The rest of the day passed by in a blur. School was finally over, thank fuck. After my encounter with Karson next to the library, I couldn't focus the rest of the day. All I could think about was his thumbs rubbing small circles against my waist.

I gripped my steering wheel tighter as the thought of his body so close to mine crossed my mind. I hate him. I'm supposed to hate him. At this point, I didn't even know what I felt. He was an absolute asshole, but when it was just us two, it was a completely different story.

"Fuck me," I cursed under my breath as my injured hand rested in my lap. Jace was in the passenger seat next to me, his earbuds in as he lightly shook his head to his music.

Olivia was in the back seat just staring at the scenery outside the window. We were on our way home, dreading the inevitable. We knew we had to go home to face our mother sooner or later, even though I wished it was later.

I pulled into our driveway and put the car in park as I lightly tapped on Jace's shoulder. He raised one of his eyebrows and gently tugged on one of his earbuds. "Yes?"

"We're home," I sighed as I glanced at the old car parked next to mine. Our mother was unfortunately home.

He leaned forward, glancing in front of me to look at her car. Jace rubbed his forehead in frustration as he briefly looked at my palm. He ripped the other earbud out of his ear and climbed out of the car.

He slammed the door shut and went to get Olivia out of her car seat. I knew he was just pissed at our mother for what she did to me the last time we were home. I knew not to take it personally if he was angry, because just like me, he didn't know how to deal with his emotions very well either.

I took a deep breath as I mentally prepared for what we would encounter when we walked through our front door. I pressed my lips together in a thin line as I subconsciously ran a finger over my stitches. I roughly opened my door and got out, hearing the small beep after I locked it.

Jace held Olivia in his arms as she gave me a reassuring smile.

"It'll be okay. I'll be okay, don't worry," I reassured them as a fake smile tugged at my lips.

Jace didn't look convinced but he stiffly nodded his head nonetheless. I walked in front of them and walked to our front door. I put the key in and slightly turned the knob to let us in.

I almost gasped at the sight in front of me. The door shot wide open and my eyes traveled around our trashed house. What the fuck happened in here?

My eyes traveled to see the few picture frames we had smashed to the floor, the glass scattered around everywhere. There were empty beer bottles smashed against the tile and the smell was pungent. I smelled a mixture of weed and alcohol as I slowly stepped into the house.

"What the fuck?" Jace whispered from behind me as he followed me into the house. He shut the door behind him as he cradled Liv tighter in his arms.

"Be careful," I warned as my shaky hand pointed to all the glass on the floor. "Watch your step, there is glass everywhere."

I slowly stepped over the pieces of glass that were in the foyer. I walked further into the house, noticing pillows thrown all over the place as the remains of cigarettes and weed were scattered all over our coffee table.

What the hell was she doing?

My body immediately stiffened when I heard my mother's voice come from the kitchen. I slightly stepped back when I saw her swaying figure come into view. I almost stepped on glass, but Jace grabbed my elbow in time and quickly moved me out of the way.

Her bloodshot eyes met mine as she brought a cigarette up to her lips. She deeply inhaled before exhaling the smoke into our house. The house smelled so fucking bad. It was almost hard to breathe because of all the smoke that was circling around us.

"I was waiting for you guys to come back," she mumbled under her breath before flicking the butt of her cigarette onto our floor. I wasn't sure how much longer we would be able to stay here. This place wasn't safe anymore, especially with a fiver year old in the house.

"What happened here, mom?" I hesitantly asked as I watched her eyes travel down to study my stitches. I caught her eyes and put my palm against my leg so she wasn't able to look at them anymore.

She ignored my question as a smug smirk tugged at the corner of her lips. "Well, would you look at that?"

I frowned, my eyebrows creasing together as I stepped back, making sure my siblings were still behind me. "What?"

"I guess the damage I did was worse than I thought," she barked an evil laugh as her thin body swayed around. She was so high that she couldn't even stand straight. "Who gave you those fucking stitches?"

The abrupt change in her tone of voice made me flinch. Her eyes darkened as she glared at the bruise on my jaw. It had makeup covering the dark color, but the bruise was now visible because my makeup had worn off.

"Why does it matter?" I pushed confidently. I could feel tremors shake down my legs as she blankly stared at me.

"I would love to thank them for fixing my fucked up daughter," she sarcastically mocked as she put on an innocent smile. Fucked up daughter.

I could feel Jace's hand on my shoulder, almost telling me not to take it to heart because it wasn't true. I lightly shook my head as my mother picked at her fingers impatiently. Her hair was all over the place and she couldn't stand still, her body was so jittery.

I watched as she continuously picked at her short nails. Her eyes were red from God knows what and her skin was sickeningly pale. Her body was incredibly thin and her teeth very yellow due to all of the cigarettes she has smoked. She didn't look well at all.

"You're too sweet, mom," I hissed sarcastically as I threw her innocent smile back in her face. Her smirk slowly faded as her fist clenched by her side.

"Dakota," Jace warned as he slightly gripped my shirt and pulled me back before I did anything stupid. "Don't push her."

"Aw, look at you three," she began as she stumbled forward. "How sweet, protecting each other from the bad guy."

