"Yeah,honestly you should be mad and you shouldn't trust me but,eh,either works." He says,looking away from her gaze and to the dog who sat next to him.

"I can be mad.....I should be. Just let me actually grasp the fact that you left, making me think of you as probably dead, then you randomly show up here, after lying to me I may add, and then just are acting all casual?"

"Correction,It was either I went with them or they killed you,which I wasn't going to let happen.I've thought you were dead until yesterday,carrying the guilt for years.Second,randomly show up?This is my house.I can show up any given moment.And yeah,I'm acting casual because if I wasn't then I would have killed myself ages ago." He says,tone slightly snappy as he met her gaze once more.

Rose dropped her eyes from his, looking at the floor again. She honestly felt threatened when he looked at her, like she had done something wrong. She wanted to make herself as small as possible when he snapped at her, she wanted to become a part of the background-something unimportant.

"So to put it into perspective,if I didn't go with them they'd have killed you right then and there.Then,I would have carried the guilt,then would've taken my life in the most gruesome way possible to punish myself for letting you die.You didn't do anything wrong,it's just that the guilt would've been to much to carry.Your death would've made my life impossible to live.Simply you being alive will keep me from taking my life so,don't die too soon." Caden said,offering a small smile at the end before it dropped and he stood.He then walked back to the bedroom and into the bathroom,shaving off the scrabble that had grown on his face.

Rose nodded and listened to him leave, standing and heading to the bedroom after a while. She changed into her gym clothes before heading to the door and putting on her shoes. "I'm going to the gym!" She called, hesitating. "I love you!" She added

"I love you too," He called back,a big grin simmering on his face.She said it,which meant it could be a lie,but she said it.And that's all the progress Caden needed.

Rose smiled a small smile and left, heading to the gym and doing her usual workout of mostly bench and squats. She hadn't worked out in a few days and she felt it now.

As Caden finished shaving,he looked in the mirror at himself.Shadows cast under his eyes,and him now looking like he was in his thirties instead of twenties.He finally realized what the toll of the gang had taken on him,both mentally and physically.

Rose drove home and immedietly went to Caden. She wrapped her arms around him tiredly, a sense of safety slowly surrounding her for the first time in years