Dereck's Pov:

I pulled back breathless. Kissing Vin always left me like that. Probably because we always get a little carried away. Slowly reality set back in and I shook my head.

We're in the cafeteria full of people and Im siting on his lap in full make out mode. I felt my cheeks heat and breathed slowly to lose the blush. Finally I raised my eyes from his gorgeous face and looked around.

The entire cafeteria was staring at us....

Wait no they were staring by us. I followed their open mouthed stares and felt my jaw flop open. I patted Vin's shoulder and nodded in that direction. His mouth flopped open.

"What the hell is she doing?" He whispered horrified, I shrugged.

You never know what the hell is going through Ariel's mind. Vin did that loud whistle thing that I hate and I squirmed. He clamped his hands on my hip.

"Stop moving. My soldier's already saluting your flag" He hissed.

I blushed and tried to stay still so his now very obvious problem wouldn't worsen but the grin I had widened to almost cheek splitting proportions. At least my jeans and untucked button up will hide my raging stiffy.

"What the hell are you doing?" He sounded so horrified I laughed.

Ariel stopped the obscene table humping and sat down like it was no big deal.

She started laughing when Vin flung his burger bun at her. "What? I didn't want to be the only one not getting some!"She snapped patting her hair in place and fanning herself as if she were hot and bothered.

Our table cracked up and I just shook my head.

"You mean Sammy's holdin out on ya? Hahaha that's what you get for being such a pervert!" I taunted.

"You're lucky you got the frisky Ford!" She fake complained.

Vin groaned. "No sex talk about my sister."

We ignored him.

"Nahh, she's plenty frisky you just aren't as hot as I am!" I teased. She flipped me off.

"Maybe. I'm lucky to get a little 'slap and tickle' a few times a week. How am I supposed to deal with that? A girl has needs ya know?" She ranted then grinned. "Naw I'm just messing with y'all. That woman cant keep her hands off all my hotness! I gotta tie her down just to get the upper hand!" She chirped.

Vin banged his head on my shoulder. "Ariel if you were a dude I'd beat your ass for saying that about Sammy." He complained.

She just shrugged. "If I was a dude, I wouldn't be saying that cause your sister doesn't roll that way." She said in a duh tone; completely missing the point.

"Just be happy I love y'all enough to make an ass outta myself so your little lovefest didn't get posted on youporn or something." She said stealing my fries.

I rolled my eyes "We weren't getting that X rated." Vin pipped up.

"Right and you two arent trying to play off the raging boners you have. Oooh by the way, hot damn y'all are packing some serious heat!" She snickered and made a show of staring at our crotches.

"And on that disturbing note I'm gonna take my brithday swag abd put it up. You coming Vin?"

"Nope but I bet he wishes he was, probably in your mouth!" Ariel hissed throwing her head back and cackling at my irratated look. I shook my head but I knew she was just being her crazy self so I couldnt be mad at her.

We got up and the three of us took all my birthday goodies to Vin's truck. Ariel skipped ahead dancing around us.

"Seriously who would have thought 'frozen hearted Ford' could be such a sweetie?!? You guys are seriously pantie droppin cute together. You know how many girls are jealous of you Dereck? Like all! You too Vinny, they go positively green with envy when Dereck goes gaga and kisses the sh*t outta ya! You're the school's IT couple." She declared

Vin blushed. "I'm not that gushy over him. Am I?"

I smiled and wrapped my arms around him. "Nope, just perfect!" I said nipping his lip.

"I love you Vin, more then anything in this world." I said honestly.

He smiled his dazzling smile and sucked my bottom lip gently. "Back atcha baby." He cooed swatting my butt playfully.

We strolled into class holding hands. Girls came up to me and told me how sweet they thought it was for Vin to set all that up just to surprise me.

Mitch and Jared finally stopped and talked to us.

"So that's why you guys avoided me all morning?" I asked.

"Sorry bro but you know Jared cant keep a secret to save his life. He would have blabbed and ruined all my boy's hard work. So my job was to keep him away."

Jared made an annoyed sound when Mitch said that.

We sat down and Lisa hugged us. "Happy birthday Dereck! Happy Dereck's birthday, Vincent!" She chirped. Mr McNeely came in and began class. About half way through his intensely boring lecture the intercom crackled on.

"Excuse me Mr McNeely. Please send Dereck Smith, Vincent Ford and Ariel Greene to the office." The disembodied voice said. The class oooohed and whispered about us probably getting in trouble because of the PDA at lunch.

