A/N: This chapter takes place following the episode "Woke Up Dead." Keep your fingers crossed that I haven't written anything that ends up being contradicted in the next episode (btw, I know I posted two chapters one right after the other, but don't expect another until after next Tuesday). I was going to stop watching the entire show due to immense disappointment with many aspects that I won't enumerate here, but the previews of the next episode convinced me to continue. Furthermore, if Aly and AJ weren't sisters IRL, and very predictably probably going to end up being related on the show, I would totally have their characters hook up. ROFL at my inappropriateness. Good luck trying to get that image out of your heads now that I put it there, and I apologize (but not really).

"I feel like we never talk anymore." Savannah burst through the door to our room sans Dan.

I looked up from the scribbled pages of guitar tabs I had spread out on my bed, "Huh?"

"You've been keeping to yourself a lot lately."

"I have a lot on my mind…dad stuff…Wanda stuff…law school stuff."

"Why don't you want to talk about it? Dan said you've barely talked about it with him and when you did-"

"You've been talking about me with Dan?"

"Yeah…well…we…oh no, are you mad?" She fumbled over her words and came to sit down on the edge of my bed.

I was mad, but I didn't know why. I had thought it was stupid when she was mad that Dan and I talked about her and here I was being pissed about the exact same thing. "No, I'm not mad. Whatever."

"You're mad. I can tell you're mad. I didn't mean it like we've been saying bad things or anything like that. We're both just wondering what exactly is going on."

"Nothing," I snapped.

"You've been acting different. You're all distant…from everyone."

"You're with Dan all the time, so what does it matter? I'm surprised either of you noticed."

She paused, "Is this about Dan? Do you still like him?"

"What the fuck, Savannah? No." I got up and gathered the music and then put my dad's guitar in its case. I slung my backpack over my shoulder and then stormed out. Alice was standing outside of the door, obviously listening, but I didn't acknowledge her. I didn't have time for one of her bullshit circular conversations.

Savannah followed me, "Where are you going? Why won't you talk to me?"

"I'm going to stay at Wanda's," I said before slamming the front door.

I walked the few blocks to The Rat and headed straight for my mother. She was wiping down a table in the back that had just vacated. She looked up, "What is it, honey? You got that look on your face like you're gonna explode."

"Can I borrow your keys and go to your place?" I said as calmly as I could.

"You wanna stay the night again? I figured you'd have had enough of me after a few days. Did somethin' happen?"

"Just give me the keys. I'll come pick you up at close. Everyone in Cheertown is annoying me."

She eyed me and didn't hand them over, "You've been real mad lately and I think you're directin' it at all the wrong people…honestly thought you'd be madder at me."

My phone started ringing. I glanced at it and hit ignore when I saw it was Savannah. I glared at my mom as she tried to look and see who it was. "Do you not want me to spend the night? Do you have plans with Travis?"

"Marti…" She sighed and pulled her keys from her apron, "I know you've never really talked to me about anything…but we-"

"We?" I interrupted her and reached for the keys.

Snatching them away, she said, "Yes. You've shut yourself off from Dan too-"

"Is everyone talking about me behind my back?"

"He was just worried. You've been disappearing a lot and closing yourself in your room. You don't go out anymore…"

"I'm busy."

She handed over the keys, "If you want to talk-"

"Thanks," I said before she could finish and I walked right back out the way I came in. I rounded the corner and crashed into Dan, of all people.

"Marti, hey!" He exclaimed.

"I don't want to talk about it!" I yelled and kept going.

Everyone wanted to fucking talk. I put my stuff in the backseat of Wanda's car and then sat in the front, taking deep breaths. Instead of driving to Wanda's apartment, I made my way to the guitar store to channel my possibly not dead, heroine addict father, Rex. For some reason, I found it more appealing to focus my thoughts on my dad, who chose drugs over his kid, than anything else at the moment. It made me more depressed than enraged. I was attempting to bottle both feelings, regardless.

Savannah tried calling again and I put my phone on silent then threw it into the passenger seat. Deidre was behind the counter again when I walked into the little hole in the wall place. I clutched Rex's guitar and stood in the doorway as she looked at me awkwardly.

"Do you mind if I sit in here?" I asked her.

"Um…with your guitar?" She asked.

"Yes, obviously. I won't get in the way. I just want to sit. In here. With this guitar. It isn't really mine. It was my dad's."

"I guess it's fine. People don't often ask to sit in here." The blonde girl didn't move from behind the register, but she watched me carefully as I crossed in front of her and went to the wall where I had pulled off the set list of the elusive Rex Perkins.

