Chapter Thirteen

"And that was when I told him I thought we should just be friends…again,"

He raised his eyebrows, "And he said…?"

"Well, he didn't really say anything actually he sort of shuffled his feet around as if they held the key to state and then looked at me asked why," She said crossing her arms over the hot water bottle that was resting on her stomach and looked at him squinting in the sun light.

"And you replied…?"

"Well I said that right now, with Matt's responsibilities to the team and with having to look after my grandmother and him coming up to the playoff that it didn't seem fair to start something we couldn't finish."

"And this was after you gave him the tirade about being faithful and 'your rules'?" He asked sceptically.

"Uh…yeah…"

"Okay so while you were giving him the 'lets all be friends' speech did you cry?" He asked looking at her giving nothing away from behind his black aviators.

"No!" Abbey snapped feeling slightly insulted at the implication.

"Well, that is good, redeemable," Nate said resting his head back on the lawn chair he was sitting on beside Abbey's on the Saracen front lawn.

Abbey scowled at him, Nathaniel Marks was Jacks's friend and also the drummer of his band. He was tall and ganggily, he shaved his head completely and always wore a pair of black aviators. Abbey was willing to bet the only people who knew his actual eye colour were his parents and the cops who had pulled him over multiple times for drag racing in town.

The only other member of the band was the bassist, Jordan Kyle, he was black and had long dreadlocks that went to his mid back and was really nice and softly spoken. Abbey had become close with the guys and found her self with an actual group of friends in Dillon.

"Yeah well redeemable or not now he is doing little miss, 'next-door-neighbour-single-mum-thinks-she-gods-gift-to-men-treats-him-like-a-boy-toy' perfect." Abbey spat crossing her arms and glaring at her feet.

Nate glanced at her, "Oh yeah, you aren't bitter at all…." Abbey looked at him getting the feeling he was rolling his eyes.

"Fine ya know what it isn't my fault I am worried about him still." She snapped waspishly.

"If you are still worried why did you dump him?" He asked looking at her.

"Because with everything going on I couldn't be his girlfriend, like full on 'girlfriend-of-a Dillon-Panther-starter' type girlfriend, I didn't see the point, he would only get bored and cheat on me, so I saved him the effort and tore off the band aid first."

"Okay so that said, why are you so bother about him doing Mrs. Cleaver and also how do you even know or is this one of those notorious school rumours that spreads like flesh eating disease?"

"A) I have know idea why it bothers me so much," Abbey moaned staring at the sky as if hoping that the sky would open up and yell at her to get over him. "And B) He told me."

Nate looked at her, "He told you, his previous squeeze, he has a new source of tail?" Abbey looked at Nate jutting out her lower lip and nodding slowly. He gave a long low whistle. "You two must have been really close friends."

Abbey looked at the fence, "Not really…"

"Huh….I know," Nate said wisely picking up the coke he was drinking. Abbey looked at him.

"Know what?"

"Why it bugs you,"

"Oh?"

"Yeah…. 'You love him, you want to marry him, you want him'." He teased in a sing song voice.

"Oh shut up," She said giggling in spite of herself and shoving him in the shoulder, "Leave the singing to me okay?"

"Yeah well you haven't joined the band yet so until you do….ahem… 'Abbey and Riggins sitting in a tree'…"Abbey rolled her eyes and saw Jacks and Jordan coming up the street, she glared at Nate and he stopped, "Look you either like Riggins or Jacks, you can't like both, they are way too different, and considering the whole brooding football player thing didn't work, why not try the angst ridden guitar player?"

"Drop it or your drumsticks will find them self sticking out of your various orifice's."

Nate threw up his hands and Abbey looked at Jacks and Jordan coming through the gate and stopping at the end of their lawn chairs. Abbey squinted up at Jacks who was standing at the foot of hers.

"Hey, you girls done chatting?" He asked his hands in his pockets.

Abbey smiled sardonically at him, "Oh and we were just discussing your clothing choices in such depth."

"Oh yeah, hot or not?" He asked teasingly.

"Defiantly hot," Abbey said smiling at him slyly. She got up from her chair and yanked her jeans up and looked at the guys.

Jordan rolled his eyes, "As adorable as this sickeningly sweet display is we have to get to rehearsal and I am gonna ask as I always do when we reach this part of the conversation, Abbey will you be joining us on lead vocals?"

Abbey opened her mouth to answer but the song changed on the CD player that was resting on her porch and Jacks threw up his arms.

"I love this song, and you aren't able to taint it by turning us down." He said turning on Abbey.

"Oh yeah so how can I possibly not taint it for you even further for you?" Abbey asked putting her hips on her waist and staring at him.

"Dance with me," He smiled at her widely letting his amazingly white teeth shine at her.

"'Scuze me?" Abbey said smiling slightly surprised by the request.

"Dance," Jacks said opening his arms to her. Abbey giggled and glanced at Nate and Jordan who were both sitting on the lawn chairs and smiling at them.

"Don't waste a good tune Abbey," Jordan chided.

Abbey smiled and looked at Jacks, "Supposed I shouldn't," She wrapped her arms around his neck and they started to dance right there in the middle of the lawn.

"The teenage queen, the loaded gun;
The drop dead dream, the Chosen One
A southern drawl, a world unseen;
A city wall and a trampoline"

Abbey laughed as Jacks released her in a spin,

"Oh well I don't mind, you don't mind
Cause I don't shine if you don't shine
Before you go
Tell me what you find when you read my mind"

There was a sound of a car pulling into the driveway, and Abbey had stopped and was turned with her back to Jacks, her arms crossed over her self, he had her hands as they shimmied to the music and to Abbey's shock Tim was sitting in his truck looking at her with an unreadable expression.

