It's late August in 1997, I'm eighteen and fresh out of high school. I was living with Ken, my abusive now ex, my dad died in April and I had to get away from that house so I ran to his. But... I'm back now. I couldn't take the shit from him and his bitch ass sister anymore. I was cut off from my friends and my family. It was him and his super religious family all day every day. I felt like I was in a cult. Maddy helped me get out quickly and get back to my moms' house. My mother and I already have a strained relationship, I was the kid she didn't want, but home sweet home... or so they say. Maddy had the bright idea to go out tonight. I haven't been out or seen our group of friends in six months, thanks to Ken. He hated all of my friends. He said they were trash. He was upper class, and most of us were the blue-collar type. That made them less in his eyes. He let me know every day that he was slumming by being with me. Super fun, right? "Are you ready?" I he

 *RING...RING...RING...*  "FUCK! It's 7:30 in the morning. Who the hell is calling me right now!?!" I'm growling as I look at the clock next to my bed and reach to grab the phone.  "Sup Bitch... I've heard about you this morning." you can hear the smile in Chuck's voice. "What are you talking about? And why are you calling me right now... I'm going to kick your ass later." I reply coldly "So... there's someone at my house right now. He's been calling everyone we know trying to find you. Lucky for them, they showed up at the right place. What the hell did you do last night?" Chuck's tone has switched to sly mocking.  I'm going over the details in my head. There's nothing standing out. Dancing. Laughing. Late dinner... (or early breakfast, however you want to look at it.) Just the normal stuff. Nothing worth remembering..... Dane... That was worth remembering. The scent of his cologne floods back into my senses. 

The next few days fly by like a dream. I've learned Dane and Ant are roommates, which explains why they're always together. Dane and I rarely get any alone time. It almost feels like Ant is jealous. I'm not sure of what, but his behavior doesn't feel right to me. Maddy is still annoyed with me for leaving with Dane that night, but she's starting to get over it. Turns out Maddy met her own "Casanova" Saturday night. Frank, Ants buddy, is an interesting guy. He's on the shorter side, about 5'7, golden tanned skin, a shaved head with constant 5 o'clock shadow. But it's the beady brown rat eyes for me though. He always looks like he's up to something. It's almost unsettling.  Maddy said it was the uniform that got her. He's a volunteer firefighter and had a picture of himself on top of a car putting out a house fire in his wallet... who does that? Maddy thinks he is the sexiest man walking, I think he's probably on a list somewhere. But she's happy. So I'm happy for her. 

I was dropped off at home so Ant could go on his "date", and I could shower and get some much-needed sleep. I lay in bed going over the events of the past two days, over and over. How can I be falling for him so quickly? This still doesn't make any sense. What if it scares him off? I've got to try and distance myself.  *RING*RING* I check the caller ID, a little disappointed, it's Scott. Not the name I wanted to see, but I haven't talked to him really since he helped me get all of my stuff from Ken's house. "Hello" I answer. "Hey, what are you doing this weekend?" His voice is full of energy and excitement. "Um, nothing that I'm aware of or have plans for. Why what's up?" I reply "So my mom is taking me and my brother to Queenstown for the weekend. Do you want to go?" He asks. "It'll be fuuuuun. You'll have your own room and everything, but we can stay up watch movies, eat bad food and go hang out on the Riverwalk. The hotel we are going

After a long night of terrible movies and worse snacks, we finally get up and moving around 9:30. "Morning sunshine," Scott says. "Ready for some shenanigans?" "Sure, let me go shower real quick," I say yawning. "I'm gonna go next door and check on my brother and let mom know we are headed downstairs for the day." He says getting up from the bed. "I'll get dressed and stuff over there.""Ok, sounds good. See ya in a bit." I get up and grab my bag and take it to the bathroom. I check my pager to see if I missed any pages, nothing. Hmmm. Ok. Hopefully, they had fun doing whatever it was Ant had planned. I finish my shower and put on some light makeup and get dressed. Scott is back in the room and ready to go. "You look nice," he says with a warm smile. "Thanks for being so patient with me while I was sick. I had fun last night. But you are grounded from movie selection from now on. Those were God awful." He laughed."He