A/N. Wow. So I have to apologize, I seem to do that a lot in my author's note but, well, I haven't update in exactly 3 months and 2 days. But to make up for that oversight I have... made this chapter longer (yay?). So not a lot of people read chapter 5, I think 86 was the number, and even smaller number of people reviewed [2 – thanks Ember91 and Nelle07. But this story has 1500+ hits! Can you believe it? That makes me happy, when I'm happy I write, and hopefully your figuring out how to make me write more faster right now.mm what else, cast pictures n my profile, and I don't own Finger Eleven.

I'll Keep Your Memory Vague – Finger Eleven

Chapter 6. Nobody knows you, nobody knows you like I do

How close are you allowed to get to your ex-best friends boyfriend? That was a question I was pondering as I walked over to Warren's apartment block. I had resolved myself to stay away, but while we were still hunting Patrick together, close proximity would be required. It was the first day of the new year and you know what they say, how you spend new year's day is how you spend the year. The problem with this belief was that the way things had been going between Warren and I, well, that would just make for a very awkward, tensions filled year.

But I mean this is high school right? Life is supposed to be tough, we're just supposed to be tougher - I was having a hard time being that just then. What with the attempted murder, the long nights sitting in the hospital, getting chewed out by Layla, getting side offers from my mother, and having to have shrapnel removed from my head; This wasn't one of my better years. I sharply inhaled a breath of cold air. I was just at the doors to Warren's building about to buzz him to let me up. I really wanted to avoid it, but I couldn't - it was too dangerous. It used to be about a petty criminal, and a school project, now it was about our lives. And faults be damned, we were both too stupid or stubborn to run to our parents, and teachers and let them know that we couldn't handle it. Not that they weren't, and still are suspicious about our/my story Warren's car.

2 and a 1/2 Weeks Earlier.

Smart people bought their Christmas presents in November, October if they were really keen, like those people who collect ornaments from Hallmark. But I was none of those people. I always made plans to meet Layla at the mall, or walk down a store-populated street in search of gifts and I had gotten most of them, really, and I wasn't even sure if I needed these last two. Ok I lied, I knew these people were getting gifts for me, but I was looking for reasons to avoid shopping for them.

I hate the way it sound, their names constantly paired together. It's almost like one word. So to avoid the hate, I refer to them, as them. I never thought I'd be the person who let a huge monster live inside them. A big green monster that over analyzed every situation, and every moment. Truly, I could not help it.

It hadn't been long before Katie had called me up. I went to her house. We ate, we laughed, we cried, we forgave, and then we confessed. My confession was made up, what I wanted to confess I couldn't, it felt like secret I would carry to my angst ridden high school grave. I was the criminal in this one, and Katie was the hero. She would be whisked away by her prince charming right after they slayed me – I was still waiting to see if that was going to happen, or had already. Anyways, then came her confession for the night, the first person she told – lucky me – about her re-instant love connection with Warren. I smiled and congratulated her. She wasn't the only one with that feeling, in my case it had just manifested itself in an instant kill connection.

Kate was a sight mimic. She could mimic powers she could see, like physical powers, mostly elemental. She had had an 'instant love connection' ever since Homecoming. It was the first Homecoming since Gwen Grayson so it had to be spectacular, just to make up for mistakes. Everyone was decked out to the nines and it was almost the end of the night, people were starting to head home but some stragglers persistently swayed along to some slow songs on the dance floor. I had been dancing with my boyfriend 'of the time, and Emily was about to go dance with her flavour of the month but nor before shoving Kate at the first available man. I think you know where this is going, She was so sorry about being pushed into Warren, her hands caught on fire. Warren grabbed her flaming hands and led her to the dance floor. Over the summer they dated, twice. And then nothing, till now. To be fair she was in a coma, not a lot of romantic possibilities in that state.

At the time I had thought the whole flame hands thing was cute. It made me happy to see her happy, now it just made me hollow. It wasn't that I was all hung on one kiss from Warren, it wasn't that good to begin with. Who am I kidding? In my limited experience it was spectacular. But that's beside the point, I was hung up on the possibilities from that kiss. Really, one date, I was just... curious. Even if it turned out badly I would know. At least. It wasn't like I loved him.

