*cries a little* I'm so sorry, guys. Please forgive me.

My defense for why this update took me so long is that I got terribly sick last week, making it impossible for me to get anything done. And this chapter, as you will probably notice while reading it, has a somewhat angsty tone to it, so it took a lot of energy to get out. It's here though! It's here and ready to be read!

There's a new few characters introduced as well, but don't expect them to stick around. I'm mainly just adding them for fanservice and to add some conflict for the next couple of chapters. Normally I would want to give them bigger parts, but I'm already working with so many characters as it is, and this story is about half way over anyways, so introducing anymore major characters doesn't seem very smart to me.

Thanks for reading and the lovely reviews, everyone! I love you all!

.

.

Sneaking out of my house proves to be a lot simpler than I had anticipated. My parents go to bed exactly when I had guessed they would, me pretending to go upstairs to call it a night as well. As soon as my illuminate clock shines a red ten fifteen and I can hear the deep snore of my father from down the hall, I quietly slip on the suggested pair of jeans and my navy blue hoodie. Minus the squeaky top stairs, me nearly losing my footing on the bottom step, and the heavy crack of the deadbolt locking behind me, I manage to make it out of the house without being noticed.

The algid night air hits me like a battling ram as soon as I l turn away from the door, completely catching me off guard when I feel a nipping breeze brush against my face. Suddenly becoming very aware of my bare hands and the hole in the knee of my jeans, I almost head back into the guaranteed warmth of my house. It's a pair of bright lights down the street that stop me though. After I give my eyes a second to adjust to the darkness, I'm able to make out the shape of a small car, the two lights becoming obvious headlights. It must be Fish and Hiccup waiting for me; who else could it be at this time of night anyways?

I begin to jog down the dirt street towards them, shoving my hands into my pockets because of the sudden rush of chilly air around me. Dang. I know Hiccup had said that it'd be cold out tonight, but I would never have imagined it would be this cold.

Once I'm able to see through the windshield of the car, I notice the two boys sitting inside motioning me over towards the back doors. Following their instruction, I pull on the crisp door handle and slide inside, making sure to make as minimal noise possible as I shut the door.

Hiccup turns himself to face me from the passenger's seat. "Cold, huh?"

I remove my hands from my pockets, mainly because of the dramatic change of temperature; the smaller heaters on the ceiling the car seem more like a blessing than anything. "No. Not really."

"Liar."

The drive to this place called Raven Point doesn't take necessarily long; quite honestly, I don't get to check out a lot of the scenery passing us by considering, one, it's dark outside, and two, I'm distracted. For the entirety of the ride, Fish has this thing he refers to as "the radio" on, which produces music very different from the type I heard while at the flea market. Him and Hiccup sing along to a few rather catchy songs, and I have a hard time not erupting with laughter at their incapability of singing on pitch. Me telling them this when they ask about my outbursts only gets Hiccup going even more, him practically screaming the lyrics at the top of his lungs, his voice squeaking and cracking at all the wrong places. He eventually stops though - despite my laughing egging him on - when Fish directs us off the main road and on to a dirt road.

After turning down the music and a moment of driving in near darkness, I notice several other cars parked out in the open field before us, scattered in no organized fashion. Some kids around my age and younger stand by their cars, making conversation with their friends, while others walk towards the ledge of what appears to be a cliff, disappearing once they approach a ramp and descend down it.

I hear a loud click from Hiccup's corner of the car, and he whips around to face me, a large grin on his freckled face. "Ready to go to your first part-ah?"

"Wait. Jack's never been to a party before?" Fish asks as he twists and yanks his keys from the little slot they were inserted in.

"Nooooo sir, he hasn't." I hear Hiccup's door open, and as he steps out, he add on, "Jack here's super sheltered I've discovered. He's practically a virgin when it comes to living life."

