A/N: So there needed to be something interesting in this damn story. I hope this is long and interesting enough. :]

magical narrator: you are the reason I came back. Thank you so much for reviewing that first time earlier this month.

To my other amazing reviewers: you guys all keep me going. Your reviews do so much more for me than you know. They lift my spirits and motivate me. I want to thank you all so much for sticking with me even with me being MIA for too long.

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Chapter Twelve: My Whole Life is a Dark Room. One. Big. Dark. Room.

Reese's POV

I hadn't seen or heard my dad or his car in the driveway in a couple of days. I was going to have a lot of explaining to do when I picked Dayton up and he wasn't home. But, since he had not been home, Tyler decided it was safe for us to enter the house and fix things up so that my little sister wouldn't get suspicious.

"You're going to have to tell her eventually, baby," he said to me as we stepped into my house.

It felt strange being back in there. It was empty and quiet and somewhat unsettling. I really didn't want to be there. It became a little harder to breathe.

"Reesey?" I heard Tyler call. "Are you ok?"

I was gasping for air now. What's happening to me?

Tyler wrapped his arms around my waist and stood in front of me. "Calm down. I'm right here and I'm not leaving."

I nodded. I couldn't do anything else. I couldn't say anything.

"Reesey, I need you to slow your breathing. Take deeper breaths. Just relax," Tyler soothed. His voice alone was enough to calm me. He stared into my eyes for a moment as I caught my breath and then he kissed me gently.

I lost myself for a second. I really wasn't expecting that to happen.

"Better?" he asked, looking at me with concern.

I nodded again. This time, my breathing had gone back to normal, but my heart was still racing from the kiss. "Can you kiss me one more time?"

So he did. He always held me so carefully that I wanted to break down in his arms. No one had held me the way he did since my mom died. The thought brought a few tears to my closed eyes and I willed them away as hard as I could, but they streamed down my cheeks anyway.

Tyler pulled back. "Baby?"

"It's nothing. Really. Please, let's not do the questions right now."

He squeezed my waist a little tighter for a second, and then released me. I didn't want him to stop holding me; his warmth was so comforting.

"Let's go to your room, first, shall we?" He bounded up the steps and I followed a little slower, straightening the framed photographs on the wall. I stopped at an empty gap in the wall, where there was now a hole.

Tyler looked down the stairs at me. "What is it?" He hopped down to me.

I touched the hole. My dad's fist had gone through the wall. "My mom's picture used to be here. Along with a picture of our family." Tears wanted to burst out of my eyes, but I wasn't letting them this time.

"Where's the picture?"

"I took it from my dad's room a little while ago and hid it in mine. I really hope he didn't find it."

"Let's put this place back together then." He smiled at me and went back up the steps to my room. He began to search for it, so I just went straight for my closet and pulled it out from under the floorboards. He turned to me and examined it for a long moment.

"She is so beautiful, Reesey. I see where you get your amazing looks from now!" He paused briefly. "God! You two have identical eye color!"

"She was beautiful," I corrected. "And we had the same eye color. Tyler, she's gone. She was my inspiration and she accepted me for who I was. No one else does."

"I adore you the way you are, my sweetness. I hope to one day be your inspiration."

I went to kiss him, but the phone rang.

I ran to the hall and grabbed it off of the receiver. I pressed "Talk" and was greeted with an unfamiliar woman's voice.

"Hello, is this the Snyder residence?"

I hesitated and looked at Tyler. His look turned from astonishment to concern in a split second. "Yes… May I help you?"

"There has been a man here, in the county jail, by the name of George Snyder. He has been asking for someone named Reese. Is he your father?"

"Yes, he's my father. And I'm Reese. What is he doing there?"

"Well, sir, he was arrested for drunk driving and vehicular homicide. We would just like to inform you that he will be staying here until the initial judge will see him. But, first, I will need you to bring him clean clothes to wear to court."

"I… he… he HIT someone with his CAR?" I said a little too loudly, Tyler made his way over to me and tried to listen in on the conversation by leaning toward the phone.

"Yes, sir. I'm sorry to be the person to inform you of all of this. We will need you to come down here as soon as possible, if at all possible."

"I can try to be there in thirty minutes," I stated. The woman politely thanked me and we hung up. I was in shock. This was too much.

Tyler's POV

He collapsed into my arms. "Oh, Tyler… this is all thanks to you! So many more people could have been killed because of him and you did the right thing before the fact! He's in jail! He could get locked up for good! Things are starting to look up for me again," he said quickly without breathing.

"Whoa, breathe!" I laughed as he took a deep, dramatic breath. "Reese, what did the woman say?"

"He… he hit someone while he was driving drunk. He has to stay in County until his court date, so I have to bring him clothes, ugh."

Wow. He was in jail. That was actually pretty good news. I wouldn't make it any worse for him by forcing him to tell the judge about the abuse because I knew he would learn his lesson… at least, I hoped he did.

"I'll come with you, babe," I said, rubbing his back.

"Thank you, Tyler Benson. You are really my angel."

I blushed. "For a second, I thought you'd be angry with me," I explained truthfully.

He stood back up and stared at me. "Why in the world would I be angry with you?"

"Because I'm the reason your dad's in jail. I always thought that, no matter what, you loved your parents. Even if they were terrible people."

"Tyler, I couldn't be happier. He can't hurt anyone anymore. Don't you dare think that I'm angry at you for helping put my dad where he belongs." I nodded as he kissed my cheek. "We have to get some decent clothes for him for court, though, and be down at County in thirty minutes."

