Eric watched from the driver's seat as Andie anxiously combed her long flaxen hair and its many layers with her fingers. She stared forward out the window, watching the windshield wipers slip back and forth while tugging at the ends of her long tresses and slowly working her way up to the roots of her hair.

"I'll drive slow," he told her, his voice sounding weird in the silence.

"What?"

"You seem worried..." he explained, "about the rain."

"Oh..." She shook her head. "I don't expect to die in a car crash like mom."

Eric nodded slowly, his lips pursing. "I'm glad you aren't scared." The silence filled the car once again, aside from the pattering of rain on the roof, and the squeak of the windshield wipers.

Eric guessed that if Andie's anxiety wasn't caused by their driving in the rain, then it must be what they both just witnessed back at the house. He opened his mouth, feeling compelled to say something, but she surprised him by speaking first; her voice soft and uncertain.

"I feel a little bad leaving without saying a word..." she said. "All those dishes were left uncleaned, and the door..."

"I'll go back tomorrow and help John fix the door. And we had to leave. They needed... privacy." Eric looked to Andie when she didn't respond, and noticed how pink her cheeks had gotten. Glancing down at the AC, and feeling the chill in the car, he dashed all thoughts of her being overheated and flushed, and realized instead that she was blushing.

If she was uncomfortable from what they had just witnessed, he didn't blame her. But maybe her reaction was stemming from something a little deeper than that. Maybe she was concerned for her friend. Maybe this sort of thing frightened her.

"Andie, does... does that happen often...?" He treaded the subject carefully, but Andie didn't budge right away. Without looking his way, she replied with a mock-indifference 'what?' With a sigh, Eric pressed a little harder. "I mean does John discipline Morgan often?"

"Not like that, no... He's strict with her I think. He gets onto her a lot. But he's never done that before. Although, Morgan says he's been threatening to for awhile..."

"Listen, John's in a position to do that sort of thing... Their dad isn't around often, you know? And-"

"It's OK, I-I don't think it's...bad...or anything."

"Oh." Eric nodded, more than a little surprised that Andie wasn't more upset about the whole thing. "Alright, then."

"What were you doing there?" Andie's question burst out of her.

"John called me over for dinner. He thought I knew you were there." Eric then turned a scowl on Andie. "Tell me next time, by the way."

Andie squirmed in her seat, and again, she looked uncomfortable, but Eric couldn't determine if she really was. Eric was quickly discovering that he couldn't read his step-sister very well.

"Alright," she eventually answered, her voice soft and without any of the attitude he might have expected from a teenager; especially after having just witnessed the explosive reaction from Morgan.

Once again, he found himself taking his eyes off the road to study Andie. This was the most they had ever spoken, he was sure of that, and it helped him realize how little they knew of each other.

Another thing he was quickly realizing: Andie was a good girl. She was well mannered, and aside from her late night out the previous night, she never misbehaved. He wasn't sure about her grades, but he imagined that if he checked, he would find impeccable scores in all of her classes.

He supposed he should consider himself lucky. She was a good girl. She just needed someone to see that and make her feel loved.

Determinedly, he decided that he would try to do better for her.

The rest of the car ride was spent in silence, but it was a comfortable silence that didn't bother Andie. And when she looked over at Eric, she felt that perhaps he didn't mind it so much either.

The usually hostility she felt from him wasn't there just then. He was talking to her more than he normally did, and he was being kind. Things felt very normal.

When Eric had taken a harder tone with her regarding her lack of communication on her whereabouts earlier that day, she felt a rush inside. It was silly, to want that kind of attention. She recognized that any other teenager would likely thrive without it right now. But, she was drowning without it. She needed it from Eric, and his very simple demand that she keep him in the loop next time, warmed her to the very core.

But her mind was hounded by other thoughts. Very recent memories of the confrontation she had just witnessed at Morgan's house replayed in her mind like an endless loop. The sound of John's hand falling on Morgan's jeans, the self-drawn image that she was thrown over her brother's knee, and the sound of Morgan's echoing cries.

It warmed Andie's cheeks the whole way home, and when it was time for bed, she laid awake thinking about it.

The next morning, Andie dashed out of the house before Eric could even offer her breakfast. She raced down the sidewalk with her red backback slung over her shoulders, intent on getting to school early enough to speak with Morgan before first period began. Morgan always got there before Andie, and this morning was no exception. She was spotted immediately on the steps where she often waited for Andie.

Andie slowed and settled her breathing before approaching her friend, and when she did, she gently asked her how she was doing.

"You mean aside from absolutely humiliated?" Morgan groaned as Andie took a seat beside her on the stone steps. "Please tell me you didn't stay very long after John took me upstairs."

"We didn't," Andie replied with a shake of her head. "Eric insisted that we leave pretty quick. Like... the second we figured out what was going on."

"Well, thank god for that," Morgan mumbled, slouching and rolling her eyes in absolute annoyance. "I seriously can't believe John did that. Can you believe it? And this morning I couldn't even act put out with it because he threatened to do it again!"

"Was it really so bad?" I asked, trying to keep my curiosity from sounding too eager.

