ANOTHER SIDE, ANOTHER STORY

Chapter Twenty One

Greater Good

December. No snow. Washington wasn't exactly known for is upheaval in winter weather when Christmas time came around so when Steven woke up one bright, white morning he was surprised to see the reflection of the snow outside his window.

"So this is snow?" Zando observed.

"Yeah." Steven sighed, putting on his shoes and black, ratty sweatshirt. He would need to get a new one of these soon. There was a hole growing on both sides by the pockets. How the hell had that happened anyway?

"You seem troubled." Zando grinned.

Steven looked around to make sure his sister wasn't in the vicinity. "Well, Katlynn hasn't shown her face since Andrew's death. Neither has that hunter. I haven't seen either of them in the past two weeks."

"You think they teamed up or something?" Zando asked.

"Maybe. But it wouldn't do much. I have both Death Notes." Steven stood up and slipped on his beanie over his now reasonably long, black hair which was still sopping wet from the shower he'd taken that morning.

"It's too bad that Zito kid didn't have a will." Zando scratched his chin. "I'll bet he would've given you his ipod or something."

Steven shrugged, not really wanting to talk about Zito. At school, he'd played the part of the angry best friend whenever Cameron, Jacob, or Baker brought up Zito's name. He would frown and get really quiet. They'd all taken notice of this and decided not to talk about Zito in front of him. Exactly what Steven wanted. He didn't like thinking of how he'd betrayed his best friend. He didn't feel guilty, but he still had a small twinge in his head whenever his name was brought up.

Greater Good, Greater Good, He always told himself.

When he got to school and sat down at the table for morning break, Jacob and Baker were already there talking happily again. Another side-affect about Zito's death had been the silence between them all. Nothing really seemed funny and if they laughed, their laugh seemed a bit half-hearted.

But nowadays things were getting better. Steven smiled as Jacob pretended to hit on Baker and Baker obliged. As they talked, he noticed something that made his heart jolt. Jennie was sitting at the table next to them, alone, and hunched over a notebook.

Jennie? Sitting alone? Studying? The three just didn't seem to add up and he was suddenly rushed with a great feeling that he should stand up and go join her. But Steven remained seated, as if some unknown force was holding him back. Why not go talk to her?

"Hey guys…" Cameron muttered mournfully.

"What's up, Cameron?" Jacob asked in a mock-tone.

Cameron sighed, as if dreading what he was about to say "I just found out that Katlynn committed suicide last week."

Jacob spat apple juice over the table. All thoughts of Jennie were wiped from Steven's mind with this new piece of information and in an instant, everything seemed to make sense again.

"Why'd she do that?" Jacob asked.

"Because Andrew just died." Baker muttered.

Steven felt a great surge of guilt and anger. How could Katlynn be so idiotic? She really, truly believed that she was in love with him. She was just another puppet in Andrew's closet. That fool! But at the same he time was a bit relieved. Katlynn being dead seemed to take off a small weight over his shoulders. There was nothing left to worry about now except for his Death Note business.

"I can understand why she did it, though." Baker sighed. "When Andrew broke up with me again and told me how he'd just used me…"

Steven glared at Baker, having a feeling he knew what she was going to say.

Baker shifted uncomfortably under his glare. "What?"

"Suicide is never understandable." said Steven angrily.

"I dunno." Jacob said indecisively. "I mean…"

"People who commit suicide most likely deserve it." He said. "For not being smart enough to find help. Not being smart enough to make their lives better… If they can't get over their problems, no matter how great the problem is, then they might as well kill themselves because they're just a waste to society."

"Bush!" Baker said in shock as it sudden ferocity.

"I'm serious." Steven said, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms. "I mean, who honestly in their right mind can actually kill themselves? Most people who go through with it end up regretting their decision right before they die because they realize that they're afraid to die and that they just let their emotions get the better of them. Those kinds of people are just immature idiots. And Katlynn is no different."

Silence fell upon the table. Baker, Jacob and Cameron probably all didn't want to anger Steven further by arguing with him and figured he was obviously still upset about Zito's death. This was, of course, exactly what Steven was going for. He wanted to throw off any possible future suspicions that he could've had anything to do with Andrew or Zito's deaths. And by acting emotional about it was a good way to do this. Now if they could only start talking about Kira so he could deliver the finishing blow by hating on Kira's philosophy.

