Sorry for the long hiatus. Hopefully you don't hate me too much! I will try to update soon. Thanks for sticking with us (us being the Covenant crew & me, Bells!)!


"Reid, where the hell are you? You didn't do something stupid that will come back to bite us, did you?" Caleb asked with forced calm, phone cupped inconspicuously in his large palm, trying not to draw attention to himself in the crowded lunch room. When Reid hadn't shown up for an explanation and Tyler's Hummer was gone, he'd put two and two together and had come up with Negative Reid.

"No. Kay asked me to come over, so I did." Reid defended himself quietly, glancing over his shoulder to where Kay was in her bathroom, changing into a pair of jeans and an old hoodie of his. He smirked as his eyes glazed over black, showing her pulling on a pair of blue jeans over cute boy shorts.

"Reid…" Caleb warned, feeling the Power. "Is she alright? Does she need us? Why are you Using?" Caleb asked, standing and starting to gather his books. Tyler, Pogue and the girls followed suit, having all been listening to their leader's phone conversation with the youngest member.

"Naw, Caleb, she's fine. A little shook up, but I'm with her. It's cool."

"It can't be too cool. I felt you Use." Caleb accused in a low voice, scanning the lunch room for professors as the table reseated themselves. Tyler was staring at him like a thirsty man in the desert looks at a frappachino.

"So?" Caleb sighed into the phone, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Reid, is she alright? We're all worried." Tyler looked about to explode from lack of knowledge.

Reid looked down at Kay, who had reentered the room and was sitting in front of him on her bed, large eyes peering up at him as he spoke into the tiny piece of technology.

"Yeah. She's better now." Covering the mouthpiece of the phone, he questioned Kay "Want to go to school?" and was rewarded with a tiny smirk and a head shake. He took his hand from the mouthpiece. "But she still needs someone with her, so I think I'm gonna hang here a while."

"Fine. I'll take care of calling you off. Tyler wants to talk to you."

"Fine. Put him on."

Caleb discreetly passed the phone to the younger boy, scowling.

"Reid, what's going on? How's Kay? Has she told you what happened?"

"Yeah, she told me. She's okay now."

"Not crying? No shaking? Is she talking?" Tyler questioned with a furrowed brow, worried about his sister.

"Ty, do you want to talk to her?" Reid asked with a sigh. Kay shook her head vehemently, mouthing the word 'no'.

"Yeah-"

"Never mind." Reid cut him off.

"What?"

"She doesn't want to- I mean, she's in the bathroom." Reid tried to cover midway through as Kay slapped a hand to her forehead in frustration.

"Rei-" Tyler started threateningly, but again Reid cut in.

"Sorry, Baby Boy. Gotta go – got a hot date." And the bad boy hung up on him.

"My God. He's leaving my sister alone to go on a date." Tyler said disgustedly, not realizing the significance of Reid's words and shoving Caleb's phone back at the older boy.

"I bet Kay's loving that…" Lyra murmured to Kate and Sarah, who both nodded in agreement. That boy would never realize what was right in front of him…


"I thought you had some date you were blowing Kay off for. Didn't figure the Whore Express had come to a stop yet." Tyler asked coldly as he pushed by his best friend in the locker room a few hours later. Reid, who had been thinking about a certain brunette with whom he had just spent an entire day holding and loosing thumb wars to, looked at Tyler confusedly.

"Uh, what?" He asked, oblivious.

"Who did you leave Kay for?" Tyler asked, voice icy and sharp.

"Hey, I resent that. I haven't done ANYTHING." Reid defended, assuming he was being accused of cheating on his fiancé.

"Yeah, you're right. You just left my little sister alone all day." Tyler muttered disgustedly, leaving Reid at his locker, one leg in his Speedo and a confused look on his face.

"What? I was with her the whole day." Reid again defended himself, pulling on his Speedo and following Tyler out onto the pool deck. "Look for yourself. I even brought her here. She's in the front row of the bleachers."

