Chapter 6: The Still of the Night

Notes: There will be more confusion, bafflement, mixed-signals and plant-killing before the happy ending. Why do I keep killing plants? Well, that's because they are evil and pathological liars. I once had a fake cactus (having realised that I was the botanical grim reaper), that was my pride and joy. After two years it suddenly burst into flower. I drowned it in the fish pond. I had to. Very dangerous to have plants that suddenly explode into life when they are apparently synthetic. Let this be a lesson to you all: Plants are not to be trusted. Constant Vigilance.

A couple of weeks passed without very much happening. Charlie finally caught on that there was nothing romantic going on between Luis and Averman, and kept stammering out apologies at random intervals.

Luis and Averman had their first fight since rooming together. Averman told Luis not to come to drama practice again because it would only increase the rumours – rumours that Averman himself professed not to care about, but implied that Luis might – and Luis had been enraged at the thought that he might be labelled a homophobe. It got very heated and culminated in Luis yelling "Screw the damn rumours!" and stomping out in a raging huff, slamming the door hard enough to crack the framework. They didn't speak for two days, but on Thursday he turned up at Averman's practice anyway.

Mr Stiles reported that one of his prize yucca plants had gone missing, and should he find the culprit they would be severely punished. The following day, he reported that two ferns and a fuchsia had been stolen also. He insinuated that a suitable punishment would consist of the guilty party swinging by their toenails over an incinerator while small devils poked them with large pitchforks.

Aisha kept turning up at Luis' locker, or outside his classes at almost regular intervals, making small talk and finally asking him if he wanted to go see a movie. Luis turned her down, claiming a prior engagement with Averman. She in turn asked if the rumours were true, he was sorely tempted to lie, but was unable to keep a straight face.

Annie and Terri threw a party in their room and invited the Ducks. Terri drank far too much tequila and spent the entire night being ill with Charlie looking after her, which, to Luis and Averman, was a godsend. Unfortunately twenty minutes later Ms Harper, the girls' dorm supervisor, burst in and broke up the party. The only ones who did not get punished where Terri and Charlie, who had gone outside to get some fresh air. Adam got the worst punishment, because by that time he was horribly plastered and decided to serenade Ms Harper with a very drunk rendition of Twinkle, twinkle, little star (which actually came out as "Twunkle, twunkle, leeeeetle moooooooooooooon…") and then he threw up on her shoes. Terri served her detention a week later when Ms Harper realised that the party had been held in her room. Terri claimed that she hadn't known anything about the party and wasn't there at the time. Ms Harper said that she understood that, then doubled Terri's detention for being out of her room past curfew. The dorm supervisors were nothing if not fair.

Mr Stiles later reported that someone had damaged one of his remaining yucca plants. This was actually not true, it was not the remaining one that was damaged, it was the missing one. When it became too tattered, the Bashes merely exchanged it for a more sturdy counterpart.

With regard to the rumours, Averman's uneasy feelings towards Luis seemed to be growing now that he had acknowledged that there was a possibility that they existed, but he believed himself to be acting normally. Luis did not share his viewpoint. Luis thought Averman had gone stark-raving mad. Nobody else seemed to notice that now instead of being hyper on Thursdays, Averman was hyper all week, which consequently had him on detention almost every evening and skating laps every morning for Coach Wilson. It was a wonder he had the energy to be hyper after that. And then he seemed to vanish into thin air on a regular basis, as did Annie – who Luis presumed was with her new love interest. To counter-act this, Luis often found himself lurking in the Bash Brothers' room, beating up their plant or trying not to bleed from the ears when they played music at what they called an "acceptable level".

So generally, it was a typical fortnight at Eden Hall. Which meant that sooner or later something would inevitably come along and shake things up. As it turned out, it was sooner.

Averman yawned and blinked a couple of times, cursing the jerk who was knocking insistently on his door. He felt like he'd only just gone to sleep. He checked the time, it was just gone one a.m. – so he had only just gone to sleep. He had cornered Annie some time after dinner and he had been picking her brains. What he really wanted was her opinion, did she think he was gay? She wouldn't give him her opinion, she kept telling him that she didn't want to sway his feelings one way or another. In frustration, Averman had finally yelled, "What is it with you mentor types? Why can't you just answer a simple question? You're a modern day Mr Miagi." When Annie was done giggling, she gave her opinion, it wasn't much, but she pointed out that if he was pondering it this deeply, perhaps that meant there was something to ponder.

He'd been reflecting this until he finally fell asleep, and now someone was pounding on the door. Mendoza was sleeping peacefully, somehow able to ignore the knocking.

