A/N: Helloooo readers! It's been exactly 60 days since this fic was alst updated, so I thought it was due an update :3

I've also just finished all my tests/assesments and whatnot at school so I sat down the other day and typed like a mad lady until I had a sufficient amount of work done on this chapter xD Yes, I know it's quite a short chapter, but I think this whole story is going to be small bursts of (hopefully) drama and sort-of action and Rian getting nekkid.

*disclaimer: that last point was not exactly true*

Anywho, enjoy this chapter!

Zack and Jack stood huddled closely together underneath the small cover the bus stop provided. Heavy rain lashed down on the plastic covering and dripped down onto the two's shoulders.

"My hair's getting wet." Jack whined, patting his hair with his hands and attempting to cover it with his study books.

Zack stared at him sceptically, absently wondering how much hairspray Jack and Alex managed to use in a week. At least triple what he used. At least.

"Tell me again why we're taking the bus instead of walking for five minutes?" Zack asked.

Jack placed his head underneath Zack's chin in an attempt to get further away from the raindrops. "Because," his reply was muffled as he spoke into Zack's jumper "I don't like the rain, or mornings. And it's cold. And I want some coffee. And Alex wasn't awake this morning for-"

"Whoa! Stop there."

"I was going to say he didn't make me any morning toast."

"He makes you morning toast?" Zack scoffed.

He felt Jack grin. "Hell yeah. And sometimes morning sex."

Zack groaned while Jack pulled back so he could laugh at his friends' expression. "Didn't need to know that, bro, too far." Zack exclaimed.

Jack leaned back into Zack's shoulder before stepping back. "Bus is here!"

Zack raised an eyebrow at Jack's over excitedness and held him back so he didn't run into the road. He felt like he was looking after some kind of five year old. The bus pulled into the lay-by, and the two clambered on.

"Jack, how did you get into university?" Zack asked jokingly, handing over the money for his ticket to the bus driver. He took a seat halfway to the back of the bus, and was quickly joined by Jack.

"Just because I act immature, doesn't mean I am." Jack told him bluntly.

Zack was taken aback by Jack's sudden change of demeanour, and remained silent for the rest of the bus journey.

The bus trip dragged out, Zack stared morosely out of the window, trying to figure out if he should apologize to Jack, or just leave it and see what happened.

As it turned out, Zack didn't have to wait too long.

The bus pulled to a juddery halt, a testament to how old it was, and Jack leapt up. "C'mon, Zacky, time to learn!"

Zack blinked, once again shocked by how quick Jack's mood had changed. He didn't have time to mull it over however, as Jack grabbed his hand a pulled him down the bus towards the door.

We fell awkwardly out of the bus, and where still laughing when a girl with dark hair and too much make up stepped into our path.

"Oh, shit." I stepped in front of Jack, firstly as instinct, and secondly as straight away he was growling. I'm pretty sure he would have leapt at her if I hadn't of done anything.

"I thought people like him were meant to be nicer?" The overly done up girl said, motioning towards Jack but not actually looking at him directly.

I had to seriously resist the urge to punch her.

Behind me Jack was grumbling every swear word under the sun as he gripped my t-shirt. "Zack, can we go, please?"

"Maria, what the hell do you want? Rian's already told us what you want us to do..."

Maria, the cause of world poverty, hunger and famine (at least, I wouldn't be surprised if she was), shifted her weight and flicked her hair. "Aw, Zacky, can't I just come and say hi to you?" There she went, completely ignoring Jack again.

"If you haven't got anything else to say, Jack and I are leaving." I said, pronouncing Jack's name clearly, hoping that she'd get the hint.

I hated it when she was like this. Maria used to be nice, long time ago, when Rian and her were dating. That was before she turned all scary psycho bitch and decided to make Alex and Jack's- consequently Rian and mine's- lives utter hell.

And you thought Ramona Flowers had some bad exes.

Maria raised an annoyingly perfect eyebrow and inspected her, also far too perfect, nails. "Just to say I need the information you gather within the week, it's really rather important." She blinked up at me through fake nails. I once again resisted the urge to punch her.

Jack gasped, and shoved me aside before I had time to react. "You bitch!" He practically screamed, causing everyone on the plaza to glance towards us.

