"Smells Like Teen Spirit"

I couldn't think of a good title, so when all else fails, why not Nirvana?

JACK'S POINT OF VIEW

There she was. But not my girlfriend. Someone else. A blonde. Huh? It was...wait wait wait. I'd know that body anywhere. What the hell? Why was Alex in a wig? Damn. She WAS good. We need one of those stripper poles in our bedroom. Wait, you think I'm serious? I'm just kidding. It WAS someone else. But Alex stormed back out, looking really devastated. She came back over to me, and straight into my arms, despite the fact I was still sitting down. I hugged her for a second.

"No dance?" I asked once we separated.

She shook her head.

"What's wrong?"

"Rey, her little brother..Carlos is gone."

"Oh God. What happened?"

"He's gone. She thinks it's her stepdad. That he took him. Damnit. Carlos is only 14 years old. He's like my own little brother."

"You gonna get angry?"

"I'm gonna get PISSED OFF."

"Me too. Shit, Only 14? And why does she think it was her stepfather?"

"Because that asshole is a drunk son of a bitch who always hit Rey and her mother. A real sexist bastard. Worst part is, he might try to make Carlos like him. I know this guy. He tried to hit me before. He nearly hauled off and smacked me."

"Shithead. We gotta help that kid."

"I know."

"What stopped him?"

"From hitting me?" She had a slightly offended look.

"No, I mean...You know what I mean."

"I got friends who got my back."

"I'd love to meet this crowd."

"You just might get to."

TYLER'S POINT OF VIEW

I can't tell Will. He was one of my best friends, sure, but would he understand? I wasn't sure. Deacon couldn't know. I'm almost positive there'd be some serious alienation after he heard. Who COULD I tell? A woman, definitely. Shit, my family is in North Dakota. And it can't be a close friend. Jack is surrounded by girls in his life. Who is there? Alex was gone. There was Kat, Sofi, Camille, and Kerrie. Eh, could Sofi keep a secret? I wasn't sure. I didn't want to risk it. Kerrie sounded nice. I knew her a little. I could get to know her better this way. I decided to go down to to the restaraunt where she worked, and seated myself at the counter. She saw me, and served me herself. "Hey, Tyler."

"Hey, Kerrie. Can I talk to you, next time you have time?"

"Sure. Something wrong?"

"Just, I can't really talk to the guys, and I need someone, preferably female, who I know well enough to talk to, but not a close friend. So I figured you might work."

"Thank you. I'm actually kind of flattered. And lucky you, my shift ends in a half hour. Come on, you wanna come back and see Janeane? She's leaving soon, you know. About a month or so."

"Aw, I'm so sorry. Really."

"Yeah. Anyway, a half hour, and my ears are yours." She got me some water, and I hung out, and anticipated her shift end. She came up behind me. "Done. C'mon, let's go." I drove us back to her apartment. I sat down on her couch. "You want a soda, Tyler?"

"Uh, yeah, sure." She brought us cokes, and I sat out on the couch, playing with Janeane. She could walk pretty well now. And she was so cute, with her blonde pigtails. I loved kids.

"Time for her nap." Janeane was picked up, and Kerrie put her in her crib, and returned to the living room, sitting in the chair adjacent to the couch. "So, what's up, Tyler?"

I sighed. "Wow. What's not up? Uh, I really only want to talk about just this one thing."

"Which is?"

"Well...

cheesy flashback sequence

-last concert, one month ago-

"Hi. I'm Henry. I'm Alicia's brother." Alicia was our band's manager. She was in charge of planning and budget and all that shit I didn't understand. We all shook his hand. "He's on break from college. He's my little brother. He wants to go through college then become a music producer." Alicia's seemed very proud of her little brother. I was always the same to my little brother and sisters. I was the second oldest of five. A big sister, then me, two more sisters, then a youngest brother. But that wasn't the point. The rest of them had gone to sound check, but Henry stopped me.

"Are you...?"

"Am I what?"

"Hey Ty! Comin'?" Will yelled from down the hall.

"Yeah, yeah, man, just gimme a second. Anyway, what?"

"N-nothing. You play guitar?"

"Yeah.." He was just trying to make conversation, I know it. No idea what he was hiding though.

"Can I ask you a favor? When you're not too busy, could you possibly show me some pointers? I'm still learning, and rather usuccessfully. I could pay you for lessons."

"Uh, sure. Will anytime work for you? We could start tonight, after the concert."

"Yeah, of course." He seemed ecstatic. He quickly and awkwardly hugged me. He WAS ecstatic. "I'm sorry, I'm just excited."

"No problem. I've been known to be unable to contain excitement myself. But I gotta go, I'll see you after the concert. Enjoy the show!"

Okay, so it's not really big enough to be considered a concert. It's a local show, but still, to us, big deal. It's kinda just a big basement. With screaming girls. Anyway, Henry joined the front row with the screaming girls. Lucky him. He seemed just as excited by the band, though. He was a fan. Go figure. He didn't seem to care too much about the ladies. Anyway, after the concert, we all went out for pizza. Alicia had a date, so w invited Henry to go with us. Deacon and Will picked up a bunch of groupies. 'Don't worry,' Deacon says. 'Does it LOOK like they eat?' Deacon was an idiot. He left with two. Damnit. Will got the others a cab, saying he wasn't interested all of a sudden, and I had plans with Henry, so some bleach-blonde hoes would really interfere with guitar lessons.