We grabbed our stuff and headed to the principals office.

"Hell yeah, maybe we'll get suspended again. We can take another trip to Colorado. Bet there's enough snow to ski now." Vin said happily as he pushed the main office door open.

"Doubt it. More like a month of detention for trying to suck each others face off." Ariel retorted.

"I'd rather get detention for actually making out then dry humping the cafeteria table. That just screams desperate." I shot back.

She flipped me off. "It's called awesome. Dork wad." She walked over the principals actual office door and banged on it.

"Yo, we're here for our punishment. We've decided a good, hard spanking is in order" She yelled to the door.

Mine and Vin's laugh died when the door opened to reveal a very unimpressed Veronica.

"Ariel must you always act so uncouth? You are a lady and should act accordingly." She said disapprovingly.

Ariel snorted. "I'd rather be unladylike and uncouth, whatever the hell that means. Then a frigid bitch that sits back while her children are mistreated and abused." Ariel said in the same disapproving tone that Veronica had used.

I watched Vin's reaction through this. The only hint he gave that he was actually alive was the muscles tensing when he saw his mother. Otherwise he was stone still.

Veronica sighed. "I've pulled you three out of school for the rest of the day. Maybe we could all go get a coffee and discuss my frigidness."

Vin glanced down at his watch then back at Veronica. "Hmm cant now. How about at a quarter to never gonna f*cking happen."

"Mr Ford" Snapped the Assistant principle. "All of you in my office now!"

We all filed in and Vin pulled me onto his lap. Mrs Chafing raised a brow at that.

He shrugged. "You don't have enough chairs. I'm just sharing mine." He answered her unspoken question. She rolled her eyes but had a small smile.

She cleared her throat and turned serious again. "Look guys. Normally we don't allow a parent to check out a student and his companions. But you're all 18 now so technically you can all sign yourselves out. SO that's covered."

She leaned forward in her chair and leveled her gaze at the three of us.

"Look I realize that I don't know the full story about what happened between you all. I'm assuming from the bits I've heard from y'all and what Mrs. Ford has said herself that it was pretty rough. I can't make you go and deal with this. But I can tell y'all that there are things that she feels it's important to talk about. I can also tell you that the adult thing to do in this situation is to go and listen. You don't have to forgive and forget but you should at least give it a try."

She shrugged and shot me a look and nodded in Vin's direction.

Ariel rolled her eyes. "I'll go but I cant promise not to physically harm her. Or maybe sit back and file my nails while one of these two do a southern style backyard beat down." She said in a bored tone.

Vin snorted. "Don't look at me. Unlike Peter, I don't hit or abuse those weaker than me, especially women."

They looked at me. "I'm not hitting your mom if that's what the look's about jackass." I huffed making him laugh.

"You think we should go don't you?" he asked watching me closely.

I sighed. "Look, I'm not saying she wasn't wrong for looking the other way. Cause like I told her. Screw her worries, she should have put you and Sams first. But she has been trying to reach out. She's making an effort even though you're not making it easy. So go. See what she has to say. If you don't like it and still wanna freeze her out then I'll drop it."

I leaned into his ear and whispered. "Look your mom's still alive and maybe that's why I don't want you to waste this opportunity to patch things up. I know first hand what it feels like to lose your parents and when they're gone there's no saying the things you never got to. So I'm sorry if I'm harping on this but I don't want you to wake up one day when the anger has faded and it be to late to fix this."

He squeezed me when my voice wobbled a little.

That's why I want him to try and reconcile with his mom. Because I don't want him to feel the guilt of all the things left unsaid. I feel that and I wasn't even really fighting with my parents the night they died. I was just joking and ragging on them.

But when I think back to that day I wish that I'd told them I understood why they worked so hard and that I loved them and was glad they were my parents. That I'd miss them for the rest of my life.

He gave my hand a little squeeze and looked at his mom. "Fine, we'll go. You can thank Dare for that, but that doesn't mean anything will come from our little meeting. We're not gonna hug or hold hands and sing coom by ya. Just a drink, a chat and then on our merry little way."

Her hopeful smile died a little but she nodded and opened the door.

"My driver can take us wherever y'all want to go." She said as we walked out.

