Here I go again! :D

I finally found the time to write something again... finally... yeah... sorry... :D

Thanks for your review, Lebeau54. It motivated me a lot! :) You are my first reviewer ever! You are a LeBelle-fan, I guess? :D

Maybe this chapter didn't exactly turn out how you expected it. I hope you like it though! :)

Sorry for any mistakes! Make sure to review... It will motivate me a lot to go on writing - if that's what you want! :D

Chapter 2 - Caring

Allison's eyes snap open when something touches her shoulder. Something dark is above her-she can't see the moon. Her eyelids feel heavy, but she blinks, trying to find out what that thing is.

„Allison? Allison!" It's a strong voice, a one-of-a-kind voice, but her brain seems to be a bit frozen, and she isn't able to recognize it immediately.

So she squeals and presses herself against the tree, trying to get away from the stranger.

„Hey, it's me, basketcase! Hey, look at me!" The voice seems to be a bit concerned. Concerned about her?

„Who are you?" Allison croaked.

„You know, I think you've heard my voice once or twice before, I just called you 'basketcase', who do you think it is?"

„Bender...?"

„There you go! Come on, get up! What are you doing out in the cold at this time anyways?"

Allison tries to stand up, but her legs have gone dead and she falls heavily against Bender, who catches her and puts an arm around her waist to support her.

„How long exactly have you been sitting here...?" He sounds a bit annoyed, actually.

„For a while, I guess...", Allison whispers. „Who cares..."

She doesn't think he has heard the last part, but he answers: „I'm the one saying such things, remember? What's up with you?"

„Nothing."

„Sure. You know, I wouldn't ask you that if I knew the real answer was 'nothing'."

„It's... hard to explain. I don't know if you would understand."

Bender knits his brows. They walk in silence for a while.

„Where do you live?"

Allison points behind them.

„Don't want to go there, huh?"

They turns around and they walk in the opposite direction – in silence, again. Bender drapes his coat around Allisons shoulders. She doesn't make an attempt to put her arms through it, though.

„I'm invisible", Allison says so loud that it gives Bender a start.

„Normally I am. Nobody ever notices me."

„Well, I did... and if I didn't, you would probably be freezing to death under that tree right now."

„If noone ever notices me, it wouldn't make a difference to the others, would it?"

„It would make a difference to you!", he says. „I thought about it too, you know? But the others would have won then, right?" He laughs bitterly.

„When I said I'd seen you before. That's true. I've seen you on that bridge. You climbed onto the railing and stood there, staring down into the water like you'd been hypnotized by it. Somehow I knew you wouldn't do it. It didn't seem to be an Allison-like thing to do."

„Why not... Nobody would be surprised. People think I'm weird because I dress in black and hide behind my hair and don't talk to anyone. I guess I'm like... an outcast or something. It's always the outsiders who decide they've had enough."

„I don't think that's true. Some people hide their problems behind a facade, you know? So the others think they are okay."

„Like Claire, you mean?", Allison snorts. She removed Benders arm from her.

„Maybe. But... that's not my problem anymore. I thought, maybe there was more to her."

„She has been honest, at least. At least at the beginning. She told us we wouldn't be friends on monday."

„It didn't look like she would keep that promise at the end of the detention, though..."

„Life is a lot easier when you don't care about the others."

„It would be. Maybe. But, Allison... Seeing that you 'don't care about the others', and that was what I thought about you, too, originally, you are making a big deal about you not making a difference in the world because they don't care about you. Have you ever considered that, maybe, you have to care about someone so he or she cares about you, too?"

„You are right, I guess. But you also have to have someone care about you first, so you know what it means. You of all people should know better than anyone that it's not that simple, Bender.

That's my house. Thank you for walking me home, and for the coat." She hands it back to him. He slipps into it, trying to escape the coldness.

Allison opens the door and Bender catches a glimmer of her blue lips and pale eyes in the light before she closes the door again.

„I'm getting soft. What kind of conversation was that...?", he murmurs to himself.

He steps aside to look through the window. Allison walks past her mother, who is sitting at the kitchen table, working on something (in the middle of the night?) and looking up hopefully when she hears the steps. When she sees Allison, she gives her daughter an almost disgusted look and focuses on her typewriter again. Allison walks straight past her mum, eyes to the floor, and disappears in her room.

He doesn't really know why, but he hides behind a bush when a small car pulls up and a girl, perhaps a bit older than Allison, emerges from the passenger seat and walks into the house. A glance through the window shows her being greeted with a warm hug and a happy laugh by her mother. They sit down at the table and start talking, the typewriter seems to be completely forgotten.