Yes, though it was a considerable delay, I haven't given up on this fic! (cheers)

I must inform you, as a sort of disclaiming precaution, that this chapter was EXCEEDINGLY difficult to write, because it was rather dreadful. However, I promise, things WILL turn out better, so don't abandon my fanfiction or you might get nightmares. (that actually happened to me once)

Rosz, (I think it was you) you have NO idea how right your assumptions are on the subject of Mr Benson. Yeah, I put it under the "angst" genre with a reason ^^

WARNINGS: Depending upon your maturity, this chapter may be a little "darker" than a PG-13 rating. No sex, but some other themes that are very serious matters. I don't think it's that bad right now, but just remember to read my notes at the end, and be warned NOT to do this. Thank you.

And so, the angst continues . . .

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Tea noticed a very constrained difference from other instances as she entered the cafeteria the next day.

It was normally atrociously loud and crude, with rarely any semblance of order to constrain lunch to any sort of peace. The tables were segregated by social status, always warding that Tea didn't really fit in anywhere; she didn't have the grades to be a nerd, wasn't athletic enough to be a jock-ette, and wasn't pretty enough to be /popular/. She always knew that the tables would reflect the same clashing colors that illustrated the raucous behavior she knew so well.

But today, even the colors seemed dulled.

Her crutches were becoming easier to control throughout the morning, and though they didn't slip on the polished linoleum under her one intact foot, she could easily hear them squelching and squeaking their merry way with the rubber cushions that capped off the wooden sticks.

Involuntarily, a hush came over the room as she struggled through the open doorway. Furrowing her eyebrows in momentary startlement, her impassive mask slowly reverted back to it's normal despair when she realized everything.

/They . . . pity me./ it dulled her control, signaling a gaping bubble of anger, sorrow, and disgust to grow somewhere near her thin ribcage. This was humiliating; she was absolutely helpless, and yet it seemed . . .

She gave a weary snort. Pity. Why the hell were they /pitying/ her?!

She didn't need to handle that crap.

Violently shuddering once over her aching armpits, in an emotion she did not bother to understand, Tea left the cafeteria with her head downcast so no one could see her face. This was no place for her. Teasing, she could handle, tripping, she could handle, jeering, she could handle. But pity was false care, and she had so much lack of true care in her life at that moment, the substitution only reminded her of the worse.

She hadn't really planned on actually taking Benson up on his offer, but he was probably the only one high enough not to pity her. At least he understood when he could.

So she headed out for the large sakura tree, barely in the courtyard, not noticing the pair of large, purple eyes that watched her go, sadly.

~*~*~*~

The sky no longer stretched endlessly in a cloudless blue haze, but was cushioned comfortably on cotton clouds that dulled the sunlight. The week of unrelenting sun had taken it's toll farther than Tea's discomfort, however, and everything seemed hazy and dead with it's brown appearance. She could feel the dry grass crumble beneath her crutches, and little itchy pieces of dead plants were already attaching themselves to her socks.

Only one part of the courtyard didn't rate the worthiness of regular watering; the farthest, roughest and most uneven bit of land that was far enough to avoid students regularly.

This was where the sakura tree grew. Though, it was unlike the neighborhood blossoming trees in the way that it was thin, brittle and sickly to the droop of it's delicate branches, already suffering from some sort of disease. It was simply a shadow of any expected splendor that such a normally beautiful type of tree usually radiated, and coincidentally, ignored most of the time.

Struggling up the shifting, rough ground with her walking supports, she managed to grit her teeth and pull herself beyond the most dramatic rise in the earth that hindered her path. Dust shifted, and for some reason, she smelled sickeningly pine sap in the dry air.

She wrinkled her nose and sneezed.

"Hey girly." A deep voice noted quietly "I didn't think you would come."

Benson's back was hunched as far as she could tell, behind the crumbling trunk. He didn't crane his neck to look at her, just leaning with his hands permanently dipped in the pockets of his worn, black pants. She caught a faint sparkle reflect off of his silver wallet-chain that twitched when he spoke.

"I didn't plan to."

There was no wasted sentiment between the two of them, for they had seen enough to understand anything 'polite' was just an excuse for the world to feel better. They had a peculiar outlook on society, being at the very bottom, but they saw through it all, and suffered for it.

Benson and Tea held what could scarcely be considered a 'friendship', but they each held a sort of acceptance. And for them, even being simply 'accepted' left them enough room to elbow their way through and belong.

As Tea slowly and painfully sank to the rough ground with the support of the groaning tree trunk, the dreadlocked boy beside her ended the inevitable silence.

"Bad day?" though he normally reverted to any of his facades after facing her, he allowed a ghost of the clever smile he usually smiled. Usually hating it, just like the rest of himself.

Her hair, even from the dead-like lack of wind, was matting naturally, and Tea brushed it back behind her ears with her fingertips.

"Worse."

