(Tries to avoid predictably expressing her distaste for her own writing) Next chapter folks!

Sorry for the wait, but I have had a bit of a busy week. Thanks for all your reviews and comments, you all rock!

Chapter 6

Howard was set on not feeling guilty. There was no reason why he should. If anything, Gideon and Vince should be ones feeling guilty for the way they had ignored his fairly blatant feelings. He was sure he was well justified in cutting off their relationship. It wouldn't work anyway, he thought to himself as he did his last rounds of the zoo by torchlight, Gideon was too old for Vince...too sophisticated and intelligent. Vince doesn't want her really, he'll want some rock star or model for a girlfriend...she's perfect for meTruthfully, Howard just wasn't letting himself feel guilty. Every time that little voice piped up, telling him it was a dishonest thing to do, he silenced it with a torrent of false reasoning.

Howard was just about to head to the zoo's office to sign out when he saw that the light in the reptile house was still on. He was sure he had turned it off. After all, Howard Moon, dedicated zoo keeper, would never let the zoo lose funds via it's electricity bill! Howard decided he could wait a minute to sign out, and headed for the reptile house.

Howard was right, he hadn't left the lights on. Gideon was crouched on the floor, her face so close to the glass front of one of the exhibits that her breath made little misty circles on it's clear surface. Her long brown hair fell forward over her face, shielding her features from Howard's gaze. He didn't want to disturb her. She was whispering quietly under her breath to whatever reptile lived that particular exhibit, while she changed the fact cards at the side of the glass enclosure.

"Ms. Gideon?" His mouth spoke before his mind had a chance to control it.

Gideon jumped from the shock of the voice coming out of nowhere, stumbling backwards guiltily as if she had been caught committing a crime. The fact cards slipped out of her hands and slid across the laminated floor, coming to a stop at Howard's feet.

"Oh, you scared me!" She gasped, out of breath from shock. Howard muttered his apologies and began to gather the cards from the floor. He stacked them in his hands and walked over to Gideon, handing them to her. When he handed the cards to her, his fingertips brushed hers and he felt like an static shock had just shot up his arm.

"Thank you..." Gideon paused for a second, and grimaced as if she had a headache, before seeming to return to normal to finish her sentence, "...Howard. Thank you, Howard."

He gave her an awkward smile, unsure how to react to her bizarre facial expression, which was now one of relief.

"I came to turn out the lights and lock up, Ms. Gideon," Howard explained, holding up his set of keys and jangling them slightly. "Why are you still here so late?"

"I forgot to change the cards..." She said quietly, although her eyes were glazed slightly as if fact cards were the last thing on her mind that evening.

Howard smiled with what he hoped looked like understanding. Inside his stomach was doing summersaults in sheer shock that he had managed to say two sentences to Gideon without confusing or scaring her. See, a voice in Howard's head chimed, I told you that getting rid of Vince would mean you two could be together. Now just ask her out...she's sad because she thinks Vince isn't interested...she's longing for someone to be with.

"Howard?" Gideon interrupted his thoughts with her sudden outburst. Her tone was one of a person who was struggling to get her words out, so had to force them out. "Did...did Vince give you anything...to give to me?"

"No." Howard didn't let himself mull over his answer. He couldn't give his conscience a chance to ruin his plans.

"Really?" Gideon asked again, her tone weakening, like it might break any minute. "Not even a message?"

"No." He repeated again, like a robot.

"Did...did he say anything about me at all?" Her voice was like a thin sheet of ice, cracking at the edges.

"No, he just wanted to talk to me to let me know that we can't go out on Friday because he's got a date of some sort." Howard regretted the last sentence almost as soon as it left his mouth. He knew it was a lie, and a horrible one at that. I said ask her out, not tell her that Vince is a some ignorant cheater, hissed the voice in Howard's head. He wished he could take his tale back, but he knew that would mean revealing himself as a liar, and that just wouldn't cut it if he wanted to be with Gideon.

"He's...on a date?" She squeaked, quieter than the hiss of the snakes in the reptile house.

