and down eagerly, complete with her adorable smile full of braces.

I stepped back, completely shocked at their presence on my doorstep, and opened the door wider. Avian smiled as he glanced up, before running his hands through his hair.

"Hi"

"Hey," I said, wiggling my eyebrows in confusion. I dragged my gaze to a very excited Lexi standing next to him "Hi Lexi"

"We brought cookie ingredients," she said as she ran back to Avian's car. Avian chuckled and followed her to open the car door. I stared at them in awe, wondering what Lexi was on about.

Lexi grabbed a paper bag, probably filled with said ingredients, and raced back towards me "See?"

I peeked into the bag, to see actual cookie cutters, about a pound of cookie dough wrapped in plastic and other necessary things.

I glanced up at her in shock.

"I don't know how to bake," I said, scratching the base of the back of my neck nervously. Lexi shrugged, unfazed at my lack of this skill.

"I'll teach you," she yelled in excitement, then ran past me into the house. I heard Avian's laughter and I dragged my gaze from the open door to see Avian struggling with a couple more paper bags.

"What are you guys doing here?" I asked as I helped him with two bags "and what is all this?"

Avian sighed and walked past me towards the house "To answer your first question, Lexi had the brilliant idea that you guys could bake chocolate chip cookies together."

"I'm allergic to chocolate," I cut him off and he glanced at me in shock.

"She is going to be devastated when she finds that out" he said with a smirk.

"I'm kidding," I laughed as we walked into the kitchen to see Lexi struggling to reach the counter. I rushed over and placed the bags on the counter, before picking her up and placing her on the counter as well.

"And to answer your second question, we brought you groceries."

I smiled and peeped into one of the bags, to see a dozen eggs, two cartons of milk and some fruit.

"How did you know?"

He shrugged, his cheek turning light pink as he avoided eye contact "you must have mentioned it."

I nodded, ignoring my instinct to ask more questions, and looked at Lexi

"So you want to teach me how to bake cookies?"

She nodded excitedly and started pulling ingredients out of the bag she had carried in.

"All you need to do is roll out the dough, cut it up and place it on the baking sheets" Avian said with a chuckle as he sat on one of the bar stools in the kitchen "you don't have to start from scratch."

"Well, can you teach me how to cut up the dough?" I said, turning my attention to Lexi. She squealed in excitement, nodding her head, and dragged my hand towards the dough.

I couldn't help but smile as we worked on the dough, Lexi calling out orders for me to follow and me laughing at her attempt to take charge of the situation.

The thing was, anytime I glanced up to peek at what Avian was doing, I always caught him staring intently at me, which ended in me blus.h.i.+ng and ducking my head.

He had watched me the whole time.

And I loved every second of it.