Chapter 2

“So how does this work?” Isabella said, as the group sat in a circle. “Do we all need to hold hands and say some sort of vow?”
“I guess we could.” said Lana. “Or at least the vow part.”
There was an awkward silence, and Isabella saw Aden roll his eyes.
“I’ll start, then.” Clearing his voice, he said dramatically. “We are gathered here today to embrace our pathetic lives and make something of ourselves.” He then stretched his hand towards the center of the circle.
“This isn’t a wedding, moron, what kind of a start is that?” Isabella snapped.
Aden shrugged. “No one else was starting, you gonna go along with this or cop out?”
The group shrugged and looked at each other, Aden’s hand still outstretched into the circle.
“No more standing around and dealing with it.” Jeremy continued. “Today is the day that we help each other overcome and grow, despite our situation.” He put his hand on top of Aden’s.
“We’ll be there when we need each other, through good times and bad, no matter what.” Lana said, putting her hand on Jeremy’s
“And we’ll promise to respect each other, and to try and make things better, and not worse.” Isabella said, putting her hand on Lana’s.
The group looked at Tia, who paused for a moment.
“Come on, Tia, our arms are starting to hurt.” Aden said, but Tia simply nodded.
“This is who we are; broken, but stronger together than apart. Because even if we’re broken, we can still find forgiveness in this world.”
Isabella took a moment to look at Tia, wondering to herself what it was that was bothering her so much she couldn’t talk about it. Her face was solemn and serious, and Isabella was sure that if Tia needed to find forgiveness, she needed to forgive herself first to find the strength to reach out to others.
After Tia put her hand on top of Isabella’s, the group lifted up their hands and reached towards the sky, then lowering their hands back to their own bodies, they took one more good look at each other before breaking out into a fit of laughter.
“That was pretty lame.” Aden said.
Lana rolled her eyes. “It may have been cheesy, but we’ve got something here, right?”
“This is definitely our secret.” Isabella said. “It would be social suicide for all of us if anyone found out.”
“No one has to know.” Jeremy said, nodding in agreement. “It’s like a secret society, during the day we don’t even have to acknowledge each other.”
“Does this society have a name or rules or something?” Isabella asked, still a little skeptical.
Aden thought for a moment. “We could call it the bad-ass orphan society.”
“We’re not orphans, asshole.” Isabella shot back. “Use what little brain you have left and stop making shit up.”
“Isabella,” Lana said warningly. “We’ve been a society for two minutes, can we try to have one peaceful night?”
Isabella made a face. “Yes, mother.”
“I think we should just call it the Secret Society.” Jeremy said, ignoring Isabella. “Sweet and simple, we don’t need anything fancy. The rules are just what we stated; secrecy, support and overcoming.”
“Not to interrupt your insightful discussion, but we do have an English project we’re supposed to be doing.” Aden said. “I can’t afford to fail a class this year, my Mom will kill me. Now, let’s discuss the book I didn’t read.”

