It was three years before anything changed.

 

Cassidy was sitting on the grass of the high school’s field, just enjoying a nice day with friends.  Friends.  A miracle that she’d found any – that people liked her, that people actually wanted to hang around with her.  She liked school; here at least, she could pretend to be a normal fourteen-year-old girl, who complained about math class and always wanted to go to the mall and had a crush on a certain hot junior (not that she was the only one by any means)… “Oh, no…”

 

“What?”  One of her friends asked.

 

“Grace,” she said simply, getting up and going to her sister, who was walking across the field.  “What’re you doing here?  The middle school’s like a half-hour walk away, I stayed after…”

 

“Mom was supposed to pick me up, but she never showed…and I missed the bus…” Grace said, throwing her backpack on the ground.

 

“Well… come on, you can sit with us or something.  I usually hitch a ride with someone anyway…”

 

“Thanks.” Grace kicked her bag over to the group of people and sat next to a brown-haired boy.  “Hi.”

 

“Well…Cassidy, is it? If you and her need a ride home, I think I could manage.  I had to stay after for detention anyway.” a voice said next to her.

 

Several of Cassidy’s friends glanced at her – some jealous, others amazed, and Cassidy knew the phone would ring off the hook tonight.  “Yeah, it’s Cassidy.  That’d be great.”  She flashed a smile at Garrett, who was sitting near his brother across from her.

 

“Hey there,” the boy replied, clearly assuming that everyone who walked the face of the earth wanted him.  “I haven’t seen you around… Grace, right, if you’re Cassidy’s sister.”

 

“Yeah…I’m a year younger than her, so I don’t go to high school yet.” Grace replied.

 

“So…Cassidy…where do you live?” Garrett asked her.

 

“Well that’s just a crying shame,” Aidan Callahan replied, still smiling.  “I’m Aidan, Aidan Callahan.”

 

Cassidy got up to sit next to Garrett, just in the interest of giving directions.

 

“Grace Kincaide, but you probably figured that.” Grace replied, playing with a blade of grass.

 

Garrett leaned back on his hands to make room.

 

“Yeah… you know, Cassidy’s sister and I knew your name was Grace, Grace Kincaide sort of followed.”

 

Cassidy smiled.  “I really do appreciate it, you know.  It’s awful nice of you to drop us off.”

 

“It’s not really a problem.” Garrett replied.

 

“Yeah…” Grace replied, blushing slightly.

 

“Uh oh, the middle schooler’s got a crush on the big freshman,” Cassidy muttered with a grin.

 

“Look who’s talking, Miss ‘I’m obsessed with the hot junior’,” Grace retorted; she’d been sitting close enough to hear her sister’s comment.

 

Cassidy’s eyes narrowed.  “Shut the fuck up.”

 

“You don’t ever tell me to fuck!” Grace replied, shoving Cassidy hard.  She knocked her sister off balance and into Garrett’s lap.

 

Cassidy was certain she’d just turned about four shades of purple.  “You stinking little…”  But she made no attempt to move, passing the moment off as shock.

 

Garrett’s expression seemed to change from shock to satisfaction.  He readjusted himself so Cassidy would fall more comfortably in his lap.

 

“Just tell me when we’re leaving.” Grace snapped at her sister before marching off down the field.

 

Cassidy sighed with exasperation… though she still didn’t move.  “Sorry about that,” was all she said to Garrett.  “Siblings are a pain in the ass.”

 

“I know where you’re coming from, and it’s not like I’m complaining.” came his reply.

 

She simply grinned.

 

Probably a half hour later, Cassidy called out to her sister.  “Hey Gracey, we’re leaving!”

 

“Don’t call me that.  I hate it when you call me that.” She replied, following them.

 

“Yeah… I know.  Gavin, that’s Grace, Grace this is Gavin, Garrett’s brother.”

 

“Hi.” Grace smiled at the cute freshman.

 

“Hi,” he replied with a smile. 