Vin shook his head. "You and your driver can follow us. We'll take our truck to Starbucks"

Ariel jumped on my back for a piggyback ride. "Shot gun!" She shouted in my ear as we walked off. "No, No one rides b*tch in my truck but Dare." Vin called as he clicked the unlock button on the key fob.

I rolled my eyes. "No body calls it riding b*tch anymore dip shit." I said rolling my eyes.

We pulled up to Starbucks and got out. When we walked in we were surprised to see Sams sitting at a table with a few guys obviously studying.

Ariel grinned and sauntered over to her. We followed sure she was gonna do something stupid.

"Hey there sexy, I'm legal, extremely flexible and can do things with my tongue that'll have you dripping for hours." She purred trailing her fingers across her cleavage. Sammy grinned and played along.

"Really? You'd have to be pretty talented because my girlfriend can do some really amazing things." Sammy purred back.

The guys at her table had their mouths gaping open and had yet to even blink.

"How about a sample?" Ariel said in a throaty voice. She smoothly picked her leg up and straddled Sammy leaning in and kissing her like the world was about to end.

Vin closed his eyes and shook his head. I looked at the four guys that were literally drooling and laughed.

Ariel pulled back and giggled. "Hey baby, miss me?" She asked getting up.

Sammy grinned. "You know it Sweet cheeks."

She looked at me and Vin. "Bro you can look now, no more lesbo nookie snatchin going down." She teased.

She hugged him and then jumped on me. "Sexy where you been all my life? Fancy trying to turn me straight?" She joked.

Vin picked her up and set her down. "Back off horn dog. Cool your hormones. He's mine." He grinned and flicked her nose.

She giggled and curled her arm around Ariel. "Oh sh*t sorry guys" She said to her group.

"This is my girlfriend Ariel and my brother Vincent and his forever and ever and always life partner Dereck. No gay cracks because believe me, either one of them could beat y'all down blind folded and damn near hog tied." She said proudly.

"Sweet cheeks, boys, this is my psychology study group. Darren, John, Matt and Samson. They wouldn't gay bash. I just like bragging about how awesomely bad ass y'all are. They're pretty chill people."

The door chimed and we turned to look. Veronica stepped in and shot us a small wave.

"What. the. f*ck" Sams whimpered. She gently pushed Ariel behind her and looked out the door. Probably expecting Peter.

While Veronica made her way to us Vin quickly explained. "Sorry Sammy, I didn't even think about it. She's here to meet us. He's not with her. She said she wanted to explain herself and you know how forgiving Dare is. We'll go some where else so you don't have to see her."

He finished just as Veronica got to us. She looked so happy and her eyes had lit up when they saw Sammy. She was always closer to her parents then Vin was.

"Hi Samantha. It's good to see you." Veronica said in an almost whisper. Sams looked taken aback.

"Hello mother." She said simply.

"Would you like to join us for a drink? I tried getting a hold of you earlier but you weren't on campus. I figured your brother could tell you everything but since you're here I'd love it if you could spare me a few minutes. That is if you can take time away from your friends and studying." Veronica said hopefully.

Ariel stepped back in front of Sams and whispered something to her. Sams nodded and excused herself from her study group.

Ariel paused by Veronica. "Hurt her again and I'll give you the beat down your husband gave her!" She hissed.

We all sat at a big round corner table and waited to begin talking until we had our drinks. Veronica cleared her throat and dabbed at her eyes.

"First I want to say thank you to both Ariel and Dereck. I know that they are a big part of the reason you two agreed to talk to me. I made several mistakes as a mother while y'all were growing up. I wish more then anything that I could go back and change those things. I know you probably hate me and with good reason. I shouldn't have stood by and let so many things happen. I should have been more involved with your daily lives. Especially you Vincent. But you were always happier at the Smith's house then home with us. I didn't have the heart to pull you away from them. They were good people and I was extremely sorry to hear of their passing Dereck. But so very grateful you survived. It would have killed Vincent to have lost you. You've always been the most important person in his life. I guess I should have seen you two becoming a couple. I might have if I hadn't been so wrapped up in my own issues. But you four need to know that I fully support you. I have no ill will towards y'all because of who you love and are fortunate enough to have love you back. Real love in any form is something truly precious and I don't judge anyone's relationship when mine is far from ideal." She did a small laugh and looked at Ariel.

