Nix

"So. My last day of freedom."

"I kinda wish you didn't have to go back to work. I'm gonna miss having you around during the day."

"I know. But the criminals of Sunset Valley aren't going to be caught by themselves."

"The ones you're allowed to arrest, anyway."

"Sadly. Aww, look at her. Isn't she sweet?"

"As always. Hey, do you think I'll be okay with her on my own?"

"What? Of course you will! You're a great dad."

"Thanks. I guess I'm just a bit nervous about it."

"She's lucky. I just hope I don't miss her first words or steps while I'm not here."

"If you do, I'll try to record it. She's getting close now."

"...If her first word is something rude-"

"It won't be!"

"I'll blame you one hundred percent."

"Ahh, it'll probably be 'Daddy'."

"For your sake, it'd better be."

"Hello."

"Hi, make yourself at home."

"I...I'm not staying long. I just wanted to apologise for my behaviour at the wedding."

"Oh, you've got nothing to apologise for."

"It was completely inappropriate. You went to see your son get married, not jumped on by some weird woman."

"I still did that! It was ten minutes out of a whole day. It's not like I missed anything. Hell, he probably wanted the time to his new wife. Nobody wants to hang around their mum on their wedding night."

"Even so..."

"It's okay, Roxxi. Unless you regret it, which I completely understand."

"I don't exactly regret it. I just feel ashamed of myself."

"It's okay if you'd like to forget about it. I'm not going to chase after you if you feel like it's wrong."

"You're still being far too nice... I don't deserve it."

"Nope. You've just been conditioned to accept being treated badly."

"That's true. Anyway. I don't want to stop seeing you. But I just wonder what you'll get out of it."

"A lovely lady?"

"Aww, thanks. But we'd still have to keep it a secret. If Tate found out..."

"Very good point... Look, I don't make a habit of dating married women. In fact, I said I'd never do it. You're different though. It's not a real marriage at all. And he bloody deserves to be cheated on."

"I guess. There's another thing, though. I'm leaving..."

"Really? Congratulations!"

"Thanks. But I'd be going far away. So I don't think there's much point in you bothering with me if I'm not sticking around."

"It's entirely your choice. I'm happy to keep contact by phone or with the internet. If you want to just go slowly, then we can easily do that."

"If you don't mind."

"Not at all. I feel like we get along well."

"Me too. I want to see you more. Get to know you properly."

"Come here... You just look after yourself and do what needs to be done. I know your kids come first. But whenever you need a friend..."

"Just friends? I'd definitely be up for repeating that kiss..."

"Me too, if you like."

"I do."

"Then you're welcome here whenever you want..."

Opening up

"Oh Jude, their wedding was soooo lovely! She wore this pretty pink dress, and it was in a cute little church, and now they've gone to honeymoon in Roaring Heights. Man, I can't wait to get married!"

"Better find yourself a man, then!"

"Yeah. You know my problem? I like older men. But at our age, that'd be creepy..."

"It would... guess you'll just have to wait, huh?"

"I don't mind. I'd rather find the right person before rushing into anything. So, what about you?"

"A lot of boys our age are pretty childish, but some are nice. To be honest, most of them assume I'm a lesbian."

"That's stereotyping!"

"Yup."

"I mean, Logan's mum is a lesbian, and she's pretty feminine."

"Oh yeah?"

"I thought so anyway. She seems like a classy business lady. She works at the corporation, for the newspaper."

"So she works for Tristan?"

"Guess so! I hope he's nice to her."

"Hey, I'd have thought you'd respond to someone saying your name."

"Huh? Oh, sorry. Miles away."

"What's up with you recently?"

"Nothing, get off my case."

"I'm not on it! Just worried about you, that's all."

"Seriously, just drop it."

"No. I know there's something wrong. You know you can tell me anything, right?"

"...Fine, if it'll get you off my back. Let's go outside."

"Where are they going? They shouldn't be leaving class."

"I hope he can get more out of him than I have... Well, Mr Bolton still isn't here yet. I don't think it matters."

"I'd expect a teacher to be on time. Still, I suppose that's just the inferior nature of this school."

"Aww, it's not that bad. Nothing you wouldn't find at another school."

"It's not as good as my last one... I wish I were still there. Hazel's fault."

