"Aaron go home before you do something that's going to cause you to end up back in jail," I warn trying to keep a good two feet between us. He doesn't say anything, but he grabs my arm and shoves me into the back of my car. I feel something press in my back, but ignore it as I push against him.

"Don't you ever tell me what to do you b*tch." He shouts causing spit to hit my face. I wipe it away and look up at him.

"Aaron just please go home and cool off," I say knowing that I can't do much to save myself.

"No. No this is bullsh*t. Ashley loves me and I know she does." He shouts pulling on the ends of his hair.

"No Aaron she's moved on," I say and he shakes his head pointing a finger at me.

"You...you're making her stay away from me. You're messing with her head and trying to do it to mess with me." He says getting closer to me. I back into my car more.

"Aaron I'm not doing anything to you or my sister. She wants to get her life back together and she feels you aren't going to help with that-." I say trying to calm him down, but he put his hand over my mouth cutting my words off.

"No.No.No. Shut up." He says and I try to pry his hand away from my mouth because he's covering both my mouth and nose. He looks down at me angrily. I continue to try and pull his hand down, but it's not doing anything so I open my mouth and bite him. He removes his hand and I take a deep breath.

"Aaron you need to f*cking leave. You were choking me." I say as he stomps towards me. I duck as he throws a punch and throw one at him in the stomach. He groans. "Aaron, I'm sorry, just go," I say grabbing my keys from off the ground and trying to unlock my car door. Once it's in the keyhole Aaron yanks back my arm and throws another punch at my side. I bring my hands up blocking my face. "Aaron leave me alone," I yell and continue to try and block as he throws punches.

He gets close enough to me where I can knee him where the sun doesn't shine. I take the chance and quickly unlock the door to slide in. I start the car and back out as he shouts at me. I ignore him and take off down the road.

The rest of the way home I keep checking to make sure he isn't following me. Once I get home I quickly lock the door and hear Mercedes snores. I quietly make my way to the bathroom to see what damage was done. I feel more pain now that my adrenaline has gone.

Luckily there was only a few bruises on my arms and my stomach, none on my face which is good because then I don't have to make up a story. I walk into the living room and turn the lamp on. I grab my clothes from my bag and take my shirt off. "Autumn?" I hear Mason voice and jump. I pull the shirt quickly over my head.

"What the hell Mason? You could have told me you were awake or at least turned away." I say, but he walks over to me without saying anything. I look at him confused. 

"How'd you get that bruise?" He says and I look at him pretending not to know. "The one on your back." Now, I'm not pretending. 

"There's one on my back too," I say and then my eyes widen at what I said. He looks up at me and I can see him tighten his jaw. "Aaron came to my work and we had a little argument and I he waited at my car. He was angry and threw a few punches, but I got into my car and left as soon as I could." I quickly spit out. Mason paces a few times and I watch him waiting for a reaction.

"Let me see that bruise again." He says. I turn my back to him and lift my shirt up. "Why'd you have your back to him?" He asks.

"I didn't. He pushed me into my car and something dug into my back, most likely the mirror." I say and look down. I see the little bruise on my stomach and hope it goes away quickly. I feel Mason pull my shirt down in the back. I hold up my front and lightly touch the bruise. I immediately remove my hand as pain shoots from my stomach.

I pull my shirt down and notice Mason's staring at it. "I'm fine," I say and he looks up at me.

"No your not. I thought your Dad taught you how to defend yourself." He says angrily.

"Yeah a while ago and not from people like him. He's double my height, weight, and everything. There's not much I can do." I say and Mason shakes his head.

"I'll start to teach you then." He says and I give him a look.

"I'll be fine. He was just upset at what I had said earlier." I say and lean down to grab my phone from my bag, but Mason lightly grabs my arm.

"You should still know how to defend yourself. What if there's someone on the street like him? What are you going to do then?" He asks and I straighten up.

