10 tries... 10 tries at mixing an egg, milk and flour together and I failed at all of them.

How. The. fuck. Is that possible? All I had to do was mix the ingredients together, 7 of the wet mixtures I had ruined beyond repair. The other 3, I had decided to do a big mixture and then separate it into different baking tins, that was one of the few things I actually did right. But, I put them all in the oven at the same time and let them cook... unfortunately due to my ill experience with ovens, and cake making, I was unaware that you had to bake the cakes at a certain temperature. So, I just put the oven its highest temperature... they were all dead. I had murdered the cakes... and by that I mean they were burnt absolutely shitless... So, after discarding of the dead cake bodies by throwing them in the bin outside so hopefully Mum wouldn't see it, and now I was headed down the street, Banjo on the leash, going to a bakery to buy a cake. Which I should have done in the first place. After I bought a cake and Banjo freaked out the police men that were 'on patrol' at a nearby donut shop I was 'pulled over'. How the hell can you be 'pulled over' when you're walking a damn dog? And how many stereotypes could these cops cliché? I mean... they were fat, eating at a donut shop, and really stupid.

After that I went back home with the cake, placed it on the island in the kitchen and discarded the evidence that I had bought it at a shop and placed the cake on a fancy plate. I cut the biggest piece of cake human possible and scoffed it down as I sat on one of the chairs near the island, licking my fingers.

"You keep eating like that and you'll be the size of the Chrysler building." I stopped licking my fingers and looked in the doorway, there was an old woman with blonde hair in a french knot and in a print dress of sorts. I looked at puzzled at her with my finger in my mouth.

"Don't get up or anything, I'll get myself a cup of tea." She said bypassing me and going straight to the kettle.

"Why are you in our house?" I asked as I finished licking my fingers and the woman sat down adjacent to me near the island.

"You should learn a thing or two about manners young lady. Is that really how you should great someone?" She said in a snarky way.

"And you should learn a thing or two about personal property and the charges you can get from walking into someone else's home when you haven't been invited in, nor know the person." I said with the equal amount, if not more, of sass. She gave me a wicked grin and placed a hand underneath her chin.

"You keep up with that sass you may actually last longer than I thought first glance..." She trailed off and I began to woman. Seriously, what is it with people and saying riddles in this house... not to mention random people coming into my house.

"Excuse me? Is that a threat?" I looked at her curiously and grabbed the switchblade in my pocket. Banjo was outside playing in the grass with Mum watering the garden so maybe if I called for him...

"Relax child, I'm not the one that's going to hurt you." She said idly as she twirled a hair around her fingers.

"What the fuck-"

"Haley Banjo is digging up the-" My Mum walked in interrupting my sentence and looked at the two of us. She plastered on a great big smile and walked into the kitchen.

"I didn't know we had a guest!" She said happily and offered her hand to the dragon lady. Dragon lady or 'Constance' gladly took it and shook her hand, smiling back.

"Constance, it's nice to meet you..." She left the sentence open ended and I rolled my eyes at Constance being nice, not two seconds ago she was being a complete psycho.

"Allison. You've obviously met Haley, my daughter." Constance nodded and when my Mum wasn't looking she sent me a wicked grin.

"Oh! Would you like a drink Constance? We have tea, coffee, cappuccino..."

"Tea would be lovely." She said in false happiness. I rolled my eyes again and looked at Mum.

"So, what were you saying before you got interrupted?" I asked her as she walked to the bench and began making dragon lady's tea.

"Banjo is digging up the yard, can you call him off or something? I only just planted new flowers." She said grabbing a mug.

"I'm on it!" I mock saluted her and made my way out of the house and to the back yard, where Banjo was barking at someone. A certain Kurt Cobain look-a-like that just loved my house.

"Hey." I greeted him and motioned for Banjo to heel. He did as he was told and I patted his head. He's such a good dog.

Tate was leaning against a gazebo post, although he seemed a little pissed.

"Hi."

"What's up with you?" I asked as I met him in the gazebo and sat down on the railing surrounding it, Banjo sitting close-by.

"See you met my Mum." He motioned towards the house and I looked back at it before meeting his eyes.

"Constance is your Mum?" I said in disbelief. He nodded and moved away from the post to sit by me. I hadn't really made many friends here... not that I'm bad at it, I just have trust issues now... kind of. But Tate seemed like a cool guy, and he looks like Kurt... therefore, he's not so bad on the eyes.

"I am so sorry." I said as I put my hand on his. He smiled at the touch, or my joke, either way, he smiled at me.

"Tell me about it." He muttered and ran a hand through his hair. I couldn't believe Constance was this guys Mum, mainly because the woman was like, 60 and Tate was 17 or so. Huh, must have been in her mid 40's when she had him.

