Hey, i hope you guys have been enjoying the story so far. This chapter is a little short but i cut one chapter into two smaller ones because a few different things were happeneing and it seemed better to make it too. SOOOO the next chapter should be up really soon, i just have to check for spelling errors and wahtnot....so probbaly late tonight or tomorrow after i do some school work.

Reviews will probably make me update faster =) Don't they always? Anyway, on with the story

OH! Also, i was thinking about trying to put links on my profile for pictures of how i picture the characters...good idea? yes, no...

Tell a Friend
My life was just an old routine
Everyday the same damn thing
'High Cost of Living' by Jamey Johnson

-

"Booooo," the little tow-headed boy whined, stomping his feet and yanking on the hand he was holding moodily.

"Come on, Logan; just for a little bit and we'll go home. You have to behave"

"You have to be good," he echoed sternly, pointing up at his dark-haired aunt.

"No, you're the one who needs to be good," Natalie grinned, bending down to scoop up her nephew.

He seemed more content with his place on her hip and twirled a lock of her hair in one of his hands. Natalie was pleased with his shift to tranquility as she pulled open the door of the corner store and walked in. It was a music store, so nothing greatly exciting for Logan. It wasn't exactly her dream afternoon either, but she'd just wander in there for a while before seeing if the park across the street was clear; if it wasn't, she'd just take him home.

The park had been fine at first. It was a little windy but she'd gotten Logan into his coat and he'd run around with all the other kids; she pushed him on the swings for a few minutes but he mostly just wanted to run up and around the playsets and then fly down the slides over and over. That was fine with Natalie, and for a while the only problem they had was that Logan wanted to play on the monkey bars like he saw a couple older boys doing, but he wasn't strong enough to hold himself up and Natalie didn't know if she could hold him up that high for very long. Still, he'd gotten over it quickly.

The real problem of the afternoon happened when he came.

Billy Darley.

He didn't walk right onto the playground, as he certainly would've drawn some attention, but she saw him hanging back near the street leaning one shoulder on a lamppost as he slowly worked his way through a cigarette. She tried to ignore it, but her newly acquired knowledge of exactly who he was ate at her. She hadn't seen him in a couple days, the day Paige had noticed him, so she'd been trying not to dwell on the disconcerting news. Once he was near again it wasn't so easy to ignore, so she elected not to stay.

The music store was the closest store that it made sense for her to go to; maybe Billy would just leave and she could let Logan play again.

"This is music," she explained, holding a CD case up for him to look at.

"Music," he repeated. "Like Disney music?"

"No," she chuckled.

For some reason she hadn't given much thought to Billy following her into the store.

"Well looky here…didn't know ya had a kid…" a teasing, deep tone drawled from just behind her.

She froze, CD held in midair. Slowly, she lowered it back into its place and turned, adjusting Logan at her side. She looked Billy over; he looked much the same in his brown coat, though for some reason she'd expected him to seem a lot scarier.

"…what do you want?" she sighed, tired of wondering.

"Want? …I'm just makin' an observation here."

He was completely calm, which frustrated her more because she knew she was freaking out a little.

"…so?"

"So he's my nephew; I'm doing my sister-in-law a favor," she supplied, eyeing him up and down like he might pull a knife out at any time or something.

"Hi," Logan cooed, waving sloppily up at the tall man.

Billy just eyed him in an unsure way, never really having dealt with kids much before. Natalie took his hand and lowered it; she ignored the pout that Logan then aimed at her.

"Look, could you just leave me alone?" she requested, keeping attitude from her voice because, well, he was a gang lord and she was just Natalie.

"Whoa…all I did was walk into a music store," he defended himself, some small bit of amusement dancing in his blue eyes.

"Whatever…"

Since he was blocking her way out of the isle, she turned back to the selection before her, thumbing through some titles. Billy moved to look through some rock albums next to her but kept quiet and didn't bother her any further. Unfortunately, Logan remained interested in him and twisted around in her hold to keep looking his way.

"Logan stay still," she admonished.

"Be good," he repeated himself from earlier.

"Yes, be good," she murmured.

Billy continued to linger around her and she tried to get herself to forget he was there. However, trying not to think of him only served to make her hyperaware of his presence. She glanced his way despite herself and caught his gaze on her; it was a look she couldn't comprehend so she looked away. Then her curiosity got the better of her and she looked back over; he was still looking at her even though his fingers idly flipped through CDs. She held this look longer but ultimately looked away and made the decision to leave.

She figured her wouldn't follow her and start anything. It was the middle of the day, so that gave her some security. With a steadying breath to calm her racing heart, she turned to head for the door. Unfortunately, Billy must've been watching closely because he anticipated this and stepped backwards into her way so she nearly ran into him. Logan squealed amusedly when she jerked back and reached up towards Billy; Natalie didn't know what he was trying to grab, but she pulled his hand away again.

"Excuse me"

"…not gonna buy somethin'?"

"No, I'm just gonna go…and, look, I know who you are…" she felt compelled to inform him.

"Ooooh," he grinned slowly, hands in his coat pockets, "so you're scared."

She was pretty sure he sounded amused with that.

"I'm not saying that," she negated, not really addressing how true that statement might be. "Just…if you're not going to tell me what you want, I have to go," she told him as reasonably as she could; no reason to be scared, they were in public….

"There a problem?"

They both looked over to a man eyeing them from behind the counter. He looked like he was ready to step in on her behalf but faltered when he locked eyes with Billy.

"No; no problem," Billy informed him casually.

"Yeah, I was just leaving. Sorry."

