"Excuse me?" I exclaimed, instantly angry. "Who the hell are you to tell me what I can or can't do?"

Fenton gaped at me for a moment, his cheeks turning bright red. Finally, he crossed his arms over his chest, and stared at me.

"I'm not telling you that you can't date," he said thinly, his voice breaking, "but you can't date Vlad Masters' nephew."

"That name doesn't mean anything to me," I retorted. "I don't care whose nephew he is. I am going on a date and it might turn into two! I might kiss him … I might do more. The point is that I don't care about what you say I should or shouldn't do."

"Sam! You don't understand."

"I don't care," I shouted at him.

"I'm just trying to protect you," Fenton argued.

"Because that worked out so well the last time you thought you were 'protecting me'." I put quotes around the words because he knew, as well as I did, that he had never protected me. He had only ever protected himself. "It's not your job to protect me. As a matter of fact, you don't even have a role in my life."

"If you continue like this you might not –" He cut himself off, a look of horror coming over his face. "Sam, please give me a chance to make you understand. I need to talk to you."

"That sounds eerily familiar," I said calmly. Inside, I was shaking because of how close those words were to something he had said, on the worst few nights of my life. "Either way, it doesn't matter. This conversation is over. Goodbye."

I nodded quickly at Tucker and then turned on my heel to go. I had barely taken two steps when I felt a hand close around my bicep. There was a chill in the fingers that rested on my bare skin and I knew immediately who was touching me. For the briefest moment in time, there was a zap of remembrance that ran through my body. My skin remembered how he had caressed it; my lips recollected how he had kissed them; and my heart recalled how it had loved him. For that moment in time, I felt the overwhelming love that I had once had for him, real as it had once been.

Then, I crashed back down to earth.

I yanked out of Fenton's grip. I spun around to face him and – without even thinking about it – I drew my arm back and slapped him across the face.

"You," I hissed, "do not touch me."

Fenton brought his hand up to his face but, before he could speak, someone else did.

"What's going on here?" Jazz glided up onto the deck, coming to my side rather than her brother's.

"I …" Fenton averted his gaze away from me and onto his sister's face.

"He was, I think, going to mention the thing about the Fruit Loop," Tucker piped up. "But I don't think he did it the right way."

Jazz shook her head at Danny, her long red hair hitting me in the arm. "Danny, let it be."

His eyes widened in shock. "Let it – Jazz! You know –"

"I know," Jazz interrupted smoothly, "that you're bothering Sam. You need to leave her alone. She's not part of this."

"But-" he tried to protest however Jazz, much to my pleasure, once again shut him down.

"No buts. We can talk about this later but, right now, you're bothering her." She put her arm around my shoulders and I leaned into her. Jazz and I were about the same size but I felt comforted by her. Her voice softened when she spoke again to her brother, "I know how you're feeling. You can't hide it from me. I'm not the bad guy here … But it's how you're coming off. So I think you should go with Tucker for a bit whilst Sam and I have a little chat."

I thought Fenton was going to resist. Evidently, Tucker agreed with me because he grabbed Fenton by his forearm and towed him away, all before Fenton could think of something to say to me or Jazz. I watched them disappear from the deck and then Jazz was toting me inside the house, into the basement where it was nice and cool.

I settled onto the couch next to Jazz. She tucked her feet under her, leaned against the back of the couch and sighed.

Not wanting to talk about Fenton, but knowing that's where she was going, I blurted out the first thing I could think of.

"So, Tucker, huh?"

Jazz, who had been casually rolling her neck back and forth on her shoulders, suddenly went rigid. She gaped at me.

"He told you?" She shrieked.

"I guessed," I admitted. "I think it's cute, though!"

"Really?" Jazz gushed, her cheeks turning bright red. "Do you?"

I nodded, telling her again that I thought she and Tucker were cute together. "I just don't understand why you're being so secretive about the relationship. Tucker told me it was because of Fenton but he should be a living example that secrets lead to more trouble."

Jazz thought about it. "I know I can confide in you so I'm going to tell you something that I haven't even told Tucker."

I leaned toward her, curious.

"I'm a little embarrassed about it."

"Embarrassed?" I repeated. "Because of being with him?"

"Yes … no … yes … maybe," Jazz stuttered. Her cheeks became ruddier.

This was the first time I'd spoken to Jazz in months, really. She had messaged me a few times to see if I was doing all right, and I'd asked the same of her, but we hadn't had an in depth conversation since I'd left Amity Park. Perhaps I should have asked how she was doing before we launched into talking about her relationship … Ah well; conventions were a bore.

"Why would you be embarrassed of that?"

"He's my little brother's best friend –"

"He's legal now," I pointed out with a grin.

