It's been a week since Brent attacked me, and things have been eventful. Brent was charged with aggravated assault, he's serving about a month or so in jail before they'll release him on probation. Kevin was arrested for aggravated assault as well but is serving a longer sentence in prison.

The thing that shocked me was that Officer Kaine said that Kevin confessed to everything. Apparently, Doctor James called the cops when he found my past injuries, he said that when they went to question Kevin about it he broke down in tears before confessing. Kevin apologized to me for what he had done, in a letter that he sent me, I wanted to believe his apology was real, but I just couldn't bring myself to truly believe him.

My mom sold the house, and we moved into a house on the other side of town, it was a much-needed fresh start for the both of us. I had never thought that I'd be able to forgive my mother for what she did, but after what she had told me, a lot of other things began to make more sense.

"Can we talk?"

I was currently in my room, painting something for Mia's birthday when my mom walked into my room.

"Sure," I said, continuing to paint as she took a seat on my bed.

"It's about why I left a year ago," she said.

I set my paintbrush down, walking over to my bed before sitting down beside her.

"Why did you leave?"

"I left for treatment," she said.

"What kind of treatment?"

"After I lost Jenifer I grew numb to everything, except for one thing, and that was pain. Losing a child is one of the most painful things I have ever had to go through. I thought losing your father was the worst thing I had ever gone through but god I was so wrong. It was about six months after her death and I was laying in bed one night and I was having such awful thoughts, they were nothing but ways of how I could kill myself. That was when I knew I needed help, so I did what I thought was the only right thing to do, I left you with Kevin so I could get help," she said.

"Oh," I said, trying to take in everything she just told me.

"Why didn't you just tell us you needed help?" I asked.

"How do you tell the people you love that you don't want to live anymore?"

"I'm sorry," I said.

"It's not your fault baby, I'm just sorry that I couldn't be a mother to you when you needed it most."

"I heard that he stole Mia from Brent."

"No, I heard that Brent left Mia for him."

"Does it really matter, either way, he's the reason why Brent was arrested in the first place."

"Just ignore them," Mia said, shooting a look at the people who were sitting at the table beside ours, causing them to look away from our table.

We were currently eating lunch, and all I could focus on was the rumors about me that were spreading like wildfire. I knew things would be different when I came back to school, but I didn't expect so many people who didn't even notice me before all of this, to be talking about me this much.

"It's fine," I said, not really caring what they were saying about me, if anything I found it to be comical what people could come up with.

"How have you been feeling lately?" Marcie asked.

"Good, the doctor said I had to keep the brace on for a few more weeks and to make sure I don't lift on anything heavy for a while."

"I still can't believe Brent did that," Max said, more to himself than the rest of us.

Max claims it's not affecting him, but I could tell it was, they had been friends since they were practically babies, it's only natural for him to feel something.

"Hey Max, can I ask you something?"

"Sure?"

"Why does everyone call you Max?" I asked, trying to change the subject but to mainly cure my curiosity.

"It's something my grandfather started," Max said chuckling.

"He hates the name Kenneth so he started calling me Max, mainly to piss off my parents, and it kind of stuck, so here we are."

"Sounds like Mia with my name," I said.

"I don't hate your name, it's just that Thomas doesn't fit you," she said defending herself.

"But Alex does?"

"Yes."

"I'm with Mia on this one, Alex fits you better," Marcie said.

"She's on my side at least."

"Yeah yeah," I said, taking a sip of my drink as the bell rang, signaling lunch was over.

"Damn already?" Max said as we stood from the table, getting in line to throw our trays away.

"Are you still dreading that test?" I asked.

"Hell yeah, especially since I didn't study at all last night," Max said, throwing away his tray as we walked out of the cafeteria.

"We'll see you guys later," Marcie said as Max and her went a different direction than Mia and me.

"Bye," Mia said as Max and I half waved at each other.

"So Mia, I was wondering if you wanted to go out with me tonight?" I asked.

"Like a date?" she asked.