* * * * *

“Hey! Wait up!” Aden yelled as he saw Tia slipping away down the long driveway of Lana’s house.
Tia turned around. “Yes?”
“It’s dark, let me walk you home.” He said.
Tia looked at him with a mixture of relief and terror. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”
“What? Am I going kill you in the bushes? Come on Tia, I haven’t really talked to you in forever, I’ll head off my own way when we get close to your house. It’s close to mine anyway.”
The truth was, curiosity had gotten a hold of Aden. He believed that he was keen about people and his gut instincts were often right. The fact was, everyone else in the Society was able to talk about their problems. Tia wasn’t even willing to give them a hint. Something was very wrong, and he wanted to know what.
Tia shrugged. “I guess so, but you can’t come too close to my house, I think my Mom wouldn’t like that.”
“Ah, the Mormon thing?”
Tia shrugged. “I just don’t want her to think I’m dating someone, I’ve never talked about you before so she doesn’t know you’re just a friend. I’m only fifteen.”
“And you’re not allowed to date until you’re sixteen.”
Tia looked at him. “It’s not a bad thing, you know. My Mom is just trying to protect me. The church is trying to protect me.”
“Then what isn’t it protecting you from?”
Tia stopped walking. “What do you mean?”
“Look, Tia, you don’t have to tell me anything. I understand that there are some things that are impossible to talk about. Do you realize how long it took me to be able to come to terms with what my Dad does?”
Tia shook her head. “I don’t mean to sound hypocritical, but do you realize how much more damage you’re doing by standing by and watching it?”
Aden was taken aback. “I told you guys, she doesn’t want me to do anything.”
“Does she?” Tia said, looking him straight in the eye. “You are her child, you are her everything, Aden. She would never want you to see her as weak, and she probably thinks she can handle the situation. But you know. You know, and you’re not doing anything about it. Something inside of her is breaking down every day and you stand there and watch assuming that there’s nothing you can do. And maybe there isn’t, but you know. So really, there should be no coming to terms with anything, because even if there isn’t anything you can do in the situation that doesn’t make it any less wrong.”
Aden couldn’t believe the speech that had come out of her mouth. He had not heard so many words from Tia since the second grade.
“Tia, what’s wrong?”
For a moment, her cover broke and he thought he could see her face break down. However, she quickly regained her composure “I can’t, Aden. I just can’t. I want to…I want to tell someone. But I can’t.”
Aden looked at her as he never had before. Clearly, whatever it was, it was bad. Somehow, he wanted to do something to make it better. He wanted very badly to make her happy. Not knowing what else to do, he reached out to put his hand on her shoulder.
“I don’t know what it is, and as I said before you don’t have to tell me. But I’m here, Tia. I’ll take what you said about me to heart, but just because you may think that there’s nothing that can be done in your situation, you won’t really know until you talk to someone.”
Tia only nodded. “Thank you, Aden.”

* * * * *
Isabella groaned at the sight of Aden running after Tia. He was such an asshole to think that he could hit on that poor girl. To her disgust, Jeremy tentatively began to walk beside her.
“You know, I’m not as terrible as you think I am.” Jeremy said. “Even if I am a…what’d Aden say? A brownnoser?”
Isabella sighed. “I’m sorry, Jeremy, I never meant it to come across that I don’t like you, I just-”
“Don’t?” Jeremy finished. “It’s okay, I get it, me and Lana had the least serious problems. Us and our upper middle class privilege, right?”
“Trying to make me feel guilty?” Isabella said, rolling her eyes. She grabbed his arm and stopped him from walking, turning to face him. “Look, I was in your position once, okay? My family didn’t used to be this way. Did you know Lana and me used to be friends? We used to go over to each other’s houses before her parents built that freakish house. I used to get Barbies for Christmas and had my own room. Then my parents start fighting, I didn’t know why, but it hurt just as much then as it does now that I know and understand.”
Jeremy looked surprised and confused. “What do you mean?”
“I mean that hurt is hurt, Jeremy. What makes us different is that our hurt wasn’t caused by us or situations that we put ourselves into. We didn’t choose who our families are, and we had no say when they made the choices that they did. It’s not Lana’s fault that her parents chose to never be there for her and her mother chooses not to seek help. It’s not Aden’s fault that his Dad abuses his Mom and that his Mom doesn’t do anything about it. And its not your fault that your parents aren’t thinking about you before they scream at each other and split up.”
Jeremy nodded. “Thanks, Isabella. It really does mean a lot to me that you understand.”
“Asshole,” Isabella said, smiling. “That’s what this whole thing is about isn’t it? You’re the one who suggested it.”
Jeremy smiled back. “Let me go home, you’re a menstrual case.”
“Oh, you don’t want to get me started on that subject.” Isabella said, beginning to walk again.
Following, Jeremy nodded and said. “Come to think of it, you’re right.”
Isabella couldn’t help but laugh “That’s more like it. And I believe the term Aden used was ‘suck up.’”