Averman hauled himself to his feet and swung the door open angrily, ready to tell whoever was on the other side of the door exactly what he thought of them. The angry tirade of words died on his lips as he saw who was on the other side. It was Shelley, Mindy's younger sister. Despite his sleepiness, his observant eye took in her pink and white striped pyjamas, which she had hastily thrown a grey Eden Hall sweatshirt over, the tangled disarray of her hair and her bloodshot eyes. Shelley was much like her older sister, both in looks and attitude. She was captain of the JV Cheerleaders, quite the brainiac and very popular. She was also known as the most well-groomed Freshman in Eden Hall history.

Wordlessly he opened the door wider and gestured that she come in.

She went straight to Luis' bed and tapped him on the shoulder. When that didn't work, she shook him gently.

"Mindy?" He asked in confusion.

Shelley let out a small sob. "No, Shelley. You have to wake up."

Luis rubbed his eyes, and reached over and turned on the lamp. All three of them blinked painfully as the light hit their eyes.

"What's going on?" Luis asked, propping himself up on one elbow.

Shelley gripped his forearm and from where Averman was standing, he could see that she was unconsciously digging her nails in. "There's been… the car… it… wasn't her fault."

Luis shook his head. "What are you saying?" He asked, although Averman noted from the gleam of fear in his roommate's eyes that he was beginning to understand.

"There was… ice on the road," Shelley said disjointedly, she swallowed heavily. "They lost control. She's… gone."

"Shelley! Who?" Luis freed his arms from her grasp and gripped her wrists. Averman noted there were four half-moon dents in Luis' arm from her nails.

"Mindy."

"No." Luis shook his head.

Saying it out loud seemed to help Shelley get a grip of herself. "They were going to tell you in the morning, but I thought you'd want to hear it from me. I have to go now, my parents are picking me up." She disentangled her wrists from his hands and got to her feet.

Luis made no reply, but fell forward on the bed, pulling his pillow over his face.

Averman let Shelley past then touched her on the shoulder. He'd never spoken a single word to her, but now he had to say something. "Um, thanks for telling Luis in person," he said softly. "And I'm really sorry about Mindy, tell your parents, ok?"

She gave him a watery smile and nodded, then left.

Averman closed the door and turned back to Luis, a little unsure of what to do. He settled for kneeling beside the bed and reaching out a tentative arm to pat Luis' back reassuringly. "I'm really sorry about Mindy," he said again.

When he got no reply, he asked, "Do you want me to go get Annie?"

Luis shook his head, or at least, Averman assumed that's what he did, it was hard to tell through the pillow.

"Ok, then, well… I'll leave you alone." Averman finally decided. He didn't really know what to do, he hadn't lost anyone before, except his great aunt, and he'd only met her twice. And when Hans had died, it had been a group bereavement, something they all had to deal with together. He couldn't imagine what Luis was going through, Mindy had been his girlfriend for three years, and there was no question of how much he had loved her.

"No, stay," Luis said, his voice hoarse.

So Averman stayed where he was. He supposed nobler people did not think about how their knees were cramping in situations like this. And flat-out better people knew exactly what to say to their friend when they needed them.

Luis pulled his head out from under the pillow and moved across the bed, flattening himself against the wall, when Averman made no move, he looked him in the eye, then patted the space beside him. Averman faltered momentarily, then climbed in beside him, pausing to turn off the lamp. He was careful to keep some space between the, his mind dimly reminding him of the unspoken rules of being a guy, one of the main ones being thou shalt not climb into bed with your roommate and hug him like a girl.

Hesitantly he reached out and squeezed Luis' shoulder, feeling completely out of his depth. Schools should provide some form of bereavement training, he thought distractedly, some form of instruction as to what to say, how much touching is enough and at what point the line is drawn. He was alarmed to find Luis shaking beneath his hand, and he realised that his roommate was crying silently.

Suddenly he didn't really care what the rules were and he wrapped his arms around Luis, holding him as he cried, one hand stroking the back of his neck in a soothing manner. Eventually the hitching sobs became less violent, and Luis' breathing eased, and finally slowed back to its usual rhythm. Averman wondered again if he should say something, but realised that Luis was asleep.

He decided to wait a few minutes to make sure Luis was fully asleep before getting out of the bed and getting into his own.

Averman's first waking thought was of extreme discomfort. His left arm had gone numb, his right was trapped in the covers or something and seemed quite unmovable, and his head was resting awkwardly against… it had to be the wall, because pillows were usually soft. Add to that Luis' alarm clock was screeching loudly and it was not a good start to the day.

He paused, why was the beep from Luis' alarm clock seemingly coming from behind him? He opened his eyes cautiously, and he suddenly remembered the events of last night. Shelley visiting… Luis' grief…

Which was why he was in Luis' bed. His arm was numb because Luis was lying on it, his other hand was not trapped in blankets, but held firmly in place with Luis' interlocking fingers.

