"Jeremy?" her voice is so quiet that it's barely audible. She tilts her head to look up to him. In that moment the girl in his arms wasn't the Vicki Donovan that he knew but a broken, lost little girl.
"Yeah Vick," he hummed in response as he pulled her closer into his chest.
"Why do you like me?" she asks him softly. She could never figure out why Jeremy loved her the way he did, especially after the way she always treated him. No one was supposed to love the broken shell of a girl but for some unknown reason he did. She didn't deserve that kind of love. She didn't deserve him. It scared her to no end because every moment she spent with the younger Gilbert she could feel herself falling for him too. That wasn't supposed to happen. She couldn't let it happen. Jeremy needed someone that wasn't her. He needed someone better than her.
"You make me normal. The way you look at me isn't like everyone else does. They all look at me with sad eyes, sympathising for me because I'm the boy who lost his parents too young. And you're also pretty and smarter than you think. You make me happy Vicki," he tells her, keeping his voice as quiet as hers. He somehow finds her hand in the dark and intertwines his with hers. He hears her sniffle a little and he wonders if she's crying.
"You shouldn't love me. I'm not worth it," she mutters. She wants to get up and leave but he's so warm and comforting that she can't find it in herself to leave. Besides, she doesn't have anywhere else to go but home and she wants to be anywhere but there.
"You are."
At this point she's crying and she's not sure why. Maybe it's the drugs and the alcohol, she can't be entirely sure. "I'm not Jeremy. I don't deserve you. You deserve so much better than messed up Vicki Donovan. My future is doomed and I'll only bring you down with me. It scares me so much that you love me so much. But what scares me more is that I'm falling in love with you and I can't. I can't love you. We would never work out. Your future is so bright, you have a whole life ahead and me, I have nothing. I'm going to become like my mom. I know it. I just can't Jeremy."
He doesn't say anything to her. The two just lie there in the dark listening to Vicki's little sobs as Jeremy strokes her comfortingly. She eventually stops crying and looks at him again with glassy eyes. She's so broken and he wants to be the one to fix her but he's not sure if the damage can be repaired so he'll do the best he can. He wants to make her feel like she's worth something. He gives the girl a smile and leans down to kiss her. So sweet and innocent. That was the way it was supposed to be.
And when Vicki finally falls asleep Jeremy realises something. Even though he may be jealous of what Vicki and Tyler have he wouldn't want to trade places with him because Vicki Donovan showed him the real her. It didn't matter that she probably won't even remember this conversation; he was happy knowing that Vicki Donovan loved him. That was all he ever wanted.