No one suggested anything so I went for pretty much my favorite couple from television, Sid and Cassie from the first generation of Skins (: These two hold a very special place in my heart, and their unfinished story is perfect grounds for my expanding on it. I don't expect to get many reviews because there aren't many Sid and Cassie stories here at all, but I decided I didn't care, I'm pretty much writing this for myself and if someone happens to like it along the way, that's great. However, if you're a reader of one of my other stories, I'm not so entirely motivated with them so if you'd like to see those updated sooner, reviewing them would really help.

"Excuse me, have you seen this girl?"

I was like a broken record with every person I passed.

Cassie.

I couldn't think of anything else but her. I didn't just want to find her. I needed to find her.

The woman I had just attempted to stop had dismissively shoved her spare pocket change into my hand, as if I were some sort of charity.

I kept on my way. I was hungry, broke, dirty, and tired. Up until now, I hadn't really cared, but after a few weeks of searching it was starting to feel like a lost cause.

I looked around and realized I had no idea where I was. You'd think that being in one location for such a long time, I'd tend to pick up on the geography just a bit, but no such luck for stupid old Sid.

Finally after walking aimlessly around the city I came upon the diner. This diner was my center. I somehow always made my way back here. It was like my home in this unwelcoming city.

If I believed in the shit, I'd say some sort of force was drawing me back.

I had first looked inside in my search for Cass, and I occasionally still did look for her in its warm interior, but she was never there.

Funny thing was, I'd never actually did more than look in. I'd never stepped foot inside. I stood there just a while longer, longing for the warm plates of food being served to the patrons, but with the contents of my wallet only totaling up to about twenty American dollars and needing a place to stay that night I didn't have enough to spare.

I frequented a dingy hotel just about a block away, its eighteen-dollar a night rate being the best I could find. I walked there, knowing it would be my last night within the comfort of four walls. After this it would be the cold pavement of the streets that would make up my bed.

After getting settled in, I lay in bed and became drawn into my thoughts.

I loved Cassie; I loved her more than anything. But at the rate I was going, it was like she had vanished from thin air.

Broke and alone, it was more trouble than I could justify. Tomorrow I would go out and look for work and stay in the city only for long enough to save for a ticket home.

I tossed and turned all night on the hard, dirty cot, my mind and dreams flooded with the tiny blond haired girl I had gone through hell for.

That morning I broke my routine.

See, I normally woke up to my too-empty apartment and lay in bed for a few minutes. Then I'd get up and take a shower. Then I'd get dressed, carefully. Then I'd decide whether or not to eat breakfast, usually deciding on the latter. Then I'd leave and walk to the diner where I worked, ending up there around nine o'clock when my shift started.

Except on weekends, when I'd just lay in bed until noon and then go to the park until I got tired again.

But I didn't do any of that on that particular morning. That morning I felt compelled to jump out of bed. I pulled on the first thing I found, which happened to be one of Sid's old shirts and a pair of light denim shorts. I had done my best to distance myself from anything reminiscent of my old life in England. I'd gotten rid of absolutely everything. Everything but that stupid, stupid shirt. I cried every time I even thought about throwing it out. It had been my favorite possession ever since I'd accidentally gathered it up with my things one morning after leaving Sid's.

So after I got dressed, I ran down the stairs of my apartment, I ran out the door, and I ran along the sidewalk until I couldn't anymore. I had taken to running sometimes. It was super invigorating. When I ran, I was like I could fly. And for some reason, I needed to run that morning.

After I was breathless and hot and sweating and tired I walked back to my building. I was terribly late for work, but I didn't particularly care. I ran up the stairs and into my apartment. The run had left me rather hungry so I ate a piece of bread and almost all of a banana. I washed my hair in the sink and misted myself in some of my mum's perfume that I'd taken when I was ten but hardly ever used. I locked my apartment behind me when I left, and walked back down the stairs and walked the several blocks to the diner.

I woke up early the next morning. I couldn't sleep anyway.