The song changed to T-Pain's I am in love with a stripper and Jacks dropped her hands she looked over her shoulder at him, he gave her a half smiled and raised his eyebrows, "You have a visitor,"

Abbey giggled, "I'll be right back."

As she walked across the lawn she would have sworn she heard Nate mutter under her breath, "Someone read her mind," but next thing she heard Jordan ask, "What?" and Nate reply, "Nothing,"

Abbey leaned on the open window of Tim's car and smiled at him, "Hey you what brings you to this part of town?" She asked smiling at him.

"I uh, I wanted to talk to you about Tyra actually…" He said trailing off and looking over Abbey's shoulder at Jacks.

"Oh," Abbey said slightly disappointed. She wasn't sure what she expected but it wasn't this. She wasn't that big a glutton for punishment. "About…"

"Uh weren't you her Algebra tutor?" He asked looking back at Abbey.

"Uh yeah, why you in the market?" She asked giving him a half smile.

"Well I just heard she got a new one,"

"Yeah Landry Clark I think…" Abbey said thinking on Landry's bragging.

"Why?"

"He is way better at Math then me and he adores the ground she walks on." Abbey said smiling. Tim looked at her with his brow furrowed, Abbey glanced across the truck at two medium sized pizza's on the seat next to him. "You hungry or just trying to bulk up for state?"

"No it's for the woman next door and her son they invited me over."

Abbey's mouth fell open in spite of her self, "Oh well you have fun then," Tim was looking over her shoulder. Abbey turned and saw Jordan and Jacks and Nate dancing like mad fools to Andrew WK's We wanna have fun.

"Who are those guys?" Tim asked in an odd voice.

"Oh them…They are my band," Abbey said brightly looking at him.

"Your band?"

"Yeah I sing," She smiled and stepped back, "I gotta go if that's all Tim cause we gotta rehearse."

Tim nodded at her looking slightly shocked. Abbey nodded and turned and went to run over to the guys but half way there it turned into a sort of skipping jump and she started to dance in the middle of them flinging her arms madly over her head.

"You gonna sing?" Jacks asked over the music.

"Yeah!" Abbey yelled, "But we gotta rehearse here,"

"Sweet," He yelled, "Boys we got a lead singer," Nate and Jordan burst in to yells and Jacks lifted her onto his shoulder as they continued to dance madly.

"I have absolutely no idea why I am here…I hate football," Jacks moaned as Abbey dragged him out of the car to get tickets to watch the game.

"Because it is the semi-finales and you want to show support for you high school and community." She said dragging him full force to the field.

Abbey had decided she was completely mad. After telling Tim it would be better if they were friends again she now wanted him madly and didn't quite trust her ability to think clearly if she was there on her own and watched him win, single mum/cougar or not.

"Hi Jackson," He grandmother said sweetly as they sat down on the bleachers beside her.

"Hi Mrs. Saracen," Jacks said in a depressed voice.

"You like football son?"

Jacks opened his mouth but Abbey answered for him, "Yeah Grandma his is a big fan," She said looking at him and winking, he nodded and looked at her grandmother with complete sincerity.

"Oh yeah huge fan,"

They sat there and watched the unbelievably depressing game start and then he rain came down.

Abbey shivered as the rain poured down, she had only thrown on one of Matt's Panthers Hoody's and it was quickly soaking through. Something dropped on her shoulders and she looked at Jacks he was smiling at her as his hair got soak and clung to his face. He had dropped his snow boarding jacket on her shoulders. He pulled the hood over her head with one hand.

"You don't-

"I know…now what the hell is going on and what team are we cheering for," He said looking out over the field with a look of confusion, it amazed Abbey that the guy could look at a sheet of music and understand it completely and he couldn't grasp football and so she started to explain it.

They were standing as Matt was about to hike the ball in the dying seconds. As he ran over the line Abbey jumped up and down screaming like mad, Jacks even managed to yell but she though that was only from getting caught up in all the excitement. Her grandmother clapped demurely smiling and Abbey threw her arms around her.

Abbey looked at Jacks and saw how soaked he was. "We are going to state!" She yelled laughing she was so happy.

"Good," Jacks said smiling at her. She couldn't help but get the feeling, that even if she had wanted to she wouldn't have been able to tear her eyes away from him but someone bumped into him and they were drawn back to reality.

Everyone was pouring onto the field to congratulate the team. "I am gonna go see Matt Kay?" She yelled at Jacks. He nodded and Abbey ran on to the field.

"Mattie boy!" She screamed Matt picked himself and Abbey up from the mud and looked at Abbey. "You kicked ass, state baby!" She said smiling at him. He smiled at went to hug her but she jumped back, "Think I am good mud free." She said laughing. Matt and Julie both looked at her and jumped her hugging her like mad. "AHH!"

After a few seconds the mud covered Abbey made her way over to Tim he was watching the woman and her son walk away to their car.

"Hey big tough blocking for my brother Riggins," He looked at her, "Looks like you are going to State." She said smiling and crossing her arms looking at him.

"Looks like I am," He said crossing his arms.

Abbey looked at her feet and then back at him and opened her mouth and found she had absolutely nothing to say, she looked out at the cars and saw the woman's head bobbing away from them.

"Well, good luck and have some fun," She said winking and smiling at him, "You are going to State," With that she walked away back to her family and Jacks.

A/N: Okay so I know this is a kinda weird chapter but I hope you like it anyway it was kinda a filler until the season finale anyway. And I apologize profusely for any stupid mistakes I made but it is late and I just want to get this up so I haven't read it over. Hope you can forgive me makes puppy dog face Well See y'all at STATE!!!