"You have a real way with the ladies. You know that?" Marcus said as he clamped his hands on Jack's shoulders. After a busy night, Jr's had finally quieted down, only three customers remained – two college students sitting at a rear table discussing Heidegger and an old guy drinking coffee. Marcus had just finished sweeping the floor. Jack, for his part, stood at the front counter filling salt shakers while sixties Motown played in the background. Mr. Ride, Marcus' father, was in the kitchen scrubbing the grill.

"Tell me about it," Jack said then sighed. Courtney, Missy, and Katie were all pissed at him.

"Women," Marcus said shrugging. "I can't believe Missy is mad at you for moving on. Then again, this is Missy Belknap we're talking about."

"And she broke up with me! We hadn't been apart a week before she hooked up with Randy. God, I hate that guy," Jack said shaking his head in disgust.

"Well bro," Marcus said as he filled the straw dispenser, "I think Courtney's starting to come around. You did the right thing telling her about that creep Nate."

"I know, but I still feel horrible." When he'd first gone to Courtney about Nate, she'd accused him of trying to hook up with her. He couldn't deny he had some lingering feelings for her, but the more he got to know Katie, the more he was drawn to her. His emotions were out of control. First he'd been into Missy, then he'd been attracted to Courtney, then he'd recommitted himself to Missy, now he was falling for Katie. He needed a scorecard to keep track of his love life.

Still, he hadn't talked to Katie in a week. She'd really hurt him. It wasn't so much what she'd said as the act itself. It was hard enough for him to open up to people without the fear of them taking something so intimate and throwing it in his face. Other than Marcus and once with Missy, Katie was the only person he'd shared a part of himself with. Why, he kept asking himself. Why did she do it?

"To tell you the truth Jack, I never really understood the Katie thing."

"What's there to understand?"

"She hangs with the burnouts, man and I know that's not your scene."

Jack knew where Marcus was coming from. A few months ago he hadn't even realized that he and Katie had been in a class together. She just hadn't been a part of his orbit; his universe had centered on JR's, track, his mother, Bobby, Missy, Marcus, and school. But hanging out with Katie had opened up a new world to him.

"Did you know Katie plays drums in a band?"

"I can't say that I did," Marcus said casually.

"That's my point. We have all these cliques at school that don't even talk to each other. The hip-hop kids don't talk to the Goth kids. The Goth kids don't talk to the jocks. The jocks don't talk to the smart kids. It just goes on and on."

"I'm not trying to dog Katie out; it's just that I never would have imagined you two together."

"I guess fate had other plans." Okay, so he didn't really believe in fate. But if those guys hadn't mugged him, he never would have injured his knee, and he never would have met Katie at the doctor's office.

He'd felt so isolated after the attack. Though everyone had tried to be understanding, there was no way they could truly understand what he had gone through. And after a while, everyone just wanted the old Jack back. Well, as hard as he tried, he couldn't go back to being the old Jack. Wasn't that why Missy had broken up with him? Katie, on the other hand, didn't ask or expect anything from him. He was free to "be" with her. To be what he didn't know, but he was free nevertheless.

As soon as his shift ended, Jack headed home. He'd only gotten a block from Jr's when he felt as if he were being followed. For the past few months, nightmares of the robbery haunted him. There was a moment when he could have broken free and ran from those guys, but he'd didn't. He froze, and he just couldn't forgive himself for that moment of weakness. Now, walking alone down the street, his stomach clinched, his skin became flush, and he began to sweat. Likewise, his mouth went dry, his heart started beating faster, and his pulse quickened.

Panic began to overtake him. His instinct was to run, but reason urged him to stay calm.

"Jack," a female voice called out in the dark. A moment later, Katie stepped out of the shadows.

He glanced at her but kept walking.

"Jack," she said again, grabbing for his arm.

"Leave me the fuck alone," he said over his shoulder.

She sighed loudly. "I deserved that. If it means anything to you, I'm sorry."

"It doesn't."

"Just hear me out."

"No."

"Jack!"

He stopped. There was something in her voice – something primal and desperate that made him pause.

Katie walked up to him and placed her arms around his neck.

"I'm sorry," she said as she touched his hair. "You told me those things about your family in confidence and I threw them in your face. It wasn't right. It's just …." She dropped her arms.

'What?" he asked. They were standing under a streetlamp. Tonight, there was no snow on the ground and the temperature was a balmy thirty-nine degrees. A chill ran through him nonetheless and he could feel the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. Katie's eyes, usually a bright, clear blue even when she smoked, were now watery pools. The Katie he knew had an edge to her; the girl before him was vulnerable. She reminded him of a fish out of water flailing around, desperate for oxygen.

"There's a reason I don't talk about my family."