It hadn't even been a week and already there was gossip about my relationship with Dante. The one thing I had feared had already turned up... the next morning after Daniel picked me up there was a new story that had become front page news. "Helena Peters (16) seen being picked up by daycare worker, Daniel Thomson (22) after boyfriend Dante Anderson (24) ditches" I dropped the newspaper and sat down on the front step of my house. Yesterday... just yesterday he had told me I would have no more chances. Why had I been so stupid to let this sort of thing happen again? Suddenly my cell rang and I answered it immediately thinking it was Dante. "Dante! I'm sorry! I'm very sorry!" "It's not Dante- it's Daniel..." My face flushed. "Oh... I thought..." "Have you been waiting for him to call? You answered rather quickly," he said with a mocking sort of tone. "Don't mock me now!" He only laughed on the other end. "Sorry, but you seemed rather desperate to talk to him." "Have you read the paper? He's not going to let that go! He gave me one more chance and I blew it in less than a day..." "Oh yeah, I saw that. Maybe try and talk to him?" "Talk to him? Yeah right. He's going to go on about how I messed it up and how my mother is going to go back into the care she was once in! There's no way I can afford either treatment! If I can't even afford a dumpy hospital my mother's going to-" I paused. "Helena?" "What's wrong with me?" "What?" "Letting this happen again? I keep messing everything up and it's not doing me any good. I'm supposed to be helping my mother yet I'm not showing it." "Nothing is wrong with you. You've just made some mistakes." "Too many mistakes." "Just try and talk to him. You don't know until you try. Maybe he'll listen to you. Just try." "But I promised him yesterday! He's not a good person, he's not going to just let this go... He's going to stop all of this." "But Helena..." "My mother is going to die because of my stupidity. I wanted to try hard so that she could have a chance to live comfortably and in an environment in which she could be happy. I wanted to work for that and now... it hasn't even been a week and I've already messed up." "Then I'll talk to him." "Eh?!" "Give me his number. If it means that much to you then I will talk to him myself." "But Daniel..." "I'll tell him it was my fault. I won't let you beat yourself up any longer. It's not your fault, the news reporters just report what they see." "Thank you," I said. "Thank you so much!" My cell beeped and I realized I had received a text message. My heart pounded when I saw it was from Dante. Get off the phone with whoever you are on it with and wait for my call That was all it said. I bit my lip and took a deep breath. "Give me a second," I said. "Is it him?" "Yes," I said softly. "Just a second I said and I hung up. Like he had told me. I waited for his call. The phone rang less than a minute later and I hesitated to pick up. But I did and I closed my eyes. "Hello?" "Are you fucking stupid?" I took a deep breath in but didn't exhale. I had been expecting that. "It hasn't even been one fucking day and already your name is all over the news! They think you're cheating on me! I told you that this was the last chance! You must be some sort of genius in stupidity to pull this off." "He's just a friend," I said. "I don't care if he is a friend! What was he doing there?" "You left me!" "What?" "Yesterday... you drove me to that place and then you left me there by myself. My mother is in the hospital and my sister doesn't have a car. My school friends are too young to drive... who else was I supposed to call? I would've called you but you just left me there!" "So it's my fault?" "No. But it isn't mine either. I had no options. I wasn't going to walk home... it was an hour drive as it is. I was just desperate to get home." "Fuck. Well I'm not going to let you get off again. I said that it was the last time. I was serious about that. I'm not going to go through with this with you. Thank you for your time, I appreciate what you tried to do for me but it's time we ended things." "Wait! Dante!" The phone went dead on the other line and I dropped to my knees. It was over. This whole thing was... over.