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Chapter 17

"Don't call them that!" I exclaimed. You could easily detect the straining in my voice. I was about to cry.

"Aw," Jack said, "is Baby Wucas about to cwy?" Jack put a pout on his face, and pretended to wipe away tears.

"Give me my iPod back!" I screamed. My attitude was already changing, but I didn't care anymore.

Jack and Ben simply laughed, and they tossed my iPod back and forth like it was Monkey in the Middle. Of course, I was the monkey. I was once again another victim of Ben and Jack's assaults, and I hated it. I hated Ben and Jack so much.

I grabbed my iPod from the air and stuffed it in my pocket. I put my headphones back in my ears and raised the volume, acting like this never happened in the first place. Over the music, I could hear Ben and Jack laughing at me, and Liz scolding us for making loud noise. She didn't even care that they were bullying me. She didn't care...

No one cares.

✘✘✘

"Lucas, c'mon!" Liz said with a smile. "Let's take a family picture!"

We've been out the entire day. Liz wanted to walk down the Stars of Grammy winners, so we did. She wanted to go to Staples Center, so we did. She also wanted to walk to the Hollywood sign, but that's when I decided it was too far. I didn't want to hike for four hours, especially if it was steep.

We were currently at the Greek Lamp Posts. It was called a work of art, but in reality, it was just a bunch of street lights that looked like Greek columns. It did look really pretty in the nighttime, though. A lot of people liked to take pictures of or with it.

"Okay," Liz said, taking out her camera, "Ben, go over here. Jack, you go over here, and Lucas goes over there."

Ben and Jack went to where they were told to go, but I didn't budge. I looked down at my iPod, deciding on whether I should listen to Hurricane or There's a Good Reason the Tables Are Numbered, Honey, You Just Don't Know It Yet. It was really a tough decision.

"Lucas!" Liz said loudly. "C'mon, we're taking a picture!"

I looked up at her, and I shook my head slowly.

"What do you mean 'no'?" Liz said with a chuckle. "We're taking a picture."

"I don't want to take a picture," I told her.

Liz frowned. "It's not a matter of whether you want to or not, Lucas. We're taking a picture as a family."

You aren't my family.

I shook my head once again, and this time something smacked the back of my head. Whatever hit me was heavy, and the back of my head was stinging. I rubbed the back of my head with my hand, wincing out in pain. I turned around to see what could have possibly hit me, and I saw that it was my dad's hand.

"Go take the picture!" he ordered through clenched teeth.

I whimpered, feeling the tears threatening to spill. I took my headphones off, stuffed them in my jean pocket, and walked to where Liz asked me to go. Liz focused the camera, and I gave her the fakest smile I have ever made. That's all that my life was: fake smiles and lies. Sure, I smile when I'm around Michael and Ashton sometimes, but I still feed them lies. The only person who could make me smile as well as make an honest man out of me was Calum, and he was gone.

My dad said that we were all going inside the car to get dinner. Ben and Jack shoved each other as they raced back to the car. Even though they were married and one of them with a child, they still acted like little kids. I shamefully walked back to the car with my head down, trying my very best to avoid my father at the moment.