~Laura's POV~

Even though it's the last thing in the world I want, I send Jaime out of the room. I know it's an awful idea, but I want to upset Craig as little as possible. As soon as Jaime leaves the room and shuts the door, Craig's face darkens.

"YOU LITTLE BITCH!" He screams at me, grabbing me by a fistful of my hair and slamming me down to the floor. I don't even cry anymore. I know better than that. Besides, pain is feeling. I like being able to feel, it reminds me that I'm alive at least a little.

"How could you do this to me? After all I've done for you, you ungrateful little whore." He emphasizes his words by slapping me so hard across the face that I fall over from my sitting position. He puts his foot on my stomach, rapidly adding pressure.

"I guess it doesn't matter anyway, you were getting boring. Just a worthless little fuck." Craig grabs me up by my shirt. "I never want to see you again. When they get sick of your sorry ass, don't even think about coming back here."

"Now, I'm going to open this door and hug you and say goodbye, and you're going to pretend like everything's fine, got it?"

I nod, knowing better than to respond.

"Good little slut." He pets me on the head, in a fake display of affection as he opens the door to the faces of a very angry Jaime Preciado and Mike Fuentes.

"Gentleman, take care of her." Craig gives them this large, fake smile before wrapping me in his arms tightly, squeezing right where he knows it would hurt and finally letting me go. I stumble back into Mike's arms who grabs my hand and mutters a goodbye to Craig before tugging on Jaime's arm to get him to come with us.

"Laura, sweetie, can you walk ahead of us a little? I need to talk to Jaime quickly." Mike asks sweetly.

I just nod, still kind of dazed.

~Jaime's POV~

"Dude, you're scaring the crap out of her. I know you're pissed at that guy and all, but you've gotta chill."

In my head I know Mike's right, but it's hard to repress the urge to go back and beat the living shit out of Craig. To know he hurt her, that he's probaly hurt her for a long time.

"Look, I know. But just let her deal with this how she needs to, okay? It'll be better for her that way."

"You do have a point. I just hope she opens up to us and can talk about it."

"I agree. Let's go catch up, and try not to act like a rage monster, 'kay?" Mike smirks.

I just flip him off and jog up to Laura.

"So sweetie, you ever been outside of CA before?"

She blushes at the nickname a little. "No, I can't say I have, Mr. Preciado, sir."

"Alright, I know Vic already said it and it's true for the rest of us. Call us by our first names or nicknames, silly." I say, ruffling her hair.

She blushes even darker, if it's possible. It's nice to see some color on that pale skin of hers, honestly. For someone who's never left Cali, you'd think she'd at least be a little tan. Yes, I know I'm a little biased being Mexican and all, but really.

Mike interjects. "So do we need to drop by the school and explain anything there?"

"No, I've already graduated."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I graduated a semester early so I could officially get my degree from USC. I've been taking online courses for a few years now, and earned enough credit to get my bachelor's in biochemistry. But I couldn't get my college diploma before my high school one, so...."

Holy shit. None of us even went to college.

"Damn, girl." Mike whistles.

I nod in amazement, words escaping me. Laura's really something else, isn't she?