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and hugged her again before Orion and I left the arcade.
    "Nice girl," Orion commented.
    "Yeah...I feel so bad about having ignored her texts and calls, though. She sent me a few after we graduated, but I never got back to her. Luckily, she didn't ask me why. God, I'm a crappy friend."
    "No, you're not," Orion said. "You just have a lot of other things to deal with."
    I realized that what he said was true, thanks to my jerk father, who, besides just leaving us without notice a few years ago, rarely visited Andy and me. This really bothered my mother, who already had enough troubles already, so that she didn't need any more emotional turmoil. That is one reason we were all so close-we all got left and we all had to pick up the pieces together. Together, we were a family; alone, we were nothing.
    I realized I was discussing some of these thoughts out loud when Orion got so distracted that we started drifting into the other lane. "Geez, what am I doing?" he shouted.
    After we both calmed down, Orion changed the subject and decided to ask me about my relationship with Damian. "So, Andy tells me he's some sort of provider or something?" Orion asked. "He helps you and your mom with bills and other things? What does he get in return?"
    "Don't worry about it," I said. "It's none of your concern."
    "What happens to my friends is my concern, Madison," Orion said.
    "I'm telling you not to worry about it!" I shouted.
    Suddenly, he pulled the car off to the side of the road and put it into park. Turning to me, he said,
    "I'm just worried about you and Andy. I may have only known you a few days, but it's not that difficult to pick up on what's going on. Every time his name gets mentioned, you never want to talk about him. Every time he calls, you don't want to answer. But you do." Orion sighed. "He is intimidating you, isn't he?"
    I looked away from him and out the side window.
    I felt his hand on my arm, light and gentle, which made me relax somewhat.
    "Madison, would you please just look at me?" I turned my head back to face him. "I don't know what's going on with you and him. I don't even think I want to know."
    "Then why are you going on about it?" I asked.
    "Because I'm worried about you," Orion said. "I know I don't really have any right to be, but I do care about you. You're my best friend's sister, and you've become one of my friends too. I don't want to see you getting hurt in any way."
    "I'll be fine," I said. "But thanks...for the concern."
    Orion nodded and began driving again. We were at my house within minutes. "Thanks for today, all of it," I said as I gave him a hug.
    "It was my pleasure," Orion answered. "Please remind Andy that I'll see him at seven tomorrow, alright?"
    "Sure thing," I said. I opened the car door.
    "Madison," Orion said. "Andy doesn't have this number, so..." He wrote down something on a small card and handed it to me. "That's my cell phone number. If you ever need to talk, or need me for any other reason, like pretending to be your boyfriend," He grinned broadly, and I giggled at what he had said, "don't hesitate to call, alright?"
    I thought about it for a few seconds, before nodding and getting out of the car. I watched him pull out of the driveway and disappear around the corner before I went inside.
    "Where have you been?" Mom asked, almost instantly. "I know you and Orion went go-karting, but does it take that long??"
    "We were at the arcade, too," I said. "We ran into Nora and her boyfriend Colby, so we hung out with them for a while."
    "Oh," Mom said. "Well Damian called a few times. I told him you were at work."
    "Oh, thank you so much." I said. "Good thinking. Have you eaten yet, by the way?"
    "Yes, Andy and I had left over Chinese," Mom said.
    Andy now walked into the room. "Uh, your work called for you. They were wondering if you could do the night shift, eleven to seven."
    "I guess so," I said. "Do I need to call them back?"
    "Yeah," Andy said. His eyes looked dreadful.
    "You okay?" I