"So, it obviously runs in the family to hang around at someone else's house unannounced." I gave Tate a grin and he nodded.

"You, I don't mind so much... but your Mum?" I said raising an eyebrow and looking back at the house.

"I was in there for like, 30 seconds and I already hate her." That got a smile out of him. He scoffed and nodded.

"She's a cocksucker, my Dad left me when I was a little kid with a cocksucker... You believe that?" I nodded at him. He looked completely disgusted and all around annoyed with the prospect.
"Actually, yeah. My Dad wasn't exactly the nicest guy around either." That sentence was complete and utter bullshit. He was an asshole. The things he did, more importantly to little girls, that was absolutely fucking disgusting. Although he wasn't my birth Dad, he was the person that had taken care of me and Mum and to go and do those things he did, not only to me, but Mum... Mum had never told him he wasn't my birth Dad though... She had told me after he died, but that was about it. She dropped the subject after that.

"Did he hit you and your Mum or something?" He said, actually interested in what I had to say. Tate was a curious guy from what I could tell. He hangs around in strangers basements, appears out of freaking nowhere, and he's genuinely interested in what I have to say. How many guys are out there that do that? Atleast, with that odd combination of things I can only imagine 2 or 3 at the most.

"Not Mum, but technically he tortured me and stuff... He was a Paedophile." I nodded thinking about those horrible 8 months.

"Paedophile?" Tate asked looking absolutely disgusted, screwing up his face at the vulgar thought. That's what I had done, well, that and I had screamed at him when I saw him.

"I know, it's fucking disgusting."I shook my head and patted Banjo who was next to me.

"Did he ever... touch you?" I looked back at up at him. He looked genuinely worried and I smiled at that, he was so nice... maybe a little creepy, but nice.

"Nahh, I'm still a virgin." I said shrugging and then I re-evaluated what I had just said. What the hell was wrong with me? I've only known the guy for less than a week and we were already on the subject of my sex life... and I had fucking brought it up!

"I also have no idea why I told you that." I said shaking my head and laughing to myself.

"I don't mind, besides, better than you being a cocksucker like my Mum." I smiled at him and nudged his shoulder with mine.

"You really don't like your Mum, do you?"

"Not even fucking slightly." He said instantly and we both laughed.
"I guess we both have Daddy issues aswell, huh?"

"Parents... who needs 'em?" There was a silence between us as we sat there mulling over Tate's last words.

"My Mum's not that bad, a little protective after what happened, but that's about it." Tate nodded at the statement and I knew the question that was coming next.

"What did happen?" I became really intrigued with the ground that minute and swung my legs back and forth, getting nervous.

"It's a long story..." I dismissed.
"Besides, I'm sure there are still news broadcasts on it going around." I shrugged and looked up at Tate.

"If you don't want to talk about it, you don't have to. You know?" He said with kind eyes.

"You know... it's weird..." I said trailing off and looking back down at the ground, laughing to myself again.

"What is?"
"You're so kind... But it's like the perfect balance of kind... and crazy stalker." I smiled up at him and he pushed his shoulder into mine, knocking me off of my seat and nearly landing on Banjo. Banjo starting freaking out but I just patted his head and looked up at Tate, trying my best to scowl at him. I failed though and just ended up bursting into giggles. We both laughed as I was sprawled out on the ground in a cross legged position. But, before he could comprehend what I was doing I grabbed his ankle and pulled him off, so he was on the ground next to me. After practically wrestling for a few more minutes we were lying down in the gazebo next to each other.

"So, do you go to Westfield?" I asked rocking my feet back and forth in an almost scissor motion. Tate turned his head to look at me and then shook it.

"Nahh, I dropped out. Who the hell needs it? All those stupid little prissy ass groups and those fucking bullies, nothing but a waste of time."
"I never said I liked going to school. It's a shame you don't though, I mean, it would have been cool to know one person." I said as I moved my hands underneath my head and smiled at Tate before sticking my tongue out at him.

"You're so immature."

"Least I'm not a psycho killer." I said singing the last part.

"TATE." Someone yelled from across the yard. I looked around in confusion and Tate froze up.

"Who's that?" I asked out loud and looked around. To the right of us was a girl with straight blondish-brownish hair standing in the middle of the grass, hands on her hips.

"I gotta go." Tate said as he got up and walked straight over to the girl who had an angry scowl on her face. They fought in hushed tones for a little while until I felt a little invasive. If they were whispering, it wasn't meant for my ears, so I decided I would just leave them to their private conversation.

"Tate, I'll talk to you tonight, okay?" I yelled to him, he nodded and then went back to fighting with the girl. I motioned for Banjo to heel as we walked into the house.

I don't know who the hell she was but she was not happy at all with Tate. Probably a girlfriend or an ex or something. Either way, she seemed like a cow.


