Since we've never actually seen for sure if the rooms at the ASM have kitchens or not, let's just say they do!

Chapter 4

Starr sighed in relief as she shut her history book, finally done with the assignment, and instantly grabbed her phone to call Schuyler, hoping he was done at the rehab center by now. She'd yet to talk to him today, and since they seemed to be either with each other or on the phone with each other 24/7 these days, she was already starting to feel like she was going through withdrawal pains.

Starr hit the third button on her keypad and hit dial, waiting patiently as it rang a few times until she heard him pick up.

"Hey, Schuyler!" she greeted happily. "Hope I'm not interrupting anything."

"Yeah, hate to disappoint, but Schuyler isn't here right now." Starr gasped, her stomach dropping as she heard the voice of someone she hadn't seen in two weeks.

"Cole?" she demanded in shock, before quickly realizing she needed to cover. "Um, I'm sorry, I must have… called the wrong number."

"No, you're good, you dialed your boyfriend."

"What are you doing with his phone?" she blurted out, swallowing roughly. Oh, crap, this had the potential to be so bad.

"Guess who I got counseling from today?" he asked in a bright, sarcastic tone. Starr mentally groaned; of course, Cole was staying at the same place Schuyler volunteered. He'd counseled him? Great, she was sure that had gone over so well. "What the hell were you doing calling his phone?"

"Um, I, uh, I had to ask a question about our bio assignment," she finally managed, way too late for it to sound convincing.

"I'm sure."

"Cole, what's going on?" she asked anxiously, still lost.

"Obviously way more than that lying creep, Joplin, is telling anyone," Cole spat.

Starr stammered nervously as she swallowed the urge to defend her boyfriend, not knowing what would be the safest way to reply, and in a panic, went for what seemed to be the safest course of action- hanging up on him.

"Oh, god," Starr moaned, dropping the phone to her desk and digging her fingers into her hair as the full weight of the situation hit her. "Not good, so not good."

Okay, now she didn't just want to see Schuyler, she needed to. Starr got over to Schuyler's in record time and quickly let herself in; he'd given her a key about a week ago, both figuring it wouldn't exactly be good for Starr to just wait around in the hall where anyone could see her if she ever got there before him some day.

"Schuyler?" she called, kicking the door shut behind her. There was no response, and she sighed; not home yet.

Starr sat down onto the couch to wait for him, smiling slightly as she relaxed; she loved that this place felt more like home to her now than anywhere else. She'd spent as much time as possible here in the last two weeks, and it just felt comforting here now.

It was funny, really. She was a seventeen year old secretly dating her teacher, which drew to mind images of a lot of hot make-out sessions (not that there weren't those too. Because there were- oh, there were.), but it was far from being just that; she and Schuyler were practically living in domestic bliss here. If you didn't know better, you very well might mistake them for newlyweds. He was even trying to teach her to cook, although thankfully, he was quickly learning it was safest to just assign her to chopping and stirring duty.

Incidentally, the fact that she practically lived here also worked out quite well for her safety, because Jack was missing Todd more and more and getting angrier and angrier, and since he blamed her for his father's absence, Starr was quite certain her brother was plotting to kill her at any moment.

Sometimes when you wanted something, you built it up in your mind so much that when you actually got it, it was never as good as you hoped it would be, but that had so, so not been the case with this relationship. Being with Schuyler had only exceeded every hope she had.

She had everything she wanted now, which still felt hard to believe some days. Jessica had decided that even if Hope (which she had officially changed her name to, she said both out of respect to her biological mother, and because it seemed fitting) wasn't hers by blood, she loved her all the same and still felt like her mother, and in turn, Marcie had decided she didn't want to come between that. Hope had been allowed to stay with Jessica, and Jessica was more than happy to let Starr see her whenever she wanted, in addition to her scheduled weekly visit.

