"What is with you?" Amy demanded an answer standing from his doorway.

He didn't even know she knew where he lived. She had never been to the house before, and he never told her his address. He supposed that he could have told her the street name over the months they'd been tutoring and just didn't remember, but he was positive that she didn't know enough to pick out his house even if she knew his street name.

But it was obvious that she did since she was standing by his bedroom door looking more than a little pissed, and while he was curious he didn't even bother asking how she found out his address.

He didn't even bother asking what she was doing there, because he already knew. He'd been avoiding her at every possible turn and thought that he was risk-free of Amy encounters off of school property, or the slight probability of public areas. He thought that his home was one place he could let down his guard of dodging her.

While he was caught off guard it didn't take long for him to get back to defensive and form a brushed off response.

"Nothing's with me. Nothing's wrong," he got up so he could at least stand while he was facing her. Until the moment she walked in he was trying to knock a little league trophy off of a shelf on the wall from his bed using only rubber bands. He had a whole rubber band ball that he was removing one by one to sling shot them, but progress was slow. It didn't take sherlock investigative skills to see he had been performing the mindless task for a while now from his lounged position on his bed and the pile of rubber bands on the floor and ones caught like drips of melted candle wax on objects he wasn't aiming at.

He wished he had been actually doing something when she walked in. Like video games or watching a movie- something normal. Not wasting over an hour playing rubber band target practice.

"Why can't you ever just ask for help?"

"I don't need help," he denied with a firm face so she'd get that he wanted to drop the subject.

She had apparently expected his (frankly predictable) reaction and came prepared with evidence to refute his claim. She held up a stack of failed papers that he had red Xs and zeros on every single one, from most if not all of his classes. Eventually on every paper passed out for a grade he answered every single question with 'I don't know' over and over before turning it in. If he just left the answers blank or didn't turn it in they'd hand it back or just not put in a grade assuming he would turn it in late for points off. So he wrote the same thing over and over for every answer so his teachers would know that he wasn't going to do it and they should just accept it.

He was committed to never completing his school work.

She held up the stack spread like they were a poker hand before they slipped from her fingers like 52 pickup.

"If this isn't a cry for help then I don't know what is," she brandished the few papers left in her hand before letting them fall away too.

"You're wasting your time Amy. You should just go. I don't want you here, so just leave."

"You're such a jerk! I don't care what stress you're under! You don't get to sabotage all of my hard work! Go take it out on some other part of your life. Not on the grades that I worked hard for you to get!" Amy ranted, and he got why she was so pissed. He had pretty much made all of her efforts to teach him count for nothing. Her grades and after school credit weren't going to be affected by how much he messed up, but she probably considered Jake as her personal failure.

Just a big waste of time. He always was. Maybe if he hadn't sabotaged it all she wouldn't have been mad- and maybe they could have parted on good terms. Maybe he could have enjoyed the two weeks he was supposed to have. He should have been satisfied with that. Instead of being greedy and dragging it out and making it suck for the both of them that much more.

She was never going to stay in the end, so it was his fault for even trying- like there was ever even a chance of keeping her.

It wasn't like she hated him- at least she didn't a month ago. She probably hated him now.

But when he started messing everything up, she didn't hate him. He was more than an acquaintance but less than a friend to her. Friend-ish, but it wouldn't carry over after tutoring stopped.

It wasn't one of those outside of school, during summer, after graduation sort of relationships. It wasn't one of those before he started messing everything up, so it wasn't like there was any hope afterwards.

It wasn't like they had much in common. They started having fun together, and he'd tell jokes that would make her smile and roll her eyes, but even that wouldn't last long without an obligation. She'd probably try to keep up, but he gave it a few weeks tops before it would just devolve into those awkward half smiles whenever they passed each other in the hallway.

But he messed it all up, so he was going to get glares in the hallway, or even straight up ignored. And there wasn't anything he could do about that.

"You're such an asshole for making all of that worthless and meaningless! I thought we were friends but you cut me out. That's on you. But now you're making all the time we spent together meaningless!" Amy screamed, and all he could think about was that he wished he could do something to take away the look on her face. It shifted from rage to hurt and it was the most gut wrenching thing he had ever seen. "All the times you made me laugh and all the times I was happy and you're making them worthless! So just go fuck off and ruin some other part of your life, and stop ruining my memories!"

Tears were streaming down her face with her fists clenched and arms extended tense straight down. It all happened so fast. She went from just yelling to yelling and crying in the blink of an eye. Full out crying in the blink of an eye. And he didn't know what to do. Jake was never good at thinking on his feet, or under high pressure situations. Looking at Amy like that he could barely breathe, much less react. He froze.

Suddenly she bolted and Jake called out and ran after her but he didn't even have a hope of getting her to wait. He couldn't even stop her before she was out the door, already shut because he was so far behind her- couldn't even catch it before it closed. He ripped it open and yelled her name as he ran into the middle of the street and whipped his head back and forth trying to spot which way down his street she had run. But it was useless trying to find her, by that time she had long gone.


AN: It gets a hecka lot better in CH 3, so hold out hope until then.

Alright, my brother's looked into helping me with my dang old laptop and he said he needs to get some/a part so I'm hoping that will be done sometime soon. So I'm not gonna update Camera Obscura for at least a week since I've got it all laid out. Marco Polo, the Boy Next Door, and Finally I've been working on and I'll get updates for new chapters as soon as I'm finished with them. I kinda jump around from whatever fic I've been working on that day, so I don't have an exact time frame since I might just work on whatever I feel like and switch back and forth.
I'm actually going on vacation weirdly enough. I knew I was leaving for a couple of days starting the Sunday before Christmas, but I didn't realize until someone pointed it out to me the other day that it was here so quick. Like normally I would be counting down the days until Christmas, but I didn't even realize the current date.

Is this what being an adult is? Not counting down the days until presents and surprises?
Anyways, while I'll have 3G stuff on my phone I won't have wifi in my hotel, so I'm not sure if I'm even gonna bring my laptop, so that means I won't be updating stuff likely for a few days, probs just chatting and stuff- like reviews on here or if you hit me up on tumblr.

Have a great winter/summer break if you get one, happy holidays, or just a really really great day tomorrow.