"Shy, you need to eat." Salvador frowned at me as he passed me a plate filled with steak, green beans and mashed potatoes, all lightly covered in gravy. Even though it smelled amazing, my stomach had formed into knots from worry, which made keeping down food challenging.

"I'm sorry, I'm really trying to." I promised before forcing another small piece of meat down my throat. My heart was still racing, and I didn't know how to calm it down. I could hardly believe everything that had transpired in the past few hours, it felt too insane to be true. I had stood up for myself and walked out of my family's lair with my son, and they hadn't been able to stop me. I was still shaking from both the exhilaration of feeling free and the fear of finding out what my family was surely plotting against me.

"NO!" Shouted my son as he pushed away his plate and glared angrily at the green beans that threatened to touch the mashed potatoes. Oliver was already upset about his Friday night routine being interrupted, and his table manners weren't fairing any better.

"Just try one bite." I half begged my son as my cheeks flushed with embarrassment. I felt awful that Oliver was behaving rudely, but thankfully, neither of my friends were offended or upset by it.

"Hey Oliver." Amber smiled at him as she leaned down, closer to his level. "I don't like green beans either," she whispered, as if it were a secret, "but they're good for you." She then coaxed him to try a bite by placing a tiny piece onto his fork and leaving it on the edge of the plate, close to his hand. "It's easier to try if you blend it into the mashed potatoes." Amber then proceeded to dunk a long stalk into the pillowy white cloud that lay on her plate before taking a bite and smiling to show that it tasted good.

At first, my son shook his head and looked away, but after a few minutes passed of everyone around him downing their food, he hesitantly lifted a piece of a green bean up on his fork and licked it.

I couldn't help but smile as he eventually put the piece on his tongue and held it in his mouth. I offered him a glass of milk, and he ended up swallowing the tiny green bean along with his drink.

"Thanks, Amber." I sighed gratefully.

"No problem." She nodded understandingly. "I love working with kids. I used to babysit for the neighbors all the time back in high school."

I could see that, especially since she seemed to act like one at times. I couldn't quite pin down her personality, and that bothered me. She could be so sweet and so fun, but then, in the same breath, turn around and become a liar who over exaggerated for attention. I thought back to Salvador and I's conversation about her, and I could see why he both loved her and had a difficult time with her. She really did seem to change based upon who she was with. Since Oliver was present, she was suddenly childish and trying to relate to my son on his level, which was vastly different from the young woman who was claiming she was in an abusive relationship. I simply hoped to see this side of her more because it was enjoyable.

"Need me to give Oliver a bath?" Amber offered as I stood up to help clear the table. Salvador was already at the sink and was washing dishes.

"Thank you, but I can do that tonight. I'll take you up on that offer at another time."

"You can go, Shy, we can finish cleaning up." Salvador called over to me from the kitchen. I still insisted on helping out by wiping down the table before taking my son to the bathtub. Thankfully, I had already packed pajamas for him in his backpack, along with a toothbrush and toothpaste, so he was prepared for the sleepover.

After Oliver's bath, I lay my son down on a futon that Salvador had moved down into the basement bedroom as a makeshift bed. Unfortunately, Oliver threw a few fits and cried a lot because I had broken his routine and he wasn't used to spending the night in a new place, but eventually, he wound himself down and fell asleep under a few thick blankets.

Before sneaking out of the room and closing the door behind me, I glanced back at it one last time. It contained the belongings that meant the most to me; my computer, which lay atop a small folding table in the right most corner of the room, my art supplies, which stayed altogether in a large, black bag in a small closet with sliding doors near the back right corner, and my favorite outfits, which were hung up in that same closet. There was a small dresser with three drawers in the back left corner behind the futon, which I had put my undergarments along with extra outfits for Oliver. My son and I's important paperwork, such as birth certificates, vaccination records, social security card, and passports were all in my backpack, which lay in the closet next to the art supplies. I hadn't taken any chances, I had to prepare as if I were to never set foot in Steven's house ever again, and I hoped I would never have to. If I had the opportunity to go back, I would only need to grab extra supplies for Oliver. 

Things will get better. I told myself. Nothing will ever change if I don't take charge of my life and change my situation. With that in mind, I closed the door quietly after myself and tip toed upstairs to talk with Salvador and Amber, who were both awake and ready to practice music with me.

"Am I doing the right thing?" I had asked them nervously as I tuned my violin. All I could do was wonder and fret over Steven involving a different pastor into our marital affairs, and what my family was going to try next on me to get me to submit to them once more.

"Yes." Salvador nodded empathetically. "You are. Keep holding your ground."

"I had to do this with my family too." Amber chimed in as she plucked the strings on her bass. "It sucks ass to go through, but we're here for you."

"Thank you guys." I breathed. After receiving comforting words from them, I kicked every other thought out of my mind and just focused on the songs we had been learning. My friends both knew that I just wanted to distract myself as much as possible from tomorrow's worries, so Salvador started off with a song on his guitar, then Amber joined in, and lastly, me with my fiddle...

