Reggie felt her head hit the edge of her desk. Ow.

She looked up at her computer screen, then back down at her desk, then back at her computer screen. This became a routine for her just about every day. She comes into work, sits down at her desk, eats breakfast, searches Google, trying to find some sad, sappy story that someone in Ocean Shores would want to read, find nothing, and maybe take a nap.

Of course, she was the new kid, so she never got the chance to write the interesting, juicy stories about scandals or crime or anything like that. Nope, she had to search online over and over again until something came up about some lost puppy, or something stupid like that. Then she would write a short blurb about it. Nothing too fancy, because she had a limit of 100 words, but nothing too lazy either. She had to write a real tear-jerker about a lost puppy in 100 words or less. Every day.

Should have done better than half of a damn associates degree.

Reggie, fed up with her lack of ideas, slammed her fist on the desk, spilling her coffee all over her pants. Fuck!

Sighing, Reggie walked over to the bathroom to clean herself up.

She went back to her desk and stared at the clock, waiting for it to hit 5:00. The second it did, she ran out of the building.

Still frustrated, she forced a smile as she saw her boyfriend, Justin, waiting for her in front of his car.

"Hey, baby."

Reggie didn't respond, she simply slid into the passenger seat and took some aspirin.

Dan got into the driver's seat and closed the door.

"Could we stop by my brother's place on the way home?" Dan nodded and drove towards Main St., which brought them directly downtown.

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Twister sighed as he stood outside Otto's door, part of him wanting to run in and confess everything he's felt since that day one year ago, and the other part wanted to run back to the car and hide in the backseat.

He took a deep breath and knocked on the door, raising an eyebrow when he heard what sounded like- incessant giggling.

"Otto?"

"Hey, is that Twister?" He heard Sean's voice, sounding strangely upbeat, yell out. "Come in, man it's open."

Twister tried to open the door, but it was locked. He sighed again as he heard footsteps coming towards the door.

The door opened, revealing Sean's blood-shot eyes and dilated pupils. Stoned.

"Dude," Twister was about to lecture him, when he saw Otto laying on the couch, joint between his fingers, empty beer bottles on the floor, motioning for Twister to come in.

Twister's POV

"Hey, Twister!" He seemed excited to see me, even though he sees me all the time. I walked over to him, shaking my head.

"You guys shouldn't be doing this." I began. "Of all people, you both know.."

"Relax, dude!" Sean cut me off, offering me a bottle and a spot on the couch. "Nine out of ten of those bottle are mine, not Otto's, he's just a lightweight." He grinned at Otto, who threw a bottle cap at him.

Otto took the bottle from my hands, and put it on the floor. "None for you." He stated before going back to his previous position of lying down on the couch.

"Why not?"

"Because you're a good boy, and I gotta make sure you stay a good-boy."

I laughed a bit, not knowing what the hell he was talking about. We had gotten drunk together millions of times as younger teens, why not now?

"You see." Otto sat up, putting out the joint. "A while ago, this boy's brother," He motioned to me, "got real drunk, right? Well, while Twister was helping his brother get to his bedroom, his mother told me to keep an eye out for Twister, and make sure he never got into trouble like his brother does."

Sean started laughing again, and hit Otto with a pillow. "You're such a loser, Otto. Let the boy have a beer."

"Nope." Otto laid back down on the couch. He turned back to me. "You gotta get laid, dude. When was the last time?"

I laughed a bit, shaking my head. I learned that it's best to ignore most of what Otto says when he's drunk.

I stood up to grab my coat and head back home, deciding to come back tomorrow when Otto was sober, when I turned around and saw Sean a little too close to Otto.

"You mind if I stay a while?" I asked, not taking my eye off of Sean.

Sean hesitated, "Well, actually, uhh…"

"Sure!" Otto sat back up, which caused him to get even closer to Sean. "We're here all day."

"Actually umm…" Sean turned to Otto. "Weren't we going to uhhh…. Go… somewhere…"

Otto, not getting the hint, laughed at Sean. "No…." He turned back to me. "Twister, stay! Pleeeeease!" He gave me the puppy face. God, as much as it bothers me, he's so cute when he's drunk.

I smile and collapse into a near-by chair, never taking my eyes off of Sean.