I want to ask what a "virgin" is, but I don't get the chance since Fish lets out a booming laugh, then turns back towards me and says, "Well, then this is gonna be a fun night for you, buddy!"

After Fish double checks that he's locked his car, the three of us follow suit with the other kids also attending the party. The ramp connected to the ledge does go down to the beach below, like I had assumed. We climb down the wooden boards, all our hands being shoved into our jacket's pockets as we get further and further down towards the lapping water.

I want to say a lot of people show up for this gathering, but I don't necessarily know how much people would be qualified as "a lot". They all appear to be divided up into several groups though; cliques of girls, all wearing oversized sweaters and furred boots, mainly stand off by a small fire, plastic cups and mugs in their hands as they all idly chat with one another; bands of boys collect near where the drinks are found, laughing and shoving each other around in a friendly kind of way, a few wearing coats that state BERK HIGH proudly on their chests.

As we enter the scene, the solid, rock ground bleeds into this strange substance I think is called "sand". I get the urge to take my sneakers off so I can feel the foreign texture in between my toes, but I decide against it, assuming that an action like that would be deemed inappropriate.

"Jaaaaaaaaack? You still with us, buddy?"

Hiccup's voice drags me back into reality, the thick collar to his heavy, army green jacket pulled up to block his face from the wind. I notice Fish wandering off, probably to get some us drinks, like he was saying he would do when we were walking down here.

"This must be a lot for you to take in, huh?" Hiccup asks me with a smirk, and I nod sheepishly down at the sand at my feet. "Hey, don't feel bad about it, dude. It makes sense. I mean, considering your situation and all. But yeah. Uhh… Berk High's kinda on the smaller side, so this is probablyyyy… eiiigh… maybe half the sophomore class, and maybe a quarter of both the juniors and seniors."

"What about the, uh… the first one?" I ask.

"You mean the freshman?"

"Yeah. The freshman."

Hiccup laughs. "No one invites the freshman to these kinda things."

"Oh. Why?"

"Because no one likes them, duh."

"Why's that?"

"It's just… no one does, y'know. It's, like, this universal agreement between the three older grades. We all just hate the freshman."

"Yeah, but why?"

He places his hand on my shoulder, letting out a dramatic sigh. "You may not understand the hierarchy of high school right now, my friend, but I can guarantee you that one day you will. One day."

Fish returns then with three plastic cups in hand, saying he'll make sure to not drink too much tonight so we can all get home safely. I want to ask what he means by this and how this liquid could possibly jeopardize our journey back home, but the two other boys have already gone to taking long swigs from the cups. Fish lets out a satisfying sigh once he comes up for air, and Hiccup squeezes his eyes shut, seeming to be having a hard time getting the beverage down.

"You okay?" I ask him with a curious laugh.

He shots me a thumbs up with his unoccupied hand. "Never better. The first sip's always the hardest to get down, am I right?"

Fish raises his cup. "Amen to that. But it's always worth it."

"Go on," Hiccup eggs me on once he's restored himself. "Take a sip. You may like it."

Looking down at the substance in my hands, I can't tell whether I really do want to try it or not. The shade of the fluid is this unappetizing yellow-orange hue, small bubbles forming from under the foamy surface and dotting the brims of the cup. The aroma coming from it is sour, making the inside of my nostrils burn.

"I… I don't know, Hiccup…" I manage to stumble out, still observing the drink in hand. "It doesn't look very good."

"You don't have to finish it or anything if you don't like it," Hiccup assures me with a simple shrug, taking a small sip from his cup. This time his expression doesn't change as the drink goes down effortlessly. "Just try it, you know. To say you did."

I sigh, looking down at the yellow liquid, and hear Hiccup chuckle under his breath.

Well… here goes nothing.

As soon as the drink crawls down my throat, a growing bitterness latches on to my tongue and doesn't let go. I feel a fizzy sensation linger on my lips as I lower the cup, clasping my eyes shut like Hiccup had as I fight the sour taste that's dancing around inside of my mouth and making my eyes feel all wonky. The horrid aftertaste remains well after I've managed to swallow, but it's actually quite bearable; not to mention the fact that the drink has seemed to have heated my insides up considerably.

