-- Another note! I know some of you wanted to read about what Casey's parents were going to say about the last chapter's whole situation, so I'd like to apologize that that will not be appearing… I just couldn't feel it, you know? So sorry Sparrow, Spry Sprite, or anyone else you wanted to read that. I have to go where my mind points me. --

That may be all I need
In darkness he is all I see
Come and rest your bones with me
Driving slow on Sunday morning
And I never want to leave…
– from Sunday Morning by Maroon 5

Wednesday – Stan's eyes scanned the front yard of the school, littered with trees and the three walkways all heading to the front doors. A blanket of gray clouds covered the sky above him, and the air was lukewarm. He looked for that head of dark brown hair; that mildly tanned skin; those brown doe eyes.

He was looking for Delilah, his girlfriend. They were to meet after school so that he could give her a ride home, where he would stay over for a while on a study date… "Study Date" meaning they'd solve three Math problems and then do nothing but make out for two straight hours.

He saw her, leaning against a tree, long golden tanned legs stretching out from under her sexy little mini-skirt crossed at the ankles just above her expensive black shoes. A smile graced her icy pink painted lips as she caught sight of him, uncrossed her legs, and stood up. He jogged over to her, and the second he stopped she threw her arms around his neck and gave him a long, hot, rewarding kiss.

"I thought those were your Estée Lauder lips," he whispered breathlessly after she pulled away.

"Mmm, baby, nevermind that!" she gushed. "If I'd known sooner I never would have put them on…" She leaned in and gave him a quick peck on the lips.

"Known about what?" he asked as soon as she was finished.

"About what you did to the Warren bitch!" she practically laughed.

"Who?"

"You know," Delilah waved her hand, eyebrows knitted, as she tried to remember that name. "The-uh… Samantha! That Samantha girl… You're my hero, Stan!" another quick peck of a kiss. "… Anyway; she so deserved what she got! I mean, just look at her… total freak mutant. What could possibly possess someone to dick around with the actual human humans, especially for, like, the biggest loser in Ohio history!"

She laughed and leaned in for another kiss. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait!" He stopped her by grabbing her shoulders and held her back. "What did you say?"

"What could possibly possess someone–" Delilah began, not quite sure of what he wanted.

"–No," Stan interrupted her. "That last thing you said… about the biggest loser in Ohio or whatever."

Delilah laughed. "C'mon Stan, you know… Casey Connor." She shook her head, and gave him a total look, like it should be obvious.

"Yeah, what about him?"

"He is the biggest loser in Ohio history…"

"Yeah, but what does he have to do with Sam?"

"You mean you don't know?" Delilah's eyes grew huge. Stan hesitated, but shook his head nonetheless. "The whole reason she's been going all 'street' on the us is because she's been protecting that little loser… isn't that why you beat her up?"

Stan felt his heart drop into his stomach and burn in the acids. His mouth was opened but he couldn't reply… No, he hadn't know that… Gabe and Tye hadn't told him that… he'd had no idea… they'd just made it sound like she was some crazy freak on a rampage… they never mentioned a reason… they never said anything about Casey… and it hit him, in sickening reality, at that very moment, what he'd done…

He had helped pound a girl into a cowering puddle curled up on a dirty floor soully because she wanted to help… to help a poor, pathetic, little outcast that no one, and I do mean no one, was ever nice to.

"Stan?" Delilah said persistently, bringing him back to reality. "Are we gonna go or what because I'm–"

"–I can't," Stan said quickly, interrupting her again. "I mean… I've got to go do something. I've really got to go do something, Delilah. I-I'll be back out, okay? Just wait for me…"

And he began to walk, which quickly turned into a jog, away, leaving Delilah behind, gawking incredulously.

He saw Stokely leaving the school, as he was only a few yards away from the front door. She had last period with Sam! He kicked his pace up a notch and practically grabbed her arm, stopping himself out of thin air, as he reached the bottom of the steps.

"Stokely," he said her name. She glared at him like if he didn't let go of her at that very second she was going to start spitting venom. "Where's Sam? I need to–"

"Haven't you already done enough?" Stokely groaned, rolling her eyes before yanking her arm free of his grasp. He stood in shock for a moment, and if stares could kill she would have been the death of him then, before she walked off.

