Aaron's POV:

"Wake up little brother"

I slowly shake my head out of dreamland, my eyes opening as I look at the blurry figure standing over me. At first, I can't recognize him, but my vision clears up and I see my older brother standing over me.

"Caleb?", I ask and he gives a lopsided grin, pushing his glasses up on his nose.

"You were asleep when I came home yesterday and you looked so cute that I couldn't bring myself to disturb you.", he says, ruffling my hair and sitting beside me on my bed. Then he hands me a newspaper that had been in his hand.

I sit up, wrapping the duvet around me and rub my eyes.

"Need to wear your glasses?", Caleb asks, which is something that we often joke about.

"Actually, I don't wear those glasses again"

There is silence at my words and Caleb's eyes are trained on my face.

"I saw this yesterday", he finally says, gesturing towards the newspaper on my bed.

I pick the paper up. On the first page, I see Kayla, holding up her first-place trophy as she stands beside me, and the memories of yesterday rush back to me.

I kissed Kayla Barnes.

Kayla Barnes kissed me.

Suddenly, I want to rush to school and see her, but I remember with sadness that it is a Saturday. No school and no Kayla for two whole days.

I flip the next page of the newspaper, and right there is a picture of Kayla with her friends, and of me kissing Kayla, and of all the contestants and their art...

Wait what?

I quickly go back to the picture of me kissing Kayla unable to help the huge grin on my face. In case I had any doubts about whether yesterday was a dream or not, its right there in the papers for everyone to see. Kayla and I are together.

"Mom and Dad saw the paper", Caleb's voice pierces through my thoughts.

For a moment I feel a fission of fear stab through me. My parents saw the picture of me kissing Kayla. I glance again at the picture. There is no fake dress and pearls this time – she is dressed in her usual untidy school uniform, collar undone and tattoo peeking out.

But this is the real Kayla. This is the Kayla that I am in love with, and I wouldn't change that for anything – not even for the approval of my parents.

Caleb looks at me with a strange expression.

"You know what is waiting for you down those stairs right?", he asks, quizzically raising his brows and I nod.

Caleb looks at me with a smile and ruffles my hair. "I can tell you really like her. I want you to know that I am behind you a hundred percent."

He gives me a smile as he gets off my bed, and I can't help but return his smile. Today may not go well, but at least I know that my brother is on my side.

"Get dressed and let's go down", Caleb says throwing my sheets off my body. "It's going to be ugly, so we might as well get it over with."

🏈🏈🏈

Caleb was right – it was ugly.

My parents yelled and screamed and my mom even cussed me out – something that has never happened before since she prides herself on keeping calm and associates cuss words with lack of self-control.

"I knew she was a bad influence", my mom yells as she paces the kitchen, newspaper in one hand. She barely manages to avoid walking into the coffee table which is something she has almost walked into at least twice this morning. "Look at those tattoos. I'm sure she isn't even planning to go to any university!"

"Horrible influence on our son", my dad agrees. "Breaking his glasses, dumping Alicia and getting back with her – he is just setting himself up for failure. And he is ACTUALLY KISSING HER"

"I'm right here you know. Maybe rather than attack her you could get to know her for who she is."

My parents stop their pacing and stare at me as if I've grown an extra head.

"And now he's even talking back", my mother gasps as if I have committed the most atrocious crime known to mankind.

"This girl is obviously a horrible influence on you.", my dad glares at me, and I fight to hold his stare, but I find my eyes sliding away from his face. "We are horribly disappointed in you Aaron", he says, shaking his head, and I bite back the urge to cry.

But Caleb stands in front of me. "That's enough", he says.

My parents seem to step back, their faces a look of pure astonishment. Of all of us, Caleb was probably the most willing to obey my parent's rules, probably because he is the first born and those were the only rules he knew. For him to stand against my parents is such a big move.

"Aaron has a right to love who he wants without interference from both of you, and he has a right not to wear fake glasses if he doesn't want to."

My parents don't say anything so Caleb continues.

"You've forced your will on all of us. You forced me to study law, but it's just a good thing that I actually like law or else both of you would have made my life absolutely miserable. Now you're trying to force Aaron to study law, even though he is obviously going to be very unhappy doing it, but you'll let him be unhappy all in the name of 'looking out for your son'. And now you are trying to ruin his love life by making him give up the girl he loves. Do you think that makes you good parents?"

My parents are opening and closing their mouths like fish out of water, and it is a while before they manage to close their mouths which are dangling open in shock.

My mom is the first to speak.

"How dare you talk to us this way?", she yells in Caleb's direction, and I notice him flinch a little, but his eyes don't waver for a second. "And you", she says, turning to me. "I don't want to ever hear you talk about football again in this house. I did not raise you to become a failure."

"How would you even know if I was a failure?", I question angrily. "You've never attended a single one of my games, you've never seen me practice you haven't even held meetings with my coach. I am good – and being a footballer doesn't make you a failure.

I barely finish getting the words out of my mouth before I feel a sting across my face. My mother had slapped me.

Dazed, I stare at her, and I run my hands across my face. My mother has never slapped me before. For a moment her hard eyes waver before returning to their original stone cold form.

"You will apologise this instant", she yells at me. "Or we wont even out you through college."

I stare at my mother, her eyes cold, her face red with anger. Vaguely, I remember a time when she would play with me, when I felt loved. But those times are as far away as the snowcapped peaks of Everest.

I turn around and walk out, out of the room, out of the house. I can hear my parents yelling at me to come back, and Caleb's voice pleading behind me, but I don't look around and I don't turn back.

I enter into my car and drive, out of the garage and into the road.

🏈🏈🏈

"And then they threatened not to put me through college", I cry, tears soaking up the fabric of her shirt as I bury into her warmness.

Kayla strokes the back of my hair softly as I continue to cry to her.

As soon as I arrived, Kayla spotted me from the window and rushed over to ask what was wrong. My plan had been to fake it and make it seem like I had come to ask her out on a date or something, but the moment her sweet voice asked me what was wrong, I couldn't help bawling my eyes out to her.

We didn't even go inside. Instead, we sat on the grass leaning against the tree that I used to get into her window yesterday.

"Your parents are so stupid", she says as she runs her hand lightly through my hair. I want to disagree, but I seem to have lost my voice.

Or maybe I realise that she is right. My parents do act stupid.

I nod and she looks over at me with those gorgeous emerald eyes.

I sniff. "I've ruined your shirt", I say, gesturing to the spots in an effort to escape from her piercing yet mesmerizing gaze.

She barely looks at the shirt. "I don't really care", she shrugs. "I'm always ready to lend a shoulder for you to cry on. You were there for me, and now its my turn to be there for you."

That almost sets me off again.

"I was thinking that we could maybe go to the amusement park today?", I say tying to make my voice sound normal, but Kayla sees through it right away.

"Maybe another day", she says with a wave of her hand. "Right now though, I just want to spend quality time making my boyfriend feel better."

I have nothing to say to that, so to prevent myself from doing something stupid, I bury my face in the crook of her shirt and she pulls me in close, giving me a kiss on the cheek.

And I release that while everything may not go smoothly all the time, I will have Kayla to be with me. Together we can get through it all.