Chapter Two! A bit longer and more interactive! The last chapter was more of an intro, I guess. Now it's more like a story! Hope you like it and thanks for all of the support so far!

My surroundings were unfamiliar as I had never seen this place in my life, being brought here a bit against my will. I spun around a few times, taking in every little piece of scenery I could before running ahead, any movement that wasn't created by my shadow making me falter for a moment. But I didn't have room to backtrack, no room to fall or to screw up. I had this one moment and this one chance. I paused, leaning my back against a wall and squatting down, my knees close to my pounding chest. I flinched at every sound, at every movement. And I waited. Patiently. Quietly. Frozen.

I kept my eyes above the line as I watched. I saw a bit of movement from the corner of my eye and immediately tensed up, bringing the cold metal in my hands closer to my body and facing away from me. Slowly, I turned in the direction of the sight and leveled my head to get a clear look. I saw the jerk again and positioned myself ever so carefully. This was going to have to be quick, precise and perfect if I was going to make it right. Just a little closer…

The second the object appeared in my view, I quickly pressed my fingers into the weapon, the impact sending me flying backwards a bit and into some crumbled brick wall. The sound forced by the gunshot was loud, echoing throughout the room. I smirked to myself as I saw the blood now in a pool around the body that had fallen to the ground in defeat, now lifeless before me. And in that moment, I had a sense of victory that I hadn't felt in a long while. This was a moment I could be proud of. Even if it was just-

"Dude! You don't shoot me, I'm on your team!" Shaking my head, I blinked a few times looking at the man covered in blood above the line and below, realizing my now obvious mistake and felt a bit…idiotic. The boy beside me side, somewhat tossing his controller to the ground and looked over at me, an eyebrow raised like he was awaiting some sort of explanation. I just shrugged, leaning forward and pressing the green button on the gaming device that slowly turned red, the image of the dead soldier on my screen disappearing instantly.

"Sorry, I didn't know it was you." Adam just rolled his eyes and leaned back on the couch, spreading his arms out on the back cushions and closed his eyes peacefully. I turned my head to look at him and chuckled. "Passing out on me already, soldier? We haven't even watched any MMA or had dinner yet."

A smile appeared on my friend's face and his eyes opened wide. "Pizza?" he asked, and I nodded. Our tradition was being kept. A night full of violent gaming sprees, all we could eat pizza and pay-per-view fights. And it seemed like the perfect distraction from all that had happened earlier that day. I stood up, going into the kitchen and getting the still warm pizza off the counter and brought it over to the living room with napkins. As soon as I set the box down, Adam was opening the lid and grabbing a slice of the meat lover's combo.

I followed his actions and grabbed the remote, turning the channel to our show and sat back into my couch. It was nights like these that I was extremely fond of. Where I could just sit back, relax and have not a care in the world. Adam seemed to have that effect on me. Besides Cece, he was really the only person in my life at that moment who could make me totally unwind and cool off. I felt bad, though. Horrible, really. For all that I had put him though. That he had to put up with an extremely bipolar best friend, having to calm me down whenever I had an outbreak. But every time I tried to apologize, he just brushed the words off and told me that that's what he was there for. Though I know his words are meant to be reassuring, I still can't help but feel a pain in my chest for dragging him through all my problems.

"You have third period English, right?" Adam asked in between bites of his now third slice of pizza. I nodded, taking another slice for myself. Though Adam and I weren't in the same class, we still took the same course and were able to discuss whatever assignments we had to complete. It was a good little arrangement we had, since we'd never been assigned partners for editing by this teacher so we helped each other out during lunches and study periods on the days we had free. "Sweet, so what chapter were you assigned? Lance and I were assigned chapter three. We have to create some kind of musical piece of the scene where Edna is sitting on the porch listening to the waves. Not sure how that's gonna work out."

I took another bite of my pizza and nodded. Lance was in my grade, someone who I had in a few of my classes. He was a pretty nice guy when it came to at least school work or gossip that he heard in the hallways. I remembered back to one of the earlier months in the year when I had walked into my Home Ec room after being switched there from art as an elective and just received a few stars and whispers from people as I entered late. Lance just slid to the seat next to him at the long desk he was assigned to and patted the spot next to him, welcoming me to sit down. So for Adam to have the chance to work with someone like Lance, I knew he wouldn't be let down.

"He plays classical piano," I mentioned, bringing up an earlier discussion I'd had with the boy before. "You could play out a piece that has highs and lows, I guess kind of like waves? Does that make sense?" I tried to explain my thoughts a bit, not knowing too much about piano or music myself. But I'm sure if Adam said even just that bit of information to Lance he'd know what to do in a heartbeat. Adam nodded quickly in agreement and signaled to me, wanting to know what my project was about. I pressed my lips together a bit and cleared my throat. The project had made me heat up inside a bit as I initially read it, memories flooding back into my brain with a mix of emotions I didn't really wish to encode. "I have to create a scene in which Edna's feelings are displayed in a modern time fashion about not fitting in with the aristocratic women around her and how she feels a bit out of place against her friend Adele and her husband Leonce. We're allowed to create new characters and a new setting but keep the overall theme parallel…and film it."

