I have a couple interlude scenes writtne for Where I Belong. They are just little scenes that don't have a place in the 22 prompts, but I wrote them anyway.


Goodbye

The day before Rocky left dawned bright and sunny. The gang had decided to meet at the beach and give him a going away party.

Tommy walked up to Rocky sitting on a blanket. "Hey, man," he said. Rocky turned toward him and Tommy was instantly concerned. "Is your back hurting?"

"No. Angel Grove has been home for a couple years now. I'm going to miss it."

"It'll be different, but you can always come back. Your family is still going to be here and some of us will still be here."

"I know." He smiled softly. "Thanks, Tommy."

"So where is everyone else?"

"Down there playing volleyball." Rocky laughed. "Go join them."

He started to protest because this was Rocky's day, but Rocky waved him on. "It's okay. I'm going to soak up some sun and then eat some food. It's enough that we're all here."

Tommy clapped him on the shoulder before running down the beach toward his other friends.

Later, they all gathered on the blanket and ate the lunch Kat and Tanya had packed.

"Fried chicken, potato salad. Ladies, you have done a heck of a job," Rocky stated.

"Oh, Rocky, you deserve it," Kat smiled at him.

"Well, of course I do," he sniffed.

Everybody laughed and he feigned a hurt expression. He climbed to his feet and looked at Adam, who had been silent. "You want to help me get the sodas, Adam?"

"Sure."

They walked to the snack bar in silence.

Kat watched them while they stood in line. They had been pretending for months that things were okay between them and it made Kat want to scream. They danced around one another, never doing anything about it, and now Rocky was leaving.

"I wish they would notice what they mean to one another," she said quietly and thoughtlessly.

She looked up at the charged silence to see Tommy and Tanya staring at her. She blushed. She hadn't meant to say that out loud especially with Tanya sitting there and the one time she had brought it up with Tommy had been uncomfortable for both of them.

"You know?" Tanya recovered enough to ask.

"Well, yeah, you know?" Kat laughed slightly. "You mean, I've been worrying about how to tell you, so you wouldn't get hurt, and you already knew?"

"Hurt? Why would I get hurt?"

"Because you like Adam."

Tanya laughed. "I like him as a friend, but never anything more. He helped me get used to living in America, but it was never anything romantic."

"I've been wondering if gay is the right term for them…" Tommy trailed off at Tanya's dangerous look. "No, let me explain. Neither of them check out other guys."

"Tommy," Kat groaned.

"No. They both check out girls; the only guy they look at is the other."

"And why are you watching them?" Tanya asked.

He shrugged. Believe me, you don't want to know." They looked at him. "I don't have any problems with it," he said. "Okay, maybe at first, but it wasn't so about them. I was worried maybe I were gay since I hang out with them."

"Tommy, that's what you were worried about?"

"Yeah," he admitted sheepishly.

Tanya looked at the guys again. "I have the feeling they'll get together on their own time scale. We'll just have to hope that it's soon."