"Judging by your abhorred expressions, I think I can assume you didn't like it?" Hiccup asks me once I manage to open my eyes again. When I nod in agreement, licking my lips in attempt to rid my tongue of the awful taste, the two boys both start to laugh.

"Don't worry about it," Fish tells me once I apologize to the two, handing my drink to him as to get rid of it. "It's a required taste."

We find a nice spot on a patch of rocks after what Hiccup tells me is one of my first "high school experiences", joking with one another about trivial things and attempting to keep ourselves warm. As the minute hand on my watch moves from number to number, I notice that the temperature seems to be dropping, but I find myself not minding. The coldness, I discover, is actually quite nice.

Once their drinks run out, we all wander back over towards this metal, barrel looking thing that I assume contains the strange liquid from before, a handful of kids already crowding around it, plastic cups in hand. Some of them are laughing at what appears to be nothing, hanging from their friend's shoulders for support, and others are talking a lot louder than they really need to be. Hiccup refills the drinks as Fish introduces me to the two familiar blonde twins, who tell me their names are Ruff and Tee; I forget which one said which name, since the names in themselves are too similar to tell apart, just like their owners. I'm surprised to see that Lout's nowhere in sight, since every time I see this set of twins, he always appears to be around. Though, without him here, I do notice that they have a softer, kinder feeling to their faces, rather than their rough, narrowed eyed sneers.

It's mainly Fish and the twins that exchange words, Hiccup chiming in every once and awhile. I notice that the smaller boy looks more excluded than he usually does, like he's merely standing on the sidelines of this conversation, a little like me. He doesn't seem to be able to make direct eye contact with any of them - minus maybe Fish - and he's fidgety, constantly moving his drink from one hand to the other, taking sips from it whenever he can't find anything better to do. These actions remind me of when we first met, how inept and awkward he was as he attempted to help me get down from that tree and walked me home afterwards. Thinking about that day brings a smile to my face and a warm feeling to my stomach, kind of like that drink earlier. It's weird thinking about that, considering everything we've been through since that day: the day I "wrecked" Lout's bike, the weeks of training and getting to know each other, the dreadful day of the race that I barely even recall, and the endless weeks I had to endure without being allowed in his company. Now that I really think about all those events in order like that, I've actually only known Hiccup for about four-ish weeks.

Wow. It feels like it's been much, much longer than just that.

Hiccup's eyes suddenly lock on mine, and I'll admit that I'm a little embarrassed to have been thinking such intimate thoughts about him while he's standing right there. That uneasiness washes away though when he jerks his head to tell me to look over my shoulder, saying, "I think someone's lookin' for ya, Jack."

I turn around and, sure enough, there's Tooth, all bundled up in a multicolored plaid jacket with a lot of buttons and ties. She seems to be accompanied by three boys though, two of them like giants in comparison to little, old her, and the other short and kind of on the pudgy side. Tooth catches me looking her way, her dark face lighting up as she shots her hand into the air and begins to wave.

I wave back, and as I'm about to ask Hiccup if it's okay if I can go off with her for a while, I hear him say, as if he had been reading my mind, "Go hang out with her. We can catch up later, alright?"

"Just don't leave without me," I tell him. "I don't want to walk home."

Hiccup laughs. "I don't think we have a choice. You're probably going to be the only fully sober person here by the time this thing's over."

Not bothering to question him on what exactly the word "sober" means, I go off to join Tooth and her posse, still sending me that bright smile of hers that manages to warm me up, despite the cold.

"Hey there, Miss Tooth Fairy," is how I greet her, tipping my head in her direction. "Collect any interesting teeth lately?"