"Shit," he moaned, but began to jog again, going back inside the school… after only a few corridors; he ran into a teacher… and it was just the right one.

"Excuse me, Ms. Cecelia," he stopped the teaching in the middle of the halls, facing her. She was 32-years-old, very tall, about 6'2", and thin, with a blob of beach blonde curls atop her head, dressed in a loose-hanging maroon sweat suit with yellow trim and a yellow H on her left shoulder. "Do you know where Samantha Warren is?"

"I believe she's still in the Gym," Ms. Cecelia gestured down the hall, as if Stan, being head quarterback and all, didn't know where it was. "I mean I was just in there and she was in there with me, so unless she left in the past two minutes…"

Stan nodded. "Thank you, very much," he began jogging down the hall again, but shot a quick glance over his shoulder to call: "Bye, Ms. Cecelia!"

He stopped at the doors to the Gym… they looked so negative, like they were telling him to go away. He stood there for a long time to catch his breath, and once he was okay again, calm and braced, he pushed open the doors very quietly.

Oddly enough, it looked brighter in the Gym then it was outside… perhaps there was a quick spot of golden sun peaking through the clouds that he was missing, he didn't know. He looked around but quickly spotted her. She was sitting on the bottom bleacher on the side he was on, a crossed the floor from it. Her head hung, with green eyes staring down to something in her lap he quickly identified as a notebook, pale hand clutching a black pen and dragging it along the paper carefully.

Concealer on her face and legs covered all the injuries… as thought it'd never happened… but it had happened… perhaps she thought that if she did that; no one would ever know… but everyone knew. Gabe dated Tina, second most popular girl in the school with a mager reputation for being the gossip queen… he'd probably blabbed to Tina the very same night he did it… and she must have told absolutely everyone.

He crept over, though he didn't know why he was being so quiet. He just was. His sneakers were as quiet as mice against the floor, which was really kind of impressive when you consider how much nose they make when they move quickly on a Gym floor. He stopped when they were just two steps apart, and raised his chin to see what was on the paper.

It was a sketch in black pen ink of someone from behind, there back was littered with dozens of knives, blades all under the skin, and there was a second person, a bit of a half profile sort of angle, pulling the knives out one by one and sticking them into their own. There was only two in so far and the third was in the second person's hand…

"That's very morbid–" he whispered. She jumped and slammed it shut, her eyes shot up to him. "–But good…" She jumped to her feet and glared at her, her face taking on a mistrustful look of confusion and the loathing of someone who's been hurt.

"What the fuck do you want?" Sam snapped, her voice higher then it usually was, probably because he had startled her.

"I just wanted to talk to you–" he reached out but she jerked back as if expecting him to hit her, her eyes nervously moving back and forth between his hand and his face. He dropped him arm at his side sadly. "Look, I didn't know–"

"Shut up," she interrupted. "And leave."

"Please, listen to me!" He took another step forward and she took another step back. "They didn't tell me, Sam! They didn't tell me about Casey!"

"Sure," she laughed bitterly. "I'm sure, Sparky, really, I am so up for believing you right now!"

"It's the truth!" He defended.

"That's impossible!" She shouted back. "You can't say anything but lies!"

"Sam, it's not like that," he pleaded.

"You know, what ever happened to gentlemen? A gentleman never hits a lady."

"A lady never hits at all…"

"She does if it's in defense."

"Defense of what?"

"Of someone who wasn't even allowed to defend himself!"

"Would you spare me the poetry?" they were shouting back and forth at each other, now. "This isn't about him! It's about you! You know, Sam, it makes me think he's taking advantage of you… taking up all your thoughts and energy 'cause, from what I've heard, you defend him just fine, but you didn't do much defending the other day."

"It was three against one, you creep!" She looked like she was either going to start crying or beating the shit out of something very, very soon. "And don't you ever talk about Casey like that! I chose to help him; I made him a promise! He never asked me to… infact; he asked me a million times not to!"

Stan paused. "… Alright, look, I'm sorry, I went too far there–"

"Save it, Sparky," her voice was low again, just like his. "I'm not buyin' it anymore."

"Well that's good," Stan said calmly. "Because I'm not selling."

