We got off the bus at our house and I took Nina’s hand and pulled her inside with Shane following behind us. We took our shoes off and I walked with her towards the stairs.

                “Shawn! I just got an email from your math teacher. Now you sit your ass right down and do your math homework!” dad snapped, coming out of the living room and glaring at me. I groaned and nodded at Nina.

                “Dad, I’m busy,” I grumbled. He raised an eyebrow at me. “Really? Wow, it must be so hard to be you. I mean, I know you don’t have to do your trig homework with two babies to take care of when you’re 16, but it still must be so hard to keep good grades,” he said sarcastically.

                “Hey, that wasn’t my fault. I didn’t tell you to bang like an animal without a condom,” I grumbled and the look on his face told me that he didn’t give two shits if someone was here. He would beat my sorry ass if I said another word.

                “Shawn, come on. I’ll help you,” Nina said quietly. I sighed in annoyance and pulled her into the kitchen. We sat down together and I pulled out my math homework.

                “I don’t know how to do logs!” I whined. Dad came over and sighed. “Shawn, what’s my name?” he asked.

                “Benjamin,” I said cautiously, wondering where the hell he was going with this. I really didn’t want him to hit me in front of my girlfriend again. Hell, I just didn’t want him to hit me again. He could really hurt me without even meaning to. He had a nasty temper, and absolutely no control over it.

                “Shorter version,” he said, surprising me with the patience in his tone. “Ben,” I said, feeling kind of awkward. I never called my dad by his name.

                He pointed at my homework. “See that? Replace the ‘x’ with ‘e’. What do you see wrong with the way it’s set up?” he asked. “Uh…it’s bne, not ben,” I said questioningly and he nodded. “Fix it,” he said simply and I rewrote the problem.

                “There. You just rewrote a logarithm. Not hard, is it? All of those problems are like that,” he said and ruffled my hair before he walked away. I quickly finished up the rest of the stupid trig problems before glancing up at Nina. She was patiently watching me.

                “He was nice today,” she said quietly. I cracked a small smile and nodded. “Yea, he can be,” I said and laughed before leaning over and gently kissing her. “Now let’s go up to mine and Shane’s room.”

                We got up and went towards the stairs. “Shawn! Is your homework finished?” dad asked, coming over and fixing me with a stern look. I nodded and handed it to him. He checked it quick and nodded in approval.

                I took Nina upstairs and we hung out in my room, watching a movie and talking a little. Shane had gone downstairs so that we could be alone. Nina left a few hours later, and Shane came back upstairs.

                “Well?” he asked and I hugged him playfully and ruffled his hair. He laughed and jokingly shoved me off him. “Well it was amazing!” I said in a “duh” voice and he laughed more. I smiled. I liked it when my brother laughed. He was usually so sad.

                “Boys!” my dad called and we glanced at each other. “I didn’t do anything bad, did you?” we asked at the same time and laughed nervously. We walked downstairs together and my dad pointed at the couch. My mom was sitting in a chair with a calm look on her face.

                “Go on; sit,” my dad said with a nod. He didn’t sound angry, but you just never knew with him. Shane and I nervously sat down together and glanced at each other again before looking at our parents in anxious curiosity. What the hell had we done? Were we in trouble?

                “Okay, you boys both have girlfriends now, right?” mom asked, standing up. We both groaned and nodded, knowing where this was going. We’d had this talk a billion times already.

                “Shut up and listen to us,” dad said sternly and we both snapped our mouths shut. Mom shot him a grateful look before turning back to us to torture our ears.

                “Okay, so as you know, your father and I were teen parents. Duh. Anyways, we don’t want you boys to make the same mistake we did. We love you boys very much and we don’t regret having you, but we were young and it was hard. So Shawn, we know what you’re like. We know you’re the kind of boy to pressure his girlfriend. And Shane, we know what you’re like. You’re the type to be pressured. If it comes to a situation, I want you boys to both say no. If we find out you’ve done anything we don’t approve of, we’ll literally kill you,” she said, glaring at us.

                “Literally,” dad confirmed, also glaring at us now. “W-W-We w-w-won’t,” Shane stuttered honestly. “Shane, just remember that you never have to do anything you don’t want to. I don’t think Luna’s the type of girl to pressure you, but we’re just making sure,” dad said and placed a hand on his shoulder.

                Dad looked up at me and sighed. “Shawn, you scare me because you’re a lot like me. I was a stupid whore. Don’t do the things I did,” he said, his eyes pleading.

                “You guys are assholes. I wouldn’t do anything bad!” I said angrily, honestly a little hurt that my own parents judged me like that.

                But dad came over and hugged me tightly. “Shawn, please don’t be offended. You know it’s true, though. You know you pressure people into doing things, and so do we. We’re not stupid. We’re pointing it out because we love you and we don’t want to see you do anything stupid that could ruin your life,” he said honestly and kissed my forehead before releasing me.

                “I won’t do anything bad,” I grumbled, glaring at my mom. I played with my lip ring for a second before angrily making my way upstairs to text my girlfriend.