Chapter Twelve – Breaking

Future Gum looked round the room, and sighed. Talk about awkward silences.

Yo-Yo was for some reason avoiding her, and was sitting drumming out an annoying tune on the wall. Garam was on the computer again, blowing something up. Past Gum was lurking outside in the corridor, crying by the look of it. And Beat was sitting by the window, staring out into the night.

Gum wasn't sure whom she wanted to shake more. Garam, for blabbing out the secret, or Beat, for talking to Onishima.

She knew they didn't exactly give you red-carpet treatment in jail. But to have actually told the cops where your hideout was…and at least one of your major escape routes…and whatever else he'd said. She was angry with him! He could have tried to stand up for himself.

Nasty words were hissing in the back of her mind, words she was trying not to hear. Coward. Traitor. Wimp.

You could hurt with those words.

She didn't want to talk to him. On the one hand he looked so miserable, and she'd heard how Tab had frozen him out. But the frustration smouldering in her ribs might flare up…and she might scream at him and tell him exactly what she thought. Let the words out. And that would be cruel.

She was holding Onishima's notebook, and now she opened it and found where she'd got to before. May as well start a little light reading. She'd got to the 24th September…

The entries were more frequent now.

But there's got to be something I can do. Something permanent. Something that'll get them all away, something they can't escape from, something that'll bring her back? No – no – nothing can do that. Don't be dumb. Just focus on really hurting 'em.

C told me they might have something. That'd be nice. K won't help, thinks I'm being unprofessional. What was it he said? Something really dumb…oh yeah. "Our duty is not to hurt but to heal. The police force is here to improve life for people, not to destroy it." What the hell is he on?

Besides, rudies ain't people. No one's people who do things like that.

They're still developing it. But if they can do it they could help me, C says. If.

She said she won't do it! Not the rudies, I mean. She'll still hurt them, and that's good but she won't help me. Won't bring her back. She could. She said she could. But she won't. Said it wouldn't be right. I told her if it came to that how was it right to wipe out a bunch of rudies? She just looked at me and said 'this is for the good of the city.'

Gum swallowed, and looked at the writing again. Yes. It did say 'wipe out a bunch of rudies.' It was dated 20th December, 2002.

Okay, calm. Maybe it was just talking about tanks or guns or something. Something they all knew about.

She turned back to the notebook, not sure she wanted to read on, but unable to stop.

I haven't thought about her for ages. Tried not to. Christmas is bringing it all back. It was round then it happened. She didn't want presents, or food, or nothing, just stayed in her room. And then – then –

The pen dipped wildly off the line, as though Onishima had been unable to form the next word. The rest of the page was blank, and then the writing started again.

It was January, 2004, before Gum found any new developments.

They've done it. C called me last night, she sounded deadbeat but she's done it. They've done it. I could get rid of every damn rudie on the planet if I wanted – all you need is five minutes, C says.

She still won't bring her back. But I won't think about that any more. Revenge is as good as a feast, or something like that.

They still bug me. No. They still drive me crazy. But now, now at last I can really hurt them back. No – I can get rid of them altogether. I have to keep telling myself that. Sometimes it's hard to stay in control. And I have to. So, if I just remember I've got the power now. Then maybe it'll all be okay. Maybe I'll stop hurting too.

What? Gum shook the notebook, the words blurred in front of her eyes. What's he done? What's he got?

She read further…and further…until at last she'd got to the present. August, 2005.

The last entry was the day she'd taken the book.

So now all we need is a willing volunteer or two. Or ten. C said we need a group, so we can monitor all possible side-effects. She still makes like she's doing this for science. Yeah, right.

So I could just pick ten rudies from the cells and send 'em to her. But – I don't know – this is sort of symbolic. Seems like it shouldn't just be a random choice. I mean, on the testing they used street punks I provided, and I don't know what happened to them. But this is different.

Because we all know who really gets to me. We all know who made the Keisatsu look stupid by saving the world from that psycho Goji. We all know who was the strongest gang in Tokyo-to.

"Yes," Gum whispered. "We all know."

If I can track them all down…

Oh, boy, that would be revenge all right.

If I can get that punk kid to start talking at last…

He's the leader, I've seen him, heard things. He knows enough. And then they'd be gone, gone at last…oh, geez, that would be sweet. And they'd never be able to come back. Never.

Never.

The rest of the book was blank.

Gum put it down very carefully, hands shaking.

