Once again, sorry about the slow update, but my exams are officially over for this year! *Starts little happy dance* And now I have 3 months off for summer, so more writing should occur - Hopefully...

Thank you for the reviews because once again they give me the encouragement I need to carry on:)

Chapter 7~

Violet found him the next day. Her mind had been going crazy all night and when it finally reached five and she had only two hours of restless sleep, she slid out of bed and made her way through the silence of the house.

It was creepy walking through the Murder House in the early house of the morning, but she knew that there really wasn't much to be afraid. Sure, there were all of the other ghosts, but they were easily avoided after the demand of "go away". It seemed like those words had been the words she most commonly used since moving into the Murder House. She preferred being alone and those two simple words were an easy escape to all the delusional people living amongst her.

Her bare feet padded with soft thuds along the wooden floorboards as she walked through the kitchen and opened the door to let the cool morning breeze float in. It was cold and her arms instantly rose to Goosebumps, but she didn't care.

Violet loved the outdoors. It was freedom in her eyes. No more of the confinement of the walls, but fresh air that smelled as delightful as the bright orange of the morning sky. It was still fairly dark, but the sky worked as a big enough light source to make out the outline of the trees and birds which fluttered noisily between the branches.

Violet found herself a spot underneath the tree to sit. She faced sideways to the house and watched the sky as the colours began to lighten to a slight purple haze.

That was when she saw him. To her right, near the front of the house, he lay on the grass, his eyes closed and his hands lying motionless at his sides.

For some strange reason Violet's insides churned. Her stomach exploded with butterflies as if Tate was someone she hadn't seen in ages and was nervous about their encounter. This was only partially true. She was nervous about their encounter because she had thought a lot about what had happened the previous day. The whole night she had replayed the dance scene over and over in her head and in some ways she regretted the way she had spoken to him. Tate had been nothing but sweet to her and she had ruined it by getting over emotional and pushing him away. Again. Violet couldn't count how many times she had pushed Tate away, yet he repeatedly came back to her, so in this second of instant nervousness, she wondered why she felt so apprehensive. If he always wanted her back no matter what, why should she feel this way?

She noticed that her body was shivering and didn't know whether it was due the cold air, or her nerves.

The old blue dress she had thrown on was dirty and crumpled from when she had worn it last, but she smoothed out the fabric with her shaky hands as she stood and began her way toward Tate's figure. She had to talk to him. She had to say something because otherwise she was just going to grow more anxious until their next confrontation. She was also curious to why he was lying in the grass so early in the morning, but then again, most people would wonder the same about her.

Tate must have not heard her coming because he didn't move when she sat down beside him because the rustle of her dress made a loud enough noise to cut through the tranquillity of the morning breeze.

His eyes were shut and Violet watched his serene face cautiously. There had been barely any times when she had seen Tate's face so calm and peaceful. Sure, she had seen him look vacant, but it was a rare sight to see him look relaxed. This, she realized, made him look a lot younger. His blond hair curled slightly around his face, strands brushing his cheeks making her want to brush them back. His hair was messy, and now that she was closer, she could see he was dirty. Mud marked the bottom of his frayed jeans and grass stained the material at his knees. Her brow furrowed, but she didn't make a sound.

"Tate." She said eventually and even though she had said it quietly Tate still jumped violently at her voice. His eyes snapped open abruptly before blinking rapidly from of the light of the rising sun. His brown eyes seemed lost for a couple of seconds as if he didn't know where he was before he realized he wasn't alone and peered up at the outline of the girl sat next to him

"Hi." He responded quietly. His greeting was croaky and the sound of his voice easily reached her ears.

He wasn't cross with her after all. In fact, he seemed surprised to see her next to him, which in all fairness, was acceptable. Why would he expect her to come find him after telling him to go away? He had all the reason in the world to be confused with her because most of the time she didn't even understand herself.

"Hi." She whispered back. Now that she was next to him and had his attention, she didn't know what to say.

His eyes were bloodshot and for a second she thought he was back on the drugs before he brought his arms up over his head and stretched with a groan. She realized, with sudden understanding, that he had been asleep.

Thinking back it made sense for him to have been asleep, after all he had been breathing calmly and deeply, and he had looked completely at peace. Tate never looked peaceful when he was awake. There was always some sort of emotion on his face, those of which, never being peace.

"Sorry for waking you," she said quietly, resting her head onto her knees that she had drawn up to her chest for warmth.

"It's fine."

They sat in silence, Violet with her head on her knees and Tate still laid on the grass staring up at the sky. The birds were tweeting and the only other noise was the occasional sound of a vehicle from the road. The sky was turning the most beautiful Violet colour and Tate stared at the colours in awe as the white fluffy clouds moved overhead.

"The sky's beautiful." Tate commented, more to himself than anyone.

Violet turned to look at him, then saw his gaze, and looked up.

"The colour is Violet," he stated, smiling at the irony of her name being the same.