She rolled her eyes. "Tell you what, I'll believe that when hell freezes over and all the demons and the big man Satan come up complaining of colds and overrun our hospitals. Fair enough?"

"Please don't do that…"

"W-why not? So that I can just jump out of the blue and say, 'Oh! I've been wrong all along!', dump my best friend, jump into some jock's loving arms, become Delilah's best friend #403, get married at eighteen, be a stay-at-home mother and have twelve kids while my 'husband' has a job that takes him all around the world so that he can fuck other women from every country on the globe?" She wrinkled her nose and shook her head shortly. "Sorry, Sparky, that just ain't me."

"That's not what I want from you, Sam–"

"Then what is?" she retched, the effect kicking in and swinging towards the side of crying as two twin tears forced their way from her eyes and ran down her face, even though she was visibly trying to push it the other, more violent, way.

"I just want your friendship," he said calmly. "I know that I did a bad thing, but I didn't know… but now I do… and I understand now that it was wrong… and I just want to make it right."

There was a pause between the two, an unblinking stare down, Sam's eyes glassy with tears that wouldn't be shed unless they literally forced their way out… and then she let out one sob before clamping her teeth down on her lip and hanging her head. That was the setting for only a short moment before she raised it again.

"No," she said. "No, Stan… I can't trust you. You're one of them and I know that for a fact… you're the freaking star quarterback… and, I-I may not have been here very long, but I am already so sick of all this school's bullshit…"

She shook her head and began to turn away. "Sam, wait!" She stopped, and turned around again. He'd only taken one more step forward. "I'm sorry, okay!"

She chuckled morbidly. "Fuck you…"

She turned and began to walk away. He called her name and called her name but she didn't turn back… she was only about a yard or two in front of the door before he reached her. He jogged forward, grabbed her arm, stopping her in mid-walk… and, in a split second decision with no other idea in sight, he did a totally rash and insane thing… he press his lips to hers and kissed her hard.

It lasted a total of about five seconds, before she pressed her hands flat to his shoulders and pushed him off of her so hard it caused even his heavy jock frame to stumble back a few steps.

There was silence… a long pause… where nothing moved… nothing happened… like time stopped… and they both stood there, unmoving besides their breathing, like two figures in a stalemate and any moment could result in death, before Sam finally broke the stand off.

"Don't ever touch me again," she said, loathing in her voice, which was barely above a whisper… before turning on her heels and leaving.

Her pace was a normal walk at first, but it gradually grew to a fast walk, then a jog, and then into a flat out run… and she didn't stop running until she burst through the doors of the school, out into the day, just as it started to rain.

Sam threw herself into the seat on the bus beside Casey like she was a doll or something. The rain was just beginning outside the window, escaping the sky in little sprinkles, so she was barely wet… even though it was growing heavier with every passing breath.

Casey gave her a glance, and had to look again… her eyes were as shiny as glass marbles and rimmed with strawberry pink, and there were thin sheen rivets down her cheeks, one on either side, like tear tracks, smudged as if she'd tried to wipe them away before he saw them… but, unfortunately for her, they were in just the right light for him to see them… and a faint shadow of the bruises, as well.

She sank into the seat, with her arms crossed over her chest and her legs crossed at the ankles, closing her glossy eyes for a long time.

"Sam?" he whispered. She blinked her eyes opened and looked at him. "Are you alright? Is something wrong?"

"No," she stated blankly. "Besides being sexually assaulted, nothing…"

Casey's eyes grew wide. "What–who–was it Tye? What did he you do to you, Sam?"

"No–" She sighed, a little frustrated, not knowing what to say. "It's nothing, Casey; just forget it…"

Casey frowned and looked down… there was silence (between them, that is, they were on the bus; dozens of children were screaming one thing or another at any time) for a moment… before he looked back up with his eyes. "If someone hurt you, Sam, you should tell…"

She looked at him, her eyes drier then they were when she first got on. The bus lurched forward and began on its way. She laughed, a little, mostly through her nose, and then rested her head on Casey's shoulder, and second later felt Casey rest the side of his head against the top of hers.

Sam smiled and closed her eyes… everything was and would be just fine, as long as she could stay right there just like that forever for the time being…