It felt good to fall into the rhythm of the song, feel the bass pounding in my chest, the folk punk music enchanting me as we changed dynamics from sweet and long flowing notes on our instruments to all of us playing together on the beat. It had a "forward moving march" feel to it. Once we ended the song, we all exchanged glances and burst out laughing.

"That was so wonderful." I exclaimed giddily. "Salvador, I love how your songs have such dramatic changes in them, it's almost like you combined two melodies into one."

"Thank you." He blushed slightly before taking a dramatic bow.

I noticed Amber batting her eyelashes expectantly towards me, so I decided to add flirtatiously, "Amber, you totally rocked that song. I loved the solo you came up with on the spot too." 

"Aww." She smiled widely. "You're so sweet!"

Now I was the one turning red in the face. She looked too freaking adorable when she became excited, and it was difficult to peel my eyes away from her cuteness. It was in that moment that I remembered my list of band name suggestions that I had wanted to share with them.

"Guys, I have some band name ideas..." I grinned shyly as I pulled out my phone and dug into my notes section. I had used a random name generator on the internet a few days prior and had written down the best sounding combinations from a list of five words it spit out. It was a small list since I was picky, but we had to start somewhere.

"Alright, miss Shy, what do you have for us?" Salvador asked me playfully.

"How about..." I scrolled down to where my list began, "Teal Peach?"

"Oooh! That sounds cool!" Amber declared loudly.

"Well, it's settled then." Salvador teased. "That was super easy."

"No, wait, I wanna hear more." Amber whined. "Shy, what else do you have?"

"Broken Glass and Power Tools." I laughed the second I read it aloud. At the time it had sounded cool, but now, it seemed a bit pretentious. "Okay, maybe not for the name of our band, but it could be a song title." I mused aloud.

"Yeah, no." Salvador winked. "What else do you have?"

"What're the Odds?"

They both gave me curious looks.

"...Because, we all have odd stringed instruments...?" I explained timidly as I winced at their puzzled glances. Salvador had a seven stringed guitar, I had a five stringed violin, and Amber had a five stringed bass, so I figured writing a pun based on that would be worth tossing in the air as an idea.

"Ah, I see." Chuckled Salvador. "Cute, but no."

"Kitty Cat!" Amber suddenly exclaimed.

"No." Salvador and I both blurted out together in unison.

"Aww..." She sighed and pouted her lip out slightly. "I liked it." She muttered to herself under her breath.

"Got anymore good ones, aside from Teal Peach?" Salvador asked with his black eyebrows raised.

"I like the last one a lot, but it sounds too cool for us."

"Which is...?" Salvador beckoned for me to spit it out.

"Demolition Riot."

Salvador's face suddenly lit up with excitement. "That's pretty badass." He then nudged my shoulder playfully. "Maybe it's too cool for you at the moment, but I think you could grow into that name." He gave me an encouraging smile. "I like that one a lot."

"Me too!" Amber jumped up and faced an invisible crowd before talking into an imaginary microphone. "Please welcome to the stage, Demolition Riot, your new favorite band."

"I think that one's the winner." Salvador grinned. "It's very fitting."

"Yay!" I exclaimed happily. "We figured it out!"

"And just in time for you two to go to bed." Salvador looked down at the clock on his phone and frowned. "It's already midnight. I need to log back in and keep working, Amber has work in the morning, and, well, Shy, you have your meeting tomorrow."

I was suddenly dragged back down to reality, and it hit hard as I thought back to Steven's vicious grin towards me from the bottom of the staircase at my parent's house. I had to see him again tomorrow, and I had to plea my case to a new pastor I had never met before. I didn't know what to expect, and the uncertainty about my freedom was what terrified me more than anything else.

"Shy, are you okay?" Salvador noticed how my body had tensed up in a matter of seconds and came over to hold me. "It'll be fine, I'll look after Oliver tomorrow," he whispered comfortingly into my ear, "you just need to be strong and not let them bully you into submission. No matter what this pastor says, you're not wrong for wanting to be treated well."

"Wanna sleep with me?" Amber offered as she joined in and hugged me as well. I nodded as I wiped tears from my eyes. I had never had this much compassion and empathy shown towards me before. It felt too good to be true, and I was grateful that I was with them.

After getting myself ready for bed, I hopped into Salvador and Amber's queen sized bed and snuggled up to her. She smelled like strawberries, which was lovely and soothing. Amber held me gently as I tried to coax my stressed and exhausted body to relax. Although Salvador had received a lot of phone calls for translating Portugeuse throughout the morning, he came to cuddle us both whenever his conversations had ended and had kept the ringer on low so we wouldn't be awoken by his work. Eventually, he logged off and joined us in bed for the rest of the night.

It felt really lovely to be in between my two best friends and be cuddled from both sides. This was nothing like being with Steven, I couldn't even compare it in any other way other than it being night from day. I was falling for them both, I felt my heart beat faster in my chest as Salvador lay on my right and Amber on my left, both of them holding me with one of their arms. For the first time in my life, I felt protected, invincible even. It made a world of difference to have them both in my corner. I prayed for tomorrow to go well before finally drifting off into a colorful, dream filled slumber.