Torry, this is where it happens! And I even threw in an extra surprise for ya! Trust me, you'll know it when ya come to it. ;)

Also, how many of you are familiar with that picture of Terrance Zdunich where he's making a face and he's got that t-shirt on that says "Cockroach Hall of Fame" on it? Well, I have this headcanon that Graverobber has a shirt like that, and it's like his absolute favorite shirt ever and he loves to just wear it while he's like lounging around the house and shit, and so I decided to include it in this chapter just for the heck of it. If you don't know the picture I'm talking about, Google Images search "terrance zdunich cockroach hall of fame" and you should find it. It might take a couple minutes of scrolling, but it's there, I promise.

I DISCLAIM!

One night, about a week after meeting Chris, they slept together. Not sexually, but together, nonetheless. They were watching a movie on the small "craptastic" TV in Graverobber's room that sat on his dresser where it could be seen from the bed, and they were eating junkfood and curled up together while outside, rain poured down in violent torrents, preventing them from going out and harvesting. After the movie ended, they watched the old Beetlejuice cartoon, which Graverobber happened to have a bunch of those remastered DVDs of, and they fell asleep while it was on, so they ended up asleep together on top of the blankets with the cartoon playing quietly in the background.

Graverobber was the first one to wake up, and when he did, he thought at first that he was imagining things. But then he realized, after turning the TV off, that no, this was real; Shilo Wallace was actually there beside him in his bed, curled up in a loose fetal position on her side facing him. She looked so relaxed and peaceful, beautiful even in sleep. Her wig—the long black one she'd been wearing when they first met—was off-kilter and loose. Unable to resist doing so, he gently removed it, setting it aside and staring in fascination at the thin black fuzz growing on her scalp, softly running his hand over it. Before either of them knew it, that fuzz would become hair, and who knew what that hair would look like—wavy, curly, straight, a bit of each...?

God, she just looked so vulnerable this way. And it was strange, this sudden sense of protectiveness that had come over him while watching her. He cared for her, there was no doubt in his mind about that. She truly had come to be his best friend in such a short amount of time, so of course he cared for her. And it made him glad to know that she trusted him, because it made him feel like for once in his pathetic life, he was actually making a difference and doing some good. He just wasn't sure yet quite how much he cared for her, or how much she trusted him, nor was he entirely positive about in which way he cared for her. Things were starting to get a bit confusing for him lately, and he didn't like that. He liked to know things for certain, to be absolutely sure of what was happening in his life at all times, because it helped him remain as confident as he possibly could, and being confident helped him keep up his act.

Shilo was beginning to make that difficult for him.

His cell phone started vibrating on the nightstand. He grabbed it and checked the caller ID, then hit accept, leaving the room to talk so he wouldn't wake Shilo up.

"Where the hell have you been lately?" he demanded of the person on the other end. "We've all been worried sick! Do you have any idea what you've put poor Jemima through?"

"You should've thought about that before you brought Opera Girl to the apartment," Zenadiya replied.
"First of all, her name is Shilo, and second, she had nowhere else to go, nobody to trust, I couldn't just leave her to die, or worse, get caught by the Largos!"

"Who says she wouldn't have been better off dead?"
"I am not having this argument with you, James. You called for a reason. What is it?"

"I need you to meet me at the old lighthouse. Right now."
"Why, what's going on?"

"No time to explain right now, I'll tell you when you get here, now hurry up. And don't bring her with you."

Before he had time to reply, the line went dead. He sighed heavily and rolled his eyes, then went to go pull on his boots and find a beanie to hide his hair under. After he'd gotten fully dressed, he scribbled down a note for Shilo and left it on the pillow where his head had been, right where she would be sure to see it when she woke up, whenever that would be. He was halfway out the bedroom door when he stopped, turned around, and let his shoulders deflate. Dammit. He couldn't resist going back over to the bed and leaving a gentle kiss on her temple. After doing that, he turned back around and hurried out of the room and down the stairs, pulling his jacket on as he went out the front door, pulling it shut and locking it behind him.

