Kasey Simon had an obsessive need to know what was going on in her friend's lives. When she was a Perf, everyone told her everything, she knew everything about everyone in the school. So, naturally, Gravity 5 gave her anxiety about how much she DIDN'T know.

Zander and Stevie had appeared on Monday attached at the hip- as always, and Kasey had thought that all issues her friends had, had been resolved. But by lunch time, Kasey was certain they weren't. They had (if possible) less personal space than before, but it wasn't the comfortable, almost inadvertent level that they had usually. It was almost as if Stevie had attached herself to Zander- somewhat like the parasites they were learning about in biology. There was none of their usual banter, and Stevie had barley uttered two words all day. In class Stevie completely ignored Kasey, it was as if she had totally zoned out.

Stevie didn't get any lunch

"You've got to eat." Zander whispered to her.

"I'm not hungry." She said rather matter of factly.

"Did you eat breakfast?" Zander asks.

She nods.

There's never been silence like this at their lunch table before. Kevin and Nelson aren't playing furious pigeons, instead, they're eating in complete silence.

Still, no one says anything. No one comments on Stevie's outfit-witch, Kasey thinks, doesn't match at all. And no one says anything about all the missed notes during band practice, or how Stevie seems to want to stay as far away from her base as possible.

On Tuesday morning Ben makes sure he's sitting right in front of the coffee pot. He figures that way Stevie will have to talk to him.

She had ignored him the day before, not even looking in his direction. But this morning, she would say hello to him.

"Move." Stevie said sharply.

She was gone a moment latter, coffee in hand. Ben assumed that she was getting picked up.

Oh well, he thought, I'll try again tomorrow.

Zander hadn't questioned why Stevie had wanted to be picked up earlier. And he didn't comment on the scowl she had on her face all the way to school. But when she told him she didn't want to go to class, he got worried.

"You can't just NOT go to class." He reasoned with her.

"Yes I can." She retorted, "It's called ditching."

"Stevie this is ridiculous. You don't ditch."

"I do today." She glared at him.

"No you don't."

"I'm not asking for your permission Zander."

"If it was ME telling YOU this, you would roll your eyes and drag me in by the ear."

"But you won't do that." She persisted.

"Wanna bet?"

"Sure."

Zander got out of the car and opened her door, "Ok, so I won't drag you in by the ear, but I will-" he picked her up bridal style, receiving a surprised shriek from Stevie. "- do this."

He carried her all the way to the band room, plopping her down on the couch. She crossed her arms indignantly.

Zander sat down next to her, establishing a tight grip around her waist so she couldn't run.

"It isn't like you to want to ditch." He said gently, brushing a strand of hair from her face.

She didn't reply.

He sighed.

"Come on Steves, we had this talk on Sunday, you've gotta quit hiding from me."

"I'm not hiding from you." She muttered.

"Then who are you hiding from?"

"Me."

He managed a nervous "oh."

The thought that whatever was going on was too much for her to handle had never crossed his mind.

There was silence, it was unusually awkward.

"Maybe I can help." He suggested.

She shook her head. "I highly doubt you can get my brothers to leave me alone."

Zander had to agree, Stevie's brothers were big, and they were all built like football players.

"Why won't they leave you alone?"

"It's only Ben really. He won't go back to college."

Zander was thoroughly confused.

"Why?"

"I don't know..."

"You haven't asked him?"

"I'm not speaking to him."

Zander had no idea what to do at that point. There's a possibility that she will punch him or ignore him if he asks why. Then again, Stevie has been exceptionally non-violent recently and he's the only one she's really speaking to, so...

"Why?" He asks, voice hushed nervously.

"He's a jerk."

"Right. Anything else?"

"I don't want to talk to him."

"Why aren't you mad at your other brothers?"

"I am. But they all went back to their lives."

Zanders not really sure which one Ben is, but he can tell there's a lot more to Ben not going back to college than just annoying Stevie.

"You'll have to talk to him at some point."

"No I don't. He'll have to give up eventually."

"Stevie, that's a terrible plan.

"Terrible or not, I am sticking to it."