Howard could see the tears creeping up and gathering in the delicate corners of her eyes. He tried to bite back the guilt with his empty reasons. She deserved better than Vince, they weren't right for each other, Howard and Gideon were meant to be...his justifications forced the lump back down his throat. He managed to hold her gaze, blocking out the tears that he could see fall before they left her eyes.

"S-sorry..." she muttered, wiping the tears away with the back of her hand. "I just...I thought he liked me..."

I LIKE YOU! Howard screamed inside his head. I like you more than Vince ever will. Even if put every inch of himself into adoring you, he would never even graze how I feel with his fingertips. Why couldn't she see? He wanted to grab her by the arms and just yell at her for being so blind. Howard was sure that when she looked at him, she looked right through him, even though she was all that he saw. He tried to force his thoughts to come out of his mouth, but it felt like they were in different languages, and wouldn't translate from one to the other. Anyway, his previous lack of honesty was pinching away at him, demanding him to tell the truth before it was lost altogether.

"I'm sure..." Howard tried to add "he likes you" to his sentence, but the envy in the back of his mind growled and wouldn't let it past his lips, "I'm sure...you're better than him anyway..."

Gideon didn't seem convinced, but she offered Howard a weak and trembling smile, brushing her long hair behind her ears in an attempt to compose herself. "I hope you're right," she practically whispered.

"I definitely am," Howard grinned, could he possibly be saying the right thing for once? "Do you want a cup of tea?" He worried for a moment about how pathetic that comment sounded, and decided he need to justify it. "It always makes me feel better...tea..."

Gideon gave a genuine laugh, it glimmered and danced in her eyes, even after her smile had finished. "I'd love a cup."

She gave Howard a fleeting glance and he felt that static shock through his body again.

- - -

The hand on the clock slowly crept past twelve, it's ticks reverberating off the walls and leaving acres of silence at the short second interludes. Vince had been listening for hours. The ticks were now just background noise, the foreground was his breathing, slow gasping on the off-beat. He leant over and grabbed his mobile phone from the nightstand. The screen glowed a vicious shade of green, burning his eyes from the contrast with the shadowy bedroom.

Vince sighed. The display was blank. It had been the same the other times he had checked it. Every five minutes since he had retired to bed. Before that, he had been sat at his desk, staring at his homework in the hope that it might do itself. His mind tracked back to the conversation he had with Howard a few days earlier. He seemed to think that I might be good at something...I should ask him next time we talk...he wished that he could talk to Howard, but he didn't have his phone number. Vince stared up at the ceiling. He wondered to himself why he wanted to talk to Howard more than he wanted to talk to his school friends. If he asked them what he should do after he finished school, they would just laugh at him for even caring.

He sat up in bed, running a hand though his hair, trying to check it's appearance just by feeling it. He wondered why Gideon hadn't called him yet. She had seemed really keen. He had thought to himself before that he perhaps didn't like her that much, but the sting of rejection was slowly beginning to eat at him. Had he offended her without realising it? Oh god, does she think I'm a horrible person? He wracked his brains for what he could possibly have done wrong. I'm so stupid. I should have known I would blow it all before it even began! Now she won't want anything to do with me...

He pressed the light on his phone again. The screen was still blank. All that appeared was his background picture; his friends sat on some bench, while he tried to fit his head in the picture and take it at the same time. Vince ran another hand through his hair. He wished he had real friends to put in a picture frame. Those guys he hung around with at school, he didn't smile when he saw them, they weren't a reason to get up in the morning. When heard amazing news or gossip, he didn't feel excited just to tell them. His friends were just like the items of clothing that his mum hated him for buying; he had them just to look cool, and not for much else.

Vince wondered, for a second, what it would be like to have him and Howard as the background on his phone. A real friend, that wouldn't just want him to look cool, or wouldn't ditch him because something better came along. Howard wouldn't be like some of the people at school, who hated Vince because he was charming, good-looking, and landed girls that he didn't even want.