A/N: Thanks for the reviews! I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Chapter Ten: Out of Place

The first thing Brian did after being shown his room was call his parents. They knew what time his train pulled in, and if he waited too long, his mother would start worrying about what had happened to him.

"Weingarden Realty."

"Mom, it's me."

"Oh. How was your trip?"

Brian glanced over at the stack of books he'd set on top of his dresser. He'd managed to get through David Copperfield, but barely. His mind had been so jumbled with worry and anticipation that he had hardly been able to focus. He hadn't even opened Silas Marner, the next book on his list. "It was fine."

"Where are you? Are you at Claire's house?"

"Yeah, I just got here."

"Did you eat breakfast on the train?"

"No, when I got in." Brian heard some rustling on her end, and it sounded like she was she was flipping through a stack of papers. His mother was the payroll manager for a small realty company that she'd been working at since before he was born, and she kept very busy at the office. "Are you busy? Because I can call back la-"

"It's fine. Will you be there for dinner tonight?"

Brian sighed. "I don't think so. Claire said we can eat here. They've got lots of food, so…"

"Are you staying there?"

"Yeah, I was planning on it."

"Hmmm."

Brian couldn't tell if she was disappointed, angry, or indifferent. "It's just that there are a couple of people that haven't shown up yet and I don't know if they're even coming or not and, you know, Claire offered, and I didn't want to be rude, so…" He trailed off, knowing that he wasn't making any sense at all.

"Well, your father thought you were coming, and he set up the grill so he could make steak for dinner."

"Oh."

"And he cleared out the guest room so that you could stay there."

"I'm sorry."

"I'll just tell him not to bother."

Brian didn't know what he was supposed to say. "Okay. I'm sorry. I just didn't-"

"The funeral is on Wednesday?"

Brian paused, jarred by the sudden change of subject. "Uh, yeah. Yeah, it is."

"And the viewing is tomorrow night?"

"Yeah. From five to seven."

"So, we shouldn't expect to see you then either?"

Brian swallowed nervously. "Well, no, but I can come over afterward…if that's okay."

"Okay, but call before you come."

Brian nodded. "Okay."

"You won't forget, will you?"

"No, I promise I'll call."

"No, I meant-" His mother stopped, and he could hear her rustling around at her desk again. "We'll see you tomorrow."

"Okay. I love you."

"You, too. Bye."

"Bye." Brian heard a loud click, which told him that his mother had hung up. He let out a deep breath and replaced the phone on its cradle.

The train from Philadelphia to Chicago arrived at approximately 2:45 on Monday afternoon. Allison, who was carrying nothing but a lightweight duffel bag, was the first person off of the train. When she got into the station, the first thing she did was find a phone booth with a directory inside. It took her a moment, but she finally found what she was looking for: Standish, Calvin. 14158 King's Cross Drive. Shermer, Illinois, 60062.

When she'd finished memorizing the address, Allison stepped from the booth and started walking towards the main entrance. She was hungry, but decided not to stop for lunch. She'd traveled often enough to know that train stations and airports were among the most expensive places to eat, and she wasn't ready to part with any more of her precious money than she had to.

There was a bus stop right next to the train station that Allison knew about from the last time she'd come back to Shermer. She plopped down on the booth and pulled out one of the packs of Jelly Bellies that she'd taken from work and started munching on those as she waited to be picked up. After about ten minutes, a familiar black and white bus pulled up in front of her, and the door slid open, revealing a middle aged man in a bus driver's uniform.

"You comin'?"

Allison nodded and boarded the bus, slipping a couple of quarters into the box. "Do you know where King's Cross is?"

The man squinted thoughtfully. "That's over by the golf course, isn't it?"

That sounded right. Allison nodded. "Do you make any stops over there?"

The man hesitated, glancing at Allison's rumpled clothing and messy hair. "I do," he said slowly, his voice giving nothing away.

Allison nodded. "Good. That's where I'm going." She didn't wait for him to respond, just took a seat in the back and watched the city fly by outside of her window.

When he'd finished unpacking, Brian went downstairs to see what was going on. Claire was busy fielding phone calls from people that wanted to talk to her about the funeral, and Andy was upstairs in his room somewhere. Deciding that it would be rude to wander around the house by himself, Brian chose to return to his room and get started on Silas Marner.

He read for about an hour before going back downstairs again. This time, he found the maid in the kitchen reorganizing the refrigerator, which was full of casserole dishes and baking pans. The woman told him that Claire was still on the phone and probably would be for a long time, if Monday was anything like the last two days. Brian thanked her and went back upstairs.

An hour later, he went back down again. This time the kitchen was empty and Claire was nowhere to be seen. Again, he climbed the stairs and picked up Silas Marner. The cycle continued for the next few hours, with Brian going downstairs once every hour to check for Claire, who was usually on the phone, then retreating to his room to read. He felt very uncomfortable with the situation, not because he was bored, but because he felt so useless and out of place. He felt like if he was going to stay at her house that he should at least be running errands or making phone calls, but it didn't look like she needed him to do any of that. So he read.

At about 3:00 in the afternoon, Brian made another trip downstairs. This time, he found Claire sitting on a stool at the kitchen counter, sipping from a glass of water and staring at the wall in front of her. She must have been lost in her thoughts because didn't even hear him come in.

