Zoe lied there in her bed. You could tell she was upset beyond expression. She had no desire to talk to him whatsoever. At the time it was as if she hated him.

The phone rang. She looked at the caller id. It was him. She hesitated to answer it, and finally decided not to. It rang at least eight times. He knew she was home.

Mother yelled at her to answer it. She didn't move. Mother burst in the door.

"Zoe, aren't you going to answer it?!"

"No."

Mother rolled her eyes, sighed, and left the room.

~*~*~*~*~

He slammed his phone down and cursed. He even considered going to her house, but not if she was just going to reject his calls like that. She was home, but he knew she was still mad at him.

But he had to talk to her. Whether she liked it or not.

~*~*~*~*~

Zoe heard a knock at the door. She figured it was probably him, so she never got up.

Mother yelled from downstairs. "Zoe, Xavier's here!"

"Tell him not to bother! I'm not coming down!"

"Come down here now!"

"No!"

She could hear her mother apologizing to him, then heard the door shut. She also heard a voice yell outside her window.

"You can't ignore me forever!"

She stuck her head out the window. "No, but I can sure as hell try!"

He gave her a cold stare and walked off.

She wished he would just leave her alone. But she also knew he wouldn't. A part of her wanted to talk to him, but not if he was going to be like this.

She buried her face in her pillow and screamed as loud as she could until she had to breathe. What would she do? What could she do?

~*~*~*~*~

A young spirit sat in the silent forest, and all that could be seen was a wet streak of tear falling from her saddened eyes. All of her was dying to help her brother, but it hurt since she was already dead and the other one was telling him to kill.

Kill Hiei.

It wasn't his fault, her thoughts shouted out. Don't believe her, brother, she only deceives you.

She wanted desperately to tell him about her. But she knew if she did, the darkness of herself would surely try to stop her, and this time in a more permanent way.

Could she tell the girl? The one who stood by Hiei?

She had to. Who else could convince Neiton? This was the only thing she could do.

~*~*~*~*~

Xavier sat by the docks, skipping rocks across the water.

All she wanted was to help.

No, she couldn't help. He didn't need her to.

He couldn't just criticize her for trying to, though.

Forget it. She'll just screw up.

All these thoughts raced through his head. She was mad. He knew it. Maybe he should just stay away. Forget about her, and think about Neiton instead.

Should he?

~*~*~*~*~

Zoe walked down the street on her way to school. She stopped by Xavier's to pick him up, but he wasn't there. What happened to him? She was really worried.

Where could he be?

She stopped and turned around. She had to find him.

Someone sat by the docks. Was it him?

It was.

He saw her and glared.

Zoe didn't like this approach. She glared back.

"What are you doing here?! You're supposed to be at school!"

He didn't say anything, but looked down.

"Don't ignore me!"

"Why? You seem to ignore me constantly."

"Shut up!"

This surprised him. He looked at her, and saw that she was infuriated.

She turned back around. "I'm going to school. Do whatever you want."

Zoe walked off, but stopped partway. "You're hopeless, you know that?"

She struck a sensitive cord. He stood up. "And you're not?! I can't believe you're stupid enough to go wondering off on your own to solve MY problems!"

"That's because you're too stubborn to get help from anyone!"

"Because I don't NEED ANY HELP!!!"

Xavier felt a stinging pain on his left cheek when Zoe slapped him. He almost fought back, but knew he shouldn't.

"You're so selfish!" she cried, storming off.

He stood there, saying nothing.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Zoe-San: Long, long update and very short chapter. How typical. Well, thank you for reading, and plz review! ^_^;;