It took Bryan a little longer than I would have thought to catch me at school the next morning.

I was able to dodge him until a little after third period. He caught me on my way to the cafeteria, his eyes roaming my face in a prompting manner, he clearly wanted me to explain what the hell happened without him having to ask.

"What the hell happened, Reese?" he heaved out an exhausted sigh. "Who do I have to kill?"

I fiddled with the zipper on my jacket. "I spent the night with Liam, everything is fine, Bry."

It registered in him immediately. His lips curled back in distaste and he grew rigid. "Your father did this to you? Why the hell didn't you call me?"

"Because I didn't want you on the next episode of the First 48, bryan. I knew you'd kill him before I could convince you not to."

"You're right." He didn't even try to deny it. "I'm amazed that Liam didn't do anything."

I crossed my arms over my chest as a freshman and her friends passed, eyes glued to the eye sore in the middle of my face. "He tried, but I was able to get him to stay with me instead of hunting him down."

"I'll take you back home after school to pick some stuff up." Bry whispered, closing the gap between us and hugging me against him. "You can come stay with us for a few days. I'm sure Mom and Dad wouldn't mind, they love you."

I buried my face deeper against him, my nails digging into his back as I blinked rapidly to stop tears from breaking out. "Thank you, Bry."

He nodded against me before kissing my forehead and meeting my eyes again. As if he can tell I'm hanging on by a very thin, loose thread, he hugged me back against him without another word.

**

I had thought being Jay's girlfriend had drawn a lot of attention, but dragging myself through the halls with a very bruised nose and black eye had everyone sneaking looks in my direction. I nearly ran to the field and started to run around it. To be out of the center of attention was a relief, and running helped prevent me from overthinking. It wasn't until I was caught roughly by the elbow after a couple laps.

Liam spun me around and forced his finger under my jaw so I was forced to stare up at him. My anger over being stopped was gone as soon as I saw his blurred image. I was crying.

"You're going to kill yourself doing this, Reese." He said softly, concerned eyes burning into my own. "I understand that it helps you escape, trust me. But you don't stop for water, you're overrunning yourself, and you're crying. That's not a good mix."

I averted my eyes quickly to the bleachers. "I have the next Play if you want it."

He looked ready to protest my redirection of the topic, but nodded and kept a tight grip on my arm our entire trek to the bleachers. It was as if he were afraid I'd take off crying again if he let go. As soon as I rummaged through my bag and pulled it out he stared at it hard, his eyebrows drawing in confusion.

"I don't even know if I'm afraid of anything." He muttered, more to himself than me, then added. "Are you okay, Reese? You've been dodging me all day."

"I'm okay." I assured him. "I'm going to be staying with Bry and Brianna for a while. Don't worry about me, Liam. You need to worry about the game tomorrow. That game determines if you are in the Championship game or not. Focus."

He closed my notebook and dropped his head as he spoke. "You've missed the last couple games, which I expected given everything that happened with Jay, but are you coming tomorrow? We could really use our good luck charm there."

"Do you want me there?"

He snorted with a smile. "Of course I do, Reese. That's a really stupid question."

I smiled in return, "Then I'll be there, Tin Man."

*

Bryan made sure to drop in to check in on my mother at the hospital before we headed back to his house. She was fine. Very shook and horrified by my father's actions, but okay. The baby was as well, she even invited me to join her to find out the gender in a couple days to which I agreed.

As soon as we were back at the Waters in Bryan's room, I was greeted by Shay's familiar face in the hallway. She had been stepping out of Brianna's room, but looked as if she were likely spending the night. I couldn't help but feel a little guilty; it should be me in there with Bri. I had kind of unknowingly pushed her away the last few months as I tried to sort through my feelings. I didn't want to take her happiness away, to drag her down into the abyss of my emotions again. She had already bore through it once with me, and now she was the happiest she'd ever been, and there was no way I was going to put a damper on that.

"Hey." Shay offered a weak smile. "Quite a shiner you got there."

I nodded, but it was Bryan who answered. "I didn't know you were going to be over tonight."

"Bri wanted to have another sleepover." Shay made a gesture over her shoulder toward his twins room. "She figured that Reese would want to be with you after what happened, whatever caused the black eye, I'm assuming."

That made me feel even worse. Again, Bryan spoke before I could. "She's probably right. But don't let me stand in the way, Reese, if you want to go chill with the girls."

Even worse was that the thought of sitting and talking about boys made me want to start sobbing, so I forced a smile and answered. "Maybe in a bit."

Shay took that as her cue. She sent me a quick, curt nod and Bryan a flirtatious smile before heading back for Bri's room. I followed my best friend until we were in the comfort of his own bedroom. He immediately headed for his closet while I set my duffel bag at the foot of his bed and stepped toward the staggered set of photos that hung over his TV on top of the dresser.

The biggest, a canvas, was of us at our middle school graduation. I remembered the day distinctly because Bryan had tripped over his gown and slammed right into my back seconds after he walked the small stage. He'd lived in embarrassment for that entire summer, thinking the moment would follow him into his first year of high school. Lucky for him Raya was a senior and shut anyone who made a comment about it up.

Brianna was wearing a black romper, having not grown into her long legs yet, she looked just as lanky and awkward as Bryan on my left in a Polaroid shirt and washed out jeans. I stood between them, my elbow draped over Bryan as I laughed at whatever he was saying, my blonde hair throw into a braid.

Most of the other photos were also of the three of us, a couple of them of the Waters family, but one of them was recent. It must have been taken at Homecoming without my knowledge. I was hugging Bryan, hiding my face against him so all that was visible was a curtain of blonde against his black tux. Why he'd want to frame such a traumatic moment for me was a little unnerving.

"Don't look at it like that." Bryan wandered back over to me, eyes on the picture. "I printed it because that was it."

"That was it? What do you mean?"

He rubbed his forehead. "I mean that it was in that moment I realized that I realized that even after hitting rock bottom and falling apart completely that you were still you, Reese. You went to that Homecoming dance for us, for Liam. You forced yourself to face your biggest fear to make us happy and content. And when I was standing there holding you, I realized that no matter how hard I try to deny it, you will always be the first girl I loved, the woman that set a standard for every future woman I decide to date."

He sat on the edge of his bed and continued. "Liam told me too, you know, that Homecoming was a monumental moment for him. He said that it was the first he started to question how he felt about you. Before that, he just that you were this cute, snarky, nerd. But he said when he walked in and your face lit up that he wanted to kiss you. Then, he said, that you completely fell apart in his arms outside the school and he wanted to comfort you, to stop the tears, but couldn't figure out how."

I joined my best friend on the bed. "Liam keeps telling me that he can't lose me. When he was yelling about my dad last night, he confessed he loved me."

"Well, no shit." Bryan laughed. "But he's damaged goods right now. Just wait until the end of the season, maybe. It'll be one less thing he as to worry about."

"I just want Raya to come back." My voice caught in my throat. "She'd know what to do about Dad, she'd give me the best advice about Liam."

Bryan wrapped his arm around me and rested his chin against the top of my head. "I miss her too, Re. I remember every time she saw me, she would insist I solemnly swear that if anything ever happened to her that I would look after you."

I bit down hard on my bottom lip to stop it from trembling.

"She was this magical queen of wisdom, always knowing what to do, what to say. When she left, she just left us all to fend for ourselves."

Bryan lifted his head and turned my own in his direction. "Reese, you don't honestly believe that, do you? Raya was never this magical wizard, she was only what you made her out to be. It was you the entire time that had it in you, that had the ability to show everyone around you that they had it within themselves too. The power to change. The power to love unconditionally."