I Don't Owe You Anything

Darcy opened her heavy eyes and let out an angry groan – she had only just started to fall asleep when the doorbell rang. Any sleep that she could come by was welcomed, no matter the time of day, and to have it taken away from her did not make her happy.

Stomping to the front door, Darcy knew very well that she wasn't dressed appropriately – when was she ever dressed appropriately? The person on the other side would have to deal with her sports bra and tiny bike shorts.

She pulled the door open, "Yep?"

"Jon here?" A man with a thick Midwestern accent asked.

Darcy looked up to see a man staring down at her. He appeared to be confused; whether it was because a female had answered the door or because said female was wearing next to nothing Darcy was unsure.

"Depends," Darcy crossed her arms over her stomach and leant against the doorframe. "Who are you and why do you want him?"

The man laughed at her attempt to be intimidating. He wasn't as tall as Jon but he was still a good 8 inches taller than her and weighed at least twice as much. Darcy wasn't bothered at all. She'd stood up against bigger.

"I'm Sami." He held out his hand and Darcy shook it slowly. "He's expecting me, we go way back."

"Sami Callahan?" Darcy asked in shock, her eyes widening.

"So you do know who I am?" he asked, finally smiling at her. "You're Darcy."

"Sorry," she apologised, standing aside to let Sami in. "Everyone just looks really different in normal clothes. And you're also early... Like 24 hours early."

She closed the door, watching as Sami walked into the house like he lived there. At least she wasn't going to have to go through any awkward moments with him. He dropped his bags just inside the door to Jon's room as though he had done the same many times before.

"Yeah," he shrugged. "I got the dates wrong. Happens when I have too much time off."

Darcy nodded in understanding and walked into the kitchen, opening the fridge. She held up a beer to him and pulled another out when he said that he'd have one. She left hers sitting on the counter and disappeared into the alcove, grabbing a shirt from her suitcase.

"That's a mad tattoo," Sami commented when Darcy walked back into the kitchen to pick up her beer. She looked down at her right leg with a small smile on her face. "Your only one?"

"For now," she nodded.

Sami took a seat on the couch and Darcy sat down beside him, crossing her legs and facing him. He looked so different out of character and it was messing with her mind.

"Are you and Jon together then?" he asked abruptly causing Darcy to choke on her beer, some of it dribbling down her chin. "No?"

"We're not," Darcy stated when she could breathe again, wiping at her chin. She didn't think it was worth explaining that it was hardly as simple as them not being together. "Why?"

"He was never much into girls with tattoos," Sami stated casually. Darcy furrowed her brow and let her fingers run over the ink on her leg. "I don't think I remember him even fucking a girl with a tattoo... Not one that he could see when he met her, anyway."

"He's missing out," Darcy managed to get out, smirking at Sami. "We're the most fun." He laughed and let the conversation go, choosing to watch the television in comfortable silence.

Jon arrived home just after midday and immediately noticed the extra bags sitting in his bedroom. Sami and Darcy had gone outside to continue their conversation – she was being told many stories about the indie days – so he found them sitting on the back porch, Darcy with a cigarette hanging from her mouth, smoke billowing out around it.

"- this idiot had no idea how to drop her so she moved in, made herself at home and he had himself a crazy fucking girlfriend."

"Don't talk about that fucking wack job," Jon groaned as he walked out to join them. "We were never going to mention her again." Darcy scooted over on the bench when Jon sat down beside her. Normally it would not have bothered her that he was sitting so close, in fact she had previously welcomed the proximity, but after what Sami had been telling her she wasn't so sure.

"It makes for good stories, man," Sami laughed. Jon took Darcy's cigarettes off the table and lit one, raising his eyebrows at his friend. "Who knows, maybe Darcy will become a good story."

Darcy scoffed, "I'm my own good story." She didn't elaborate so Sami didn't force the topic but Jon got a good chuckle out of it.

"She knows about Emily – Darcy was the one who punched her out."

"I owe you eternal gratitude," Sami said, reaching over the table to shake her small hand in a much-exaggerated manner as Darcy laughed. "That whore just about ruined my life."

"The thing about Philly rats... They all start out the same," Jon stated in a gruff voice. "They're great and then they start to change... Dawn was the biggest sweetheart."

"Yeah, well, Black didn't exactly treat her right," Sami said in defence. Darcy looked between them in somewhat disbelief. These girls, in her mind, deserved no defending.

