AN: Wow. I'm so sorry that this took so darn long. I had it all in my head and it just wouldn't go to paper. Geez. Standard disclaimer applies. I wish I owned the song…


Taking Chances: Warren


We drove in silence. For once, I was sort of glad I'd driven my car instead of the bike. On the bike, with Yuri half wrapped around me so as not to fall off, I'd probably have lost it and done something stupid. Like kiss her right after an extremely messy breakup with her fucked up ex-boyfriend. I flipped the radio on, channel surfed, and flipped it off again. Yuri stared out the window. She sighed. The silence was thick…and awkward. And I really wondered what she and Nicholas had been saying before we started eavesdropping.

"Are you okay?" I asked quietly, glancing over at Yuri.

She glanced back emotionlessly. "Watch the road."

"Yuri…"

"I don't want to talk about it," she stated firmly.

I drove some more, almost missing a stop sign. Yuri sighed for the umpteenth time during the ride. It was driving me nuts. "Seriously, Yuri," I tried again. "Are you okay?"

"I don't want to talk about it," she said again, monotone.

"I know you don't want to talk about it, but you should vent and I'm sort of trying to help here," I replied, "instead of being my usual asshole self, so can you just take advantage of that and let me help you?" I pulled off to the side of the road and let the car idle.

Yuri glared at me. "I don't need your help and I don't want to talk about it. So leave me alone," she pouted, steadfastly staring out the car window and refusing to look at me.

I was taken aback. Wasn't this what friends did for each other? Listen when shit happened? "Yuri…"

"I said I didn't want to talk about it. God, are all boys this stupid?" she spat disgustedly.

"I'm not stupid," I retorted, a bit peeved. "I'm trying to he-"

"I don't want your help. I don't need it. And I don't need your sympathy just because I just officially broke up with my stupid ex-boyfriend," she huffed. "So drop it."

"But-"

"Warren, shut up."

I shut up. And re-entered traffic. Girls were dumb. And I sort of hated it. Because she was just sitting there, all depressed, still looking like the sweet, dorky Yuri I'd ended up starting to maybe-sort-of-fall-for, but better because we'd all sort of dressed up for the performance. So she looked all pretty and sweet and dorky… And I had to start driving again otherwise I'd have done something really stupid, like tell her she deserved better and, what do you know, better equals me. And, fuck, girls were dumb.

And I just…really, really didn't want to be the school badass for five minutes and just… I didn't know.

"Boys are stupid," Yuri said again.

"I'm not-"

"You're not stupid," she sighed. "You, Will, Ethan, and Zach aren't stupid; you're my friends. There's a difference. But boys are fucking stupid."

I blanched. Yuri swore. Yuri never swore. Not having time to contemplate Yuri cussing, I pulled up in front of her house.

"Thanks for the ride, Warren," she sighed dejectedly, opening the door of my P.O.S. car.

"Welcome," I replied softly. "You sure you're-"

"Yes. I'll be fine. Nicholas is a dick and boys are stupid. But you guys are great and…you're great Warren." She leaned over and hugged me awkwardly. "Thanks."

I watched her walk into her house and swore. Colorfully.

I wasn't stupid, even though I was a guy, because I was her friend. A great friend. A great friend. Fuck.

Backing out of the driveway, I started the drive home.

"Fuck."


In the safety of my bedroom, I sat at the desk and sighed. Hoisting up the old acoustic guitar, I didn't even know what kind it was, I picked out the opening bars of the only song I knew how to play. The one I'd taught myself just in case, the one for… Fuck. I grabbed the phone and dialed.

"Mmm… Hello?" a slightly groggy voice answered.

"Stronghold, where are you?" I asked sharply.

"I just dropped Layla home, I was just going to sl-" he broke off for a yawn, "sleep. What's wrong?"

"Fuck, I just…" I shook my head. "I need your help."

"Mmm?"

"I…sort of talked to Yuri and… Fuck." Staring at my feet, I sighed. "It's just… 'Boys are stupid, but you're not stupid, you're my friend'," I explained, hoping Will would get it.

"Oh."

"Yeah," I replied.

"…you have to sing to her," he said after a minute.

I blinked. Fuck. The bet. "No I don't."

"Yes," he said, "you do. I won."

Fuck. "No you didn't."

"You probably have a song all picked out for her already," he teased.

Fuck. "No I don't."

"Yes you do." He was laughing, I just knew it. My plight was somehow amusing to him.

"…no I don't." I was pouting. I could feel it. Fuck.

