Saving Grace

~ 2 ~

Blake

"Hey, Blake!"

Blake turned to the distant shout of his name, frustration breaking onto his face before he could mask it. He'd been hoping to sneak out unnoticed, returning to his beat-up car and getting home before she noticed he was even gone. She hadn't even known he was there, more bothered about accepting gifts from the various people at their school who had scrounged an invite to her party than even greeting her boyfriend, who she hadn't seen in nearly a week. Blake hadn't been in the mood for Samea's party anyway - but nobody said no to Samea. Blake had figured that he could turn up, show his face, and then leave after an hour with the excuse that his mother had locked herself out of the house and his dad - as usual - was working. It had worked for a while too, he'd been greeted by some of the various simpering guests at Samea's party, drank a single beer whilst remaining dutifully at his girlfriend's side, before she even said hello. Blake had followed her around for an hour and a half before his sanity was surely threatened, and it was then that he sneaked out. He'd thought that nobody had noticed.

Stupid boy, he thought to himself. You're 6''2, of course someone is going to notice.

And the person who had was none other than Samea herself, the birthday girl, who was tottering after him in her ridiculously high heels.

Samea Mikaelson had been Blake's girlfriend for nearly a year, but he hadn't exactly had much choice in the matter. Samea was the most popular girl in Petys Academy, and perhaps the prettiest too. The only problem was - Samea knew how popular and pretty she was, and used it to get her way with everything, from getting people to do her homework for her to sneaking into nightclubs in town even though she was a year younger than Blake and only turning 17 today. Samea had always been charismatic and talkative - her loud personality automatically attracting all the attention to her in any room. She was controlling, possessive and frankly a bully, and yet Blake could never bring himself to say no to her. He was just as in love with Samea Mikaelson as everybody else was, even though he had no idea why.

Samea shouted his name again, even though he had stopped and was facing her. He waited as she tottered up - her blonde hair that had been straightened until it was pin-straight swaying from side to side as she walked. She pouted her lips - which were slathered with layers of red lipgloss - and crossed her arms across the front of her body and immensely tight black sparkly dress.

"Where are you going, babe?" she asked him, one of her perfectly maintained eyebrows raised in the air suspiciously. She jutted one hip out as Blake flashed her an apologetic smile, trying not to cringe at her usage of the word 'babe.'

"Mum just called - she's locked herself out, and Dad's at work as usual. She needs me to let her in."

Samea rolled her blue eyes and made an melodramatic yawn. "Can't she wait? It's my party Blake!"

Blake resisted the urge to frown, and simply shrugged his shoulders. "I can't leave her waiting outside, Sam. She's my mother, and you know that she's weak at the moment - getting a cold could cause her some serious damage."

Samea was the only person that Blake had entrusted the truth about his mother's illness in. Blake and his mother were as close as two people could be - she'd raised him practically alone, since his father had been absent most of the time, due to his work. It had been two years ago when she'd first noticed the lump and Blake had insisted that she go to the doctor to make sure that it was nothing serious.

Blake's mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, although thankfully it had been in it's early stages and was still treatable. Those past 8 months had been a living hell, not only for Amilee, Blake's mother, but for Blake too. She'd had several boughts of chemotherapy, treatments that had left her immensely frail and sick. It had been Blake that had helped her through it, held back her hair as she was sick, helped her to dress when she was too weak to move herself, even helped her to shave off the remainder of her beautiful black curls when they started to fall out. Where had Blake's father Allas been throughout this ordeal? He claimed to love his wife and son, and yet he was in Yashon the entire time, only coming home on the weekends and taking over Amilee's care when Blake was so tired he was about to drop. He'd had his excuses - too busy at work, it was a tough time for the girl he guarded, she'd just lost her entire family. Selfishly, Blake didn't care. He was losing his mother, and Allas was doing nothing to help. Blake went to the edge so many times during those months, his only sense of normality being Samea, who'd always made sure that he kept his sights on his grades as well as caring for his mother.