***

Cube had wriggled back into the space between two buildings, too small to be called an alleyway, and stayed curled up there as night fell.

Now she was hovering between sleep and wakefulness, aching, shivering, not daring to open her eyes in case she saw…saw something.

But dreaming wasn't much fun either. Her skin was damp with sweat, spilt in terror from her nightmares.

No one had come near her. Maybe they thought she was a homeless person.

Well, she was.

The thoughts were peeled slowly and painfully off her mind. It was hard to make coherent sentences, because her brain felt like a swamp of feelings and memories and it was too hard to drag words from that.

If only it was a cold night. Then she could go to sleep and never wake up. But it was summer. Damn summer.

She rested her head back on her knees. Living was too hard at the moment. Slowly, she started to chant Improvise under her breath.

Maybe if she chanted it enough, he'd be there at last. Like a spell.

But the night wore on, and nobody came.

***

Isas unlocked his front door, and Mew followed him into the dark house. The yellow hallway was faded now, and the coat rack was empty.

Isas sighed. "You want anything to eat? There might be something in the larder."

"No, it's okay." She felt too full of feelings – love – fear – to eat. "Let's go upstairs. I'm nervous down here."

Isas nodded, and she followed him up to his bedroom.

Her mind wolf-whistled.

Stop it, she thought. I'm not going to do anything.

Aren't you, Mew?

No. I'm not.

They'd reached it now. Isas pushed open the door, and they walked inside.

Moonlight drifted through the window, catching dust in its beam, touching the posters and the schoolbooks piled on the desk and the chocolate wrappers and old teacups speckling the floor. Mew felt fear in her throat. A boy's room. A boy who killed.

He's quit. He said he'd quit.

Isas grinned at her, nervously, and she hugged him. For a moment she just stood there, resting her head on the curve of his shoulder, breathing him in. He was touching her back, hands fumbling on her shirt.

"I don't – I don't know what's happening," he said. "Everything's just gone so crazy lately."

"I know what you mean." Mew kissed his neck, where his skin was smooth. They stumbled back and dropped onto the bed, and Mew moved away from him, sprawled herself across the covers.

He was right. Everything was crazy. Everything was psychotic. So why did she feel safe?

Isas reached out, gripped her hand, and she rolled nearer to him.

The room was grey in the darkness.

"Don't get killed, Mew, please," Isas said.

"Same to you."

He reached out, touched her hair, his fingers gentle on her brow as he stroked it.

"You realise this probably won't last," Mew said. "I mean, one of us will get shot or something…or I'll be arrested…or you might be."

"Don't worry about that," he said. "Just live for the moment."

"I'm a rudie. I know all about living for the moment."

She closed her eyes, and smiled.

She must have dozed off, because there was no other way she could have been suddenly transported back to her arrest…hair tangled, catching in her mouth…eye ringing with pain…nose bleeding onto her dress, and she was unable to stop it because her hands were cuffed behind her…

Self-respect shrivelled inside her as she felt herself begin to cry.

"Mew?"

Dreaming or awake?

"Come on, Mew."

She blinked, and Isas was gazing at her.

"It's okay," he said.

The moonlight had moved a bit. The clock hadn't changed, but then it hadn't all night – flickering on and off, 6:58, 6:58.

"Sorry." Mew wriggled into a sitting position and rubbed away her tears.

He opened his mouth.

Don't talk about it. Not the nightmare, Isas, please – she quickly said, "Are you gonna go back to school?"

Isas shrugged. "They said one more slip-up and I'm for it."

"Just like me. So if you don't go in tomorrow, you're expelled?"

He nodded.

"Maybe you should go. Don't spoil your record for me. I mean, you don't get into college your parents'll freak." Mew remembered her own experiences with that, and swallowed.

"I have a reputation now," Isas said. "I'm a kid who plays with guns. Soon I'll be classified as mentally unstable, and I won't be able to get into college or anything even if I do finish school."

"Well, I'm gonna fail my exams, and I don't think they'll want a rudie drop-out."

"We can quit education together."

Mew grinned. "Live on an island."

"Catch fish."

"Wear…uhh…deer skin."

"Or maybe we'll end up in a high-rise flat."

"With a bunch of kids?" Mew put on a horrified face.

"Yeah, and you can teach them all to be rudies."

"Yes! We'll repopulate the rudie world!" Mew giggled. "We'll be a fricking rudie factory!"