The second I sat down, Otto began telling wild stories that had never happened, some of which had to do with wild orgys and jumping off his roof into the neighbor's pool. (Although I wouldn't be surprised if he tried that.) I laughed, and pretended to remember some of these wild events, since each one included me.

"I'm gonna get a drink." I walked over to their kitchen.

"NO ALCOHOL!" I heard Otto shout. I laughed and grabbed a coke.

…..I swear I almost chewed right through my tongue trying not to say anything when I came back to see one of Sean's arms across Otto's shoulders and his other hand traveling up Otto's leg.

Otto didn't seem to notice it, but I definitely did. Sean grinned as he watched me slowly sink into the chair I had previously been sitting on. Otto started another one of his stories, but I wasn't listening to this one. I kept my eyes on Sean's hand.

"….Then he jumped right in front of the car, and I swear he almost… Stop it, Sean…. Went right through the car, and …" Otto pushed Sean's hand off his leg, only for Sean to put it back, and move his concentration to Otto's neck, where he was biting and sucking, and doing everything I've dreamt of doing to Otto. "Sean knock it off!…. then he jumoed right into…."

"He said to stop." I growled threateningly.

Sean seemed intimidated for a moment, but quickly regained his cool posture. He laughed and turned to me, "He's drunk, he isn't going to remember any of this tomorrow morning." He winked at me and continued his assault on Otto's neck.

"Sean cut it the fuck out!" Otto tried to push Sean off of him, but unfortunately Sean was much bigger and stronger than him, so he easily took control of the situation.

That's where I lost it. I stood up, walked over to Sean, and punched him, right in the nose. I grabbed Otto, and headed for the door.

"Come on, I'm bringing you ho..." I froze as I opened the door to a rather confused Reggie.

"Uhh… Hi?" Reggie raised an eyebrow as she leaned sideways, looking around me to see a smiling, giggling, bloodshot-eyed Otto, then behind him to see a bloody Sean on the floor.

Otto suddenly stopped smiling, as he grabbed my hand, which had some of Sean's splattered blood on it. "Shit." Otto started to panic. "Shit. Shit, Shit!"

"What? It's Sean's blood from where I punched him, not mine, it's fine."

"Shit, shit, shit!"

"Otto, tell me what's wrong!"

Otto grabbed my wrist, dragging me past Reggie and what's-his-face, back into the apartment, past Sean, into his bathroom.

Otto shut the door of the tiny bathroom, and stood in front of me, looking over my entire fist. The lack of space in the bathroom caused us to squish up against each other. Oh, please, God, I don't ask you for much, but PLEASE don't let me… you know…. Right now!

Otto dragged me over to the sink and washed Sean's blood off my hand, and continued to check it.

"Otto, PLEASE, tell me what's wrong." I grabbed Otto by the shoulders and shook him until he snapped back into reality.

Otto finally froze and looked up at me with teary eyes and said. "Sean has HIV."

I froze, realizing what the big panic was about. I slowly turned my hands over and over, checking for any cuts that might have gotten some of Sean's blood in them.

"God, why did you have to punch him anyway, Twister?" Otto huffed in almost an angry tone.

"Are you kidding me?" I lifted his chin up so he would look at me. "A little longer and he would have fucking raped you!"

Otto snorted. I felt disgusted that he thought this was funny.

"Why didn't you stop him?"

"I tried."

"You would have gotten HIV, too."

Otto froze, biting his lip, and looking at the floor. He dropped my wrists, and sat down on the counter. "What if I told you," He spoke calm and soft, which relaxed me a bit, "that it wouldn't have mattered if I had sex with Sean anyway?"

"What do you mean?"

"If I told you that HIV wouldn't have been an issue…."

"Otto, I don't…"

"Twister…" He grabbed my hands again, this time in a gentle, comforting way, "I have HIV."

My brain went blank. My stomach turned. My whole body went numb, and I couldn't tell if I was still breathing.

"You- You're…" I looked into his eyes. Those beautiful eyes. "No…"

"I'm so sorry." Tears started falling from his eyes.

I couldn't really feel anything, couldn't really think. All I remember was thinking that today could be the last day I ever see him. Or tomorrow, or the next day.

I put my arms around his waist, and he leaned in, expecting a hug, but getting a gentile, sweet, mind-numbing kiss instead.

I'm not sure how long we stayed like that, or how long Sean was standing in the doorway, but we first noticed him a couple seconds after we broke apart.

"You son of a bitch."