My breath left me in a flurry as I hung the phone up, my father's words still ringing in my ears.

Of course he thought the family meeting/dinner would be a great idea, he wasn't my mother though...

He always managed to stay off of her bad side, so it wasn't like he really knew what it felt like to basically be excommunicated by your own family.

We were supposed to meet that night and the bundle of nerves in my stomach became an absolute wrecking ball.

"Hey Lydia, I got your car back from your old apartment. Sorry it took me so long, I had to find a day that Reed was free so he could drive my car back."

Lucas threw my keys on my beside table but when I didn't respond to him he grew concerned. I just kept staring straight forward, the possibilities of what the night could hold rushing through my brain.

"What's wrong?"

"I'm going to see mom and dad tonight."

"Holy shit..."

"Yeah."

"Do you want backup? I can come with you."

"Yeah, that would be great actually. My dad wants Emmett there too, there's some things that we need to discuss, police stuff."

"What are you getting yourself mixed up in Lydia? You remember what happened the last time you were mixed up in 'police stuff'."

"I know perfectly well what happened, thank you very much. A big fat nothing, that's what. This time I have the opportunity to help a girl who is hurting like I did. Don't I owe it to her to give it my best shot?"

He came further into the room and sat down at the foot of my bed, pain shining in his eyes for the fact that he couldn't save his little sister, not then and he couldn't do it even now.

"Are you doing this for her, or are you doing it for you?"

I didn't even have to think about that even for a second, because I knew the truth even if I didn't want to.

"Both. I need to do this, Lucas, and you can either be with me or against me."

"Does Emmett know the real reason you're helping this girl? I'm assuming she's a friend of his and knows what went down otherwise dad wouldn't need him there to talk with him."

"No, he doesn't know anything about my past and I really don't feel like broadcasting it to him or anyone for that matter. Nate didn't even know."

"Lydia! I know he was a piece of shit, but you were with him for four years and you never told him?! The truth is going to come out one way or another, and you know mom is probably gonna want to bring it up like she's your therapist or something. How are you going to explain that to him then?"

"I'll defect her like I always used to do, you know how good at that I am."

I tried to lighten the mood and punch him lightly on the arm but he bristled, anger and concern flashing through his features towards me.

"You can't keep this bottled inside forever..."

"I talk to my therapist once a week, you don't have to worry about me. It's not like I'm going to explode or something. You know how long ago that happened, I'm fine, trust me."

"Okay, but I'm definitely going now to keep an eye on you. What time are we leaving?"

"Three hours. They want to have dinner at seven."

"I'll call Emmett and let him know to shower after practice and head straight here, then."

"Good. And Lucas? Thank you. For everything."

He shot me a rueful smile, although it was tinged with a hint of sadness and maybe even a little bit of regret.

"What are big brothers for?"

"Emmett, what a lovely surprise. To what do I owe this phone call?"

"The deal with the Patriots fell through," I said, the lie easily falling off of my lips.

"Oh my gosh, are you okay? I'm so sorry! Don't worry, there's other professional teams and I'm sure one of them will snatch you up!"

"I'm not so sure this time, Marnie. I know they're scouting Drayton and honestly they said all he had to do was show up to their first closed practice and they would take him, they just said that he didn't show enough initiative and didn't think he wanted it bad enough."

"What?! I- Well, even if they want Drayton..."

I heard the phone cut in and out as the sound of her fingers vigorously texting on her screen filled my ears. The vengeful smile that flitted onto my lips at that moment was immediate.

If Drayton showed up to closed practice without an invitation he would most definitely be kicked out and not considered for another opportunity with the Patriots as that was considered inappropriate and the coach might honestly black ball him with the other teams as well.

"Marnie, are you there?"

"Y-yeah I'm here. Listen, I have to go but you are going to do great things, let's get together soon sweetie okay? Bye!"

I had a feeling I'd be seeing her sooner rather than later as the head coach had just personally invited me to a closed practice for all the recruits in the area, and I had no doubt Drayton was son the phone with anyone to find out the location of the stadium where it was being held.

If all went according to plan, I'd get to publicly out Drayton for the snake that he was, and Marnie as well.

My phone began ringing and at first I thought it would be Drayton to call me on my bullshit, but it was Lucas.

"Hey man what's up?"

"You're invited to my parent's house tonight to talk about 'police stuff' per my sister. It's tonight at seven."

"Wow. Okay, great."

Taking down both Drayton and Rafael Rodriguez? It was going to be a good night.

"And hey, don't tell Lydia I told you this but please go easy with her. There's a reason I tried to implement a no dating rule with you guys and her. She's had it rough, and not just with Nate, but shit went down when she was a kid too. That's all I'm going to say but remember what I said. Don't fuck with my sister."

"You got it man, I would never do anything to hurt Lydia, I actually care about her a lot more than I thought I would..."

My mind mulled over his words. She'd been through even more in her life than I had imagined, and Nate and what he did to her was just the tip of the iceberg.

I thought back to how viciously she wanted to get justice for Marnie, someone she didn't even know or probably even like.

She championed for her and to make sure that Rafael got what he deserved, even though in retrospect he hadn't done anything wrong to her in the first place. She'd chosen to believe me but if she had chosen to believe Rafael? It would've been an entirely different story.

What else could have happened to her in her past that was worse than what Nate and her ex best friend had done to her? She handled everything that came at her with such grace that it was hard to believe it was the first time she'd faced something so harrowing.

That was because something else had happened to her before, something she was keeping from me and probably most everyone else in her life.

I knew what it was like to hide the secrets of your past from the people around you, the memory of my father's harsh words and physical blows to my face reverberating through my mind.

I'd faced tragedy and adversity in my life and I'd never breathed a word of it to anyone, save for the policeman that came to take his body to the morgue.

I never went to his funeral, never spoke to the social worker, never told my mom what really happened as she dried out in rehab. When she became the mother she was always supposed to be, we never breathed a word about my father ever again, and that was how we liked it.

Maybe it was the same for Lydia, and on that we had something in common.

I wasn't going to push her to tell me what happened, because I knew how I'd feel if someone did that to me.

I would wait, and if she chose to tell me then I would listen and support her, and maybe even tell her what happened to me as well.

But for that moment, I would be her supportive friend, and the only person knowing that I was completely and fully in love with her would be myself.