I changed to the least smelly clothes in my bag, put on my glasses, and pulled my black hat over my head.

With my remaining two dollars and every belonging I had left in the world in the bag on my back, I left the hotel for good.

On my way to look for a job, I stopped in front of the diner. I could never not stop when I passed it. Like I said, it pulled me in and held me there.

I decided to use the last two dollars I had and to finally go in.

I sat in a big lonely booth and ordered a coffee from a waitress who looked rather put out. She also looked like a bimbo. Her hair was blond, but it wasn't the warm and sunny blond of Cassie's hair, it was stringy and yellow and nearly black at the top where her real hair color was growing in. She had big tits and orange tinted skin. The more I looked at her, the more repulsed it seemed to make me.

I drank the bitter coffee she brought me, its heat burning my throat.

I pulled my backpack to my lap and pulled out Cass's picture. It had burdened me for too long. I thought throwing it away for good but I just couldn't. It hurt too much and it made the fact that things were over all too real.

The waitress came back with the coffee pot and filled my cup. "What do you have a picture of her for? Are you a stalker or something?"

"N-no. No, I have no clue what you're talking about."

She shrugged and walked away.

I was thankful for free refills. I sat there in my thoughts and before I knew it I was finishing my third cup.

When the waitress was filling my cup for the fourth time, the chimes on the door sounded and her terribly annoying voice called out "About damn time!"

"Sorry, sorry I'm late Stacey, I got, eh, tied up. Yeah, that's it. Sorry, I got tied up."

I'd know that voice anywhere.

I'd found her. The very day I had stopped trying, there she was.

"Well come take care of your section, I'm sick of refilling this guys coffee all morning."

I couldn't hear anything that she said. All I could think of was Cassie. How much I wanted to hold her, to kiss her, to make love to her, to tell her how crazy I was about her and about everything I'd been through to be with her and that now I was never ever going to let her go.

But instead I just sat there and stared stupidly down at my coffee.

She was suddenly there, at my table, breathless and smelling of the perfume she'd only worn a few times.

When I looked up, her eyes were down on her notebook and her pen was ready to begin writing.

"What can I get for you?" she asked breathlessly.

I looked up at her and my eyes were wide and my mouth hung open dumbly.

I couldn't form words. Even noises. Nothing came out.

She was wearing my shirt and short jean shorts and her hair was damp and she looked breathtaking.

"Hello? I don't have all- O-oh my god." Her eyes were on mine now, and we stared at each other for the better part of a minute without even looking away.

"Wow, Sid. Wow… what a lovely surprise." She smiled that big smile at me, but it wasn't sincere. I could tell.

"Yeah," I said lamely. Wow? What the hell was wrong with her? All she could do was stare down at me with those big, wide eyes and that big, stupid grin and say wow?

"Well, what brings you to New York, Sid?" she asked trying to keep up the happiness. I could hear her voice was nervous.

"Cassie, you've got to be fucking kidding me." I didn't know how in the hell she could just stand there, staring down at me, and not even acknowledge that I'd come all this way for her. What in the hell else would I have come for?

Suddenly her breath hitched and she dropped the notebook on the table before running back to the back of the restaurant. I jumped up to follow, my protectiveness of her kicking in.

I followed her all the way into the women's toilet where she had fallen to the floor and was kneeling over the toilet.

I dropped to my knees behind her and pulled her hair back just in time before she began to vomit. It didn't last long, and my suspicion told me that was because there wasn't much in her stomach to begin with.

When she was done she was a crying mess. She flushed and stood to rinse out her mouth. Her sobs didn't stop.

I stood but stayed where I was and when she was clean she came back to me.

She stood in front of me, her body shaking and her eyes on the floor.

I pulled her close and held her tight.

"It's alright, Cass." There didn't seem to be anything else to say so I just kept holding her. It was all I knew to do.

Its kind of awkward, but it's just the set up. I'm more excited about this story than I've ever been about anything else I've ever written (: