Well, first off, this chapter bored me a little bit, but it kind of has to be written ya know? and yes I know that Braden isn't spelled the way it is on the show, but that is because spelling it that way just urkes me l0l. So i decided i can change it so it won't distract me. But yeah, keep reading because I've got some cuh-razy plot twists coming. Awww yeah!

Disclaimer: I don't own Summerland, or Jesse McCartney, or all that jazz...


Braden was deep in thoughtas he crept slowly in the early morning light towards the gate leading into his home. He hoped that it was still too early for anybody to be awake, but Braden's hopes for that were not very high. Sadly, he knew his Aunt Ava was an early riser, and liked to surf sometimes as early as 4 in the morning. He prayed to God though that today she wouldn't see him; that by some miracle he could get away with being out all night. He couldn't handle being in trouble on top of everything else he had to deal with.

As he approached his destination, Braden could feel a presence behind him. He didn't know if he even wanted to turn around, in fear of who it might be. A cop, Aunt Ava, Vegas, if it was any of those people, his night would get, if this was even possible, more fucked up than it had already become.

Braden sped up a little and he could hear the footsteps behind him. Just when he thought he couldn't take it anymore, the shadow behind him spoke, "Yo, Braden, you were partying too?"

Braden whirled around in surprise, "Jay? Where were you?"

"At the bar," he said, while obviously still impaired, "I knew quite the lady who had an apartment over the bar. Wouldn't that just be awesome? Drinks all the time!" He smiled as he flailed his arms around awkwardly.

"You were partying again?" Even though that was exactly what Braden had been doing, it still was disappointing when Jay did it. He was slipping further and further away into denial, and the farther you go, the harder it is to come back and that scared the shit out of Braden.

Jay tilted his head back lazily towards the sky as he said, "Yeah, weren't you? I s'pose both of us will have to sneak in now. Damn will you look at that sky? Talk about colors, man!"

"Yeah, it's riveting," remarked Braden sarcastically. "When are you going to stop getting piss drunk every night and screwing every girl in sight?"

"Now, now, Braden, if you make me angry, I just might have to tell Ava that you were sneaking in this morning after a night of drinking." He smiled wickedly, "If you be nice to me, I just might forget to tell her."

Braden rolled his eyes, "Fine, be quiet then." Jay was never going to get better, not until Erica came back, if she ever did. So there was no point in arguing with him. Braden motioned for Jay to walk in front of him, before they both headed towards the house.

As silently as they could, the pair of them tiptoed into the eerily quiet yard and weaved their way towards their rooms. Luckily, no one heard a sound, and soon enough Braden was lying in his bed thinking about Sienna and Vegas. He was so distracted with his own problem that he was missing a different problem that was someone else's, a problem that was consistently growing.

………………

Sienna was balling into her pillow as she watched Reece's menacing figure leave the room. So far, she had been used twice in the same day; at this point, people should just get into a line and wait to have sex with her. Just have one of those fucking tickets, and person after person can make her feel like shit. That's how it already felt like though.

A mere hour after she had crept into her window, Reece came in for an early morning 'pick me up'. She wished beyond anything that she had been drunk this time instead of the time she had with Braden. Sienna would have given anything just to forget this one time.

As he left though, the memory of it all was fresh in her mind, and so was the memory of her morning. Sienna had been going over the situation repeatedly in her head and had been practicing over and over again what she was going to say to Vegas once she knew. No matter how many times Sienna played it over in her head, she still couldn't get over the fear she felt at having her best friend know that she was a traitor…low life scum is more like it.

She shuddered at the thought of Vegas hating her and tried to put it out of her mind. Sienna couldn't though, because she knew that by tomorrow, her best friend could hate her. She also didn't want to have to face Braden again, and Sienna knew that it would happen eventually, but the thought of seeing him in three days at work seemed surreal. How can a people work together when so much crap is happening with them? What are they supposed to say to each other?

Sienna made herself stop thinking about seeing Braden because it was the least of her problems; after all, three days ought to be plenty time to get over her issues with it.

……………………….

Three days later…

"Oh my god, Oh my god, Oh my god, I am not over this. I'm not ready to see him," Sienna was muttering in a panicked frenzy. She was on her way to work and over the past three days, she had had no contact with Vegas, Braden, or anybody else really. She had talked to no one and it was starting to scare her. Sienna was scared of what she might hear once she did talk to Braden.

She had done two lines of cocaine for a little good luck before she left because Sienna didn't give a crap if Braden found out she was a druggy, she just wanted this day not to suck as much. The coke did little though, to ease her nerves as she slowly walked towards the dreaded doors of the surf shop.

Sienna took a deep calming breath before reaching out her hand and pulling the door open. She walked in without a word and without bothering to look for Braden. All she would do for eight hours was work. There would be no talking or socializing of any kind. Sienna didn't think that Braden even knew she had walked in, but as she continued doing her daily routine, she figured that he was doing the same thing she was; he probably wanted to ignore her just as much as she wanted to ignore him.

