Chapter 10

I sat down at one of the stools by the counter in the diner. I closed my eyes, rubbing my temples in frustration.

"Need a drink?"

I nodded as the bar guy sauntered off to fetch a bottle of whiskey, leaving me alone with my thoughts.

And I didn't like their company very much.

I mean, what with Denny's issues, and Chelsea's sudden professions of murder and affection for me, and her desperateness to tell me her little secrets, and my black eye, and all the other crap going on…

"Here you go, sir."

I took the shot glass and threw a five down on the counter. Julia would probably kill me if she caught me here drinking. Then Mirabelle would bring me back from the dead so she could kill me herself. But hey, I hadn't had a drink in ages. And this was as good an excuse as any, right? So with that in mind I ordered another one. Then another one.

When I was on my fourth one, I heard the door open and a familiar voice yell my name.

"Vaughn!"

"Great." I muttered, taking a sip of my drink as Sabrina sat down on the chair beside me, smiling at first then frowning as she saw the growing number of shot glasses piled in front of me. She muttered a hello which I pretended not to hear, turning my back to her.

She cleared her throat. "I saw you come in here and you looked kind of down...I just wondered if maybe you wanted to talk about things…?"

I put my empty glass down. "Sabrina, you are the last person I want to talk about things with."

She stared at me for a moment, then nodded. "I understand. You're still upset because I dumped you. But I didn't think you'd care so much-"

I let out an aggravated yell that almost made her jump out her hideous excuse for an outfit. "You don't understand anything! I couldn't care less about you! And we never went out, so stop acting like we did, alright?"

She sat there with her mouth hanging open. I ordered another two drinks and drowned them in seconds. She turned towards the counter and quietly placed an order for a drink of her own. We sat there in silence for a while, just sipping our drinks...

I glanced over at Sabrina again. She was starting to look less like a person and more like some kind of purple blob. I slumped forwards, my head on the counter, slurring something along the lines of damn the world and all the idiots that inhabit it. Sabrina-the-blob turned towards me and put a hand on my shoulder.

"Maybe we should get out of here…"

"And go where, huh? I have noooothingggg…"

"…You have me..."

Okay, I can hear you all groaning and thinking how irritating she is. And believe me, I agree. But at the time I was starting to get quite tipsy and I guess I somehow found this charming, because the next thing I remember was us staggering out of the Diner, arms around each other. She grabbed my arm and started leading me towards the well in the middle of the area, but about halfway there she tripped, pulling me down with her.

We just laid there on the ground for a minute, our faces within inches of each other. And then we started kissing. I don't know who kissed who first, so don't ask. It's bad enough I have to admit this happened…But midway into our little drunken… thing…, I heard sobbing. We both glanced up and on the other side of the well was Chelsea, her back to us. I could've just as well let her be, she probably didn't see us anyways since it was so dark out.

But no, I had to shout out "Heeeyyyy… wanna join us?" waving as I did so. She turned around and the look on her face was just devastating. She stopped crying, She didn't even make a sound. All she did was stare at us with this really dead look on her face, then walk off. I shrugged and went back to Sabrina, completely unaware of how screwed I had just made my life.

x-x-x-x

When I opened my eyes, the first thing I noticed was how crappy I felt. My eye was pulsing and my head was throbbing. I tried to sit up and the second thing I noticed was…

I had no idea whose bed I was on.

I blinked, trying to get rid of the bleariness in my vision, then glanced to the side. Sitting next to me on the puffy, obnoxiously frilly pink quilt was Sabrina. She yawned, then gave me a smile.

"Good morning Vaughn! How are you feeling?"

I could have strangled her. I got as far as putting my hands on her shoulder, at least. She gave me a confused look.

"What's wrong?"

"Why the hell am I sitting on your bed?"

"…Because you wanted to?"

I narrowed my eyes. "Come again?"

"Well last night I asked if you wanted me to take you back to the animal shop and you said something about not wanting to bother, so…So I brought you here instead!"

I shoved her backwards against the wall in frustration and stood up, rubbing my head. "You stupid idiot!"

She made a whimpering noise. I turned to her again. "Don't you remember when I told you I wanted nothing to do with you? So where the hell would you get the idea that I'd want to spend even one SECOUND here with you?"

"You acted like you did last night…"

"While I was inebriated! Even an idiot like you should know not to listen to someone when they're drunk!"

She put a hand to her chin. "So you were drunk when you told me to stay away from you..?" She gave me a hopeful smile. Probably thought she was being cute or something. I just shook my head and turned towards the door. I could hear her scrambling off of the bed and chasing after me. "W-wait! You're not leaving me, are you…?"

I waited until she had caught up to me, then slammed the door in her face.

x-x-x-x

"Vaughn!" The moment I turned the doorknob and stepped foot in the store, Julia ran up to me and threw her arms around me.

"Where have you been?" I heard Mirabelle's voice calling from the kitchen. She walked up to us and crossed her arms. "Do you know how worried we were?"

"What, I can't go out for a few hours without everyone panicking?" I asked. I didn't mean to be short with her, but I really wasn't in the mood to be nagged. Julia let go of me, looking almost as mad as her mother.

"You told me you'd be back quickly! I was worried about you! And now look at how bad your eye is!" She said, copying Mirabelle's stance.

I glowered at them. "It's not a big deal. Not like you two were out looking for me."

This got me a slap in the face from Mirabelle. "Now you listen here, Vaughn! I've looked after you for a long time now, and when you do these kinds of things, well…I don't appreciate it! You know what it's like, having to deal with this stupid tough guy act of yours? Worrying about if you're okay? If you're happy? It's not easy, trying to guess what you're thinking all the time!"

I stood there and glared at them for a long moment. "Sorry I bothered you."

"No, that's not what I meant-"

I turned and walked back out the door, slamming it behind me. As my luck would have it, Chelsea was standing right there, staring me down.

"What?"

"What the hell is your problem?" She screamed, taking a step forward so that she was right in my face. "You think you can just toy with my feelings like that?" I gave her a look like I didn't know what she was talking about. This seemed to make her even angrier. "Last night? You making out with Sabrina? And then going home with her?"

"Oh." She took a step back, still fuming. I shook my head. "Well it's not like we did anything. Besides, you're still with that fish head, so I don't know how you can stand here and patronize me!."

"Because I told you how I felt, and you just rubbed your little fling with Sabrina in my face! And after you told me you didn't have any interest in her, too!"

"I was drunk. I had no idea what I was doing."

"Oh, so now you're a drunk too!"

I was really getting pissed off with this. I took a step towards her this time. "No I am not a drunk, the only reason I got drunk was because you keep dragging meinto your problems! So get the hell off of my back, and stop putting all of your problems on me, because it's driving me nuts!"

She stared at me, trying to think of a comeback. I didn't give her a chance.

"You know what? I've had it with you, and Sabrina, and Julia and Mirabelle….So tell anyone who cares that I'm leaving this island...

And this time, I'm not coming back."