I was now at the end of the mall, I had walked by all the stores at least once. There was a novelty gift shop about three feet from, and it seemed to me like it was a suitable place to get their gifts. In minutes I had found a gift for Kate, a mini electric blanket, the girl had the worst circulation, she was always complaining about being cold. Warren's gift would prove m ore difficult, especially since I had no idea what kind of gift he was giving me. I had already seen Kate and Warren give me gifts, but I had only seen myself open Kate's present.

I was wandering the aisles of the store absent mindedly. And I accidently bumped into someone. Three guesses who.

"Hey, watch where your – "

"Hi Warren," I said, now looking up at him from the floor. He picked up my bags and helped me up. His face was intolerably close to mine. "How are you?"

"Uh, I'm okay."

And now there was tangible silence between us, and I was avoiding looking at his eyes by staring at point slightly above his nose.

"So what are you doing here?"

"Just finishing up some Christmas shopping"

Warren just looked. But not at me, actually he was looking everywhere but me.

"Warren, look that day... at my house"

"Bethany" He sighed.

I reflexively backed up, into a shelf of stuffed animals. Warren was approximately 2cm away from me at this point, and I could smell his trademark sulphurous residue. He placed his hands on my hips and leaned forward. I wasn't sure if this was allowed but I wasn't exactly stopping him. I wasn't sure if I should say something, but my lips wouldn't part. I wasn't sure if I should have leant forward and sealed our distance with a kiss but it was too late to be sure because I did. What I was sure of, was that I hadn't expected him to pull me against him, and grip my waist that way.

I needed air. He pulled away. We looked each other in the eyes.

Whoops.

Forsaking Kate's gift I grabbed the bags I had and walked out of the store, Warren didn't try and stop me. I walked straight outside and leaned against the coarse brick wall of the mall. After a few deep breaths of cold air, I looked towards the sky and smiled.

Best mistake ever.

1 and ½ Weeks Earlier.

The Paper Lantern really was a nice place. I understood why Layla and Will had come here so often to eat, well at least they did, Will had finally broken it off with Layla, the poor girl. She didn't even know he had been cheating on her with Emily. The way they made it seem, it was like they had just started to date a couple days ago.

The whole situation made me uneasy. Not just because I had been keeping their secret for them from Layla, but also because I began to realize that it was very similar to the situation that Warren, Katie, and I were in. I was Emily, kind of, I was the other girl. And Katie, she was-would be victimized, the poor girl woke up from a coma and she finds out her new boyfriend is cheating on her with her somewhat best friend. It was hard to hate Emily when I thought about it like that, we were both in the situation. We were irresistibly attracted to Warren and Will. I didn't even know when it started, or how it happened, but I couldn't keep myself away from him.

I was currently sitting in a booth in the Paper Lantern waiting for Warren to finish up his shift so that we could get along with our project. We had met twice since our mall encounter, and both times I had resisted throwing myself at him. It had been tough getting him to come meet with me though, I'm sure he must think me some desperate, needy, girl with a crush – to be fair that's exactly how I was acting, but it isn't who I am. The entire situation filled me with guilt. It wasn't Kate's fault that the school body had labelled me 'social pariah' since she was in coma. In fact, now that she was better people were nicer to me, when I would run into classmates they would actually stop, chat, and smile at me. There was no reason for us not to be friends; this realization had given me more determination to make things right between us by making things platonic with Warren.

That however, was easier said than done. Every time I phoned his house he would tell me he was busy, so I would work on plans for Patrick's apprehension and put them in his mailbox. This new level of desperateness must have made him take pity on me because after the first few plan outlines he called me. We always met in the afternoon, in very public, populated places. I even had a strategy for face to face dealings with him. I would look at his clothing; he generally wore plain shirts and pants, no brands or anything. Perfectly vague, he's vague, forgettable. That was the thought train I tried to ride, so far it was working. I just had to try, to separate him from everything we do.

The things was part of me didn't want to do any of that because then it wasn't just Katie that was keeping us apart. It was us.