The small girl shakes her head as she lets out a laugh, moving a loose strand of her dark hair out of her eyes. "No, I haven't actually, thanks for asking. But I do, however, have some people I'd like you to meet." She turns towards the three boys standing behind her, moving over and placing her hand on my arm, sending an unexpected chill to run up my spine. "Guys. This is Jack. That new boy to town that I've told you about." She then turns back towards me, her hand still where she left it. "Jack, these are some of my friends from school. This is Nikolay. He's a foreign exchange student from Russia!"

Standing in front of me has got to be the largest human being I've ever laid eyes on. The dark haired and stunning blue-eyed boy must stand a good foot taller than my own father, and has this guy actually somehow managed to grow a legitimate beard?

"Ah! Jack! Just call me Nik!" the broad teen with an odd, foreign accent that I guess is Russian greets me. He reaches out, taking a firm grasp of my hand - which are ginormous compared to mine - and begins to shake it so forcefully that I nearly get knocked off balance. "We have heard so much about you from little Ana here! Nice to finally be meeting you!"

"And this is Sandy," Tooth goes on once Nik releases me from his death grip. "He's, uh… he's a mute, so he doesn't talk very much." Looking down next to Nik, I see a short, round boy with spiky blonde hair shooting out in all directions, small eyes the same color and shape as lemons. He moves his chubby hands around in some wild gestures, causing me to raise my eyebrows in curiosity, and once he's finished, Tooth tells me, "He said 'It's nice to meet you, Jack'." I shot the little man a grin, impressed to see that, despite his obvious disadvantage, he's found a way to communicate with his friends. He returns it with a toothy smile and a cheerful thumbs up.

"And, last but not least," Tooth says, moving towards the last of the three boys and resting her hand gently against his thick arm. "This is East."

This East guy looks a lot more rugged and worn standing next to the other two boys, with his gruff stubble, tattooed arms, and short, silver hair. I'm not surprised to hear yet another foreign accent - either some denomination of British or Australian, I can't tell - when he says to me, "So you're this Jack bloke we're heard so much about, eh?" For some reason, by the sour tone in his voice and the unfriendly glare he's sending my way, I get the odd feeling that, for whatever reason, East doesn't really like me. I'm a little taken aback by this, considering this is the first time I've even seen the guy, so how could he possibly not like me already?

I decide to play it cool though, mostly for Tooth's sake. "You bet I am," I confirm, giving him a grin in response to his glare.

"So… what you're sayin' then is that you're the bloke that Ana almost ran over with her car a few weeks ago, hm?" I can tell by the way he says it that he doesn't find that whole situation to be rather humorous, which I don't blame him for, not really. I don't let his sour attitude ruin my mood though.

"Oh yeah, that's me!" I go with a laugh. "The infamous Jack! Causing trouble everywhere I go!"

East just narrows his bright, green eyes at me again as Tooth's face turns bright pink to match hers. I begin to feel the apparent tension I've suddenly caused, but Nik, however, eases it by bursting out laughing, his vociferous howl making the four of us jump in our spots. He moves over towards me, wrapping his burly arm around my shoulder, and says, "Ah, Ana! I like this one. He is quite funny!"

Tooth relaxes some, letting out a small laugh as Sandy shakes his head, a smile on his bright face. "I knew, out of all of you, you would like him the most, Nik," she confesses. East doesn't seem to let up though, which intrigues me; what could this guy possibly have against me? Well, despite the fact that his friend almost ran me over with her car, but hey, that's way in the past, right? And it's not like either of us or her car were seriously damaged anyways, so why hold a grudge?

Nik says something about being thirsty, encouraging East to join him and Sandy on the quest to get drinks. East doesn't look very pleased with this notion - I can tell mainly by the way he moves closer to Tooth as the idea is suggested, like he doesn't plan on leaving her side - but the mountain of a man that's Nik wraps his arm around East's shoulders and guides him away from Tooth and me, going on loudly about maybe meeting some cute girls over at what he calls a "keg". As they go, I see East turn his head back several times in our direction, as to make sure we haven't run off.

