"I don't even know what to do with you anymore," Mom says as she searches through my room, having already confiscated the vodka under my bed. I'll find it and get it back later.

Harris added on a nice two day suspension, so I was gonna enjoy my hangover in peace until Mother here came in and started nipping my head.

"I thought you were my little angel and it was your brothers I'd have to worry about, but Alex doesn't get in fights anymore and the rest have grown into lovely people. Why haven't you grown up yet?"

Oh, Mamá, if only you knew that the majority of your sons are smokers. We've also got two drug addicts in the family, so there's that too. It makes me look pretty good.

"You're not gonna find anything else," is all I say and she closes my drawer.

"You can do chores today and make sure Marco does his homework. I'm leaving in an hour."

"Can I get my phone back?"

"No."

"What if something goes wrong? What if there's a fire and I can't call for help? Or a burglar comes in and-"

"Yasmin, you're not getting it back so be quiet."

I sigh over dramatically and drop my head down on my pillow.

Mom gives me a list of the things she wants me to do, so once I've pulled myself out of bed and showered, I get to it then start on dinner just as the losers all get home.

"Hey, Yasmin," Marco says, coming up to the counter to watch me prepare dinner.

"Hey, Yasmin," Max imitates in a high voice and Marco shoots him a glare.

"Hey, Yasmin." This time it's Wesley and I spin around so fast I almost get whiplash. "Still no phone?"

"Nope." I look down at what i'm wearing – pyjama shorts and an old ugly t shirt – and blush. I didn't brush my hair after getting out of the shower and my face is a disaster from how tired I am.

"Don't worry, you look hot," he assures and I look at Max, wondering why he's flirting out in the open like this.

"I'm outa here," Max says and walks past Wes. "C'mon."

"One sec." He walks to me and grabs Marco's head, making him look in the opposite direction, then he kisses me.

I push myself against him, my body feeling warm with him on it. This has definitely made my really shitty day turn not so shitty. I just wish I could be with him all night.

"Stop right now or i'm telling," Marco says. I pull away from Wes and look at Marco who is standing with his eyes squeezed shut and his head hands over his ears. The kids heard worse than the sound of kissing; he needs to chill out.

"Go do your homework before dinners ready," I tell him and he sighs.

"I can't; it's too hard."

"What's too hard?" Valentino says as he swings the kitchen door open, a smirk on his face. "Aww, Marcy, are you finally discovering yourself?"

"Fuck off."

"Stop swearing."

"It's you who puts it all in his head," I say and Val finally looks at me then Wes as if it's the first time he noticed he was here.

"Can I borrow your car?"

"No," Wes says straight away."

"Please man, i've gotta get to soccer practise."

"Get someone to take you."

"No one will and Max won't let me drive his car after I accidentally ran it into a streetlight, and Jace won't pick me up 'cause he's in a mood."

"Not my problem."

Val looks at me for help so I turn to Wes. "Just let him."

"No. Don't even try to convince me."

"Buy your own car," Marco says.

"Can't afford it. Wes, let me borrow it and I'll owe you big."

"Hmm."

He'll probably give in to that offer. Everyone wants Valentino Fuentes to owe them something. He could get them anything, whether it's the girl or boy they like or an A on an assignment.

"Fine," Wes takes out his keys and hands them to him. "If there's even a scratch on it-"

"There won't be – I'm a great driver now. Oh, and heads up. Alex knows you're here and knows you slept with Yasmin. He went upstairs 'cause he thought you were with Max, so he'll be here any minute." Val smiles and walks out. He wouldn't have told us that if Wes didn't give him his keys. This is why you've gotta have Val on your side.

"I can't do this," Marco complains, looking at his homework on the table.

"I'm out of here," Wes says as he walks to the door. "See you in your room later," he winks and my cheeks heat up.

Marco stares at me.

"You didn't hear anything."

He rolls his eyes. "Can you give me answers?"

"I can't remember anything from science. Val can help when he's home."

"No way, he makes me actually learn it."

After dinner, Diego helps me clean up in the kitchen while Val and Marco do Marco's homework. Alex comes in and looks through the fridge, having not spoke to me since yesterday before he found out about Wes, I can feel the tension.

"How's suspension going?" He asks, trying to make me feel ashamed.

"You should know."

He takes a can of pepsi out then closes the fridge door, then just stands there looking at me for a moment before going to the table and ruffling Marco's hair.

"What's the deal with you two?" Diego asks.

"I can't stand him anymore," I mumble and go back to drying a glass.

"Ah, the struggles of being a teenage girl when you can't get what you want."

"Shut the fuck up. All I want is to not have him looking over my shoulder every two seconds. Can you finish this? I'm goin' to check on Carlos." I don't wait for an answer and just leave, heading upstairs.