Shilo slowly opened her eyes when she heard the door close. Strange. She could've sworn she'd felt someone kiss her just a moment ago. She must've been imagining things while in that state halfway between the waking world and still dreaming. Her wig was off. She thought for sure she'd fallen asleep wearing it, but maybe it had just fallen off when she'd turned over in her sleep. It certainly wouldn't be the first time it had happened. She found it and put it back on, then looked around.

"Graves?" she called. "Graves, where'd you go? Allan?"

That was when she noticed the folded up piece of paper sitting on the pillow beside her that had her name scrawled on it. Frowning in confusion, she picked it up and unfolded it.

Shilo,
Hey, sorry I'm not there. Zenadyia FINALLY decided to get in contact after all these weeks. She needed me to meet her at the old lighthouse, but she wouldn't say why. Didn't want me to bring you, and I decided it's probably better not to piss her off again so soon. Like I said, I'm sorry I'm not there, but I'll be back as soon as I can, I promise. In the meantime, if you need anything, call Jem. I left my cell phone on the nightstand, and I have her on speed dial, so you're all good. As usual, feel free to raid the fridge and put on a movie or something. Or, if you want, I managed to find the Odd Thomas books, and I put them in your room, so you can start reading those if you'd rather do something like that. Anyway, yeah. Be back ASAP. See you soon.

—Allan

Oh. Well, okay then. At least he'd left a note for her so she wouldn't get freaked out when she realized he was gone. What to do, what to do...? Well, first she got up and went into her room to get dressed, throwing on a dark gray sweater and some jeans. She lurked around the house for a while not really doing much of anything. She watched some more of the Beetlejuice cartoon, started reading the first Odd Thomas book, had some microwave Ramen, pulled out the photo album and looked at some of the pictures, and then decided she was bored and wanted some fresh air, so she pulled her boots on, laced them up, grabbed the house key that Graverobber had gotten made for her and put it in her pocket, switched her long black wig out for the brown-and-blonde bobbed one, then headed out to take a walk.

She walked around with her hands in her pockets, not planning on going too terribly far or staying out for too long. She thought maybe she'd head over to Tammi's and get a milkshake or something, maybe go see Amaranth at her store and say hi. She was a little caught up in her thoughts and not paying much attention to where she was going, and because of this, she ended up ramming into someone.

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" she said.
"Watch it, you brat!" a familiar voice snapped.

Shilo looked up at the person she'd run into. It turned out to be none other than Amber Sweet. Her shoulder-length red hair was curled, obviously by a curling iron, and held away from her face by a barrette in the back, though she had bangs covering her forehead. Her eyes were a light purple, probably best described as lavender, and she'd had her lips altered so that they were fuller than Shilo was used to seeing them, and her nose was a bit more upturned than it normally was. She was studying Shilo with narrowed eyes.

"S-Sorry," the younger girl stammered, and then tried to hurry away.
"Wait," Amber said. Shilo froze, then turned around slowly to face the redhead.

"Come back here. I want to get a better look at you."

Shilo took a deep breath in through her nostrils, then let it out slowly, hoping she didn't look nearly as panicked as she felt, trying to keep a calm exterior as she approached Amber as casually as she could manage. When she stopped in front of the other girl, it took everything she had just to be able to maintain eye contact like Graverobber had instructed her to. Lying to Crow and his girlfriend about her identity had been one thing. They had been total strangers. But lying to Amber Sweet was going to be the real challenge. This was exactly what Graverobber had insisted she'd need the skill for in the first place.

Amber tilted her head slightly. "You look awfully familiar," she said, "do I know you from somewhere?"
Shilo managed to shake her head. "No," she replied, "I don't think so. I mean, I'm sure I would remember if I'd had the honor of meeting Amber Sweet before."

She tried to make it seem as if she was honored right now, just to be in Amber's presence, hoping that it would help to sort of butter Amber up a bit, make it easier to slip things past her notice if she was a little distracted by the thought she was speaking to an admirer. It was worth a shot, anyway, or at least that's what Shilo thought.