"Sorry about them," Tooth apologizes, looking at the sand at her feet and playing with the cuffs of her jacket. "They're all kinda… well… they're not necessarily that good with people, you know."

"Tooth, I don't know what you're talking about," I tell her happily, hoping to restore some of her confidence in her friends. "Did you see how Nik just embraced me? I don't think anyone I've just met has ever done something like that before! I mean, he's easily got to be one of the friendliest guys I've met here. And that Sandy seems nice enough as well. That, uh… that big East guy though… he seems a little… uhhh…"

Tooth lets out a small chuckle. "Protective?"

"Yeeeeah. Specifically towards you."

"We've been friends since he moved here in the sixth grade from Australia," she tells me. "He doesn't have any siblings, and all of his other friends are guys, so I gueeeess he kind of warmed up to me, being the only girl friend he has. It's nice though, knowing someone tough like him has my back. He can definitely scare away the mean kids at school when they pick on me, that's for sure!"

"People pick on you?" I ask, a little surprised to hear this. Tooth seems normal enough; well, when you minus the whole tooth necklace and colorful highlights trailing through her hair, I mean. I don't understand how someone could possibly want to make fun of someone as sweet and amiable as Tooth here.

The small girl simply shrugs, trying to appear like it's really no big deal, but I can tell it bothers her. I decide to drop it though, since I remember the time I asked Hiccup about why he was picked on and how he instantly shot me down. Instead, I turn myself towards where the three friends left to, and despite the fact that East now has a plastic cup in hand, I can tell he's having a hard time not peering over in our direction. Nik appears to be trying to get his focus off of us and on to the drinks and people around them, but it also doesn't appear to be working that well.

"I don't really think East likes me," I say, mainly to myself.

"Jack!" Tooth cries, actually sounding somewhat hurt. "How can you say that? You only just met him!"

I shrug. "Just a hunch."

"Well, if it means anything… I like you."

Hearing these words send a hot feeling to shot through me, quickly reaching my face and making my insides heat up. I try my best to ignore it, and luckily for me, it's pretty dark out, so Tooth can't see the red I feel flooding into my cheeks.

"Thanks," I say back, trying to keep my cool. "I… like you too… if it means anything."

She giggles. "Thanks, Jack."

.

.

I've had a lot of headaches in my life, but this one. Man, this one's got to be one of the worst.

It only takes about two cups and a half of beer to get me feeling like a useless sack of potatoes, and that's honestly not that much of a surprise. Normally, I don't drink - normally, I don't even go to these parties - so naturally my body wasn't ready to take in all that alcohol. I'm definitely feeling it now though; ah man, am I feeling it.

Giving Fish the remains of my unfinished drink, I tell him that I'm going back to his car to lay down for a bit. He hands his keys over to me without question, too busy flirting hardcore with Ruff, who's actually been laughing at all his stupid jokes so far. At least him and Jack, who's gone off with Tooth and her friends, are having a good time.

I maneuver my way up the ramp leading to the overlook, passing by other kids as they enter Raven Point. Most just ignore me, but some that I recognize from my grade send me weird looks, like they can't believe I actually decided to show up. I don't blame them though. Like I said, I normally don't go to these kinds of things.

Which leads to the question: why did I agree to go in the first place?

I don't know what it is, but the line between point A and point B doesn't seem as clear to me as it used to be. Maybe it's just the beer settling in, but maybe it's just something going on with me mentally - when I'm not tipsy as hell, I mean. Ever since Jack got here, things have been getting all messed up, and I can't say I particularly like it. Not that this has anything to do with Jack, because it totally doesn't. More of a coincidence than anything.