"She did to me exactly what Emily did to you – so did Anna. They're all cut from the same cloth." Darcy agreed with Jon. While she might not have been around to witness these things first hand, all three had very much the same reputation and hadn't changed.

"You get really hung up on that."

Jon leant forward, his voice rising, "They went behind my back. I don't give two shits that they did it – I would have wanted them to. But you know how it feels to find out through someone else that those whores killed my unborn kids. Fuck 'em for not telling me."

Sami didn't make any more arguments. He felt Jon's anger. Darcy looked between them, drawing her knees to her chin. If Colby had been there she would have thrown them a genuine pity party.

None of it changed how she felt.

Sami outright asking her if they were together was still playing on her mind. Clearly Jon hadn't said anything if he had to ask that question. But also, maybe he'd said enough that Sami thought they might end up together.

It was making her brain hurt.

Darcy sat on the edge of Jon's bed, later that night, once they had said goodnight to Sami, dressed in nothing but her underwear.

"You gonna sleep like that?" Jon asked when he came into the room. He was only wearing his boxers.

"I always sleep in this," she argued, rubbing her hands up and down her thighs.

"I meant on the edge of the bed like that." She sighed and swung her legs up onto the bed, kicking them under the covers.

"You okay?" Jon asked, the bed sinking slightly when he sat down on it. "You seem a bit off. Sami do something?"

"I'm fine," she answered shortly, leaning back and staring up at the ceiling and pulling up the covers to cover her chest.

Jon rolled over and threw his arm over her stomach and drawled, "don't lie to me, babe." Darcy didn't say anything but she did move his arm away from her. "What'd Sami say to you? You were fine when I left this morning."

"He didn't say anything. I just want to try and sleep."

"We both know that'll never happen." He propped himself up on his elbow and looked down at her. "Babe, you're being weird."

"We're not together!" Darcy shouted abruptly, quickly rolling out of the bed. "Stop acting like you're my boyfriend."

"Fuck," Jon groaned, rolling onto his back. "Go find somewhere else to sleep if you're going to be a fucking bitch."

She did as exactly as he said, standing up and storming out of his room, slamming the door shut behind her.

"Trouble in paradise?" Sami asked from the couch in a light voice, trying to make a joke. He wasn't given a response, however, as Darcy went straight towards her handbag and pulled out her cigarettes and lighter.

The breeze hit her the second she opened the door and for a split second she considered putting on some clothes – she didn't care enough and decided to just suck it up.

It took no time at all for her to be chilled to the bone.

She sat on the decking, her back leaning against the bricks. Every time she inhaled she welcomed the warmth to her chest but instantly missed it when she breathed out the smoke. Her left hand held the cigarette while her right clenched the lighter in a tight fist; the box was lying beside her left leg.

There was no mistaking the sound of the door sliding on its railing. It was the only sound she could hear. Darcy heard Jon swear when he stepped outside. She didn't look up at him, just kept her eyes forward.

"Get inside now," he ordered, standing beside her with his arms crossed over his chest – both to look intimidating and to fight the cold. Darcy put the cigarette to her lips and inhaled. "Get your ass inside, Darcy." She exhaled, the smoke temporarily causing her face to be hidden. "It's the coldest night in months and you're not wearing clothes, get the fuck inside."

Darcy heard the seriousness in his voice, the slight worry, but she didn't move. She tightened her grip on the lighter, feeling it leave an imprint on her palm.

She heard him go back inside only to come back out less than a minute later. He squatted down beside her, pushing a jacket over her shoulders.

"Just come back in before you get sick."

He slammed the door when he went back inside. Darcy didn't hesitate to push her arms through the sleeves of his jacket, zipping it up around her knees.

She finished the cigarette quicker than usual; she had been trying to find any warmth that she could.

Every cigarette was harder to light; the cold was slowing numbing her fingers. Her eyes adjusted to the moonlight and her ears picked up every single sound.

With every passing second she felt her toes get colder and colder. Her nose was growing sore. Her eyes getting heavy. She tried to fight it, wanting to be away from Jon if she could.

Nothing about her anger made sense to even her. Jon not liking women with tattoos meant nothing to her. He'd shown interest in her despite her tattoo. Yet Sami's statement had sent a knife through her heart.

An hour and ten cigarettes later, Darcy slowly pushed herself up. Stopping the shivering was impossible. There was a momentary struggle when she tried to slide the door open but couldn't get a grip on the handle.

