"I would like to be the air

that inhabits you for a moment

only. I would like to be that unnoticed

& that necessary."

- 'Variation on the Word Sleep' by Margaret Atwood

[a study in the anatomy of a toxic relationship]

Summer, 2007

In a makeshift fortress on the outskirts of the small mid-western town of Green Grove, a ten-year-old boy's cry was heard.

"Hold still, Danny. It's going to be okay," said Lacey Porter.

Of the three children, she was the only calm one. She was also the tallest of the three with a mane of bushy dark hair and a know-it-all glint in her wide brown eyes.

"There's so much blood!" sobbed the dimpled blonde, Jo Masterson.

This elicited another round of tears from Danny Desai, the dark-haired boy cradling a bloody knee.

Lacey pulled out the last of the splinters and immediately set to work with a towel, wiping outside the open wound and stilling the flow of blood. Jo couldn't bear to look.

"I'm calling the Chief!" Jo announced before turning to run out of the fort and back to the Masterson home.

"Jo, wait—" Lacey began to shout but her friend was gone.

"See what you've done, Desai?" she muttered in irritation. "Now we're all getting in trouble. I told you not to jump!"

Danny looked up at her with large watery eyes. "I'm sorry, Lace."

She sighed. "It's okay. That's what I'm here for: to clean up your messes."

There was a pause as she tied a clean shirt around his knee. "There you go. Good as new."

"Thank you," Danny whispered. He fidgeted for a second, staring at the wooden floors of the fort. Suddenly, he reached up to plant a wet kiss on her forehead.

"Ew!" Lacey screamed. "What was that for? What is wrong with you, Desai?!"

The boy's olive complexion flushed a deep berry red as he scampered away on an injured knee.

Present

Friday, 4:15PM

Lacey struggled to still her breath as she took in her surroundings. Every surface of the fort was coated in the dust of old memories.

It was suffocating.

Yet, in a way, just being here felt cathartic. Maybe she was a masochist. She smiled at the thought.

There was the kitten-soft purple throw rug where they'd play endless rounds of Scrabble while Danny moaned about how boring it was. He never did win.

There was the loose floor plank where they stashed their horde of junk food. Mr. and Mrs. Masterson kept Jo on a strict gluten-free, vegan diet so the packs of red vines, butterfingers, and Hershey's kisses supplied by her and Danny sustained her.

And there was the desolate corner where she'd held a sobbing Danny every time his dad left on another spontaneous 'business trip'.

She shuddered. Nostalgia so thick, she could suffocate.

None of that was really the reason she was here, she reminded herself. For all the ups and downs of the past few years, this was the last place where she could collect herself and be the real Lacey Porter for a few hours. Whoever that was.

And that was exactly what she needed now. The back-to-back events of Danny's return and Regina's death – no, Regina's murder – were chipping away at her ice-cool exterior.

A scuffle at the entrance snapped her back to reality. She made a sharp move to get up.

"Hi, Lace." Danny held his hands up as if in surrender. "It's just me."

"What are you doing here?" she couldn't help but ask.

"I was about to ask you the same thing." He mustered a weak smile.

Everything about him was weak around Lacey. Gone were the quick wit, smooth hair maneuvers, and charming smirk. In its place was a crush-struck 16-year-old boy with a little too much uncertainty in his gait.

"I just came to unwind," she answered stiffly. "What's your excuse?"
"I wanted to check the old place out." He stepped into the fort and sure enough, his eyes swept the area appreciatively. "It looks pretty good, considering it was abandoned for five years."

"I think Jo came around a few times. Fixed the place up."

Danny laughed lowly, a wistful smile playing on his lips. "Yeah, that sounds like Jo."

"I should go," Lacey said abruptly, picking up her handbag and moving past him.

"Wait—" Danny fidgeted with a hole in his jeans. "Can't you stay for a little bit? Please?"

Lacey turned around, wondering if she had misheard the vulnerability coloring his voice.

"It's not a school night. Where could you possibly have to be?" Danny reminded her.

"Some of us have homework. You know, grades and futures to prepare for," she mumbled.

