At 2 o'clock, just as Cody had said to be, Dwayne was sitting just where he had been the day before. Unlike yesterday however, Cody was on time for Melanie's match. At first Dwayne didn't acknowledge him, but a few minutes later Cody walked over to him. "Is she talking to her mom?" he asked.

"Yeah, she is." Dwayne was short in his reply. "She's glad that you're here, though I can't imagine why, you seem like a jerk to me." Cody glared at him.

"Ok, I'm going to over look that because I need you. So here's the deal, you tell me everything that she says, and if you can think of a way to help me with it if it's a fault, tell me." Dwayne just looked at him for a moment, then started to watch Melanie again.

"Ok, well she's saying something along the lines of 'I wish Cody were more considerate of my feelings, especially when it comes to things that I am passionate about.' So basically, you need to start caring more about the things she likes, so what does she like? Other then tennis…" Dwayne trailed off.

"Uh, well she likes shopping, and movies with Orlando Bloom, and music by um, Panic! At the Disco, Fallout Boy, the Killers, Maroon 5, you know stuff like that." Dwayne looked blankly at him. He had never heard of any of those groups.

"Well then start taking interest. Go shopping with her, I know that's going to me painful, but it's a good idea, make sure that when you have her over for a movie next time its something with that dude in it, and start listening to her music, so that you can talk about it with her. It will make her feel like you really care about, although it's mildly clear to me that you really don't care about her personality, you like her body." Dwayne knew that he was really chewing this guy out, but it was fun, so he didn't stop.

"I guess that doesn't sound too hard. Oh, what's she saying now?" Dwayne looked down and studied her lip movements carefully, then he started laughing. "What? What is it!"

"She thinks you're cheating on her, are you?"

"Well, maybe I did once or twice…" Dwayne looked at him skeptically.

"It's ok though, cause she is cheating on you too, or at least she's thinking about it." This Dwayne was assessing not from her lips, but from her actions.

"What do you mean? How do you know that, she didn't her mom that she was cheating on me did she?" Cody sounded a little worried.

"Why? Worried that some other guy is getting some and you aren't? Anyway, she bats her eyelashes at any guy she sees. She knows that she has the looks and the body, and she's using. Also, she is not used to being rejected, and she is a girl who wants what she can't have." Dwayne sighed, hoping Cody wouldn't ask how Dwayne knew all of that, because that would completely compromise their partnership.

"How do you know that? If she always gets her men how can she even want what she can't have because she can have anything, or anyone."

"No everyone…"

"What are you trying to say? That's she's scamming on some other guy who won't give her the time of day?" Cody sounded really lost now.

"Yes, that's exactly what I'm trying to say."

"Who is this guy? I need to talk to him and tell him to stay away from my girl!" Cody got angry suddenly.

"Trust me, he's trying to stay away from her as it is, roughing with him would probably just make him go for her for the simply reason of pissing you off. He's not going for her now, just leave it alone." Cody seemed to take that very well, and sat back watching her for a minute. Then he turned to Dwayne again.

"Wait a minute, I doubt that she's saying that to her mother, so how do you know about this other guy?"

Fuck, thought Dwayne. What should I tell him? That she was basically stalking me? Or that I simply saw her while I was out walking hitting on some guy that told her to piss off? "I just saw her in the park last night hitting on some guy, and he just told her to get lost." As the tennis match wore on, Dwayne realized that he was becoming more then a translator to this guy, he was coaching him on how to keep his girlfriend. During a time when Melanie was concentrating on the game, Cody leaned over to Dwayne.

"What do you know about foreplay?" asked Cody. Dwayne looked at him.

"Absolutely nothing."

"Oh, so you have never done the dirty deed yet?" asked Cody in an almost mocking manner.

"Whoa, wait, I never said that, I just said that I knew nothing of foreplay." Dwayne's mouth twisted into a slightly crooked smile.