Carlos is in bed, coughing and sweating like he just ran two miles.

"How you feelin'?"

"Awesome." His voice is husky from his sore throat.

"You going to school tomorrow?"

"Probably not," he sighs, "Naomi's gonna kill me if I don't go."

"I think she'll survive one day without you."

He coughs and turns on his side, moaning like a baby.

"Look on the bright side, you get to spend all day tomorrow watching movies with me."

"Yay."

I slap the covers where his stomach is and he moans again. "That's a good thing, dick."

"Think i'd rather go to school."

My jaw drops and I lift my hand to hit him again.

He laughs, "I'm kidding."

+++

"Remember, this is a friendly environment. No one here will judge anything you say."

I look around at the other people sitting in this support group thing. There's one other girl and three boys. All of them look half asleep and as if they'd rather be anywhere else than here.

"Introduce yourself," the lady shrink says with a cheerful smile. She can't actually enjoy her job, can she?

"Um, I'm Yasmin."

"S'up?" One of the boys says back. "I'm Drake."

"Elliot," the one beside Drake says, then the next guy Kyle introduces himself. The girl beside me says her name - Morgan - as if it's the hardest thing she's ever had to do.

"Good," shrink says. "And my name is Kelly. Why don't we all tell our stories of why we're here to get to know each other? Elliot, would you like to start?"

Elliot sighs. "Well, I drink because it's fun, and I can be myself when I'm drunk and stop caring about things. My Mom got tired of me coming home drunk so she sent me here."

Kelly nods, "Thank you." Kyle tells his story then Morgan tells her very short story about how she smashed her ex's window while she was drunk, then finally it's Drake's turn.

"My parents were drug addicts," he starts off. "My Mom died last year, then my Dad died five months ago."

Everyone in the room bows their heads and I stare at Drake in shock. Geez, this boy has it hard.

"I was angry – at drugs and at alcohol and at them – I guess I wanted to know what was so great about them that my parents chose drugs over me. So I tried it, but I hated drugs, and after I had a pretty bad experience with them, I stopped 'cause, well, I was scared. Alcohol kinda worked for me though, so I did it a lot and understood why they loved it. I loved it," he looks at me, our intense eye contact making me want to look away but also making it impossible to look away at the same time.

"Was drinking in the streets this one time," he continues. "I was in a bad way and cops found me, said I was acting in a threatening way and all that. I spent the night in a cell and they ended up sending me here."

Jesus. "What was spending a night in a cell like?" I ask, all too curious.

His brown eyes bore into mine. "Not nice. I don't recommend."

I nod.

"Thank you, Drake. Now, Yasmin?" Kelly looks at me, waiting for me to tell my 'story'.

"I was drunk at school," I shrug. "They caught me and I agreed to come here 'cause I'd get to miss classes."

Drake raises an eyebrow.

"Why did you feel you had to drink at school? Stress?" Kelly questions.

"Um, yeah, stress."

"Tell us about your personal life?"

"I didn't come here to tell my life story to a bunch of strangers."

"Okay, well what do you hope to achieve through this group?" Kelly's smile remains on her face.

I shrug.

When Kelly finally stops trying to get me to open up to the group, she moves on and asks us questions about making good choices when drinking. I don't participate and instead focus on Drake and the tattoos peaking out of his hoodie and the story he told us.

I don't know how he copes with both of his parents gone – and because of drugs. Val does drugs way too much, so does Santiago. They could overdose at any time. I've never realised how terrifying that is until now.

"You okay, Ms. Badass gettin' drunk in school but not revealing why," Drake says when the session is over.

"I'm the badass? You're the one who got arrested."

"There's something very dark and mysterious about the unknown."

"The unknown?"

"You; your life. You've caught my attention."

"I have?"

"You have."

"Leave her be, Drake. It's her first day," Elliot says, walking beside us.

"I'll get it out of you one day," he smiles and goes over to a motorcycle, climbing onto it.

"Bad boy rides a motorcycle. What a surprise."

He laughs and pulls his helmet on. "I'm not a bad boy. Don't expect me to swoop you off your feet 'cause you're the good girl."

"I'm not the good girl."

"I'll decide that later." With that, he starts his bike and drives off.

The rest of them leave, either getting picked up or driving themselves, and eventually my Mom arrives.

"Lo siento mija," Mom says when I get in. "I got delayed at work. So, how was it?"

"Boring."

"Feel any different yet?"

I give her a look. "Can we just go."

She reverses out of the small parking lot while complaining that she's just trying to understand me and know where I'm at. I know that she just wants what's best for me, but Mom's can just be so damn annoying about it.

+++

teaser: Drake turns out to be a bad influence and Yasmin ends up in a dangerous situation with a guy she barely knows.

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