Nobody ever monitored them or asked what she did with Hope during their time together, figuring they needed their time alone together, so Starr had been able to take her daughter to meet Schuyler, and she was seriously convinced her heart must have grown about three sizes that day in order to contain all the joy she was feeling. Just as she'd predicted, Hope had seemed completely infatuated with him right from the start, cooing happily every time he smiled at her, and Schuyler had obviously been enamored, adoring her right from the first hair yank.

"Schuyler!"

Starr was suddenly drawn from her happy thoughts by a loud shout from outside the door, and her eyes widened as she recognized Stacy's voice. Uh-oh; had Schuyler ever gotten his key back from her? Just in case, Starr quickly darted to the closet, stepping inside.

"Schuyler, come on! Look, you know me, you know me better than anyone, just like I know you better than anyone!"

Starr snorted, rolling her eyes as she crossed her arms; yeah, right, she didn't think so. The uncharacteristically mean thought crossed her mind that the fact that he'd once loved Stacy was the greatest proof that Schuyler had been truly messed up on drugs.

"You know this isn't me! I was just going through some stuff and snapped, I never really would have done anything to hurt my nephew! Just give me another chance, okay?!"

Starr shook her head, wishing she could turn off her hearing as Stacy spent a good five minutes obnoxiously pounding on the door and whining until she finally gave up and left. She exited the closet, wandering into the kitchen and looking through the familiar cabinets listlessly until a few minutes later, when she heard the door swing open and shut.

"Schuyler!" she instantly called, rushing out to see him.

Schuyler briefly looked surprised, then grinned as brightly as he always did when he saw her, probably expecting her usual greeting of jumping into his arms and happily kissing him. Today, however, she just rushed over and clutched his arm in a death grip, nothing happy about her.

"Oh my God, Schuyler, why did Cole answer your phone?!" she shrieked in greeting; Schuyler's face instantly dropped as he understood.

"Oh, no; he picked up?" he asked grimly. "I saw that you called, but I figured he just let it ring."

"Nope," she sighed. "He picked up; I told him I was calling about an assignment, but I don't think he bought it, and he was not happy. He said you counseled him today? Did you guys get into a fight or something?"

"Okay, hold on, I'll explain everything in a sec. Have you eaten yet?" She shook her head. "Come on, I'll tell you while we make dinner." He started to lead the way only to suddenly stop in his tracks as he turned around, chuckling slightly. "Hi, by the way."

"Oh, right, hi," she laughed as he swooped down to kiss her, winding her arms around his shoulders. "By the way," she began a minute later as they walked to the small kitchen area. "Stacy came by while you were gone and spent five minutes banging on the door and begging you to hear her out. I honestly thought she was going to just kick it down at one point."

"I really wish that came as a surprise," he sighed, fishing his phone out of his pocket, drawing up the call log, and showing her six calls from Stacy in one hour. "I think I'm reprogramming her name in my phone to Glenn Close. Oh, please tell me you get that," he added as he pulled out the necessary ingredients. "You weren't even alive when that came out, were you?"

"Yes, I get it, Fatal Attraction, you're hilarious. Now, what happened today?"

"So, I was just told which room to go to today, they didn't mention the name of who I'd be speaking to," Schuyler began once they were situated, and Starr was carefully chopping a stalk of celery, trying to avoid any of her fingers in the process. "I open the door, and it's Cole. I immediately started to leave, find him someone else, but he just had this attitude about him that was exactly like the one I used to have, like all the other kids I've talked to had, and I just started talking before I could help myself."

"How is he doing?" she asked softly, his voice on the phone having already given her a clue.

"Not good," he sighed. "He's off the drugs, they've gotten it all out of his system, but he hasn't even started to handle this on an emotional level. He still doesn't think he has a problem, and if he were to leave now, I know he would be popping pills again in two days flat."

"And so I'm guessing he wasn't receptive to anything you had to say,' Starr said wryly.

