Quick update right? The season premier last night spured me to action! I'll talk more about it in the A/N at the end, for now enjoy!

Chapter 25 What I Meant and Mean to You

November 25, 6:08 P.M.

Fabian's P.O.V.

I am a little bit worried about Nina.

Actually I am very worried.

For nearly the past three weeks she hasn't been herself. At first she seemed distracted whenever she was around me, always looking other directions or even just zoning out during periods that either I or other people talked to her. She actually zoned out in French class completely, much to her embarrassment though Joy took a sick pleasure from it when Mrs. Andrews yelled at her.

After that she changed again and became… clingy to me. She would always sit extremely close to me wherever we were and began to hug and kiss me almost at random. Nina also began texting me at all hours of the day; one of the even came in at two in the morning and woke me up. I love all the attention that she gives me, I really do, but this dependent Nina isn't exactly the Nina I came to love. I missed the independent side of her sometimes.

There was nothing physically wrong with her as far as I could tell so it had to be a mental thing. Semester finals were coming up in two weeks which had a lot of people on edge, especially Mick who was fretting for his life over the terrible grades he was afraid he was going to receive. I doubted that it was that because Nina is pretty much an A student despite her heavy course load.

The only other thing that I wanted to think of was that she was nervous for the play which was next Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Nina was an amazing actress, everybody knew that, so she shouldn't be worried about that.

The other possibility that I didn't want to think about was that her mood change had to do with Michael or Joy. I already asked her if either of them did anything bad and she had told me no, so I was inclined to believe her. But still doubt hung in the back of my mind.

So to distract Nina from whatever it was that was bothering her I decided to take her out for Chinese food in town tonight. I was getting cold and actually began to snow a little bit earlier in the week so I brought an extra jacket for Nina.

About ten minutes after their rehearsal ended I saw Nina walk out of the theatre department in a bit of a hurry, followed by the rest of the actors and actresses. She looked gorgeous in her clothing choice, wearing a nice scarf as well that dangled down her body. I noticed Michael leaving the theatre department, alone and carrying Nina's bag as well as his own. The fact that they didn't walk out together was somewhat of a comfort to me. It's childish and a bit Joy like, but whenever there seems to be tension between the two of them I'm happy.

Nina jogged the last few steps towards me, smiling as she did so. "Fabian!" She said, hugging and kissing me. "You didn't have to wait outside you know."

"Ah it was no problem. I figured I'd let you do things at your own pace instead of me hurrying you along." I said, putting my extra jacket around Nina's body.

Nina laughed, "Have I ever told you that I love you so much?"

"You might have mentioned it." I said smiling, 'About ten times today.' I thought silently.

Nina smiled again and kissed me passionately on the lips, even spinning us around in a circle as she did so. She smelled wonderful as I held her close and her lips tasted like cherries. We broke apart and I noticed that Nina was looked behind me.

"Let's get going now." Nina said, dragging me along towards the shuttle station. I looked back briefly and saw that Michael was still standing on the stairs to the theatre department. I realized that he had just watched us kiss and got a little mad about his creeper moment there. But Michael didn't look mad or jealous at or of me. He just looked… sad.

He was out of sight shortly and we arrived at the shuttle station. There were quite a few other students there as well, buzzing around and talking about what their weekend looked like, how they were bummed about exams, and of course who likes who.

As we waited for the bus on one of the open benches I told Nina about what was happening at Anubis House. "Alfie hasn't been his usually self recently." I told Nina, "He's just been really anti-social and hasn't made any attempt at a joke in a week."

"Why?" Nina said, surprised at Alfie's behavior.

"I'm not sure. But he's been spending a lot of time with Joy while he thinks we're not paying attention to them."

Nina laughed, "Spending time with Joy does seem to have a soul sucking affect on people."

"Oh I know about that." I said smiling. Nina laughed lightly as did I.

"Everybody else fine in Anubis?" she asked.

I nodded, "Yes and no, but that's something we can talk about over dinner. How's Odin House?"

"Bad." Nina responded bluntly, "Thing just aren't working out with a lot of people."

I was worried by that. "Are you ok?"

"Mostly." Nina said.

"That's not what I like to hear from my girlfriend." I said, wrapping a comforting arm around her. She smiled and rested her head on my shoulder, moving in closer to me.

"I know." She replied simply.