"Sounds good to me. What about pets?"

"A dog." Mew grinned. "The GGs had a dog. I – oh, my lord, I don't know what happened to him! After Beat vanished he got all gloomy…he escaped and ran out one night…"

"We'll find him," Isas said. "What's he like?"

"He's blue," Mew said. "And he thinks he's a cow."

She started to laugh, and her laughter turned into tears somewhere, and she sobbed into Isas's chest. "Sorry…oh, man…we forgot about Potts, I can't believe that…I just wish I had them all back, the GGs, I mean…"

She held onto Isas, feeling the shape of his muscles under his skin, and found herself breathless. Resting her chin on his shoulder, she stared up at the Gundam Wing poster tinted grey behind them.

A black dot appeared on top of Duo's face. A millisecond later she heard the bang.

Isas tensed.

"Looks like the lovebirds have found themselves a cage."

***

Combo walked down through Benten-cho's residential area, feeling worried. The garage had had cops in it. No sign of the GGs. Had they all got caught?

Please no.

Cube wouldn't be there if she was still a Skull, she'd be safe, okay?

He swallowed. Suddenly he was feeling very alone.

He wouldn't tell Cube he'd been glancing at the faces of all the dark-haired girls he'd seen since getting back to Tokyo-to. She'd laugh.

Or roll her eyes and ask him why he'd bothered.

Combo sighed and leant against the wall, letting his bag rest at his feet, and wondered why he had bothered. It wasn't like he could just go up to the Skulls and ask them where Cube was.

He switched off Jet Set Radio. It was playing Up-set Attack, which was too perky for his mood tonight. He could hear another radio somewhere now, and hey – his favourite song.

"And together, we show you how to improvise…"

No – it wasn't the song. Someone was chanting it, their voice shaking.

Oh, geez, he was even hearing her everywhere now.

This girl sure sounded like her though.

As she got to the last line – "Take four MCs –" he spoke out.

"– and make 'em sound like one."

The voice stopped.

"Hey, I'm sorry," Combo said. "Carry on if you want, kid."

"Combo?"

No way, his mind said. No way. No way.

He licked his lips nervously.

"Cube?"

There was a rustling from the gap between the walls, and a figure stood up and stepped out to face him.

It was her.

He reached out a hand to her, and she took it, palm shaking, and then she rushed forward and threw herself into his arms, sobbing.

"Cube, what is with you?" he said. "What the hell happened?"

She was crying too hard to speak. He'd never seen her that sad before. Not even after Coin was proven dead. And it scared him.

She felt brittle in his arms, and she'd never felt that weak before. Indeed, she'd always put him in mind of a python. Incredibly strong and flexible, with violent overtones…

Now she felt like a python skeleton maybe. Like she'd snap if he touched her too hard.

Eventually she stumbled back, face red with tears, and said, "I'm hallucinating again aren't I? You're not Combo you're just some bastard taking advantage just like – just like –"

"Of course it's me," Combo said. "Geez, kid, you don't recognise me? What's happened? Are you – are you still with the Skulls?"

"I ran away this morning. He was going to kill me."

"Who? Garam?"

"No. Garam already left. No. The other guy." She drew a deep, shuddering breath. "I keep seeing all this weird shit and I'm so scared…"

"It's okay. You're just under stress."

Cube wriggled up next to him again. He tried not to notice how her hips ran gently outwards, pressing against her scuffed jeans.

"You can't really be here," Cube said. "That's just too lucky. I don't deserve luck. Maybe. They all hate me anyway. I killed them all, you know."

Combo stared at her, frightened now. She sounded so – odd.

"I'm here now," he said. "You got anywhere to go tonight?"

"No. Not the Skulls. I don't – I won't –"

"It's okay, we don't have to go there. Okay, do you know where the other GGs are?"

Cube shrugged. "The garage?"

"No. That's empty."

"Then I don't."

"We'd better find a hotel or something, then."

Cube blinked, her eyes shiny like drops of oil. "You got money?"

"Been saving. I got work in Grind City."

She shrugged. "Is it nice there?"

"It's the same as it always is. I missed you."

She smiled, properly, lighting up her face, and they set off to find somewhere to stay.

***

"Guys."

Beat turned to look at Future Gum, who had got to her feet, clutching a battered notebook.

"What?" Garam asked.

"I think we should be worried."

