Authors Notes: Oh, my god. Is this what I think it is? Can this be…is it? It is- she's updated!! Watch out for flying pigs. Yes, I apologize profusely for waiting so long, but I hope it was worth it. I have to dedicate this to all the people who wrote, wondering when I was going to update already and especially to Kimberly (Even after all my assurances that this day would come, did you believe it? :) )Well, I finally jumped onto a plot line I liked and this is the result. Thanks so much for your patience and, as always, Enjoy!
"Don't you think that's just a little extreme?" Matt asked, eyebrows raised.
"Well, what else can we do?" I sighed, resting my head in my hands.
"Something." Matt assured me.
We fell silent then, as we both tried to come up with a plan. Well, an alternative plan, I guess I should say; though I wasn't much for going through with my so-called 'plan' to date Dean. I mostly just said it to mess with Matt. Would have been funnier if he took me seriously but hey, can't always get what you want, right?
"Never mind it now, let's just go out as planned. We'll think of something soon." Matt's voice broke through my thoughts. This seemed like a good idea to me, so I nodded in agreement and stood up. Matt rose also and reached out to take a hold of my arm.
"We're okay, right?" he asked hesitantly and I gave him a reassuring smile.
"We're fine." I replied and he returned the smile.
We walked out to Matt's bike and, thankfully, Dean was nowhere in sight. "So where to?" Matt asked, handing me his spare helmet.
"I don't know. What do you feel like doing?" I asked in reply. Matt started up the bike but didn't drive off yet.
"We can walk Clematis." he suggested.
"That sounds good, let's do it." I agreed, wrapping my arms around his waist as we took off. His totally buff waist, I might add. I wondered again if I saw him on any school team that Trish cheered at. Most teams were diverted between Townies and Buzzers. Basketball was mostly townies, while Soccer was made up of mainly Buzzers. Football was the only mixed sport. Then there were the teams that didn't require cheerleaders, Swim and Wrestling. He didn't have a swimmers body though, more like a football player. Maybe a wrestler, though I didn't know much about them.
It was a short ride to Clematis, the main hang out from anyone thirteen to thirty. There was the movie theater, of course, at the end of a road off the main street. Then, for the older crowd, there was Clematis Street itself, packed full of clubs. On all the streets leading off Clematis were shops and restaurants, the Arcade and the park, with batting cages.
We walked around hand in hand for a while, looking at all the stuff around us and making comments on the people we saw.
"Can we say steroids?" Matt mumbled to me as we passed a guy so built his arms looked like tree trunks.
"Matt!" I laughed, elbowing him.
"Oow." he mock winced, clutching his side.
"Baby." I rolled my eyes at him, still smiling.
"Ooh, I love it when you use pet names." he grinned at me.
"Your such a goof." I said shaking my head.
"Maybe, but-" Matt started to say but cut off when he ran into something, or should I say someone.
"Hey, watch where your going Hardy!" A familiar voice said.
"Why don't you watch where your going?" Matt shot back, then moved aside so I finally saw who he was talking to.
"Oh, hey Amy! Don't tell me the rumors are true? Your dating Mattie boy here? I had so much respect for you, too." Jericho said with an easy grin.
"Haw, haw, haw. What are you losers doing here?" Matt asked and I then noticed Jason and Adam standing behind Jericho.
"Seeing the sights, same as you. Well, maybe not the same as you." Jason slurred, then threw a grin at me. I narrowed my eyes, wondering if I should take offense.
"Dude, are you guys drunk?" Matt asked, incredulous.
"Drunk? No, no. Not drunk." Adam insisted, though the slurring of his words said otherwise.
"Where'd you guys get the drinks?" Matt asked.
"This guy over on Clematis." Jericho said happily. "Want some? I could hook you up, no problem."
"No thanks." Matt said as if he was offended by even being asked.
"How bout you, Amy?" Jericho asked.
"I'll pass." I answered.
"Suit yourselves. We're going to go try our hands at the batting cases. Ca..ses...Cages." Adam said, shaking his head, and then they were off.
"They are ganna get so busted." I said as we made our way in the opposite direction.
"Yeah, cops are always walking around here. I can't believe they would be so stupid. I'm uh… Sorry about that. Their usually cooler than that." Matt apologized.
"Don't worry about it." I replied. I knew them better than to take that as normal behavior.
"Have you ever drank before?" Matt asked curiously.
"Once, I didn't exactly take to it, or enjoy it much." I replied, grimacing at the thought.
"What happened?" Matt asked.
"My cousin and I have the same birthday, except she's five years older. So when I had my sixteenth, she was having her twenty-first." I explained.
"Oooh. Alcohol galore." Matt nodded in understanding.
"Oh yeah. And since it was my birthday too, they were pretty lenient on how much I got to 'taste'." I said, shaking my head.
"So what happened?" Matt asked.
"Drank to much, spent most of the night...sick, if you know what I mean. Woke up even sicker and never had the desire to drink again. So I guess, in a way, it was good." I explained, grimacing again.
"What about you?" I asked after we had been walking in silence for a minute.
"Oh, I never really tried it. Haven't had the desire to, either. Especially after hearing that story." he teased with a smile.
"Hey, you asked." I reminded him.
Matt looked like he was about to answer when he glanced past me and seemed to see something he didn't like.
"What?" I asked, turning to see what had caught his gaze and my breath caught in my throat.