 

“Who’s got shotgun?” Garrett asked as they came to his black convertible.

 

“Cassidy can,” Gavin said immediately.

 

Grace smiled at Gavin.

 

Garrett raised an eyebrow.  “No making out in the backseat.  I just had the car cleaned.”

 

Cassidy smirked at Grace, who probably wouldn’t know what the hell to do if a boy tried to kiss her.

 

Gavin made a face at the back of Garrett’s head.

 

Grace stifled a laugh and got in the car.

 

Garrett opened Cassidy’s door and let her in before getting in himself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Where the hell have you two been?”  David Kincaide demanded immediately.   “And who the hell at your high school drives a convertible?!?”

 

Grace had gotten halfway up the stairs.  “Mom never came to get me at school.  So I walked to Cassidy’s high school and her friend gave us a ride home.” Grace replied timidly.  She paused.  Maybe…maybe if she told him, then he wouldn’t be so mad at her.  “Her friend is a boy and she was sitting in his lap.”

 

Cassidy looked positively furious as she stomped up the stairs, shoving Grace down them and continuing up to lock herself in their room.

 

David took hold of Grace’s shoulder.  “My girl isn’t some whore like your mother.  You telling tales?”

 

“N..no.” Grace replied, wincing.  “You’re hurting me.” She whimpered.

 

“Good,” he replied, cracking her over the head with his belt.

 

Grace let out a bloodcurdling scream.  “Stop it!” She tried to run for the stairs.

 

“Go up, I’ll come get you,” he snarled, catching hold of her again.  The beating began in earnest.

 

Cassidy stood upstairs, silent.  No matter what the events of the day might have been, Grace *was* still her little sister… no, she couldn’t go down, she’d just make her father angry…

 

David had dragged Grace back to his study.  She whimpered as she saw all the possible weapons he could use.  When he brought his face close to hers, she scratched him across the neck.

 

“Not nice, Gracey,” he spat, grabbing his pistol from the desk drawer.

 

Grace’s eyes widened, as she moved slowly for the door.  “Daddy…please…don’t.”

 

“Away from the door,” he barked, approaching it himself and thus cornering her in the study.

 

“I told you to stay the fuck away from her.” Emily practically hissed through the open door.

 

“You want her dead?”  David threatened.

 

Cassidy couldn’t stand it, the noise and the threats… and she *knew* what was going on, for she’d faced it herself… just from their mother.  She headed downstairs.

 

“I want you dead.” Emily retorted, pulling her gun from her purse and pulling the trigger in one smooth motion.

 

Cassidy charged to the study just in time to watch her father fall to the ground dead, her mother still holding the smoking gun.  “Dad…”  The one who had occasionally asked what grade she was in (often twice in the same week)… who had once given her a stuffed teddy bear and a box of cookies when her mother saw her worthy only of abuse… “I FUCKING HATE YOU!”  She bellowed at Emily, suddenly seething with rage.

 

“Go to your room, Cassidy,” Emily was surprisingly calm.  She picked up the phone on David’s desk and dialed the number of Bryce Callahan.  “Bryce? It’s Emily.  I killed him.” She said before hanging up.

 

Cassidy whirled on Grace.  “It’s your fault, it’s friggin’ your fault, if you weren’t such a damn goody goody trying to start shit this wouldn’t have happened, if you weren’t such a little bitch…”

 

Grace looked up.  “I’m not!!  You saw him! You sat there and pretended he wasn’t going to kill me!”

 

“I saw him fall to the floor while my fucking schitzo of a mother stood there with her gun!”  Cassidy yelled.

 

“SHUT THE HELL UP! Cassidy, I told you to go to your room.  Now go!” Emily bellowed, raising the gun so it pointed at Cassidy.

 

“Fuck you,” Cassidy managed, storming from the room but instead fleeing the house, running down the street barefoot and jacketless.

 

Next Chapter

Emily went to the back door to wait for Bryce.