Sure enough, Amber smiled at her. "What's your name?" she asked.
"Crystal Abbott," Shilo said. "And can I just say that you were great at the Genetic Opera?"

"Oh, you saw that, did you? Please, that was a horrendous disaster and we both know it."
"No, really! I mean, it's awful, what happened at the end, but before that, you were really doing fantastic."

The smile returned. "Crystal," she said, "I have a favor to ask of you. You know that girl that was at the Opera who my dad wanted to give the company to? Shilo Wallace? Remember her?"

Shilo nodded, trying to make herself look attentive.

"Well," Amber continued, "I've been trying to find her, but she seems to have completely disappeared from the face of the earth. Strange, isn't it? But I haven't given up yet. Now, what I'd like you to do is if you see her or hear anything about where she might be, come and let me know, alright? You can come to GeneCo Tower and tell the secretary your name, I'll have her let you right in. Can you do that for me?"

"Yeah, sure, absolutely," Shilo said.
"Excellent. Well, I'll let you get back to what you were doing. Nice meeting you."

And before Shilo had time to reply, Amber was gone.

Shilo turned and bolted straight back to the house, opening the door and hurrying inside, slamming it behind herself, not even realizing that the door had been open even though she'd locked it before leaving.

"Shilo? Is that you?" Graverobber's voice called from upstairs. She opened her eyes to the sight of him appearing at the top of the stairs dressed in a pair of dark gray jeans and a t-shirt that she had come to identify as being his favorite, a black one that had the figure of a cockroach on it in white in the center of a circle with the words COCKROACH HALL OF FAME. She couldn't help but smile at the sight, her shoulders relaxing as she let out the breath she hadn't even realized she'd been holding.

"You alright, kid?" he asked as he came downstairs. "You look a little pale, even for you."
"I—I'm fine," she said. "I just...I went for a walk to get some fresh air and I ran into Amber, that's all."

"Oh. I see. And...how did that go?"
"She didn't recognize me. Well, she sort of did at first, but then I gave her my fake name, and I pretended like I was all in awe of being in her presence and shit, and she bought right into it, so it was all good. I'm fine, really, just a little rattled is all. I wasn't expecting it, so it kind of threw me off, that's all it is. I promise, I really am fine. What did Zena want?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, that. She needs me to find something out for her, so I'm gonna need to get in contact with Marie. Don't worry about it, it's not anything you need to be bothering yourself with. So besides take a walk, what did you do while I was gone?"

"Well, I started reading the first Odd Thomas book..."
Graverobber's eyes lit up. "Yeah," he said, "and...?"

"And why did Ozzie's cow explode?! He loved that cow, Graves, why did it have to explode?! And why are he and Terri and Terrible Chester not in the movie when they're so awesome?! Well, I mean, I know Ozzie's got that one part in the movie, but that's not long enough, and we don't even get to see his extra finger, so what's the point of it?!"

"But otherwise you're happy with the way they compare?"
"I love that the movie stayed so true to the book, and I love that so much of the voiceover stuff is direct quotes taken straight out of the book word-for-word, like the opening stuff! Okay, I have to know right now, does Stormy die in the book, too? Is that why Odd referred to himself as being an 'unreliable narrator' at the beginning of the book?"

"Unfortunately for the feels, yes, it is."
"Great, so I'm gonna be crying over that a second time."

"You know, part of why I love those books so much, Shilo, is because they're funny, they're suspenseful...but they also hold such deep truths about humanity and about the world. It's partly because of those books that I'm able to see just how truly broken we humans are as a species. You know what one of my absolute favorite Odd Thomas quotes is of all time?"

"What's that?" she asked.
"This one is from the third book. The quote is as follows." He cleared his throat. "'People think that cats are vain, but cats are not vain. Cats are haughty. They are confident in themselves and in their superiority over us and other species, but they do not crave attention as do vain men and women.'"

