One night as Danny was just laying in bed, his eyes drifting closed in exhaustion from all the ghost fighting that night he heard the sound of his cell phone ringing. The tune a familiar one, but not one he had heard in the last week or two since Sam had left the city to hang out with an old friend from art camp. She had claimed she had needed that time away anyway. He could understand that. Since turning twenty-one Sam's mother, Pamela had begun to pester her only child into marrying and Sam, being the individual she was, refused to do just that.

When her mother had asked why the Goth had simply stated, "Why? Why should I settle for the one that could never make me happy?" Her parents had been miffed about that and had come to him with questions As close as the pair had been he couldn't even begin to imagine what that meant. Her father, Thurston, had thought for sure that there was some male that had spurned his daughter, but Danny doubted that since the small raven haired woman was gorgeous and even though she hadn't been on the radar of every male during the first few years of high school toward the end of their third year the petite female had been flooded with male attention. She had been shocked, but Danny had looked at her one day and he too had realized that she was truly drop dead gorgeous. Paulina, the Hispanic queen of Casper High had found real competition in the Goth.

"Hello," he said as he answered the phone only to find no one on the other end and so he again said, "Hello." As he began to hang up he heard a male's voice and the sound of loud music out of nowhere.

"Come on, Sam. Just give me a chance to explain."

"Seriously?" came a slurred voice that Danny immediately pegged as Sam's, but she sounded drunk. "I don't give a fuck if you were fucking some other slut, but at least don't make me waste my time!" The sound a of punch hit the halfa's ear and a yell.

"She was nothing," came the male voice again, this time it didn't sound so upset in the sense of someone pleading for a second chance. "I love you-" SLAP! Danny knew that he should hang up his phone, but he was worried because it sounded like a fight was about to begin!

"Don't use that word! I hate that word!" came Sam's voice again. "Too many people use that stupid word and don't mean it! I told you that I don't want that word in this relationship because this wasn't going anywhere! It was supposed to stay in the damn bedroom because love it for fools!" The sound of the music grew louder as he heard her clomp down some stairs. Getting off his bed he looked down at the phone with a sigh. It sucked that she used a cell because then he couldn't track her. Running down to the land line he dialed the one person he knew could help him find the Goth.

Thirty minutes later, the call still on with the sound of Sam in another crowded room, Tucker appeared. Danny was growing worried as the sound of said Goth ordering what he was sure he counted as her third shot of whisky at least filtered through the earpiece. He was just glad she hadn't realized her phone was on.

"So, what are we doing?" the techno-geek inquired, his disheveled appearance making the halfa wince. He knew what he and his wife had been in the middle of.

"I need you to tap this number now so I can get to Sam before she gets hurt." Taking the phone from Danny the dark skinned male sat down at the living room table of Danny's house. Danny had taken over the family business two years ago and his parents had moved to Florida to enjoy a break from the job. Jazz had long moved out of state, her dream job having finally come. As he watched Tucker did his magic, his fingers working away at making the phone sing to him. That was what the technophile always claimed anyway and within minutes it did just that as information popped up on Tucker's PDA.

"Wow, not too far from here. In fact it is just a few counties over." Grabbing the phone and Tucker's PDA the halfa was off, his promise to return the device the only thing left as he took off, transforming in the air. Heading toward the place that held his best friend he was shocked to find the woman in question in a very low grade bar, the hole in the wall nice in some ways and way to small in others. As music blared in the small bar Danny found her pretty easily, the only female in the place besides the bartender who looked pretty masculine in her own right. Moving to sit by a rather dark looking Goth, the clothing she wore was different then he had seen her in. She wore black tight pants and a large black shirt that exposed enough of her breasts that looked like they wanted to spill over the top. He sat down next to her at the bar and without looking it seemed that she knew it was him, a shot in hand.

"So, I must have butt dialed again," she muttered. "Just what I need after this great day." Definitely in a dark mood. "And you had our neighborhood geek track the number." Pulling out the phone in question she growled before tossing it on the floor at her feet. "I told her that I hate those stinking face phones, but no my mother of course disregards what I want. Not surprising." Downing the clear liquid in her glass she ordered another. Danny could tell that she wasn't drunk, but she was pissed off and with Sam you would rather her drunk than angry.

"So, what happened?" Sam said nothing to him as she ordered a shot of something dark before shifting it over to him.

What hurts the most

Was being so close

"I don't feel right being the only one drinking so if you want to talk then take a shot." The halfa didn't hesitate. "Thanks. Bartender another two shots, thanks." Tossing two more their way Sam looked down at the clear liquid. "Just another stupid move on my part." Silence. "Get over one, or so you think and move on and something bad has to happen." She looked to him, her gaze shuttered, but the tone she was using was questioning. "Why do I attract idiots and liars? Why do I just keep hitting zero in the lottery of men?" Looking back at the shot she shook her head. "Don't answer that because I have an idea why I do that. I just keep trying to replace one for another that I lost so long ago because I failed to take a chance."

And having so much to say

And watching you walk away

"Sam, what is wrong? I have never seen you like this." Danny was growing worried with the way the female before him was acting. "I thought you were hanging with a friend so what happened?" Sam chuckled.

"Not a friend," she muttered. "One of the Gothic males that I used to see at the bookstore and after high school he hit me up for some fun so that's what we did. We had fun, well, he did. I didn't really see it as being fun because he was horrible at it, but at least it I didn't lose my virginity to him." The halfa's mouth dropped open. "This song is just the perfect touch to this day."

And never knowing
What could have been

"I don't think I understand and at the same time I think that you are trying to tell me that you are-"

"Danny, I am not saying I sleep around because I have only slept with one guy. I don't think I could do more than that, but he calls me up and invites me out to his house for a few days and seeing no harm in going I head out. I didn't go there for more than solitude because he was going out of town with his girlfriend, but when I get there he tells me they broke up."

And not seeing that loving you
Is what I was tryin' to do

"We got drunk and it happened, so just giving up I went along for the ride, not that it was much better than the last time, but I figured maybe I was one of those women who were put on Earth to provide men with pleasure while taking nothing for themselves. I just can't see anything enjoyable about intercourse. Just a movement of bodies and nothing more." Danny had taken three more shots while Sam had down another four while talking. "Then it hit me that he was back with his girlfriend, but that didn't piss me off. He used a word that he shouldn't have and claimed that he had just slept with her to see if anything was there!"

"I was so pissed because I told him that I wasn't interested in a relationship because love sucks. You take a risk and give that love only to find that the other person feels nothing like that or you can't manage to spit the words out and the other person ends up with someone else." Taking another shot. "I really liked him too and then I fucked up. I wanted to tell him so much about how I had felt for so long and then I fucked up and let fear tape my mouth shut. Hell, I watched him with so many other girls that I just lost hope in that. Love is a fairy tale and like those it always has a bad ending for one character while the others go onto something so much greater. I am one of those less fortunate characters."

Suddenly Sam found Danny on her, his lips crashing onto hers in a crushing blow to her heart, her body and her soul.