The first four hours slipped by silently and comfortably like this, and neither of them had yet to breathe a word to the other. The utter silence though, was interrupted as Jay strolled into the shop and with a suspicious smile he remarked, "Geez, you guys sure are quiet today…" Anyone with any type of instincts at all would have been able to tell that something was up. Jay had felt the tension as soon as he had walked into the shop.

"Yeah, I'm not much into the talking mood at the moment." Sienna answered frostilywhile folding a shirt near the back of the store.

"Me neither." Braden answered quickly, and silence followed. Jay was waiting, in vain, for maybe a further explanation for their quietness, but they said nothing.Neither Braden nor Sienna were planning on enlightening him on what was going on.

"Well, I guess you both can just go get some lunch together…while not talking…since you're not in the mood." Jay was eyeing the two of them, trying to guess what was wrong. Not even he though, could have predicted what happened between them; it was just too insane and weird.

When neither of them moved from the work that they were doing, Jay was getting frustrated, "That means it's time for your guys' break." There was still no movement from either of them, "Which means both of you leave for a half hour, now GO!"

Finally, Braden dropped what he was doing and headed towards the door, with Sienna close behind him (not too close though). They both exited the shop silently, while feeling Jay's questioning eyes burning into their backs.

Sienna felt awkward when they both ended up walking in the same direction, and she was tempted to ask him the question that she had been yearning to ask him all day. She felt it was best to keep up the quietness though because maybe if she talked to him once, he'd think it was all right to talk again, and it seriously and truly WASN'T.

She stopped and got a smoothie because she really didn't think her stomach could handle anything else at the moment; her tummy was doing too many flip-flops today for her to risk eating anything else. Braden, she noticed, went into Johnny's diner, and Sienna wasn't surprised. He always went and visited Johnny and it was kind of sweet how close the two of them were.

After twenty minutes, Sienna saw him leave the diner and start walking over to the beach. She followed him with her eyes and she realized that her question that she needed to ask him was bothering her too much; she wanted it answered. She got up and quickly threw her garbage away. Sienna followed after Braden, and called out, "Braden, wait!"

He turned around, with surprise, and a little worry, clearly on his face. He looked at her questioningly.

Sienna ran up to where he was and while catching her breath she spoke, "We don't have to talk or anything, but I just kind of wanted to know something."

He was afraid she was going to ask him something horribly embarrassing like if he really did love her and then she'd laugh in his face again. Braden figured though, that being embarrassed was nothing, and that he deserved to have any and all feelings of discomfort for cheating on Vegas.

Sienna looked down for some courage and proceeded to ask him timidly, "Have you told Vegas yet?"

Braden put on a guilty face and mumbled back, "She's been kind of busy with Gideon and I uh, didn't think it was umthe right time when—"

"It's been three days and you guys usually hang out all day every day. Either, you're stalling, or Gideon has suddenly become a homosexual god. Which is it?" Sienna really just wanted Vegas to know the truth, because waiting around for her to yell and scream and for their friendship to fall apart wasn't going to be very fun. Sienna wanted the worst to be over with already.

"Wait. Gideon is gay?"

Sienna looked at him in disbelief, "Your girl friend has been hanging out with him at parties, and has been constantly by his side since he's gotten here, and it didn't even bother you when you thought he was straight? You weren't even worried that your girl friend was spending the night at his house?"

"Well, I guess it didn't occur to me that—"

"I mean did you even care about her at all? You don't care if she spends the night with other guys or isn't around you for a couple days, and it doesn't even bother you what happened at the party!"

Braden's blood was boiling. The things she was saying were actually true, and that pissed him off. He hadn't cared aboutVegas spending so much time with Gideon, and it hadn't even crossed his mind to be jealous, like a normal boyfriend would be. He knew that he had screwed up, but Braden would rather die than admit that to Sienna. "Yes, actually, I do care about Vegas; thanks for your concern in that area. I care so much about her, in fact, that I'm not looking forward to 'breaking her heart' as you put it earlier. So I'm sorry if I haven't told her yet, it's a little hard for me to deliberately hurt someone who never deserved it. And by the way, it DID bother me that she was spending so much time with Gideon, that is, it did until I realized that I could trust her. So back the fuck off."

He was a little taken aback at how loudly and easily those words came out. Braden was never good with words, especially when he was supposed to scream them. He was the kind of person that got tongue tied, or didn't know what to say back in retaliation when he was in an arguement. But today, he had let it all out on Sienna. He had basically 'bitched her out' and contrary to how he'd thought he'd feel, Braden felt like an asshole.

He wanted to apologize almost instantly after he screamed at her, but he never got the chance. Sienna breathed hotly threw clenched teeth, "Tell her by tomorrow you bastard."

As she stormed off back towards the surfing shop, Braden wondered why it was they were always fighting. He knew that he usually fought with her because he was frustrated that he couldn't be with her, but why did she fight with him so much? Braden wished they fought for the same reasons.