Fate Has a Cruel Sense of Humor

A Change

It was cold.

And wet.

And nothing like the time I came here during the summer with my daddy. Barcelona was rather ugly during the winter, but maybe that was the sleet blinding me. I held Benji close to me and nearly bit the hand off of anyone who dared to take him.

I hated cold and wet places and even more so since I could not cozy up with a mug of cocoa in my apartment. And boy was I going to get in trouble when I got back to my mom and dad's. My mom was going to skin me alive for leaving her with those Dalton sharks.

"You're an adult already." Wyatt ever the patronizing one said after a listening to a few minutes of my grumbling. "You shouldn't be worried about getting in trouble, you're not a teenager."

"You don't know my situation." I snapped irritably. And he didn't. Luce was right my family was just down right vicious. I could handle nearly anyone else, but there was one person who I was kind of terrified of seeing after almost two years of ignoring her.

Genevieve was not a particularly pleasant person to be around. She's hateful, vindictive and prideful. If you were on fire and she was sitting near with a glass of cold water she'd drink it right in fron of you. And I say this with as much love I can have for my own grandmother.

She was a major, if not the entire reason of my parents divorce in the first place, but that's something I was not yet willing to discuss.

Wyatt's face showed his surprise and a little part of me wanted to surprise, but the rest of me, the one who was walking through the freezing cold to get to his car was pissed off and refused to apologise to the bastard who had me in Spain. I shot ray beams at him when he offered to help me into his car. I handed Benji to Luce and hopped in the large hummer by myself.

I wasn't happy and when I wasn't happy I was not a very nice person.

"It looks like the rain is letting up." Leslie tried to make conversation, but it fell on deaf ears. Luce was asleep with Benji, still snoring like a truck-driver. Wyatt was going back in forth from sulking whenever he caught my gaze to being very amused whenever his eyes landed on my Italian/Greek friend, the lovely couple were in there own world as usual and Adam was stoned face as usual. The only person who seemed to be listening to her was Ace because she gave her a bark. But Leslie didn't quit.

"Cass, do you want to go shopping after it stops?" She asked me hopefully setting those enormous brown eyes on me.

"Not really." I told her, leaning over the happy couple to grab my son from a sleeping Luce's arms. Having him close to me relaxed me. He slept peacefully, snoring in my neck.

"So you're going to dinner wearing that?" She asked distastefully. I looked down at myself. I still had on my dad's shirt I slept in, some ratty jeans that rolled up and slip on worn Vans. Normally I would be fine with what I was wearing, but my mom would throw my clothes in the fire if she saw me wearing this and I really loved this shirt...

Leslie could sense me wavering. "Come on Cassie-bear." She pleaded. "I'll buy you a new cook book with all Spanish recipes." I visibly perked up and someone snorted and I turned my head. I expected it to be Michael because he always teased me mercilessly about everything, but it was Adam and he was grinning sardonically.

"Does something amuse you?" I struggled to keep my voice polite. Adam shifted in his seat and I couldn't help but admit that his movements were sexy. He merely shrugged at me, smiling carelessly. With a fleeting glare I turned back to Luce. "Fine, I'll go, but I'm not changing."

The horror on her face made me smile and I was still smiling when we arrived at Michael and Elle's apartment. Wyatt went to wake Luce up and Leslie sent me a horrified look and opened her mouth to say something and I put my hand over her mouth, grinning evilly with anticipation. Wyatt shook Luce roughly and at first she just grunted but as Wyatt persisted her grunts turned into very vicious growls and after one particularly rough shove Luce's eyes snapped open and she sucker punched him right in the jaw.

"Holy fuck!" Wyatt shouted angrily and Leslie and I tried to contain out laughter, but justice was rightfully served. Luce groggily looked around and when her eyes landed on Wyatt she blinked.

"Oops." Leslie and I looked at each other and in a split second we cracked up, leaning on each other for support. There were tears trailing down my cheeks when I finished laughing and both Benji and Luce were wide awake.

As I expected, Michael and Elle's apartment was decorated all according to Elle's style. Golds and reds and whites and absolutely no blue. It wasn't my style, but hey. Whatever floats her boat. As soon as she showed us where to put our bags Leslie was in my suitcase trying to get me to change.

"Put on this dress Cassie." She whined trying to push some smoky gray bustier dress into my hands. I gaped at her. Was she out of her mind? It was negative thirty degrees Celsius out there, I was going to get pneumonia as soon as I stepped out of the door in that. But hold on, I didn't remember packing anything remotely similar to that in my bags and after checking my bags and only long dresses and maxi skirts and absolutely finding no jeans what so ever I glared at her accusingly. She repacked my suitcases. Well, now I needed to shop. Leslie was trying to look innocent under my glare.

"I'm not going." I smirked. "You can suck it."

"Suck it." Benji repeated loudly from across the room playing with Ace on the floor. I smacked my forehead as everyone laughed at him. "Suck it. Suck it!"

"Ben!" I squealed going to him and kneeling to his level. "Those are bad words." I slashed my hands throught the air and told him sternly. "Male parole! " startled at my sudden outburst, Benji's lip started to quiver.

"Parole?" He asked in his cute little voice as his eyes started swimming. "Bad word, Momma. Benji sorry said a bad word." I scooped him into my arms, comforting him and murmuring to him and bouncing him in my arms.

"Wait your kid speaks Italian?" Elle blurted.

"He's learning, Luce is teaching him."

"He's only three." Elle scolded me, "What three year old needs to learn Italian?"

"I did it." Luce quiped and then changed the subject. "So are we going or what? I need to get my hair straightened." She said pulling her curly hair into a bun on the top of her head.

"Ooh, I'll come with you, I'm thinking about a change."

"No blue!" Leslie, Elle and Micheal threatened me simultaneously. I looked at them wide eyed.

"I'm not a teenager anymore." I grumbled, playing with the ends of my waist length honey hair. ."I've just been thinking... I need a change."