"That's pretty good. So how did you get into these books to begin with?"
"My mom. I saw her reading one of them one day, and I said, 'Hey, Mom, what's that book you're reading, is it any good?' and she told me what it was and said that it was part of a series and that yes, it was fantastic, and she'd let me borrow the books sometime if I wanted to read them, and I decided I did, so she lent me her copy of the first book. I read it, and immediately got hooked, and so when she died, she left the entire series to me, plus the interlude, and I found out kind of on accident that there was a movie, and of course, after I knew about it, I absolutely had to have it, so Jem and Nick helped me get my hands on it."

"Hey, Graves."
"Yeah?"

Shilo wandered over to the small coffee table and picked up the list he'd given her from where she'd left it sitting, flipping to the second page. "You're nyc...nyctophilic? Is that how it's pronounced?"

"That's exactly how it's pronounced, and that's true," he said.
"What does that mean? What's nyctophilic?" she asked.

"Nyctophilia is the love of darkness or night. A nyctophiliac finds relaxation or comfort in the darkness."

"Why are you a nyctophiliac?"
"Dunno. Guess I just am. Why are Chris's eyes heterochromatic? Why does Jem want to be an actress? Why does Zena dress in drag? Why is anyone the way they are at all? You see what I'm saying? We all just are the way we are. No amount of surgeries or Zydrate can ever change that. I mean, sure, we can get our appearances altered to become someone else entirely, but can we really become someone else? If we still have the same personality, the same wants and dreams and desires and hopes, still have the same emotional ties, the same memories, the same fears and pains and mentality and opinions and loves and likes and dislikes...If we still have all of that inside us, then have we truly become someone else? Or are we still the same person, just with a different face? GeneCo tells everyone to make their genetics their bitch, but if you ask me, I don't think that's truly possible. It's only something that everyone has deluded themselves into thinking is possible when in reality, they will always be the same person they have been since birth. To put it the way Aesop once did, 'Training cannot overcome nature.' I think he was right. We can physically alter ourselves as much as we want, but it will never change who we truly are."

Shilo stared at him for several moments, then shook her head slowly. "How do you come up with this stuff?" she asked. "You can just get so deep and philosophical like that out of absolutely nowhere."

He shrugged. "Bring up the right topic or get me in the right mood, and it just sort of happens all on its own," he said. He turned his head to look at her and smiled, running his hand through the hair of her wig. "I really like the way this one looks on you," he said. "The bob really suits you, and the blonde in it sort of sets off your eyes. So tell me. What did Queen Bitch look like today?"

"Oh, it wasn't anything terribly over-the-top," Shilo said nonchalantly. "Curled red hair down to about here, bangs, and lavender eyes. Her lips seemed a bit fuller than they usually are, and her nose was a little more...perky. Upturned. Whatever you prefer to call it."

"Lavender eyes—Ha! That little copy-cat! She totally swiped that idea from Serena!"

"Serena? Who's that?"
"You know that junkie that comes to us, the one with the curly brown hair, wears it in a ponytail?"

"Yeah?"
"That's Serena. She had lavender eyes once, and I bet Amber remembered that and copied it from her."

He paused, a thoughtful look on his face. "You know, Shilo," he said after a moment, "I've been thinking. Since your birthday's coming up in a few weeks, we should do something to celebrate. I mean, you're turning eighteen, you'll be a legal adult, plus you'll be at the island's legal drinking age, so it's kind of worth celebrating, don't you think?"

"Graves, I really appreciate the thought, but—"
"No, wait, just hear me out, alright, let me finish. It wouldn't be anything huge. We wouldn't make that big a deal out of it. I was thinking you and me, and maybe Jem and Nick, we could just go to a bar and you could have your first drink, I could teach you how to play pool and do a little hustling, then, if we're still sober enough that we can see straight, maybe we go down to the beach and spend some time there. If not, or if we just don't feel like doing that, then we come back home, and if we're up for it by that point, we can watch a movie or something. How's that sound? I just...I feel like after what you went through at the Opera, you just...you deserve to have a nice time on your birthday. I know it'll be your first one without your dad, and I just...I don't want you to have to focus on that too much, so I'm just trying to think of something fun we could do to help you keep your mind off it, you know? Like I said, it's not like we'd make a big deal out of it or anything, but I do want to do something nice for you. If you don't want to, though, then it's okay, I mean, it's your birthday, so you should get to decide. It's just an offer."