"Fine, but finding time is going to be difficult and you start your new schedule this upcoming week," I say and he nods seeming to be thinking. "Can I have my arm back?" I ask and he looks down before letting go. I take a seat on the couch and grab my phone. The couch sinks as Mason takes a seat next to me.

"I'm sorry." He says in a small voice.

"For what?" I ask looking over at him.

"He shouldn't have been able to hurt you, if-"

"Don't Mason. You can't follow me around everywhere. You were helping me with the kids and now you're even willing to help train me." I say, but he stays looking down at his hands. I put mine over his and he looks up at me. "You couldn't have done anything and I didn't get hurt that bad," I say and he stands up.

"You have bruises all over your arms, one on your stomach, and a huge one on your back. That doesn't count as I didn't get hurt that bad." He says getting up and begins to pace back and forth. I look over at him not sure what to say. I stand up and punch him high in the chest just under his shoulder. He looks at me confused.

"There now you got hit, feel better?" I ask and he looks before giving me a small smile. "Seriously I'm fine," I say grabbing his hand and swinging it. He starts to swing it back with me after about a minute of me doing it myself.

"Autumn you truly are something else." He says and I smile.

"I know, I'm amazing," I say and he shakes his head. I let go of his hand and walk back over to the couch. We both take a seat and I open my phone to see what's on Pinterest.

"I can't believe someone's that stupid," Mason says. We've been looking at humor posts and came across one that's really dumb.

"Really? There are a lot of idiots out there." I say going to the next one. We continue this for a while until my phone tells us it's about to die. I look at the time and see it's almost four in the morning. "We need to sleep," I say and he yawns, which then makes me yawn. I find my charger and plug my phone in before grabbing my sweats. I then grab Mason's head and push it into a pillow. He lifts his head up, but I push it back down.

"I've got to change," I say and he mumbles something into the pillow. Once I've changed I take the pillow from under his head and bring it to the loveseat before resting my head on it and pulling a blanket over me.

"Hey, I was using that." He says propping himself up on one arm.

"And you aren't anymore," I say closing my eyes. I get comfortable and then the pillow is ripped from under my head. I open my eyes to see Mason walking back over to the couch with the pillow I was using.

He smiles at me before closing his eyes. Fine two can play that game. I pull the blanket off and walk over to him. He has his arm wrapped around the pillow, but I still grab it and pull. I fall on my butt with the pillow. He laughs as I get up and bring it to the love seat and lay back down on it. I put one arm under it and one over holding it before closing my eyes.

About two minutes later he has the pillow again. This goes on quite a few more times before instead of grabbing the pillow I lay down right on top of him. "You don't play fair." He says and I laugh. I move a little so I'm not all the way on him and then make myself comfortable.

"You get the light," I say after realizing it's still on.

"Noo, you." He says. I push on his back.

"You're closer," I mumble.

"Only because you're behind me." He mumbles back. I don't say anything and let him think that I'm just going to leave it. Then I push him with all my strength off of the couch. He falls off and says something incoherent. I pull the pillow more under my head and that's the last I remember.

I hear some noise but chose to ignore it. I then hear it again. It sounds like someone clearing their throat. It happens again and I open my eyes. I see Mason's big head and then I look up to find my sister with her hands on her hips. She raises an eyebrow and I groan.

"Not what it looks like," I mumble and she laughs.

"Sure." She says in a voice telling me she doesn't believe me. "Autumn, don't you have to work today?" She asks and I nod. "Well it's a little past eight-" I don't hear the rest because my eyes pop open and I shove Mason. I grab my bag trying to find my work shirt and I begin to strip not caring if Mason's in here. I'm still in a bra so....

Mason mumbles words and I yank my work pants on. "Autumn?" Mason asks as I grab my phone.

"I gotta go to work," I say and he pops up.

"I'm comin with." He says and I send him a look.

"I'll be fine," I say and he shakes his head getting off the floor.

"Why do you need to go to work with her?" Ashley asks. Before I can make up something he begins to talk.

"Your ex-paid her a visit yesterday and gave her a few bruises. I don't want him to show again." He says and Ashley looks over at me.