We had been making our way around Main Street and had just come upon Carousel Park where there was an ambulance with people standing around looking shocked. That wasn't what caught my eye though. No, it was past the ambulance a little ways where there were three police cars, with even more policemen standing around them, all talking to Jericho, Jason and Adam.
"Oh man." Matt breathed next to me.
"What do you think happened?" I asked and Matt started to make his way over.
"Whatever it is, it can't be good." He answered.
"Jericho, you guys alright?" Matt asked, turning the cops attention to him.
"Matt! Man, you got to tell them we didn't do it!" Jericho was almost yelling and he looked panicked, far from the easygoing guy I was used to.
"Calm down, son." I recognized the cop, Terison, who said this. He was a good friend of my fathers and suddenly, I had bad feeling about being here. So could you blame me for taking a small step to the side so Matt was standing between us? Okay, so it was rotten using Matt as a shield, but hey- Terison wouldn't recognize Matt. Me on the other hand, well, lets just say Terison was practically a second uncle to Alex and me.
"You know these boys, son?" a different cop, one I thankfully didn't know, asked Matt.
"Yes sir, these are friends of mine. We were just talking a minute ago." Matt answered.
"I see," he replied, looking Matt over critically. I knew, as I'm sure Matt did that he was trying to tell if Matt, like the others had been drinking.
"What happened?" Matt asked, ignoring the cop who had just assumed he had been drinking as well.
"Well, it seems a boy got jumped here. Was hurt pretty bad and these three were at the scene, and obviously had been drinking." Terison replied.
"But we didn't do it! We just found the kid, I swear!" Adam exclaimed.
"We'll see." said the other cop.
"Amy Christine, is that you?" Terison finally spotted me. Well, I guess I didn't really believe I'd get out of this without getting seen.
"Yes sir." I replied meekly as everyone's eyes landed on me. Teriosn looked down to where Matt and my hands were linked, narrowing his eyes.
"Lets have a chat." he said, taking my arm and leading me away from the group. I guess I should be grateful he didn't chew me out in public. Well, where anyone could hear, anyway.
"Just what are you doing here?" he asked when we were far enough away so no one would here us.
"I was just hanging out, and then we saw the ambulance and the cop cars and we came to see what happened." I explained, trying to stay calm.
"But what are you doing here. Does you parents know your out with that boy?" he asked and I rolled my eyes.
"Oh come on, Danny." I replied.
"Don't 'come on Danny' me. Do they know?" he asked.
"Not...exactly." I replied reluctantly.
"Uh huh. And what do you think they'd say if they knew you were out here with four drunk boys?" he asked.
"Three. Matt isn't drunk and he is the only one I'm here with. We just ran into the others and talked to them for a few minutes, then left." I said, but Terison didn't look like he was buying it. "You really think I would be out with someone that was drunk?" I asked incredulously.
"Well, I wouldn't think you'd be out at all without your parents permission, but here we are." he replied.
"But that's two totally different things!" I exclaimed.
"Look," he said, rubbing his eyes like he always does when he's frustrated. "I don't have time for this. These boys are in serious trouble, Amy. From what I hear, its a gang fight." he said and I laughed.
"Oh come on, Danny. Jericho, Adam and Jay aren't in a gang." I said.
"Gang fight, neighborhood war, whatever you want to call it." he sighed.
"Neighborhood wa-" I started, but it suddenly dawned on me what he meant.
"The hurt kid was a Townie?" I asked and he narrowed his eyes at me.
"You know these gangs?" he asked suspiciously.
"Yeah. Well, they're not gangs. Its just two groups; Townies and Buzzers." I explained, though my mine was somewhere else. A Townie hurt? And Matt's boys framed for it? This is not good. But wait..."Couldn't the Townie just say it who really did it?" I asked but Danny shook his head.
"Didn't see who it was. Came up from behind and knocked him out cold, looks like with a baseball bat." he explained, looking back to where everyone else was still standing, obviously through with this conversation.
"Okay, well, lets go." he said, sighing again.
"Go? Where?" I asked suspiciously.
"Hawaii, what do you think?" he asked sarcastically. "I'm taking you home."
"No way. I have a ride." I replied.
"I'm not kidding Amy. Lets go."
"Please Danny, you cannot do this to me. I'll go home right now, I swear, just let Matt take me." I pleaded. "If you do this to me, I could be in therapy for years, and who's going to pay for that?"
Danny snorted in response. "Alright already. You go straight home, though and I mean it."
"Promise." I said, already making my way back to the group.
"Come on, we're going to take the lot of you home and have a word with your parents." One of the cops was saying when I reached them. I looked at Matt with my eyebrows raised, wondering if that included him. He just shook his head, and then nodded towards Danny with a question of his own. I shook my head, then gestured back away from the group and he nodded, leading me away.
"Remember what I said." Danny called out and I rolled my eyes.
"Yeah, yeah." I mumbled, though apparently not quietly enough.
"What?" he asked.
"I said yes sir." I replied and turned to give him my most innocent smile. He just shook his head, and then turned away.
"What was that about?" Matt asked wonderingly.
"That was my dads best friend." I sighed, leading Matt to where he parked earlier.
"Oh great." Matt said shaking his head. "What else can go wrong." he asked and I quickly covered his mouth with my hand.
"Don't. We haven't seen how Jeff and Alex faired at being left alone in the house."
Authors notes: Wow! Super long. Yes, I thought you all disserved it after all I put you through. What did you think? Too long?