"What have you read?" Yo-Yo asked. "That's Onishima's Secret Diary, right?"

"I guess so. And, um, it mentions us."

So that was what Onishima had meant when he'd said Gum had stolen his notebook. Beat sighed and rested his head on his knees. He could see Gum trying not to catch his eye.

"What does it say?" Past Gum asked.

Future Gum began to read out the notebook entry. When she'd finished, there was a thoughtful silence.

"So Onishima's teamed up with some science chick and they're developing some strange weapon and he wants to test it on us?" Yo-Yo said at last.

"That sounds about right."

"Shit."

"Beat," Garam said, "what did you tell him about the other GGs?"

Beat swallowed. "Piranha and Slate left and they've got a child…Mew was arrested…Combo's in Grind City…Cube's in the Skulls."

"Are you sure that's all?"

"Yes." Stop looking at me, Beat thought. Just leave me alone.

"So we can assume Cube's probably as safe as she ever would be, right?" Garam said. He sounded slightly nervous.

"Yeah," Past Gum said. "Mew probably isn't…but it sounds like he needs all of us. Combo?"

"Dunno." Garam shrugged. "How easy is it to find a rudie in Grind City? Especially if you're a cop?"

"It's not easy, that's what," Yo-Yo said. "Might be impossible. What about Piranha and Slate?"

"You told him their names?" Future Gum said, not looking at Beat but focusing on the window instead.

"Yeah."

"If they're still using them…"

"But they're not rudies any more," Past Gum said. "Wouldn't they go back to using their old names? Or pick new ones?"

"Someone had better go find 'em," Yo-Yo said. "Warn 'em."

"To do what? Avoid cops?" Past Gum scowled. "They'd do that anyway."

"Well, someone's got to tell them Onishima seems even more insane than usual," Future Gum said.

"Okay, then," Garam said at last. "Gum, Past Gum, you go tomorrow."

"Did they leave an address?" Past Gum asked.

"Yeah, in Kogane-cho."

"Okay, then," Garam said. "Tell them everything, and if they want to relocate, let them."

"What about Mew?" Future Gum asked.

"If we were sure she was there…" Garam said. "It's just, if Beat and Gum didn't see her, it's kinda risky going to spring her out. I mean, we got no idea where she is in the building. Was there anything about her in Onishima's notebook?" he asked Future Gum, who shook her head.

"Okay, cool," Yo-Yo said. "The Gums go to find the family guys, we hope Mew sprung herself out, Combo's safe and Cube's too dangerous to touch."

"That's about it," Garam said. "Maybe those things'll stop Onishima. Whatever he's planning."

***

Mew wriggled off Isas and turned to face the intruder.

She wasn't particularly surprised to see that it was Suki.

But that meant…

"Isas…" Mew stared at him. He'd betrayed her…

"No. No, Mew." He was as pale as she felt. "She's followed us. I think. She has to have…"

"Yeah," Suki said. "When you walked out of the meeting, I wondered if you were sick or lovesick." She spat out the word. "Looks like I was right to wonder. I figured you might come back here, you've got nowhere else to go."

"And now what?" Isas said. He was gripping Mew's hand, painfully, but his voice was steady. "Anything you wanted to say?"

"Just this. Die, traitor."

"Don't you touch him," Mew snarled.

"I'll do what I want with him," Suki said, and snickered. "Haven't you?"

She stepped to the side, and the other two Crossbones filed in and grabbed hold of Isas.

"Don't run," Suki said, glaring at Mew. "I'll kill him at once if you run."

"You're a bitch," Mew said, anger catching in her throat. "You're a bitch who thinks she's Rambo. Just what is your damn problem?"

"With who?"

"Rudies."

"I don't like them, that's all." Suki's eyes remained carefully blank. "The guys are thugs and the girls…well, I saw what you were doing with Isas."

"Call me a whore if you want," Mew said. "At least I have a guy."

"Isas has been staying at my house for, like, three days," Suki said. "What do you think we were doing all that time? Scrabble?"

Don't react, don't react…Mew whispered it in her mind. "Whatever," she said. "He's with me now."

Suki slapped her so hard she fell.

Mew rubbed her stinging skin, and said, "Oh, that's supposed to hurt me, is it?"

"I can hurt you, rudie," Suki said. "I can hurt you real bad."

She nodded to the other two Crossbones. The girl took out a flick knife, the boy a pistol. Suki turned back to face Mew. "See?"

