"Ashley, what are you doing?" my mom accuses.

"Making fries." I say using the sweet and innocent voice i taught Kyla.

"Make some for Kyla too. Who’s your friend?" she says bitchily. Didn’t they just get back from IHOP?

"Hi Ashwee!" Kyla says interjecting.

"Don’t call me that! Her names Stacey, she’s Aiden’s stepsister from Georgia. Can we go for a walk after we eat?"

"Yea sure. Just don’t bother me. I have a date later tonight." she says blowing us off to go down to her room and suck on a cancer stick.

"Are the fries done?" Kyla says reaching for the fryer.

"NO! Don’t touch." I say grabbing her arm. If she got burned mom would murder me.

"Fine! I’m going to play barbies." She says.

"Man, that was close." Spence sighs.

"Yea, I’m glad the dogs started barking or we wouldn’t have heard them come in."

"You know you’re going to have to tell her about us sooner or later."

"Yes, but you don’t understand." I say taking the fries out and calling Kyla to come get some. Spence hesitantly takes a fry and looks up at me.

"I’ll never understand if you don’t tell me."

"I don’t want to talk about it." I say as Spencer starts cramming fries into her mouth.

"I didn’t think I could fall any more in love with you but I just did. These fries are amazing!" she says in between bites.

"Wow, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you eat like this."

"It depends on what I’m eating." she says winking at me.

"C’mon, we’re so getting out of here!"

"But the fries! They call me! ‘Eat us Spencer, eat us!’"

"I thought you wanted to eat me?" I say flirtateously.

"Ooh you’re a bad girl aren’t you?"

"On some occasions, yes, now get your sexy ass up the street so you can fix your hair and eyes. I like them better blue."

"Yes’m!" she says running to the stop sign. When I get there she’s taking her inhaler out.

"Wait! I wanna see if i can do it again."

"Do what?"

"Make you breathe, like before." I put my left hand between her breasts and feel her ragged breathing. I lean in and breathe into her mouth. Her breathing evens out.

"Wow!" she whispers. I feel her heart racing under my palm.

"Spence, your heart…"

"I know. It beats double overtime when you get this close to me."

"Does it hurt?"

"What?"

"Your asthma?"

"Sometimes." she says looking down. I trace her body with my eyes.

"You’re making me blush. Stop checking me out." she says shyly.

"It’s not my fault you got the ‘curse of curves’." I say running my hands through her hair. It turns blonde again and she blinks her eyes back blue. We walk down to the creek and go to the waterfall. It’s high tide.

"Why are you so afraid to tell your mom about us?"

"I don’t want to talk about it."

"Ashwee pwease?" she pouts.

"Fine but you’re gonna have to scoot over."

"Why?"

"Cause I can’t think straight when you’re this close to me." she scoots over.

"I guess I’ll have to start at the begining. Kyla’s always been her favorite. Kyla wear pink and make-up. She puts on heels and skirts. Mom always says to me: ‘You should have been my son’. She cooes over everything Kyla does. She took my cousin Samantha to a Victoria’s Secret runway show because I told her I wanted to go. She asks me if I’m having sex yet and sighs when I say no. The only reason she took me shopping for the dance was because I was going with a boy. That time you heard her call me the D word wasn’t the first time, Spence. Later that night I heard her mumbling into the phone through the vent about a pick up on Sunday. She didn’t send me away because of my powers, she sent me away because she thought I was gay." I finish the last part barely above a whisper trying to hold back a sea of tears.

"Wow that’s intense hun." Spence says scooting back over.

"Tell me about it." I say as the tears start leaking from my closed eyes.

"Shhh, babe, it’s ok. I won’t make you talk about it any more." Spence says rubbing my back. I wish she could hold me all the time and make the pain go away.