Zander figured that, for now at least, he had gotten everything out of her that her could. "You know, you haven't kissed me this morning."

That got her to smile, she leaned forward, pressing her lips to his, he pulled her closer, toppling them both backwards.

"EWWWWW! Get a room you two!"

Stevie looked up, an irritated glare fixed on her face. Kasey, Nelson and Kevin were all standing at the door, each giving her a grossed out look.

Stevie didn't skip a beat, she got up, grabbed her bag and disappeared down the hall way.

Zander ran a hand through his hair, "Really Kasey? Really?"

"What's wrong with Stevie?" Nelsons innocent question interrupted the glaring war that raged between his two band mates.

"I'd love to know." Zander exclaimed in frustration. "She was so close to telling me! Thanks a lot Kasey."

"You were eating her face. I wouldn't call that close to her saying anything." Kasey retorted.

"Oh no!" the realization of what had brought to this point hit Zander. "We have to find her. And you're all going to help me. Whoever finds her holds on to her and doesn't let her run away, ok? If you find her let me know." He dashed off.

"Well!" Kevin exclaimed, "What was that all about?"

"Beats me." Kasey replied, throwing her hands in the air in defeat. "We'd better look for Stevie."

Zander found Stevie. She was calmly rearranging her locker. Zander didn't question it, he just gave her a relived kiss on the forehead. She hadn't ditched.

At lunch he go both his and Stevie's lunch trays. She didn't eat much, only swirling it around on her plate.

Neither Kevin nor Nelson could remember a time when Stevie had done that before, she had always eaten more than the two combined. But they couldn't work out how to talk her, she was Stevie, for goodness sake, they both loved her but… she terrified them.

And so it went, the nervous glances over Stevie's head between the four friends, the hushed talks that happened whenever she was out of hearing range.

By Friday, Stevie was starting to feel suffocated. The pitying looks everyone was giving her were only making her angry. She didn't need their pity. She just needed to be left alone. She wanted things to be the same as they always were, she wanted her friends to laugh and talk and fight with the Perfs. Not to be scared that she might crack on them at any minute.

She excused herself to go to the bathroom.

Stevie wanted to cry and scream and laugh, and feel something. Anything would be better than the dull ache she had now.

The question that haunted her was what she had done wrong as a child to make her brothers leave her.

They had been so close, she could always count on one of them to be around when she scraped her knee, or fell out of a tree (which, embarrassingly, had happed at least 4 times). They had babysat her every time their parents went out, and picked her up after every day of school. She had been used on countless occasions as 'bait' to catch girls, and as a mini cheer squad for every sports game.

So what had she done wrong? Maybe she had pestered them to play with her too much, or laughed at them when they brought home girls.

Maybe they had never been as close as she had thought.

It wasn't even Leif, or Finn or James that really bothered her now. It was Ben.

Fun, cheeky, sweet Ben. He had played so often with her, and Nelson and Kevin, joining in on which ever game or prank they had planned for the day.

He had laughed with her from the top of the stairs when Leif brought the first girl home. She had only been 6, and Ben had been 10. Ben had been her confident, her friend and her closest ally.

So of course it hurt that he'd gone to college, but she figured they'd still talk all the time, and that he would come home some weekends. But it hadn't taken long for the number of emails he sent her to dwindle to one or maybe two a week, and for him to stop coming home on weekends. Their closeness had been gone by Christmas. Suddenly, there were no more late night talks with hot chocolate. Ben was 'tired' or had to 'study', he didn't have any time left for her. It hurt so much for so long, but it had faded, to the dull ache she felt now.

And for all Ben's attempts to talk to her, she could only feel irritation. How dare he come back after so long, and just expect her to talk to him. How dare he think that things could ever be ok? Because they wouldn't, they couldn't.

Kasey pulled Stevie aside before rehearsal that afternoon, a worried frown painted on her usually smiling face. "Are you going to be ok to play the gig tomorrow?" she asked gently.

Stevie nodded, not trusting herself to speak.

Kasey wasn't convinced. "Are you sure? Because we can always cancel."

"No we can't." Stevie replied. "I'll be fine." Her tone was forceful, and Kasey figured that pushing the topic any further was fruitless. Besides, Stevie was right, they really couldn't cancel, it wouldn't look good.