First there's Astrid, and that's just an issue that I can't think of a solution to. I've tried countless times since the day of Jack and Lout's race to talk to her, to tell her that her silent treatment isn't really making me feel worse about what I did, because I already feel awful about it to begin with. Every time I open my mouth in her general direction when Fish and I are at The Ring, she always finds something to say first or somewhere else to be. Fish has told me to just let it go; let her start talking to me when she feels like it, and I've decided to take that route. Not that I like it. Even though the feisty blonde always seemed to be out to get me on everything I did, I can honestly say that I'd rather have her getting all upset and in my face than have her just ignoring me altogether.

Then there's the whole Bertha and Cami situation, and just thinking about it just makes my head hurt even worse. With meeting Bertha x-amount of weeks ago and figuring out her statues in my dad's love life, I had been determined to not let her in. I thought there would be no physical way that I would let a potential mother figure into my life again - not after the hell I had to endure seven years ago - but man, this woman is proving me wrong. With every time I see her, every time I'm forced to sit down and talk, I find that I'm growing more and more fond of her. She just gives off this pleasant vibe that engulfs the entire room and all those in it, and while it makes me happy to see that my dad's found such a likeable woman, it also makes me incredible sick. Not to mention little Cami. Like her mother, I had been determined to not let her in, but she head-butted her way full force through my barriers anyway. Now I'm being expected to babysit for the girl, and I hate to admit this, but I'm actually looking forward to it.

The gleam from the artificial lights down at the beach begin to fade once I reach the top of the cliff, along with the crowd of fellow party goers. It's not as cold up here as it was down there, and for this, I am grateful. No matter how long you live in Berk, you never really do get used to the coldness.

As standing up straight begins to grow more and more difficult, I mentally curse Fish for parking so far away. Luckily for me, by the time my vision begins to get all wonky and my legs begin to buckle, I've arrived at the driver's door, pulling out the keys from my jacket pocket as my forehead continues to throb. It takes me a moment to find the key slot, since I've closed my eyes to try to ward away the headache, but I somehow manage it after what seems like hours of trying. I crawl in, slamming the door behind me, and just sit there behind the wheel, my eyes squeezed shut. The air in here is just as cold as it was out there, so once I summon up enough strength, I reach out and turn the key in the ignition. The car is instantly brought to life, the air vents from above letting out a warm gust of relaxing air.

I'm about ready to go home, to say the least, but I know I can't. Fish and Jack are still down there, enjoying themselves like I know I should be doing as well. Even if I were to drive home though - which I legally can't anyways, considering I don't have my license yet - they won't have a way of getting back to their houses. The memory of promising Jack I wouldn't leave without him enters my mind and I officially cross the option of bolting off my list.

The thought of maybe taking a little nap enters my mind - to at least try and get rid of this awful headache - and I find it extremely difficult to keep my eyes open after that. The cushion of the headrest suddenly becomes the most comfortable surface I've ever rested my head on, and as I feel my shoulders relax, my eyes shut, allowing sweet sleep to take me over.

I don't dream, don't think as I drift off, and that's more than I could've asked for. I already have to spend so much of my days worrying about everything going on in my life, so the last place I want to have to continue that is in my dreams.

I'm not out for long though. Right as I'm about to enter full sleep mode, the car I'm in jolts to life, and the next thing I know, I'm moving backwards at an alarming speed, causing me to wake up in an instant. My foot must have accidently move on to the acceleration while I was asleep - wow, way to go, Hiccup - so I slam the same foot as hard as I can against the brake pedal without thinking. Me doing this isn't what stops me though. It's the front of someone else's car that does that.

No. No no no no no no. That one word repeats over and over again in my mind as I crawl out of the driver's seat and out into the cold night again, fully awake now. The brisk air hurts my throat as I take a breath in, causing me to cringe as I see the driver of the other car step out. I cringe yet again, maybe this time even harder, when I see the driver's face staring back at me with pure shock.

