Chapter One

Disclaimer: If only, if only! Don't sue; we need all our money for caffeine.

A/N: First FanFic so please be kind D we want honest criticism…we might kill you in your sleep though so be warned lol.

The way his bicep stretched the fabric of his T-shirt made me want to... ahem 'focus Jess; you're shopping for 'The Graduation Outfit' not formulating ways to jump the bones of your unbelievably sexy god-like boyfriend in the shopping mall', I thought to myself, with a last fleeting look at Rob who was reaching up for the dress I wanted to try on that naturally enter sarcasm resided on the top rail (Note to store owner: smart move putting the 'short and sassy' dress' up so high the vertically challenged can't actually reach). 'Not that he would let me do that anyway', my mind continued to wander, 'I'm surprised he even came today. He must be entertaining thoughts that involve him accidentally-on-purpose walking in on me in the changing room… but after the way he's been distancing himself over the past few months; he's got another thing coming with that little fantasy. It's not my fault we're constantly being supervised by all of my genetically related adults. I just wish he would talk to me… except that he's a male and he's Rob, so that's not going to happen unless either of us live through a near-death experience… again'.

I jumped as Rob cleared his throat, realised that he had been watching me stare into space while all the deep and meaningful thoughts were running through my SAT-addled mind, and quickly reached to take the dress he was now impatiently holding out to me. Of course, while all this was happening, I pretended that I hadn't just been thinking about him while unknowingly staring at God-Knows-What, in the middle of a shopping mall.

After a very uneventful trying-on of the dress, deciding that it looked absolutely fantastic on me (and judging by the look on Rob's face when I walked out to strut my stuff across the store for all to see, he agreed wholeheartedly with that statement) and then the purchasing of said dress, we left the store and walked into the main part of the mall.

Okay, you know when a guy wants to say/ask something and they get kinda fidgety, avoid eye contact and stare at the ground? That's what Rob was doing for the duration of our walk down the length of the shopping Mall until…

"Ahhh Jess?" Rob cleared his throat.

Crap he called me Jess starts hearing ominous music in her head

"We need to talk", he continued.

Crap crap crap crap! Since when have those four words been in Rob's vocabulary!

"Okay…" I sounded slightly nervous.

"We need to talk", he repeated, more to himself than me.

"Go on..." I prompted, sounding pompous even to my own ears

"I don't think we can do this any more", he continued to avoid my gaze.

I stared at his bowed head with an expression reminiscent of that of Seth, after he had first been kissed by Summer.
"What… what do you mean?" My voice was already sounding shaky.

"What I mean is we', Rob indicated to each of us in turn, all without looking me in the eye "can't do this any more, you have to go to college. Not be held back by some guy who works in a gas station," he sighed, "Mastriani, I'm not going to be the one who holds you back"

I continued to stare at him, but instead of remaining stupefied my expression was turning to mild anger.
"Holding me back? What the hell do you mean by that?"

" I mean", anger was slowly creeping into his voice also "that us being… involved", Rob struggled to find the word, "is holding you back. End of story. You should go to college and find a guy with a future"
I fought back the urge to melt and be all "Oh, but Rob! You are my future!" and embrace him because, this is not Neighbours. Instead I replied with a sarcastic sounding; "Us being involved," I mocked the use of the word he had struggled so hard to find, "is holding me back? Since when did you become so concerned about us? Especially considering that, over the last few months you've been so distant, there's barely been an us." Now I was holding back tears, but trying to hide it.

"Well then it won't make much of a difference to your life if we end it right now then will it?"

Our voices were getting louder and we were attracting a small amount of attention from people in close proximity, but neither of us cared."Do you want to break up because you're worried that you're holding me back? Or just because you don't have the backbone to be with someone that everyone knows will go further than you ever will?" I was sinking low and I knew it, but him wanting to break up with me hurt and I wanted some kind of revenge.

"Finally... some actual honesty from you Mastriani. All the shit you talk 'bout me behind my back to your stuck-up Townie friends you now have the nerve to say to my face", Rob's face was turning red, as though he had just eaten the Fiesta Spice Extravaganza at Mastriani's. (Only one person has ever been able to do that by the way; a Trucker from Florida, go figure.). "Rob! Are you delusional? I don't talk about you behind your back, because unlike some other people I could mention but won't, I have class and contrary to what you may believe, the world doesn't revolve around you!" I rendered him speechless but that didn't seem to matter as the staring contest that now ensued spoke volumes, of what I don't know, because, maybe it was just my mind playing tricks on me, but… did he look sad beneath the anger?

We continued to stare at each other until a poster on the wall behind him caught my eye. A poster for a missing child. I took a second to look because, after all, I may be fighting with my infuriating boyfriend but I was still Lightning Girl. All of a sudden my vision blurred and I stumbled forward. I couldn't see the mall anymore; what I could see was the inside of a small dingy shed. (That or I had been transported to an alternate reality inside which everything was as desolate and barren as Rob's mind appeared to be.)

In the corner of the room, tied up with ropes was a small boy, cowering with fear, tears streaking his dirt stained face. I blinked a few times trying to collect my wits and my vision slowly cleared. I could hear a barely audible Rob repeating my name with concern in his voice.

Then there was an explosion of sound and I was suffocated by darkness. Again.