At Night's End

I heard a noise as I rounded the corner to enter the living room, it was the sound of something that I not long ago told Bella that I felt like doing to her brother myself but Cassie beat me to it.

There was just s split second from the time Cassie’s palm made contact with Wade’s cheek to the moment she realized what she did and looked horrified. But it was the split second after that, which caused me to scream out in horror. It was that moment after she realized what she did and they stared at each other in disbelief that I saw my niece do something I would have never thought I would see her do; Cassie threw herself at Wade.

I screamed because I didn’t know what else to do. My scream caused two things to happen - Cassie jumped back from Wade, who was looking really confused as to why she was even close to him in the beginning; and the front door flew open as Jordan and Bella ran into the house to see what was going on.

“What the hell are you screaming for?” Jordan asked me as he ran through the kitchen to where I was frozen in spot, staring at Cassie and Wade. “What’s going on?” He asked them.

“Nothing!” Cassie cried out as her cheek’s turned really red. “Nothing happened,” she started to grab for the leftover food on the table and her jacket. “I think I want to go home.”

“Oh you are damn right you are going home!” I snapped at her. “And you are so grounded! Or you will be with your parents find out about this!”

“Aunt Anna!” Cassie looked horrified. “You wouldn’t tell them! There’s nothing to tell, nothing happened!”

“Because I just happened to come in here!” I yelled at her. “What the hell were you thinking?” I turned to Wade, who still looked really confused at what was going on. “And you!” I hit him in the chest. “What the hell is wrong with you? She’s only 16!”

“I didn’t do anything!” He yelled back at me as he rubbed the spot I hit. “You and your cousin have got to stop hitting me! I didn’t do anything!”

“She’s my niece you moron!” I yelled at him. “And I don’t believe that you didn’t do anything!”

“He didn’t Aunt Anna!” Cassie was crying now. “I –”

“Cassie, go! Now!” I couldn’t even look at her as I pointed angrily towards the kitchen.

“Wait a minute!” Jordan grabbed Cassie’s arm as she went to walk pass him. “Some one better tell me what the hell is going on here!”

“It’s none of your business!” I snapped at him as I grabbed my jacket. “We are leaving.”

“Oh no you aren’t!” Jordan grabbed my arm too. “This is my house and no one leaves here until I know why everyone is freaking out!”

“It’s my fault Jordan,” Cassie looked up at him as the tears rolled down her cheeks. “I don’t know why I did it; we were arguing, Wade and I.” Jordan glanced at Wade and so did Bella. “I got so mad at what he was saying, I slapped him across the face and then I felt so bad. I don’t even know if it was him I was mad at or if it was Ben.”

“Ben?” Jordan questioned. “What does he have to do with this?”

Cassie filled him in on what happened with Ben. “I’m so mad at him,” she told Jordan. “I really liked him and he hurt me. I guess…I mean…it’s the only reason I can think of that would make any sense to why I thought kissing him,” she motioned to Wade, “would be ok.”

Bella gasped. “You kissed Wade?”

“No,” Cassie shook her head. “I was going to but Aunt Anna screamed and…well you know the rest.”

The room was deathly quiet; no one even knew what to say to that. I was so upset that Cassie would throw herself at anyone like that, especially when she wasn’t thinking straight in the beginning.

I told Jordan we had to go and he didn’t do anything to stop us. Cassie was apologizing to everyone on the way out the door and when we got into my car, she continued apologizing to me. “I didn’t mean to do it Aunt Anna, I really didn’t. Please don’t be mad at me. I’m really sorry.”

After ten minutes of that, I pulled over onto the side of the road and threw the car into park. “Do you have any idea why I’m upset?” I asked her. She shook her head and I sighed. “Do you have any idea what could’ve happened in there?”

“Nothing happened Aunt Anna.”

“No, nothing happened that time.” I agreed. “But what if I wasn’t there Cassie? Do you have any idea what Wade could’ve done? Or any guy for that matter? Do you think that they would care that you didn’t mean to do it? You threw yourself at him Cassie! If he was a complete bastard, he could’ve taken everything you have! Do you know what I’m talking about?”

“But he wouldn’t,” she was crying again. “I would tell him that I didn’t -”

“Cassie!” I cut her off. “Telling a guy to stop, don’t mean that he will! You are lucky that I was there! You don’t know Wade! You don’t know what he could do!”

“But Aunt Anna, I –”

“You what Cass? You may have been able to get Ben to accept that you weren’t ready, even if he was a prick about it! But not every guy is like Ben! How many times have your parents talked to you about this? How many times have they told you to be careful? Do you think they don’t know what they are talking about? Do you think your dad hasn’t seen enough rape cases to know how these things happen?”

“I’m sorry Aunt Anna!” Cassie was bawling like a little baby and I felt like such a bitch.

“I just don’t want anything to happen to you,” I told her. “You know that right? You know that I love you and care about you? You know that I’ll always be here for you, that I will always listen even if you think I’m mad at you? You know that right Cass?”

Cassie nodded, “Even when you yell at me,” she sobbed. “I know you love me.”

When we got back to the house, I tried to sneak us both in but Zack and Mary were waiting downstairs for us. I don’t know what it is about them but they seemed to know when there was something wrong, they were always waiting.

It was a long night as we explained what happened and sat through Zack giving both of us the same lecture that I gave Cassie in my car. When Mary finally got him to let us go to bed, I headed off into my room right away but Cassie stayed behind.

I was just about to get into bed when there was a knock on my door, “Come in,” I called and was a little surprised when Zack peeked his head in before coming all the way in. “Is there something wrong?” I asked him when he didn’t say anything.

“No,” he shook his head as he came over to where I was standing. “I was pretty much told that my lecture wasn’t needed,” he told me.

“What?” I couldn’t believe that Cassie would tell him something like that.

“Yeah,” he dropped his arms that were folded over his chest. “It appears that it wasn’t the first time she heard that lecture tonight.”

I lowered my head, “Zack I know you don’t like it when I ‘butt’ in with the girls but I just -”

“Thank you Anna.”

“ – couldn’t let…” I stared up at him. “What?”

“I didn’t even know if you were listening to me all the times that I told you to be careful; I thought that it went in one ear and out the other because you were so determined to do what you wanted and you often told me I couldn’t tell you what to do because I wasn’t dad.”

“Zack I’m sorry.”

He shook his head, “It doesn’t really matter. At first I thought it did, I thought I had to be like dad, to try to be your dad but it never worked; I didn’t think anything worked with you.” He held up his hand when I went to speak. “That is until Cassie told me that you gave her the ‘dad’ lecture before I even got to it.” He smiled at me. “You are a big influence on my girls Anna, they look up to you and admire you; you are like their big sister. While there are times that I wish you would leave the parenting to me, I’m glad that you do step in and tell them the same things I would; they seem to pay more attention to it.”

“So you aren’t mad at me?”

“No,” he told me simply and then gave me a hug.

I went to bed that night and fell into a deep sleep.