"Ah shit," I say under my breath as Astrid walks around the hood of her car and towards me, the color of her face growing more and more red with each step she takes. The determined look in her eyes sends chills to run up my spine. I'm dead. I've finally done it, I've finally crossed the line with her, and I'm as good as dead.

"Hiccup Haddock! Why you… you… AHHH!" she yells, stomping her foot out of frustration.

"I-I know this must look really bad, Astrid, but I can assure you that-"

"Hiccup!" she goes on, not allowing me to finish. "You just dented my car… my brand new car!"

Ah man. Like this night couldn't possibly get any more worse.

"Listen… I'll… I'll pay for it! I have the money, okay? I'll give you all of my work money from this summer and you can use all of it for repairs and-"

"Why do you always do this?"

"Do what?"

"Always mess everything up!"

The words hurt me more than I had expected them to. Though I've heard them countless times, coming from several different mouths, hearing them come from hers wounds me more.

"Astrid… chill. It's… it's just a car…"

"Every time something bad happens around here, it's always because of you."

"That… that's not true…"

"Oh yeah? You wanna bet on that? What about that one time Ruff and I were working on that science project last year, huh? When you decided to help us out, everything went wrong and we failed!"

"T-t-that was an accident! How was I supposed to know that-"

"And that time I was at work and you ran into me, making Heather's shake splatter all over my favorite shirt, completely ruining it?"

"Oh, come on, Astrid. That was-"

"And not to mention that time you let Jack, someone completely unfamiliar with biking, race against Lout, the dirtiest racer in Berk, almost getting himself killed in the process!"

"Okay, fine! That was my fault, okay? Blame that one all on me, that one was all me. But listen! I've learned from that. I messed up and-"

"NO!" she cries. "You will never learn from your mistakes, Hiccup! Every time disaster falls, you say that, but nothing ever changes! I had been having the worse night tonight, and I thought that coming to this party would make me feel better. But no! You had to come along and completely ruin everything! That's all you ever do! Everywhere you go, you leave a mess behind!"

At these words, an image of my mom's face flashes in front of my eyes. My head stops hurting, but my insides become numbingly hallow.

Everywhere you go, you leave a mess behind.

I feel Astrid jog pass me, shoving me out of the way with her shoulder as she goes, her face still red with anger. All I can focus on are her words though, dangling in the air in front of me, my eyes glued to them as they force me to soak each of them in. Her quick footsteps fade out after a moment, leaving me alone in the darkness.

Everywhere you go, you leave a mess behind.

And she's right. She's so incredible right. Everything is always my fault. All the incidents she had pointed out, other incidents that she doesn't know about.

My mom's death.

I've been spending the last seven years trying to convince myself otherwise - that there was nothing I could've done to stop her from dying - but in the end, it all comes back to me. Me being the selfish little kid I was, only thinking about myself and none of the other people around me. It was that greediness, that immature fixation on me, me, me.

If I had just listened to her, gone home when she asked me to, she would've never gotten in that car to begin with. She would've never been there when that truck ran that stop sign and rammed into her. She would still be here right now.

"Hiccup?"

The sudden voice startles me, snapping me from my thoughts and back into the real world. I turn around, wiping away the tear that I hadn't even noticed was making its way down my cheek, and come face to face with a concerned looking Jack.

"Hey, Jack," I let out in barely a whisper, my voice cracking as I let out a hard sniff.

The worried look on his face doesn't ease up as he takes a step closer to me. "Are you… are you okay?"

For some reason I laugh a little at this. "N-no. Not really. Where'd Astrid go?"

"Tooth went after her," he says, approaching me steadily. "She wants to make sure she's okay. She seemed really upset."

"Yeah…"

"We, uh… we heard what she said. And listen. She's… she's not right. You don't mess everything up. I mean, the race with Lout wasn't your fault."

"Jack."

"What?"

"What happened to you while you were racing against Lout was definitely my fault. I mean, if anything really is my fault, it's that."