Danny didn't let the hurt show in his face. "Unlike me?" he suggested.

Lacey shrugged. "Your future is whatever you want it to be, Danny. I really don't care."

Danny looked thoughtful for a moment. "No, I don't think it will be. Not the future I really want at least."

Lacey froze. Was he talking about the murder? Had he killed Regina after all? Was he about to confe—

"But then again, I'm not really interested in the white picket fence future. That is what you're chasing isn't it, Lace?"

She cocked a brow, almost challenging him to continue. He obliged.

"You want two well-behaved kids, a textbook-perfect husband, and a golden retriever in a suburban McMansion. The husband makes six figures – no question about it – and he probably played some team sport through high school and at his Ivy League college. He was captain of the team, of course. No less."

"So you're saying I want normalcy?" she spat with more venom than she initially intended. As soon as she said it, the truth of the statement hit her like a ton of bricks.

That was the elusive goal she had been chasing – almost achieved, even – all these years. She wanted, more than anything in the world, to be normal.

And not the fringe definition of normal adopted by Jo and her little hanger-on, Rico. Lacey wanted people to look at her and strive to be that well put-together, that well liked, and that self-confident.

"Oh hey, I'm not knocking you!" Danny held his hands up again, as if to say 'don't take it the wrong way'. "You're well on your way there. Mum can't stop gushing about you. Lacey is a straight-A student. Lacey is the head of the student council. Lacey is organizing the PTA fundraiser this semester. Lacey, Lacey, Lacey…"

His voice pitched higher as he went on, as if to mimic Karen Desai's lilting tone.

A giggle escaped Lacey's throat despite herself. "Glad to hear I've made such an impression on Mrs. Desai."

"Oh, you have," he assured her.

A comfortable silence descended and Lacey found the room didn't feel as suffocating anymore.

"So what do you want, Danny?" she found herself asking.

He snapped out of his reverie and locked eyes with her. When he didn't answer, she continued.

"You said you're never going to have the future you really want. Why?"

He smirked but it wasn't humorous or charming anymore. It was steely and cold.

"I have a tendency to hurt what I want the most, Lace. And frankly, I'm not enough of a selfish bastard to try and take something…perfect, for myself."

Lacey swallowed the lump forming in her throat. Danny was always like this. Goofy and light-hearted one second and the next, he was dropping riddle-like bombs on her that made it seem like he carried the weight of the world on his shoulders.

"I really should go now," she said. Getting up, she brushed the dust off the front of her leggings and picked up her handbag.

"Will I see you at school on Monday?" he asked.

There it was again. That vulnerability. He sounded like a little boy, lost and needing to be nurtured.

She shot him a look. They couldn't communicate in public. He had to know that.

"Never mind. Forget I said anything."

She left the room briskly, not wanting to see the crestfallen look on his face.

Monday, 7:35AM

The halls of Green Grove High felt emptier than usual, Lacey noted. It was early on a Monday morning and homeroom didn't start for another forty minutes. The only students there were those who had early morning extra-curricular activities – the soccer team and the track and field runners. And the devoted girlfriends, like Lacey, who were waiting outside the locker rooms with a cold energy drink and a welcoming hug.

"Busy weekend?" Sarita chirped. Now that Regina was gone, Lacey found herself spending more and more time with Sarita. In a way, she and Archie were all she really had left.

"Not really…" Lacey trailed off. "What do you mean?"

"Well, I couldn't get a hold of you. I texted, messaged you on Facebook, and even called your home phone once. Your mum said you were out."

"Oh. Yeah, I guess I've been a bit busy. Mr. Wallman's been drowning us in readings and assignments. It's a little ridiculous actually."

But Sarita's attention was already diverted and her eyes widened at something over Lacey's shoulder.

"Oh my God, what is that freak doing here so early?"

Lacey knew who Sarita was talking about before even looking but she made herself turn anyway. Sure enough, Danny was wandering the narrow hall with his hands shoved deep in the pockets of his baggy jeans and his thick dark hair covering his left eye.

Lacey shrugged and tried to ignore the queasiness bubbling in her stomach. "Probably has tutoring or, like, a counseling session…or something."

