AN: "Normally, I hate endings, but I'm going to call this one a victory." Yeah, here's the end. It's a shorter chapter, and I hate ending it more than you can know. Any of you ever been in a stage production? Well, it's like after the cast party of the last show night...what now, after all this work, suddenly you have this empty space. -bashes head aginst wall- Angst, angst, angst...

Billy smiled serenely. Grim was grumbling, trying not to throw up, and scrubbing at the stain Billy had left on the carpet earlier, while Mandy surveyed his work. "You missed a spot," she said tonelessly.

"Right," Grim replied. His voice was bitter. With a petulant, scowling face, he began to scrub harder. The swish, swish that his carpetbrush made sped up. Billy clapped his hands together merrily, as if he were watching something very happy, or very exciting.

"Scrub harder, Grim!" Billy said, interested. "More barfness comes into the soap bubbles that way."

"Put a shirt on, boy," Grim muttered, his thick accent coming through. "You're blindin' da neighborhood."

Billy looked down. In his childhood, he had been chubbier, and, though trim now, he certainly had no trace of muscular abs. The skin of his belly was slightly paler than that of his arms. "Wow! Look, Mandy- I'm ten different colors! DeeheeheeHEEha... I said 'colors'! Deehee-"

Smack.

Billy careened backwards, arms windmilling ridiculously over the staircase. He gave a brisk shriek before beginning to topple over backwards.

Mandy's eyebrows rose slightly. If he fell and broke one of his limbs, or cracked his stupid head open, or was harmed in any way... it would be her fault. As quickly as she could, she reached out, trying to grab ahold of something- a shirt, for example. But there was no shirt. Mandy gave a grunt that would rival that of a tennis-player's, and barely managed to cling to the pocket of his jeans.

He was too far gone. With Mandy still hanging on to him, he fell back-first, shouting madly and rolling down the stairs. Mandy toppled and rolled along with him. Bump, bump, bump. Pain shot through her. She ground her teeth, still clinging to the idiot's pants, not willing to let go after all this.

Crash! Billy and Mandy hit the floor hard. Billy had landed first, giving an "Oof!" of pain, and Mandy had been thrown, conveniently, on top of him. Billy had broken most of her fall, but her body still hurt from tumbling down. "If both my arms aren't broken, Billy, I swear I'm going to-"

"Kiss me."

Mandy felt his hands clasp across the small of her back. His request shocked her, but it was a convenient one; their faces were centimeters apart. Her heart fluttered a bit, and she realized she was still laying on top of him. She turned her head a bit, and... and the backs of her eyes stung.

"Oh," Billy said. He sounded so disappointed, so... dead. Easily, he lifted her off of him, and set her so that she was sitting up against the wall. He sat up as well, taking care to keep his distance, as tears came to his eyes- and he smiled at her. The salt water began to drip down his face, and he continued to give her his usual, innocent smile, minus the joy. "I guess- I guess you don't like me in that way. I'm sorry. Gee, I musta seemed kinda lame... you know, 'cause, all this time I thought you liked me back!"

Mandy covered her mouth with her hands: her chin was trembling.

"And I was figursings on getting married, n'- I don't want to get married to anyone else, Mandy, 'cause girls are gross and have cooties! Except you. And when I was with Gorla, know what? I was thinking you and I could buy a little house and have some kids, even though I can't even raise earthworms and know you hate kidses, and I was thinking about how we'd get ta kiss on our wedding day and all those times you let me hug you for shmillions of hours."

"How often do you think of me, you creep?" Mandy said behind her hands. She tried filling her tone with scorn, to make it as angry as it usually was, but her voice was just as wobbly as the lips it issued from.

"I only thought all that when Gorla was with me," Billy said. Tears continued to pour down his face. His smile faded. "You're my bestest bestest bestest friend. And I guess... I guess I just gots to be happy with that. And I can... because it's... great." He leaned into her and gave her a soft, very brief hug. He didn't try to hold her, nor did he crush all of her ribs with an insane bear hug. Mandy felt shortchanged, somehow, as if she'd turned on a faucet full-blast and found nothing but a few drops of water. She sat still, feeling as though she had a very large empty space in her chest, as Billy stood up and walked away. A few seconds later the front door slammed.

She gave a silent sob. The tears building up behind her eyes were finally released, and she tried to cover her face as best she could so neither Grim nor her parents would see her cry.

"Dat's no way to handle tings," a heavy Jamaican voice said above her. Something cold and skeletal found her shoulder. She looked up at Grim, her eyes narrowed, and swatted his hand away.

"I have every right to cry," Mandy said venomously.

"Yeah, you do," Grim acknowledged. "But blast, girl, ya can't just let Billy walk away after he says someting like dat! Especially if you-"

"I don't."