"Ok, I'm confused now, but I really don't think that I want to know anyway." Cody looked at Dwayne in a confused and a little bit disgusted manner. Dwayne just smiled. They kept watching, and finally Melanie and her mother finished playing. Cody went to go meet them and talk to her, Dwayne just sat there watching them. Melanie excused herself to go to the bathroom just as Dwayne left the viewing area to go and get Olive. He ran into her in the hallway, she was standing in a corner, her back facing the hall, her face looking at the wall. After watching her for a minute, Dwayne knew what was going on.

"Does your boyfriend know?" he asked her. She turned quickly.

"Well I guess it's your right to scare the shit out of me." Melanie avoided his question.

"You didn't answer me. Does your boyfriend know?" he asked again.

"Know what?"

"Know that you shoot up in the hallways at the local tennis clubs because the bathrooms are full of young children." Dwayne looked at her intently.

"Listen, I don't know what you're talking about, I'm just taking a breather for a minute, is that so wrong?"

"You can't fool me, now I won't tell anyone, that's your job, but if he can't tell, he's no good for you. If he really loved you he'd be trying to help you." Dwayne walked away before she could respond. Melanie stared after him in shock. No one else had ever caught her before, this was a completely abandoned hallway, so what was he doing down there anyway? I'll bet he's following me. She thought to herself, wondering why he could possibly be doing that if he wasn't interested in her at all, which he clearly wasn't after his display last night.

That day as she walked with Cody, her mother took the car and drove home, she wanted to ask him if he had noticed anything strange, but she didn't want to tell him, not yet. He kept looking at her. She looked just fine to him, except he could tell that something was bothering her. "Mel, what's up? Is something wrong, or are you just tired from playing?" he asked, trying to sound concerned.

"Oh, nothing, I'm just thinking about…" she paused for a moment. "I'm just thinking about stuff, you know?"

"Like what stuff?"

"Can I ask you something?" she ignored his question.

"Sure you can babe, anything."

"Is there something wrong with me? Is there anything about me that any guy would find un-attractive?"

"No, of course not." His eyes grew narrow and he saw that Dwayne was right. "I think you are perfect, and you know that. Why would it matter what other guys think anyway? Is there someone else?" He knew he was pushing it, but he didn't care.

"No, no, of course not, I was just making sure that you still thought that I was everything you wanted, you seem to be getting distant."

"Yeah, I know, I'm working on fixing that though. You know, everything's just been a hassle, football and everything like that has been getting to me. Not a lot of sleep…" Melanie smiled.

"That's understandable. Cheerleading can do that to me sometimes, but we don't really have practices yet, they start next month, as you know I've just been doing the tennis to stay in shape." Their conversation continued like that until they reached her house. "I have to go take a shower and change, if you just wait here until I get done we can go get some food or something, ok?" Cody nodded, sat down on her couch, and turned the TV on as she went upstairs.

Who is this other boy? He's everywhere that I am, and he can already tell more about me then most people, why do I feel like this? I feel like I actually want someone to care about me, to care about my drug problems. Cody doesn't do that because he doesn't notice. I need him to notice that I need help, to try and help me. Melanie went into her own private bathroom, and turned her shower on, feeling suddenly different about things. What is this feeling? I can't be falling for this other boy, I don't even know his name. Besides, he's a jack ass! On the other hand, he sees things that no one else can see about me, he could help me, if he wanted to, which he doesn't. She sighed and let the water run too hot, burning her shoulders as it went.

Dwayne and Olive walked home, Olive babbling about the other girls in her camp, Dwayne smiling and nodding as she spoke, but his mind was elsewhere. How could this guy possibly not know that his girlfriend was on drugs? It's so obvious! "Oh, Olive hold on a sec, I need to do something really fast." Dwayne sprinted across the street, over to a bright blue post box and dropped something inside, then he went back to Olive. "Ok, keep talking." The rest of the week continued in roughly the same manner. On Thursday night, once Dwayne was asleep, Uncle Frank looked over at him, and smiled a knowingly wicked smile.