"Nina, you know you can tell me anything right? I am your boy friend, and I really want to help if I can."

Nina laughed again, her tone sounding more sad than happy. "I don't think you can help with this one Fabian."

"Why not?" I asked.

"It's just… you can't. I'm sorry Fabes." Nina lifted her head and kissed me on the check. She brought herself closer to me, snuggling close to me. I was about to say that I could at least try to help her when she muttered something that I had to strain to hear it properly.

"Your cold."

I was a bit taken aback at the obvious statement that Nina had just made. "Of course I am. It's freezing outside."

I felt Nina shake a little bit and her head snapped up. "Oh I know that, I was just sort of… never mind." She looked away from me, breaking away from my arm's embrace. "Fabian, there's something I have to confess."

My heart began pounding with the possibilities of what she could say. "Ok." I said unsure of myself.

Nina looked away from me for awhile, looking unsure of herself. I felt that she was wrestling with herself, what about I'm not sure. It made me less sure of myself though as I thought that this must be a pretty big thing if Nina had this much hesitation about telling it to me. Finally she spoke, saying something I was not expecting.

"I actually don't want Chinese food. Can we find somewhere else to eat before the movie?"

"Oh." I said, disappointed and confused, "That's fine. We have plenty of time before the movie starts anyways."

"Good. Maybe something Italian." Nina said. The Italian thing made me think of Michael and my eyes narrowed.

"Nina if there's something about Michael-"

"Let's not talk about Michael tonight, ok?" Nina said a bit sharply, her body tensing up. "Or for that matter anything to do with Odin House. Is that ok?"

Nina was hiding something, or afraid of something, but I decided not to push her. I nodded to her request and she relaxed her posture.

"Great! Oh look! Here's the shuttle, come on!" She hopped off the bench pretty fast and made for the shuttle not even waiting for me. Confused and cold, I got up and followed Nina to the shuttle. It was obvious that she was hiding something and I felt mad that she didn't think she could trust me. Then again I've been hiding something major from her for the entire year so I wasn't really in the position to criticize other people for holding onto their own secrets.

I got on the shuttle after Nina and we sat down near the front, not saying much for the ride down to town.

6:19 P.M.

Michael's P.O.V.

"Glad to hear that things with you and Nina are going well." Alan said in a snarky tone, obviously annoyed that I was bothering him with details about my relationship with Nina.

"She's just confused." I said, and then after a little bit admitted to Alan, "I'm confused."

After play rehearsal today I decided to come clean to Alan and tell him everything that had happened over the past two weeks between me and Nina. It was just Alan and I in the house as far as I knew; everybody else was busy with something on this Friday night except the two of us. We were lounging in our room as of now, Alan probably a bit annoyed that he'd be spending his night listening to me talk about my troubles. I didn't really care though, he was my best friend and he was going to listen.

"I think what happened today at your rehearsal wasn't confusion." Alan said, "She clearly wants nothing to do with you."

"Didn't you just hear what I said? She wanted me back in the library, I wanted her then too." I said, getting annoyed that Alan couldn't see the truth.

"Ok, can we just back up here." Alan said, "Michael, you're getting really confused about your feelings for Nina."

"First me calling her name out in my sleep and then us falling asleep together on the couch," I said, not even bothering to listen to what Alan had to say. "followed by us nearly kissing in the library, the awkward glares the past few weeks, and then today when we had to do the kissing scene for the play."

Alan groaned when I brought up that last part. He was adamant that Nina was simply hesitant to kiss me because she considered me a good friend, but I knew the truth. Nina was afraid to start liking me, just like I was afraid to admit that I might like Nina. We might have kissed but Mr. Winkler broke us apart before we could do it, telling us to wait until opening night to do it.

"And then after rehearsal," I continued, "She ran up to Fabian and kissed him right in front of me."

"And you still carried her bags back to house like a good boy." Alan said, getting more annoyed by the second. I again ignored his comment.

"Fabian must love this new Nina. Not even acknowledging my existence, throwing herself at him every chance she gets." I said.

"If push comes to shove, I'm sure you kick Fabian's ass like you guys did during the American Revolution." Alan said, laughing at himself. This time I looked at my friend, getting mad at him.

"What the hell is the matter with you?" I said to him.

Alan looked at, "I'm trying to be a good friend Michael. You know, the kind of friend that doesn't tell his best friend that he almost kissed his housemate two weeks after it happened!"