"Yeah, to say the least. He came within two inches of punching me, so I guess that means he didn't take any of it to heart."

"Oh, Cole," she groaned, looking to her boyfriend with worried eyes. "You're okay, right?"

"I'm fine. Anyway, I just lost my patience and stormed out, and I forgot my phone. I'm sorry."

"Hey, me too. Is that why you got home later than usual?" she asked curiously. "You had to go back for your phone?" Schuyler briefly hesitated.

"The school called to tell me Cole comes back to school tomorrow," he told her after a beat. Starr paused for a moment, then resumed chopping. "How do you feel about that?" he asked worriedly, hating the thought of Starr being scared to see him after what he'd done two weeks ago. If it seemed like she was, he was going to find some way to shadow Cole's every step at school and make sure he couldn't go near her, he didn't care what it took.

"It's been a couple of weeks," she said tightly, shrugging. "And I'm sure they wouldn't let him leave if he hadn't made some progress, so I'm fine. I'm not going to be Cole's BFF or anything anytime soon, but I'll be fine seeing him."

"He, uh…asked to transfer into my class," he finally dropped the real bomb. "That's why they called me specifically."

"What?!" Starr shouted, whipping around, her hands flailing in the process. Schuyler flinched and quickly pried the knife away from her before continuing.

"Yeah; he claimed he has a great love of science and doesn't find his own class interesting enough anymore."

"Are you kidding me?! Cole hates science! He practically sleeps through his class, and he always got bored when I talked about it. He's doing this because of us," she sighed angrily, rubbing her temples as she hopped up to sit on the edge of the counter. "I bet you anything he made that decision after he picked up when I called, and he's just trying to mess with us, catch us or something. I'm so sorry, Schuyler."

"Starr, please, don't apologize. This is my fault for hanging around to talk to him instead of just leaving, and most of all, for leaving my phone."

"…that was pretty stupid," she muttered, though her eyes twinkled playfully and her lips twitched as fought a smile. Schuyler gaped, his jaw dropping.

"Excuse me, I think you're supposed to reassure me back!"

"Schuyler, do you want us to have a relationship built on lies?"

Shaking his head as he grinned, Schuyler started to move towards her, but she quickly scooted backwards, holding her hands up defensively as she laughed.

"Don't you dare! If we get a repeat of that tickling incident, I swear I'm going to hit you this time, no more of that just begging you to stop."

Schuyler laughed and just stood between her legs, resting his hands on her knees, rubbing small circles with his thumb.

"We'll handle this together, okay?" he asked softly. She nodded, giving him a small smile.

"Okay."

Schuyler lightly brushed his lips to hers, and couldn't help chuckling slightly a moment later. Starr pulled back, raising an eyebrow.

"Just what, may I ask, is so funny?"

"I didn't have to swoop down or lift you up for once." Starr scoffed.

"Look, we are not gonna get into this again; I'm not short, you're tall."

"Don't worry," he reassured her, kissing her warmly once more before grinning and quickly backing away. "I wouldn't have you any other way, short stuff."

"Okay, give me back the knife, you're dead."

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
The next day at school, Starr was anxiously tapping her pencil as she waited for Schuyler's class to begin, masterfully avoiding so much as glancing at him; they'd both gotten quite good at this in the last two weeks. Markko and Langston were chattering on, but Starr realized with a pang of guilt she hadn't heard a word either had said in the last ten minutes, too nervous about what she was waiting for.

A minute before class began, she heard footsteps behind her, and seeing that everyone else was in class already, Starr took a deep breath, knowing it was him.

"Welcome to class, Mr. Thornhart," Schuyler greeted him with a friendly smile, nodding to the desk set up for Cole with the books he needed. "Glad to have you joining us."

Cole took his seat; by the look on his face, you'd think Schuyler had just told him to go to hell instead of welcoming him.

"Cole?" Langston and Markko asked in unison, shooting each other a startled look.

