I stood in front of my dresser rummaging through the drawers looking for something decent to wear. With me being on crutches and having a cast on my leg, much of my clothes were no good. I couldn't wear jeans because they wouldn't go over my cast, and dresses were out because if I fell I would flash everyone.

The weather was warm today, so shorts were the only thing that I could wear. I pull out a pair of black Capri legging and a thin purple flannel. After those were laid out, I went to the bathroom to get a shower.

Jasper stayed out in the backyard most of the day. I don't know why, and frankly, I didn't give a damn. It's not like I needed him anymore. I was practically a pro on crutches. If I were given the right motivation I could probably run, not gracefully, but I could still do it.

Bathing, however, was still kinda tricky. My shower lacked handrails, so standing up was basically impossible. With all these new inconveniences, my shower time was basically doubled.

After I shut the water off, I carefully make my way out of the shower and grabbed my robe and wrapped it around me. Normally I would just wrap a towel around me, but with Jasper somewhere in the house I'd rather not do that.

I closed bedroom door slightly behind me before I started to get dressed. It was only three, so I still had an hour before Evan showed up. That was plenty of time to get ready. At least, I hope it was.

As soon as I finished tugging my leggings over my cast, my phone rang. Before I got my shower, I just left it on my bed. Perhaps Evan was calling to cancel or something. There wasn't a reason for anyone to be calling me. It couldn't be my dad calling. I made it pretty clear that I didn't want anything to do with the vacation from hell.

I pick up the phone and stare at it blankly. My mother was calling. It's been three days and she was just now getting back to me? Honestly I thought it would take a lot longer.

"Hey Mom," I say as I answer the phone.

"Hi Hattie, just calling to check in," she said heavily. From the sound of her voice I could tell she was walking. In the background, I could barely make out the sounds of other people talking as well as car beeping at one another.

"Everything's fine, I guess," I say and I sat on my bed while propping my leg up. "Did you get my messages from a few days ago?"

"I did but I haven't looked at them yet," she says as she brushes it off. "So, I have good news."

"Yeah? Well I don't," I say as I give my leg a little pat.

"Things are going so great up here with the contract signings, they've asked me to be head of sales on their next project," she says as she completely ignored what I said. "Can you believe it?"

"Uh, sure," I say as I bit my bottom lip. "Mom, I have to tell you something."

"And that's not all," she continues to talk, which caused my heart to drop. This wasn't a check in, this is to brag. She doesn't care about what I have to say, which doesn't surprise me anymore. "I've meet someone."

"You've only been there two days," I sigh as I pinch the bridge of my nose. "Mom, something happened to me. You need to listen."

"We connected," she said, and it took all my strength to not end the call right there. "His name's Ray, recently divorced, and he's an artist. He can paint like Picasso." I roll my eyes. No one can paint like Picasso. "He's a bit younger, but he told me he wants a family. I could get a second chance."

"So what does that make me? A failed experiment?" I asked bitterly.

"You'd love him," she said in a daze.

"Oh my God, I can't do this," I say as I put my head in my hands.

"Sweetie, did you say something?" She asked as if she wasn't sure.

"Yes, I did. I tried to tell you several times, but you kept going on about your international booty call. If you actually cared about what was going on, you would have listened to your messages. You would know that I fell out a window and nearly died. DIED. You know what that means, right mom? I means that I wouldn't be here to listen to you go on and on about starting a new family while you treat me like a failure from the last one."

"I do not appreciate that tone, young lady," my mom said into the phone.

"I don't care anymore. Go live your double life like I don't matter to you," I mumbled.

"Double life? What are you talking about?"

Before I could even speak, a voice rang clearly through the phone. "Elenore, who are you talking to?"

"No one. It's just a wrong number," she said robotically.

I chuckle lightly as I shake my head. "Double life my ass. Go. Pretend like I don't exist. It's not the first time," I say as I end the call, tears started to form in the corner of my eyes.

I nearly threw my phone at the wall, but I opted to just letting it slip through my fingers. This was the first fight I had with my mom, and I very well knew that when she comes back, I didn't want to be here.

_____________________________________

I did not understand what I had just witnessed, but I'm pretty sure it was what was left of a small family falling apart. Hattie just sat on her bed with her head in her hands, but I couldn't tell if she was crying.

When Hattie was in the shower, I came back into the house through the kitchen door. The entire time I was out there, I just paced back and forth trying to think of ways to get back at her, but after what just happened I forget about all the material I had come up with.

Seeing Hattie like this was strange. She was always so tough. Whenever I would do something awful to her, she would stand her ground. Now she just looked so small. Broken. Defeated. I had no idea what was going through her head. Unlike her, I still had both my parents in my life. My life was stable. Hers wasn't. Where I had people to talk to, she didn't. She just let it bottle up inside her until it explodes.

Like now.

I push the door in and clear my throat to get her attention. Her shoulders stopped shaking as she looked up at me. There were tears streaming down her face.

"What do you want now?" She asked, her voice was scratchy.