Maria glanced at him, blinked once, before turning her patronising gaze back to me. "By the end of the week, Zacky boy."

Jack went to leap after her as she turned and walked away, but I grabbed his shirt, and yanked him backwards.

"She isn't even close to worth it." I told him as calmly as I could, not really trusting myself and not wanting to follow my own advice at all. I was so tempted to just chase after her and say every single word I'd ever thought about her when she'd been acting like a class A bitch.

Jack whined and struggled feebly, but I could tell the fight had gone out of him. "It's not fair, Zack!" He cried, flinging his arms out and dropping himself to sit on a nearby wall. He pulled his knees up to his chin, and hid behind his fringe.

I knew that pose, and I knew that tone of voice. This wasn't what he did when he got a bad score in one of his midterm tests; oh no, this is what he did when he and Alex had gotten into some massive argument and didn't talk for a week. "Jack..?" I asked cautiously, not sure what to do, Rian was the one who normally dealt with someone when they were upset. He just knew what to say...

Jack said nothing, just picked furiously at the sleeve of his hoodie.

I checked the time; we were due into our class in the next five minutes. "Jack, bro, we gotta go to lessons."

"I don't want to do it anymore." He muttered scathingly.

"You- what?" I asked, completely misinterpreting what he was saying. "You don't want to do class anymore?"

He blinked up at me. "No, the stuff that... She tells us to do. It's Mikey, for God's sake!" He was standing up now, his eyes were wild and he was pacing.

The plaza was now nearly empty, most other early students having already left for their lessons. Jack was still pacing, and anyone could have said that he was on the edge of some kind of mental breakdown.

I took a drastic measure, and hugged him.

It was awkward for a heartbeat, before he was hugging me back and leaning on my shoulder. Jack was shaking, and I rubbed his back in what I hoped was a comforting way.

"Hey, its okay, we'll pull through." I said soothingly, not really believing any of those words. "We'll talk about it tonight, I mean; things can't go the way they were. We are not doing this to Mikey."

Jack hiccoughed, and constricted his hold around me, before letting go. "What've we got first?" He asked, some of his original spark returning, although his eyes remained largely downcast.

"A lecture, dunno what on, didn't check the memo yesterday." I said, trying to keep the conversation from returning to dangerous territory. I started walking towards the lecture, and Jack trailed behind.

I made a mental note to ring Rian and inform him of Maria's sudden appearance. This week was looking to be like a complete downer.

The lecture passed swiftly, I'm not too sure as to what the subject was, as I spent most of my time playing Pokémon with Jack underneath the tables. We filed out quickly, and just as we were questioning the location of our next lessons, my phone rang.

It was Rian; probably ringing to ask where I was so we could meet up for our next lesson. I held up a finger to Jack, who nodded and continued to scan the noticeboard.

"Yo." I answered, holding my phone to me ear with my shoulder.

"Zack, you don't sound cool when you do that." Rian replied as a greeting.

"Nice to hear from you too. Have a good morning? Were birds singing when you woke?" I replied sarcastically.

"Zaaack." Rian whined.

"Okay, sorry. Our next class is..." I juggled my bag and notebook around, until I found my sketched out timetable for the week. "We've got a practical test in lab 4."

There was a pause on the other end of the line as Rian jotted down his lesson. "Alex's already left for his class cause he's all organised and totally knows what he has now."

I laughed at that, as we all knew Alex would just pester the student centre until they told him what his class was.

"Anything else?" Rian asked.

I glanced at Jack, who was now preoccupied with checking out the upcoming gig slots.

"I need to talk to you later about stuff."

I heard a sharp intake of breath from the other end of the line. "And what stuff would this be?" Rian said carefully.

"Let's just say, I think it's about time we did something about Maria." I said with more conviction then I felt.

I just hoped my plan didn't go horribly wrong.

Well, I hope you liked it. It turned out a lot more drama-ish then I expected, and I didn't actually mean for Jack to go all crazy x3

As for the last chapter, have a playlist:

Semi-Mental by Biffy Clyro

Years - Francesqa

The soundtrack to Dissidia 012, because I have been playing that game far too much

Bat Country - Avenged Sevenfold

Yo, I'm done. Reviews will be treasured like kittens~