Fighting for Freedom

| TWENTY NINE |

A hour later I'm sitting around the dinner table with Clays family including his aunt and uncle. Hilda has already made five snide comments about Tony and my father and I'm close to losing it. "Any way are you actually going to go to college?" Hilda directs to Clay. "Yes." He grunts stabbing a piece of meat aggressively.

"How is Kenzie going to cope with that?" She sneers acting like I'm not even in the room. "We're both applying for New York." I say through gritted teeth. "Like he'd get in there." She snorts. "Actually Clay has straight As." Susie smiles reassuringly at her son.

"What?" Hilda snaps. "Yup he's the smart one." Jen says with the biggest fake smile I've ever seen. "Well I guess that's something then." Hilda states before turning back to her food. "When do college applications open?" Tony asks through bites of his food. "January." Clay mutters.

The rest of the dinner is spent with the adults making small talk and us four "kids" stay silent. As Susie is getting desert ready for us I feel a kick to my leg. I glance up and lock eyes with a smirking Jen. "What?" I mouth to her. She continues smirking at me but flicks her gaze to Hilda for a spilt second. I furrow my eyebrows at her confused about what the fuck she's trying to say.

She rolls her eyes at me as Clay jumps in the seat next to me. He scowls at Jen before she communicates with him with her eyes. His face breaks out in a matching smirk and shakes his head slightly. "Please?" She mouths.

"What's going on?" I whisper leaning closer to Clay. "I'll tell you later." He whispers back placing his arm on the back of my chair. "I see you have another black eye Clayton." Hilda states in disgust while I snicker Clayton? I turn to face Clay and give him a smirk while he glares at me.

"Yup." He answers not breaking eye contact with me. "I can't believe you're still doing this shit Tony." She snaps. "Hilda shut your face." Susie snaps coming back in with desert.

"I'm just saying."

"Well shut it."

Desert is spent pretty much the same as dinner. As soon as the dishes are clear Clay drags me back to his bedroom. "So what are we going to do now Clayton?" I smirk wrapping my arms around his waist. "You're a bitch." He teases back wrapping his arms around me.

"I thought we said no more secrets?"

"I didn't know my name was a secret." He laughs kissing my nose gently. "What's your middle name?" I ask leaning back in his arms to look at his face. "Gabriel." He snorts rolling his eyes. "Want to know my full name?" I ask releasing my arms from his waist and moving to trace my fingers along his biceps. "Mhmm." He answers moving his own hands to my ass pulling me closer.

"McKenzie Marie Scott."

"McKenzie?" Clay gasps widening his eyes. "Yup." I smile moving my finger up over his shoulders and up his neck to his face. I lightly trace his black eye causing his eyes to close. "I prefer Kenzie." He whispers. I don't answer but continue tracing his face. Moving my fingers down his nose to his lips.

He really is the most handsome man I've ever seen. "I love you." I whisper leaning up to place a soft kiss on his lips. "I love you too." He whispers as we pull apart. "What was Jen going on about at dinner?" I ask leaning my head into his chest.

"She likes to make up stories to tell Hilda trying to get her to have a meltdown." His chest vibrating underneath my ear. Before I can answer a loud knock sounds on the door making us pull apart. I sigh at the loss of contact and move over to the bed as Clay opens the door.

"What are you two doing?" Jen says pushing past Clay and flopping onto the bed next to me. "What do you want?" He sighs. "Hildas in my room and dad is watching some stupid show." She says looking at her nails. "Do you have any nail polish in here?" She asks scooting back to lean against the head board.