"I really appreciate you helping me with this," Derek said for what seemed like the hundredth time as he picked up one of the small grocery baskets.

"It's really not that big a deal," I said, waving him off as I tried to locate the baking aisle.

"I would have asked my mom or sister to help," he continued. "But I don't want to be responsible for the school's alumni chipping their teeth."

"Yeah, that'd be bad," I laughed, looking up to read the signs of each aisle. I've been to this grocery store a million times and I still had no idea where anything was.

"But not just for this, you know," he went on and I finally spotted the sign that said baking a few aisles down. "You tried to help me out with Faye, even though that kind of blew up."

That night was pretty intense, but I was better for it. Even though Faye and I weren't on the best of terms I still wanted her to be happy. She was happy with Derek and I wanted to see them back together.

"Maybe you'd have better luck if you talked to her," I suggested.

"I tried that."

"And?"

"Well, you're doing my baking this year."

Flashing him a sympathetic smile, I then turned down the baking aisle. I stopped dead in my tracks as I saw three familiar faces. Derek, not realizing my sudden halt, bumped into me. Which caused me to bump into a sprinkles display, knocking a few down and catching the attention of the girls.

"Well, look at Berwick's golden couple," Faye said with mock enthusiasm, a fake smile plastered on her face.

"We're not dating," Derek defended. Personally, I had given up om trying to get that through to them. I did have something to say to them though.

"It was really messed up of you to drag my mom into our little feud," I said as calmly as I could manage to.

Faye's brow knitted together as she shifted her weight. "What are you talking about?"

"Don't play dumb," I shot back. "I know that you three are responsible for slashing my mom's tires."

"Wow," Jasmine scoffed. "You have a seriously overactive imagination. First that story about Calvin and now this?"

"Who the hell is Calvin?" Ellen asked, looking to the other girls for answers.

"Her imaginary boyfriend," Jasmine chimed in and my eyes rolled.

I give up.

Taking the basket from Derek, I began grabbing everything I needed to make the cupcakes. There was no way that I was going to have this conversation again. It was like talking to a wall with those three.

Derek proceeded to argue that Calvin was in fact a real person. I only half listened while trying to choose between the various premade cake mixtures. Judging from the limited selection we must not have been the only ones stopping by for baking supplies.

There was a collective "oh" after he mentioned Calvin worked at Sweetie Pies. Apparently, it is possible to get through to them. Maybe now they'll leave me be. And as if the universe decided to finally let this drama die, the three of them walked away without another word.

Derek sighed heavily as he ran a hand through his hair. Letting out a light laugh he said, "You must think I'm insane for wanting her back."

"No," I replied honestly. "Faye's a good person, she's just acting out because she's hurting. You should try talking to her again."

"How?" He scoffed. "She doesn't even want to be in the same room as me."

"You can always lock her in a closet," I joked.

Something told me he took seriously though.

+ + +

Dribbling the basketball, I glanced up at the basket that hung above Calvin's garage and then at Calvin who stood beneath it. He had an amused look on his face as he waited for me to take the shot, readying himself to block it.

Sports weren't really my thing. A fact that seemed to have escaped me when I agreed to this ridiculous bet. Even though he was ahead by four points I wasn't giving up. To keep things fair I only had to get one basket to win the bet and he had to get five. So, this was my last chance.

"We can pick another game," he suggested. "Maybe something you'd actually have a chance of winning at?"

"It's basketball, not brain science. I can do this," I retorted, narrowing my eyes at him. "Now stop distracting me."

Eyeing the basket, I took the shot. The ball seemed to fly through the air in slow motion and I held my breath as I watched it, hoping it would make in it into the net.

It didn't.

The ball brushed against the bottom of the net before Calvin caught it. He turned to me, a triumph grin on his face.

"You didn't win yet," I pointed out. He needed one more point. "You still have to -"

Before I could finish my sentence he threw the ball over his shoulder, effortlessly making the basket. Without even looking.

"Show off," I pouted, giving him a playful shove as I walked past him to the porch.