"God, Reid! Are you fucking stupid? Why would you bring her here?! Abbot's in our fucking lane! Were you thinking at all?" Tyler chewed him out as he took in the sight of his little sister in one of Reid's hoodies, curled up in the front row of the stone bleachers. She waved at them shyly. "You have to take her home, get her away from him."

"How was I supposed to know he'd be at practice? I thought the guy was smart enough to stay away from us! He wasn't there this morning and he wasn't at school!" Reid defended himself, returning Kay's wave and gesturing that they had to talk. "I couldn't leave her alone."

"You could've called Kate or Sarah-"

"Tyler, I get it. You're worried about her. So am I. That's why she's here – so Sarah and Kate and your girlfriend can look after her. Now where are they?" Tyler's mouth opened and closed in amazement a few times before he pursed his lips, his face taking on a look of determination as he scanned the surprisingly well-populated stone stands that overlooked the pool.

MEANWHILE, IN THE STANDS

"Reid-" Kay sighed, a small smile on her face as she whispered his name across the pool. He heard her anyway and looked over. Their eyes met, and a tiny, relieved smile made its way to his lips, lighting up his whole face. She swung herself under the railing that separated the pool from the stone bleachers and started toward him, her smile growing with each step.

"Kay?" A voice asked beside her, coming out of the boys' locker room. She glanced to her left and froze. Aaron was staring at her from the entrance to the boys' locker room, obviously having just come into the pool area, eyes wide in shock.

"Kay, we need to talk. I'm s-" He started, hand outstretched, walking to where she was clinging to the railing that separated the pool from the stone bleachers, expression full of remorse. Reid beat him to it.

"Kay, are you okay? Did he say something to you?" He asked in a low whisper out of the side of his mouth as he moved in front of her, shielding her from view and looking surprisingly menacing in just his Speedo. Aaron's brow furrowed, but he ignored Reid.

"Kay, I really-" Reid cut him off.

"Abbot, how fucking stupid are you?" He asked, feeling her hands creep from the metal bars to his left arm, clinging to him. Her terror was goading him into action, making it unbearable not to Use and make whatever was scaring her go away. In this case, Abbot.

"Stay out of this, Garwin!" Aaron snarled, moving so he could see Kay better. Reid countered, keeping himself between Aaron and Kay. Aaron moved again, and again Reid mirrored him, moving so that Kay was between him and the pool.

With a glare, Aaron moved forward toward them, flexing his jaw.

Reid stood his ground, even as Aaron got in his face, staring him down nose to nose. Reid glared at him, barely controlling the urge to Use.

"Get out of my way, Garwin. I just wanna talk to the lady." Aaron.

"Well she doesn't want to talk to you. So turn around, go back to the locker rooms, and play with your fuck buddies on JV." Reid suggested coolly.

"Fuck you, Garwin. Kay-" Reid cut him off.

"Why don't you just turn around and walk away." Reid said menacingly, still up in Aaron's face.

"I'm not done talking to Kay, Garwin." Aaron spat back, glancing around Reid to catch Kay's eye. Except that Kay wasn't looking at him. She was staring at the tiled floor, both hands digging into Reid's bicep in terror, fear washing over her as the memory of his hands on her skin came back, full-force.

Aaron glanced down to see one of her nails break the smooth skin of Reid's bicep, watched the crimson blood begin to trickle down his arm to his wrist, watched Reid not even flinch. He was so busy watching the blood in horrified fascination, he didn't even see Reid's fist before it smashed into his face, breaking his nose and spraying blood all over Kay. Kay finally found her voice.

"Reid! NO!" She threw her full weight on his other arm as he pulled it back for another swing. Not wanting to hurt her, he slackened his arm.

Just as Aaron recovered enough to throw a punch back to him.

It caught him in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him and sending him plummeting into the pool, Kay still latched onto his arm.


Short and with a kind of mean ending - I'm sorry! But I've been working on it a while, and I wanted a little more Aaron conflict in there.

However...

I have NO IDEA where this is going. So, Lovely Readers, for the love of SoI, GIVE ME IDEAS! PLEASE! Or else you will get no updates because I have nothing to give you! I'd rather give you nothing than something awful.