"What are you talking about?" Jack asks, looking flustered now. "That wasn't your fault. That was my fault, all the way."

"How was that your fault? I knew how dirty Lout biked, yet I still let you-"

"And I knew that I didn't stand a chance, yet I still raced him. I'm to blame for that."

"No. Jack. That was definitely my fault. I should've stopped you before you got hurt."

"But I knew I'd probably get hurt and still raced anyways! It's my fault, Hiccup!"

"You know what. How about this? How about it's both of our faults, okay?"

Jack raises an eyebrow at this, seeming confused at my suggestion. "Both of our faults?"

"Yeah. Like… I'll take blame for half of it, and you take blame for the other half. That way, it's still both of our faults, but it's not entirely one of our faults, y'know?"

Jack, after a moment of what appears to be deep though, sticks out his hand, a mock serious expression on as he asks me, "Sounds like a deal." We shake on it, causing a smile to break across my face, a smile on his following suit.

Tooth's voice calling out for us breaks through the night air then, and following her is Astrid, looking a lot more cooled down than earlier. Tooth shoots me a warm smile as a greeting, and then turns towards the boy at my side to say, "Hey, Jack. Let's go get those blankets from my car, okay? Give these two a moment alone."

Jack doesn't protest at this suggestion. I feel him pat me gently on the back, like he's passing some of his courage over to me via touch. As him and Tooth wander off, I take a glimpse over at Astrid, standing a couple feet away, shivering a little. That sweater of hers isn't doing her any justice and seeing her cold like this bothers me.

"Okay… listen…" she begins with a sigh. "I… I stepped out of line earlier. With what I said."

I don't say anything; I don't know what to say.

"I… my dad… we got in a fight earlier tonight at dinner and I just… I was already in a pretty bad mood when I arrived, y'know? And having you back into me like that… man, that just made my night even worse."

"Sorry about that again," I mumble.

To my surprise, I hear her let out a small laugh, wrapping her arms around her waist, probably to keep herself warm. "Yeah, I know you are. And… well… I guess I'm kinda sorry too… for what I said about you messing everything up. That was just uncalled for."

"Tell me about it."

She shoots me a playful glare, and I weakly smile back.

"Are you still upset with me about what happened with Jack?" I decide to ask, seeing that I have her here, actually listening to me for the first time in, like, two weeks.

She shrugs, brushing her bangs out of her eyes and wrapping her arms back around herself. "Kinda, a little. But, I mean… he looks fine now, so I guess no harm done."

"He is."

"Is he upset with you for what happened?"

"No. He thinks it's his fault."

"That's bullshit."

"Yeah, I know, right? We decided that we're both to blame though, just so we could stop arguing about who's more at fault."

"That… seems pretty efficient actually."

"Yeah."

"But, uh… yeah, I guess we're all good now. Sorry again… about earlier…"

"No, no. It's… it's fine. You were just upset and I get that and... yeah. But, uh… does this mean that you'll actually, like, talk to me when I come to The Ring now? Because I can honestly say that I was beginning to miss you picking on me every time I dropped by."

The blonde laughs a little, shaking her head. "Yeah, I guess it does. And I guess I can honestly say that I was beginning to miss your irritating, sarcastic remarks to everything I say too."

A gust of chilling wind whirls around us then, and as I retreat further into my heavy jacket to avoid it, I notice Astrid shiver like crazy, wrapping her arms tighter around herself. Once the wind settles down, I knew what I have to do to seal the truths we've just established between each other. I peel my jacket off of my back, hoping and praying that it's not really that cold out tonight, and pass it towards her. She looks stunned at first, seeing me offer her the article of clothing, and though I can tell there's some protest in her eyes, she takes it anyways. The thing's huge on her, going well pass her knees as she pulls her arms through the bulky sleeves. After she readjusts the collar around her neck, she looks over at me, letting a small smile appear on her red cheeked face.

"Thanks, Hiccup."