Thanks for all the highly supportive reviews!!! Love, BeeBee PS-Sorry if it's short! But I hope it will get better soon.

Chapter Five:

It was almost five o-clock when I heard footsteps in the hallway outside the apartment door. The lock in the door clicked and the door opened to reveal Jac's brother, Craig.

"Look. I don't blame you for wanting to leave. But I can't let you go," he said.

"Why the hell not?" I asked. I was feeling a tad bitchy, what with being shut up in a strange apartment, in a strange city, against my will, and no food at all for the entire day.

"It's hard to explain…Jac is well, like I said, it's hard to explain to anyone who doesn't already know…He has an illness. We've never had enough money to take him to a doctor to get it corrected"--yeah, right. I bet you didn't have enough money after spending it all on computer crap-- "so we've just had to deal. Sometimes…Jac doesn't know right from wrong or reality from fiction."

Then I stopped being mad and started feeling sorry for Jac. And Craig. I knew what it was like, what with Doug's eccentricities and occasional suicidal tendencies and all.

I looked at Craig. He was kind of cute. Not as cute as Rob, but definitely hot. He had short black hair and brown eyes. If he weren't so tired and pale looking, he'd be cuter. But my heart belonged to Rob. Rob. Rob. Rob. Rob. Rob.

But Craig was so cute.

Stop it, I told myself. Just stop it. You don't know this guy. Yeah, he cares about his brother, but not about you, obviously. You don't know him. Besides, Rob has done so much for you. He cares about you.

Rob cared about me. But this guy obviously didn't. I mean, if he cared, he'd take me home, right? But then again, a brother like his would handle such a thing so well. But I wanted to go home, was that a crime?

"You must be hungry," Craig said. "What do you like to eat?"

"Anything, really, I just want food," I said.

"How's Chinese?" he asked.

I accepted. I just hoped he didn't mean that nasty gob of mold in the refrigerator. But he meant calling a Chinese place and ordering food. Thank God.

I'd never eaten Chinese before, what with Dad's restaurants and all--and the fact that Podunk wasn't exactly a haven of restaurants. I mean, there was a McDonalds and a Pizza-Hut, and all of Dad's places. But no Chinese. And if there had been, I probably wouldn't have been allowed to eat there. Dad calls Chinese food Salmonella-on-a-Chopstick.

And, can I tell you, egg rolls and teriyaki chicken are some of the best foods ever made. Yeah, it must have about a thousand grams of sodium, but it is so good.

Then again, I'd been so hungry, I would have probably eaten the mold off of the walls had it come down to that.

But I highly doubted that the teriyaki chicken I'd just consumed had Salmonella in it.

And Craig could tell that I liked it, too. "I'm sorry. I guess we should get you some food. I wish I could just take you home to your family and explain to them what happened…but my brother…well, you know, he'd kill himself or something. I never know how he'll take things. One day, he's normal: he acts his age, and if you didn't know better, you'd say he was perfectly fine. But on other days, he acts childish and sometimes suicidal. Will you stay here until I find a way to get you home? I mean, all I have to do is send him away for a couple of days. Maybe he'll get tired of you and want you to go home. I'm really sorry, I am. If there's anything you want or need, you'll let me know, right?"

Okay…get me out of here. Only I didn't actually say that. I mean, what was I supposed to say? He had a brother that was similar to mine, and he cared about him.

And how was I supposed to say no to a guy who looked like that?

Bad, Jess, bad. Really bad Jess, I know. My heart belongs to Rob and no one else.

But Craig had such soft lips…what would it be like to kiss them?

"Well…" he said, trailing off, "I guess I'd better go and get you some food. What do you like?"

"Cereal, Cheetos, Fiddle Faddle. The normal stuff," I said.

"Okay. And I'll get you a pillow and a blanket, too. Anything else you'll need?" he asked.

"Yeah. Tampons."

He winced. Grossing him out, I thought, would be a great way to ensure that I'd get home soon.

A few minutes after Craig left, Jac arrived.

"Chinese is in the microwave," I told him.

"Thanks."

I watched him as he ate--he was nothing like his brother who ate politely and gentlemanly, he ate like a pig.

Why couldn't Rob have kidnapped me and taken me to Vegas? I really didn't want to live in a run-down apartment with a pig. Is that such a crime?

"Look, I'm sorry, Jess, but I love you, understand? I need to see your face, smell your hair, hear you breathe."

What a creep.

My life is so grand…

…Not.