"What are you doing here?" Starr asked, feigning surprise.

"What, scared I'll interrupt your time with your boyfriend?" Oh, spectacular; they'd detoxed him off the drugs, but they'd yet to extract the jerk from him. Having him back was going to be really pleasant.

"I won't even acknowledge that. And Cole, you hate biology, why would you wanna be in the AP class? You're just gonna flunk out," she snapped, irritation making her lose her cool and forget her attempt to be friendly.

"Wow, thanks for the encouragement."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean that," she sighed; she really hadn't. "You're smart, Cole, you are, and you're capable, but you don't even enjoy science. Why would you want to be in this class?"

"Let's just say I've gained a new perspective. I'm eager to learn."

Schuyler called the class to order, starting the lesson, and Starr tried to focus, pretending she couldn't feel Cole's eyes on her. He watched her and Schuyler like a hawk all period, which made Starr roll her eyes; what did he think was going to happen during class hours to incriminate them? She was going to get a B on a test and leap out of her seat, screaming 'No more sexual favors for you!'?

When class was finally over, Starr emitted a quiet sigh of relief; normally she loved Schuyler's class, but that had just been uncomfortable.

"Hey, Starr, we're gonna go get some lunch, want to come?" Langston asked.

"Sure," she said instantly; she'd been a little distracted with Hope and Schuyler lately, she could use some time with her friends.

"What about you?" Markko asked Cole. "You have to get back to the center, or can you come?"

"I've got a couple more hours before I have to get back to jail."

Starr stared at him in disbelief; jail? That was honestly how he saw it? Schuyler was exactly right; he was never going to get better with that attitude.

With her enthusiasm effectively shot, Starr followed the trio and a few other students they were friendly with out of the classroom (as the last out of the room, Starr turned and shot Schuyler a quick, dramatic look of terror, and was rewarded with his quiet laugh) and down to the café. The other asked Cole a few questions about how he was liking his program, and his answers all just depressed Starr further; he wasn't even trying to hear his counselors out, he was just wasting time while waiting to be released.

"Guess who I had a session with yesterday?"

"Who?" Adriana, one of the other girls at the table, asked.

"Mr. Joplin."

"Oh, I didn't know he volunteered there!" Starr let out a breath of relief that she and the others didn't seem to wonder why, and shot Cole a pleading look; they didn't need to know about Schuyler's past with drugs, that was his business. He stared back at her evenly. "So, you got him all to yourself for an hour? Color me jealous."

Starr glanced to the other girl in surprise, her shoulders stiffening as she clenched her fork tighter; Cole instantly picked up on that and smirked.

"You too, Starr?" he asked, attempting to look innocent. Starr fought to relax her features; well, at least he wasn't telling them about Schuyler's past addiction.

"What?" she asked in surprise.

"Cole's right. I mean, you are the one who kissed him," Adriana teased. Starr rolled her eyes.

"Haha. I told you guys, I was just going through a bad time and acting out; I'm really embarrassed about that now, especially since Mr. J so isn't even my type. If I had to act out by being stupid and throwing myself at a teacher, you'd think I'd at least pick one I find hot," she sighed playfully, trying not to smirk at Cole as Allison looked appeased.

"I wish I had thought of that excuse to throw myself at him," she joked, laughing. "Although, today's assignment is making me rethink that. I have no idea what #7 is, not even close!"

She changed the subject to school, which Cole looked upset about; apparently, he wasn't done torturing her yet, Starr thought, fuming.

After an hour passed, Cole had to go, and Starr sighed; finally. She hated that she constantly felt so tense when he was around now.

"Hey, Starr, can I talk to you alone for a second?"

"Do you have to?" she asked irritably. He'd made several more smart remarks about Schuyler all throughout lunch, giving her an obnoxious smirk each time, and it had quickly worn out her patience for him.

"Starr," Langston hissed in surprise, nudging her. "Quit being mean!"

