You know how sometimes teenagers do stupid things? Well, Wes is sixteen going on seventeen in this story. It was bound to happen sooner or later.

I hope you enjoy!

Warnings: Talks about murder and death, talks about depression, child abuse, underaged drinking. Still in the process of writing so check here for new warnings as I go!

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Drumming his pen on his notebook Wes found himself staring out the window as he waited for Connor to show up. The last thing he wanted to do after school on a Monday was spend time with the other teen. He had much better things to do. Like lie face down in bed contemplating how long would have to pass before his brain started to leak out of his ears. It was a very important scientific study he was working on.

Alright, so it was just something that was distracting him from the thoughts that he couldn't push away no matter how hard he tried. After he had talked to Clary he had tried his best to go back to ignoring anything and everything that had to do with his mother and birth family. He had figured he just needed to vent a little about all of it before things went back to the way they had always been.

He was wrong. Despite the fact that the two of them had spent the rest of the day and the next together talking about anything but that he couldn't stop himself. Every silent moment had his mind asking more and more questions that he was never going to get an answer to. Questions he still wasn't sure he wanted answers to.

His mind just wouldn't let him stop though. Over and over his thoughts repeated until they sounded more like white noise than anything else. How was is possible that talking to his friend had made everything worse? Shouldn't opening up help make things clearer or something like that? He'd take anything at that point.

Well, almost anything. He still couldn't believe that he was in the library after school on the one day he was supposed to have to himself. He couldn't remember exactly why he and Clary had decided that was the day they designated to spending time alone or with people that weren't each other, but it was and he had actually been looking forward to it.

Normally he'd end up just walking around the city trying to find new places that he didn't know about. He had other friends outside of his friend that he could hang out with, but out of all of them he knew she was the only one that was going to be in his life for the rest of it. It just made sense that they spent a lot of time together. Anyway, he wasn't exactly the best at making new friends and that was perfectly okay with him. He'd rather one real friend over a hundred people that were just there to fill space.

At least that was the case until recently. Now he was waiting around for a guy that he didn't get along with. Apparently he had a doctors appointment at their usual meeting time on Wednesday and wanted to do it on Tuesday. Which would have totally made sense if not for the fact that they had already met up the day before and would be meeting up again on Friday. They could have just had two meetings that week instead of three, but no. Connor did not like that idea.

Wes really hadn't wanted to do it, but he had already been able to hear the fight the other man would start and it just wasn't worth it to him. There was already too much on his mind to even try and deal with whatever Connor would think to throw at him.

There was also the fact that he had no idea what either of them would do if they butted heads like that. It wasn't as if he couldn't hold his own in a fight, but if he could avoid it that was exactly what he was going to do. Anyway, the two of them already didn't particularly like each other. Any kind of fight or disagreement would just end badly and there were far too many months ahead where they had to deal with each other to start a fight now.

The longer he waited though the more he wished he lied and said he had to do something for his parents. Connor might not like it but he also wouldn't fight it either. The guy was odd like that. Wes couldn't say he understood anything about him at all. He was just kind of there. It was like he had his own set of rules that he had never bothered to tell anyone else about.

Maybe. If he was honest, it was all just guess work when it came to him. He wouldn't even know where to start in trying to figure the man out and they had been working together for the last few weeks. And he had done everything that he could think of to try to find a way to start figuring out the guy. Outside of performing an actual interrogation he didn't know what else he was supposed to be doing.

Early on in his life he had learned that the last thing he should do was judge something solely from one encounter. Just because he acted the way he did during their meetings didn't mean that was how he normally acted. Wes could admit that he wasn't at his finest during them either. He wouldn't want Connor to judge him based off of them either.

At the same time though, he had also learned that first encounters were very helpful in figuring a person out. They not only showed you how best to approach the person that you were dealing with, but they also showed the type of person they wanted the world to see them as. At least they did when they were having a formal introduction.

Connor was different. In every single way he threw those thoughts right out the window. It was as if he didn't want anyone to know anything about him so he just blended in perfectly in every way possible. No matter where he was or who he was with he belonged there. He did nothing to stand out from the crowd or fall into the background until no one remembered his name. Just perfectly in the middle the entire time.