"Yeah, like a date," I said, feeling nervous.

"Sounds fun," Mia said, smiling.

"Great, I'll pick you up later tonight."

"Sounds good to me," she said as we walked into class taking our seats.

I couldn't help but feel so, giddy I guess you could say. I felt like things were finally coming together for me.

_________________________________________

It was currently 7 p.m and I was sitting in the living room of Mia's house, waiting for her to finish getting ready, while her dad was giving me a deadly glare.

"It's been so long since I last saw you, sweetie," Martha, Mia's mom said as she sat beside me on the couch.

When Mia and I were at our closest point, I was over here almost every day and vise versa. Martha always loved me, her father not so much, never could figure out why he hated me so much, Mia said he was that way with everyone, but I personally feel like it's cause I'm a guy, who is close to his daughter.

"What's that you got with you hun?" she asked, looking over at the semi-large gift I had sitting beside me.

"It's Mia's birthday present," I said as Mia walked into the living room.

"You ready?" she asked.

"Yeah, but before we go, I wanted to give this to you," I said, standing from the couch, picking up her gift before handing it to her.

"What's this?" she asked as she began to unwrap it.

"It's your late birthday present."

I wasn't able to celebrate Mia's birthday with her like she had originally wanted me to, due to, well I think you know by now why.

"Oh my god, Alex this is so beautiful. Did you really make this?" she asked, as her mom stood from the couch, to go stand beside Mia to look at the painting.

"I did," I said, starting to feel a little uncomfortable, I was second-guessing my choice to paint her a picture of Micah.

Micah was her husky who she's had with her since she was five years old, Mia told me that she had to make the choice to put him down. She said that arthritis had set up in his body and he was in pain more than he was truly living.

Mia walked over to me, tightly hugging me as she wiped her eyes. Was she crying?

"Thank you so much, this is by far the best present ever," she said whispering the last part so her parents couldn't hear her.

"You're welcome," I said, feeling bad that I made her cry.

_______________________________

"Are you sure?" I asked Mia for like the millionth time tonight.

"Alex it's fine, I really love the painting, I swear they were happy tears," she said, trying her best to reassure me.

Mia and I just left the movie theatre, and are currently just riding around on back roads, neither of us really wanting to go home just yet.

"I had so much fun tonight," Mia said, smiling as she looked out of the passenger side window.

"Me too," I said smiling as the car fell into a comfortable silence.

"Hey, Mia?"

"Yeah?"

"I got into one of the art schools I applied to," I said.

"Really?"

"Yeah, I got the letter from them today."

"That's so amazing, congratulations Alex," Mia happily said.

"Thank you, I wanted you to be one of the first to know."

"So, which school was it?"

"This really prestigious art school over in Japan," I said as I turned into Mia's driveway, shutting off the car.

"You weren't kidding about moving far away were you," she said, her voice sounding kind of sad.

When I was still being raised by Kevin the plan was to get as far away as possible but now, I was second-guessing my decisions. I was getting close to Mia again, had friends now, things were different than before.

"When do you leave?"

"A week after graduation."

"But that's two weeks from now."

"I know, I didn't think I'd actually get in, and then when I found out I got in I didn't think I'd have to leave so soon."

"Just make sure you don't forget about me ok," she said, leaning over to give me a hug.

"Never," I said hugging her back.

Mia pulled away from our embrace, stopping only inches away from my face. Leaning forward I connected our lips, as Mia's arms wrapped around my shoulders. Cupping her cheek in my hand, I deepened the kiss before Mia pushed me away.

"Did I do something wrong?" I asked.

Had I misread the signals she was giving me?

"No you didn't do anything wrong, I just need to get in before my dad comes out here and shows his ass," she said, in an annoyed tone.

"I really did have fun tonight Alex," she said leaning forward to peck my lips before getting out of the car.

"So did I," I muttered to myself as I watched her walk up the steps that led to her front door.

"Hey Mia," I said, getting out of the car.

"Yes?" she asked.

"Do you want to go to Japan with me?"