Starr gave up and slid out of the booth, following him a few feet away.

"What?"

"I, just, ah…" he began slowly, a surprising look of vulnerability beginning to creep into his eyes. "Wanted to ask how Hope is."

"Oh," she said quietly, softening. She gave Cole a hesitant smile. "She's good, she's really good."

"So, has your boyfriend met our daughter yet?" he asked tightly. Starr narrowed her eyes, feeling a rush of anger twist in her stomach.

"Are you kidding me?" she snapped. He said nothing. "You know what, Cole? If you put even a fraction as much energy into getting better as you do into hating Mr. J, you'd be able to see your daughter and know how she is for yourself."

Having said everything that needed to be said, Starr simply spun on her heel and stormed out of the café.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Four more days passed, and Cole continued to do everything in his power to try and destroy Schuyler on each one. There had been about four different incidents where Starr had all but tackled him to keep him from telling other students about Schuyler's history with drugs, and he was constantly making snide, pointed remarks about their relationship, trying desperately to make them slip up and reveal something.

As yet another hellish period ended, Cole got up and walked to Schuyler's desk as soon as the bell rang, and Starr frowned, putting her things away as slowly as possible so she could listen in.

"What can I do for you, Cole?" he asked kindly; unlike her, Schuyler never seemed to run out of patience for Cole, no matter how big a jerk he was to him.

"Well, since I've been struggling to catch up on the work, I spoke with my mom, and we both think it'd be a good idea if I got a tutor."

"That's a smart idea," Schuyler agreed, grabbing a stack of papers on his desk and thumbing through, trying to find the list of student volunteers for this class. "Let's see…

"How about Starr?" Cole suggested, a smirk slowly crawling across his features; he was obviously trying to get a response from the older man.

"I don't even know if Starr is offering her services," he replied smoothly, not giving Cole what he wanted, though internally he was thinking 'No chance in hell.'

"I saw her name on the tutor sign up sheet for this class up at the front office."

Schuyler kept his head down, desperately trying to think fast; he wasn't putting Starr in that situation, he didn't care what he had to do or say.

"You wouldn't have a problem with Starr tutoring me for some reason, would you, Mr. J?"

"Cole, I don't want to tutor you, okay?" Starr snapped, saving Schuyler. Cole looked genuinely started as he turned to face her.

"What? Why?"

"Because I'm not comfortable being alone with you after what happened before you went to rehab!" Starr told him in disbelief. How could he even ask? Cole paled, the smirk disappearing.

"What? Starr, I told you I was sorry for that, I didn't mean it! I just got upset. I would never hurt you, ever."

"Okay, well, after what you did, I don't trust that anymore. You scared me, and I don't want to be alone with you, so just let James or someone tutor you, okay?"

"Just forget it," he snapped defensively, yanking his backpack off the floor before turning to Schuyler with an angry glare. "This is your fault," he muttered before storming out. Starr groaned in frustration; how could he believe that?

"Sorry about that, Mr. Joplin," she said softly, giving him a meaningful look. He smiled, shaking his head.

"Nothing to apologize for, Miss. Manning."

"I'll see you tomorrow." Of course, for them, that actually meant tonight.

"See you then."

Starr finished gathering her things and walked out, stiffening when she saw Cole waiting down the hall in the direction she needed to go. Her posture defensive, she started to breeze past him, but he quickly fell into step with her.

"Hey, Starr, I just have a quick question. Did the school ever notify your parents about what happened at the dance? Because I think this is the sort of thing parents should know about, it just seems responsible, and after all, they're teaching me all about responsibility in rehab. I've just been thinking, it'd be really interesting if your dad found out about this, wouldn't it?"

With a strangled sigh, Starr suddenly stopped walking and whipped around, and Cole was startled to find her eyes burning with tears.

"Cole! What is wrong with you?!" she shouted furiously. "Why do you not want me to be happy?! Why would you try to ruin that?!"

