Note: So, definitely not my best update yet. I apologize. I'll try to make a better one later.

It was already pitch-black outside. The cool air seemed to freeze every muscle in his face but it was worth it. He took a long blow of the cigarette, watching the grey smoke fly out in the air. This was good. Not heaven, but as close as. Not quite the high he was going for, but one had to make due. He looked down at his watch. Lenny and Charles would probably have been at the club and left already, so it was too late to look them up right now. He made a mental note to call them tomorrow.

Glancing at the door, Ryan found himself musing on the idea that he'd just spent a couple of hours in the company of the ice princess herself. He was comfortably numb, as any self-respecting half-drunk should be, and it'd been a surprising pleasant evening. If now the words pleasant and Naomi Clark could be put together in one sentence. No, he wasn't going there. Instead he took another blow of his cigarette. Worth noting though, was that the little curly half-adult seemed to be spending more and more time on her own rather in the company of her adoring friends. Solitude was always good, in certain amounts. Too much of it, then you were in trouble.

Pushing his back from the wall, Ryan decided to go back in. To his surprise, he found Naomi exactly where he'd left her. Only she was surrounded by another bottle of some alcoholic substance. Ryan was the last person on Earth who ought to preach about restraint or anything like that, but if she kept going like this she'd throw up in a pair of bushes somewhere and he for one did not want to drop her off at her place because she was unable to drive. It attracted too much attention and raised too many questions for his liking.

"Ryan!" Naomi looked up, grinning. Even though her voice was cheerful she still looked sad.

Thankfully, she wasn't too drunk to drive. Yet.

"You might wanna take it easy with the alcohol," Ryan commented.

Naomi looked up, glaring now instead of pretending to be happy. Somehow no one managed to nail the definition of angry as well as Naomi, which was quite amusing.

"Give me a reason," she dared, her eyes narrowing dangerously. It was apparent that she did not like being told what to do.

"Tomorrow's a school night," Ryan replied, unable to hide his own amusement. That had to be the worst reason ever. At least coming from him.

Instead of biting his head off, Naomi snorted at him, rolled her eyes and demonstratively took another shot of her drink. While doing it, she glanced at him as though she dared him to disapprove, but instead Ryan simply sat there, not stopping her from taking another sip. He could see a flicker of surprise pass over Naomi's face briefly before she put the drink back on the table.

"You're going to get a nasty headache tomorrow," he said dryly, as though he was commenting on the weather. Tomorrow would be an interesting day…

/

Getting up the following morning had been difficult. Even though Ryan had taken things relatively easy the night before, his head was still pounding as though someone had put a drill through it. Despite of everything he'd had to call a cab for Naomi at the end of their little… encounter. She hadn't really been drunk out her mind, but drunk enough to not drive home.

Now he was practically leaning over his desk, his head being filled with at least three aspirins. He felt like crap and possibly looked like crap. Not even the longest shower in his life helped. He still felt as though he'd been out partying all night, which was what he'd done, to be honest. Although he'd most sat there and pored various alcoholic beverages into his system while watching a sixteen year old do the same. The board would not be particularly happy if they found that out. He had to make sure that Naomi didn't under any circumstances… spread their little heart-to-heart to anyone else. Although, he smiled to himself, if he knew her right the last thing she would admit it would be to spend a night drinking with a teacher. He really hoped he was right about her vanity, because otherwise he could be in serious trouble.

As the students flowed in from places that he didn't even know where possible and the classroom slowly filled to the point and to Ryan's surprise he noticed that he was supposed to have started his class five minutes ago. Scanning the crowd, he quickly noted that Naomi wasn't there.

One drink too many I bet, he thought to himself and grinned.

"Okay, good morning, I trust you all had a really good weekend," his response was some dead laughter. "Come on guys. Now that's really pathetic. Can you give me a little bit more enthusiasm?" The crowd laughed again, some of them mocking him, others finding him naturally amusing. He had no idea how, his jokes were even crap.

He took up a copy of a book from his desk, holding Catcher In the Rye in his hand, as the door opened and Naomi came in. As usually looking like a million dollars.

"Naomi, how nice to see yo-" Surprise hit him in the face as he saw that kid George follow after her, eyeing his companion in a manner that he found slightly unsuitable for a classroom. Some in the class began gossiping among themselves. Naomi, on the other hand, pretended to be completely oblivious but he could see that she was very well aware that everyone was talking.

Interesting plot twist, Ryan thought with mild amusement. Never in a million years would he picture someone like Naomi hooking up with a brain-dead money like George. It just seemed a bit... desperate.

"George, how lovely to see you." He smiled, while mentally trying to figure out ways to give him detention for life. It wasn't that he'd obviously hooked up with Naomi – when did the bugger have time for that? – or that he was late. Ryan just sincerely disliked the kid as much as one could without being totally obvious about it. He just had an attitude problem that seemed to be chronic. "Now take a seat and I'll see you at detention."

Some of George's more idiotic so-called "friends" laughed and gave George a pat on the back as though it was some sort of accomplishment. Ryan sighed. Primitive hormone bombs. He suppressed a comment about expressing repressed sexual feelings later and turned to the cover of Catcher in the Rye. Oh right, he wasn't just there for the comic relief.

"Catcher in the Rye, everyone," Ryan said, gazing out over the crowd once more, being determined to avoid Naomi's eye, "Say hello to your next book."

Allowing himself some indulgences, he glanced briefly at Naomi as he scanned the crowd. There was something in her blue eyes that he didn't quite recognize but as he saw her own copy of the red book in front of her, he didn't really know what to say. Some people never seemed to cease to surprise you.

