When I got home, I veered my way around my dad and his friends. Since my dad had friends, he wouldn't really be bothered with me tonight, so I went to my room and locked the door. I tried to go to sleep, but couldn't. My mind was still racing from that guy calling me beautiful. It had made no sense and it wasn't like he knew me.

I checked my social media and slipped into my pajamas. I posted a few snaps on snapchat of just lounging around in my bed. I played with the filters and pretended to be the happy go lucky girl that everyone knew me as.

The next morning, it was silent. Which usually meant, since it was Saturday, that my dad went fishing. So I changed into some jeans and a fitting t shirt and laid on my stomach on my bed. Opening snapchat, I took a selfie and captioned: Bored for the day, who wants to hang out? 😛

Soon, I got a response from dylanisawesome that said: u can come hang with me and my friends 😉

Me: Sounds great! Meet you at the mall in 30?

Him- absolutely

I started walking to the mall and when I got to the front, I saw Dylan, the guy who saved me, and another friend. I waved and Dylan introduced his friends as Cason—the guy who thought I was beautiful—and Jason.

"Brooke," I waved.

"Well, let's have some fun," Dylan said as we went into the mall and we all kind of laughed.

"Did you know that Dylan invited me?" I asked.

"I actually did," Cason said. "They saw your post, so I told them to invite you."

"Why?" I asked.

"Because you are important to me," he said.

"You know in most cases, you'd be classified as a stalker, or a creep," I said.

"I'm just trying to help," he said.

"Guys," Jason looked behind and saw how far we'd lingered. "Hurry up," he laughed.

We nodded and walked a bit faster. "Plus," Cason added. "I couldn't stand to listen to other people talk about you how they were, my friends included, so I wanted to be around so no one could hurt you."

"What were your friends saying?" I asked.

"Just things they'd do if they ever got alone with you," he said a bit disgusted.

"If you find them that disgusting, why are you friends with them?" I asked.

"Because they're mostly just talk, and they are good guys, but I can't tell when they're just talk," he said.

I nodded and we mostly window shipped and ate some pretzels.

"Hey," Dylan said. "So what do you usually do on a Saturday?"

"Whatever I feel like doing," I shrugged and they laughed.

"You wanna hang out later?" He asked.

"Dylan," Cason said.

"What?" He acted dumb.

They walked away out my hearing range, leaving me with Jason.

"What's the problem?" I asked.

"I don't know. Cason can be like this, but it doesn't happen a lot," he shrugged.

"Okay," Dylan and Cason came back. "So offer still stands."

"Sure, why not?" I shrugged.

Cason didn't look happy about it. Why did it matter to him? We barely knew each other. Why would he care if I went home somewhere? We went to an arcade and played a few games and Dylan used every excuse he could think of to touch me. High fives, hugs, things like that. As the day ended, I went to Dylan's as Cason and Jason went to their own houses.

"You're really pretty," he said, once we were in his house.

"I try," I joked. "Parents out of town?"

"Passed away, actually. My grandma went to see my aunt though," he said.

"Oh," was all I could really say.

"Yeah, so," he wrapped his arms around me. "What do you wanna do?"

"This is fun," I said, taking off his shirt and he smirked, kissing me and bringing me to his room.

*

"Dang, girl," he chuckled an hour later. "Wasn't expecting that."

"Well, I'm full of surprises," I said.

He kissed my neck and held my body against his. "You're so much fun."

"Glad you think so," I said. "Hey, so what was Cason's deal earlier today?"

"I don't know," he looked at me. "He was like 'what do you think you're doing' and I just told him that you and I were single so it didn't really matter."

"Yeah, it's not like he gets a say," I chuckled, a bit offended he basically said I didn't matter.

"Exactly," he said, hovering over me. "We can do what we want."

"Yeah, well, I should probably go," I pushed him away.

"So soon?" He asked as I got dressed.