So we went back to my place (wow, I seriously should have worded that differently), and he used one of my guitars.

"Okay, so, let's start from the beginning. I doubt you need to, but it'd help me with this whole mentoring thing."

"Hehe okay. No problem."

"Okay, so first, strike the first string, that is E. Um, can you read staffs?"

"Yes."

"Well, I don't care. I can't very well. It takes me a while, and I have to mark down the letter before I start. So, can you read tabs?"

"Uh, yeah. Kinda."

"Thank God. That's really all I have."

Anyway, it went like that for about a hour. Henry was really smart, for being like, 18. He graduated early, and had just started college. I liked this kid. He was cool. His cell phone rang. "I'm sorry. Excuse me for a second." He answered it, and after a bit of conversation. He hung up. "Hey, I'm sorry. I gotta go. Um, if we make this regular, I'd be more than willing to pay."

"No, no problem."

"Are you sure? Tell you what, inbetween classes I work at Diego's Pizza. I promise you, a MAJOR discount. And unlimited free breadsticks. And soda."

I laughed. "That's fine, Henry."

"Okay thanks again. I'm sorry, that was my friend, and we have to plan my boyfriend's birthday party." Boyfriend? Oh well. I'm not a homophobe. I'm a little surprised, sure, but really no problem. Henry was pretty much my friend now.

"Alright. See you later, Henry. We'll definitely do this again."

"Bye, Tyler." He let himself out. Whoa. Henry was gay. No, Tyler, don't just ASSUME he was just trying to get to you. Besides, he has a boyfriend. Gay people are monogamous too, ya know. Whatever. I was tired. It was time for bed.

end flashback

"So, what about it? Does him being gay bother you?"

"No, no, that's not it. That's not the end of it. I--" My phone rang. Deacon. Time for practice. "Sorry, Ker, gotta go. I still wanna talk to you later, though. Can this just be between you and me?"

"No problem, Ty."

"Oh my God, thank you." I kissed her cheek, and quickly left.

ANGEL'S POINT OF VIEW

Jack and Alex had left a day or two ago. I kind of missed my brother. After we came back to Detroit, I don't know, I guess we kinda wanted it to stay like this. You know. With family. Alex was an amazing girl, too. She was like my little sister. I knew they were okay, though. Bobby worried, I know he did, despite his stubbornness, and Jerry was a little unnerved by the way they just left, but I knew they could handle themselves. Okay so I WAS a little worried, but not nearly like them. I had a bigger concern. Some punks had been harassing Sofi outside her apartment building. They were dead. You do NOT mess with my girl. You WILL get WRECKED. Badly. I talked to Bobby.

"Bobby you been lookin' a little tensed up lately."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. You need something to hit, don't you?"

"It would help."

"Some punks have been gettin' all up in my girl's face."

"Sofi? Who?"

"I dunno. But I'm gonna find out. Man, this is my girl."

"I know. You wanna hand?"

"If you want, yeah. My plan is, next time Sofi goes back to her apartment, we wait for 'em. Then pounce on the mothafuckers."

"All right. Sounds good. When do I get to kick ass?"

"We can go right now if you want."

"Hell yeah. Come on, little brother." He said, walking to the front hall. "Sofi. Come on. We're going to your apartment. On business."

Me and Bobby waited in the car. We had dropped Sofi off around the corner, then pulled up just a little down the street, close enough to hear those punks. The youngest was probably 17, the oldest, in his mid-to-late twenties, I'm guessing. A group of five. There was gonna be a fight. It almost didn't seem fair. To them. Almost. Sofi walked by our car, not even glancing at us.

"Way to go, Baby. Don't let them know you got back-up." Sofi walked by the group. A mix of english and spanish, sexist and suggestive statements were yelled out to her. She seemed hurt. Bastards. Sofi was scared. She looked like she was on the verge of tears. Damn. I didn't know how bad it was. Those little fuckers. Bobby looked pissed, and uncomfortable just watching, and seeing Sofi look so hurt. Sofi quickly entered the building. I almost thought they would follow her. No wonder. It was because they were starting to. Bobby followed me as I walked over to them.

"Assholes!" I yelled as I punched one down. Bobby and I, needless to say, but I'll say it anyway, opened a serious can of whoop-ass on these little pricks. Two were on the ground, and we had five more at our fists. Two were on me, when Bobby yelled out. He had been pistol-whipped. Twice. Then he went down. So, let's review. My girlfriend is being harassed by a gang, pretty much, I'm fighting three or four dudes at once, and my only back up is unconscious. Damnit. That's...unfortunate. But I kept fighting. Fighting til I got hit. Over the head. Hard. Repetitively. We hadn't been prepared for that many to show up. Maybe we could handle five, but there were like eight or nine when I went down. Sofi. Would they follow her? Was she safe? Could she run, and make it back to my house, where all our guns can protect her? Guns, but no gunmen. She'd be alone. Could she keep herself safe? I wasn't sure. I hoped to God. If there was ever a time to pray, it was now. But not really, since I'm passing out, and all this is just narrative thoughts passing through my brain all at once, for dramatic purposes. Thus, good luck Sofi. I love you, and have faith in you. Because nobody puts Baby in the corner.