"Den why are ya cryin'?"

Mandy opened her mouth, but for once, she was lost. There was nothing she could say, not even to make as big a dummy as Grim believe her... not at a time like this. And frankly, she didn't care what he thought right now. She felt too sad. No- destroyed. She felt horrible, miserable, and destroyed. It was the exact same way she'd felt when she'd had that dream... about losing him. Except this time, it was real, and there was no one there to rock her. To hold her. "Shut up," Mandy said, her voice hoarse and loud.

"Mandy, dere's no reason for you to let him just go like dat," Grim continued. He was starting to sound angry. "All he did was say he loved you, and if you love him back-"

"I can't love him back!" Mandy shouted in Grim's face.

"You do anyway, so too bad!"Grim shouted back at her, his eye sockets spitting flames as Mandy's dripped water. "And if you're just going ta sit dere and be a drama queen about it, den you're no better dan- dan dat Mindy girl!"

Mandy stood up, her heart swirling with blind rage and horrible sadness. "I hate you!" she screamed, placing her hands around Grim's bony neck and rattling him until his head fell off.

"And I hate you!" Grim yelled up at her from the floor.

Mandy grabbed his head and flung it as far as she could away. Grim's body went slack and lay on the ground in a heap, which Mandy took to mean he'd been knocked unconscious again. "Fine," she snapped, her eyes welling up. "Fine."

-GABM-

As she walked the streets, Mandy tried not to think too much about her situation, or what her situation could be, if things went wrong. What had happened to her these past few weeks?

She'd gone soft.

She swallowed this information rather bitterly. She'd gone soft, and so, for the time being, was at a mental disadvantage to many other people. At a physical disadvantage as well, perhaps, in the not-too-distant future... Mandy looked up at the sky. How long had she known Billy? Since she was... what, two? Three? And now she was sixteen.

No matter how cement their friendship was, it had managed to melt into something else, something new to both of them. Billy hadn't even realized it, and Mandy had always refused to accept it, but it was there.

Her eyes snapped open. A familiar figure was walking up ahead. She hadn't recognized him sooner, because he was walking slowly with his shoulders hunched inward and his head down, but it was him. Mandy felt her footsteps speed up, and she began to speedwalk, then trot, then finally run to the boy walking ahead.

"Billy," she said quietly, her steps slowing to match his.

"Oh, hi, Mandy," he said. He didn't sound quite as over-the-top-joyous as he usually did, but his voice still glowed with happiness when he spoke to her. Mandy looked at him. His face was still wet. His eyes were still red. "What's up?"

"You're stupid."

"Yep!" he said, managing to sound sad and triumphant at the same time.

Mandy continued to walk next to him. Every so often, she looked at him through the sunny haze of the day, and every time she did, he was looking at the ground. "Stop," she said suddenly. Billy stopped.

"Yeah?" he said, sounding curious. The sad undertone was still there, and it annoyed her.

"Hold me."

"Wha...?"

"Do as I say."

Cautiously, he wrapped his arms around Mandy's waist, and drew her in tight. One of his hands wandered upwards, and stroked the back of her head. "S'is good?" he asked hopefully.

"Yes." Mandy tilted her head upwards. The two youths stood still for a moment, feeling the warmth of each others' breath on their faces.

Billy felt her heartbeat again, the way he'd felt it at the ruined party, before... everything... happened. Mandy was looking at him now, her eyes wide and pretty- beautiful, Billy thought fondly. My bestest, bestest, bestest...

He kissed her gently on the lips.

He pulled away quickly, expecting her to try to hit him. She didn't. Instead, she leaned in and kissed him back, firmly, and longer this time. When they broke away, Billy looked down at her, eyes puzzled and lids drooping (though not with weariness). "Never walk out of my house that way ever again, you moron. Got it?" Mandy said furiously.

She turned her head away and blinked once or twice. Billy tilted her chin up and towards him so that they were nearly kissing again. He grinned in her face. "So we're cool? Huh? Huh, Mandy? Wanna come to my house? My dad won't say anything this time, I promises! Or we could go down to the river and talk and go skinny-dipping and find my shirt 'cause it's missing- see? I'm half-nekkid! Whatcha wanna do? We gots all day! Heck, we gots fo-eva!" He released her from his hug and began to walk again, seizing her hand.

Mandy let him hold her hand as he led her down the street, back to his house.

End

AN: Really, ending this makes me feel melancholy. Writing it made me feel...melancholy. And the fact that I'm not going to have any more reviews after this last chapter makes me feel... melancholy. Well, fffine. Just be sure to give me a shout on DeviantArt, which I'm planning to create an account for in 3...2...1...!