I take a step into the room and looked at her. Seeing her like this seemed...wrong, and it made my chest hurt. She looked as if she would fall apart and crumble at me feet at any moment. I open my mouth to say something, but my throat instantly goes dry. Hattie looks at me as she waited for me to say something, but nothing came out. Instead, I grab a box of tissues that were on her dresser and hand them to her. She looked at them cautiously as if they were poison, but after a few seconds she took them.

"Isn't this the part where you say something mean?" She asked as she dabbed her eyes with the tissues.

"What?" I asked in confusion.

"You know, something like nobody loves me or that I'm such a disappoinment that I can't even keep one parent in my life. That I'm a waste of space."

"Stop that," I say a little to harshly, causing her to jump. I let out a sigh as I sit next to her on the bed. She didn't make a move, but she kept her eyes on me. "What did she say?"

"Nothing that I haven't heard before," she sighed as she tossed her used tissue into the trash.

I nodded my head as I look at her. "How are you doing after...all that? I kinda heard what you said."

"Why do you care?" She asked as she scooted away from me.

"I..." I start to say, but I hesitated. Even I don't know why I asked that. "You look nice," I say as I changed the topic.

"Yeah, a red cast really brings out the purple in my shirt," she says sarcastically, as if she were afraid to let her emotions show.

"I'm sorry. If I could take it all back I would do it in a heart beat," he says, as if that would comfort her.

"Yeah, well it's too late. The damage is done," she sighs as she pulled out another tissue. "You should go home."

"I'm not leaving," I say as I stand my ground.

"Well, I'll be leaving soon. I don't care what you do, but you're not staying here," she says as she gets her crutches under her arm and hoisted herself off of the bed.

"Hattie," I say softly. She stops walking and turns her head to look at me. "Are you alright?"

Hattie glanced at the floor as if she were trying to think of something to say. After a minute she looked up at me and smiled. But I knew that smile was fake. I could see the pain behind it, and all I wanted to do was take that pain away.

"I'm fine. I've been through worse," she said through the facade.

It took every ounce of my will not to get up and go to her. But I didn't. I knew how much she hated me, but I wanted to change that.

Hattie walks out of the room and I follow behind her. I made sure I kept my distance, but I would be close by if she needed me. She was getting better on her crutches. Pretty soon she'll hardly need me.

Once we get downstairs, she goes off into the living room. I watched from the corner of my eye as she brushes her hair in the mirror above the fireplace. I noticed her look up and the reflection of her eyes caught mine. Quickly, she looked down and walked out of the room and I lost sight of her.

Before I could follow her, there was a knock at the front door. I look up and narrowed my eyes at the clock mounted on the wall. It was 3:48. I open the door and come face to face with Evan.

Evan had a smile on his face, but that quickly vanished when he saw me. He must have been expecting Hattie to open the door.

"Jasper," Evan nodded as he pushed his way past me and entered the house. "Where's Hattie?"

I stayed silent as I shut the door. My gaze never left his eyes. Evan, on the other hand, tore his eyes off of Jasper as he looked around the house.

"What are you planning?" I asked as I looked him up and down, knowing I could easily take him in a fight if I had too.

"What?" Evan asked as he turned to look at me as if he didn't hear me.

"Why are you planning?" I ask as I take a step towards him in hopes of intimidating him.

Evan chuckled as he stood up straight and look straight back at me. "Well, I plan on taking Hattie to a movie. And why do you care?"

"She's not going anywhere with you," I say through clenched teeth.

Evan stared at me in confusion before he started to laugh. I narrow my eyes at him until he stops gasping for breath.

"Oh man, that was a good one. That's one hell of an act you're pulling. If I might add, next time use a little more force. That will scare off anyone," he said as he wiped a tear from one of his eyes.

"Act?" I question.

"Yeah," I said. "After all this time, now you start to care for her. Man that sounds like every romantic comedy for teenagers that's ever been made. Bully falls for the victim. Man, I could make that a book and sell millions."

My fist clenched as Evan talked. That can't be true. Hattie has been my nemesis since we were kids. That wasn't going to change.

"I'm kidding," Evan says as he smacked my shoulder. "No need to get upset." Before I could say anything else, the sound of clicking filled the room. Evan turned around and his jaw dropped. "Wow."

"I know," Hattie agreed. "Casts are not fashionable."

"You look great," Evan said breathlessly, and I actually agreed with him.

Hattie had he blond hair pulled back by a single black barrette so it wasn't falling into her face like usual. She even put on some black eyeliner and that made her green eyes pop more.

"Um, thanks," she says as she walks up to Evan. "Ready?"

"Yes," Evan said as he smiled down at her before placing a hand on the small of he back as he led her out of the house. I noticed Hattie blush slightly, but I remained silent. As they were out of the house, Hattie turned back to face me.

"Get out of my house, Jasper," she says before continuing to Evans care which was parked in the driveway.

As I watched Evan help her into the front seat, I couldn't get what Evan said to me out of my head.

Was I really falling for her?