He snorted in understanding. For once, she knew he understood, as others wouldn't.

She knew little about Benson besides what emotions his mask didn't filter out to cocky cleverness. He was her age, lived in conditions a bit on the poor side, and alone with his seemingly mute uncle. Just another "happy-go- lucky" kind of kid.

Tea sometimes noticed the scars, the bruises, and his grimaces nearly entirely controlled with practice. She respected his privacy, but he knew she knew something closer to the truth than he ever let on.

With his delinquent behavior, surfaced from the idea he didn't really ~care~, and cocky attitude toward what should be ~powerful~ entities, most avoided him beyond a casual greeting in the hallway. Which, of course led to the unstable rumors circling that he was a teenage drug-addict.

Tea kept her distance, though she didn't mind it much. She wasn't picky about things like that.

"So, why are we here?" she asked coldly, with a contemplating stare at the run-down neighborhoods on the other side of the chain-link fence.

"I wanted to show you something." He said at last, fumbling for a plastic bag in one of his numerous pockets.

Tea felt a cold sort of dread begin to spread queasily through her stomach as she identified the bag's contents. It looked like trash, but it could all ruin your life, as it had for so many others.

"You know I'm not into pot, Benson." She spoke quietly, still staring at the bag "I tried it before, remember?"

He just shook his head at the ground, that strange ironic smirk on his face yet again. Drawing his fingers through his mop of dreadlocks idly, he shifted his position a little, but still didn't look at her, as she didn't look at him.

"You didn't need it back then."

Tea looked up at the stained-gray sky as her lips contorted into a tightened expression, but she stayed silent, because she knew her life was a lot more screwed than it was before.

" . . . So? That stuff costs money, and I'd rather not fall into that sort of business."

Benson stiffened, now grasping the bag with both hands in a decidedly pained look. Tea looked at him squarely for the first time that day, noting the dark circles under his eyes, the helpless slouch, and the nervous way his lip was shaking. "I'm not asking you to, I just want to get rid of it." He said through clenched teeth.

Her eyes narrowed. "Nothing's for free, these days. Why me? Are you trying to quit or something?"

His smile came again, now looking very odd with his frightened appearance.

"No, I've got that handled."

She snorted.

"Bull. You've been on that crap for three years."

"Well, I can't get high when I'm dead, now can I? And I should be dead soon. I wonder how many bullets they'll waste on me?"

Tea felt her stomach give a very unpleasant lurch; she blinked. Surely she didn't hear correctly.

"What?!"

Benson looked up with an unreadable expression on his face.

"Long story."

"I have time. We both do."

It seemed as though he wanted to talk to her all along, when he let out a long breath that whistled slightly through his teeth. Then he began.

"I should never have gotten into this shit." He shook his head down at the dying grass "I should have stopped. But some pain can't be just ~ignored~, and it was like my lifeblood. And I kept bleeding.

"I guess it never struck me how true the movies are like these days, because the drug-lords have so much stuff; stuff that makes people keep on living, you know? But they know that more than anything."

Tea listened in dark fascination, fiddling with the hem of her pants and tearing up grass. He gave no notice that he cared, but the both of them understood that they cared about little in those times.

"So, a while back, I met this dude. He seemed fair and happy, and he asked me if I'd like a free sample, type. Free chances don't come around too much, so I took up his offer. Then I figured out that ~that~ stuff was a shitload stronger than what I'm usually into."

/Oh god . . . ~crack~./

He was lost already.

"But it was good. Real good. So I ordered more, as much as I could pay for in a month or so.

"Then, when I got my package, I found ~three times~ as much as I ordered. I'm not sure if they did it on purpose, but it's not like it's refundable.

"And I can't pay it." He swallowed "It won't take long for them to figure it out. So." He looked expectantly at Tea.

"Join me?"

She knew it wasn't a good idea, all things considered, but it drew her as a promise of something different. And it wasn't like anything could get any worse for either of them.

Maybe she could be happy.

Carefully, she took the roll into her delicate fingers, looking it over. How could something so small be that harmless . . . ?

"I'm not trying to ruin your life, girly." He said somewhere above her "It's ~worth~ it."

Finally, she looked up. He held a lighter in his hand.

"Kanpai?"

~*~*~*~

Yes, it was bad, but for once, the pain ebbed a little.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Don't flame me. I'm not a crack-head, I don't know how these things work. I left a lot of it to your imagination, of course, but remember kiddos:

Don't do drugs.

Well, I sincerely hope this chapter was adequate for your needs, but if you absolutely hate it, just tell me, alright? However, remember, it'll get better near the end, even though Tea got herself into a very BAD position. Expect about four more chapters in all, perhaps a bit more, but four is my estimate at the moment.

So, Yugi's coming back in, next time, and with a few words of wisdom. Now the question is, will Tea heed them?

Please review, any comments are welcome as long as a valid point is introduced.

Thank you so much!

giggleplex