Shilo smiled and gave him a hug. "Thanks, Graves," she said, "that's really sweet of you. I'd love to. Just as long as you promise not to get me any presents, alright? I'll let you buy me drinks, but I don't want you spending money on some fancy whatever or anything like that, not after you've already gotten me new clothes and wigs and given me this ring. Deal?"

She held her hand out, and he shook it. "Deal," he said.

A few nights or so later, the pair found themselves running from the GeneCops once again. Shilo had the idea to split up and go different directions, then meet back up in the alley when it was safe, and Graverobber saw no reason why they shouldn't at least try this strategy, so that's exactly what they did; he took off running in one direction while she turned tail and fled in the other. The GeneCops split their numbers down the middle to pursue both targets, but Shilo was able to quickly throw hers off her tail by taking advantage of her small size to squeeze into a narrow space between the walls of two buildings.

They ran right past her, boots pounding on the pavement, without so much as a second glance.

She waited a few moments or so just to be absolutely certain they were gone, then emerged from her hiding place and let out the breath she'd been holding. She took a moment to get her bearings and figure out exactly where she was and what the best path would be for her to take to get to the alley from there, and once she'd done that, she set off, wondering if Graverobber had managed to throw his pursuers off his scent yet, or if she would be the first of them to get to the alley.

It turned out that she was, in fact, the first there. The Zydrate Support Network hadn't let out yet, and they wouldn't for at least another twenty-five minutes, so there wasn't really much for her to do except hang around and wait for Graverobber to show up. She idled about, humming and whistling and singing quietly to herself, occasionally doing a few little dance moves, counting and re-counting how many vials of Zydrate she'd managed to collect before they'd had to start running, making sure all her equipment was still intact, counting cracks in the pavement, and other various things to keep herself occupied.

She was leaning against a wall with her arms crossed humming one of her favorite Blind Mag songs to herself when she heard footsteps. She stopped humming and looked in the direction they were coming from. She knew they couldn't possibly belong to Graverobber, because they weren't nearly heavy enough. They sounded more like they were being made by female shoes. "Dixie, is that you?" she called. When she got no response, she tried again, this time with a different name. "Annabel?"

But it wasn't Dixie or Annabel Lee, or even Marie, who came into view.

It was Amber.

She stopped and looked around, eyes narrowed. "Graverobber!" she called. "Graverobber, you no-good son of a bitch, where the hell are you?!"

"He's not here right now," Shilo said.
Amber's head whipped in her direction.

"Who the hell are you?" the older girl demanded.
"I'm his new partner," the teenager replied. "You can call me Beetlejuice."

"You seem familiar..."
"Yeah, I get that a lot."

Amber came closer.

"Where the hell is he?" she demanded. "Why isn't he here?"
"The GeneCops were after us. We split up and agreed to meet back here once we'd both thrown them off our trail. I guess he hasn't gotten rid of them yet."

"How old are you, anyway?"
"Nineteen. I know, I know, I'm small for my age. I come from a petite family."

Amber narrowed her eyes. "How exactly do you know Graverobber?"
"I met him when he was first starting out. I was visiting my mom's grave one night and I saw him extracting and threatened to report him, but he bought my silence by promising not to touch Mom's grave. We saw each other again in the same graveyard a few weeks later and started talking, and we just clicked, and we've been best friends ever since. I'm recently out of a job and decided that hey, graverobbing seems as good a way to make money as any, so why not give it a shot? So he agreed to be my teacher."

There was a pause.

"What's your real name?"
"I can't tell you that."
"And why not?"