It was the reason Clary didn't like him at all. She could say it was because he was annoying and loved to contradict her at every turn, but Wes knew better. She hated him for the same reason Wes hated him. They could see that they were never really getting to talk to him. It was always whatever front he had decided he needed to put up around them.

A front that usually consisted of him being a huge jerk to the both of them. He didn't want to think about what they gave off that the man thought doing that around them was a good idea. Unless it was because he thought it would get them to give up on him. Which was completely possible. Clary had already done that and, one more than one occasion, Wes had thought about doing it himself.

Every time he started to go down that road though his brain kicked in and he started to think about everything he knew about Connor. Like the fact that despite having a handful of friends none of them knew anything about him. He kind of just fluttered around the school. There was no real rhyme or reason to what he did. In an odd way he reminded Wes of Aunt Hetty. A person with a hand in every cookie jar they could get within their reach.

Over his lifetime he had heard almost every single person in his family complain about that part of Aunt Hetty. The aloofness it brought up in every interaction she did. The way it made all of them question how she actually felt about them. The way she so easily dismissed the concerns from the people around her. It rarely ended well.

Not to say they didn't love her. All of them did. Even at their most frustrated they would never walk away from her. She was a part of their family and if there was one thing they all took seriously it was their family. He didn't think there was anything that Aunt Hetty could do to get them to walk away from her.

Connor, wasn't exactly the same. He was just a guy that Wes happened to know at school. There was nothing tying them together emotionally so walking away from him wouldn't be all that difficult. At least it wouldn't be for anyone other than him.

The fact of the matter though was not only did Wes love a good story; he loved a good puzzle. Being able to slide all the pieces together when no one else could was like nothing else. Knowing that as soon as everything was fit together he would know things that the others might not want anyone else to see was one of his favorite things. He didn't want to use the knowledge for anything. He just wanted the knowledge in and of itself.

Every time he started to think about Connor though he felt like he shouldn't care. The man had made it clear where he stood on their whole relationship so it shouldn't be that hard for him to walk away. It was all too obvious that caring would only end with him getting hurt in the end. He knew that it wouldn't be long before it got to be too late.

Just like he knew his dad was right. He should walk away. It wasn't like he wouldn't get another chance to organize a party. They did it in the past and they'd do it again in the future. That wasn't going to change. The prom wasn't that important and Clary would understand if he backed out.

He couldn't though. With all of those thoughts echoing around in his mind he couldn't bring himself to walk away. Mostly because it wasn't the organizing the prom that was keeping him there. As much as he hated to admit it, even to himself, he knew the reason he hadn't given up on the whole thing was the very reason he wanted to give up. He was sticking around because of Connor.

The other teen was the most annoying and frustrating person that Wes had ever met. Every word out of his mouth was filled with a condescending anger that he still couldn't figure out what he'd done to deserve. It was as if he was saying anything and everything he could think of in hopes of making Wes dislike him.

He was also the only person to ever make Wes want to lose his temper and take a swing at someone. He had heard that saying from almost every person in his family at least once and he had never understood it. As long as it was in his power to walk away when things got toxic why wouldn't he do just that? He knew when he wasn't wanted and he didn't need people around him that were just there too hurt him.

At the same time though Connor was a mystery. One that he really wanted to solve. He had never come across a person like him before. A person that made it impossible to stick to all the life lessons he had thought he'd figured out over the years. Okay, so he was only sixteen, but with a family like his there were a lot of life lessons to learn and not a lot of time to learn them.

In the end though there was only one piece of knowledge that he could hold on to. He needed answers to the question that was Connor Anderson. Even knowing that it was only going to end in pain on his part he couldn't walk away without getting answers. He'd take knowing the guys favorite color or middle name as long as he just knew something.

"Wes," Connor greeted dropping his books on the table and knocking him from his thoughts.

"Connor," he replied mimicking his tone hoping to hide how startled he was, "You ready?"

"Yeah."

Blinking a few times in confusion Wes watched as the other practically fell into his chair. While he couldn't say that he knew Connor's personality he knew that move was very much not like him. He wasn't prim and proper by any means but he did hold himself in a very specific way. The last thing Connor would do was let himself fall like that nor would he let himself slump in a chair like he couldn't keep holding himself up.

"Are you okay?" Wes asked softly quickly clicking his pen without thought.

