“Oh my god, what happened to you?” he asked. Tears spilled over my lids again and he put his arm around my shoulder and beside me back to his house. “Did Bobby do this to you?”

My legs trembled and thank goodness Zac was holding onto me or else I would have fallen. Without letting me go he helped me back to his house. He knew that Bobby did it to me. He didn’t even have to ask me…he already knew.

As I washed my face, I looked into the mirror for the last time. Yep, there was a huge welt on my cheek and it couldn’t be covered with make-up. My mind kept replaying the whole scene over and over again. Seeing Bobby raise his hand and striking me as hard as he did. It seemed unreal, sorta like it never happened. Never in my mind would I have imagined him hitting me.

I looked over at the bathroom door, my head still swarming in thoughts, as Zac walked in. His expression: shocked. He saw the mark on my face and was stunned. He couldn’t see it before because I let my hair fall over it. Then I quickly let the sleeves of my shirt fall to cover the bruises so that he couldn’t see them, but I was too late. He saw them and he looked positively pissed.

“I can’t believe that he did this to you.” He said, disgusted.

“It was my fault, if I would have--”

“You think what he did to you was your fault?” Zac asked me.

“I should have broken up with him sooner.” I said.

“Ang, this wasn’t your fault. If he’s low enough to hit a girl, then he doesn’t deserve to have a girlfriend in the first place. Listen to me—don’t go over there anymore.” Zac advised. I nodded and allowed him to pull me in his arms. I loved him so much. He was right; Bobby doesn’t deserve me. I’m worth more than the abuse that he offered. He had changed so much ever since I told him about Zac kissing me. I really did like Bobby…maybe it would have been best if I never told him about Zac…

Weeks past and Zac still remained furious at Bobby for what he did to me. I guess that I never really excepted the fact that he hit me, I tried to deny it. No one else in Zac’s family found out about it, or Bobby might not be alive now.

My mother’s funeral came and went. As weird as it might sound, I didn’t cry at the funeral. I probably already had everything out before the funeral. I guess that you can say that it finalized everything. I never exactly realized that she was completely gone and wouldn’t be coming back until I watched the casket being lowered into the ground. Until then, it just seemed like when I was younger and was living at the Hanson’s while she was at the clinic. I came to acknowledge that I would never see her again. I was sad, but I didn’t cry.

I had other things on my mind. Zac’s 14th birthday was only 3 days away and I still had to buy him something. Plus, we were in the middle of turning part of their garage into a makeshift bedroom for me. Almost all of my stuff had been moved over to their house, but we still had a lot of work to do to make my ‘room’ look homey.

The whole concept of living with the Hanson’s was a bit overwhelming. Was I going to become part of their family? Were they going to adopt me? If they do adopt me, what would that mean for Zac and me? Would that ruin our relationship? And what in the world am I going to get him for his birthday??

I know that he won’t want to accept anything ‘too much’, but it seems right to get him something nice for his birthday. He gave me those light up drumsticks and they were so sentimental. I didn’t have anything like that to give him.

“Guess what?” he said to me.

“What?”

“That wasn’t a very good guess.” He said. I only rolled my eyes. “Anyway, I’m not having a party this year, so that means you’re not invited to it and that means that you don’t have to get me anything.”

I sighed and exasperated sigh. “I don’t care, I’m still getting you something.”

Zac rolled his eyes. I knew that he was getting a little bit mad at me because I kept on insisting that I was getting him something when he kept on insisting that he didn’t want anything. I didn’t know why he was being so weird about this, he always loved getting something from me on his birthday. Hmm, I guess that people change with time.