"Baxlyn! Where are you?" I heard Mrs. Standes yelling.

"Coming ma! I've got to go. Thanks for a wonderful day," Baxlyn said turning away.

"It was all your idea!" I shouted to her.

Walking into the house, my phone began to buzz. I reached into my pocket and pulled it out. The caller ID said:

Lexia xoxo

I hesitated to answer the phone but clicked the ANSWER button. 

"Hello? Tanner?" Lexia asked.

"Hey. What's U-" I began.

"How dare you egg my house! I can't believe you! Wait until your parents find out! Oh, you are so dead!" She roared. I dragged my hand down my face and let out a long deep sigh letting her ramble on. "Well, what do you have to say for yourself?"

"What do I have to say? Well, for one, you're and awful, self-centered brat and ugh...we're done," I informed her.

"What?"

"I am too tired. Don't make me repeat myself."

I heard her choke. "You're kidding right?"

"Nope. You cheated on me for the second time and my mom knows about it too. You don't get a third chance. We are done."  She was in tears now. I had been waiting for this moment for a long time.

She started rambling on and on about she loved me and I was going to regret this. I got tired of listening to her so I just hung up. I felt really good right now. It felt like a thousand pounds were just lifted off my shoulders. I walked into the kitchen to get something to drink but my phone rang again. I thought it was Lexia but when I looked at my screen it said:

Nick

I answered the phone and heard Nick talking to Ashley.

"Babe. Chill it I will be right back." Pause. "Hey Tanner, Ashley is a wreck because she just got an interesting call from Lexia."

Man news spreads quick. "Oh really?"

"Yep." Silence. "So you finally broke up with her?"

"Yep," was all I managed.

"Bro, what are your parents gonna say? You guys were planned to be together before you were born," Nick sounded worried.

"I told my mom. She was pissed but I honestly don't care. It's my life. It feels good to not have her in my life," I admitted.

"Well, congrats. I got to go. Ashley is calling for me."

"C'ya man." I hung up the phone and decided to take a nap.

***

The sound of something hitting my sliding glass door woke me up. It started as a small thud. The it grew louder. Thud. THUD.  I gotten up and walked over to the door. I peeked outside and there, standing in my back yard, was Baxlyn. She was changed into a short grey, tight dress and a red and blue flannel. I slid it open and walked onto the balcony. I was happy to see her until I saw the look on her face. Filled with sadness and concern.

''Come down!" she shouted up. I heard her voice crack.

I ran inside and grabbed a sweatshirt. I rushed back onto the balcony and climbed down, hitting the ground making an oof sound. I felt a hand on my wrist and Baxlyn began dragging me for the woods. Sticks were whacking me against my face. Baxlyn was incredibly strong, pulling me and hurting my wrist. After a few minutes of running, we got into the wide open area where the pond was.

The moon was glistened across the calm pond water. The sound of crickets and the breeze filled my ears. We were both breathing really hard and had our hands on our knees. My wrist hurt bad and there was a hand mark wrapped around it.

"Are you even human?" I breathed. Next thing I knew Baxlyn collapsed to the ground. She began sobbing. 

I hated seeing her like this. What made her feel this way all the time. Why was I the one in this situation. I ran over to her, falling to my knees. I rubbed her back and hushed her.

"I am so sorry. I had no one to talk or go to. I-I can't do this anymore. I wanna run away. I need to run away," Baxlyn stood up and went to turn away but I caught her arm.

"Baxlyn, tell me what's going on right now. I hate seeing you like this and I want to help. You have to trust me," I said pulling her back.

She sat down and I plopped down next to her. She let out a few heavy sighs and looked at me. "Promise you won't tell anyone?"

"I promise."

"When my mother called me in, we were having dinner. All of us were happy and talking until I said something about my parents divorce. Both my mom and my step dad got quiet and cleared their throat. Mom looked at me with sorrow and told me that I had another court meeting soon with my father. He informed the court that he was capable in having a kid now. New house, new job, even a girlfriend. If my father proves himself worthy to the court, I am to move in with him. I just..." she stutters off. "I can't go back with him. He did awful things to me."

I was in full listening mode. "Baxlyn you don't-"

"No, I do. let me finish. When I lived with my father, he would always tell me I am worthless and I was a good for nothing child. I would always be afraid to come home every day so I would stay out late with friends and come home to him sleeping, drunk on the couch. Sometimes I find him awake, waiting for me. He would scream at me or hit me. I would remember nights where he came in my room and would touch me when I was real little. I have always been too afraid to say anything to anyone." She took a breath and continued. "One day after school I was finally gonna get someone to help me so I wrote down the CPS number and accidentally left it on the table. Well my father found it and barged into my room. Completely wasted. I was scared. He had a cigarette in his hand and...he pressed it against me. 5 times in the side. 7 times in the arm."

By then, Baxlyn was in full tears again and lifted her sleeve to show me the burns. I slowly raised my hand to touch them. I softly rubbed my hand across her shoulder tracing the scars down to her elbow. She took in a breath and I felt her shiver. I looked into her eyes and pulled her into my chest. 

"Shhhh. Baxlyn, I am so sorry that happened to you. How awful," I said. I wanted to change the subject. "You know, I have some issues, not as bad as yours but they are worth sharing." She pulled away looking at me.

"Well, since I shared. You share," she said.

"Ugh, when I was about 7, my parents basically had my whole life planned out for me. I was too follow in their footsteps and marry Lexia. They started going on all these business trips and were never home. I had Neena to look over me and all but it was hard. I would cry myself to sleep. When ever my parents were home, they completely ignored me. I started to do bad things to do things to get attention but whatever I did, it was always wrong. My father would yell at me and hit me. He picked my up by my neck once and threw me at the wall. I was about 13 and it was the scariest thing ever. Ever since then, I think he felt awful because she stopped touching me." I pulled down the hem of my shirt to show her the bruises that were left. They never went away. I always thought they stayed there to show me that I could do things better and get out of here. "I am always so afraid to talk to them. Like I can never share anything that's on my mind. They want me to go to Princeton and I got a scholarship there but, they don't know I applied for UCLA and I was accepted. I don't know what they would do if they found out."

"You applied for UCLA?" She asked. 

"Yeah, why?" I gave her a confused look.

"Oh nothing I just applied there too and l also got accepted," she said with a smirk forming across her face.

"Oh really?" We both giggled and laid back.

We sat in silence for about 5 minutes until Baxlyn said something.

"You know all those rumors going around about me at school?" she questioned.

I looked at her. 'Yeah...what about them?"

"You know none of those are true right? Except one..." Baxlyn now looked at me.

"You did not shove firecrackers in your ex's mouth did you?" 

She laughed. "God no. The one that was true is me smashing that girls face into a brick wall."

I gulped. "Why did you do it?" 

"I was stressed out and I found out she was the one who my boyfriend cheated on me with so I...got angry...and yeah. After all that though, I was sent to live with my mom so I regret nothing."

I laughed and she rolled onto her side and looked at me. "You savage," I grinned.

"What can I say? I was a strong one," she said, laying her head on my shoulder.

"Was?"

"I was strong but you've made me weak."

At this I rested my hand on her cheek and pulled her face into mine and pressed my lips to hers. My eyes drooped closed. I moved my hands to her hips. Her hands moved to the back of my neck. I held her like she was the most fragile thing in the world. Never wanting to let go.