1. Consequence

"Hello Sid…Hi Michelle." Cassie didn't quite know what had hit her, so she still tried to put on a brave face and smile at the two people she thought were closest to her in the world.

Sid didn't quite know what had hit him either. All of a sudden he had been kissing Michelle passionately and with affection and, for the first time ever, love, in his bedroom; and then he had heard the voice of the person he only truly loved; the voice of the person he thought he'd lost forever, so he'd given up all hope on her.

Michelle didn't quite know what had hit her either. She thought that Tony had been, was, and would be the only person she'd ever truly love; ever truly kiss with meaning and want – but then after that one night with Sid, everything had changed; and now suddenly she was in his room, as if they were girlfriend and boyfriend, but with her best friend sitting on his bed – her best friend who should be with Sid; and had come all the way from Scotland to be with him.

For a few moments the three were stationary in their bemusement, all of them trying to comprehend what was happening; none of them succeeding.

Sid wished that he could jump in a time machine, like he always saw the heroes on TV doing, and go back to the night before, making sure that none of this had happened; and that he would go home alone to find Cassie there, and all previous arguments and things that he'd said would be forgotten; and they would be just two lovers, with nothing – or no one – in between them. But he couldn't. He closed his eyes for a second, in the hope to find something to say; something to prevent him from losing the only person he had ever had something which resembled a loving relationship with; the only person he had ever truly, within himself, valued to be something more than the norm. But he couldn't. He had never been good with words, even at the best of times – and he knew that now was, most certainly, one of the worst of times; and there was no way of getting out of this one. At least, not, without losing the person he loved the most. He turned to Michelle, in the hope that she would find something to say to get them out of this.

But she couldn't.

Michelle didn't know what to do – she hadn't really thought about the consequences of doing anything with Sid before doing so; she had just jumped at the chance to finally have something which was filled with meaning, rather than the empty feeling which Tony seemed to be passing onto her every time she tried to bring his former self back through the means of physical attraction. But now that she was faced with the worst possible scenario which could have greeted them upon the first time they acted on what happened the night before, the harsh reality of what they had done; what she had done had finally hit her. Cassie had almost killed herself when Sid stood her up for a date, and had been with Michelle instead – and that was before they even got together.

Michelle dreaded to think what was going to happen now.

She had ruined everything Sid had ever dreamed of, all because she was too hung up on 'being alone', just like he had said he was; but he really was – and now that it seemed he could have had the chance of having the perfect relationship with Cassie, Michelle had ripped it into pieces without a second thought. She tried not to keep eye contact with Cassie, but instead turned to Sid, in the hope that he would find something to say to get them out of this.

But he couldn't.

He was just staring at Cassie, trying to pour all of his thoughts into her mind, so that he didn't have to say anything; so that he didn't have to try and sort things out – they would just sort themselves out. But Cassie wasn't listening. She wanted words; she wanted to know why, after everything Sid had said about people not truly loving each other; people never waiting, he had gone and done this. She had heard him shout to his mum that he was going to go to his room to sleep with Michelle again, but she had thought he was just joking – it couldn't have been true; Sid wouldn't do a thing like that.

But then she had seen him and Michelle break the door through to his room, kissing as they did so, their hands caressing each other as if no one else existed in the world; their souls connecting as they did so, and she had been proved wrong.

She understood why Michelle might latch onto anything that reminded her of Tony – he was just a shell of his former self, so she wouldn't have been able to have anything exciting or like the old times with him anymore, and the next best thing for her would have been Sid. She could understand that; it made sense.

But Sid…

She couldn't understand; couldn't comprehend; couldn't grasp why Sid would do a thing like this – he said he loved her, and she had believed him. She had come all the way home from Scotland in the attempt to try and make things work between them; show her loyalty to him – and this was what he had greeted her with.

She refused to meet the gaze of Sid.

Presently, Sid opened his mouth, hoping that something which at the very least made sense would be strung together with his somewhat empty brain.

"Cas…It's not…I mean…We don't…We haven't…Oh fuck." Well, that was the last time he relied on his natural instincts to do the talking.

"Yeah Sid." Cassie gathered her things which she had neatly placed beside her on his bed, and stood up. She didn't say anything, but just walked straight out of the room, gathering speed as she kept her head down, in the hope that her hair and flight would cover the fact that tears were pouring violently down her face.

"Cassie, wait!" Sid knew it was pointless. He had been here before, just in the same circumstances, except then he didn't know what he was losing; he didn't know what he was just standing there, letting out of his reach.

Except now he did.

Cassie turned back to face him momentarily, just as she was a couple of steps away from the staircase leading towards the door; towards the fresh air, and room to breathe and think about what had just happened. She hesitantly walked towards Michelle and Sid, before kissing Sid on the lips. As she pulled away from him, so as to not get caught up in the moment, she whispered into his ear, "Everything is a choice Sid…You were wrong." He tried to reply, but he was too stunned from the feeling of her lips against his for the first time in so long, mixed in with the fact that the realisation of what was happening was suddenly kicking in, and it was kicking hard; and she put a finger on his lips just as he opened them, so he felt it best to comply. She vigorously walked out of his house, hardly making a sound on the steps as she still managed to lightly pick them off with her fairy like movements, before quietly opening the door and stepping outside. She gasped for breath as the somewhat cold air hit her, before she ran off down the street, not caring what anyone said to her as she walked by – she could tell that she had gone as white as a sheet, as she could feel the sick edging its way closer and closer towards her mouth. All she had to do was reach a nice patch of grass and…

She decided to leave the owner of said patch of grass to deal with the rest.

Sid was still stunned; still able to feel the soft warmth of Cassie against him; the connection between himself and her still bolting between them; the love being poured from one person's lips into the others. He didn't want the feeling to end, so his lips, almost subconsciously, remained open, trying to imagine what the kiss had just felt like.

"Sid? Sid?" Suddenly the voice of Michelle finally broke through the barrier which he had unknowingly set up, her urgency clearly showing. "Sid? You have to go after her…you need to go after her." He turned to her and nodded, before swiftly running out of the room, down the stairs, through the door, ignoring the calls of his mum as he did so; the force of his undying love driving him, down the street…She had to be somewhere around here – she couldn't have gotten far in that small amount of time…turn a corner – this way or that? He didn't know anymore. He was lost. He had lost.

Michelle came up behind him, wanting to be there in case she had to step in to fill in any blanks in Sid's hopefully proposed story; wanting to reassure Cassie that this didn't mean anything. She found him with his hands on his knees, out of breath, but still frantically looking around for where Cassie might be.

She came to his side, trying to help him in his looking for Cassie, but she knew they were too late – Cassie always could get away from something she wanted to with her speed and agility, no matter what the circumstances; and this time was no different.

Sid looked up at Michelle, the tears already coming with little remorse or regard for the fact that they had already poured down his face enough times within the past few weeks. But he didn't care anymore; he was too far gone.

"She's gone 'chelle…she's really gone…"