"Do you have a chair or a stool or something?" I asked. "Helps for the sitting part."

"Sure…" She disappeared somewhere and then came back with a stool.

The girl seemed confused by my general existence, or perhaps I was just attributing my own feelings to her because I was confused by my general existence at the moment. I probably did seem like a weirdo though. I did come in, ask a bunch of questions, and then take something off of the wall and leave abruptly the last time I came in.

"Sorry about borrowing that set list," I said.

She shrugged, "How long are you going to sit here?"

"Dunno." I pulled out my dad's guitar, hopped on the stool, and then held it on my lap.

"Well…I'll be over here," she pointed back to the counter and register before walking in that direction.

"Ok…" And then I sat there like a weirdo in the guitar shop. A few people trickled in and out, but no one paid me any mind.

After a while Deidre came back over to me with her hands in her pockets, "So…did you figure out anything about your dad?"

"No," I lied. Impulsively. Like I do.

"Oh, ok…" she paced toward one of the guitar walls like she had been heading in that direction to start with and only spoke to me in passing.

I looked back down at my dad's guitar and felt the strings. They were shit. They were over a decade old. If I tried to strum the thing, they would surely break and pop me in the eye, blinding me forever. I called after the bizarre employee, "Hey, I'll buy some acoustic strings. I should at least buy something for loitering here."

"They're over here," she said.

I got off the stool and put the guitar away again. Going over to the rack, I picked out some strings and then proceeded to the register. I paid and then bade farewell to Deidre. As I put the guitar back into the back of the car, I glanced over my shoulder and saw her standing at the door, watching me. Maybe she wasn't watching me, maybe she was looking outside, but it definitely felt like she was watching me. It was likely that I was being paranoid, since everyone was out to get me today. I definitely felt oddly persecuted.

When I checked my phone, I saw that Savannah called three more times, followed by Dan. Then, to my surprise, Alice called. If one more Hellcat called, I would have to assume that Cheertown had caught fire or that something else equally ridiculous had happened relating to the squad. Unless that happened, I had no plans to return anyone's calls.

Travis had the day off and was sitting on the couch eating potato chips and drinking a beer when I walked in.

"Staying here again tonight?" He asked, not looking away from the screen.

"Yep." I dropped my things on the floor inside the door.

"Couch or bed?"

"Doesn't matter. I just don't want to sleep at Cheertown."

"Cheerleaders picking on you?"

"What? No." I responded and pulled a beer from the fridge.

"What is it then? I'm surprised you keep coming here. I thought you'd be more mad at your mom."

"She said the same thing…" I mumbled and sat down next to him.

"Sorry about everything with your dad. It must suck."

"Yeah, a little."

"People suck."

"True."

He held up his beer for a toast, "To people sucking."

"To people sucking," I agreed and we clinked the bottles together lightly.

"I was in prison over some dumb shit. Your dad was shit." He paused, "How's school? Is it shit too?"

"It's a lot of work. It always has been."

"How's the cheerleading? What's your aversion to Cheertown these days?"

I took a huge gulp of the beer and wondered why I was talking to Travis when I hadn't talked to anyone. I talked to Dan briefly before having an explosion of feelings all over him and turning into an incoherent, idiotic, crying mess. Shit, I hoped that didn't happen with Travis. "Everyone's just annoying me. I can't get anything done there and I can't think."

He accepted my half-lie willingly, "You've seemed a little ruffled lately. Is it all of the dad shit?"

"I guess."

"You guess? Is it also some other shit?"

I took too long to respond, which was basically saying, "Yes, there is other shit."

"You don't have to tell me," he said.

I couldn't snap at Travis like I did everyone else. He had been in prison, and he hadn't really done anything. He was just trying to be nice. I guess everyone else was too, but I just couldn't take it.

He didn't ask again and instead said, "You picking up your mom or should I stop drinking and go get her?"

"If you don't mind…" I looked at him and pouted.

"You're insufferable."

"The keys are on the counter." I grinned. I felt minimally better. I don't know why. It wasn't like I told him anything at all. "Travis?"

"Yep?"

There was something about how he talked to me. There was no bullshit, no obligation, nothing to piss me off. "You remember how we sort of talked after the wedding?"

"Yeah."

I almost blabbed it right then that I had a stupid crush on my roommate, who was also my best friend's girlfriend. Half a beer had made my tongue a bit loose, "Nevermind."

"Alright. Chip?" He offered me the bag.