"Yeah," I said, standing up to put my jeans on and threw my shirt over my head.

"Well, hey," he grabbed my arm and pulled me back to kiss me again and tried pulling me back into bed. I sat on the bed and let him kiss me for a while, but I finally pulled away and left.

I walked around and went to the park where I could draw. It was peaceful and even though the sun was starting to set, I knew how to handle myself if a Physco came along. I decided to use the colors blue, purple, and dark green to blend them together into something abstract.

"Hey," Cason's voice said and I looked up.

"Hi," I said.

"Are you okay?" He asked.

"Yeah," I shrugged.

"Good," he sat by me. "What are you working on?"

"Nothing," I said, closing my sketchbook.

"Okay," he said. "Did Dylan hurt you in any way?"

"No," I shook my head. "I still don't get why you care so much."

"It's just part of my nature I guess," he shrugged. "So, want me to walk you home?"

"No thanks," I looked down. "Not going home."

"Why not?" He asked.

"Don't really feel like it," I said.

"Your parents would worry," he said.

"My dad goes fishing on the weekends," I looked at him.

"Well, you could meet my mom and brother," he said.

"It's fine, thanks though," I said.

"No, really. My mom would love you," he said.

I shook my head. If my mom could leave me, how could any other mom actually like me?

"Please? It'll give you a chance to know me a little more and I could learn something about you," he said.

"Fine," I said. "Thanks."

"Anytime," he stood and helped me up.

I figured I'd let him help me up this time since I didn't let him help me at the party last night. We walked in silence to his house and he let me in.

"Mom, I have a friend over," Cason said.

"Dylan or Jason?" She called.

"Neither," he said as we went into the kitchen and she saw me.

"Oh," she said. "Who are you?"

"I'm Brooke," I said, awkwardly.

"Nice to meet you," she shook my hand. "Aiden is at a sleepover, so it's just us three."

"My littler brother," Cason said.

I nodded.

"So, Brooke, are you new in town?" Cason's mom asked.

"No, ma'am, I've lived here my whole life," I said.

"Oh, that's nice," she said. "Hungry?"

"No thanks," I said.

"Okay," she said. "Tell me about you."

"Not much. I'm just waiting for graduation," I said.

"Why's that?" She asked.

"So I can go to college and do something," I said.

She looked between me and Cason and had that face I'd pictured she'd have. She didn't like me and didn't like the idea of Cason possibly dating me. Not that we were into each other, but she didn't want either one of us to date. Cason probably couldn't tell, but I knew that look.

"Brooke can really draw. I haven't seen any of her drawings, but she's always drawing something," Cason broke the silence.

"I'm not that good," I said and a dog jumped on my legs.

"Down, Joey," Cason's mom snapped and Joey jumped down.

"Probably should've warned you," Cason shrugged.

"It's fine, he's cute," I said.

"You have pets at home?" Cason's mom asked.

I shook my head.

"What do you have at home?" She asked.

"A dad," I said.

"Where's your mom?" She asked.

"I don't know," I shrugged. "She's not really a topic."

Her face shifted a bit, almost like she was rethinking her previous judgement on me. She looked at Cason and back at me. "Can I talk to my son alone for a second?"

I nodded and went to the living room. I caught some phrases like;

"Why is she here?"

"I wanna help her."

"She hasn't been raised right."

"You don't know her."

"You know her?"

"That's why she's here."

There was a lot more to the conversation, but they were very good at keeping their voices low enough so I couldn't understand what they really said. Then I heard what I'd been waiting to hear.

"Cason, she barely covers herself up. Quit trying to save people that obviously don't want to be saved."

I stood and knocked on the wall next to the kitchen since there wasn't a door to separate the two rooms. "Thank you for letting me into your home, but I should probably get going."

"Oh, I'll take you home," Cason said.

"No, it's fine," I said. "Goodnight."

I walked out and walked home in the dead of night, wishing I could evaporate into thin air.