I wish I could say that my first run-in with the infamous Valary Sanders would be just as anyone would imagine it to be – she would be nice and understanding; completely down-to-earth; calm.

However, I was wrong.

It wasn’t necessarily that she wasn’t all these things – in fact, she probably still was. I just happened to catch her at a bad time. I did learn one thing; that Val is someone you definitely do not want to cross when she’s angry.

The second Matt and I stepped foot in the house after he picked me up from Leda’s, she seemed to come down on him like a vulture, with fire in her eyes. It took all of my strength not to cower behind Matt, though I could tell from his rigid body language that he wanted to hide behind someone, too.

“Where were you?” she demands almost immediately. I frown, almost instantly realizing that her trust in him must be at an all-time low, since she found out about Gus and me.

Matt sighs, running a hand down his face. “I was just out picking Autumn up from her friend’s house,” he replies simply. She narrows her eyes, but her gaze seems to soften when she realizes I’m standing next to him.

“Oh,” she breathes. Then, her expression hardens again. “We are not done discussing this.” Matt’s face pales, and I almost laugh at how much she has him wrapped around her finger.

She turns on her heel and stomps off into the house, and Matt just glances down at me worriedly.

“She’s not usually like this,” he promises me. I nod, believing him when he says this. “She’s just a little mad at me right now.”

“Because you didn’t tell her about us?” He frowns, giving me a questioning look.

“How did you know that?” I feel the color drain from my face – I was hardly embarrassed; I was more or less scared – was I not supposed to know that?

“Uh…” I stammer. “Brian told us…” The look in his eyes grows sympathetic when he sees me trembling like a dog in his front entryway. He places one of his abnormally large hands (or at least, they seemed that way, since I happen to be so abnormally small) on my shoulder, meeting my eyes with a warm, hazel gaze.

“Hey,” he tells me gently. “You don’t need to be so scared.” He looks sort of amused as he says this, but it’s better than him not acknowledging it.

I want to tell him that all I’ve felt since I got to California was fear, but I hold my tongue, and simply nod. He smiles at this, taking his hand off my shoulder.

“I should go talk to her,” he announces. “Then maybe she’ll be in a better mood to take you out tomorrow.”

“‘Take me out’?” I ask. “What do you mean?”

“You know, shopping for your guys’ rooms,” he explains. “We’re all going – Me, Val, the guys…” He trails off. “You introduced yourself to all the guys yesterday, didn’t you?” I frown, realizing my shyness caused me to forget to talk to Johnny.

I shrug in reply.

“Well, you’ll meet them all tomorrow… I know you already met Brian and Zack – they’ll be there.” Immediately, I tense up, but I force a nod anyway. “And if you haven’t met Johnny, he’ll be there as well.” He gives me a weird look, probably from noticing my blatant distress. “Are you okay?”

“I… I don’t feel so well,” I manage to say. He gives me a sympathetic frown before reaching out and feeling my forehead. I try not to shy away from his touch, but it still feels strange to have his hand there.

“You seem fine to me,” he says after what might have just been the longest thirty seconds of my life. “But if you’re really not feeling well…”

“I’m not.” He raises an eyebrow at me, at how fast I answered that.

“Well, then you should go lie down. Get some rest.” I let out a small sigh of relief, glad that he was finally letting me go.

“Okay. I’ll… I’ll be upstairs.” He continues to give me a weird look as I turn, almost tripping over my own feet, and scramble up the stairs.

I shut the door behind me frantically before sliding my phone out of my pocket and dialing Dillon’s number.

After about three rings, he finally picks up.

“Hello?” He seems confused, and slightly worried. “Autumn? Are you there?”

“Sorry,” I breathe. I had forgotten what it was like to hear his voice – it sounded so much different over the phone than in real life. More raspy; not as smooth as it usually was. But it was Dillon, alright.

“Are you okay?” he asks, panic rising in his voice. “You sound like you just ran a marathon.”

“I don’t know,” I admit quietly. “There’s a lot of weird stuff going on.” I scrunch up my face, thinking of Leda’s reaction to, first Anthony, and then the boys at the pier.

“What do you mean?” he presses, sounding intrigued. I move away from the door to sit on the bed. After a moment of me getting comfortable, I take a deep breath.

“I’m not really sure how to explain it,” I begin. “I made a friend.”

“That’s good!” he exclaims happily. “That’s really good, Autumn; I’m proud of you. Who is it?”

“Her name’s Leda,” I tell him. “She’s pretty cool… I met her yesterday when Matt decided to have his friends over to meet us…”

“Matt’s your dad, right?” he seems to take my silence for an answer. “So he just kind of had his friends over without asking?”

“No, he asked,” I explain, immediately growing defensive. “But Gus kind of answered for both of us.”

“Jesus, was he trying to make you freak out?” I force a laugh.

“No, he was just trying to help me. He had good intentions, Dillon; honest.”

“Okay, okay.” I picture in my mind Dillon raising his hands in defense; it seems to calm me and I relax more.

“Anyway, she turned out to be the god-sister of one of Matt’s friends, and we kind of just hit it off.”

“What’s so weird about it, then?” I bite my lip, contemplating how I’m going to attempt and explain this to him.

“It’s just that…” I pause. “She has this brother…”

“Oh?”

“And, well… I think he’s done something bad to her.”

“Like what?” he asks, concern lacing his voice. I shrug, before realizing that he can’t see me on the other line.

“I don’t know; hurts her in some way.”

“Do her parents know?”

“No, that’s the thing,” I say quietly. “Her parents are dead; her brother has her custody.” He inhales sharply.

“Oh,” he finally exhales. “That doesn’t sound good.”

“I don’t know what to do,” I tell him helplessly, my voice cracking slightly. “We also ran into these boys at the pier earlier that seemed to have a similar effect on her, and after that she told me to have Matt come get me.”

“Strange,” he mutters. “Did she at least tell you who they were?”

“No. They didn’t look much older than her, so I’m assuming they were just people from her class that she didn’t get along with. At least, I hope that’s all it is.”

“Yeah, that’s probably it.” But he doesn’t sound all too convinced. “What about your mom?” he asks, changing the subject. “Have you met her yet? or do you at least know who she is?” I stand up and begin pacing the room.

“That’s another thing,” I say, nibbling at my nails, which had already been reduced to ragged nubs overnight. “Matt’s married to some woman he’s known his whole life, but she isn’t our mother.”

“Who is then?”

“We don’t know. And neither did any of his friends when they told us.”

“Wow.” I sigh, tears of frustration filling my eyes. “You’re not crying, are you?” I blush, even though he can’t see me. Clearly, he knew me too well.

“Maybe,” I mumble in reply, brushing away a few stray tears from my cheeks as I did so. He chuckles lightly.

“Hey, Tummy?” I let out a small hum to let him know I’m listening. “Everything’s going to be okay. You’ll figure this out. I know you will.” Even though I know that he doesn’t know I will, his words comfort me, and I feel myself begin to calm down.

“Yeah. Yeah, okay.”

“And you know I’m always here for you, right?”

“Mhm.”

“I’m just a phone-call away.” I nod, and even though he can’t see me, I can tell he knows that I have. “Okay. I love you, Tums; everything’s going to be okay. I promise.”

Notes

A/N: Hope you all enjoyed this chapter.

Please note that there will NOT be an update on Wednesday, as I am falling behind on this, and I don't want to get too ahead of it and be pressured to write this. I want to enjoy writing this, instead of feeling like it's too rushed.

~WOLFY~