"Why didn't you tell me?" She says angrily.

"Because I'm fine and I don't have time to argue. I'm already late." I say walking out the living room. Both of them follow me to the door.

"Well I think he should go with and we will be talking about this." She says and I groan.

"It's fine and who's going to watch the kids?" I ask and she gives me a deadpanned look.

"I watch the brats if I know you're going to be safe." She says I huff.

"Fine, but I'm leaving now," I say opening the door. I walk out to my car and Mason jogs up to me and takes the keys from my hand. I glare at him before getting into the passenger side.

We don't talk the whole way there and the whole time I'm trying to make myself look like I didn't just roll out of bed. I give up and put it into a messy bun.

When we park the car I run out and into the restaurant. I don't get more than three steps in when. "Autumn in my office." I quickly walk towards his voice and see that Mason follows me. When I get into his office he motions for me to take a seat. "He doesn't need to be in here." He says to Mason, but Mason speaks up.

"If you're going to grill her about being 20 minutes late I will stay." He says and my eyes open wide at him. My boss looks at me and I look over at Mason.

"Mason just leave, it's alright," I say, but he shakes his head.

"Because my friend here was attacked yesterday at your place I feel that I need to be with her, and when she got back home she had to make sure she wasn't hurt to the point that she had to go to the hospital. She was late because she had some family matters to deal with at home, along with dealing with the jerk that hurt her." He says and I think he's about to punch the wall or something. I see the anger in his eyes and I just hope my boss doesn't try anything.

"Autumn is this true? You were attacked yesterday?" He asks. Thanks Mason, now that's two more people that know.

"When I had left yesterday that guy that was in here, he was waiting for me and he threw a few punches," I say and my boss looks at my arms.

"Why didn't you call the police or heck come and get me?" He asks and I take a breath.

"I'm fine and I kicked him in the family jewels trying to get away. I didn't have time to get you. We don't need to involve the police." I say knowing my boss with want to get the cops involved. He goes to object, but I start talking. "No, I'm fine and would like to start working," I say while crossing my arms.

My boss stares at me for a while before nodding. I stand up and open the door. I put my stuff in my locker before getting my apron on. I then begin my day. I see Mason come out after like 20 minutes and wonder what they were talking about. Mason takes a seat in the back and watches as every customer walks in. He never once looks at his phone or does anything else. My boss is also walking around more and tends to stay near me. Drama queens, I'm not going to be murdered. 

Around eleven-ish I see Aaron's car pull up. I calm myself down and see that Mason hasn't seen him yet. I try and walk over to the doors to get rid of him, but a woman asks me for some ketchup. I grab the nearest bottle and hand it to her. I then start walking again, but it's too late he's in the restaurant. I see both Mason and my boss are already walking towards him as am I. He smiles at me and then looks behind me.

I feel Mason grab my hand and pull me back a little. "Sir you aren't welcome at this restaurant. Please leave." My boss says.

"Really Autumn? You go and tell everyone about our little disagreement?" He says not looking at Mason or my boss, but straight at me.

"Save yourself the trouble and leave, Aaron," I say and see the anger flash through his eyes.

"Aaron I don't want to have to involve the police." My boss says and the rest of the restaurant is now looking towards us. Fantastic.

"You aren't always going to be protected, Autumn. I will get you back for this." He says taking a step towards me. Both Mason and my boss block him.

"You need to leave sir, right now." He says and Aaron looks up at my boss. He turns, but then turns back and yells.

"Better watch your back b*cht because I will be back." He says and my boss begins to push him out the door. Once he's out people begin to clap and my boss smiles.

"Sorry for the disruption and hope your breakfast isn't ruined." He says and everyone goes back to eating. Mason turns back to me and I smile.

"See no problems," I say and he smiles.

"Yeah, because I was here." He says and I laugh.

"My big hero," I said causing him to laugh and shake his head. He begins to walk back to his corner. This time I see him take his phone out and I begin to take orders.