"Oh come on Alan!" I said, "I was confused and embarrassed then. I still am!"

Alan shook his head angrily. "You know what your problem is Michael? You're trying to pull off this scheme where you make Nina into your new Charlotte?"

"I am not!" I said angrily.

"Oh please. Everybody in this house can see it except for Nina because she never saw how you were around Charlotte before everything happened with you two. But she's smart and figure it out and be pissed off at you for doing that to her!"

Nina would be pissed if that's what I was doing, but I'm not doing that. "My relationship with Charlotte is dead, she and her Master, Joy, saw to that."

Alan looked like he was about to protest and say something but seemed to reconsider. He instead got up off his bed and walked to the door of our room. "That's it? We're done?" I asked.

"Ya, I'm going to hang out with Alfie for awhile."

"Of course you are." I muttered.

Alan turned back to me, looking me in the eye. "Jealous?"

"No." I said, though it was a completely lie and Alan could tell. We had known each other for long enough to tell when the other was lying. To be honest I was really annoyed with how much time Alan was spending with Alfie. I know that Alan can find other friends if he wants, I'm totally cool with it, but I'm starting to feel a little replaced.

Alan turned completely towards me and sighed, "You're going to kill yourself if you keep thinking about all this romance drama. You need to realize that you went through something really messed up at the end of last year and now you're using Nina to replace Charlotte. I know what you're going through Michael."

I laughed with venom in my voice, "Like you'd know, you're the guy who's never had a girlfriend or even gotten close to one."

Everything stopped after that as I realized how much of jackass I just sounded like. "Alan, I'm so sorry! I'm just-"

Alan held up his hands, "I know, you're just confused and caught up in your own little world. Mop around here all night, see if I care." Alan turned away from me and moved towards the front door with an incredible amount of speed. After getting his jacket on he left the house, slamming the door behind him. If Debbie was here she'd yell out something, but she wasn't. It was only me in the house.

I had overreacted big time and was racked by guilt, but I always got mad when somebody brought up Charlotte like that. And Alan was always pushing Charlotte on me, always talking about how we should still try and work things out. She had rejected me and was now in the control of a bunch of pretty harpies. She had made her choice; I wasn't going to feel bad for her.

But I still thought about her a lot. Sometimes when I wasn't thinking about Nina I was thinking about her. It was sad when I remembered the good memories that I had with Charlotte, but even worse when I remembered all the bad ones.

Without much to do or anybody to hang out with I grabbed a DVD box of X-Files and moved out to the living room to sit down and watch them alone. I put one into the DVD player and felt a little bit more at ease when I heard the main theme song come on. I browsed through the selection of episodes as I laid down on the couch, attempting to forget about anything to do with Nina, Alan, or Charlotte. I found and episode and began it

"Can I watch?" I heard a voice say behind me.

I turned around quickly and was surprised to see Charlotte standing there, still dressed in her school clothes even though it was almost seven.

"Charlotte!" I said surprised.

She gave a sad smile. "That's my name." We stayed in our same positions for a little bit as the X-Files played in the background. There was a scream on the TV as a man was attacked by some mutant judging by the sounds. Charlotte came fully into the living room, "So can I watch with you."

"S-Sure." I said simply, trying to regain my composure. She nodded and sat in a puffy chair away from the couch on my right. The main theme song began again, marking the end of the intro for the episode. I stared at Charlotte the entire time though and she fidgeted uncomfortably under my gaze, her eyes fixed on the TV.

'What is she doing here? Why does she want to be here?' I thought to myself. After about a minute Charlotte said something.

"I remember this episode."

I looked away from Charlotte towards the TV. "You were terrified of this episode."

"I still am." Charlotte said, giving another weak smile. I refused to smile or make eye contact with her now. I could tell that Charlotte looked away from me and we both sat there watching the episode.

After ten minutes of silence I felt like I had to say something. "Why aren't you out doing something?" I said, this time looking at her directly. Charlotte turned her head towards me, looking me in the eye too. I forgot how nice her eyes are.

"There's nothing to do tonight." She said. I nodded and we stared at each other again for a few more seconds and then returned our attention to the TV. Things were extremely awkward and everything but part of me felt ok. Me and her used to watch these all the time, with her always getting terrified of them and me laughing at her discomfort playfully. She would smile and punch me lightly for laughing at her and then we'd continue to watch, with the lights on after her insistence they had to go on.