"We can do that."

So the two of us walked into his dad's mess of a room, found some clean clothes to bring him, and placed them in a small trash bag.

We abandoned the house and headed for my car. By now, I knew the area pretty well, but had no idea where the county jail was.

"Reese?"

"I'll direct you," he said, smiling.

And he directed very well. He was very coordinated. I kept noticing more and more new things that I loved about this kid. There wasn't a thing he couldn't do perfectly in my eyes.

We arrived at the jail and received passes to see his father after a long and drawn-on argument with a guard about my relation to the Snyder family and what was in the trash bag. We parked and finally found our way in. A woman sat at a desk, hanging up her phone, so we went to her.

"May I help you?" She sounded like the woman on the phone.

"I'm Reese Snyder. I'm here to see my father, George," Reese explained calmly, wincing somewhat when he mentioned his father.

"Oh!" she stood up immediately. "Follow me, please."

We followed her down a few halls of empty cells and to a room with tables and chairs.

"I'll be right back." She took off quite quickly for a woman in heels.

Reese looked frightened, so I took his hand in mine. "It'll be ok. I'm here," I whispered.

The door to the room reopened and Reese didn't budge. He didn't want to move. His entire body had tensed up and his eyes were focused on his hand in mine. Although he didn't turn, I did. I wanted to get a good look at him.

George Snyder was, indeed, a mess. He had heavy, dark circles under his eyes and his face looked pale white. His hair was disheveled and the clothes he wore were not his; he wore a prison-like uniform. He looked sick. He showed no signs of recognition when he looked at me, but when he saw the back of Reese's head, his face brightened.

"Reese!" he called out in a tone I had not heard before. Apparently Reese hadn't heard it in a while, either, because he jumped. George hurried to the table and sat in front of us.

Reese forced himself to look up. The look in his eyes was suddenly cold and angry. I had never seen that before now and it scared even me.

George looked somewhat taken aback, but regained his composition. "You have no idea how happy I am that you came."

"I only came because this kind woman told me you needed clothes for court." There was absolutely no emotion in his voice. None at all, not even anger, and George's eyes turned from happiness to sadness. His smile disappeared.

"Reesey…"

"Don't you dare call me that."

I looked at the woman, despairingly, and she understood. She turned and left the room.

"But, Reese, why—"

"Do you really not remember the things you did to me?" he asked, now showing some anger. He removed his hand from mine and lifted his shirt.

His father couldn't hold back the gasp. "What? I couldn't have. Reese, I love you. You're my son."

"Apparently, I'm not good enough to be your son."

"You have never done anything wrong, Reese. I love you." He kept repeating that. He sounded and looked more sincere with every time he said it. "Does Dayton know?" he asked, concerned.

Reese shook his head. Then we sat in silence for a long while. I had been trying so hard to keep my mouth shut, but the words just came flying out anyway. "What the FUCK were you thinking?" I yelled angrily, slamming my fist on the table. The two of them jumped. "Did you think that drinking would make you HAPPIER?"

"Who are you to talk to me that way? Who are you anyway?"

"I'm your son's boyfriend, who you took some hits to while I tried to protect Reese from your fucking drunken wrath!" I lifted my shirt to reveal the now fading bruises. "Do you have any idea what you've done to him? You're his FATHER, for God's sake! Alcohol is obviously never the right answer when something bad happens in your life. You need to be a fucking man and face your shit!"

He jumped slightly at my words, as if no one had ever spoken to him like that in his life. The look on his face was one of shock and confusion.

"Reese…" George said quietly, reaching for his son's thin hand.

"No, dad. He's right. You can't be a father if you're a monster. You were never like this when mom was alive. You two always got along and we were such a great family. And when she died, everything went downhill… they went downhill way too fast for me to even feel it. The next thing I know, you're coming home every single night drunk. After two weeks of drunken nights, they became drunken days. Soon, you stopped going to work and Dayton and I had to get jobs to pay the fucking bills. Do you know how hard it was to lie to her every day and tell her that I was just playing football or I fell while skateboarding? Do you know how hard it was to tell her that you were just depressed and needed some time to get over mom's death?"

George tried to interrupt.

"No. You have no idea. And you won't ever know. Good luck with the judge, I really doubt he'll go easy on you after you killed someone while you were driving drunk." Reese threw the bag at his father and stood up. "Let's go, Ty. Please. I can't take this anymore."

We walked to the door and the woman opened it for us. We thanked her and began to walk out.

Reese's POV

"Reese…" my dad called. "Please, understand… I need you to understand."

"Dad. You've reached the end of the line with me. I'm through making and hearing excuses for you. Get some help and then we'll talk." I didn't even look at him, I just grabbed Tyler's hand and walked quicker.

As soon as we reached the parking lot, the tears came rolling down my cheeks, almost burning from the warmth of them.

"Oh, baby…" Tyler said, stopping me at his car, pulling me into his chest, and wrapping his strong arms around me. I just sobbed endlessly into him. He leaned us against the back of his car. As I began to slow my crying, I pressed my ear to his chest and listened to his heartbeat. It was racing and his breathing was heavy.

I looked up and saw the most beautifully tragic thing in this entire world. It was the first time I had seen Tyler cry.

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A/N: The chapter title is part of an AFI song ("The Despair Factor"). I was in a really bad mood when I wrote this and sometimes my music can somewhat influence my writing. I like itttttt. REVIEW PLEEEEASE!