I gulped, my palms sweating as I maintained eye contact with her. The last time we saw her, she was on the floor, almost lifeless as we dashed out of the house.

"What happened here?" I asked again, ignoring her snarky comment as I continued to push her for answers.

"Rough sex," she snorted, making my nose scrunch up in disgust. "You wouldn't understand, I mean, look at you."

I slightly glanced down at what I was wearing and frowned at the clothes that hung loosely on my body. Colton's shirt was many sizes too big for me, and the sweatpants had to be rolled many times in order for them not to fall off.

I hugged my waist, trying to cover my body as I felt self conscious. She was mentally tearing me down.

"Those clothes don't even fit you. You're so fucking thin that it's almost like you're just a walking skeleton. You're already one step closer to death," she laughed to herself, doubling over, coughing because her lungs were so weak. She sounded insane.

I bit the inside of my cheek as I felt tears well up in the corner of my eyes. I knew I was thin, but I didn't think I was that thin. She knew how much this was getting to me and she loved it. She got off to it.

"Listen here," Jace interrupted as he walked a few steps forward to stand directly beside me. I didn't want him to get too close to her. "You're just a jealous bitch. Dakota has everything you wish you had. You're putting her down because deep down, you are the most insecure person you fucking know."

My mother stared at Jace with wide eyes. Her frail body began to shake in fear as she violently shook her head, almost like she was trying to convince herself Jace was wrong. This was the worst I've ever seen her. I didn't even recognize the woman that stood in front of us anymore.

"Stop trying to push your fucking insecurities onto her," he growled, almost getting into her face before I roughly pulled him back.

I could hear Olivia's small cries coming from Jace's shoulder. She tightly held onto the back of his shirt as she stuffed her face as far as she could so she couldn't hear what our mother was saying.

"I fucking hate each and every one of you!" She screeched, making me wince from her loud, pitchy voice. "I need a fucking drink. You are the reason I'm like this."

She only pointed to me, her slim finger waving around in the air as she chuckled to herself. I sighed in defeat, knowing nothing I could say to her would make her stop saying such horrible things.

She stalked towards us as I quickly got out of her way. She strode between us before roughly bumping her shoulder into Jace's shoulder. He grunted, almost losing his balance as he took a few steps back to help regain his footing. Olivia just held on tighter. We watched as she roughly pulled the front door open and slammed it behind her.

I released a shaky breath as I placed my hand out in front of me to see how bad I was shaking. I heard her car speed out of the driveway as I glanced over at Jace whose jaw was tightly clenched.

"Are you okay?" I quietly asked, unsure whether or not to ask because I didn't want to make him upset.

"I'm fine," he sighed in defeat as he hugged Olivia tighter.

"At least she is out of the house for tonight," I shrugged, trying to think on the positive side. I tried to keep my mind from focusing on the words she threw at me. I knew it would get to my head, so I tried to distract my thoughts with something else.

Jace gently placed Olivia on the couch and told her not to move until we cleaned up all the glass. We put gloves on to make sure we didn't cut ourselves and started picking up around the house.

I placed the pillows where they were supposed to be while Jace grabbed a trash bag from our storage closet. We gathered small pieces of glass into our hands before throwing them into the bag.

The house almost looked spotless by the time we finished, but the smell was still nauseating. I slightly opened the windows to try and get the smell to lighten up. I guess we would just have to wait for the smell to be completely gone.

I threw the garbage bag into our trash bin on the side of the road and threw the gloves in the trash as well. When I got back into the house, my two siblings were already sitting next to each other on the couch.

I slowly made my way over to them, sitting down next to Olivia as I felt the exhaustion and my mother's words catch up to me. I knew Jace could tell that I was struggling with trying not to think of what my mother said to me, because he gave me a hard look.

"Dakota," he warned, staring at me as Olivia's head turned side to side to look at us. "Don't you even think for one second about what our mom said. It's not fucking true."

I bit my tongue, stopping myself from arguing with him. I just firmly nodded my head as a small smile tugged at my lips. Jace knew it was getting to my head and I couldn't be more grateful for him sticking up to our mom.

I turned away from him and gently ruffled Olivia's hair next to me. Her breathless giggles filled the whole living room as I continued to attack her with tickles. She squirmed around as her contagious laughter made me start to laugh with her.

I love my siblings more than they will ever know.

~•~•~

"Sometimes I wonder why I was chosen to be the hot one," Braxton contemplated as the boys, Nora, and I, sat together at lunch.

I huffed in disagreement as he shoved a strawberry into his mouth. He smacked loudly, causing my best friend to hit him on the back of the head. He almost choked on his strawberry, but he swallowed it before Nora was able to hit him.

After last night, I had the usual nightmare about Jason which was starting to get a little out of hand. I would wake up at the same time almost every night with chills all over my body and I would be violently shaking. I was so tired of those nightmares, but I didn't know what to do.

The first thing I noticed at lunch was that Karson wasn't here. Without even realizing, my gaze traveled around the cafeteria to find a certain pair of emerald eyes. I glanced to my right and found him pressed up against a brunette by the entrance of the cafeteria.