"Turn it off," Luis said groggily. "I'm not going to class today."

"Ok." Averman tugged one of his hands free from Luis and hit the clock hard enough for it to make a distressed final beep and then the numerals flashed off.

"Will you stay here too?" Luis asked, tentatively. "Keep me company?"

"Sure."

Luis rolled over, finally freeing Averman's trapped arm, and turned to face him. "Thanks for last night, a lot of people would have talked endlessly and said stupid things. Thanks for just being there."

"It's ok," Averman replied. "You'd do the same for me. But I think you'll have to make a public declaration that I went a whole twelve hours without saying anything stupid, because nobody would believe you." He bit his lip, now wasn't the time to be making jokes, even as lame as that one.

Luis looked at him thoughtfully. "You're a far better person than you give yourself credit for," he decided finally, his eyes closing again.

Averman lay back against the pillow, his eyes also closing. He fully meant to get into his own bed, it wasn't even that far. He supposed it would even be possible to get back into his own bed without touching the floor. While puzzling out the easiest way to do this, he too fell asleep. His arm crept unconsciously around Luis once more and Luis rested his head on Averman's shoulder.

And this was how Charlie found them ninety minutes later, when Coach Wilson had sent him to investigate why two of his players were missing from a practice.

Notes & Thanks: Thank you everyone for the reviews…

NYgoldfish54: Glad you're enjoying the fun. Although now it's not so fun! And I'm happy that you like the title, I deliberated for hours over that. The first couple of chapters were finished long before they were posted, I just couldn't decide on the title!

meme: The plant must die! And thanks for your confidence in me. I promise I'll actually spend some time online soon!

lycanthrope: I'm so sorry. Don't hate me for putting unhappy vibes in. Glad you're enjoying it so far though. The yucca must die. Did I mention the whole Bible thing was a nod to you and your fic? I think I emailed you about it, but haven't announced it here. So I guess that's more plagiary rather than an homage. If I wrote more yucca, will you stick with this fic, even though it has unhappy moments in?

Tai: Luis is so Averman's bitch, I agree! You just threw Order of the Phoenix at a yucca? Who won, you or the plant? I need updates! I hate yuccas, my mother has a thing for them. She doesn't like them either, but really admires the way they grow, she takes a cutting from the main one and watches it grow to about seven feet in two days, then repeats the process. I'd love to be as bored as my mother. Maybe I'll buy her some heavy books.

Q: I love it when you babble. Death to the plants! And go nuns! I have no way of babbling the way you do, so please can you pretend I said something as funny as you just did?

plainjane: thanks for the review. Glad you're enjoying. Sorry to say that this chapter isn't as funny. Or at all!

Ashley: *thinks* I have no idea where Portman got the Bible from. I think you'll have to ask lycanthrope, because it was her idea, and I stole it. She had Portman skinning up on a Bible. Although at my school, they were given out on a yearly basis. Of course, I went to a Church school, so that's different!

Schiz: Yes, I'm an Averman Fangirl and proud. Thanks for the graphic, that's going up on my site on my next update. And the Bible thing was an homage to lycanthrope, she just rocks, doesn't she? Actually, the graphic you sent gave me an idea. My next update may well reveal the idea – should it pan out.

Fyre Eye: Glad you're enjoying. I love to see Averman get the spotlight for something other than being introduced to whichever new girl arrives at Eden Hall and I love to see Luis not being a womaniser. Gabby's idea rocks.

Sy: Haven't seen you for awhile, good to see you! Glad you're enjoying. Can't you just see Charlie with a multi-media presentation for his pep-talks?

Britts: Yay, another person who supports the bizarre pairing. Again, I have to say it was Gabby's idea, but I'm really enjoying writing this!

Gabby: See the slash! They were in bed together. Ok, so the circumstances were more angsty than romantic, but we're getting there!

Terra: More! It's here! Sorry it's taken so long to post it. and I have serious issues with each other.

Elf Toshiba: It's all lycanthrope's fault. She writes funny things and it gets me inspired!

And finally, Vic, thanks for the encouragement from this conversation…

victory thru tears says: Awwwww! Sleeping together!

What's your favourite humming noise? says: Bless and all we had to do was kill someone.

victory thru tears says: It's a wonderful exchange.

What's your favourite humming noise? says: Yes! And nobody liked her anyway!

victory thru tears says: Exactly!

What's your favourite humming noise? says: She was evil. Just like Linda. Hey, if we killed Linda, maybe we could get them to kiss!

victory thru tears says: *bursts out laughing* If you've got any morbid characters, I suggest using that line.