Erinyes take a deep breath as she follows Liberty and her older sister into the small clinic, pushing their way past protesters. She cringes, feeling the urge to throw up as her eyes meet many of their incredibly graphic posters – pictures of unborn fetuses, with captions like “every human deserves a chance” and “culture of death”. Eventually, they finally get inside, free from all the insane chanting. Liberty grips her hand reassuringly while her sister goes to the front desk to explain the situation to the receptionist.

An agonizing twenty minutes pass – to try and keep herself occupied, she picks up a copy of People magazine from the stand on the wall, trying to ignore the posters that adorned the wall, which were somehow even more graphic than the one outside, and the judgmental gazes of other women sitting around them. Finally, she hears her name being called, and soon she’s being escorted away from the waiting room to meet her fate.

“We’ll be here when you get back!” Liberty calls after Erin, giving her a nervous thumbs up. Trying to regain control of her breathing, she follows the nurse to the room…

~

“You may want to hold onto that,” Liberty’s sister tells her, less than two hours later. She sits in the back seat of her smelly little mini-van, clutching the pamphlet the receptionist handed to her on my way out. Her whole lower half aches, and she just want to curl up in a ball and cry.

Erin’s hand shakes, and the pamphlet with it. Liberty glances over at her nervously, as if she’s going crazy, which she feels she just might be. She don’t even know if she did the right thing or not – maybe if she went to Zack first, or at least Val or Michelle, she wouldn’t be in this mess with two girls who barely know what they’re dealing with.

Like she requested, Liberty’s sister lets her out on my street corner, so it looks like she walked home from school; that way, Zack wouldn’t suspect a thing.

She makes her way slowly to the house, cringing in pain. She was looking forward to lying down and just trying to forget about the pain. Erin crosses her fingers, hoping Zack wouldn’t question her when she gets inside.

When she tries opening the door, it is surprisingly locked. Luckily, this isn’t a problem, since she kept the spare key Zack gave both Daenerys and her when they first got to California, on a chain around her neck.

She unlocks the door and steps inside, looking around cautiously. She had barely seen their father since he came and picked them up from Brian’s house in time to drive them to school. After that, he had practically vanished. And there seemed to be a note here from him, as a form of explanation.

“Erin –

I had to take your sister somewhere, to get her help for her drug habits. It might take a little while; if I’m not back before six, I’ll be calling Brian again, and he’ll come by and pick you up.

Zack.”

Erin blinks and sets the note down. Zack was finally doing something about Daenerys – a little late than never, but at least it was something.

Suddenly, the phone goes off throughout the house. She makes her way into the kitchen, where she knows one of the handsets is. She studies the caller ID – it was out of area, but she recognized the number right away.

“Payton?” she exclaims, answering it excitedly.

“Erin?” The brunette mirrors her tone on the other side of the phone. “Ohmygod, I thought you had died or something! Why haven’t you been picking up your phone?”

“My dad took it away,” she explains, sliding down the wall and sitting on the floor, relieved. “I’ve missed you,” she whispers.

“I’ve missed you, too,” she whispers back. “But why are we whispering?”

“I don’t know,” Erin laughs, her voice returning to normal. “So, what’s up?”

“Oh, right! My mom has family in California that we’re visiting for Thanksgiving, so we’re flying in tomorrow!” Erin’s jaw drops.

“You’re coming here?”

“Yes!” The girls squeal simultaneously. “Ohmygod, I am so excited!”

“Me too!”

“So wait,” Payton asks, her voice returning to normal. “Why did your dad take away your phone? Did Daenerys get you guys into trouble again?” She sighs.

“I wish I could blame it on her,” she begins, “but this time, it’s all on me.”

“What did you do?” Payton’s tone is one filled with excitement – Erin never did anything worthy of having her phone taken away; Payton was always trying to convince her best friend to do something rebellious, which was part of the reason why she ended up sleeping with Josh.

“I… I sort of threw a party,” she mumbles, trying to disguise her words. But Payton, with her hawk-like hearing, picks up every word she says and squeals again.

“Ohymygod,” she squeaks, “who are you, and what have you done with Erinyes?” Erin chuckles, feeling less upset about the situation now than before.

“I also sort of got arrested because it was too crazy.”

“Wow. You’ve really changed.”

“Not much,” she promises. “I’m never doing that again.”

“Why not? Didn’t you get some sort of thrill from it? Like, ‘ohmygod, I’m doing something bad that I’ve never done before’-adrenaline?”

“Nope,” she replies honestly. “I just felt tense and uncomfortable the whole time.” Payton clucks her tongue in mock disapproval.

“Well, you tried; I’ll give you that much.” Erin rolls her eyes.

“Gee, thanks.”

“So what’s new with the demon from hell?” Erin laughs, knowing she’s referring to Daenerys. Ever since they were little, the girls had been calling her cruel things like that so she wouldn’t be inspired to hang out with them. The most recent one had stuck for the last four years.

“Oh, you know, the usual,” she says simply. “Trying to make this whole trip about her. She acts like she actually has something to look forward to in life, but she doesn’t.” Payton scoffs.

“You don’t say.”

“…Except,” Erin continues, “for Will.”

“Who’s Will?”

“He’s some drug dealer that seems fascinated with her,” she explains.

“It’s probably just an act,” Payton laughs. “She’s probably paying him or something.”

“But what if she isn’t?” She doesn’t say anything for a moment.

“Ohmygod, I think I just came up with the perfect plan!” Erin straightens up slightly, immediately feeling very curious.

“What are you talking about?”

“Well, you know how we always talked about getting her back for fucking everything up for you and I, right?” Erin nods, before remembering that Payton couldn’t see her, to which she mutters a small ‘yeah’. “Well, if Will is so fascinated with her, then maybe we should just make him un-fascinated with her.” Erin blinks.

“Like, how?”

“I don’t know; I can figure that part out on the plane here,” she tells her. “But whatever I come up with, you need to be one-hundred percent on board, okay?”

“I can do that.” She stands up, realizing sadly that their conversation was coming to a close. It doesn’t hurt as much to stand anymore, she is glad to find out.

“Great! Look, I have to go; my mom wants me to finish packing within the next half-hour. Love you, Erin; see you tomorrow!”

“Yeah, see you…” The line goes dead and she sighs.

Was getting back at Daenerys the right thing, she wondered. Or was she just stooping down to her level?

Notes

A/N: Hi so I know abortion is a touchy topic but this is what I wanted to happen so.. Hope you all enjoyed.. =)

~WOLFY~