I stared at the two as they made out in front of the whole school. I internally cringed as second hand embarrassment crawled throughout my insides. How could they do that without being embarrassed?

I watched them swallow each other's tongue before a teacher broke them up. I shivered in disgust as the thought of how many STD's he had crossed my mind. Those poor girls.

I slightly snorted as I made myself laugh. Colton raised his eyebrow at me as he looked at me with amusement written all over his face. I lightly punched his arm as I rolled my eyes.

Karson made his way over to our table after he and his little fuck buddy got split up. His hair was disheveled and his eyes were glazed over with a look of desire. Ew.

He lightly patted his shirt down before sitting next to Colton, out of breath. He glanced at me for a split second before he quickly averted his eyes to look at his two best friends.

"You are getting quite bold, Mr. Fuckboy," Braxton accused as he sarcastically shook his head. "Right in front of the cafeteria? Really man?"

Karson just shrugged his shoulders with his jaw set. "Whenever I get the chance, I just go for it."

"And I thought I was bad," Braxton rolled his eyes in a dismissive manner before devouring the rest of his fruit.

"Princess," Karson smirked as I turned to look at him. I raised one of my eyebrows in annoyance as I grit my teeth. "I saw that you were watching Katie and I in the corner. Is Princess jealous?"

"First of all, her name is Kaitlyn. Second of all, I wouldn't let myself stoop down that low. And third of all, I'm not fucking jealous," I growled, slightly shaking my head as I could feel anger begin to course through my veins.

"Oh come on, princess, no need for lying," he smirked as he leaned back into his chair. His biceps flexed as he put both of his arms to rest behind his head.

I blinked at him as my eye twitched from irritation. I wiped my sweaty palms against my jeans, carefully avoiding my stitches so they wouldn't get caught in the fabric. "Have I ever told you to suck my dick?"

Karson's eyebrows shot up in surprise as he tried to hide a smile from breaking through. "No, I don't think-"

"Suck my dick," I interrupted him, giving him a sweet smile as he nodded his head in return. He slowly got out of his seat and stalked towards me. My heart pounded in my chest as he stood right behind me. What the fuck was he doing?

"What the fuck?" I whisper-yelled. "Sit down, Ryder."

He stared at me in confusion, his eyes holding a glint of mischief. "You told me to suck your dick, so I am."

My mouth hung wide open as my eyes almost bulged out of my head. Braxton slapped the table beside me and broke out into a fit of laughter. I felt Karson grab my arm, pulling me out of my seat. My feet scrambled to find the floor as he lifted me off my feet.

I was standing directly in front of him as I felt the whole cafeteria's eyes on us. He just gave me a tight lipped smile as he started to bend his knees to crouch down. "Oh no you don't!"

I heard the cafeteria snicker, wondering what was going on between the two of us. I ignored their immature comments and roughly grabbed his bicep. His muscles tensed in my grip as I pulled him up into a standing position.

"Everyone is watching," he smugly whispered. I glanced around the cafeteria and saw everyone looking at us with either a look of confusion or hatred. The girls he fucked with just stared at me with pure hatred swimming in their eyes.

I quickly let go of his arm as I turned to stare into his emerald eyes. His eyes flickered to my lips for a split second before connecting them with mine. "You're a little shit."

"I just wanted to do what you said," he sarcastically frowned as I pushed on his chest. He lightly stumbled back as a breathy laugh fell from his lips. I flipped him off before I quickly sat back down next to Braxton. I rubbed my forehead as I felt my cheeks heat up from embarrassment. I hated attention.

Karson smugly sat back down and crossed his arms confidently against his broad chest. I met his gaze as he winked in return. I mouthed the words fuck you as his hands morphed to form a heart. I rolled my eyes and slumped back in my seat, defeated as I groaned in embarrassment.

"Pst, pretty girl," Braxton whispered, nudging my side as he leaned in. "You guys looked like you wanted to fuck each other."

"Oh piss off," I whisper-yelled as I shoved his arm away from me. He just chuckled at my reaction and continued to stuff his face with food. Colton joined in, laughing as he stared at my red cheeks.

I bit the inside of my cheek as I tried to hold back my laughter. The thought of Karson getting out of his seat to 'suck my dick' made me laugh. I accidentally slipped up and laughed, but quickly covered it with a cough as Nora looked at me with her eyebrows raised in suspicion.

I curled my hand into a fist and brought it up to my lips. I slightly bit my skin as my stomach clenched as I tried to hold back my laughter. I didn't know why I found it so funny.

Karson took notice of my attempt to hold back my laughter. I couldn't hold it in anymore as I burst into laughter. My body was shaking as I laughed, my smile so big it hurt my cheeks. Colton blinked at me, looking confused as my laughter died down.

I had slight hiccups from laughing so hard as I wiped away the tears that formed in the corner of my eyes. I glanced at Karson once more, not able to hold back the huge smile that covered my face.

He looked amused as he fought back a smile. He opened his mouth to say something, but no noise came out. He mouthed the words fucking insane directly at me as he finally gave in and broke out into his breathtaking smile.

—————————————————————————————