Wes had no idea what he was expecting from Connor but him looking at him like he had just killed his puppy was not it. He had never seen anyone look at him like that. He quickly had to go over his words trying to make sure that he had what he had meant to. When nothing stood out from his what he said he looked back at the man trying to figure out what was going on.

"No," Wes held up his hands as the other opened his mouth to start, "I don't… Whatever you're about to say is going to hurt my feelings far too much and I'm saving my tears for something else."

"Poor baby," Connor sneered leaning his arms against the table, "What are you going to do? Bitch to your mommy about how unfair your life is?"

"My mother's dead."

The words fell from Wes's lips before he could think to stop them. He felt his eyes go wide when he realized what he had just said. Out of all the times for his mouth to move before his brain could kick in it had to be then. What was wrong with him? He had spent years not saying those words out loud, not letting himself think them, and he had just told them to a guy he didn't even like.

A part of him wanted to blame it on what happened over the weekend, but he wasn't sure he could. As soon as his conversation with Clary was over he promised himself he would push it away once more. He was failing spectacularly, but he hadn't thought he was failing badly enough to tell Connor about it. He was pretty sure he hadn't talked about it as many times in his whole life as he had in the last few days. It sucked a lot more than he had thought it would.

"I didn't know that," Connor offered his eyes darting over to him before dropping.

"I don't normally talk about it," Wes responded dropping his pen to the table.

"Right."

Swallowing roughly he stared down at the pen wishing there was some way to pull the words back in his mouth. When he had brought it up with Clary it had been hard. He hadn't wanted to say the words out loud. He knew that it wasn't going to change what happened, but hearing the words made it all too real. It made it too hard to ignore.

In that moment he knew that there was nothing he could do this time. No matter how much he wanted to go back to ignoring it and fall back into that old rhythm he had broken it beyond repair. There was nothing he could do but face it and… He could already feel himself moving closer to the edge. One miss-step and he would fall over.

"If you're expecting me to share something personal about me," Connor said after a moment his voice sounding softer than before, "You're mistaken."

"Come on, Connor," Wes replied rolling his eyes with a smirk feeling the ground steadying under his feet, "I don't expect anything from you."

"Then I guess we're on the same page."

"Please. We're not even reading from the same book."

"I'm still surprised you can read."

"Paying attention to me? You're so sweet."

"You're hard to miss. You and that girl you're always with are everywhere around this school. You can't turn without seeing something about you two."

Wes had no idea what he was supposed to say to that. It felt like it was supposed to be an insult, but it also felt almost like a compliment. No, not a compliment. That wasn't the right word, but he had no idea what it was though. Hearing that Connor had a hard time ignoring him had taken over his thoughts and he had no idea what to do with that information.

Then there was the fact that he had dismissed Clary completely. Any other time he wouldn't have stood for having his friend insulted, but it was just wrong. Connor knew who Clary was. They didn't like each other, but they did work together. They were a part of student counsel together and had been for the last two years. The man couldn't just brush her off like he had no idea who she was.

"Clary," Wes found himself saying his voice weaker than he liked as his mind raced, "You know that though."

"Do I?" Connor questioned with a shrug though his eyes never lifted from the table.

"Yeah, Connor. You do. You know Clary. You know her a lot more than you know me."

A hum fell from the other teens lips as he pulled a notebook and dropped it to the table. It was clear that he was trying to dismiss what they had been talking about and all Wes wanted to do was reach across the table and smack him. He wouldn't say there were having a moment or anything like that, but they had been having an actual conversation instead of angrily brushing off what the other was saying without actually hearing the words.

He wasn't quite sure how that rather annoying routine came to be, but it was a routine that they had nonetheless. One that he was very used to. One he didn't want to lose. A part of him couldn't believe he had actually thought that. He didn't like Connor. He could never even see himself liking Connor. Something that wasn't easy to achieve given the type of person he was. If even he couldn't see a chance at a future friendship than there was no chance.

Still, ever since he met the man he had hated the walls that he had built around himself. He was all sharp edges and angry words and cold, emotionless eyes. He was everything that Wes was not. Everything that he didn't understand. And he wanted nothing more than to tear down every all he put up to find out what was hidden.

After all the time the two had spent together alone though he had started to give up on the idea of that ever happening. How someone could still be so annoying and aggravating when there was no one else around to impress was amazing to Wes.