"So, what song is it?" he asked teasingly.

"…"

"Come on…"

"I'm not telling you," I replied. "And I'm hanging up now."

"Aww, come on Warren, don't be like-"

"Bye, Stronghold," I said, snapping the phone shut.

I sighed, knowing what I had to do and not liking it one bit.

Fuck.


I stared at my phone, sitting on the dashboard of my Piece of Shit car, and sighed. Fiddling with the guitar in my hands, I reached for the phone and dialed a familiar number…then cancelled the call.

"Fuck."

Grabbing the guitar and slipping it in its case, I exited my crappy car and locked the doors. Staring up at the house, I sighed again. Walking around to the back was easy enough, and finding a way into the yard was easy, too. Now…climbing the tree up to the attic balcony with the guitar and my phone without falling to my death would be a little trickier.

Swearing under my breath, I hoisted myself up to the first gnarled branch of the oak and held my breath. I didn't fall. Thankful for the strap which allowed me to buckle the guitar to my back, I climbed the tree. It took a while, but I did it. And when I got to the top, wheezing slightly, I felt very pleased with myself. Pulling myself over the balcony railing was a piece of cake in comparison.

I thanked whatever higher powers were smiling at me for Yuri actually being home, if the light in her room was any indication, and caught my breath. Staring at my phone again, I sighed heavily. Picking up the guitar again, sans case, I perched comfortably on the railing and dialed Yuri's cell. She answered after two rings.

"Hello?"

I took a deep breath. This was it.

"Late at night you call on the phone," I begin, a capella, nervous. I hear my voice waver.

"We talk about the day when you found out he was cheating."

"Warren, what-" she begins.

I cut her off. This was important.

"You tell me that it hurts to the bone,

To trust someone that way, to find that he was deceiving."

"Warren, I'm serious, what are you-"

"And I know I've always just been a friend

But if you look my way I'll make sure you never hurt again…

"Look out your window," I tell her, snapping my cell shut.

She lifts the curtains and I wonder how I must look to her. Me, with my leather jacket and ripped jeans, sitting here on the edge of her balcony with a crappy acoustic guitar in my hands. And she looks at me, confused, hesitant. Then she turns the doorknob and steps outside, and I strum the first chord.

"Do you know I exist just to promise you this?

Endlessly to be true to you," I sang softly, looking away from her face to make sure my fingers are in the right places. They were, I thanked God for small favors.

Yuri shut the balcony door, leaning against it. She was wearing the same candy-cane sweatpants and Oscar the Grouch tank as the night, when I thought about it, that all of this started.

"And if you answer my prayer, I cross my heart and I swear,

Endlessly to be true to you."

She stood there. Her hair was down, and damp. I wondered if she'd just been in the shower. I wondered if she ever wondered about me. I wondered why it took me so long to realized why I wondered about her.

"And if you'd only see how beautiful you and I would be…" I hit a particularly finger-bending chord and was proud of myself.

"Endlessly."

She kept staring at me, this unreadable expression on her face, but I'd come this far and wasn't about to stop. Even though I was nervous as hell. I wasn't about to chicken out on this.

"Sometimes the thing you need is the one thing you can't see,

"If you put your faith in me…"

I couldn't believe it took me so long to realize why I smiled more when she was around. Why the sun shone brighter and the stars were twinklier and all that lovey-dovey shit. And I really mentally kicked myself for it taking a full four months.

"How beautiful you and I would be…"

Yuri shivered, leaning against the doorframe. Light spilling out behind her, with the moon in her hair. And I couldn't tell what she was thinking or what was going on in her mind, and it sort of scared me. It sort of terrified me.

"Do you know I exist just to promise you this?

Endlessly to be true to you."

I smiled wryly, glancing down every few seconds to make sure my fingers were in the right places on the guitar, or maybe anything to avoid that look in her eyes. Or maybe I was chickening out. I didn't know.

"And if you answer my prayer, I cross my heart and I swear,

Endlessly to be true to you."

I looked up again. She hadn't moved since stepping outside. She just stared at me, the corners of her mouth curved slightly upward, with that quiet, penetrating gaze she reserved for concentrating on something really hard without looking like it.

"And if you'd only see how beautiful you and I would be…"

Time sort of froze for a minute. After that next word, chord, whatever, I'd be finished and she'd say whatever was on her mind. A part of me really didn't want to know what her answer was because, hey, ignorance is bliss. The other part of me, the one that wanted to know, was going to have a nervous breakdown or something really, really soon. And both parts knew that the inevitable was coming.

