Disclaimer: It's not miiiiiiine. Unfortunately.

ooOoo

Freddy was still asleep at 11 o'clock the next morning, but was jolted awake by the sound of his cell phone. He blindly felt for it on his nightstand, and checked the caller ID. "What the fuck, Mooneyham?" He listened. "Oh, shit!" He hung up the phone, jumped out of bed and grabbed his jeans from the night before, and a dirty shirt picked up from the floor of his room and ran into the bathroom. He relieved himself, stuck a toothbrush in his mouth, and put on his clothes. He ran back to his bedroom, put on his shoes, and then went back to the bathroom and spat. He ran his fingers through his hair as he took the stairs two at a time, and told his bewildered mother in the kitchen that he had band practice. Freddy grabbed his jacket, keys, and drumsticks and ran to his car.

He slammed on the gas pedal and the tires screeched as he left his driveway. "Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck…"

In record time, he was at Dewey's apartment, and sped up the stairs, drumsticks in hand. He threw open the door, panting heavily, before getting behind the drums, just in time for his solo, which was, by some miracle, executed perfectly.

While drumming, he chanced a look at Katie, and found her to be grinning at him. He smiled back, before focusing his attention on the music.

Later, after practice, Freddy waited around for Katie while she packed up her bass. He didn't have to move his drums; they stayed at Dewey's; he had his own in his room.

"You know, Jones, you're damn lucky you're so good at drumming, or else you'd have been kicked out by now."

He smirked. "Yeah, I know, Brown. But I'm irreplaceable, aren't I?"

She shook her head. "More like irrepressible."

Freddy grinned. "Hey, you want to come over? Hang out? Nobody's home, and you know I won't do my homework without motivation…"

"Fine. I have to go to my house first; I need my books."

"Okay."

Katie quickly drove home, grabbed her backpack, yelled to her mother that she was going to Freddy's, and was knocking on the door to his house in less than fifteen minutes.

"Hey."

She walked in, not needing to be invited, as she had been inside his house far too many times. "Hey." She set her backpack down. "I'm hungry. Got anything?"

He made a face. "Mom's on some new soy diet and apparently we all have to participate. It's fucking disgusting. But there's like, cereal."

Katie grinned. "Cap'n Crunch?"

He rolled his eyes. Cap'n Crunch was her favorite cereal, no, scratch that, her favorite food, and even though he was a Lucky Charms man himself (well, marshmallow man, anyway), it always seemed to be in the house.

"Of course."

He got out two bowls, poured the cereal and milk, and they sat down at the table and ate.

"You know, this is the only food I can make." He looked at his spoon thoughtfully. "This and Easy Mac."

"I'll teach you to cook."

"Yeah right."

"I'm serious. When your mom's given up on this diet and buys real food, I'll show you. It's really not that hard."

He looked genuinely interested. "Cool."

She raised an eyebrow, done with her cereal. "Ready to study now?"

He sighed heavily, but got up, leaving the bowls on the table. Katie cleared the bowls herself, as she always did after they ate cereal, and followed him to his room, picking up her backpack on the way.

"Do you ever clean this thing?"

There were clothes, CDs, notebooks and pens (for his writing), and even the occasional piece of food strewn about his room. His boxers, from the morning, she assumed (and hoped that they were not older) were lying haphazardly on top of his stereo, and his drums were in the corner, the only part of his room that he seemed to care about. That area was spotless.

She gingerly picked up a shirt off his bed and sat down. He took a seat on the floor after clearing away a pair of jeans, and grinned at her.

"Wish I could. Too busy, though."

"More like lazy. Come on, I'll help you. I can't study in this environment."

He smirked. "You know, my mom loves it when you come over because it means this room gets cleaned."

"You're such an ass."

"So, you've been thinking about mine?"

She let out a frustrated sigh, then threw a sock at him.

It completely missed, and he began laughing. Katie looked at him, his shoulders shaking with laughter, surrounded by dirty clothes and paper, and she couldn't help but laugh too. Eventually, Freddy stopped laughing, and looked at Katie, still smiling. She grinned back at him, and slid off the bed onto the floor. They were shoulder to shoulder, and she shifted so her head was in his lap.

"I'm sleepy."

He smiled softly down at her, not fazed in the least. She often would lean on his shoulder, or place her head in his lap; neither act was meant to be even slightly romantic, but rather served as proof of how close of a friendship they had.

"I can tell."

She yawned. "Tough…night."

"Yeah. Go to sleep; I'll wake you in a while."

She smiled sleepily at him. "Thanks."

With that, she closed her eyes and immediately fell asleep, still in his lap. He leaned back on his palms and reached for a notebook and a pen. He carefully placed it on the side of his leg as not to wake her, and began to write.

An hour and a half later, Katie was snoring softly and Freddy was furiously scribbling away. His leg was asleep, but he ignored it, completely absorbed in what he was doing. Katie stirred in his lap, and blinked her eyes. She looked up to find Freddy's hair hanging over his eyes, his brow wrinkled. He started at her movement and smiled down at her.

"Better?"

"Yeah. What are you writing?"