She couldn't help but smile. "Yeah, I know."

Violet unfolded her arms from her knees and slowly leaned down in the grass, her head next to Tate's so she could stare up at the sky with him.

"Is this okay?" She whispered quietly, making sure she wasn't interrupting his privacy.

"Of course. Why wouldn't it be? I always enjoy your company."

Violet looked to her left so she could look at his profile. He was still staring up at the sky. Not wanting to meet her eyes.

"I couldn't sleep last night," she said, playing with her hands that rested in her lap. "I couldn't stop thinking about...our dance."

She was still looking at him and this time his eyes darted over in her direction for a second, but his head didn't move.

"Oh," he whispered. "And what did you think?"

Violet sighed and looked up at the sky, hoping to draw the same brightness which she saw in the clouds, into her tone. "I wished I hadn't been so hard on you. I over reacted after the dance..." Her voice trailed off as she picked at her nails, suddenly nervous.

"It's fine."

Tate wanted to be mad at Violent, but somehow he never could be. Whenever she done something to hurt him there was always a part of him that instantly forgave her the minute he laid eyes on her again. He had tried to hate her, to forget her, but he just couldn't. At the end of the day he was the one who needed her, not the other way around, and parts of him hated that. For once why couldn't she need him?

"No, it's not. I am sorry. I just didn't want to give you the wrong impression. I didn't want you thinking that we were together by us dancing. I didn't want you thinking I had forgiven you. That song, the one we danced to, was one my parents danced to...and it just brought back some memories..."

"I know, Violet," he said in a gentle tone. "You don't have to explain."

She shook her head. "No, I do, because I'm tired of pushing you away."

Tate snapped his head to look at her. She could feel the weight of his glare on the side of her face, but she didn't dare meet his gaze for she would be scared at what she saw.

"I done a lot of thinking last night and I realized that being in the murder house is an extremely long existence to have by yourself. I know I have my family, but most of the time I can't stand them and I need someone my own age to hang out with." Her eyes finally met his when she turned her head sideways to judge the look on his face.

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that I want to be friends." She held her breath while she waited for his reaction.

After a moment of silence Tate finally whispered, "Are you serious, Vi?"

Violet nodded positively.

"Because...I mean...there have been so many times when I thought you were on your way to forgiving me, but you-"

"I never said I would forgive you. I just want to be friends."

Tate stalled and looked down to avoid the look of disappointment reaching his eyes. "Fine. There have been times when I thought you were about to become my friend again only to end up with you shutting me out and pushing me away again. Every time I seem to get my hopes up, you manage to crush them twice as hard as before."

"I mean it Tate. This time I do."

Violet's hand came down off of her lap to rest on the grass beside Tate. Whilst doing so, her hand accidently brushed his and the couple of seconds that they were touching, she felt how cold his skin was.

"Jesus Christ Tate, your hands are freezing!" Violet complained jerking her hand away from his as if he had hurt her.

"Sorry," he apologized moving his hands onto his lap and covering them with his sleeves.

"Why are you so cold? Have you been out here all night or something!"

"Yes, actually."

Violet blanched as her eyes widened. "Are you serious? Why?"

"The birds." he commented looking over at the trees.

Violet frowned as she followed the direction of his gaze. He noticed her expression and smiled.

"The birds, I like them. They sing and it's relaxing." He smiled, his eyes shutting again. "When I can't sleep, and my mind is racing, the only way to make myself relax is to get fresh air and listen to the birds." He breathed in deeply, a pleasant sigh escaping on the end of his exhale.

"But isn't it easier to just open a window?"

"Sometimes," he shrugged. "But last night I had to relieve my stress somehow."

"So you came to lie in the garden?"

"No. I ran laps. Around the garden."

"What!"

Tate smiled again at Violet's reaction. "It's my way of dealing with emotion rather than turning to drugs." He shrugged with a motion of his shoulders that caused his skin to brush against hers briefly.

"So you run rather than taking drugs. That's good I suppose, but I'm not sure you should be doing it in the middle of the night."

"Well I do it when I can't sleep. I don't force myself to run if I'm tired."

"When did you start?"

"Running?"

"Yeah."

"It's been about a week. I read it online somewhere that exercise helps you release endorphins which help you feel good so I gave it a go. And you know what?" he turned to look at her again. "It worked," he grinned at Violet and her lips upturned into a smile.

"That's great, Tate."

"It also helped me fall asleep. I mean...I did begin running at 1 and didn't stop until 4, so I guess eventually I would get tired, but I'm just happy it worked, God knows I've tried loads of other things to make me fall asleep."

"Wait, you ran for 3 hours nonstop? In the middle of the night?"

Tate nodded.

"How did you manage to do it for so long?"

"I told you I couldn't sleep and I had all this energy from stress and anger which I needed to release. It turned out that I had a lot..."