Sarita sneered. "I can't believe his family would show their faces here again. I'd die of embarrassment, personally."

"His mum's nice," Lacey said quietly. "Danny might be…you know. But the rest of his family is decent. His mum's in the PTA."

Sarita rolled her eyes. "I guess. She's really pretty, I'll admit. I'd kill for her hair."

She giggled. "Well, not literally kill. That's more her son's department."

Lacey cracked a smile. "Hilarious, 'Rita."

"Hey."

Lacey nearly jumped out of her skin at the sound of the familiar deep voice. She widened her eyes at Danny, trying to verbally communicate how out of line this was.

"What? There aren't many people here and my mum has a meeting with the principal so I hitched a ride. I thought I'd say hi."

"You thought…" Lacey trailed off, her voice heavy with disbelief. He was ballsy, to say the least. If he only knew how much her reputation was worth around here, she thought.

"Oh, I see…" He smirked but it wasn't unfriendly. "It's okay to talk to me in private, but not in the hallowed halls of Green Grove High?"

"Lacey doesn't need—" Sarita began but Lacey shot her a steely look.

"Do we need to have another discussion about your facial hair history?" Danny smiled sweetly.

Sarita scowled and walked off.

"That wasn't nice," Lacey warned him.

"And the way your friends treat me is?" Danny countered.

"My friends aren't two-time murder suspects."

Danny chuckled. "You always were good at this banter thing, Porter."

Lacey mimicked his smirk. "Good? I'm better than you any day, Desai."

They laughed simultaneously. Lacey felt a strong hand jerk her back.

"This guy bothering you, babe?"

Archie didn't look at her as he asked. His cold gray eyes were focused fully on Danny and adrenaline coursed through his body from soccer practice.

"Can we not do this again, guys?" Lacey pleaded in exasperation.

"I'm always down. Archie Andrews here clearly gets off to getting his ass beat."

"My surname isn't Andrews, moron," Archie sneered.

Lacey winced. "He means the comic book character. Archie comics?"

Danny laughed. "This meathead is your 'type', Lace? Really?"

Archie growled and this time Danny anticipated the muscled fist flying at his head. Ducking and lunging forward, he felt his body crash into the larger boy. His fist made contact with Archie's side and, in a matter of seconds, he had him straddled. Still disoriented from the blow, Archie was a second late on all his punches and dodges. Danny felt himself get lost in the mesmerizing rhythm of punching the jock under him over and over and over. He heard a voice crying his name, slightly muffled in the noise of screams and chanting around him. A small crowd – mostly Archie's teammates, their girlfriends, and surrounding teachers – had gathered and few began grabbing at him.

A slim, identifiably female arm reached around to pull him back just as Archie mustered enough consciousness to punch back. Archie's blow instead made contact with the side of the girl's face and she fell sideways.

"Lacey!"

Danny knew without looking that it was Lacey and her intensified cries snapped him out of his reverie.

"Lacey, are you okay? Lacey? Lace!"

She stumbled back, looking almost afraid of him. "Get away from me. You—you freak."

She spat the last word with as much venom as she could before succumbing to the pain.

"Mr. Desai, I need you to come with me."

"I can take myself to the principal's office," Danny said quietly. He tore his eyes away from Lacey, who was surrounded by cooing friends now anyway, and lifted himself off the linoleum floors.

"You're not going to the principal's office. The cafeteria fight was your last yellow card."

Danny recognized the burly man as the soccer coach.

"We have a police car waiting outside, son. Move."

A/N: This is only about 5 or 6 parts long (so it's somewhere between a oneshot and a lengthy multi-chapter story). I'll try to put each chapter up with some decent time between them. Not too long, though.

I've started watching Twisted recently and I'm completely enamoured with the dynamic between the lead character, Danny, and his ex-friend, Lacey. The show was marketed as 'Dexter in high school' but of course, it's on ABC Family, so they're going to woobify him. I figured I'd get ahead and write out how I wanted him to be characterised - an unhinged teenage sociopath with an infatuation with his childhood crush.

Enjoy! [And leave a review...please?]

:)