The New 90210

. 7 .

John gets thrown into a wooden structure that he was once working on a while ago, breaking it back into the pieces he started with. It would've been his mom's new bookcase for her birthday. That wooden structure is in the garage, the garage his father told him to sort out and clean the other day and he still never got around to it. He felt helpless. No matter what he did, his father would find something to be angry about. He was angry back, it fueled inside like a burning inferno, a volcano waiting to erupt. And then, he wasn't even thinking, he just saw red, and decided to hit back sending his father tumbling to the ground. Mixed in with his anger, the fear returned. His father got back up and charged toward him and John hit him again, proceeding to run back inside the house. He dashed upstairs, grabbed his duffle bag and filled it with whatever clean clothes he had lying around among other things. He heard his father slam the garage door shut and knew he would soon reach upstairs...so John escaped through his bedroom window just like he used to when he was little.

    He ran...

    He knew his father took his car keys or would probably have it reported stolen if John drove away in it. He had no intention of crying, he was too busy trying to ignore the pain as he ran down block after block. He reached a crossroad; if he continued straight ahead, it would take him to Nadia's house. If he made a right, it would take him to Kian and Vanessa's.

    He took a right.

. . . . .

    "Oh my God Vanessa, stop texting during the movie," Lucy begged.

    "Maybe it'd be easier to watch the movie if I wasn't a 3rd wheel," Vanessa rolled her eyes & Kian tossed a couple pieces of popcorn at her, keeping his arm around Lucy.

    "I told you to invite Kalin," Lucy said.

    "Okay, one, it's too soon to invite someone I only waved to. And two, it's still weird for me that you're dating my stepbrother. Talk about gross. He wears superhero boxers for crying out loud."

    "Uh, I'm sitting right here," Kian added.

    "Awww," Lucy chuckled. "I like those boxers."

    "On the floor," Kian smirked as he kept his eyes forward, Lucy covered his mouth.

    "Right then! Be right back, gonna go throw up in the kitchen sink." Vanessa got up and left the living room.

    "Aww Nessa!" Lucy laughed. "See what you did, Kian?"

    Kian shrugged. He knew it bothered Vanessa to give her any intimate detail about he & Lucy but he could care less.

    Before Vanessa could reach the kitchen, the doorbell rung.

    "Can someone get that?" Her stepmother shouted from upstairs. "I'm blowdrying my hair!"

    "Not it!" She heard Kian shout from the living room.

    Vanessa answered the door and saw it was John, out of breath, sweaty, and holding a duffle bag.

    "Is Kian here?" He asked.

    "Uh, yeah he's in the living room with Lucy, are you okay?"

    John shook his head and Vanessa let him in.

    "What's going on," she asked, soon to be joined by Kian and Lucy.

    "What's up?" Kian also asked.

    "He showed up looking like he just finished street-fighting," Vanessa answered.

    "...Was it him?" Kian met John's eyes. All John could do was nod. "That fuckin' asshole."