VICE

| SO IT BEGINS |

"Hey, you ok?" She asked him after about ten minutes of comfortable silence.

"He's never hit me before."

"And you've never been a bigger idiot before but hey, things happen," she said sarcastically trying to lighten the mood.

"Why the fuck did I go through with this in the first place?" he asked, finally realizing what he had really just done.

"Well, your ego is just too big to accept defeat. And when you're surrounded by people equally as idiotic as you, things tend to get out of hand quickly."

"I still can't believe I actually did that."

"Neither can I. I really thought you were gonna change your mind the second dad opened his mouth."

"Well, I should have. But I don't think he would have believed me."

"True. But still -" she was cut off when Austin's phone started ringing. Austin picked it up immediately without even looking at the caller ID.

"Hey Austin, did you chicken out this time ?" It was Sam calling.

"Ha..you wish man!" Austin replied with a small smile.

"No way!"

"Nicky even caught it on video."

"Yes! Tell her I love her! And I wanna see it now!" Sam was ecstatic.

Austin turned to his sister and said, "Hey Nicky,send Sam the video."

She complied with a nod, fishing her phone out of her pocket.

"She's sending it." he turned his attention back to Sam .

"Sweet!"

"Man, I think I'm in trouble. Shit got pretty real!" It did not take a rocket scientist to figure out what that simple statement meant.

"Let me guess, your dad?"

"Who else. He slapped me right across the face after I told him."

"Oh!" Sam exclaimed in realization, "didn't see that coming"

"You owe me big time man!"

"You mean...more than a hundred bucks?"

"Of course you dimwit! I took a fucking slap for your stupid dare !"

"Don't be such a girl." Sam chuckled from the other side of the line, "you should take it like a man."

"Har har har.." Austin rolled his eyes, "this is not about being a man."

"I know, because it's about Austin acting like a little girl." Sam mocked.

"I'm gonna make you pay for that."

"Ooooooh..I'm so scared !" Sam mocked some more.

Austin was starting to get a little irritated, "Goodbye, asshole!"

"Goodbye, baby girl!" And with that, Austin hung up quickly before he could start plotting ways to kill Sam.

"I've sent the video to Sam, Gina, Claire, Max and Hannah." Nicky said from beside him.

"And Kelly ?"

"Nope. She said she doesn't want anything to do with you until further notice."

"She scares me."

"Every guy in school is scared of her. I don't get it."

"Of course you don't." He said, "By the way, how's Mike?"

"He's flying back tonight from Spain" she replied, still typing away on a phone. Her face was lit up by a bright smile.

"Why are you smiling?" Austin questioned curiously.

"Because I've missed him so much. And he said he misses me too. He said he bought me something from Spain."

"Why is he always traveling even mid-semester to other countries?" he asked his sister, suddenly curious about the odd behavior of his sister's boyfriend.

"Because his parents travel a lot and they like to bring him along. They always claim that they miss him too much when they're away so it's better to take him. Plus he always brings me the coolest stuff!" She finished, swinging her legs cheerily as they hung off the bed.

"Why are you so into that guy. I've always thought he's a douchebag."

"You'll never understand love, unless you have it too."

"I have love!"

"Who?" she snorted at him.

"Uhhh..Lucy, tall blonde with amazing long legs and some seriously luscious teats!" he explained half absentmindedly.

"Oh please, Lucy is a total phony."

"Hey, that's my girlfriend!" he warned, "And what are you talking about?"

"Nothing," she replied singsongy.

"You're a crazy person."

"You're a crazy person," she tried to imitate her brother.

He got off the bed and took a hold of her hand, then pulled her up off his bed. He did not let go as he pulled her till they reached the door, which he unlocked and pushed her outside then slammed it in her face.

"Oh come on, what was that for!" he heard her say as he locked his door. He thought it was safer to lock it in case his father decided to do a pop in later. He was fearing for his life tonight.

Speaking of which, he hadn't heard any commotion from downstairs which meant maybe his mom was able to calm him down a little.

He picked his homework books that had been neatly placed upon his study desk and put them in his backpack . He always packed his backpack with everything he would need the next day before going to bed. It was his little unbroken routine.

It's was only 8:30pm so he picked up a video game to play for the next hour before he went to bed. Today was an eventful day but he knew tomorrow would be worse. He had an unshakeable feeling.