"Yeah, it hurt!"

"But, like... horribly?"

Sighing, Morgan shrugged, dropping some of her anger. "I guess it wasn't horrible."

"What happened?"

"He yanked me over his knee as if I were just a five-year-old! And then he...you know."

"For how long?"

"Not long... Maybe twenty times or so? But it hurt."

"Did...did he take your pants off?"

"No, but he threatened to next time. Next time! Can you believe that? He's actually planning on doing this again!"

"I think he's just worried about you..." Andie tried to offer a reasonable and gentle excuse for why Morgan's brother dealt with her so harshly. "I bet he didn't like doing it."

"He didn't... That was the worst part. And he was being so...nice...to me afterwards. Like pampering me before bed, and then again this morning with a special breakfast and everything... He must have guilty for accosting me like that."

"Maybe..."

Or maybe it brought you both closer, Andie wanted to say, but she kept that part to herself.

"He might have been embarassed too; having lost his cool like that in front of his friend." Morgan nodded and crossed her arms with a sour smile on her face. "Serves him right too!"

Andie didn't say anything else regarding the incident that took place last night between Morgan and John. Her mind was full of Morgan's play-by-play and she found herself stuck on it all day, bothering several of her teachers with her distracted state.

At home, Eric was getting ready to leave for John's house. First he had to clean up the breakfast that he woke up thirty minutes early to prepare for Andie, only to have her rush out without a word.

He supposed he didn't blame her; they had never had breakfast together before, and they always fended for themselves. He should have made his intentions clearer.

Still... He found himself leaning against the counter, arms crossed, scowling fiercely at his attempts gone to waste.

Andie didn't bother eating a thing before school, and he didn't even know how she ate lunch. He didn't think she packed herself a lunch and if she had money in her school lunch account, then he didn't know how it was being supplied; he had never provided any funds towards her school and nobody had contacted him regarding such things...

Feeling very clueless, and disliking the feeling greatly, he packed up the food he prepared and took it over to John's house. His knock to the front door went unanswered, so he went around the back, and found John reattaching the door to its hinges. Beside him a loud radio boomed music, drowning out any noise around him.

"John!" Eric bellowed over the music in an attempt to get his friend's attention. When it didn't work, he stomped up the steps of the back porch and turned the volume knob on the radio.

John looked up and broke into a grin when he saw it was Eric.

"Do my eyes deceive me, or did you bring me food?"

"I brought you food."

"Ah, what a guy!"

John shoved his shoulder into the door to keep it from leaning, and then grabbed a thick and long piece of wood to wedge between the door and the lip of one high board in the porch. This kept the door from falling over.

Dusting his hands off, he sat down, and Eric followed suit.

Seated on the steps of the dusty old porch, John and Eric opened up the containers of food and dug into breakfast as if they hadn't eaten in a lifetime.

"Man, I was starved," John exclaimed as he shoveled a fork full of potato into his mouth. "Why did you go to all this trouble?"

"It wasn't much trouble," Eric replied, even though it felt like a lot of work gone to waste. "It was for Andie, actually, but she left so fast she didn't stop to eat breakfast this morning."

"Oof," John mumbled around a mouth full of food whilst shaking his head disapprovingly. "They gotta eat. Morgan turns into the biggest brat when she skips meals."

"Yeah..." Eric meant to reply with more, but he couldn't agree with whether or not Andie did the same. He honestly didn't know. "Did everything clear up OK last night...?"

"Oh, yeah..." It was John's turn to struggle with a reply. "I'm sorry about that. It looked awful, didn't it? I've never done it before, so please don't think I've made a habit out of whooping Morgan whenever she acts out. She's just been...tough...lately. I swear she's pushing my buttons intentionally, and she's making poor decisions, and I feel like if I don't do something about it now, her life will steer in an unsavory direction."

"Hey, it's really OK, I think I get it. After we left, I was thinking about how well behaved Andie was, and feeling very grateful for it."

"The difference between Andie and Morgan, is Andie actually wants correction, where Morgan would rather I leave her to do her own thing, even if that puts her in a lousy position."

"What do you mean she wants correction?"

"Well, you've probably seen it; when you correct her, or tell her to do something, or not to do something, or get onto something, she responds to it as if you've just built a fortress around her. It makes her feel safe, which makes plenty of sense after what she's been through."

"Yeah," Eric hummed thoughtfully as he considered John's words. "Yeah, I think you're right."

"You'll probably never have to go to the lengths I do to keep Morgan in check," John drawled with a sigh and a shake of his head.

"Do you think you'll have to do that again?"

"What? Smack some sense into her? Yeah, I doubt that will be the last time. But, it wasn't so bad. I mean, she cried her head off the whole time, but I knew it didn't hurt so much as shock her. She was embarassed, but we talked afterwards, and I took care of her before bed and again this morning. Sometimes I still need reminding that she's just a young girl who needs to feel loved sometimes. She really liked that; we both did. It...helped. I felt closer to her. I'm not sure if she perceived it the same way, but that's how it came across to me." John finished with a shrug before leaping up and resuming his work; leaving Eric to sit on the steps and mull over John's words.