"I know. Hey, what was she like there?"

"The same as she is here. No friends because she terrified everyone."

"Makes sense."

"She's probably never had a friend. I mean, who would?"

"Not me... She made her feelings towards us perfectly clear."

"I do feel sorry for you, being her target... I've heard about her recent treatment of you."

"Yeah..."

"Go on."

"I overheard Mum confronting Father with the evidence Miles sent her. She was devastated, and who could blame her? But he didn't seem to give a shit... Just told her to get over it. I mean, all those things he did... Urgh. I don't want to think about it."

"So he confessed to everything?"

"Yeah. He killed the secretary too..."

"Holy shit... What happened then?"

"She... told him she wouldn't sleep with him any more. I didn't want to know that much, ew. But he got angry and said she was pretty much a whore anyway."

"He said that?!"

"Yeah, it's disgusting... then she said she wanted to leave. So he threatened her."

"Go on."

"...Threatened to kill her, like he did to his first wife."

"What the... Seriously? Tristan, you don't need me to tell you how fucked up that is."

"I know! I get it now! Look, I just didn't want to accept how bad he was, okay?! I mean, how would you feel if your dad turned out to be a monster? You wouldn't want to believe it. He's never turned this behaviour on me."

"But you've seen it in action before. Against my dad, Auntie Aria and Saraya. Me."

"I know. I feel awful about defending him all those times. I'm sorry, Charon. I've fucking failed."

"No, it's not your fault... You should never have been in this position. Hey, you can't change the way you thought in the past. What matters is what we do now. And what we need to do is get your mum to leave."

"That can't happen! I can't risk her!"

"No. We won't let anything happen to her. We care about you guys, and there's just no way we'd let you be left on your own with Grandad. Everyone would step in to help you out. I know they would!"

"Hello, you two. How's it going?"

"Hey, sir. Not bad."

"Hi, and the same. You?"

"Oh, I'm fine. A bit late because I was seeing someone off. Are you okay? You look a bit worried."

"Fine!"

"Yep!"

"Well, if you insist. Let's go in, shall we?"

"Okay."

"Hey, Tristan. Tell the other two; they need to know. Then talk to your mum."

"I suppose... Okay, I'll try. Thanks, Charon."

Girl talk

"Nyla. I, erm. I fucked up."

"What happened?"

"Well, you know the situation between me and Tate... We're barely speaking, apart from to yell at each other. Things are so shit right now and I think Julius has picked up on it. Ever since I got that damn letter, it's been hell. The triplets of course know all the details too  because of their horrible classmate, so they're pretty disturbed too. After everything I found out, I fucking hate him and I want to leave, but I can't, and at the wedding I ended up offloading it all onto Maria and then I kissed her-"

"You kissed her?"

"Yep. I was a little drunk, I'll admit... but she listened to me, and was so nice and pretty and I kinda fancy her."

"Kinda?"

"Okay, I fancy her a lot."

"How well do you know her...?"

"...The thing is, I don't, really. But she offered to be there for me, and I took it too far and just kinda pounced. I feel bad, Nyla."

"Why?"

"I'm married! I mean, one of my problems with Tate is infidelity, and then I go do the same thing?"

"He did it first! And anyway, it's different when there's abuse involved... It's not cheating if there's no relationship in the first place."

"Still...It's such a mess."

"Roxxi. Nobody can blame you for wanting some actual affection after putting up with shit for so long. You deserve a bit of happiness."

"I'd like to see her again. Going slowly, of course. I can't just rush into a new relationship while I'm still married to that asshole. I... I'm going to make plans to leave him. I've had enough. Now that I've gone and done this, I need to free myself of this sham marriage. Free the kids..."

"You're not alone. I've managed to escape a terrible relationship too."

"Yeah?"

"...Feli's dad. When I got pregnant with her, I took that as my incentive to leave. I didn't want to inflict him on her. I ran the fuck away. So you need to go. Otherwise Julius is gonna grow up thinking it's normal for dads to act that way. That it's an acceptable way to treat a partner. It'll warp their perception of normality. Yours, too. Even now I still second-guess myself after years of Austin telling me it was my fault he hurt me."

"Oh God, Nyla... I'm sorry."

"It's okay. I haven't seen him in years."

