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Now I'm sitting here on Rach's bed, feeling like a total idiot. *It's only a divorce* I keep telling myself but yet it doesn't convince me. I think I'm crying again. My cell phone keeps ringing and I refuse to answer it as I know it will be my mother on the other end, ranting and raving like all the other times I'm out past curfew. I've been doing that a lot lately, the skipping off. I don't mean to really, it's just that Mom and Dad are arguing all the time and I hate being the person in the middle of it all, Dad doesn't usually mind, just says get home before your mother starts to worry but Mom, where do I start? The last time I skipped out, Mom called me and spent an hour telling me I was past curfew and that as soon as I hang up I should run home. I didn't get home till about midnight. My curfew is nine o' clock. Nine o' clock! Rachel gets to stay out till 10 and her mother doesn't mind. It's 11 now and I'm still round Rachel's. Her Mom isn't home, she's an alcoholic and is probably at a bar or club or something. Rach doesn't know her dad. The only thing she knows about him is his name. I think she's luckier that way, at least they never argue.

My cell phone rings for the seventh time. It stops after two rings, but then the phone downstairs starts to ring. Mercedes, Rachel's older sister answers it and after three seconds shouts upstairs that Buffy iss on the phone and to come and take the call before she drags me down there. I look at Rachel and slowly walk down the stairs. I think I've stopped crying now. But as soon as I start to talk to Mom I know I'll start all over again. I pick up the receiver and place it at my ear.

"Hello?" I say shakily, I can hear Mom breathe a sigh of relief on the other end.

"I was so worried about you Katelyn, why do you do that?" Mom replied.

"What?"

"Run out with no explanation?"

"Because you and Dad don't stop fighting, and I'm always in the midlle of it and I'm getting sick of it now Mom! And now you're getting a divorce?!" I scream. Mom is breathing angrily. Like always.

"Who said anything about a divorce?" Mom says. I can hear Dad groan in the background, and swear uber loudly, like he always does.

"Dad." I reply. I know I've put my foot in it this time, Dad didn't talk to Mom about a divorce yet.

"Oh." Mom says and goes really quiet. She always does this before she cries. I apologize, say I'm coming home and hang up the phone. Rachel's Mom picks that moment to come through the door, drunk as shit with a dark skinned man locked to her mouth. I say goodbye to Rach and walk out the door. The shouting from inside begins and I make a run for it. I'm hopeless at running, I always stumble and fall, and graze my knee. I check my watch. It says 12:05. I didn't think I'd been out that long. I carry on running and don't stop till I get to my house. My Mom is out the door before I even reach the little path that leads up to it, she envelopes me in a huge hug and tells me she was so worried about me. I walk into the house behind her and find my Dad sitting on the front room couch, bottle of Jack Daniels in one hand, cigarette in the other. Mom takes one look at him, gives a disapproving look and motions for me to go upstairs to bed. I tell her I'll go up in a minute and go and sit by Dad. There is a duvet and pillow behind the couch; Dad's sleeping downstairs again.

Dad looks at me and puts down the cigarette he was holding, he hugs me just like Mom did, but tighter.

"I'm sorry Dad." I say. "I didn't know you hadn't talked to her yet." I start to cry again and Dad holds me tighter.

"I know sweetheart." He pauses for a moment and pulls back, brushing my brown hair out of my face. "There's no easy way to say this so... I'll just say it; first thing tomorrow, I'm moving back into Grandpa Giles' house." I look at him. I don't think I heard him right... Dad's moving out.

"You're moving out?" I ask, dumbfoundedly.

"Yes." Dad replies, his face matches mine.

"As in, not living here any more?" Another dumb question.

"Yes. But you have to know, that your Mom and I love you very much and whatever happens between us won't affect our love for you." He says, God! He sounds like all the people in T.V dramas. Like that documentary I saw about parents and divorces, and how the kids are all young and confused and don't know what's going on and soppy junk like that.

"I know." I say, not knowing what will happen next in my life. "What about Willow and Xander?" I ask.

"What do you mean?" He says.

"Well, you and Mom are both friends with them, how can you be friends with them and not with Mom?" I ask. Again.

"I don't know poppet. We'll think of something. Now you'd better get to bed, you have school in the morning."

"Night Dad." Dad just smiles and lies down on the couch for the second night in a row.

***

I woke up the next morning to find my Mom still in bed and Dad gone. I silently got ready for school, then went to meet Rachel. She was waiting on the corner of my street, patiently, like every morning. She didn't ask me about what happened last night. That's what I love about her, she never asks you about anything that you're uncomfortable about. I told her about Dad moving out and how I was going to my Grandpa's after school. I didn't bring my cell this time, in case we have a repeat of last night.

We walked into school, arm in arm and approached our lockers. Oh my God, the cutest guy in the whole school in standing right by my locker! My locker! This will take my mind of Mom and Dad for a while.

"Hey Mark." I say, rather confidently if I do say so myself.

"Hey Kat." He replies. He smiles at me and moves away from my locker, allowing me to get in. I silently get my books whilst he stands there biting his nails. He looks sooooooo cute when he does that! I close my locker door and look back at him.

"What have you got next?" Mark asks me.

"English." I say, a little too enthusiastically, only because I know he's in the same class as me.

"Cool me too. Walk you there?"

"Sure." We walk, and talk, and those eyes are soo sexy.

I sit down at my desk, at begin to stare at him. Only the new English teacher calling my name in the register wakes me from my daze.

"Katelyn Huffman."

"Here."

"Huffman, Huffman.... where have I heard that name before? Say, you're mother isn't Buffy Summers is it?"

"Yeah? Huffman now though, my parents are married." For the time being anyway.

"I'm Miss Chase, your new English teacher, I used to go to school with your mother."

"Oh, I think I've heard about you." I lie. Of course I've heard about her, she's the one that made my Mom's last few years of high school a living hell, and I doubt she won't do the same to me. She gives me a little evil smile that just screams revenge and carries on with the register.

At the end of the lesson I walk out with Mark. He goes over to his locker to get his things before we walk to next period. I spend almost the entire day with him, forgetting about my little family dilemma. I walk out of school with him and he walks me to my grandfather's house. I quickly say goodbye and knock on the door, Grandpa Giles answers the door.

"Oh, hello Katelyn, what a nice surprise. Come in, come in." He motions for me to enter and leads me into the living room. My Dad's in there watching T.V as usual. I think he's watching 'Bring It On' again. He always watches it, every time he and Mom want to watch a film, he always suggests 'Bring It On' and starts a new argument. I walk over to my Dad and start a conversation about motorcycles. He happily talks to me until the phone rings and Mom tells me to "Get my disobedient ass home right now." I say goodbye to my father and walk out the door.

*Man, they really hate each other* I think as I walk down the road. *What can I do to get them back together?* It's dark now and I can hear rustling in the bushes. *Probably a cat* I think to myself. I carry on walking and the same rustling occurrs again. "OK, whoever's there show yourself." *Katelyn you're getting paranoid, it's only a....* I scream, a hand grabs me around the waist and lifts me up. I'm being carried across a parking lot. He uncerimoniously throws me into the back of a grubby van and ties up my hands. I struggle but it's no use. He gets in the front and drives off. My heart it racing by now, my breathing speeds up, I can't breathe, I really can't. He tells me to shut up and stop struggling. I reach into my pocket, I've left my cell at home! I panic.

I'm gonna die.


TBC





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