"Ariel I may give you a hard time but that has more to do with jealousy I think. I'm honestly jealous of the fact that for good or bad you are who you are and the world can kiss your ass if they don't like it. You make me remember the girl I was before I was turned into the 'frigid bitch' I've become. I miss that girl very much. But as long as you make Samantha happy then I'll be glad to welcome you into this family. Southern style beat down threats and all. In fact they just make me like you more. I'm glad you're so protective of my girl. She deserves to have someone take care of her."

Ariel looked floored by this admission. I didn't blame her. That was some serious high praise for the Ice Queen. Veronica flicked her gaze to me and smiled a big bright smile.

"Dereck I couldn't ask for a better person for my son to be with. You're kind and sweet and loving. You can balance out his quirkiness and understand him in a way that no one else ever has. It's so clear to me, how much you two care for each other. You embrace his playful and silly side when others might try to change him. You're smart and very attractive and I could go on and on but I don't want Vinny to think I'm hitting on his hottie. But what I love most about you is I know no matter what happens you're gonna be there for him and treat him right. You may not be as flamboyant with your love declarations as Vincent but I'm sure they are no less heartfelt. My son is so very lucky to have such a wonderful young man in his life."

She rubbed hers eyes and focused on her drink as she spoke again. "You have no idea how much I wish I could go back and change that night. It's no excuse but I really am truly terrified of your father. Have been for years. I never wanted to tell you but your one night facing your father's wrath is something I've been through many times. It's over now though. I've left him and filed for a divorce. I could take losing everything but, losing you kids. Even if I haven't shown it very well in the past you two are my reason for living and my pride and joy."

Whoa that is something I didn't expect. Vin's hands had tightened into fists and I smoothed out his fist and gave him my hand to hold. I could feel the tension in his body and I wished I could take it away.

He spoke first. Well more like growled. "HE was hitting you and you said nothing? You hid it from us? Why would you cover for that bast*rd? Why not have his ass put in jail?"

"He wasn't always like that. He used to be a good man. It took me a long while to realize that the man I knew was gone. Then I was ashamed, lonely and depressed. I thought it was my fault. If I was a better wife, hostess, looked younger or dressed sexier. You name it and I tried it. I've been with your father for 30 years. I just couldn't start over, I've been with him since I was 15. I didn't know how to be without him. Of course I hid it from y'all, I hid it from everyone. No one would believe me anyway. He's a powerful man and if I had tried to put him away nothing would have come from it but more trouble for me. Besides until the day he hit you and your sister he'd never done anything to y'all. So I didn't want to tarnish Samantha's idea of who her father was and Vincent, you and him butted heads enough as it was. I knew that if you found out you and your father would have gotten into a knock down drag out fight. I did what I thought was best to keep the peace in our family. But just in case things got to where either of you needed to be away from us, I put the five grand a week in your accounts out of my money. I started to put it in there every week since the first time your father broke one of my bones. I never told him about it because that was so you'd have money to survive if something should happen to me or your father turned his anger on y'all"

Sams was in tears and rushed over to her mom. "Oh mommy I'm so sorry we didn't help." She cried.

Veronica hugged her tight and shushed her. "It's okay baby girl it wasn't your job to rescue me and I failed at my only job of keeping you safe and for that I cant tell y'all how sorry I am. But a very wise young man told me to cut the shit and stop with the excuses and try harder if I wanted to keep my babies. So I've left Peter and I'm not going back. I'm gonna do everything in my power to set things right with you guys. I got a nice little condo with a very nice security system installed. I know it'll take some time but I hope that one day we can be as close as a mother and her children should be."

Sams had sat back down and Veronica took a drink. "But before that can happen I'm gonna go away for a little while. Just until your father has had time to cool off. So he isn't tempted to do something stupid that we'll both regret. I need you guys to be safe before I can go though. So please, I'm begging you to stay away from your father. Do not go anywhere alone with him. If he tries to contact you please be cautious. I wouldn't put it passed him to try and use you guys to get to me. That man is truly insane when he's angry so be on your safeguard."

She looked at Vin levelly. "I'm talking more to you here. I know how angry you are at your father but don't let that make you dumb enough to search him out for a fight. If he shows up at your house you call the cops right away. Do not engage him in a pissing contest. I couldn't stand for you or your sister to get hurt. Promise me you'll leave this alone and let the court system take care of it." She pleaded

He sighed. "Fine I'll keep away but if the law doesn't handle this then I'm gonna take care of it the old fashion southern boy style. A Texas sized beat down with no holds barred and a shallow grave in the boondocks"