"One of the first rules of graverobbing? Keep your identity a secret. Makes it harder for the GeneCops to track you down if fewer people know who you really are. Why do you think he just goes by Graverobber? It certainly isn't for fun, I'll tell you that right now. Although there were these two dealers, Crow and Jett, that were stupid enough not to cover up their real identities while they were climbing through the ranks, so pretty much everyone knows that they're JJ Slater and Wendla Prescott. At least according to Graves. Anyway, since he's not here, is there something I can do for you? Perhaps you'd like to leave a message?"

"Thanks, but I think I'd rather wait until he shows up so I can tell him in person," Amber said, her voice dripping with venom.
Shilo gave a shrug. "Alright," she said, "suit yourself. He could be a while, though, I'm just warning you."

Amber gave no response to this other than a nasty scowl, so Shilo just decided to leave her alone and let her do what she would, just as long as she didn't become a problem. (Well, any more of a problem than she was just by existing, that was.)

Shilo continued leaning against the wall, her head tilted back and her eyes closed. She sighed, then began to absentmindedly hum In All My Dreams I Drown to herself. The song had become somewhat of a lullaby for her ever since Graverobber had first introduced her to it, and he had taught her the lyrics, so she now knew the words as well as he did, and once or twice, they had even made it into a duet simply because they felt like it. He'd said when he first sang it to her that it was his favorite song. Well, she could now say that it was quickly becoming hers, as well.

"Would you cut that out already?" Amber said. "It's giving me a headache."
"Too bad. This is mine and Graves's alley, we'll both do whatever we want in it."

"Why you little—Do you have any idea who you're even talking to?!"
"Of course I do. You're Amber Sweet, formerly the Darling of GeneCo, now its CEO," Shilo replied calmly.

"That is it! If Graverobber doesn't show up in the next—"
"You do know that he doesn't even like you, right?" Shilo interrupted.

Amber blinked. "Excuse you?" she said.

"He never has. He's only ever put up with you. Tolerated you, nothing more. In fact, if anything, he hates your guts, he despises you. He calls you 'Queen Bitch' like all the time. The only reason he tolerated you for so long was because you paid so well, otherwise he would've cut all ties with you years ago. You come strolling in here demanding to see him, as if he'll just come every time you snap your fingers, like some kind of trained pet or something, like you own him."

"If he knows what's good for him, I do own him!"
"No, you don't. You can't own another human being, that's called slavery, and it's been illegal for, like, ever. You know, you may have given up street Zydrate, but this is the second time you've come back down to this alley. Shilo Wallace and your hunt for her can't possibly be the only reason for it. If you ask me, there's something else going on, and I'm pretty sure it has something to do with Graverobber. In fact, Amber, if you ask me, I think you've got a thing for him."

"Me? Have a thing for him? Are you kidding me?! Have you seen the man?! He's a complete mess! Literally! He's covered in dirt and smells like dead bodies and garbage, and his hair is absolutely disgusting! Of course I don't have a thing for him! You crazy little bitch, how dare you even suggest something like that?!"

"Yeah. Yeah, it's there, I can see it. You've totally got a thing for Graves. Well guess what, Sweet? You can't. Fucking. Have him."

Amber stomped up to Shilo and stood staring at her, hands on her hips. Shilo stared back defiantly with her arms crossed. "What," Amber said, "did you just say, you little shit?"

"You heard me. Bitch."

For several moments, they just stood there staring each other down, neither girl speaking.

"Now you listen here, shortie," Amber said finally, "I always get what I want. Always. What the fuck makes you think this is going to be any different, huh?"

"Because this time, I'm part of the equation," Shilo replied. "And guess what? I can be stubborn as all hell when I want to be. I won't back down. And unlike you, I actually care about him. Not only that, but I know him. I know what he likes, what he doesn't like, his favorite food, favorite song and book, hell, I've seen him without his makeup and know what his favorite t-shirt looks like, I even know what underwear he sleeps in. You think you can beat that? You don't know the first damn thing about him! I know his real name, that's how much he trusts me! I'm his best friend, he's said so himself! And you? You're just some selfish, hooked-on-Zydrate, addicted-to-the-knife, whiny, childish, bitchy little slut that he hates more than anything or anyone in the world! You're nothing to him, he likes to come up with ways to get away with murdering you as a way to let off steam when he's even more pissed off than he usually is! That's what you are to him, you filthy whore!"