She walked over to Isas. "I'm sorry," she said to him, "I like you. Honest. But I hate Little Miss Rebel over there, and seeing you die because of her will really make her cry."

"You keep away from him!" Mew screamed. "You keep away from him or I'll kill you!"

"I don't think so." Suki's face gleamed in the grey light, taut with fury. "Watch carefully, Miyako. He dies and it's all your fault."

Mew leapt off the bed and ran towards Suki, who spun and drove a fist into her stomach. Mew doubled over onto the floor, sobbing out breath, trying not to retch.

Suki dropped down next to her and gripped her wrists. "Don't bother trying to stop me. You can't."

She nodded to the girl Crossbone, who let go of Isas and walked over to them. Mew struggled to break free, then there was a click and she saw that the girl had put handcuffs on her, securing her to the leg of Isas's bed.

"Let me go," she gasped, her ribs locking with fear. "Let me go…"

"Why should I? Rudies belong in jail."

"Stop it!" Isas yelled, trying to shake off the guy holding him. "Just leave her alone!"

"Make me, traitor," Suki said, and raised the gun, aiming at his stomach. Mew fought down the fear and the memories and strained against the cuffs until they scraped her skin. Isas closed his eyes.

The phone rang downstairs.

For a moment, all five were silent, then Suki said, "Come on, sweetie. Let's take you to answer it."

She and the guy marched Isas out of the room, and Mew heard them walk down the stairs. She took deep breaths, breathing in the smell of carpet and dust, trying not to think about what was going on.

"What's with your friend?" she said to the girl Crossbone, who was sitting on the bed, holding the knife still.

"Suki's just smart."

"Smart? She's bloody psycho!"

"She has her reasons to be."

"And you? You got a sob story as well?"

"I'm her friend. I stick up for her, help her out. And besides, I agree with her. You rudies hurt her and her family bad. You deserve everything you get."

"And Isas?"

"If he's letting you stick your tongue down his throat, he's dumber than I thought. Besides, he's a traitor."

"To who?"

"Us. And his family."

Mew was about to reply when she heard footsteps, and looked round to see the other three walk back inside.

Suki was smirking.

"This is sweet," she said. "Tell her, Isas."

Isas licked his lips. One of them was bleeding. "Mew," he said, "that was your – uh – social workers. They're looking for you."

"Why? Cos I didn't come home?"

"That too."

"Oh, go on, Isas, tell her," Suki said. "I mean, this will save her life. Don't know about yours, of course."

"They want you down at the station," Isas said. "Police Chief Onishima wants to see you."

***

Combo unlocked the hotel room door, and he and Cube walked inside.

It was the tiniest, cheapest, seediest place he'd ever stayed in. But it was all he could afford for tonight.

Cube stared at it, blinking in the flickering strip light, looking like a fox caught in car headlamps.

"This is okay, right?" Combo said to her.

She nodded, slowly.

He badly wanted to ask her what had happened, but he contented himself with saying, "You can talk if you want. Or sleep. Or anything."

She shrugged. "I – I want to have a shower? Please? Can I?"

"Sure. Go ahead."

She should have demanded a shower, and pushed past him to commandeer the bathroom.

He watched as she walked inside, closed the door, and a few moments later he heard the water running.

Okay. Do not think about what she looks like in the shower. That's the last thing she needs.

His mind wasn't really listening.

He told it to stop goofing around, sat down on one of the beds, and tried to think what to do next. So he'd found Cube. But the other GGs…

Well, he could look for them in the morning.

Eventually the bathroom door swung open, and Cube tiptoed out, wrapped in a moth-eaten towel, her hair dripping.

"Combo…have you got anything I could wear? I mean, just for tonight?"

"You can have my spare T-shirt if you want." Combo knelt down and started opening his bag, trying not to look at her smooth damp shoulders, and ribs, and legs, and…

"Here." He handed her an identical green T-shirt to the one he was wearing. Cube smiled, nervously, and slunk back to the bathroom.

Combo massaged his temples and tried to think about baseball.

Cube crept out of the bathroom again, wearing his T-shirt like a dress. The collar was slipping down, exposing one of her shoulders, and her legs were bare from below the knees.

Legs you've known about for, like, seven years, Combo told himself. Totally uninteresting legs. Stop thinking about her like that, she don't need it…

Okay, okay. But I can look, right?