There was nothing like that happening now, and it was a sad reminder of how much things had changed. We were several feet apart in the dark room, hardly making eye contact, and probably watching the saddest and scariest X-File of the season right now.

The episode was almost over and I was surprised that Charlotte hadn't reacted once to any of the scary scenes. I guess she really isn't that scared of this episode anymore. I'm a bit saddened about that and I have to remind myself to stop caring so much for Charlotte.

The episode ended and I skipped through the ending credits back to the main title screen. Charlotte let out a little huff of exhaustion. "I forgot how much I missed those." She said.

"They are pretty good." I said noncommittally. Charlotte smiled again, 'Why does she have to smile so much?' I thought to myself.

"I'm happy you're in the play Michael." Charlotte said, "You were always happy when you were onstage, even though you were terrified."

I nodded while keeping my face neutral. I was surprised that Charlotte would say something like that, though kind of happy. "You should thank Nina then; she was the one who convinced me to do it this year. Otherwise I would be spending all my time in my room like an emo child."

"Then I shall thank her." Charlotte said. It was quiet again and I contemplated putting on another episode when Charlotte continued, "I know that you and Nina are going to have to kiss during your part in the play."

I nodded unsurprised this time that Charlotte knew that. She loves plays and dramas, or at least used to before Joy took away her spirit. It didn't surprise me that she knew what happened between mine and Nina's character in 'The Glass Menagerie'.

"Do you like Nina?" She asked, looking at me in the eye.

Somehow I knew that this question was going to come up, so I decided to answer with the same thing I always told Alan. "I don't know." I said. Charlotte nodded, taking the answer to mean 'yes' and looked away.

I was going to leave it at that but then I thought better and let whatever emotion that was coming over me take me. I spoke in a soft voice, directly at Charlotte "But I do know something."

Charlotte looked up at me again, confusion in her eyes and possibly something else. "What?" She asked.

"I still like someone else." I said, and then angrily changed my tone to something more aggressive, "But that someone prefers to be around other people who abuse her and put her down all the time. And I can't fully love that person because of it."

Charlotte looked at me, her eyes watery. She gave another sad smile, "What a stupid person."

"Yes. Yes she was and is." I said also giving a sad smile.

"She may also like other things," Charlotte said. "But may have trouble expressing those emotions because of the people who abuse her, always hounding and using her."

"She should at least try." I said, a little of my anger coming to the surface.

"She does, in her own small ways." Charlotte said. Slowly she unbuttoned the top of her undershirt and reached her hand inside of the shirt, pulling something out by a small, delicate chain. I gasped in shock as I saw what she had.

It was the gift that I gave her last year, the clam shell necklace with a pelican engraved on it. I was speechless for a long time, unable to fully form a sentence in my head other than those of shock and happiness.

A tear went down Charlotte's cheek, "She does care about you probably, but doesn't know how the express it correctly. And now she's alone, with nobody to rely on but herself which isn't worth much." Charlotte said, stuffing the necklace back under her shirt and buttoning her top again. My body and mind screamed at me to say something but nothing came to mind. I was literally stunned beyond words. 'I thought that was gone! She threw it away right in front of me.' I thought.

Charlotte got up from her seat and moved out of the living room. "I think I am actually going to go out Michael. There must be something for me to do, or at least Joy will have something for me to do." I looked at her near the front door as she put on her winter clothing, wanting to tell her something, anything at all.

She gave me one last smile, "I think I'm going to come watch you perform Michael. I wish you luck with the play, and Nina."

At with that she left the house, shutting the door softly behind her.

Hope you guys enjoyed! I felt really good about this chapter! But also sad because we are coming to the end of this story.

The season start last night was very good in my opinion. I thought they did a good job by not putting Alfie and Amber together (much more humorous), saying that Nina's Gram was going to visit (more Nina backstory), and having Joy sort of restrained in her treatment of Nina. The new mystery also seems good too.

Joy, despite my terrible treatment of her in my story, is actually starting to turn into my favorite character in the series. Her character acting is very good, she isn't reckless or does anything stupid, and seems the perfect mix between saddness and strength. Joy's character has been a big mystery for the past season, leaving people like me and the many other HoA fan writers to make up a character type for her. I'm excited to see how Joy develops over this season.

Now as always, please REVIEW!