"Wow, that's hardcore." Violet chuckled and when Tate heard her bubbly laughter, he joined in. How long had it been since he had last heard her laugh? It was one of the best things that had happened to him all month.

As her laughter ended and they both returned to watch the sky, his eyes snuck a glance at her face, slowly assessing her emotion and puzzling over her sudden change of mind.

"What brought this on?"

Violet looked over at him, confused. "What?"

"You know...you coming to sit with me, asking to be friends?"

She shrugged nonchalantly, breaking eye contact as if she felt guilty over something. His stomach began to drop. Something wasn't right.

Tate waited for her to continue, but her eyes were back on the sky, her lips clamped shut, refusing to say anymore.

"So, that's it? We're friends again, just like that? No catch?"

"Yeah." She breathed, her chest heaving a sigh. "Well...there are some rules."

"Rules? What kind of rules?"

Violet looked at him, her gaze strong. "No romantic involvement."

His face broke and his heart felt like it had been stabbed. "But, Vi, you said..."

"What?" She snapped rather harshly when she looked at him again.

"You said you loved me."

Violet felt like all of the air had left her lungs. He still remembered that? It was true, she had said it, but that was straight after her mother had given birth and she found out Tate had raped her mother and in all honesty she hadn't meant it. She would admit her feelings were strong for him, but love? Violet didn't believe that what she felt was love...she refused to feel love for him.

"Tate, I...that was so long ago and a lot has changed."

"What are you saying? You don't love me anymore?"

Violet turned from him to avoid his dark eyes which held so much pain in them. She couldn't handle looking into his eyes while they held that amount of emotion.

"I don't know...I just think that we need to be friends. Just friends."

He wanted to object. To scream at her how much he needed her, but when he opened his mouth to say something he shut it tight again before the words escaped him. Was he going to plead her to let them be together romantically if she didn't want it? No. Was he going to force her to be a part of his life if she didn't want to be? Well, maybe, but right now she was agreeing to be friends and that was better than her never seeing him, so why should he complain?

Tate bit his lip as he thought. He would never get to kiss her again. To feel those smooth, red lips pressed against his, or to feel delight in the way she felt as she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled at his hair when it started to get a little heated. That rule excluded all of that, and a part of him ached for it so badly. Would he be able to not do anything romantic towards her if he agreed to just being friends? Would he be able to except her wish for friendship and ignore all of his urges he felt for her? Was he going to be able to do that all for her? He wasn't so sure...

"Are there any other rules?" He asked hesitantly hoping she would say no, or just laugh at him and say the whole rule thing was a joke, but her face was serious when they made eye contact.

Her eyes shone beautifully in the morning light as she looked at him and he couldn't help but want to run his fingers through her golden strands that partially fell across her face.

"No touching."

Tate frowned for an instant thinking she had somehow read his mind, but then realized that she was stating another rule.

"At all? Even if our fingers accidently brush when we sit together?" His fingers moved purposely to brush against her thigh and Violet gasped slightly.

"Well...if it is an accident it's acceptable, but I don't want you purposely touching me."

"Why?"

Violet blinked, surprised and startled that he had asked. She thought he was going to instantly refuse and complain demanding she reason fairly with him.

"Well...because we are friends."

"Friends can touch each other."

Violet winced at how sexual his comment could seem and she didn't know whether he had known that there was two meanings behind that one sentence. His eyes gave away no sparkle of mischief and she refused to be the one to bring up the underlying sexual meaning it could have.

"Yes, but after our previous relationship, and for your sake, I think touching, on any level, shouldn't be allowed."

"Do I not get a say in any of this?" Tate asked. "What happens if I have a rule too? Are you the only one making them up? Or am I allowed to state a rule?"

Violet blinked again from shock before stuttering slightly on her words."Err, sure, of course..." She was hesitant about what his rule was going to be.

Tate smiled, "Good."

Violet waited, but he never said anything more. "Well, what is your rule then?"

"Oh, I don't have one yet. I might need a while to think, but it's nice to know I have a say in this." He grinned slowly, almost evilly.

Her eyes narrowed at his tone and expression, but she didn't comment on it.

"So, you accept?"

"Being friends?"

She nodded and watched his face as he debated.

"Okay," he agreed. "Just friends."

Tate consented even though he wasn't sure the 'rules' were going to be kept. He didn't want to believe that Violet didn't love him and they were 'just friends'. His brain worked in mysterious ways and now he was going to use that to his advantage. He was going to keep her rules and make sure she was the one who broke them, not him. That way she couldn't be mad at anyone but herself. He was going to do everything he could to make her see how much he loved her and make her realize how much she needed him. This time it wasn't going to be him begging for her, but her begging for him. He didn't see Violet and him being just friends for long and inwardly grinned at his little plan as he noticed that the sky had drifted from violet to a strange mixture of red and orange as the sun began to rise in the east.

It was the beginning of a new day and the beginning of getting Violet back.