Midnight, tonight. That's when me and Tate were going to meet at the basement. It was 7 fucking thirty and I was bored shitless. I went through all the pre existing bookshelves and books, the only thing really interesting on them was some poem-y book by Lord Byron or something like that. I had read it for 15 minutes and then decided to surf the web for music. Tomorrow me and Mum were going into town to buy lots and lots and lots of things. Mainly clothes for me, since I was running low on clean ones.

At the minute I was wearing a black singlet and track pants aswell as some black fluffy slippers. I sighed and leaned back into the computer chair, this thing was so damn uncomfortable! I need a beanbag or something. Banjo was at my toes underneath the desk, warming my feet. I looked around the room as 'Teeth' by Lady Gaga played. I'm really bi-polar when it comes to music. I'll listen to pretty much anything except for country songs and really, really slow, sappy, gooey, songs that make you want to vomit because it's so sweet. At the minute I was in a weird techno mood, so my techno playlist was on.

I caught eye of the blackboard in my room, removed my feet from beneath Banjo, and walked over to it, grabbing the chalk.

I began to draw the outline of the woods, the place I had met Banjo in. I put a cabin, surrounded by trees to the right and Banjo lurking to the left. That's what Banjo was doing first time we met, lurking and snarling.

After my drawing was complete I looked at the time. Only 9:30, still an eternity to wait for Tate. might aswell talk to my Mother.


Alison had been busy all day, talking to Constance, the real estate agent aswell, who had only popped in for a second or two, and she had been making phone calls. Phone calls about jobs. She had gotten an interview at Westfield, the school Haley was going to go to.

She didn't want her child alone at a brand new place, and she wanted to make sure that no news reporters were going to hassle her. She had a job interview in two days, a new house, her daughter was doing fine, now all she needed was a man. Since her last man was dead to her in every-which way.

"Hey Mum." Haley said as she walked into the living room.

"Hey." She said a little too enthusiastically. Damn, Haley would know something up.

"Why are you so happy?" She asked as she slumped down on the couch. The movement was loud and immediately after it happened, doggy footsteps began descending down the steps, looking for it's master it had misplaced. Banjo ran through the door and jumped up onto Haley's lap wearing a red plaid bandanna around his neck.

"Get laid or something?" Haley asked almost casually as she patted Banjo's head. Alison's face was screwed up in disgust and confusion.

"What kind of monster am I raising?" Haley grinned at her mother from the seat adjacent her.

"An awesome one." Alison rolled her eyes and continued to look down at her book, even though it didn't remotely interest her.

"So... why are you happy again?" Alison sighed before smiling up at her daughter.

"I got a job interview, in two days from now." Haley's eyes lit up at her Mum and she jumped out of her seat to hug her.
"That's great! Where at?"
"Westfield. Secretary job. I know you don't want me there but I would feel better knowing-" Haley threw her right hand up and did a flicking motion, signalling her to stop.

"Mum, I don't care! This is soooo good for you! And great news!" She practically squealed.

"Well, it's just an interview..."
"And you will have it in the bag! Besides, if you don't you can always get down on your hands and knee's and..."
"Haley Marie!" Alison said shocked and her daughter just faked innocence.

"I was just going to say you could beg. That's just nasty... get your head out of the gutter!" Haley scolded and Alison just shook it off.

"You should go out and celebrate." Haley suggested as she sat back down on the couch next to Banjo, scratching his head.

"And how would I do that?" Alison said picking up the book again.
"Go to a bar, or something, I don't know." Haley shrugged and then, after a minutes silence, Haley face lit up into an ecstatic expression as she practically jumped up and down on the couch in excitement.

"You should! Meet some guys!" She said happily. Alison had been thinking about meeting a new person, but... it just seemed so soon.

"Come on! It would be classified as socialising!" Her daughter pushed the idea. Alison shook her head before agreeing.

"Fine, I'll go to a bar."


11:55, that was the time. Mum had gone to a bar, after not too much persuasion so I was left alone. Mum needed to go to a bar, socialise, meet a new guy. That's exactly what she needed, and atleast if she didn't meet the guy of her dreams, she'd still be too drunk to give a damn.

I was heading to the basement, down that hallway that for some reason seemed really long. As I stopped by the basement door, I looked around for Banjo. Huh, guess he's asleep or something.

I descended down the basement stairs before flicking the light on at the bottom. The whole time looking for any sign of Tate. Nothing.

I rounded the corner, no Tate. Walked a little deeper into the basement, no Tate. Walked back to the stairs, no Tate.

So, there I was, staring into the darkness that only a few nights ago Banjo had been barking at, wondering what had gotten him so scared when I had felt a strong hand clasp around my mouth.

Latex.

You know... more reviews would just make my day! Not to menion a new chapter to appear! haha :P