Darry fell asleep before I did. I heard his breathing turn regular and his soft snoring begin. I didn't find the snoring annoying, I actually felt it to be reassuring. His soft snore was like a white noise – as long as I heard it next to me, it signaled that all was well.

I had fallen asleep to that sound, but something else awoke me in the night. It sounded like tapping at my window. Normally any foreign sound would have spelled the end of sleep for me for the entire night. Hearing it, or thinking I heard it, anyway, I sat up straight and focused. I reached under my pillow for the knife, forgetting what had happened.

Darry reacted immediately, sitting up himself and turning to me.

"Scout, you okay?"

I was always a little shaky when I was awakened, and I'm sure I was breathing a little heavy, because I was always scared out of my mind. I probably panicked Darry more than was necessary.

"I'm okay," I whispered. "I just thought I heard something. I'm paranoid, Darry. Go to sleep. I'm sorry."

"You're okay," Darry pushed me back down softly and covered me with his arm. "Sleep, baby. I'm here. You're okay."

I fell back asleep immediately under his arm. I have no idea how long I slept, until I awoke with a start to something smashing through my window.

I shot straight up. Darry had already leapt out of bed.

"Lay down, Scout!" he yelled. "Soda, Pony, get in here!"

Immediately both Soda and Pony were in my doorway. Someone flicked on the light. I saw Darry staring out the window, which had been shattered. I was surprised to see the glint of the knife Tim had given me in his hand. I wondered where he had been keeping it, whether he'd had it under his pillow. There was a large rock on the floor by the door. Pony moved to pick it up.

I looked down at the floor and noticed blood pooling around Darry's foot. "Darry, You're cut!"

He looked down. "Shit," he said. "Fucking glass."

"What the hell?" Pony looked a little scared. Maybe even more than I was. A part of me had expected this, after everyone pissed Steve off so much. Plus, he had already smelled like beer when he had come over, had a few beers while we played cards, and had probably gone out drinking even more after he left.

"It was him," I said. "I knew he would come back. I knew it."

For a moment I panicked that I had revealed my secret, but then I realized nobody knew Steve was the him I was talking about.

Soda just looked furious. He stared out the broken window, being careful not to step on the broken glass.

"He's gone, Soda. Obviously he isn't gonna stick around. He just wanted to scare me."

"Or piss me off," Darry said. "Coulda been those guys Tim set straight the other night, the ones mad about the jobs." I supposed that was a possibility, but I doubted it.

Soda offered a few choice curse words out into the yard.

"Sit down, Darry," I said. "Let me see your foot." I was surprised that he did sit right down. I picked up his foot as it dripped blood onto the floor. Pony turned away. Ever since the Soc incident, he can't really handle blood very well.

"Sit down, Pony, before you pass out," Darry ordered, and he did, sitting next to him on the bed.

"Soda, can you get a towel?" I couldn't see the cut for all the blood. I needed something to wipe it off.

"Why are you so goddamned calm, Scout? Isn't this exactly what you said you were so scared of?" I was right; Pony was unnerved.

"No," I said. "I'm afraid of getting attacked again, not some jerk throwing a rock through my window." I realized they had no idea who was behind all this, so it was probably a lot more ominous to them. From my perspective, if Steve was resorting to throwing rocks through my window, he actually seemed like less of a threat. He was getting careless, and, basically, just plain stupid. There was no way my brothers weren't going to hear a window shattering.

Soda handed me a wet towel, and I wiped Darry's foot. The cut wasn't that deep, but it was in a bad spot, right on the arch of his foot. I realized it would just keep opening again unless it got stitched. I looked at the clock. It was three-fifteen.

"You need stitches, Darry. But, for now I'll just wrap it." It was understood that Ben's mom would stitch him up later. She was our neighborhood free clinic.

I wadded up some gauze and wrapped a bandage around the whole thing. Soda was sweeping up the glass and cleaning up the blood on the floor.

"You think he'll come back?" Pony asked nervously. I felt bad, here was Pony, afraid of my attacker.

"No. Not tonight." I was pretty sure of it. He had to know that everyone was awake now. It was occurring to me that it made no sense at all for him to have done this. I wondered if maybe he was actually going crazy.

"We should try to sleep," Soda said. "We can just lock the door into here." Even Soda, now, was worried about the open window.

"You wanna come into my room?" Darry asked.

"I guess…" I said. "Soda, help him in. If he steps on the foot it's gonna open up again."

Soda escorted a hopping Darry into his bed. I stood at the door.

"Get in," Darry said. "New slumber party's in my room."

"I'm glad Darry was in there with you, Scout," Soda said. I realized I was too, that I would have been scared out of my mind had I awakened to that alone, but having Darry there had allowed me to stay calm.

"Me too," I said. "Thanks, Darry."

"Yeah, well your personal bodyguard isn't exactly supposed to injure himself."

Well, now you got a personal nurse," I said, climbing into bed. Soda and Pony headed back down to their room, snapping off the light.

"Hey, Scout?"

"Yeah?"

"I never did ask you, why was your window wide open that night?"

"So I could keep the front door locked in case Soda came home early. He made me promise to stay in and lock the door."

"So you snuck out?"

"Yeah… Then Ben climbed back in to open the front door to let me back in. Then he climbed out the window when he left. I never got up to shut it." Not that it had actually mattered, anyway, it wasn't like Steve had come in that way.

"Maybe instead of fixing the glass, I should just leave the thing boarded up through your teenage years," Darry suggested.

I laughed, a little.

"Maybe," I said, turning over and settling into the pillow.

Somehow, it seemed, admitting my fear had loosened its hold on me. Despite what had just happened, I feel almost immediately back asleep, the white noise and security that was Darry forming a barrier between me and any bad things that could happen.

…………………

A/N: Sorry, kinda short. I know… well, they can't all be three thousand word chapters! Thanks for reviewing, I have over 300! You guys rock!