"Claire?"

Claire jumped slightly at the interruption, but smiled when she saw who it was. "Hi." Suddenly, her eyes widened. "Oh, God, I'm so sorry!"

"For what?" Brian took a seat on the stool next to her.

Claire shook her head. "I forgot you were here. I mean, I didn't forget, but I just got so busy that I didn't-"

"No, it's okay. I was fine."

Claire cringed. "Really?"

"Yeah, I was just reading. Getting some work done."

Claire nodded. "I'm sorry. I just…I didn't realize I would be so busy, you know?" She looked back at his face and offered a sad smile. "But thanks for being here."

Brian nodded. "Yeah, of course."

"Do you want something to eat? God, you haven't even eaten lunch!" Claire jumped off of the stool and walked over to the fridge. "Do you want something? We've got pot roast and chicken salad and vegetable soup and spinach casserole and…" Claire opened one of the containers and made a face. "I don't know what that is."

Brian laughed. "Maybe a chicken salad sandwich."

"Okay." Claire pulled out the container and shut the refrigerator door, then started making him a sandwich. "So, how is school going?"

Brian nodded. "Good. What about you?"

Claire nodded. "Good. I'm graduating this semester."

"I'll bet you're excited."

Claire shrugged. "I guess, but…" She looked up at him and smiled sheepishly. "Sometimes I wish I didn't have to, you know?"

"Why?"

Claire picked up a spoon and started scooping chicken salad onto one of the pieces of bread. "I don't know. I just…I like the way things are going, I guess. My friends, my sorority sisters. I don't want to leave them, you know? I don't want things to change."

As soon as she said this, she looked up at Brian, a little bit panicked. He knew what she was thinking because it was the same thing he'd been thinking. He opened his mouth to speak, but she didn't let him.

"I just mean that it's hard for me to leave people and…" She stopped and, realizing she'd backed herself into a corner, looked down at the spoon in her hand.

Brian didn't say anything right away. He felt a little bit hurt…well, a lot hurt, actually. After she left for college, Claire hadn't kept in touch with him at all. She was only a couple of hours away in at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana, but she hardly ever came home, and when she did, she never called to see if he wanted to get together. He was angry with her at first because he thought she was being very selfish, but after a while, he came to the conclusion that she either hadn't cared that much to begin with, or that she just found it easy to move on with her life. Either way, he was starting to wonder why he hadn't considered these things on Saturday night when she'd called him up out of the blue, asking him to come home.

After a few seconds, Claire looked up. "I-"

Suddenly, the phone rang. Claire sighed with frustration and shot Brian an apologetic look. "I'll be right back."

Brian nodded, and she disappeared from the room. He watched her leave, then turned back to the counter, where his half-completed sandwich was beckoning to him from a couple of feet away. His stomach growled with hunger, and he reached across the counter to pick up the plate. He pieced the sandwich together as best he could and started eating, trying as hard as he could not to wonder if the rest of his days in Shermer were going to go as badly as this one.

Andy spent the rest of the morning and a good chunk of the afternoon in bed asleep. He'd only gotten about four hours of sleep the night before since he left for Chicago at 2 A.M., and he didn't function well with so little sleep. Besides, what else was he going to do? He felt awkward enough sleeping in someone else's bed and using someone else's bathroom, but when that someone was a friend he hadn't seen in three years, he felt even more uncomfortable. Forced conversation would probably drive him over the edge.

He woke up at about 3:00 that afternoon, groggy and disoriented. He could have easily gone back to sleep, but he forced himself to stay awake, staring up at the ceiling with heavy, fluttering eyelids. After a few minutes, he sat up in bed and rubbed his eyes, trying to wake up.

When his eyes were finally able to focus on his surroundings, Andy caught sight of the phone on the nightstand next to the bed. There were people he needed to call. David, his co-worker at the Giant Eagle, had offered to cover Andy's shifts or find someone else who could, but it would probably be a good idea to make sure that everything had been taken care of. Also, it might be polite to check in on Paul, who was probably wondering if he got to Shermer safely. Lastly, his parents didn't even know he was in town. If he waited too long before calling them, and they found out from someone else that he'd driven in without telling them, they would be hurt and angry, and he really didn't want that.

But he didn't feel like talking to anyone just then. David and Paul, while easy to talk to, would both want stories, and his parents would want much more. He'd call later when he wasn't so tired.

Andy bummed around his room for a while, not really doing anything, just hanging out and going through his things to make sure he hadn't forgotten anything. He didn't want to unpack since it seemed like a lot of unnecessary trouble, and he didn't want to feel like he was living there or anything.

At about 3:30, he went next door to Brian's room, which he found empty except for a pile of books on the dresser and an empty duffel bag at the foot of the bed. Andy made his way downstairs and wound up in the kitchen, which was also empty. Had they left without telling him?

Suddenly, the doorbell rang. Andy looked around uncertainly, but there didn't seem to be anyone downstairs. Hesitantly, he walked into the foyer and looked up the staircase, hoping one of the maids would come running down to get it. No one did, and the doorbell rang again. Andy sighed and walked over to the door toopen it.

Immediately, he regretted it.

A/N: Please review!