Sitting in the library right then though was the first time that he felt he had gotten anywhere close to seeing the real Connor. Which he could admit didn't actually make any sense given he was the only one revealing anything about himself. It was like Uncle Sam had always said; sometimes the best way to get to know someone was to see how they reacted to the world around them. It was easy to hide ones self; almost impossible to hide how one saw everything else.

For a split second there he had see something behind those charcoal gray eyes. It was there and gone before he could even try to identify it. All he could be sure of was that there was emotion there. A real emotion. Something he had never seen on Connor's face. Unless he counted anger and smugness. Given the fact that it was his resting face he highly doubted he should count it.

"So I was thinking-" Connor started straightening his back as he placed a notebook on the table and opened it.

"Nope," Wes interrupted closing it with more force than he meant and pushing it to the side, "Not happening. We're not done."

"We're not? And tell me what exactly are we doing?"

"Talking."

"Talking? Alright. Let's talk."

"Good. So-"

"What happened to your mother?"

Feeling his eyes go wide Wes stared at the other teen feeling his heart start to pound angrily in his chest. He was fully aware that the other teen was just trying to throw him off balance and get him to drop the subject. It was actually a fairly smart move. No one liked being pushed into talking about something. Especially something as traumatic as the loss of a parent. Sometimes it surprised him how much he had learned from his family about interrogation.

He really did feel unbalanced too. All he wanted to do was pull the notebook back and fight about the prom for the next hour. It would be pointless, but at least it was something he was familiar with. He might get annoyed and his feelings my get bruised a little in the end. He could handle that though.

Even as he thought that though there was something deep in his chest pushing him to talk. It was the same feeling he had gotten when he decided to talk to Clary in the first place. Only he knew it wasn't going to end the same way it had with his friend.

Connor wasn't like her in any way, shape, or form. With Clary there had been an almost release in talking. There was no doubt in his mind that she cared about him. Having that knowledge made him feel like he was free to say whatever it was that came into his head without questioning what she would do about it.

He doubted that he would ever fully understand why it had felt so good to finally say all the things that had been fluttering around in his head for most of his life. It was almost as if him saying them out loud had brought a meaning to them that he hadn't known had been lacking. The words finally meant something and he hadn't realized how much he wanted that until he was doing that.

At least he felt that way when he was doing it. Talking had felt so freeing until he had to stop and think about what he had done. How something so nice in the moment could turn so sour so quickly he would never understand. That was exactly what had happened though and now all he felt was regret. There was a part of him that wished he had kept his mouth shut.

It wasn't that he regretted telling Clary what was going on, he doubted he could regret anything with his best friend. It was more that now he couldn't get it out of his head like he used to. It was right on the tip of his tongue no matter what he was doing. Like it was just waiting for him to let his guard down again so the words could spill out once more.

It's why it made no sense to him that he kind of really wanted to talk about it. Not only did he want to talk about it, but he wanted to talk about it with Connor. There was something appealing about that thought.

Clary had a stake in what happened to him. So did his parents. Every person in his life had a reason to listen to him and point him in a direction. Well, every one except for the person sitting right in front of him. He had nothing to gain or lose from what he wanted to say. He could just talk.

"Okay," Wes muttered nodding to himself before take a deep breath and starting to gather his things, "Okay."

"Wait what?" Connor questioned the smirk on his face dropping almost comically fast.

"Come on."

"We're supposed to be working."

"We have months to figure things out and we haven't even started to do anything. So get up. We're going."

Without waiting for the other to argue Wes stood up and walked out of the library. It took every ounce of control he had not to look back to see if Connor was following him. He just had to assume he was until he had proof of anything else. Although at the moment he wasn't sure why that meant so much to him.

Everything around him was quiet as he made his way out of the school. It wasn't until he was a block away that he felt someone beside him. Finally risking a look he turned his head and saw Connor next to him. The other teen was staring at him from behind his sunglasses with what he could only guess was a glare. He was there though and he was more than willing to take that as a victory.

"Where are we going?" Connor finally asked after a few blocks of silence.

"She was murdered," Wes offered instead of answering.

"What?"

"My mother. She was murdered."