"Happy?" he repeated blankly, his face slowly falling. "Wait, you're…happy with him?" he choked out, the same hint of vulnerability from the day at the café returning.

"I'm not with him, I've told you that," she replied smoothly, having gotten rather good at this. "He's my teacher. But you think I am, and you're doing everything in your power to ruin that; if I were with Schuyler, it would have to be because he makes me happy, wouldn't it? And yet you keep trying to destroy his career, his life. If you ever really cared about me, wouldn't you accept my happiness? Because y'know what, Cole? I wish for you to be happy every single day," she informed him, truly meaning that. "And even if it would be a little weird for me at first to see you with someone else, I would never try to ruin your happiness, ever."

Cole was quiet for a long time, and he bowed his head, pacing a few steps as Starr nervously waited for his reaction.

"I didn't think you were happy with him," he muttered.

"I'm not with him," she said again, automatically.

"Sure you're not," he snorted dismissively, rolling his eyes, before growing serious again. "I don't know, I just kind of thought you were just trying to get back at me."

"I would never do that, Cole, with anyone. Not everything is about you."

There was more silence as he processed this.

"Look, Starr," he began slowly, spitting out the words as if they were causing him physical pain. "Of course I want you to be happy. If you are, then okay; I'm not gonna try and ruin Joplin anymore, I'll leave it alone. But it doesn't erase the fact that I want you to be happy with me. So I'm not gonna try and destroy this guy or whatever the hell it is you have with him if it upsets you so much, but it sure as hell doesn't mean I'm giving up either."

Starr slowly smiled; that would do, for now. This was the first time in ages she'd gotten a pleasant surprise from him.

"Thank you, Cole."

"Whatever," he muttered defensively. "I've gotta go drop this class before I get back to the center."

"Thought you had a new perspective," she couldn't resist teasing gently. He rolled his eyes.

"It's science, it's boring; there is no new perspective."

Starr held back a laugh as he walked away, doing the same herself; she couldn't wait to get back to the guy who understand how wrong that statement was- the guy who understood everything about her, really.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Later that night, Schuyler had just finished grading homework from his students when he heard a knock at his door; she had perfect timing.

Schuyler quickly walked to the door and opened it with a smile, only to have his face suddenly fall as he saw that the girl on the other side was not the one he'd been hoping for.

"Stacy," he sighed. "What are you doing here? I told you-"

"I know!" she interrupted, her lip trembling as a few tears spilled over. She rubbed her eyes, then winced; they were still puffy and bruised, and painful to the touch from the beating Gigi had delivered once the truth came out. "But I just need you to hear me out!"

"Stacy, there's nothing to hear; there is nothing you could say to me that could ever explain what you tried to do. I knew damn well that you were no saint, but even I didn't think you could ever do something this horrendous."

"I wasn't thinking, Schuyler! I had just been so lonely for so long, and I was so desperate to-"

"Stacy, stop it," he snapped. "I know you too well to buy the tears and excuses. You do this every time you don't get what you want, but you need to grow up and learn how to deal with your mistakes."

"Exactly, you know me! I…I feel like you're the only one who ever has," she whispered dramatically. "You're the only person I was ever really myself with, and when I lost you, I lost myself too, it's how I wound up like this. This whole mess made me realize that. I think if I had you again, though, I could find myself, and I could become a person I actually like again."

"You and I are never going to happen again, Stacy, for a thousand different reasons."

"Why not?! You loved me once!"

"Yeah, once, not now, and to be honest, I don't know if I even really loved you then, because you're not the person I thought you were. I have moved on, I'm with someone else, and I'm happy with her."

"We were happy, Schuyler! We could be again! Just…give me one more chance!"

Before Schuyler could tell her again that it wasn't happening, Stacy suddenly lunged forward and threw herself at him, planting her lips on his. Schuyler stumbled back, momentarily freezing in surprise, but quickly snapped out of it and seized her by the shoulders, pushing her back.

