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."