"...Oh my God," Amber said. "Oh. My. God. You—You love him, don't you?!"
Shilo stared at her with hard eyes. "What I do or do not feel for him," she said finally, "is none. Of your. Concern. He's my best friend. He's been there for me when I've needed him, and I couldn't possibly ask for better. I'm lucky to have him in my life. That's all you need to know about it."

Amber opened her mouth to speak, but before anything could come out, the sound of heavy footsteps running in their direction interrupted the exchange between the two girls. They turned towards the source just in time to see Graverobber come stumbling around the corner howling with laughter like a complete madman. Amber and Shilo couldn't help but exchange a confused look. Graverobber's eyes and grin both widened when he saw Shilo, and he stumbled up to where the girls were standing, bringing his hands down on the teenager's shoulders.

"You shoulda seen it, kid!" he exclaimed. "It was great! I led the bastards straight to Crow and Jett's main stomping ground, and the fuckheads were both there with a shitload of their clients! The whole fucking lot of them got fucking arrested, and the GeneCops were so fucking distracted by those idiots that they totally forgot about me and I got away without a Goddamn scratch! It was fan-fucking-tastic! What about you, are you alright, you get away without too much trouble? Lemme get a look at ya, make sure you didn't get hurt or anything. Hey, what's that on your arm, is that a scrape? Where the hell did that come from, did they do that to—"

"Graves," Shilo whispered. "In case you haven't noticed yet, Amber's right here. I kind of said some shit I probably shouldn't have, so she's real pissed right now, probably at both of us, and I'm about to do something to kind of drive the point of some of what I said home. It's not gonna be what you expect, but please, just go with it, okay?"

"What do you mean?"
"Just trust me on this."

Having said this, she grabbed him by the front of his shirt and pulled him down to her level, smashing her lips against his. Part of her wondered vaguely if the dark red of her lipstain would mix with the purple of his lip crayon and leave some funny colored stain on either of their faces, but then she just asked herself what the hell kind of question that was, especially at a time like this. Well, it certainly wasn't how she'd imagined her first kiss, but it wasn't exactly a train wreck, either. Graverobber, at least, knew what he was doing, and that helped things. When they pulled apart, he stared at her in wonder, and she stared back.

"You see?" she said without breaking eye contact with him, though he and Amber both knew it wasn't directed at him. After a moment, she was able to tear her gaze away from him to look at Amber.

"You see?" she repeated. "Like I said, you're nothing to him. He never liked you, only tolerated you."

"Then explain," Amber said, "all those times he fu—"
"You were an easy lay," Graverobber said suddenly, because God dammit, it was the truth.

He shook his head as he turned to look at Amber. "She's right," he said. "I never gave a shit about you. You had money and you were an easy lay. That was it. You've never been anything more than that to me. Just go. Get the hell out of my sights, don't ever come back. And if you do, I swear, I'll...I'll...I'll beat your skank ass straight into the next fucking century, no questions asked. Kid, let's get outta here. Forget about the junkies, they got by without me for a week, they can go one damn night without a fix. They'll be fine, let's just go. Come on."

GOD, WHAT THE HELL KIND OF MOVIE IS THIS THAT MY BROTHER PUT ON?! WHAT EVEN IS THE FUCKING PLOT, I'M MORE FUCKING CONFUSED THAN I WAS THE FIRST TIME I TRIED TO TELL ONE OF MY FRIENDS THE NAME OF EACH WOE MAIDEN AND I COULDN'T REMEMBER WHICH NAME WENT WITH WHICH GIRL WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK LIKE I CAN'T EVEN WITH THIS DAMN MOVIE