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tonight.”
    Back to my senses, things start to clear up and seem a bit more cut and dry.
    Mom’s having a baby, presumably to try again at raising children.
    Michael’s on the ground with a possibly punctured lung and severe facial bruising.
    Rhett’s standing in front of me with a very serious expression plastered on his features.
    “Holy shit! ” My voice is a tinny, girlish croak as I look at Rhett.
    “I know, right? That was awesome! ”
    “That was so risky. He would’ve hurt you if he had the chance.”
    Rhett shrugs it off, adding sparks to the flame already burning in my overworked chest. I’m mad at him for so many reasons and only a few. “It was a calculated risk, but I’ve never been good at math.”
    “No!” I walk over and shove his chest, with each word pushing him harder back. “You can’t play this off with a flirty smile and a cheap one-liner. I would’ve been fine if you hadn’t shown up. I would’ve had a freak out and been fine. I don’t have anywhere to sleep tonight because of you , Rhett Tressler, and there’s nothing you can do to change that. That was stupid and boyish and not at all worth whatever the hell you were trying to accomplish!”
    He’s not quite hurt, but nearly there. “I don’t see why you’re mad at me . If you haven’t noticed, I’m the one who came out here to protect you.”
    “I don’t need your protection!” I’m almost shouting again, so I try to bring down my levels of unexpected anger and stress and general angst to a normal volume. “We’ve known one another for less than twenty four hours, and I have a strong suspicious I’m in more shit than I’ve been in my entire life. God, I thought you were different. I thought… Jesus, I am so stupid!”
    “What did you think about me?” He’s hurt now as the words slips out.
    There’s no stopping my attack, though; I’m charged up and feeling like throwing punches at anyone in the line of fire. “I thought, maybe, just maybe , you’d be the first guy who didn’t treat me like a flower who needed to be fixed or like a nutcase who needs to be locked up. I thought, for a few seconds, that things could work out and you could be important to me because no boy has ever bothered to be cute and funny and sarcastic and flirtatious to me before today. But I can’t be around people who’ll get me into more trouble than they’re worth. I can do that much on my own, okay?”
    He nods, biting back something welling up inside himself, and tells me one last thing before walking away, “Cordelia Kane, you deserve to have every boy try to win your heart. You deserve every witty sarcastic comment thrown your way in an attempt to woo you. You deserve everything and so much more. I’ll see you around.”
    And I walk away.
     
    Chapter Three – Being Assimilated
    My legs are aching and my throat is rough and raw. Everything hurts as I stumble through the pitch black streets of Lightfoot. There are only scattered streetlamps every quarter mile or so but I’m not afraid. After all, what’s there to be afraid of?
    The endless expanse of night stretches its legs above me, the stars a smattering of freckles and the moon an all-seeing eye watching me trudge through its light with pity. I pass closed shops and open bars and walk over the cracked sidewalk with dread lodged in my stomach like a tumor. Tomorrow’s Sunday and I have to be at my job at the Country Club at eight fifteen in the morning. But I can’t go because mom or Michael or Amanda or someone will be there and see me or maybe Rhett will try to talk to me there because I told him where I work besides the coffee shop.
    As I finally reach the place I must’ve been going to this whole time – Memorial Park – I stop and realize I’m going to have to apologize. Though, for now, the bouncy castle constantly inflated in the park for fairs and such seems like a pretty great place to weather the night, I know it can’t be a home. There’s a warm house