The warm air inside the house set her extremities on fire. The change in temperature was too sudden. Sami was snoring lightly on the couch and Darcy slowly traipsed past him. She didn't want to go back to Jon but she also needed warmth.

The door creaked when she opened it, but she didn't care at all. She discarded the jacket before she pulled back the covers – it was too cold to wear anymore.

With another dramatic shiver, Darcy lay down on the bed and pulled the covers up to her chin. To conserve heat, she curled herself up into a ball and tried to cocoon herself.

All the moving around and tugging woke Jon up, causing him to roll over to face her. Knowing that she was cold, he reached out to pull her towards him but the second he put a hand on her arm, he stopped.

He got out of the bed, leaving Darcy shivering, to get a t-shirt out of his drawers. He sat on the bed and made Darcy sit up, too, so that he could pull the shirt over her head.

"Fuck it, Darc," he sighed, letting her lay back down. There was no way to stop him from cuddling up behind her, trying to share some of his body heat with her. She felt it instantly, one leg pushing between hers and a hand coming to rest on her stomach underneath the shirt.

No matter how much body heat he was generating, Darcy continued to shiver. Her jaw was beginning to hurt from her chattering teeth and her toes felt like they might fall off. With every second she snuggled backwards, closer to Jon. He tightened his arm around her each time.

Darcy was surprised to see that Jon wasn't in bed when she woke up the next morning. It meant that she had slept in to a reasonable time – Jon certainly would not have woken up earlier than her if she'd woken up before 7.

She got out of bed and decided that the first thing she wanted to do was shower. Still wearing Jon's shirt, Darcy walked out of his bedroom and straight to the bathroom. Both Jon and Sami said good morning but she didn't respond.

"She does that," Jon said when Sami asked if she was okay.

It was a quick shower. The hot water scolded her still cold toes; they were the only part of her body that hadn't warmed up in her sleep.

She stood in front of the mirror, staring at her reflection. There were no longer any physical signs of what she had been through but that didn't stop her from imaging the bruises on her neck or her swollen eye. She pushed her hair back over her head before pulling Jon's shirt back on. She hadn't taken any clothes into the bathroom, so she was going to walk out in only a shirt. It was long enough to cover everything, anyway.

Pulling open the door, Darcy didn't bother to look at the men sitting on the couch. She did, however, notice that they stopped talking almost immediately.

She didn't want to look at Jon. She didn't want to give away the effect he had on her. He'd held her so close that she had to keep reminding herself that they weren't together.

Sami left shortly after, saying that he was heading to the gym. Jon said that he'd be there in a little while.

"You feeling okay?" Jon asked Darcy when she came back into the room wearing her leggings and sports bra. She bypassed him and walked straight to the kitchen. "Seriously, what's the matter with you?"

"Why'd you go quiet when I came out of the shower?" She asked him, ignoring his questions.

"What?"

"Both of you stopped talking when I walked out of the bathroom. Were you talking about me?"

"It was nothing," he assured her, looking over his shoulder and the back of the couch. She was pulling out her usual bowl of cereal. "Sami just wanted to know if you'd be interested in a date."

Darcy looked up with a small smile, "Really?"

"You look happy about that," Jon noticed with a frown.

"Yeah," she nodded, her smile growing. "A date would be nice." Darcy's smile dropped instantly when she saw Jon's face as he turned away from her. "What did you say to him?" Stepping out of the kitchen she walked towards him quickly. He didn't respond. "Jon?"

"You aren't ready to do that just yet."

"That's what you told him? Make me out to be defective?"

"It's just Sami, Darcy. Other guys will come along."

"No!" She shouted at him, dragging him up off the couch so she could try to get in his face. "If you aren't going to fucking ask me out then don't stop other people from doing it!"

Jon shook his head, stepping around her small body, "You're not ready."

"I'll decide when I'm fucking ready!"

She let out a frustrated scream when Jon retreated into his bedroom, closing the door behind him. She yelled through the house as she picked up her shoes, phone and change, telling him that he was unbelievable and that he needed to stop ruining her life.

As Darcy stormed to the front door she heard Jon bang on his door angrily.

"You're a coward, Jon! Come speak to me like a man instead of hiding in your room like a pussy!"

He didn't, though - opting to bang on the door one more time instead as Darcy left the house with her belongings in hand.