" Are you sure?" Nathan looked up from the yearbook Alex had let him borrow. " I mean, Emery looks beautiful and all, but...she's not my type."

 Alec crossed his legs on the chair he was sitting on. " Yeah. You had such a major crush on her."

 " Hmm...." Nathan closed the book and brought his legs to his chest, his arms wrapped around them. " I...I was a jerk, wasn't I?"

    Alex swallowed. " What do you mean?"

   " I mean, I must have done SOME things wrong with my life, right? You are the only one that has visited me, so I must be hated." Nathan started to tear up.

  Alex scratched his head. " Well....the thing is Nathan...I don't think you meant to do anything you did. I don't suppose you liked everything you said. But that was the past. This is the present. And you can't keep looking back and wondering, ' Why? Why was it like THAT?' It's just going to put you in a jumble, and then you'll never be able to do what you want because you'll be too scared of yesterday."

   " So you're saying that my intentions in the past, whatever they were, can be...forgiven?" Nathan asked.

   " Yes. That is exactly what I'm trying to say." Alex looked down at the necklace he was wearing. He had found it years ago, after his grandfather had died. Someone had thrown it into the street and left it. It was a gemstone, and it looked as though someone had taken the galaxy and stuck it into the necklace. It had black leather string to hold it. It truly was a beautiful object. He took it off. " Here," he told Nathan. " Take this."

  Nathan gasped. " Oh! I couldn't possibly-"

  " No, no it's fine. Really." Alex held it out patiently.

  " O-okay." Nathan's trembling hand reached it, grasping the shining jewelry. He stared at it in his palm, perplexed. " Thank you." He simpered. " You're too nice, honestly."

  " Don't worry about it. I-" He broke off, hearing harsh voices coming to the door.

    " Get out of my way," said a female voice. The door to the room was flung open, and revealed...

   Nathan's parents.

   Nathan shrank as his parents neared him. " I knew something like this would happen. I just knew it," said the father, shaking his head in disgust. " Always getting yourself into trouble. What else should I expect? "

  Nathan shook. " I'm...I'm sorry, I-"

  " You probably don't even remember us, do you?" barked his mother.

  Nathan gulped. " Yes, of course I do. How could I forget?"

  Nathan's father slammed his fists on the table that held Nathan's food. " Well, you seem to forget everything else! You really got yourself in a jumble now, don't you? You're always such a disappointment. I'm embarrassed to call you my son."

  Nathan's eyes widened. " Father-"

  " Don't call me that," He spat. " Don't you dare call me that."

  " And don't even think about calling me mother anymore either," Nathan's mother replied. " You've upset me enough."

  Something seem to change in Nathan's mood. He straightened up in his hospital bed, hands folded on his lap. " Fine. I won't. I won't call you mother, and I won't call you father. It's better like that anyways, isn't it? It't not like you ever called me your son anyhow."

 " NATHAN!" His mother screeched.

  " You little brat!" His father's face was beet red. " I'll teach you something!"

  And he raised his hand,

  and hit Alex straight across the face.

  And when he did, he was stunned. " Wait, what?" He pondered. " Get out of they way, stupid boy!" He pushed Alex aside.

 " No!" screamed Alex, fighting back.

  " That will be enough!" A thin hand gripped on to Nathan's father's hand, hard. He turned.

  It was Alex's mother, Her hair was pulled into a bun, her eyes red from crying over Nathan, whom she loved like one of her own. " You hit my son." Her voice dripped with a fiery rage.

  " He was in the way," Nathan's dad protested.

  " In the way of what, I wonder? Were you about to hit your son, Mr. Chance?"

  " Well, he needed to be taught a lesson. He-"

 " Oh shut up. Enough of your BS. And you, Mrs. Chance," Nathan's mother stared, " You should be ashamed of yourself for letting this man hurt your son. You're a bitch."

  Mrs. Chance's eyebrows raised. " Excuse me??"

  " Oh, and one more thing," Alex's mother said. " SECURITY!!" She shrieked. " SECURITY!"

  " What are you doing woman?" Mr. Chance demanded.

  Alex's mother backhanded him across the face just as a security guard arrived. He looked suspiciously around the room. " What seems to be the trouble?"

 " This man," she pointed at Mr. Chance, " hit my son across the face, in attempt to hurt his son. The mother encouraged it. I highly suspect that they have been abusing that poor little boy in bed for a while now."

  The security guard took a look at Alex's face, which had started bruising on his left cheek. Mr. Chance held back nothing when he hit. The guard glared at Nathan's parents. " I'm not even going to attempt to be nice. You to, with me, now." He picked up his radio. " I need another officer. We have two parents here that have been abusing their son. Thank you."

  Nathan's parents were escorted out of the room.

  " Thank you ma'am..." Nathan wept.

  " Oh honey, please, you can call me mamma." He hugged Nathan.  " How would you feel, after your parents are sent to jail, because I'm pretty sure they will be, if I adopted you?"

 Nathan let go of her, stared at her for the longest time...

and sobbed. 

  " Oh my gosh," he whimpered. " Oh my gosh, do you mean it?"

  " I wouldn't joke about something like that," she replied. " Besides," she winked at Alex. " This one gets to be too much trouble sometimes."

 " HEY!" Alex protested.

  All three laughed. Alex held Nathan's hand. Alex's mother sat beside them. And they sat there and talked, while the nurse looked at Alex's injury. They talked about movies and books. they spoke of sunsets and video games.

  They talked like a family.