A/N: Thanks for the reviews. I'm glad that you guys are still interested after I kept you waiting so long! This chap is pretty short. It was supposed to be the final chapter, but all of it together turned out kinda long so I broke it into two parts. I'll post the rest as soon as I get a chance to look over it again. R&R!

Chapter 11: Uncomfortable Confrontations

(Sheryl Crow)

I saw you yesterday with an old friend

(Kid Rock)

It was the same ole same "how have you been?"

(Both)

Since you've been gone my world's been dark and gray

(Kid Rock)

You reminded me of brighter days

(Sheryl Crow)

I hoped you were comin' home to stay

I was headin' to church

(Kid Rock)

I was off to drink you away…

The next couple weeks passed much the same. Twister, Otto and Sam would hang out at the beach, or Madtown—often with April, David and Chris—while Lars and Reggie went off somewhere to do their own thing. Twister would usually go with Autumn after Otto and Sam decided to call it a day. He was glad that Otto never asked what they did in the evenings because he definitely didn't want him to know. Otto would go ballistic if he knew what was really going on.

The gang would go back to their hangout and have a few beers until it was time for Twister to leave so he could get home at a reasonable time. He would immediately run up the stairs to his room before his parents could notice that something was wrong with him. He'd been lucky so far.

Every night, Lars barged into his room uninvited as he was getting ready for bed to check up on him. Upon smelling the alcohol on Twisters breath, he would only scowl and shake his head, sometimes mumbling something about a "big mistake" before finally leaving. Twister ignored him and wished that his brother would just leave him alone, despite his good intentions.

He was always careful not to drink as much as he did that first night—he didn't want to go through that again. He really didn't enjoy drinking at all, but it helped him forget. After a few beers, the pain of losing Reggie slowly faded away—for a little while. Only then did he feel somewhat like his old self again.

Saturday morning, he was unhappily jarred awake by Lars shoving the phone in his face.

"It's your girlfriend." Lars stated flatly before leaving the room.

"Hi Autumn." Twister yawned into the phone.

"Hey Twist. I can't hang out today cause my parents are making us go with them to visit my aunt and uncle in San Diego. We'll be back this afternoon though so why don't we meet then?"

"Okay." Twister mumbled, still half asleep. "The usual spot?" He asked, referring to the pier in Sunset beach.

"We probably won't have eaten yet, so why don't you meet us at 'Hula Burger' for dinner?"

"Where?" Twister had never heard of this place before.

"It's in Sunset Beach. I'll give you the address, got a pen?"

"Yeah, hold on." Twister fumbled in the drawer of his nightstand for something to write with. Papers and other useless junk flew across the room as he started emptying the contents of the drawer, cursing under his breath. His fingers wrapped around something hard and he almost flung it across the room before realizing what it was. As he held it up to inspect it, his breath caught in his throat. There she was, so beautiful, smiling at him. He hadn't seen her face, picture or otherwise, in nearly two weeks. He was mesmerized by it, forgetting all about the pen that he was supposed to be looking for.

"Did you find it yet?" Autumn's impatient voice came through the phone that was still pressed to his ear, jolting him from his thoughts.

He finally saw the pen in the bottom of the drawer and grabbed it up. "Uh…yeah, I'm ready." He said distantly, his mind still preoccupied with the picture. He took down the directions to the burger place as Autumn recited them for him. "Okay, see you at six."

"K, see you later."

"Later." He said and hung up. He slumped back down on his pillow and closed his eyes again, clutching the picture against his chest.

That afternoon Twister returned home to clean up before meeting Autumn after spending the day with Otto and Sam. After showering and changing his clothes, he put on his blades and went outside only to find Otto, Reggie and Sam practicing street hockey in their court. There was no way to avoid it; he would have to skate right past them to leave his yard.

"Hey bro!" Otto called when he saw Twister.

"Hey." Twister responded quietly. As he walked toward them he briefly locked eyes with Reggie before focusing on Otto again.

"Want to practice with us? The team's just not the same without you." Sammy asked.

He wanted to stay and play with them more than anything—just like old times—but he couldn't bring himself to do it. His foolish pride wouldn't allow them to see how much he desperately wanted things to be normal again. He had to play it cool. "Nah, I've got something to do, Squid. Besides, I'm sure Otto can pick up the slack."

"I won't argue with that, but the Squid's right. It's not the same." Otto chimed in.

There was an uncomfortable silence as the four teens stood there staring at the ground, not sure what to say next. To everyone's surprise, Reggie was the first to speak again. "So…how've you been, Twister?" She suddenly blurted out.

"Oh…I-I've been fine. You?" He stuttered, briefly taken aback by her acknowledging him.

"Fine."

"That's good."

"Yeah. I mean, it's good that you're doing fine too." She said nervously. She felt like she was talking to someone she'd just met. After that, the two just gazed at each other for a few seconds. Each seemed like they wanted to say something more, but both held back.

"Well, I guess I need to go." Twister said.

"Ok bro. Catch ya later." Otto said, then skated off to look for the hockey puck.

"Yeah, later." Twister muttered, then turned to leave. A dull ache had settled into the pit of his stomach from seeing Reggie. As he made his way down the street, he looked forward to the night ahead so he could make the pain go away again.

After Twister left, Reggie began to skate back toward their house.

"Hey, what's your deal? We're not done playing!" Otto called.

"Sorry Otto, I don't feel good all of a sudden." She said and went inside.

'Why didn't I say something?' she thought to herself as climbed the stairs to her room. 'I had the perfect opportunity to tell him how I feel and I blew it!' She flopped on her bed and wept softly into her pillow.