Nobody

Ryder's shoulders drop, the humor leaving the atmosphere. Looking at Thirteen, he saw the fear behind her eyes and it hurt. Today had been a lousy day and most of it had been his own fault. They were one step away from being right back at square one.

"I..." He stops, looking down at himself. He was still a mess. "Hang on... just... wait for me."

Heading upstairs two steps at a time, it takes him five minutes to be cleaned up and having clean clothes on, his muddy ones waiting to be washed.

Coming back into the living room, he pads across the carpet in his bare feet, coming around to sit on the couch with Thirteen. Reaching to the small end table, he deletes Reese's message. Sitting quietly for a moment, he the reaches over to tuck Thirteen's hair behind her ear. "I don't know about you, but I'm beat," he mentions softly. "Come here."

Scooting down until he was lying with the armrest as his pillow, he pulls Thirteen down to curl up with him, wrapping his strong arms around her. He would deal with Reese in his own time. "You're not going back to that room," he whispers. "And nobody is gonna send you away. Nobody takes my girl away from me."


Jade leans her head against the window, her tears finally stopped. It takes her several long moments to answer Dan though. There were so many things running through her mind. What was her dad supposed to think? She was hiding something from him. He'd just come to the wrong conclusion. "No... no he wasn't." She sighs deeply. "I've made a mess of everything."

Staring at the passing scenery, her stomach churns. Her dad's words echo in her mind. "Dan... I'm sorry if I got carried away last night." She wasn't normally like that, was she? She'd just wanted so bad to forget everything else, that maybe she'd been too bold. "If I embarrassed you, I'm sorry."