Sitting on the steps, I give my feet a well-deserved break. They were throbbing. Mostly due to me refusing to give up. Four games and I didn't make a single basket. 

He came to join me on the steps, grabbing his bottle of water that sat there and taking a drink.

"I'll tell you," he said, taking me by surprise.

"But I lost," I reminded him as I used the back of my hand to wipe sweat from my forehead.

"Yeah, I was going to tell anyway," he laughed. "But you kept asking for rematches and I wanted to see how long you'd last."

My jaw went slack as I stared at him. "All that physical activity for nothing?"

"I thought it pretty entertaining, actually," he smirked. "But I do owe Vincent an apology for calling him the worst basketball player in the world."

Choosing to ignore his insult I turned my body towards him, resting my elbows on my knees. "So, what happened?"

The amusement vanished from his face, replaced with sad eyes and a slight frown.

"Remember that day with skipped first period and went to the park?" I nodded. "That story I told you about the guy who went crazy and attacked his wife and kid, that was my dad."

"Oh my God," I muttered in shock. No wonder he never spoke about his dad. I couldn't ever going through that. The hurt a betrayal he must've felt having his own father attack him that way.

"Yeah," he mumbled under his breath, picking at the label on his bottle. "He wasn't a bad guy though, he was just going through a rough time. At least, that's what my mom would tell me whenever he hit her."

His jaw clenched and I could tell this was hard for him to talk about. "We don't have to talk about it," I said, placing my hand over his.

"It's fine. I'm fine," he assured me. "I want you to know what happened to that boy in the yearbook."

I nodded again, preparing myself for whatever was yet to come.

"He wasn't always like that," he continued. "He was a cop and after his partner was killed on the job and the killer got away he started to fall apart. He would stay up all night trying to figure out what went wrong and how he could've prevented it from happening. But after months with no new leads he changed for the worst. He was drinking, angry all the time and he started to push people away. That's when he started hitting her."

He glanced down at his arm where the scars would be. They were now covered up by his usual red hoodie. Pushing the sleeve up, he revealed them and my heart sank.

"The night this happened was worse. My mom told him she was leaving and he lost it, knocking her unconscious. When he grabbed the knife I jumped in front of him, thinking he would stop."

"What did make him stop?"

"I called 911 before I went to try and stop him. After the cop pulled him off of me my dad got into his car and left," he let out a wary laugh.

"And they just let him?"

He nodded. "Apparently there was some unwritten rule among them and they wanted me to go along with it. The guy told me to blame the attack on a burglar and say that my dad went to chase him down."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. How could they ask him, a kid, to help the man who almost killed his mother. "Did you lie for him?"

"No," he answered flatly. "I didn't say anything to anyone for almost a year. It was hard for me trust anyone after that."

Wow, that explained a lot about the way he acted when we first met. Here I thought he was just a loner type, but now I know the truth.

"Of course when I got to Berwick my usual lone wolf retinue was ruined," he laughed, bouncing back from his traumatic trip down memory lane.

There was still one question left unanswered though.

"What happened to your dad?"

"He died a year ago," he explained. "Alcohol poisoning. I was actually sad when I found out. I had this idea in my head that he was somewhere getting help for his problems and that he'd come back. Not that I thought we'd be go back to being a normal family, I was just hoping he'd be around again."

My heart broke for him. Holding on to the hope like that only to have it completely shattered was one of the worse feelings in the world.

"Hey," he said, his voice low as he lifted my chin so that I met his eyes. "I'm past that, so you don't have to feel bad for me."

I nodded, believing him and admiring him for not dwelling in the past like I was so used to doing. 

"Now, teach me how to basket with out looking," I  said, standing from the steps and picking up the ball.

He laughed, following me back to the driveway. "Maybe you should learn how to make a basket while looking first."

//

Okay, so finally the story of Calvin's scars has been revealed.

Also, do you think the girls are telling truth about not slashing tires?

Thanks SO much for reading!

Don't forget to comment & vote!! <3