"Stacy! I don't know how else to make you understand this! You and I are long over, and that's that. I don't want you back, I don't want to hear your excuses, I don't even want to be your friend. Yeah, a part of me is always going to care about you because of our past, but I've realized it's exactly that- the past- and you need to as well. Don't call me anymore, don't come over. If you're really sorry, you need to just be alone and work on yourself. Okay?"

"But-"

Schuyler gently guided her out the door and then slammed it shut, letting out a great breath. Right now, he really and truly couldn't believe he'd ever loved Stacey, ever thought they were going to be something that lasted. What he'd had with her just seemed laughable compared to what he had now with Starr.

Speaking of, Schuyler flopped down on his couch to read a book while he waited for said girl. He glanced at the clock, noting that she was usually here by now.

Thirty minutes later, Schuyler was getting worried and just about to call her, when he heard a key in the lock and mentally groaned; duh, why hadn't he realized it wasn't Starr earlier when she hadn't let herself in? Ah, well, nothing he could do about it now.

Starr stepped in, her behavior a little more somber than usual, and Schuyler felt a rush of concern, hoping Cole hadn't done anything.

"Starr, you okay?" he asked instantly, quickly walking over to greet her. She tilted her head, looking confused.

"What? Yeah, why wouldn't I be?"

"You just seem kind of upset. Cole didn't do anything, right?"

"No, no; actually, just the opposite, he agreed to back off."

"Seriously?" he asked in surprise, raising his eyebrows. She smiled, nodding. "Huh, well, what do you know?"

"And he's transferring back out of your class."

"Oh, thank God," he groaned before he could catch himself. Starr laughed slightly. "You sure you're good?"

"I'm great," she confirmed with a smile, rising up on her toes to kiss him. Schuyler held the back of her head, returning it with fervor.

"Okay, so I have something to tell you about," he began once he let her go, wanting to get it out of the way as soon as possible. "Uh, not a big deal, just something I thought you should know, because it's important to be honest; don't want a relationship based on lies," he chuckled slightly, remembering her joke from earlier in the week. "Okay, so, ah…Stacy came over. Because I'm an idiot I wound up opening the door, and basically, she-"

"I saw," Starr interrupted gently.

"You saw?" he repeated in surprise. She nodded.

"Yeah. I guess that's why I was a little weird when I first came in. I saw and uh, that's why I was a little later than usual today- I left, figured I should give you time to deal with it."

"So you saw…?" he asked leadingly. She nodded, and Schuyler felt a small surge of panic. "Starr, I swear, I did not kiss her! She kissed me, completely threw me off because that was the last thing I was expecting- again, dumb, should have been the first- but I pushed her away. I haven't wanted Stacy in years- you are the only one I want, and I would never do that to you, I would never do anything to hurt you. Stacy just-"

"Schuyler!" Starr interrupted, laughing. "Breathe. I know."

"What?" he asked slowly, surprised.

"I know that you would never do that to me, especially with her. I wasn't worried. What you said is pretty much what I already figured must have happened."

Schuyler slowly smiled; well, this was a change. Back when he was with Stacy, she had a coronary if another girl so much as came within ten feet of him. If she had seen an ex-girlfriend begging him to take her back, and kissing him? Forget it, they both would have been dead.

But, of course, he reminded himself with a grin, Starr wasn't Stacy, which was kind of the whole point. Wordlessly, Schuyler just took her into his arms and kissed her passionately, leaving them both breathless.

"You're amazing, you know that?" Schuyler asked, pulling away just enough to look her in the eyes.

"Oh, yeah, I totally know," she replied playfully, grinning. "I'd have to be pretty amazing to get you, after-all." He shook his head.

"It's the other way around."

"Maybe we're both just lucky," she suggested. Schuyler smiled, cupping her cheek as he kissed her warmly once more.

"That must be it."