The worker nodded slowly and Natalie side-stepped Billy, trying to walk calmly to the exit. Once outside, she hurried to her car. She looked around but didn't see Billy come out, nor did she even see his car anywhere, so she got Logan situated in his seat and just took him back to her house. Her nerves were a little frazzled but she was proud of herself for keeping her cool; she felt she'd handled the situation quite well.

Billy left the music store shortly after Natalie did, having no real need to be there in the first place. Hell, he didn't have any reason for being at the park either, and he hadn't intended to be until he saw her crossing the street to the playground with that nephew of hers. This time it really was coincidence that he happened to see her, so he'd taken advantage and doubled back to the playground once he took care of some business nearby.

It was interesting that she now knew who he was; it added a little twist to the situation. It intrigued him even further that she hadn't completely freaked out. She was nervous, sure, but she'd kept it together instead of panicking like some sniveling, immature brat. So far, she wasn't what he expected.

It bothered him. The whole stupid thing would have been easier if she reacted like he thought she would and he could be done with it, able to convince himself that, no, there wasn't actually anything interesting about her so he might as well move on. Instead, the exact opposite; he just found another reason to be enthralled by this girl who he was starting to wish he'd never seen.

Well, he wasn't sure if he meant that. It had been a while since anything had really caught his attention. Life was always interesting, but in a way always the same shit. He typically figured that was good because that meant things were, for the most park, going smoothly…but it was also felt kind of good for something new and, for reasons not entirely clear, captivating, to make it's way onto his radar.

"Paige, I want to tell you something," Natalie blurted out at the end of the week over lunch.

"Okay," Paige looked a little taken aback at how abruptly her friend spat this out.

"Sorry, I just wanted to say that before I chickened out or something…" Natalie sighed; she'd thought long and hard over this and still wondered if she maybe wanted to take back starting the conversation.

"What's wrong?" Paige asked, concerned about what Natalie could possibly be scared to tell her.

"Alright, remember last week when you saw that car and you were telling me about Billy Darley?"

"…yeah…"

Paige was already pretty sure she couldn't like anywhere this conversation could go.

"Well that's not the first time I've seen him lately…"

"Oh, don't get too scared; I mean, he practically runs some parts of this city"

"But it's too much and, not to sound paranoid, but I'm pretty sure he'd been on campus a few times lately because of me"

"Cuz of you? What'd you do?" Paige frowned.

"Nothing! That's just it. It doesn't make sense. It started that night at the hospital…he was in the waiting room for someone when I came in; he was at the nurse's desk asking about somebody. So he saw me for a second, and then later on I woke up in the middle of the night in the hospital room, and there he was."

"Hold up -- in your room?!"

"Yeah, just standing there like it was no big deal. I asked him what he was doing but he ignored that and just asked me how the hell I ended up stabbed like that. I told him and that was pretty much it cuz I was doped up and fell back asleep. Then I saw him on campus…and I asked him if he was stalking me ---"

"You asked a gang leader if he was stalking you?" Paige gaped.

"Well it was before I realized who it was -- I told you I didn't recognize him on my own. Anyway, he denied it. So I saw his car around a couple times and then you told me who he was. I thought I could just forget all about it until Wednesday when he showed up at the park when I was with Logan, and followed us over to the CD store."

"Whoa, this is too much…what'd he do?!"

"Nothing, really…I told him I knew who he was and he seemed to think it was a little funny…"

"Yeah, cuz he's probably crazy," Paige muttered, rubbing a hand through her black hair. "Okay, has anything else happened?"

"No"

"….well it sounds kindda innocent then. I mean, weird, but mostly innocent…right?"

"I guess. I just had to tell someone. I kind of freaks me out that he's in a gang and stuff but I feel kind of like you said you do -- I don't go around associating with gangs or pissing off gang members, so another part of me isn't that worried….but I also feel like I should be. I don't know what I think."

"Yeah, it'd be stalker-ish if he was showing up at your house or something….wait, how did he know what school you went to?"

"Trust me, I thought about that, too. I was wearing a college t-shirt, though, that night in the hospital. Remember? I wasn't even dressed up cuz I didn't know we were going anywhere when I came to your place? So I figure that could explain that…I just don't get why…"

"Cuz he's Billy Darley and does what he wants? I dunno…has he threatened you?"

"No"

"Good…I want to say don't worry about it, but I definitely don't know a whole lot about him; just from the news and word on the street, ya know?"

"Yeah…I'm not panicking, I guess," Natalie shrugged. "I just wanted to get it off my chest."

"No way you're telling your old man, huh?" Paige grinned.

"Definitely not," Natalie grinned right back. "Or anyone, really. Can this just be between us for now?"

"Sure…you don't want lover-boy Joel knowing some guy's got his eye on you?" she laughed.

"First: Joel is not my lover-boy; we're friends now. Second…I don't even know if he "has his eye on me"….I could be making something out of nearly-nothing."

"Right…just see what happens; if you haven't pissed him off then there's not any reason to be too scared. If you feel uncomfortable, just walk the other way.

"Yeah, you're right…"

They slowly moved onto considerably lighter conversation, but in the back of Natalie's head she was still mulling over what this Billy seemed so interested in her. She was trying to think over anything she could've done to call attention to herself, but she was positive she'd never seen him around before that night at the hospital; he was kind of someone you don't forget easily. She didn't buy or sell drugs, wasn't some hooker, didn't go around carrying guns, and didn't do anything else she thought a gang leader would be interested in.

What could someone so incredibly different from her want from her?

Okay, hope you enjoyed. Like i said, next chapter has a little more interest and should be up really soon
Review =)