"Sam Manson! That is not the type of comment I would expect from you!"

"Sorry," I said immediately, though her words struck a chord with me.

If I wasn't acting like expected, what was I acting like? The answer came to me instantly: I was acting like the new me. I had begun to heal into a different person – the person Jazz had yet to become acquainted with. It was strange to think that I had changed, but I was thrilled with it.

"But," I continued, "He's only two years younger than you. That's not a big deal."

"It's not because of his age," Jazz explained. "It's because he's been Danny's best friend since … goodness, I don't even know how long they've been best friends. As far back as I can remember; it's been Danny and Tucker at my house. I can remember them being gross little kids and immature teenagers together. Do you understand?"

"I think so. Let me ask this: at what point did you stop thinking of Tucker as gross and immature?"

Jazz tilted her head to the side and ran her fingers through her long hair. "I don't know, exactly. I think it happened before I realized it happened. One day I had this moment of 'wow, I really like him' and it just hasn't stopped since."

"When did that moment happen?"

Knowing I would never get such details out of Tucker, I was even keener to hear what Jazz had to say.

"I ran into him one day, last winter. It was when he and Danny weren't speaking because of … you know. We ended up going to a café and talking. I'd never talked to Tucker like that before. Sure, we'd had conversations but they had never been so in depth or heartfelt. He spilled his heart out to me and I did the same. When we said goodbye, throughout my entire drive back to my campus, all I could think about was him. Even afterward, his presence never left my mind."

"Aww. That's so cute!" I gushed.

It was, admittedly, a little hard to hear about how Jazz's relationship was so great. I didn't begrudge her, or Tucker about the happiness they had found, but the fact of the matter was that she had found someone wonderful and I had lost the one I had been in love with. Still, I smiled because it really was sweet.

"Yeah," Jazz agreed. "He is."

"But when did the two of you get together?"

"Oh. We had made plans to go out for coffee again. When we were done, I drove him home. When I had parked in front of his house, he just leaned over and kissed me. I kissed him back. It was the most amazing kiss I ever had! I don't want to get mushy on you here, but that kiss was indescribable. After that, it was coffee and going for drives and … somewhere along the way he told me he loved me."

"Aww!" I exclaimed again. "He told you that?"

Jazz nodded.

"Did you say it back?"

She nodded again. "Of course I did! No one makes me feel the way that he does!"

"So why is it so hard to tell your brother about it?"

Jazz paused. "I'm scared that he'll take it the wrong way. Tucker wants to tell him but I think that it should be me."

"I think that you should let Tucker do it."

"Why?"

"Because if he's going to beat up Tucker then he won't have to go look for him first."

Jazz kicked at me. "You're not being helpful."

"I never said that I would be," I giggled.

"Do you really think that Danny's going to react badly?"

"I don't know if I can really –" I began but Jazz cut me off.

"But you know him so well!" She protested.

I felt my own cheeks heat up.

Jazz realized her own mistake, reaching for me. "Sam, I'm so sorry. I didn't think about what I was saying. I mean –"

"It's all right," I told her quietly.

Really, it was true, wasn't it? I had gotten to know Fenton, accidentally mind you, but I did know him. And I also knew that I could guess how he was going to react.

"I think he's going to act like he's more annoyed by it than he is. He's going to think he needs to play into the protective role. I'm guessing he's going to feel the need to badger the two of you about it."

"I agree. He's going to become a bit of a brat about this, I think." Jazz smiled at me. "I just don't know when the time would be right."

"I think you're making too big of a deal out of it. I know from experience that the longer you wait to tell him, the worse it's going to be when it comes out."

"That's a good point." Jazz hesitated for a moment before asking me, "Is it hard for you to talk about him? Or even just relationships in general? Because I brought you down here so that you could get away from him, not so I could continue to bother you."

"It's all right. It bothers me to hear about him and be around him but on the other hand, I can't spend my time in Amity avoiding him. Good things are coming my way and I won't let my hatred of him hold me back from those good things, you know?"

"I'm glad you're all right. I've been worried about you."

"I was always going to be all right," I said, a hint of sadness in my voice.

I really didn't have any other choice, did I? After all that I had been through in my life, I didn't have the right to just give up. I had known, from the moment I woke up after my suicide attempt that I would be in this for the long run. I was going to handle every day as it came; I was going to conquer all that life decided to throw at me. Fenton had been a challenge; that couldn't be denied. I was living through it and I knew it would soon come to the point where he was just a painful memory.

'Cause, hey, when life gives you lemons you make lemonade, right?

I don't own anything recognizable. Thanks to my betas: Forever Sky.

~TLL~