"Sounds right up your ally," Adam laughed. "I'm sure you have nothing to worry about, Master Playwright. You'll get an A on the project for sure." The boy leaned over to the table, grabbing a napkin and wiped the crumbs off of his hands and shirt before throwing the paper cloth into the now empty cardboard pizza box. I finished my last slice as Adam leaned back again, half watching the MMA fight, half listening to me. "Who's your partner?"

I opened my mouth but the words instantly stalled. I knew what Adam's reaction would be to my answer. The same response I had, had. Raised eyebrows, a bit of a dropped jaw and a pondering mind. "Um…Clare." I saw my friend's body tense up ever so slightly followed by a slow effort to face me. I watched his eyebrow arch up as suspected and his blank expression he'd had before become that of what seemed to be worry. He knew the effects that the girl had on me. God. Everyone knew the effects she had on me. Adam and I rarely ever spoke about her and only did so in remembrance of an event or Adam talking about how his week had gone, noting he'd hung out with her. At first, after the break up, Adam never mentioned hanging out with Clare because he knew that it would only cause the pang in my chest to rise up again, wishing that I could somehow have been with him. The days of the three of us watching the stars were long gone and I had to realize that it wasn't just me who was upset over them, but also Adam. He had stayed friends with both of us but it was still hard that he couldn't hang out with the three of us together. But he understood the circumstance and never pushed that boundary Clare and I had put up. He was truly a good friend.

"Are you okay with that…I mean, being class partners would be one thing. But this is filming a project outside of school hours. Filming about some sort of love at that. You sure you don't want to change partners?" Adam's words had hit me, though I know that I've thought them as well. But not for the sake of myself. For the sake of the one on the other end. I knew that Clare had a hard time still even being in the same room as I was after all I had done to hurt her. Now working with her outside would probably be too much for her. But after the way we seemed to get along, and I guess out of a bit of selfishness, I didn't have the heart to ask our teacher for new partners and I knew that she wouldn't want to switch up the groups that have now already started their work. So that was it. Clare and I were partners and we were going to have to be adults in this situation. Ignore any grudges and feelings and move on. And that's the discussion I had planned on having with her the following day when we were to work on our project at her house.

"Yeah," I half lied, not convincing Adam at all. "Besides, this could be a good opportunity. Reconnect. Become friends again." Adam rolled his eyes and turned the volume of the TV down, this conversation suddenly becoming more interesting to him than the fighting going on on the screen. But Adam knew me, and he knew the way I thought and the way I behaved in specific situations. Specific Clare situations. And he knew that this was going to be hard for me. So being the friend that he was, his concern immediately sharpened as I tried to explain to him that everything was going to be perfectly fine even when we both knew, it really wasn't.

"Yeah, remember when you tried to just be friends last time? It resulted in her stealing my comic book in efforts to get your address to track you down. And you deciding to blow her off like she was someone you could care less about because you didn't know how to let her in." My heart sunk at his words, remembering the moment when Clare and I both realized that we couldn't be friends. If we were to both keep sane we had to take the relationship further. And that obviously resulted in where we are now. Going back would only kick those memories and feelings into gear, for me anyway. And that was going to be a sure struggle.

"It's not going to be like that, Adam. Besides, it's not like we have to kiss in this project. We can settle this as mature adults and put the project behind us. Once it's finished we can part our ways once again and-"

"And you can return to admiring her from afar?" Adam smirked and I punched his arm a bit. He let out a ringing laugh. "Seriously, though, Eli. Do you need any help? I can be there if you do."

"I need to learn to take care of myself without you picking up the pieces. Besides, I'm a lot better than I was a year ago and I can handle my emotions. Well, with the proper help of my medication. But really, it'll be better this time." The boy across from me smiled.

"I guess you're right. I just don't want you unleashing your wild side. Because remember, I have to deal with her too. And I can just see her waltzing into chemistry on Monday morning and sighing her little heart out confessing her angst. I've become her life-sucks-verbal punching bag and I want her words to be kind after this weekend."

I laughed at the description of his relationship with Clare. She did have a tendency of pouring her problems on the guy, but he never seemed to run away from it. He stuck with her. Because despite her complications, she was actually fun to be around. Once you got passed the drama that seemed to consume her little heart, there was sarcasm and depth to her that no one I feel has really ever noticed since they're too absorbed in gossip to get to really know her. But Adam and I had. And we loved every second hanging out with her in those days that we could. She was our rock in our shaky moments last year and she continued to be an anchor in Adam's life and journey. Kept him reassured that she respected him and looked at him for who he is and not how the world saw him. Kept him grounded. And I could tell their friendship had a solid foundation. And I really envied that. I wanted the friendship that he had with her. It came so naturally for the two of them. And I wanted to be able to fit back into that puzzle. And maybe, if I tried hard enough, this opportunity I had before me would be the perfect way to do so.

Hope you liked it! Let me know what you think, I love the reviews, they make my day! :)

-Tressa