He carried on.

/

"Naomi, a word?" Ryan sighed, his headache was back again. And he needed another smoke. Fucking Lenny hadn't returned his call yet. He supposed he was still a bit sore about being stood up yesterday, but for what it was worth, Ryan had actually been physically present, even if he hadn't gone out of his way to search for him.

Naomi parted from her friends and to Ryan continuing surprise; there wasn't a comment, not a face and not even a gesture to indicate that she was surprised. Compared to the wreck he'd found at the bar yesterday, this Naomi was rather… calm. Not that he was surprised. He if anyone understood the importance of appearances. Not that she knew just how similar they were in a way. But then again, he barely knew anything about her so it was really too early to draw any comparisons between them. However, he was intrigued.

"Yes, Mr. Matthews?" She adjusted the books in her arms and ended her question with one of those smiles that were so false that it made Ryan nauseous. He smiled to himself. She might even give Adrianna a run for her money. She was a pretty decent actress.

"No hang over then?" he asked, his voice dripping with sarcasm. Naomi shifted as she stood, looking around the classroom at the empty desks and the sun shining outside. Ryan scratched his chin. He still hadn't shaved.

"So? It's not like it was the first time I had a drink." Naomi laughed and Ryan grinned. He'd guessed as much.

"Am I gonna get detention?"

The question seemed to break the air somehow, almost cutting through it with a knife. Ryan tilted his head, studying her. She was an interesting specimen."Guess, unless you wanna plead special circumstances." Sarcasm wasn't a tone in someone's voice, it was a way of life, Ryan decided then and there.

The teenager sighed, frustrated and rolled her eyes at him. Now, Ryan wasn't having any of that. She was acting like a spoiled brat, which was really beneath her and a waste of his own time. The patience he felt she'd gained the other day, vanished and Ryan spent the rest of the talk with Naomi thinking that no matter how much potential she showed, she was always going to aim for the bottom of the barrell.

The next time he saw her, things seemed to have calmed down considerably. Her attire was more… acceptable and her fling with George seemed to have ended as quickly as it'd started because if the word on the street was right, Naomi had just used him to make Ethan jealous – again – but apparently the former boyfriend had fancied himself in love with the new girl, and therefore made any reunion impossible with his former flame. A fact which seemed to make her more inclined to solitude.

It'd been a rare occasion where he didn't have any classes and everyone else were, so chances were that she was skipping. He found her on the grounds by a stone table where a lot of the kids liked to eat lunch but now it was completely deserted. Aside from Naomi that was. And himself.

Even though he couldn't see her face, he could hear her sobbing.

Ryan, hit with another pang of sympathy, asked: "Naomi, are you okay?"

The sobbing ceased momentarily, followed by some heavy breathing. "Just leave me alone." The voice was broken, meek.

Ryan bit his lip, keeping himself from saying something that might infuriate her unnecessarily, as he couldn't help but wonder if she really was as weak as she seemed. Every other time he saw her she seemed to have a reason for crying. Ryan took a seat next to her, not really looking at her, pretending to look for birds in the trees.

Besides, he was in the mood for some entertainment.

She continued to choke her tears for a while but soon he could feel her glancing at him, cheeks covered with tears. At first she didn't say anything at all, merely kept stealing glances as though she was expecting something to be said by him.

"What're you doing here?"

"I don't really have class right now and I was walking around… Besides, I wanted to make sure you got home safely the other day."

She looked at him, bewildered. "The other day?"

"Yeah, you know – the drink."

Naomi snorted. "That was like two weeks ago."

If anyone asked Ryan later why he was actually being kind, he'd claim temporary insanity. Besides, he had nothing better to do. And he still needed to make sure that she didn't go to Kelly with any more of her sob stories – the last thing he wanted to be was fired – so he had to earn some good points.

"Ever too late to ask, right?" He glanced at her briefly and their eyes met. She seemed a little bit better, or maybe that was just what she wanted him to believe. "Besides, you weren't too bad of a company." He smiled, it was totally fake of course, but he couldn't help but be surprised that not all of it had been a total lie.

"Stop trying to make me feel better," Naomi commented, wiping her tears.

"Why? Am I succeeding?" Sometimes playing the dorky teacher was easier than others.

Naomi smiled, this time meaning it, and shook her head. "Don't think so, Matthews. However, if I could skip that essay thing that you talked about in class…"

"Afraid not, Naomi. Better luck next time."

She didn't ask about it again.

After sometime of just sitting on that cold stone bench, Naomi turned to him and asked: "You don't… Forget about it."

Curiosity got the better of him, turning to her. "No, what?"

Naomi sighed, rolling her eyes, no doubt finding whatever she was about to say incredibly difficult. "You don't happen to know a good bar for just getting wasted, do you? I'd go to the usual but they're kinda…"

"Packed with all your friends? Say no more, I know just the place. It's this little bar by the harbor called-"

"Ugh! Don't tell me anymore. Sounds hideous."

Ryan looked at her. "Appearances can be deceiving."

"Okay, I'll give it a try sometime."

To Ryan's surprise, she didn't seem totally opposed to the idea. Maybe he could get through to her after all? It wasn't a ridiculous idea. But then again, they could have this conversation and five minutes from now she'd go back to her normal, bratty self and Ryan would be left to think of this moment as temporary insanity. Maybe she was just being cooperative because there weren't any other people stepping up to the task.

"Great," Ryan said, suddenly remembering his place. He wasn't supposed to give bar recommendations, much less to a student during office hours. However, he gave her a small smile and as he was going away, he could almost hear something that sounded like thanks coming from Naomi, but he was sure that was just the wind...