Hey all! I apologize for the lull, I currently have no wi-fi so it's a little difficult to post. Do not worry! While late I will get the chapters in. I appreciate the reviews btw! I was very touched and by the recently adds to favorites, which is another reason it took me a bit to post, I did some revision to this story. Anyway, hope that you all enjoy!

Monday posed as an awry of problems, I didn't catch my normal bus and opted to get across town, avoiding Warren at every cost. People were a buzz with rumors of what happened at homecoming, Layla and Will were the hottest topic and seeing as I was her friend, everyone hoped to get some kind of information out of me. What could I say if I wanted to? Layla's crush wasn't that big of a secret but clearly people were blind. Throughout the day people asked what it felt like to help stop Royal Pain, did I feel like a real hero now? Did Will love Layla? How did the sidekicks get the school back in the air? And finally, at lunch when I thought I was alone, someone dared to ask what I had feared all day.

"Where'd you and Warren sneak off too?"

"Hi Layla, how are you?" I smiled up at her until she took a spot right next to me after setting her bag against the tree.

"I'm serious, it's all anyone has asked me about today.I hadn't even realized you two left until way later on."

"Funny, because all I've been hearing about is you and Will."

"Fair enough," she said and smiled. "C'mon really, what happened?"

"Nothing, nothing happened. I got sick of the dance so we left and hung out elsewhere."

"Then why is Warren stressing so much," she nudged me and i silently prayed that he'd forget and everything would continue as it normally had.

"I don't know Layla, he's a hot head, and I want to be alone."

"I've been calling you all weekend," she looked solemn, so i sighed and said, "I forgot to charge my phone."

It was a lie, but I'd been avoiding my phone since Saturday morning when I turned it on and had several texts and voicemails from Warren. Most of which started off with I'm sorry and please just talk to me, then heading into his heated self as his frustration grew from being ignored. His last voicemail simply said 'Fine.' and was time stated for 3:42 in the morning. I just couldn't bring myself to talk to him all weekend, I felt like an idiot.

Layla told me about Will, how he'd come to realize what he felt and had actually dumped Gwen the night before the dance at his party. He apologized for being a jerk and basically begged for forgiveness, she said she was happy and all was well now.

Dragging myself to my last class of the day I missed when my name was shouted out from down the hall. I stopped at my locker to grab my book, half of me longed to go home, the other half knew what going home meant.

"Kristian," my hand was grabbed and my locker closed, I was being pulled through the crowds of people and out the front doors, down the steps. Warren's hand was burning, and my heart was pounding, this wasn't a conversation I wanted to have, but my blatant attempts to not see him were futile. I tried to protest though, and he pushed me up to the tree we used to sit under, both his hands up and arms encasing me so I can't leave.

"Kristian," he breathed out. I just couldn't look him in the eyes, he'd never understand that I kissed him to block out the sound of Rickman's voice.

"Tin, talk to me."

He'd only see this as him being right, that I'd had an affair with a married man and to top it my soon to be adoptive father. My words tumbled over each other, my mouth just couldn't form words and i felt the heat radiating from him. "I'm sorry," he sighed and his head hung down. "For what I did, I'm sorry."

I tried with everything in me to speak, to at least say it wasn't his fault, something. "Alright," he voice was weak and he pulled away from me, "I'll leave you alone." He walked away and I was screaming inside, my voice had quit and it wasn't coming back to save my friendship. I turned towards the tree and began to cry, what is wrong with me? Looking up, there are singe marks on the bark from where Warren's hands had rested. God, he hated me now.

The thing that can sometimes mess with your head, is when you genuinely want someone to love you. You look for it for most of your life and finding it makes you utterly terrified of losing it. When i walked in the door, only Rickman was home and he asked me to escort him to an evening dinner with an old client. We left immediately so i could get a cocktail dress, of which Rickman said I'd be getting a lot of use seeing as I'd be meeting more people over dinner.

"We've begun to tell friends and family of your impending adoption," Rickman smiled as we drove. My dress laid in my lap, I kept my hand inside the cover used to protect it and felt up and down the material. I couldn't help smiling. "You'll be meeting Ellen's parents next month during the holidays."

"Oh? What about your parents?"

His facial features darkened, his knuckles turned white as he gripped the steering wheel tighter, and I felt myself tense.

"No," he said calmly, "my mother comes every five or so years. Otherwise, you will not see her." I longed to question this but his intensity of the subject frightened me so i remained silent. He began explaining about the client we were off to see, said he had met her several years ago when handling her divorce and she had recently remarried. He told me how she had married young and that her ex husband managed to forge a successful career at which he cheated on her and filed divorce, leaving her nothing. But Rickman was able to get her alimony and kept her from ending up on the streets.

"She was the first divorce case I ever took, an accident because she had mixed my name with another lawyer in the building."

"Her luck," I smiled at him and he smiled back.

Her name is Sheila and her new husband is Jon, she's a blonde with blue eyes and a fuller figure. Jon is tall, with dark hair, glasses and he didn't wear a suit jacket. Sheila talked to Rickman a lot and eventually Jon began talking to me, he made a lot of jokes and told me how Sheila and he had met.

"She was at this pastry place," he started, "her hair was up and she was wearing those really tight pants and an old nirvana t-shirt." He swigged some of his drink and smiled at her, she kissed him and went back to talking some business with Rickman. "She ordered a dozen of something and to be honest, I'd never seen any girl order that much and when I asked her about it, she laughed and said 'every girl secretly wants to on a bad day but is afraid to be judged'. Eventually I got her to have a coffee and when I attempted to eat one of the little sugar covered bread things-"

"It was a cream horn and i only bought six," she laughed and nudged him.

"Still could have allowed me one, my dear," he smirked at her. "Anyhow, I attempted to eat one and she smacked at my hand. So I convinced her to dinner that following week and the rest is history."

"That's very sweet," I smiled at him and he asked me about a boyfriend, if I was in love because i was at the age where it happened. I shook my head and laughed, but as I went to speak, Rickman spoke up "she's much too busy with her school works for that."

Over all, dinner had been nice and the way home Rickman told me how Sheila had been a model for a few years.

"A few years after her divorce she found a decent enough gig and was in several dozen magazines worldwide."

"That's impressive," I smiled and he placed a hand on my knee. I flinched out of habit but he gripped, smiled and released then began into some ridiculous joke. We'd never really bonded this way and to my surprise he did not slip into my room that evening, but it was only one night.

Come Wednesday, the emptiness of Warren hating me really set in and i didn't bother eating. I sat at the tree with scorch marks, feeling strangely exhausted I thought I might fall asleep when Layla and the others strolled over and joined me.

"Sandwich?" Ethan offered but I shook my head no, "Warren was antsy today so we thought we'd find you since we haven't really seen you."

"Sorry," I lied down on my stomach and picked at the grass.

Zac was spacing out, contemplating life perhaps? Hard to say when his face was so focused but he was so...relaxed. Ethan was munching and Magenta was sharing food between him and out-of-this-world Zac. The golden "hero" couple, Layla and Will were fixated on one another. I couldn't help as i thought back to my first day, I had been so anxious I thought for sure I'd mess something up and then I saw Warren sitting alone and thought how lucky that was. And now, months later I was sitting amongst our friends and knowing he wouldn't be here.