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"Why should I stay?" Eric asked the group of Californians. He sat down on Jessie's bed dejectedly, feeling the weight of his world on his shoulders. "I made your lives miserable. You should be glad I'm going, just like my friends in New York."

"Guys, give me a minute." Lisa instructed her friends, and they left quietly. She sat down next to Eric and slipped her arm around him. "What did you mean just now, like your friends in New York?"

"My life, as I'm sure you know, hasn't been charmed. My mom left when I was little, and then it was just my dad and me. I started blackmailing people when I hit high school. All of my junior high friends suddenly decided I wasn't tough enough to hang with them after all. So I blackmailed my way back into their good graces, and soon enough, I was blackmailing them. They put up with it for the past year." Eric spilled out his story. "Then Jessie's mom and my dad met, fell in love, and decided without me that we would all live here, since my dad's job was transferable and Jessie and her mom had a house, rather than the shoebox place I shared with my dad. I didn't get a say.

"Then we moved here, and it just seemed easier to come into California swinging. Maybe if I was bad enough, I could survive high school until I could make it out of my father's house to do things on my own."

"Eric, I'm so sorry." Lisa said, genuinely.

"It's not something to feel sorry for me about. I'm not a nice guy, Lisa."

"You can change. We are all willing to give you another chance. You really saved Zack and Slater today."

"After I created their predicament."

"There's a Bible verse my parents taught me a long time ago. It says that love covers a multitude of sin."

"Love. Brotherly love?" Eric asked.

"Any kind of love." Lisa leaned in close to Eric and kissed his bruised eye gently. He gritted his teeth, and she apologized. He shook his head.

"I deserved it."

"Do you forgive me for hurting you?"

"If you'll do the same for me." Eric nodded. Everyone else came back in, and apologies made their way around the room. Eric and Lisa left Jessie's house and walked around the block. They needed some more alone time.

"I love you." Eric said softly, as he laced his fingers through Lisa's.

"I love you too." she replied, as they walked toward the late afternoon sun.