Kasey could only hope that Stevie would be okay, her bass playing recently had lacked any… how should she describe it? Interest? Fun? Enjoyment from Stevie?

Passion. Yes passion was the right way to put it. But at least she was getting the right notes, and coming in at the right time. Trust, Kasey. Have faith in Stevie.

Zander and Stevie spent their Friday night date at Zanders watching movies.

To Zanders shock, Stevie had chosen to watch The Notebook and had cried. She never cried at romantic movies, usually she threw popcorn at the screen.

Zander picked the next movie. Ironman. Stevie loved ironman, or at least, every other time they had watched it she had. This time she fell asleep 15 minutes into the movie.

Probably a good thing. Zander told himself, she probably needed the sleep.

On any other night Zander would have just left her to sleep, finding a blanket and staying right there with her. But Kasey had been talking to Stevie's brother Leif, who had explained that they all wanted to take Stevie out for lunch in an attempt to get her to talk to them. So Zander decided that taking Stevie home while she couldn't put up a fight was much better than when she could.

It was Ben who opened the door when Zander knocked on Stevie's door. He had quietly introduced himself, as Zander had gently laid his sleeping girlfriend on her bed, pulling the covers over her tightly.

"She looks so peaceful." Ben remarked with a sigh.

Zander nodded, kissing Stevie's forehead gently. "Sleep well." He whispered.

Ben pulled the bedroom door closed behind Zander as they made their way back to the living room.

"Thanks for taking care of her." Ben said suddenly. The comment coming out of the blue.

Zander nodded. "Of course." He would always care for her.

"I don't know what she's told you, man, but I really haven't meant to lose contact with her.

Zander, who had been slowly gaining information from the brief spurts of talking Stevie had had over the past week, gave a little smile. "I know, don't worry she'll come around. I don't know everything, she hasn't exactly been… talkative, this week. But it seems to me that she is just hurt that you left her, and now she's got herself all worked up."

Ben looked relieved. "I'm glad you don't hate me."

Zander shrugged, "I have no reason to hate you. Besides, fanning the flames of my girlfriend's bad moods has never been helpful to anyone." Zander had heard Stevie use an expression like that once, it entertained him, all the peculiar things she said.

"I just hope that at least she'll talk to me."

"She will, on Monday she was pretty adamant that she wasn't ever going to talk to you again. But now… I think she's getting pretty tired of it."

Ben breathed out, "phew."

"Well, man, I'll see you tomorrow at the gig?"

Ben nodded.

"And," Zander added as he opened the front door, "Could you see that she eats something decent tomorrow?"

"Sure." Ben waved Zander goodbye. Assured that he really was a good guy.

Hey :)

Sorry I couldn't update yesterday, I got stuck half way through this chapter and my mental block didn't clear up till about 2 hours ago.

Anyway, this is the last sad chapter. Thank goodness, as much as I love drama, after a while it becomes hard to put my favourite characters through turmoil.

Now, My lovely reviewers:

HTRobsessed: your two reviews made me smile. Thank you, for telling me how much you like this story. I cant tell you how much that means to me. The first time I read your first review I was thoroughly confused, but once I'd read it again, it made me smile. But I have to tell you that I didn't hate the last chapter, It just didn't turn out the way I hoped. So this chapter is for you, because while I was out with my family, and my cousins stole my phone and a was just so bored, I just remembered that I had someone who liked this, and I felt a lot better.

ZevieFTW: I never said Stevies reasons for being mad at her brothers are entirely rational, there not. at all. But Stevie was always a hot headed character, so I feel as if she would probably have really built up the anger at this point. I have tried to include Kevin, Nelson and Kasey in this chapter, but unfortunately, I find it very hard to write Kevin and Nelson. They just don't flow well. but not next chapter, but the chapter after they will definitely be involved. :)

Zevielover17: I love you too 3 :). (BTW, I love your profile pic :))

ZevieANDHinnyFan: Hello fellow Zevie fan! I'm glad you like this :)

Until next time (hopefully tomorrow)!

Encantria 3