"…endlessly."

There was a sort of prolonged silence as that last note rang out and faded. Then Yuri started walking toward me, arms wrapped around herself and shivering a little, as a slow smile spread across her face. You could have knocked me over with a feather. I grinned back, hopping down to put the guitar away and shrugging out of my jacket. When she came to lean against the railing with me, I wrapped the familiar leather around her shoulders and smiled. That's what she would look like wearing my jacket. Like a letterman's jacket, but better.

"Warren Peace," she said, looking amused, "when did you learn how to play the guitar?"

I smiled sheepishly. "Well, I really only know that one song…"

"Oh." The corners of her mouth quirked upwards again. "What made you want to learn that song?"

I shrugged. "It was a good song." It reminded me of you. Of us. Of what we are, what I kind of, sort of wanted us to be.

"Oh." Yuri tilted her head slightly to the left, confused. "Is that all?"

No, not really. I want you to realize what I'm trying to say here, without saying anything at all. Because that just wouldn't be me, would it? To go chasing a girl. I guess. But if you realized it on your own and, you know, that might work. I smiled a smile that might have been a smirk. "Isn't it obvious?"

I brushed my fingers against her cheek. "How beautiful you and I would be…"

Realization hit. Her eyes widened and a barely audible gasp escaped her throat and Yuri looked at me with a look I'd never seen before. Uncertainty?

"What?" I asked, nervous again. Because this was definitely not going according to plan. By now, I supposed, she'd be falling in my arms saying that, wow, she'd had a crush on me since we first met in the cafeteria and, geez, what took me so long? Then we might have a nice, long, cheesy fairy tale kiss. Unfortunately, life seemed to be intent on kicking my ass because she just kept staring at me like I'd grown an extra head and she couldn't quite believe it.

"I…" Yuri blinked…a few times. "I… What?" she asked, confused.

"You know what," I said softly, finding my shoes very interesting. "You don't need to ask."

"I know…I just-" she stopped abruptly. "I don't…understand."

I sighed. It looked like this was to be a total confession. Great. "It's not that hard to understand," I explained. "I…kind of like you…as more than a friend." I mentally kicked myself for sounding stupid. "And I was just wondering if maybe…um…you felt the same way."

She hesitated for a moment, before opening her mouth, and I knew. It was kind of like falling off a cliff in slow motion. You know? Where everything is sort of going to shit and there's nothing you can do about it but fall and goddamnit you want to do something to stop it, to do it over, to rewind and make it so whatever you fucked up doesn't happen again, but you know there's absolutely nothing that can stop you from falling into that oblivion and you just have to take it. And…

"Warren…I-" She bit her lip. "I'm…I'm sorry…I- I just-"

Fuck.

I bent down to pick up the guitar case. "It's okay." I busied myself with hauling the damn thing over my shoulder. "Really." Even though it wasn't. It really wasn't.

"Warren, let me-"

"No, really. I'm fine." I straightened up and looked her in the eye, the embodiment of composure. "It's okay." I swung a leg over the railing and reached for the nearest tree branch.

"But-"

"Don't worry, I'm fine." Even though I wasn't. I really, really wasn't. "I'll see you tomorrow," I called, sliding down the tree and hoping I didn't fall and break my neck. Of course, it would only be another thing on the list of injuries I'd acquired that day. Right next to wounded pride and…well, broken heart, I guess. Fuck, life was a bitch.

I walked to my car and didn't look back. Yuri didn't come out looking for me, so I guess she wasn't that torn up about it or didn't realize how much I actually liked her. Either way, nothing I could do about it.

Fuck.

I started the ignition and shifted into drive.

Resisting the urge to punch the dash, hard, I sighed and pulled away from the curb.

My life sucked.



Wow. It took me forever to pick a song, guys. First it was "Your Song" by Elton John with modified lyrics (I still have them on my computer somewhere), then it was "Waiting for You" by Richard Marx. And…BAM. I couldn't even remember this song until I was talking to my friend and asked her about it. It was a feat of brilliance that she could tell me what the song was without me knowing the lyrics, melody, or title.

Anyway. One chapter le-eft. Coolio. I guess. Don't worry. Warren's life won't suck forever. I promise. It'll just suck until…I get around to writing/editing/posting the final chapter. Which may take anywhere from a few days to three months, as we've seen before. Sorry.

Thanks to Fuzzy Makes Me Happy, Off Dreaming, and Horsebookworm for their reviews! And also to everyone else who reads.

Ta!

Love, SeraphStar.