To be honest, I have no idea why I'm here. First, I'm mad, yelling at that stupid Brendan for calling me too childish with no chance of surviving out in the "real world". C'mon, what the heck do people consider as the "real world" anyway? Isn't it the same environment we grew up in except with scarier people and places like pedophiles and college? It's always been there, but some people choose not to pay any attention to it.

And then, I'm here. At his front door. Ready to apologize. I swear something is seriously wrong with me. See, I have a lot of pride and a stubborn streak no one can compare to. So why am I going to apologize to him? Maybe our friendship is so strong, that the little friendship soldiers in my brain are fighting a winning battle against the little soldiers called pride and obstinacy. Yeah, that sounds about right.

Knock, knock, knock. I have no idea why I'm nervous. Maybe I'm scared that he'll yell at me again and slam the door in my face. Oh, please, not that again. I've had enough door-slamming for one day already. Brendan had told me…

"May, can I tell you something?"

"Yeah, anything. I'm all ears," I reply.

"Don't talk to Jason."

"Jason Mitchell? The new guy?"

"Yup." His voice is cold like ice.

"Hm," I pause to think for a bit, "Why?"

"Because he's a creep." There's the ice in his voice again.

"But he doesn't seem like a bad person at all!"

"Just don't. I don't want him to mess with you or anything."

I frown at him. "Brendan, you know I can take care of myself. I can fight a lot better than you! And I do kickboxing and close combat."

"This isn't about fighting. He could hurt you in other ways."

"Psh, him? Hurt me?

"You don't get it, Maybelle." Okay, when he uses my full name, I know he's serious. "The guy's a pervert. He could take advantage of you."

"Hey, I can defend myself just fine." The anger rises, bubbling in my throat.

"No," he snaps at me, "you can't. You're too immature to understand."

"I'm fourteen! And I skipped a grade in math!"

"You're immaturity still gets in the way, though. Can't you see that? You aren't ready for the real world. That's why I'm trying to help you."

Finally the anger unleashes itself. "You call bossing me around and trying to control my life helping? You call that helping?"

"If you don't appreciate my help then maybe you should leave!"

"You would like that, wouldn't you?" I say, my voice dripping with venom. When he doesn't say anything and just glares at me with those stormy gray eyes, I avert my gaze and storm out of the room, and then out of the house. Brendan slams the door behind me.

The whole argument is stupid. The butterflies in my stomach are stupid. Everything is stupid.

The door swings open. There stands Brendan, the evening light reflecting off of his soft blond locks. The storminess is gone from his gray eyes, which are now a light shade of cloud gray. In an instant, his arms are around me, and his head is on my shoulder. "I'm sorry," he whispers. "I'm so sorry."

Really, I never would've expected this from him of all people. I tell him that.

"Well, I realized what a jerk I've been." Brendan loosens his grip on me but keeps one arm around my shoulder. By now the sun is almost down all the way, only a strip of red in the sky indicating its presence. "I remembered what you've done for me all these years. That fight that got you suspended for a whole week? That was because you didn't like the way some people were messing around with me. I never thanked you for that."

Oh, yeah, I almost forgot about that fight. I think I did pretty well. "No need to thank me at all. Just doin' my job. Not many people can say this, but I love my job." I grin. "And he deserved it too!"

"You broke his nose, three fingers, and you cracked his ribs. How do you find your 'job' loveable?" He flashes a smile at me. "Never mind, don't answer that."

I grin again.

"And remember the incident with the sticky note prank? Everyone thought I was the one putting the notes in everyone's lockers. You stood up for me and even went to the school board to get my name cleared." With soft gray eyes Brendan gazes at me with sincere gratitude. "You'd make a great lawyer."

"Yuck." Scrunching up my nose, I make a face at the mention of lawyer. "I wanna become the champion!" Since I was a little girl, I had dreamed of becoming the Hoenn League Champion.

Well, everything's better now. Back to how it was before. The stupid butterflies in my stomach are gone. All the negative feelings from before slowly recede to the back of my mind before completely vanishing.

We sit side by side on his front step and watch the sky merge to purple, chatting softly and laughing, laughing, laughing until it's finally time for me to go home. I rise to my feet and yawn quietly. With a smile Brendan gives me another tight embrace.

To be completely honest, I still have no idea why I came here.