Cube stumbled over to the other bed, dropped down on it and flung the blanket over her. She lay quite still, watching the ceiling, and then gave a low, miserable sigh.

"What is it?" Combo asked.

"There's blood again."

Combo glanced at the ceiling. It stared back at him, yellow-white and warm and speckled with mildew stains.

"Where?"

"I'm the only one who can see it," Cube said. "All the people I killed."

Combo swallowed. This was the bit he really didn't want to think about.

"You did kill, then."

She nodded. "I'm angry. Was. First they took Coin away…and then they took Beat away, and then…and then they took…"

She turned away from him.

"Who did they take?" Combo asked.

She muttered something.

"What?"

"Then they took you."

Combo restrained his mind, which was punching the air ("Yes! Yes! You matter to her!") and said, "Well, I'm back now. I'm here."

"I wish I hadn't done it," Cube said.

"I wish you hadn't too." He tried not to sound mad with her.

"Cube," he asked at last, "why did you leave the Skulls?"

Silence. Then she got out of bed, and turned off the light. Combo saw her silhouette climb back in, dark against the sheets. Great. So he'd said too much.

But then she said, "I don't want to tell. I want to lock it all up in my mind and then hide it so I never have to see it again. But it won't hide, will it?"

"Probably not."

"Garam left," Cube said. "He left and he left me all on my own. Saburo was there, though."

And suddenly she sounded okay again as she said, "He was the other member of our team."

"Yeah?"

"Mew saw me try to kill someone."

"Mew?"

"Yeah…in school uniform…in a Keisatsu house…I guess she quit."

"And?"

"Saburo captured her. And she saved me she got me to run…" The sentence stumbled out.

"And you hung around in Benten-cho?"

"And you found me, yeah."

"Why did you run, though?"

He saw Cube's figure tense.

"Saburo," she said. "I cheated on Garam with him. Garam left me."

"Yeah," Combo said.

"I didn't know if I wanted to. He slept with me and I didn't say no. And then Mew was there…"

"Yeah?" He tried to make sense of this.

"And I was frightened…and he just came and I told him no and he didn't listen he just was on me and I didn't want him inside me I wanted him to stay out –"

Her voice cut off with a sharp gasp.

"Cube," Combo said, feeling rage to start to blink awake inside him, "you saying this Saburo guy –"

She sat up.

"He – he –" She was breathing faster now, hands gripping the blanket. "Yeah, he…"

She gazed at him, and her face was so pale he wondered if she was gonna faint.

"He raped me – oh –"

She pressed a hand to her mouth, jumped out of bed, and ran into the bathroom. Combo hurried after her, and heard her retching. He held her head until she'd finished, her skin smooth under his fingers. She straightened up at last, grabbed one of the cracked plastic cups on the bathroom shelf, and gulped down some water.

"Oh, Cube…" He couldn't think what else to say.

"I feel like shit," Cube muttered. "I hate him and I'm stupid, evil, disgusting…" She rubbed her hands over her face, like a shudder, and then closed her eyes, and she was crying again.

"No. You're not."

"I killed them, didn't I?"

"Sure. And it's nothin' to be proud of. But you ran away. And you've been through all this and, and, no matter what you did I'm just…I'm just glad you're here."

"Really?"

"Cross my heart, kid."

Cube hugged him. He could feel her breasts through the T-shirt, her shape curving under his hands.

And maybe he did just hold on a little too long.

"No – no get away from me –" Cube's voice cracked with hysteria.

Combo snatched his hands away as if she burnt them. "What? What is it?"

"Is that why you're pleased to see me?" Cube said. "So you can fuck me as well?"

"No!"

"I don't want anyone near me!" she screamed. "Get away! Get away!"

She ran back into the other room, scrabbled into bed, and yelled, "If you come near me, or, or do anything…anything – I will kill you, I mean it! I mean it!"

"I won't touch you if you don't want me to," Combo said, trying to keep his voice very calm.

"Promise?"

"Promise."

Cube stared at him a few moments, then lay down and pulled the covers over herself, cocooning her into a miserable lump.

Combo started to take off his skates. When he'd done that, he lay down on the other bed, and stared at the bloodless ceiling.

Great. Just great. You're supposed to be her friend and you act just as low as dat other guy did.

What could he do? She was messed up, and he didn't know how to solve it, especially as he had his hormones to contend with.

She was broken, and he had a horrible feeling he'd just wrecked her even more.