Around the beginning of the tenth grade, I saw another girl in school wearing my same exact cheap, still charmless, piece of crap bracelet that Collin had given me for my birthday the year before. I didn't think anything of it, until a few days later when I found that ho behind a locker door making out with my boyfriend.

"What the hell!" I shouted and threw down my books. The other girl didn't even say anything. She just took off running. I didn't waste my time trying to catch her, but marched straight up to him. "Who the hell was that bitch, Collin?"

"Watch your mouth. I told you about all that cussing."

"Wa...what?" That was the last thing I expected him to say.

"You heard me." By then, the few kids that were left in the hallway had started gathering around us, and I knew that he was trying to show off for his boys.

"You don't tell me what to do!" I yelled and jammed my finger into his chest.

He grabbed my finger right before I jabbed him again and bent it all the way backwards. "You'll do whatever the hell I tell you to do," he whispered real close to my ear.

Even though he had bent my finger like this before, and even pushed me once or twice, the seriousness in his voice this time scared me into calming down.

"Collin, who was that?" I asked again, now much quieter.

"None of your business."

"None of my business?!" I demanded, getting mad all over again. "I don't know who tha hell you think you are..."

Suddenly, he grabbed my arm and threw me up against the same locker that he had just been leaning on, making out with ol' girl. "I told you to watch your mouth. You're supposed to be my lady? Pops was right. You can always tell a ho from a lady by the way she talks."

"What...?" Where did that come from? What the heck was he even talking about?

"So if you want me to let you talk like a ho, you need be givin' it up like you been sayin' you would all this time."

I think all of the other kids were as surprised by him flipping so quick as I was because no one moved and no one laughed at what he said.

"Next time you try to step to me with this bullshit," he growled, "I won't be so nice. You need to get with the program and act like you're my girl before you ever have the right to question anything I say or do. If you had been taking care of business, you would've never had to worry about who that other chick was."

He looked around and saw everyone still watching.

"Bitch." Then he slammed me into the locker once more for good measure and stormed off, his boys close behind.

I was too embarrassed and shaken up to say anything after that, so I just left it alone. I left his butt alone, too, for the rest of the year.

That summer, though, I walked outside one day and found Collin sitting on our front steps. I started to just step right over him and keep walking until I saw his face. He had a black eye and the saddest look I'd ever seen.

"What's wrong wit' you?" I asked like I really didn't care and sat down next to him.

"My dad hit my mom," he answered quietly.

"Oh."

"I mean...he's been slapping her and dragging her around a lot lately, but this time he hit her."

I looked at him in surprise. I never knew that was going on. "Oh."

It made sense, now, why he was always coming to see my dad whenever he got into trouble or needed advice, like he didn't have his own daddy at home.

"And most of the time, he has a good reason for doing it. I mean, not that he should hit her, but she just pisses him off so bad...and on purpose, too. But this time, she was just sitting there minding her own business and he hauled off and punched her! With his fist! Like she was a man or something..." He looked at me again with those puppy dog eyes. "So I tried to help her up and get pops to back off of her, but the old man is a lot stronger than I thought."

"Oh..."

"So, anyway, my mom left but she's coming back to get me later today. She said pack my stuff because I think...I think we're moving to my grandma's for a while." He put a finger to his lips. "But don't tell anybody where we're going, though."

"So...I guess..." I really didn't have anything to say. I was just trying to fill in the silence that followed.

"So, I just wanted to say...I'm sorry. About the girl and everything. I just wasn't thinking straight." He suddenly jumped up. "I gotta go. There's my mom."

I saw her blue Mitsubishi ease around the corner and pull to a stop in their driveway. She didn't even take the time to look my way, but rushed into the house and seconds later rushed back out with her arms full.

Quickly she looked around and yelled to Collin, "Hurry up!" That's all she said.

A few minutes later, Collin came back outside, also staggering under the weight of so much luggage, and after a few minutes more they hopped in the car and sped away.

I didn't expect to see him again after that.