Dinner was lasagna and chicken fillet. This was much more glamorous than it sounds. Mrs. Clark would be the best cook in Toronto if her timidity would let her. Now that Sanford thought about it, she wasn't always this timid. She'd bubble with laughter in her conversations on the phone, in the super market, at the dinner table. She hardly giggled now. He felt a slab of guilt run down and through his throat as he grasped how much his ordeal had changed the world. And now she looked for laughter in Riley. But he liked her too much to share and enjoyed her far to much to let her be away from him. Friend or foe, he would never let Riley belong to anyone else than him.

He was shocked at his thoughts. He'd never heard himself sound so selfish before. Why was he so out of character?

"Riley," Mr. Clark spoke up for the first time tonight. "How's your father doing?"

"Very good, sir. He told me to greet you for him, I forgot."

Mr. Clark smiled, "That's good. We're going fishing this weekend. Frosty lakes are homes to the fattest fish you could ever hope to see."

And the pointless chatter went on. Sanford didn't speak throughout dinner. He didn't even pay attention until his mother said something that gave him chills.

"I hear the Winter Wonderland Dance is coming up next week. Excited?"

Riley shrugged with a small smile.

Indeed, there was a Winter Wonderland Dance which was to be held on Christmas day. In High School gymnasium, according to this cheap blue flier. Why did this poster stir such angst in Sanford?

He heard some girls giggle as they passed him. He pulled his back pack closer to him and turned his head in some other direction—hoping to God no one saw him gawking at the poster.

"I saw that," Riley jumped up behind him.

Sanford choked a bit, "saw what?"

"You went on ahead of me and thought you could beat me to Biology class," She gave him that charming growl in her eyes. "But I'm a fast walker."

Sanford nodded.

Riley laughed a bit in response, "Oh, come on," she gazed at him with a quizzical look. "You were so talkative yesterday, I hardly recognized you. Now you're back to the you from two months ago?"

It was funny because he could say the same thing about her. He could never forget the nervous, blushing, and hold-me-Sanford side of her that confused him even if he tried.

But then he was out of character too, he guesses. He remembered having those thoughts at dinner—of calling her his and not sharing her with anyone.

He watched her as they walked to class. She was mumbling something about the library but he didn't pay attention.

"So, the dance thing's kind of dumb, isn't it?" Riley looked down as she spoke.

Sanford continued to follow his own thoughts and he decided to be like Riley for a moment and analyze like a scientist.

"I imagine we'd do some research instead of going to the dance but what if we just went for the heck of it?" She said.

A few doorways passed and the way he had taken her in his arms like that, the way he had written her as his in his mind and the way he adored her could only be described as possessive, aggressive, animalistic. The side of him he thought Riley had replaced. The tamer had become the bait.

"I'm thinking about putting research away for a while."

Then they passed the fifth doorway and unlike the other ones they had passed, he saw Uncle Gordon reflected upon the glassy window where his reflection ought to have been.

He was scared of himself.

Riley laughed lightly, not brave enough to look at him—good that she didn't, she would have been worried to see him trembling. "I guess I'm asking you to go with me."

Her voice forced him to take a look at her. She looked so fragile—he'd break her with this side of him. He was sure. "What?" he asked, unsure if she even said anything.

She looked at him both embarrassed and disappointed. "I asked you to the dance, Sanford," she looked up again at him with caution.

"I can't," he said simply.

She shot her eyes to the ground, "You can't or you don't want to?" she asked with a temper. "Answer my question, I'm asking as a scientist and you must answer."

His voice still shaky and parts of him still trembling—he answered without much thought and without much voice, "I don't want to hurt you, Riley."

She gave him a nod, thinking she'd understood his answer, swallowed hard and walked to class.

Sanford was unaware of how much he had hurt Riley. But he sat back now and decided to trust Riley and trust himself for letting himself admit to needing her.

Sanford passed the fence door with a quizzical look on his face as his eyes inspected the girl who'd normally be standing on her toes with her hand in the air sit as still as stone before him. "You didn't wait in front of the school," he said.

"I didn't feel like it," she looked up at him. "Sorry."

He didn't know how he should react at this point. Lord knows Sanford was never the driver in neither a conversation nor a friendship. He'd participate in Riley's game only when forced. And Riley always forced. With or without his consent, she'd have her arms pressed against his back—pushing him out of the dark ranch he lived in and out into her grassy back yard where their lives were the universe and they were astronauts. But now the captain was pulling the plug and he could neither understand why nor breathe. He was losing air and he either needed to find some in the black void or simply get out.

His grip around his bag tightened, he was losing his temper. He almost wanted to yell at her and demand for her attention. She is mine, isn't she? Wait—no… No she's not. God, why can't I control this animalistic side of me?

"I'll leave," he murmured. "I'll come back tomorrow," he added. Please, please don't be mad at me by then.

His reaction was something Riley was not expecting. If she denied him, she'd expect a cry or a plea—not a perfect view of his back. Why wouldn't he have her? Riley watched him walk away from her and she drove the ship to the sun. The captain was consumed in flames and she'd burn in hell for what she was about to do but she'd drag this astronaut with her.

"I'm quitting the contract!"

Sanford turned around to get a good look at her. To his disbelief, she was as serious as the plague. "You can't do that," getting out would have to wait. He'd search for air—no, he'd fight for it. "I'm the one who signed it!"

"Well I'm the one who wrote it and if I say I quit, I quit."

"Why does it have to be like this?"

"This?"

"You! Up or down, you always see-saw between two extremes! You were so keen on me being your experiment and now you don't feel like it."

"I don't want you to be my experiment anymore, I want to be your friend—well, I wanted—now I don't want you to be my anything," she turned around to retreat.

"Riley!" He battled for her attention as he grabbed her arm and forced her eyes to meet his. Pure frustration filled his body to his fingertips. "Can't you tell I've wanted to be your friend since we met? I'm trying to keep my distance because that's how much I like you! Don't you see this is dangerous!"

"You don't have to say anything anymore," glossiness took over her eyes and her voice shook within her throat. She pried his fingers off of herself and her soul spoke without her mind's consent. "It's clear I like you much, much more than you like me and now I hate you."

He drew his arm to him with a jerk and grasped his hands around Riley's shoulders, bringing her in for a forceful kiss. She pushed him away and drew her fingers to her lips in disbelief.

"That wasn't very polite of you." Her voice came out shakily and the gloss in her eyes swelled. "That was the first time anybody's kissed me."

Sanford had lost the battle with Gordon and with himself. He was no survivor of the incident—he was the walking, talking version of it. He turned around and held his aching head, not believing what he'd just done and convinced he's ruined his friendship with his best friend.

She watched his back for a moment, her fingers still to her lips. She saw his heavy shoulders rise and descend and a tension in his arms. She took a few steps towards him and put her hand on his shoulder. He jerked back, making her wrench back in shock. He breathed through his teeth, she saw confusion in his eyes that made her arm draw further forward and touch his shoulder. His tension melted away. She timidly reached for his hands and drew them up to cup her cheek gently. She placed her hand behind his neck and drew in for a soft, tender kiss.

Sorry! I'm not quite done! I did this all on my own before my account so let me just see how this story does on this site and then I'll think about finishing it :)

I left you off with a nice temporary end, though!