He wasn't sure what he was expecting from Connor when he said that, but it wasn't the silence that greeted him. Clenching his hands into fists he felt his nails dig painfully into the flesh of his palms as he once again forced himself not to look at the other. He didn't know what he was going to see on the mans face and he did not want to find out.

A shaky breath left Wes as he turned another corner. It wasn't often that he walked the city with a place in mind. Normally he walked to let his mind run free. Not that he really needed to be walking to do that. He just really liked moving around. Walking was cheap and he was a lot less likely to end up hitting someone if he was walking.

In all of that time though he had learned a lot about the city. The places he really shouldn't walk alone. The times of day he was likely to pass by the most dogs being walked. The food trucks that gave out samples if you were nice enough. He had learned and filed away every bit of info he could from all the walking he did.

There was one place he avoided though. Not because it was dangerous or anything like that. No, it was because of what it held. In truth, he hadn't realized he even did it until Clary had pointed it out. It was like his body or his mind just decided that it was the last place that he should be. He was never quite sure if that was a good or bad thing.

"Where are we going, Wes?" Connor asked his hand wrapping painfully tight around his arm forcing him to stop.

"I…" We stuttered out swallowing roughly, "I don't know."

"Don't lie to me."

"I'm not-"

"Don't. Lie. To. Me."

"The cemetery!"

Licking at his lips Wes shut his eyes forcing himself to take a steadying breath. He hadn't meant to raise his voice like that. It was the last thing he had wanted to do. He couldn't help himself though. Not with Connor pushing him. It was something that Connor excelled at. Something he normally could ignore. He was too close to the edge to hold on. Especially when he wanted to lose control.

He never thought that he'd feel anything like that. Throughout his entire life he had hated feeling anything close to anger. It scared the living daylights out of him to the point where he pushed it away as soon as he figured out what it was. It didn't matter the situation or if he deserved to be angry at what was going on. He just wanted it gone

"Wes," Connor sighed shaking his head.

"Don't," he shot back pulling him arm from his grasp roughly.

"You're the one that told me to follow."

"You're the one that followed. You could have stayed in the library."

Connor opened his mouth like he was going to say something but Wes started walking once more before he could. He got a few steps away before he heard cussing behind him and the other teen appeared by his side. A small smile came to his lips as they started to walk once more.

"So what happened?" Connor asked softly, "With your mother?"

"She was in the wrong place at the wrong time," Wes replied with a shrug.

"Were you there?"

"Sort of. She was pregnant with me when she died."

"Oh."

"Yeah. She got pushed down when a bad guy was running away. My papa and uncle went to interview her and found her and got her to the hospital but it was too late."

"Interview her?"

"Yup. They were cops back then. She was a witness."

"The cop that found your mother is your father?"

"Adopted father."

"What about your actual father? Why didn't you go live with him? Or your grandparents?"

"I… They couldn't find any way to identify my father and my grandparents… They didn't want me."

Blinking back the tears that stung at his eyes Wes hiked his backpack further up his shoulder. No matter how often those words came into his head they still hurt. To know that he had been thrown away like nothing. They didn't even had the decency to answer the phone when they had been informed of what happened. They didn't care about him or his mother.

"So why are we going to the cemetery?" Connor questioned spinning around so he was walking backwards in front of him.

"To visit her," Wes offered as calmly as he could.

"You always bring people you don't like to her grave?"

"I don't bring people I like to her grave."

Once again Connor came to a stop forcing Wes to do the same thing. The other teen pulled off his sunglasses to stare at him. Like before the charcoal eyes were filled with so much emotion and he still had no idea what it was supposed to be. Why couldn't he figure out what Connor was feeling? Why couldn't he read him?

"What aren't you telling me?" Connor questioned crossing his arms over his chest.

"Nothing," Wes found himself replying though he knew before the word left that he wasn't going to get away with the lie.

"Wes."

"I've never been. I've never visited her."

"And you're taking me? Why?"

"Because. I don't like you, Connor. And you don't like me."

"Hatred. You're taking me because I hate you? You're a special kind of dumb-ass, aren't you?"

"And you're a self-centered jerk."

"I'm glad we understand each other."

"I wouldn't go that far. Like I said we're not even reading from the same book. Now. Are you in?"

"To visit the dead mother of a guy I hate? It's exactly how I wanted to spend my afternoon."

"Good. Let's go."