"Good. But you're right... the poor triplets. I mean, Tristan wanted to be just like Tate... but his faith in him has finally been destroyed, I can tell. Even he can't deny it any more."

"You're doing the right thing."

"Thanks."

"Y'know, this is weird. Someone as awful as Tate being Edward's brother."

"Yeah, Edward's really nice. I married the wrong one."

"I'm glad you're not saying that to the me of twenty years, ago, I'd have been so jealous."

"You fancied him?"

"Yeah. He'd never have gone out with a student though. That didn't stop me from making a tit of myself..."

"What did you do?"

"Erm. I sent him a picture of me in my underwear instead of my essay..."

"Nyla Bane! You hussy!"

"It was an accident! I clicked the wrong file. He must think I'm awful."

"God, it's a good job that wasn't Tate... he'd have sent a worse picture back."

"Urgh. Roxxi, please. I can't cope with that mental image."

"No, thought not. Sorry."

"How the hell do you manage it?"

"You tell me, Nyla. You tell me."

Wedding continued

"Oh, hey there!"

"Hi."

"Lovely do, isn't it?"

"Definitely. You must be so proud!"

"Very. It's what parents want, isn't it? To see their kids happy."

"Yep."

"You've all that to come, of course. Still, I didn't expect Logan to get married quite so soon.  Married before I am!"

"It's not all it's made out to be."

"Oh... sorry."

"No no, I am. It's Logan and Saraya's big day, after all. I've no right to bitch."

"If you want to talk, I'm all ears. It's great seeing other people happy, but it can also bring out your own problems."

"You're right... I don't want to be a downer, but I'm finding it a bit difficult..."

"What's the matter?"

"Tate's evil. He's a complete bastard, and I can't stay with him any more. But I can't leave either..."

"You can always leave. Has he hurt you?"

"Nothing physical. It's just the way he treats us... he's so nasty. And he cheated on me! Probably countless times! T-that's not even the worst of it..."

"Oh, Roxxi. Go on, tell me all about it."

"So...enjoying yourself?"

"Yep! Your friends are nice, Stanley."

"Glad you think so. Do you know anyone here?"

"Yeah, Roxxi. Feli's friends with Julius."

"Oh, nice!"

"Other than that, no. I do recognise Ellis and Aria, because I saw them once years ago. Edward took them out and I ran into them in town. They were kids then though. Hell, so was I..."

"You as a teen, huh. So you didn't have the pink hair and tattoos then?"

"Nope. I did the hair when I moved here. The tattoos started after I dropped out of uni. Which sounds bad, I know... Like some kind of criminal."

"Well, you are one."

"Look who's talking! Anyway, I'm happy you brought me to this wedding."

"Well, I'm lucky you stepped in! Otherwise I'd be alone, and look like a loser."

"What's new?"

"Oi, cut me some slack for once, will you?"

"Nah. It's too fun."

"Love you too!"

"God, it's obvious he fancies her. Why doesn't he just grow a pair and do something about it?"

"Oh, it'll happen when the time is right."

"Or when we give him a kick up the ass."

"Maybe I'll have a word with him."

"Wait. Not a single one?!"

"Nope. He's so damn selfish. Of course, I do everything he wants but do I get anything in return? No! God, I actually fell asleep once... I don't think he even noticed."

"You poor, poor woman."

"Yeah. Kill me. I haven't slept with him since the cheating though."

"Don't blame you!"

"So... if I do leave, that's put me off men for life..."

"At least you've got women as an option."

"...How did you know that?"

"Erm."

"Oh."

"Sorry."

"It's okay... this happens a lot. Damn videos..."

"I don't judge."

"Thanks..."

"It's okay. Hey, I think you're a brave woman, you know."

"Really?"

"Yeah! It's not easy to open up when you're in an abusive marriage."

"I guess that's what it is, huh..."

"Everything's going to be okay. You'll see."

"Thanks for listening... you'd better get back to the others. Your son's wedding party!"

"Good point. Are you okay?"

"Yeah."

"Good... I'll give you my number, so you can call me any time. I'm here if you need me."

"I'll have to take you up on that... You're very nice, Maria."

"Well, so are you... Come here, you look like you need a hug."

"I need more than just that... It's been so long since I've been treated like I matter."

"Of course you do. You deserve so much more."

"Then give me it."