We weren’t even off her street before she was already on her phone. I heard the loudness of the voice on the other side.“911. What’s your emergency.”“What are you doing?” I tried pulling the phone out of Morgan’s hand. We never called the police when shit like this happened. More and likely, they would take Hope away, and that was something I couldn’t live with.“I want to report a domestic dispute.” Morgan calmly spoke into the phone. She gave the operator the address, and I heard them say that officers would be notified.“What the fuck, Morgan!” I yelled a bit too loud after she’d hung up. “I never said to call them.”Morgan looked at me like I’d gone bonkers. “Ethan, someone has to help. What if it’s really serious?”I shook my head, shit just got serious. “We never call the cops. They can take Hope a

My mind and my mouth weren’t working together. I didn’t mean to say all those words to Morgan, but it came out anyway.“I hate you.” Hope rushed towards me and started hitting me in the stomach with her fists. “You were mean to Morgan and made her go away forever.”Deep down I knew I deserved this beating. I had a split second of insanity and probably just lost the best thing I had going in my life.The cops left my side once they saw I wasn’t going to be a threat to anyone. I heard the sound of their patrol car pulling away and knew I wasn’t going to have to face Ed ever again unless I had to testify in court on behalf of my mother.“Ethan, why don’t you come over here and sit down so we can explain everything to you.” Ms. Eileen lightly touched my arm as she held Hope back from her tiny fists beating my abdomen.I slumped down on the sofa with my mom sitting next to me. Her mother,

I grabbed my suit jacket and threw it into the car. I hated dressing up for this bullshit, but once I was nominated to be Claudia’s escort for this winter dance thing, I sort of couldn’t back out. I felt like I had to play the part of two different people, the one that everyone at school wanted me to be, and then I could relax and finally be the real me with Morgan.I had three hours to go until I could see her again. I was leaving the dance at nine, regardless of what Claudia said or did. I was hoping that Morgan and I could spend some alone time together, maybe, just maybe get past that third base mark that we’d been stuck on for the past month.“Ready.” Hope jumped into the passenger seat pulling me back out of my fantasy.“Got everything?” I motioned to her backpack that she had filled with whatever she and her friend was going to be doing tonight.“Yep.” Hope waved me on to get going.I had

A slamming door made my eyes snap wide open. The sunlight streamed through the window indicating that it was some time after eight o’clock in the morning.“Morgan.”I heard Clarissa’s voice from downstairs.Shit!Shit!Shit!I rolled off the bed with the blanket wrapped around me leaving Ethan fully exposed…Oh. My. God. What a beautiful sight.“Hey.” Ethan squinted his eyes open, looked around as if he didn’t remember where he was, then focused on me. “What’s wrong?” Ethan stood up and pulled on his boxers and pants.The stomping of someone coming up the wooden staircase caught both of our attention.“Fuck!” Ethan grabbed his shirt and started to button it up.I ran into my closet with the blanket still wrapped around me, tripping over the edges that hung on the ground, nearly falling, but I saved face by catching myself on the

Just like the previous night, one that still makes me all giddy inside, today was really lovely. I got to spend time with Ethan before he went to his soccer meeting and then spent time with Hope, who I now considered my little sister.Hope and I danced around to some music, watched some TV, played fix-up with makeup and clothes, then ate a small dinner before I took her back home. Her grandmother had come back and was pleased to see Hope and me getting along so good. It was so weird to see their household operating at a semi-normal level now that Ed was gone and Ethan’s mom was going to therapy. Having their grandmother there really helped out their situation, and both Ethan and Hope seemed like two different people without all the added stress put on them.I went back home and enjoyed just having some me time. I text back and forth with Tara and Ranae for a while, got caught up on some debate notes for our upcoming meet, and took a long hot shower, wishing Ethan