He shrugged. "Nothing. It's crap."

"Nothing you write is crap, Freddy. Can I see?"

He shrugged again, not really caring one way or the other. Katie was the only one that ever read the things he wrote outside of school; she was the only person he was comfortable enough to share it with. He looked down at her while she read. She was pretty, he supposed, with her dark hair, and big, dark eyes. They had been friends for such a long time that he hadn't ever really stopped to think about her in a non-platonic way.

She handed the notebook back to him. "Brilliant, as always. You should get this stuff published."

He scoffed. "Yeah right."

Katie bit her tongue. She had forever been trying to convince the young drummer to seriously think about submitting his work, but had never yet been successful. Katie wasn't one to avoid arguments to make life easier, but she was too comfortably situated in her best friend's lap to give him hard time. For now.

"Hey, since I'm teaching you to cook, I think it's only fair you teach me something in return."

"What could I possibly teach you?"

She looked up at him. "To play drums."

"What? You want me to teach you how to drum?"

"Why is that so weird?"

He tilted his head. "It's not so weird, but…random, I guess. You've never expressed an interest before."

"Well, I'm expressing an interest now. Come on. Right now."

She got up from his lap and Freddy wished for her warm weight on his legs to come back. Katie waggled her fingers in his face and he grasped her hand, pulling himself up.

She sat down behind his drums, and picked up his drumsticks. She tapped on the cymbal softly and Freddy laughed. "You can hit it as hard as you want, you know." To prove his point, he grabbed his spare set of sticks off his nightstand and banged loudly. She took his advice to heart and hit the bass drum as hard as she could. "I like that one best."

"That's the bass drum, Brown."

She laughed. "No wonder."

"You can bang all you want, but it won't be a lesson. Move over, I'll teach you something."

She scooted over on the already small seat, and Freddy sat down and drummed something simple. She tried to repeat it, but failed miserably.

"Almost. Try again."

They carried on in this way for a while, until Katie let out a frustrated sigh. "This is fucking hard, Jones. I give up. I want my bass."

She pouted, and he laughed, before picking up his drumsticks and effortlessly playing his solo from their latest song. "Yeah, so hard."

"Shut up. It's not like you can play guitar."

He rolled his eyes. "Whatever."

Katie yawned and got up from the chair. "Can we study now, Jones? I'm expected at home in two hours. Move your ass."

He saluted. "Yes ma'am."

ooOoo

As planned, Katie left two hours later, ate dinner, and went to bed. She was in her soft, warm, comfortable bed when her cell phone rang. She groaned, loudly, but padded over to her dresser and dug around in her purse. She flipped it open. "What the hell, Jones?"

His voice was barely coming through. "Shit cell phone…low battery…car…broke…pick me up…sorry…called everyone….Mooneyham…fucking…asshole."

She sighed. "Fine, I'll pick you up. Where are you? Say it loudly."

He told her, and she wrote it down. "I'll be there soon."

She put on her coat over her pajamas, slipped on her shoes, and told her mother where she was going.

Katie found where he was without any trouble, and Freddy all but jumped into the car when she pulled it over, furiously rubbing his hands together to get warm. His teeth were chattering, but he managed to convey an apology. "Sorry, Brown. I called everyone else first; I knew you were tired. Mooneyham's a bastard. He's on a fucking date and refused to pick me up."

She nodded, not angry, but as Freddy had said, tired. She yawned. "What about your car?"

"I called a tow truck. The girl told me that it'll be here in five minutes. Is that okay?"

"Yeah, it's fine." She leaned her head back on the seat and tilted her head so he could see her blinking sleepily at him. He smiled apologetically.

"I'm really sorry, Kates."

Kates. He only brought that out when he was truly apologizing, and strangely, when he was being sincerely nice to her. Which meant that he didn't use it very often.

She smiled, secretly liking the nickname. "It's nothing, Freddy. What were you doing?"

His stomach growled, and he grinned sheepishly. "Getting food. I snuck out after our 'healthy' dinner. My mom was beyond pissed when I called. She even refused to pick me up. 'Get one of your friends to do it, Frederick!'" He said this last part in a very high voice.

She snickered. "Serves you right for sneaking out."

He scoffed. "Like you've never done it."

"I've only ever snuck out because of you, Jones. So those times don't count."

Just then, they saw the flashing lights of the tow truck, and Freddy got out to talk to the driver. Katie watched as he began gesturing animatedly, obviously disliking whatever was to be done with his car, but then was apparently appeased by something the driver said, as he started nodding his head in agreement.

He walked back towards the car and got in. "Let's go."

"The car?"

"It's all taken care of."

"Okay."

She drove, letting Freddy fiddle with the radio before he gave up and put in a CD from her glove compartment. They arrived at his house ten minutes later.

"Thanks for this, Brown."

She waved his thanks away. "No big deal. Try not to get grounded for too long."

He grimaced. "Shit. I forgot."

Freddy got out of the car, and walked up the steps to his house. He turned around and waved to her, and she smiled.

Maybe now she could go to sleep.

ooOoo

Reviews are very much appreciated! Even if this latest chapter was exceedingly sappy.