A woman in yellow hot pants and black suspenders walked steadily and assuredly into Loredana's Hair Salon. She stepped up to the counter. The young receptionist looked up at her.



"Welcome to Loredana's. How may I help you?"



"You have a package here for me."



"Another package?" The girl poked her head under her desk. "What's going on today?"



The girl looked up at the woman in the yellow halter top. Her hair was cut in a blunt bob. Plum highlights. She noticed everyone's hair. A lot of customers had come in that day but there's no way she'd forget hair like that. "You already picked up that package, remember? You came in earlier this afternoon. That's the only thing we had for you."



Confused, the woman walked back out into the street. Where the hell was the package? She was supposed to come here and pick it up. She checked the address again and stepped back to look at the sign hanging over the awning. This was the place. Someone had picked up the package already? No, wait. She had picked up the package already. Faye had picked up the package already.



Dammit.



One of her stooges must have given the message to the wrong Faye. Shit. This was not good. She needed as much evidence as she could get her hands on. She felt as though she was going to kill somebody.



* * *



Rising in the East

And fading in the West

To the North and to sleep

At the close of day

The flame goes out

Only char left in the grave

Do you in dying

Become but a name?



I can see you're worn down

Weight upon your shoulders

All the joy you once had

Now is gone

Can't find what you wanted

Feeling lost in turmoil

Will you finally

Be free?



Out into the cold night

Stare into the dark sky

Do you see forever

Or burn alive

Or linger in the half-light

Fade into the dark night

Do you find contentment?

Do you find your peace?



"Are you thinking of me right now? I'm thinking of you. But that shouldn't be news to you. I think about you almost every second. I dress for you, I eat for you, I sleep for you. Does that make me sound like a psychopath? I hope not. I'm writing this in History. I'd rather be sitting with you outside, under the trees, near the baseball diamond. This guy is doing a presentation right now. I'm very embarrassed for him. His face is so red and he's stuttering. I feel bad for him because no one is really paying any attention to his presentation. No one ever really pays attention to these things.



"I've been thinking a lot about what you told me the other day. About how you want to be a teacher. I think that's a great idea. People always pay attention to you when you do presentations in class. But then you're so pretty, how can they not? Am I going on too much about you? That's because you're all I think about. It makes me sad, really. I'm wasting my time in school. I'm not terribly good at it and to top it all off I can't concentrate because you're on my mind 24 hours a day. I'm sorry. I sound like a mental case now. I should go. Speak to you soon. Ezekiel."



Faye folded the note in half and put it back in its envelope. She had moved the pile to her bed where she sat reading through all of them.



Spike was seated on the floor with a small pile of his own. He had read through approximately five. Nothing special about them aside from the fact that they were ancient and they proved that there was someone in the universe who cared for Faye besides Faye. Notes written during school hours, probably stuck in lockers between periods. A few of them so far had actually been from other friends besides Ezekiel. The notes didn't tell Spike very much about him except that he was startlingly like Spike. It wasn't just his looks either. This boy hated school as much as Spike did. Spike smirked to himself when he thought back to all the times he managed to fall asleep sitting up in class. God, he had hated school. He got the hell out of there as soon as he could.



He had already looked through the pile of photographs at Faye's feet. Faye seemed to be working up to them. She hadn't looked at them properly yet. Spike wasn't sure what was making her so uncomfortable. It's not like they had uncovered something dirty, like she used to be a pornstar, or she had murdered her parents. The pictures were perfectly normal ones. One of her on graduation day with what looked like her parents. A tall man with dark eyes and hair in a suit and a small Asian woman in a red mandarin dress. Faye herself was not much different from now. Well, aside from the cap and gown. Spike had never quite seen her with so many clothes on. Several pictures were of Ezekiel. Spike studied one photo in which he spotted an Enter the Dragon poster on the wall behind the boy. Too strange.



Faye didn't know what to think. This was too much for one day. Someone was following her. All this crazy stuff from her past shows up. Her comrades almost throw her out into the streets. Spike nearly murders her. She was very tired. And the photograph of Ezekiel was very disturbing. She knew exactly what Spike was thinking. This whole stupid crush thing was solved. She wasn't in love with Spike. She was just drawn to a memory from her past. But was that really the case? Faye wasn't really sure. Sure, the guy looked like Spike. Some of the wisecracks in his letters sounded like Spike. But this couldn't be where all these feelings were coming from, could they?



There was something between the two of them. She wasn't entirely sure what it was but she knew it was there. And she knew he was aware of it aswell. He couldn't have treated her so brutally, couldn't have let her hurt him so if it was otherwise. But Faye couldn't tell if this was friendship or something else.



She hadn't ever really had any friends to know any better.



She needed to kick some ass soon. She really needed to let off some steam.