The rain had turned into a storm pretty quickly, and it hard thudded against the window, blurring the outside world considerably. Jimmy was still rambling (Geez, do I ever even know what he's saying?) when I saw her. Cindy opened her front door and walked outside into the storm (I could tell it was her because of the blonde hair... either than that she was basically a blob because of the wet glass obscuring her). What was she doing? I could see the pink skin of her bare shoulders as she wrapped her arms around herself protectively and walked down her front steps. Was she crazy? Going out in this weather wearing a freaking halter top? She reached the side walk and turned left, walking in that direction almost aimlessly. She didn't look fine to me.

"Jimmy, not that this isn't all fascinating," I told him with a hint of sarcasm dripping off the last word, "But I got to go home and help my dad with stuff." It was the best lie I could come up with. Jimmy glanced in my direction, his eyes unfocussed slightly. When he got into his little science rants, sometimes he could get quite unobservant. He probably hadn't even heard what I said.

"Uh, sure. Bye," he said, then grabbed a book from his bedside table. I left his bedroom and shut the door behind me, took the stairs two at a time and grabbed my coat from the hall closet. I already had my boots on (never take 'em off if I can help it. They're a collector's item!), so I bolted out the door without bothering say goodbye to Hugh and Judy. They'd understand.

I ran down the sidewalk in the direction Cindy had gone, my boots slapping the wet concrete and splashing water onto my jeans. It's a good thing I'm a lot faster than Cindy, and I was running and she was walking. She had a pretty big head-start, but I caught up to her soon enough. I could see her a bit away from me as she turned off the sidewalk and onto the grass of the park. I followed her hesitantly, watching her as she rubbed her hands up and down her bare arms to warm herself. I was cold, and I was wearing a jacket.

She stopped and sat down on a park bench. I believe it was the same bench I had stopped at when I tried to run away. I walked up behind her and was about to give her a piece of my mind about hurting Libby's feelings like that, but the words caught in my throat when I heard her.

She was crying. She wrapped her arms around herself and rocked back and forth slightly on the bench as sobs wracked her tiny frame. She had her hair up in pigtails, I noticed, which she hadn't done since we were ten or so. She pulled her knees up to her chest and my heart broke (for Cindy! Cindy Vortex! I know, its mind boggling, but she looked so small and sad... I guess everyone is human, even her).

What I was going to tell her slipped my mind, so I stood behind her, brain blank. I did the only thing I could think of. I took off my jacket and put it over her shoulders. She jumped and looked up at me. I couldn't tell where the tears stopped and the rain began, but her eyes were red from crying.

"Ultradork?" she seemed incredulous that it would be me to do such a thing, but she looked cold, and she was a girl, technically, and it was not gentlemanly to let a girl stay cold while you are warm and dry. I shrugged and sat down beside her on the wet bench, fully aware that it would make my butt wet. It was still raining pretty hard, and I was pretty much soaked anyway, so what did it matter?

"Are you okay?" She sniffled, and put her feet back down on the muddy grass.

"No."

She didn't elaborate. I didn't force her too. I just made myself comfortable, leaning back against the wooden slats, crossing one leg over the other, resting my elbow on the back of the bench. She shivered, then put her arms through the arms of my coat and zipped it up, reluctantly. I know she hates excepting help. Doing so is so un-Cindy-like that I knew something was wrong. Not that I didn't know before, because of her odd behaviour over the last few days.

She sniffled. "I guess you'll hear about it anyway, if Nick is true to his word..." I looked over at her. "I can't believe I'm going to tell you..." She sighed, and wrapped her arms around herself tighter. "He took... something important from me."

I frowned. "Was it your bracelet?" I reached into my back pocket and took it out. I kept it in my pocket, just in case she wanted it back all of a sudden, because I knew it was hers. She took the bracelet out of my outstretched hand and turned it over in her smaller ones, running a thumb over the metal of the little rocket.

"He found this," she said quietly, the sound of the rain almost drowning her out. "I wore it all the time, and he asked me where I got it from." She closed her hand around the metal, bawling it into a fist. "I told him, and he said... he said if he ever saw it again, he'd kill me." A little sob shook her, and I had to resist the urge to hug her.

"Nick said that?" I asked, shocked. "Why would he threaten you over a piece of jewellery? Why would he threaten you at all?" It didn't make any sense! And yet, it did. The secret fighting, the sleeve-pulling... I glanced at her arms, but I couldn't see them because she was wearing her jacket. Had she been covering bruises? Cuts? Scars? Cindy wasn't a cutter, Libby knew her too well and would've mentioned it. But she was hiding something.

She didn't answer my questions. She frowned a little, and more tears welled in her eyes. I couldn't tell how many had fallen because of the rain, but she was so sad. "Did he...?" I paused, lowering my voice. "Did he hurt you?"

She sobbed again, and put her head in her hands. She nodded, slowly. I didn't know what to do, what to think. Cindy and I weren't really friends, but that doesn't mean I didn't care about her, about what happened to her. Someone was hurting my girl's best friend? And Nick, no less! Nick, hurting Cindy... she was half the size of him! That wasn't fair!

She lifted her head and looked at me. "He..." She swallowed, as though her throat were dry. "He..." She shook her head. "I can't say it, it's so horrible what he did."

"You don't have to tell me, I get it," I told her, putting a hand on her shoulder. She flinched again, like she had when Libby went to hug her. Everything made sense, now! And all I could think about was how sorry I was feeling for Cindy, and how much I wanted to kill Nick for laying a hand on her.

"No, Sheen, you really don't." I looked at her.

"You've got to tell someone he hurt you. You have to—"

"I can't. Don't you see? It's all my fault! I shouldn't have let him, I let him..." She sobbed again, and drew her knees back up to her chest. "Sheen... he took... he stole it from me."

"Took what?" I was getting exasperated. I knew this was hard for her. I knew. But I get impatient, and antsy, and distracted easily... I just wanted her to tell me what he stole from her so I could file a proper police report and get it back for her. "Whatever it is, I'll make it give it back, I swear..." She looked into my eyes, and her eyes looked... broken.

"He can't give it back."

"Why not?!" She looked down at the bracelet still gripped tightly in her fingers and mumbled something I didn't quite catch. "What?"

"He took my virginity!"