Today, Dwayne waited outside of the school for Sarah instead of at the bus stop, where he had waited the previous day. "So what did you tell Mr. Big shot?" she asked as she walked towards him.

"I told him that you had a boyfriend and were basically happy that way," he said.

"Cool, how'd he take it?"

"Well, he said that he was going to try to get you to dump your boyfriend," Dwayne said. "All of the people at this school have some sort of forbidden fruit complex."

"What makes you say that?" asked Sarah. They walked towards the bus stop and saw the #16 approaching the stop ahead of them.

"Fuck," sad Dwayne, then he started running towards the bus, Sarah following after him. They barely made it, but they did, and they made their way down the bus to Dwayne's usual area in the back corner. Sarah was slightly out of breath as they sat down, but Dwayne wasn't, considering he had adapted to running while pushing a bus, so running after one was not a problem.

"So, back to what you said, what makes you think that everyone has a forbidden fruit complex?" asked Sarah.

"Here, take a look at this, Tracey Adams wrote it in English," he handed her his English essay, pointing out the note in red pen that she had written.

"You really know how to treat a girl? No offense, but what a slut!"

"None taken, that's what I was thinking too, she drives me berserk!"

"Why?"

"Because she's a slut, but she's still smarter then me, and it just annoys me!" Dwayne sighed and sat back further in his seat, putting his feet up on the back of the seat in front of him.

"Don't worry about it, you're a great person, and you're plenty smart, don't let her get to you." Sarah tried to comfort him.

"It's funny, it never really bugged me before."

"You just feel a little threatened by her."

"But why now?"

"She spoke to you, she's never done that before, and you're threatened by the unknown."

"Yeah, you're probably right, but still…"

"Trust me, you could have worse problems." Sarah put one hand on his shoulder and squeezed it a little. Dwayne turned to her.

"Sorry, confusion pisses me off, I don't like being in the dark on things."

"You're telling me?" Sarah smiled.

"Good point; you would understand fear of the unknown to a great extent, wouldn't you?"

"Yeah." She nodded, and Dwayne gave her a sideways hug, and again, she put her head on his shoulder, smiling. He put his head on top of hers.

"Eh hem," the man sitting a few seats away coughed in their general direction.

"What?" Dwayne asked the man.

"Just remember, you're in a public place here son."

"Aw come on! We weren't doing anything; we just had a bad day, ok?" The man didn't respond to Dwayne, but looked away.

"That's an uptight man! I've seen much worse PDA on the bus, hell, I've done worse PDA then this, though not by much," said Sarah.

"PDA?"

"Public displays of affection, I thought everyone knew that term," Sarah smiled.

"Well, it's me, I don't tend to know things like that." Dwayne reached up to pull the cord, signaling that they needed to get off at the next stop.

"Yeah, but it's fairly universal, you need to talk more."

"I talk plenty…to you, and Frank."

"Maybe you should try getting friends."

"I don't trust people," said Dwayne.

"You trust me?" asked Sarah, standing.

"I think so," said Dwayne, pulling himself to his standing height, the slinging his backpack over his shoulders, he and Sarah moved towards the side door of the bus.

"You think so?" she asked him.

"I think that I do, but I also think that I need to get to know you a little better first," he reasoned as he walked off of the bus. Today, Sarah walked next to him instead of behind him.

"But you didn't need to know me better to make out with me?" asked Sarah, slightly hurt.

"No, that's not how it is. I didn't mean, I just, well, I dunno what, but you need to know that for me, giving people my trust is really, really hard. Please believe that I'm trying really hard to give it to you, I really do care about you, ok?" Dwayne had no clue where these words were coming from, but they sounded right to him.

"Ok, ok, I'm just not, well, used to our situation yet. You are so much different from all of the guys that I have been with before, it's entirely new to me to be attracted to you so strongly." Dwayne stopped walking and kissed Sarah lightly. Then he took her hand and they walked around the remaining blocks to the house. "So, you and Olive seem pretty close from the way you talk about her, but considering she's a product of Richard and your mom, it's a wonder you don't hate her."

"Hate her? I could never hate her. It's not her fault that those are her parents, they just are. Besides, she really cares about the whole family, which means that she cares about me. Before Frank, that made her the only person in the house to care." Dwayne adjusted the straps on his back pack nervously as he walked.

"Dwayne, trust me, she wasn't the only one to care about you. I'm sure your mom cares about you, and Richard probably does too." Sarah looked at Dwayne empathetically.

"They might have, but they didn't, and actually still don't, seem to appreciate me for who I am. When they first saw that I had dyed my hair black, mom screamed, Richard got a disgusted look on his face, and Olive loved it, she smiled at me, and told me that it looked great. Also, she always has time to look at my paintings and actually think about them. Mom always just says something along the lines of 'ok, that's lovely', though usually, my paintings shouldn't be described by the word lovely." Dwayne felt a little awkward telling all of this to Sarah. He had never told anyone these things before, and he wasn't sure why they were coming out now. It perplexed him greatly.

"Dwayne, are you ok?"

"Yeah, why?"

"You look, well, confused I guess? and maybe a little sick."

"Oh, no, I'm just a little shocked. I've never told anyone this stuff before, I've never had anyone to tell it to, actually.:

"Do you feel better?" Sarah was so confused by Dwayne. His emotions were all over the place. Once minute he was happy, the next he was angst ridden.

"Yeah, I guess so, it's just new to me, you understand."

"Sort of yeah, I think I know what you mean." There was short, but awkward silence. "So…what time does Frank get home?"

"Uh, about 4:30." Dwayne took his key out of his pocket and turned it in to the lock.

"Well, that gives us just under an hour," said Sarah, walking through the door and putting her back pack down on a chair in the kitchen.

"Yeah, I guess so." Dwayne stood awkwardly, a few feet away from Sarah.

"Well? Do you want to talk? Watch TV? Do math homework?" Sarah put her arms around Dwayne, who smiled.

"Was that euphemism?" he asked, referring to the math homework.

"Depends, do you want it to be?"

"I dunno, do you?" he smiled. He knew that he did, but he wanted her to be comfortable.

"Might as well be," she shrugged, and kissed him right there in the living room. Quickly, the moved on to the couch. She sat on his lap, her hands holding his face, and his arms were around her waist. "Oh, hold on." Sarah jumped up quickly and ran to her purse, pulling out her cell phone.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm setting my cell phone alarm for 4:20 so that we don't get taken by surprise again."

"Oh, good plan." Sarah finished, then walked back over to the couch. Putting her phone on the table next to the couch, she sat back down on Dwayne's lap.