Bad thoughts. Bad thoughts. Back to school. Warren was just finishing up his shift, so I began to re-organize the new clippings I had bought with me. Ever since Halloween, well Patrick had been getting sloppy; maybe because he was threatened now that we were after him, or maybe because he was just angry. He hadn't done anything major, but his petty crimes had escalated in nature. His powers allowed his to make small objects spontaneous combust, ergo his title 'the combuster.' Before we had encountered him, he had committed crimes in a very consistent way. Combust the security alarm system, go in and rob some key pricey pieces, exit. It was bit of a messy job getting away clean though, because every time he would combust things he'd leave an blacky-yellow oil like residue on the area of the combusted object. This was, I assumed, the way that PIRRC had easily identified him to begin with. Lately though, he didn't follow his recipe for theft, he's been getting more... aggressive. In his latest venture, he'd attempted to steal an artefact from the Maxville Museum and ended up holding a guard hostage. I knew that since our very first kiss, and our separating of professional ways, Warren and I had both made multiple failed attempts at capturing Patrick. I couldn't say for Warren but I knew I would usually come out of these attempts with a few minor injuries. Apprehension really was not a one person job.

"Bethany." Warren greeted as he slid into the booth.

"Warren."

"So what have we got here?" He grabbed the folder of newspaper clippings.

"The same stuff we had to begin with, the only difference is now he's more hostile and careless. A few days ago he held a security guard hostage so... he's escalating to violence endangering civilians. I think we should really work at getting him now, before he actually hurts someone." Way to use class terminology.

"I agree," Warren looked up at me, I made a point of avoiding eye contact with him, "I was looking over the plans you gave me and I think that last one could really work. If we use those headsets and you can lead him away from the public towards me, then I can subdue him, and we shouldn't have any trouble if you can see everything ahead of time right?"

"Right." That was the other things I had been doing with all my spare time, working on developing my powers. Sidekicks didn't have that kind of opportunity at Sky High because it was assumed that you would be assisting your hero use their powers, there was no Sidekick Power Development class. So I had been practising by myself at home, and I found that I had surprising control over it. All I had to do was concentrate and I could see about 5 minutes ahead. Short term sight for quick decisions. I could also see farther when I really pushed myself, but that was energy draining, and I most of what I saw was... chopped up. Like a movie being edited on forward. Scene, scene, scene, end. I didn't know when, where, or what, I just saw images flash through my mind. Like when I saw me holding a couple of Dvd's with Katie. Rational assumption told me that she had given me Dvd's for Christmas. I had also seen Warren and I, but all I saw there was him holding a gift out to me.

This thought made me blush, and I fidgeted because I betraying myself and Katie with those kinds of thoughts. Warren was still talking but I wasn't listening, I could figure out what would happen if I really pushed myself.

"So tomorrow then?"

"What about tomorrow?"

Warren looked at me incredulously, "I was just saying tomorrow when he's on his way to work, that's when we should try, no more putting it off."

"Oh okay, tomorrow works fine for me."

"Okay, we can stake out his house at seven then." Warren moved out of the both and ducked into the staff only section of the Paper Lantern. I began to gather up all the papers and plans I had bought with me. I was pulling open the door when Warren stopped me.

"Need a ride?"

I had walked here, and there weather had gotten significantly worse since. How could I refuse?

-x-

"Thank you Warren."

"It's no problem, you should be walking around in this weather." He gesture with a tilted of his head toward the snow caked windshield.

I tried to take off my seatbelt but it was stuck, I kept yanking on it but it wouldn't com out. Great. Warren leaned over and gave it a couple tugs, before he kind of ripped it out.

"Sorry, it's an old car."

Deja vu. Warren. Close proximity. Bad. He leaned into me this time, but I turned my head away.

"Warren what are we doing?" I asked him softly.

He sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

"Look I don't know okay? Katie is great. She's beautiful, and she's happy, and she's caring, and she wants me to open up, and she talks, and she asks questions. But you, you are not her type of beautiful, you're moody, you're sensitive, and you're quiet. You don't open up, and you don't talk or ask. You listen."

I looked down, what was I expected to say to that? I had no idea, so I didn't respond; I just opened the door and got out of his car. Halfway up the walkway to my house I turned around, Warren was still parked there and he was staring at me. There was something dripping down one of the back windows of his car. It looked kind of like... oil. There was some more of it on his car's hood.

The time it took for me to figure out what was happening was the time it took for Warren's car to catch on fire, and explode.

Everything went black.

"This won't break your heart

But I just think it could

Cause I haven't tried as hard as I should

To separate you from everything I do

But I would never want to come between us two

I'll keep your memory vague"

A/N. Woo so next chapter will be average length or slightly shorter but it will cover what happened from the explosion to New Year's Day, and maybe some stuff after that as well.