The bell rang and Steven was suddenly struck with the realization that he was going to go sit next to Jennie. He looked at her and saw that she was already gone. Damn it… He thought, cursing himself and hoping that she hadn't heard him arguing. He didn't know what she thought about suicide.

The phone rang and Steven answered it. Of course, he already had an idea who it was before he even had a chance to answer it. For the past week, since Zito's funeral, Dez had been calling him every day. She had just broken up with her boyfriend, Danny (But not before cheating on him) and now she was going out with the boy she had cheated on him with, Joey.

Steven was seriously getting sick of talking to Dez on the phone every day. She made him feel obligated to talk to her and it wasn't something he enjoyed. He had much more pressing matters to attend to, such as the going online to find criminals to kill. But no. He was stuck here talking to Dez about her trivial issues.

"So your mom is making it so that you can't have a boyfriend until you move out, huh." Steven sighed. "And Joey doesn't understand that and wants to take you away for himself somewhere. Sounds like an asshole to me. Oh wait, and on top of that you're sleeping with him and you think you might be pregnant."

"Yeah." Dez sniffed.

Steven wanted to yell.

"Well, honestly, I think you should just break up with Joe."

"But…what if I am pregnant?"

Then you shouldn't be such a horny dumbass. That's what Steven wanted to say but somehow managed to suppress his irritability.

Instead, he said "If you're pregnant, would your family support you at all?"

"I don't know." Dez muttered. "They might. But I don't think they'd be happy knowing I was seeing Joey against their rules."

"Well you really screwed yourself up, huh, Dez." Steven sighed, rubbing his temple. "Sorry… But do you even like Joey?"

"Yeah, kinda…"

Kinda? What kind of response is that? Who is seriously irresponsible enough to sleep with someone if they only "Kinda" like them?

"Have you told Luke any of this?" Steven asked.

"No." Dez said, a little firmly.

"Why not?"

"He…wouldn't understand. He'd just get mad at me…"

"Do you still like Luke?" Steven asked bluntly, skipping the semantics.

Silence on the other line. He waited, a little impatiently, until she finally said "Yeah—Sort of—I don't know…"

God this girl is confused. Steven forced himself to keep going.

"Do you want to know what I think you should do?" He asked.

"Yeah."

"Dump Joey. Do what you want with the baby—if there is a baby. Do your job as much as you can and get as much money as you can. Don't waste the money, save it up so that when you move out, you move out prepared. And finally, talk to Luke about this and see what he has to tell you because I honestly think he'd take you back as long as you don't break his heart again." Steven finished and Dez said nothing for a little while but sniffed feebly.

"I can't just…do all that." Dez muttered.

Why, because you're weak?

"Why?"

"Because if the baby is Joey's…He has the right to be the father…"

Steven blinked. "You want to keep the baby?"

More silence. "Yeah…"

Dez was hopelessly screwed then. Steven ran his hand over his face and a sudden idea struck him. Dez was screwed. There was no doubt about that. She wasn't willing to save herself from misery. Steven couldn't help but think of his suicide speech this morning. People who aren't willing to save themselves don't deserve to live at all. And Dez wasn't smart enough to save herself.

Of course, he wasn't going to tell her that she should go kill herself. No. Steven looked at the Death Note. He was going to save her instead. Save her from a life of misery and pain.

"Dez." Steven said, picking up the Death Note. "Would you want anything to escape from all of this? To just get away from all this misery that you're in?"

Dez sniffed. "Yeah…"

"What if I told you I can help you escape?" Steven asked, grabbing the nearest pen and resting it against the front page.

"How would you do that?" Dez asked.

"I'll tell Luke that you still loved him." Steven said. "Don't worry.

"What?" Dez, indeed, sounded worried. "What are you talking about?"

"I'm sorry that you can't help yourself, Dez." Steven said, eyeing the clock. "But I have to take your life into my own hands now."

"What are you going to do?" Dez asked. "Steve?"

"It's for the greater good." Steven said. "You'll be happy soon."

"Steve. What are you—?"

Silence. Steven listened quietly and heard a thump on the other side of the floor. He smiled sadly, looking down at the Death Note's first page where, written in blue ink, was:

"Desirea Hungerford commits suicide at 7:30 PM."

Steven looked at the clock. It was 7:30 pm exactly.

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