Title: And Then There Were Two
Author: TWBasketcase
A/N: Thanks for all the great reviews everyone! Your feedback is greatly appreciated!

Chapter 12 – Heart to Heart

We approached her house having finally gotten here at about 8:00 pm. It is pretty small and ramshackle; nothing special about it. It is one floor, painted blue on the outside with a garden full of weeds in the front. Obviously her parents don't care too much about the outer appearance of it. Then again by the sounds of things her parents don't really care about anything but themselves; kinda sounds familiar when it comes to my own family.

She hugged her jacket tightly against her torso; it is early April so it is still cold as hell. We stepped up the small steps in front of the door and she unlocked it. Stepping inside I noticed that the inside of the house is a lot different than the outside. The inside is all painted matching colors of off-whites and the carpets are all a neat grey. Nothing was cluttered; it seems as if they at least try to keep it clean. She turned to me with her eyes downcast, "Did you want to go hang out in my room?"

I nodded my head silently and stuffed my hands in my pockets as we made our way towards the very back of the house. Her bedroom was located in the far right hand corner; kinda hidden away from everything else. If a total stranger came into this house it would be near impossible to notice a teenage girl lives here.

"Make yourself comfortable," she said quietly as we stepped through the door. Her bedroom was really nice. She had a queen sized bed with different color duvets stacked on it; there are really nice paintings plastered all over her walls, and a large shelf full of books and records. It looks like she spends a lot of time in here.

I took a seat on the bed and looked at the shelf full of records; there are The Smiths, The Cure, Depeche Mode, Prince, Bowie, and a bunch of others. I'm not into any of those bands myself but they are a lot better than say Madonna or Culture Club or something. She closed the door behind her and dropped her bag down to the floor; she still looked pretty depressed and scared and I'm not quite sure how I'm supposed to go about hanging out with her. She said that she wanted me here, but I'm not exactly sure for what, she didn't really explain.

"Thanks for coming over with me John," she started as she curled herself up in the far corner of her bed away from me.

"It's cool…don't bother me any,"

She looked away and held herself tighter, "I hope not, I kinda feel like a burden on you. If you want to go do something else you can you know."

I rolled my eyes, "I know that; trust me if I wanted to go I would. Like I said, it don't bother me any."

"I hope not…"

I shot her a look, "Look I said it doesn't bother me any, okay? Don't get yourself in a bunch just because someone says that they want to hang out…it's not a conspiracy or anything."

She let out a nervous laugh; a nervous laugh I kinda felt guilty for, for coming on a little too strong, "I know I just got to get used to it that's all. I haven't ever really had anyone who just wanted to hang out with me before. Everyone always thought I was too weird or something."

I raised an eyebrow, "I never thought you were that weird…I always saw you lurking around the school and the only thing I ever wondered was why you were so closed up; you have no reason to be…"

She looked down to her feet and swallowed, "Never really trusted anyone enough to open up."

I nodded my head, "Me neither but I never stopped talking or shied away from people…even if you don't trust people you can still have fun you know."

She rolled her eyes, "I do have fun, John…I just have fun alone. Drawing pictures and playing with my cat is fun. Going to the park and running through the grass with no shoes on is fun, same as going swimming with all of your clothes on."

I gave her a playful smirk, "You call that fun?" Deep down inside I knew what she was talking about; I admired the way she can be so carefree and get a kick out of it. I've seen so much bad shit happen in my life that I forget about the little things.

She smiled for the first time in days, "Yeah I do, it's great…makes you forget about all those things that get to you in a day. When I go to school and I have some cheerleader trip me, or some jock call me a freak all I have to do to forget about those things is go feed the squirrels or climb a tree or something. I feel much better when I'm by myself sometimes that I forget about everything."

I nodded, "Then why did you want me here?"

She frowned again, "Because all the bad stuff that happened this week can't really be fixed; it's going to take me a long time to get over it."

"Shit…" I rubbed my face with my hands in frustration; I still can't really believe that shit happened.

She looked at me with serious eyes, "Don't get angry…you've made it a lot better so far." I bit my lip and put my head back against the wall, "I mean it, John…you did."

"Okay I can handle that…I'm just not real good at this emotional shit."

She nodded, "I never expected you to be."

I gave her a crooked smile, "Fair enough."

We sat in silence for a few moments; she seemed to be thinking really hard and it almost made me feel as if I was invading her space. I know that she already made it clear as day that I made her feel better but I still couldn't help but feel a little guilty about everything that happened. When I brought her to my house she slept for hours; maybe it was from shock or something. She slept all night, morning, afternoon; a couple of times I wondered to myself if she was even going to wake up. I tried to stay down there long enough to be there when she woke up but it was hours. At the time I wasn't even sure if anything good was going to happen when she did wake up. I'm just glad she found the time to forgive me and help me get all those bad thoughts out of my head. If it would have happened any differently I probably would have went and done something stupid.

I looked at her and realized she had been staring at me. I raised my eyebrows, "What's up?"

She bit softly at her lower lip, "Is it true you spent the whole night looking for me?"

