Before current events
Monica's POV

"Come on, show me what you got, Little Weakling!" Kaleb laughed as he held her tightly in a headlock. "Don't hold back--have I taught you nothing?"

With all the strength she could muster, she brought her arm back and slammed her elbow into his gut. His grip around her neck loosened enough for her to twist around and quickly slip away. "Nice job," he grinned.

She wouldn't allow him to distract her. This was the time she would be victorious. She brought her knee up and slammed it into his face. He fell onto his back and she knelt over him, one leg on either side of his chest. She placed my forearm against his throat with enough pressure that he knew not to move if he didn't want to be hurt. He held up his hands in surrender.

"Damn, you're merciless," he said gingerly touching under his nose as she stood up. His finger tips came back painted red. "You could've killed me in one second if you had a knife."

"Well, you had said that I should act as if you were the enemy. And would I go easy on the enemy if they were trying to rape or murder me?" She said.

He chuckled, "I suppose you wouldn't--and shouldn't," He grabbed her outstretched hand and she helped pull him up. "You should give them hell and beyond, Monica. Nothing ever less than that."

He came forward and wrapped his thick arms lovingly around her. She was younger than him by a year, but he still had made it his responsibility to take care of her. Not that her parents weren't good at doing that. He was just very brotherly and protective.

She didn't have many people she called close, and that made Kaleb and her closer than most siblings. David, a boy across the street, was the only friend she enjoyed spending the majority of her time with. Who, actually, was Kaleb's best friend.

"Hey, guys!" My brother let go of her as David walked through the backdoor.

David's random surprise visits were not a surprise anymore. Her family was used to him coming over and making himself at home unannounced. If it was anyone else, her parents would have told him off, but they were fond of him too, and welcomed his visits with open arms.

Kaleb went up to him and gave him a bro hug, a smile on his face. Afterwards, David backed up and pointed at his own nose, referring to Kaleb's bleeding one. He snickered, "What happened? Did Monica finally give you what you deserved and beat you up?"

"We were training again," Kaleb explained, waving a hand at her. "She finally decided to use some force with me this time."

David shifted his gaze, his brilliant eyes of gray-blue coming to settle on her own hazel ones. He smiled his bright smile, revealing two rows of perfect white teeth. He clapped her on the back.

"Well done, Monica!" David glanced at Kaleb, slightly amused. "You should probably clean up that mess on your face. You're even uglier than usual."

"Oh, haha, David. You're such a riot." Kaleb retorted, retreating toward the house.

"You must feel pretty proud of yourself," David asked her once Kaleb had disappeared inside. He walked over to our porch swing and sat down, rocking the swing gently with slight movement from his foot against the ground.

"I guess just a little," She answered, coming to sit beside him. He nodded, but didn't say anything else. They sat in silence for a couple of minutes until she couldn't help but break the silence. "So... now that you guys are eighteen and out of school... What are you two planning to do? I know Kaleb was thinking of taking a year off of school and staying here for a bit, but nothing is official yet."

"I don't know... I might do what Kaleb's doing. I mean, it's not a bad idea," he shrugged thoughtfully. "To take some time off and decide what you want to do with the rest of your life. On top of that, I'd get to keep seeing you and Kaleb--and that's always a plus."

She gave a small smile, but it was quickly gone. "But then you'd have to stay with your mom. You won't have enough money to go out on your own immediately."

"Yeah...  I'm sure there are worse things in the world than living with a drunk mother." he sighed. He turned and gave her a reassuring smile, but she didn't return it.

He was doing it again. He was pretending like it didn't matter. As if it wasn't as bad as it seemed. Like he wasn't hurting. She knew he was though, he couldn't hide it from her.

"David... she's abusive. Don't ride it off  like--"

"Kaleb!" David quickly called out, abruptly standing up from the porch swing and walking over to Kaleb, who had just come through the backdoor. David had cut her off on purpose, trying to ignore the conversation she was trying to have with him. "You look a bit better now. If there was only a way to fix that face..."

"Not everyone can look as good as you," Kaleb said as he put David in a headlock and gave him a noogie.

"Hey, hey!" David laughed, trying to get him off, "Quit it!"

She watched them for a little while as they wrestled around. If they left, what would she do without them? Sure, if David went away, he'd be free of his mom... but she didn't want any of this to end. She didn't want him to go. Was that selfish of her?

"Monica?" Kaleb asked. They had both ceased their playful fighting and were now looking at her weirdly.

"Huh?" she said, blinking and making her way back to reality.

"You zoned out," Kaleb explained. "We were talking about how the movie David and I have been wanting to go watch came to theaters today. We asked you whether you wanted to come with us."

"Yeah. Yeah, sure," She answered, standing up. She quickly walked past them, leaving them behind. She wasn't going to miss a single chance to spend more time with them. "I'm going to take a quick shower before we go. Kaleb, you should do the same."

"Yeah, we probably should," he said, scrunching up his face, as if he had just realized how much he smelled.

"Hurry up, okay?" David called out to her, "I might be dead before too long from your brothers stench!"

She heard David give a short yell. Without even looking, she knew Kaleb had given him a whack to the stomach.

No, she didn't want anything to change in the slightest.