A/N: Well, here is the next chapter for you. I have to say, I am so beyond happy with how this story is going. I honestly didn't think that it would be so popular! I hope that this meets everyones expectations!

1. Night -

Kevin didn't believe in monsters. He never had, never would. They were just stories that parents told to kids so they would behave. He didn't think that there was a creature under his bed or in his closet of lurking in the shadows. That would be stupid. And childish. And everything that his mother didn't need to deal with right then, or so she told Kevin whenever he would come to her with a problem. So, no, he didn't believe in monsters. Just like he didn't believe the scratching on his bedroom window that night was a tree branch or the shape in the corner of his room was just his imagination.

2. Bike -

There has only ever been one steady constant in Kevin's life. It is not his family, not his friends, but the shiney red bike that he recieves on his ninth birthday. At the time, it is almost too big for him. His feet can barely reach the pedals and steering is impossible. But it is freedom. And as Kevin grows, so does the bike. He fixes it up and keeps it like new and it fixes him up and keeps him moving forward. Until the night before his seventeenth birthday, when his father comes home drunk and mad and ready to pick a fight and destroys it. And suddenly Kevin's world seems to have fallen apart.

3. Perfect -

Nazz and Kevin had been friends longer than anyone else in the cul-de-sac. They were the first two families to move in, only a week a part from each other, and they hit it off right away. The friendship lasted. And even as things started to change, in both of their lives, they stuck by each other. They were family - but no one else could see that, no one else saw that they were brother and sister. No. To the rest of the world, they are the perfect couple. Sometimes Kevin wished that they really were together.

4. Crowd -

Five seconds left on the clock. Kevin has the ball tucked under one arm, dark brown eyes locked onto the other end of the field. There is sweat running down his face, burning his eyes and blurring his vision, and dirt is smeared across one cheek. He tastes salt and copper. Feels the adrenaline surging through his veins and the hot summer sun beating down on the back of his neck. And as he crosses that line and the buzzer goes off, he is lost in the roar of the crowd. He has won the game, won their admiration, and found a place for himself where he is looked at with pride and respect.

5. Lost -

Kevin is seventeen years old, almost eighteen, when it happens. Practice runs late and Coach Evers insists on driving his boys home. Doesn't want them to get hurt walking at night, or so he tells them. Kevin's house is the last one they visit and at first everything seems fine. The lights are still on in the kitchen though, so Kevin snatches up his bag, gives the older man a quick goodbye, and then makes a bee-line for the door. The shouting starts before he gets half-way to the front door - loud angry voices, screaming obscenities and threats, making promises that should never be made. His fathers silhouette appears in the window, waving his arms and pointing at something. A moment later there is a crash as glass shatters. The next morning, Kevin is pulled aside and told to go see the school therapist. He will be taken off the team if he refuses. He cannot remember feeling so lost before.

6. Shattered -

Neither of them are perfect and both recognize that fact. They also recognize that trying to help fix the other when they themselves are so broken, so shattered, is senseless. But they refuse to give up on each other. Nazz leans on Kevin and Kevin leans on Nazz and they never talk about the real problem because niether wants to do more damage to the other. Still, they both know that this cannot last forever. One day, Kevin won't be able to lean on Nazz. One day, Nazz will not be able to find comfort in Kevin. One day, their brittle lives will fall apart. And, when this happens, they know that there will be no hope left for either of them.

7. Alcohol

It wasn't a hard decision to make, not really. Kevin had seen the effects that alcohol could have on someone. It wasn't pretty - it was terrifing and nauseating and something that he saw far too often. Every night he went home and saw the spitting image of himself, only older and taller, drunk. Every night he went home and heard the spitting image of himself, only not what was there during the day, scream at his mother and threaten to shoot her in between the eyes. Kevin didn't want to be like his father, in any way, shape, or form. So when the party got out of control and one of his team-mates offered him a beer, it didn't take a second thought. It didn't make him hesitate. Kevin just got up and left.

8. Summer -

The sun is high in the sky by the time they meet up. It is the last day of Summer. Tomorrow is the first day of their last year at school. Niether knows what to expect - because so much has changed over the summer, so much has been started and ended, and they can already feel the strain. It scares them both. Yet, sitting by the edge of the pond where they first met, they refuse to let themselves think about it. Refuse to think about it because this may very well be Kevin and Nazz's last moment of peace for a very long time. They fully plan to enjoy it.

9. Strange -

Kevin's first day of therapy with the school councelor, Mrs. Joahanne, is strange. He isn't going to have one-on-one talk sessions with her, for which he is ubelievably grateful, but he will be paired with another student, which destroys the gratefulness and sends a jolt of unease through him instead. Their stories won't be told to each other at first, rather they must willingly tell their partner why they are there. So, with an irritated sigh, Kevin slouches into his chair and waits for his 'partner' to come in. The door to the office opens after just a few minutes, revealing none other than Eddward. And Kevin just knows that his sessions are about to get much stranger.

10. Truth -

Somedays, Kevin just wants to tell everyone the truth. He wants to let them know that he isn't really happy and that everything he has ever told them has been a lie. He wants to tell the other students that he isn't dating Nazz and never will. That he may already like someone else. May even love them - but then he stops and second guesses himself, because can he honestly say that he knows what love is? He can't. And, even if he could, he is afraid of what others will think. What his peers and his family and everyone will think. So Kevin says nothing and just lets everyone make their own conclusions. It's better this way, he tells himself, it's better not to tell the truth.