My eyes flew to the floor, "Yeah…I wanted to kick Dez's ass."

She smirked, "After everything that happened at school this week between us you still came looking for me…why?"

I furrowed my brow, "I don't know…I kept tellin' myself no matter how pissed you got I couldn't let you go near that guy. Even though he was my friend I just couldn't let myself let you go through with it. It just kept giving me a sick feelin' and…I don't know…"

She gave me half a smile, "I never knew you to be like that."

"Be like what?"

"All caring and protective…"

I smirked, "Remember what I said about the emotional shit?"

She let out a small laugh, "One of these days John you'll let it out. I already know what the real you is like under tough circumstances you know…"

"That's enough Allison…" I scolded playfully. I can't believe she is actually teasing me about this; I never let anyone do that.

"Okay," she started suddenly turning serious, "You don't wanna talk about your feelings, that's fine. I do have another question for you though."

I folded my arms over my chest, "Go ahead, shoot."

"If you knew how Dez was…with everything that happened to Jackie and all, why were you still friends with him?"

My mouth fell open but no words came out; I suddenly had a really dry throat and my stomach turned, "What do you mean?" I forced out pathetically.

She rolled her eyes, "You know exactly what I mean…just answer the question, I won't get mad."

I hesitated and thought hard, "Because I never used to care."

She furrowed her eyebrows, "What do you mean?"

"I used to treat people like shit too…never to that extent or anything, but I partied just like everyone else you seen there. I used to use girls just to get down there pants and then I would tell them to get lost. I always thought that what Dez did was Dez's business."

"What changed?"

"Claire," I paused not knowing if I wanted to continue, "I really liked her and I thought maybe I had found something serious, so I decided to change my ways and respect people just a little bit more…that's all."

She swallowed, "You seemed pretty bad after Monday went by though…"

I rolled my eyes, "And I was…that stupid Breakfast Club shit had made me think about a lot of things and then they turned around and basically spit in my face so I said fuck everything and sat at home and got high non stop."

She clenched her jaw nervously, "What changed?"

Oh shit, here we go… "You."

She furrowed her brow, "Me?"

I rolled my eyes and let out and irritable sigh, "Yeah you…you told me ya still wanted to be friends or whatever and for some strange reason I felt as if things were looking up or somethin'. You aren't really the same as my other friends."

She nodded, "Why not? Different in a good way or a bad way?"

I sighed; she just had to start the emotional shit again, "You know me better than they do. Even though I have only really known ya for two weeks you know more about me than any of them do and just because of that I feel more comfortable and confident around you…will you please stop asking me these questions? I feel like a fuckin' dweeb talking like this!"

She let out a laugh, "Okay fine you win…"

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About fifteen minutes ago she had fallen asleep. As I sat looking around the girl's bedroom I decided it would probably be a good idea to take off. It was getting pretty late and she was probably going to be out for the night anyways. I grabbed my jacket and stood up; I took one last glance at her as she slept; her hair spilled around the pillow and she looks a few years younger than she is. She looked really beautiful; of course I would never tell her that. I grabbed a pencil off her night table and scratched my name and phone number into the white wood. That way if she woke up and she needed to talk to me she could just call.

I closed the bedroom door quietly beside me and made my way through the house. When I came to the front door I noticed two people in the living room to my right. They were both sitting quietly on the couch not saying a word to each other and the only light in the room was the illumination of the TV screen. I stomped loudly into my boots and noticed that they never even turned around. I could have been a burglar and they wouldn't even turn around. Strange people.

When I closed the front door behind me a gust of cold wind hit my cheeks; I had only my jean jacket on so I was a little cold…but guys like me learn to suck that shit up and take it. It was about a 10 block walk back to my place, so it should take me about a half an hour.

After about fifteen minutes I was almost half way there; I had my hands jammed in my pockets and I was thinkin' about Allison again. She was being pretty strong about the whole situation and I was kinda surprised at how much she was actually smiling. I either really did make her feel better or she is a master of disguise. I guess I'm glad that I know she is going to be okay now.

"Hey Bender," I heard a voice low from my left. I stopped in my tracks to face the owner of the voice and I did not like what I saw.

"How ya doin buddy!" Dez asked sarcastically, he was surrounded by his older brother and about three of his friends. Dez himself looked like shit after the beating I fed to him last night. His nose was clearly broken and he had cuts and bruises just about everywhere. His brother and his friends on the other hand looked totally healthy and very pissed off.

"Fuck off, Dez," I replied and picked up my pace as I spun around on my heel. When I heard their footsteps coming closer behind me I broke into a run; I was about to get my ass kicked and I knew it.

After a few seconds two of them had caught up to me and tackled me to the ground. Joey, Dez's older brother got down in my face, "What the hell do you think your doing fuckin' around with my brother ya little punk?" The beat down was inevitable so I might as well take it standing; I spit a big loogie in his face and gave him a right shot to the eye. With that one move I had the four of them on me like wolves with Dez standing back and cheering them on. I was getting quite a few kicks to the ribs as they stood around me cursing. I got one final kick to the back of the head when my world turned to darkness…

TBC

TWBasketcase