Chapter 8

"No. You don't" he says low and cold before hanging up and lifts his hand in the air to chuck it to the wind, but stops himself at the last minute and gently lowers the expensive little device to the grass.

His strength is too much to let his anger go like that and he's too old to throw tantrums like that; no he's do the adult instead and he'll pace angrily while muttering to himself under his breath heatedly.

"Who the- THAT BITCH!" he roared

Muttering under his breath wasn't doing it as far as getting his anger out.

"That's great Danny" he mocks in an imitation of her voice; he makes sure to make it as low and scratchy as possible as an extra insult- he sounds like a smoker and nothing like her.

'It's not like I thought she would pay attention to what I was saying after daysof one word answers, which is why I told her that story to test her BUT STILL' he clenched his fist harder and harder,

"What if it had been something serious." he said in ultimate show of teenage spite well aware of how he was being petty but not caring.

"What if I was confessing to her that I was thinking about kill-"

"I FEEL LIKE MY HEAD IS GOING TO EXPLODE, JERRY THAT'S HOW I FUCKIN FEEL!" he screamed into the receiver, "I have one part of my mind SCREAMING in my head to do one thing, while the sane, SANE JERRY,part of my mind screams at the obsessive part! And it's all so much noise that I can't even THINK! AND SOMETIMES I JUST WANT TO PUT ONE IN MY HEAD TO SEE IF IT'LL FINALLY QUIET DOWN UP THERE!"

He abruptly shook his head at the memory, but it served its purpose of killing most of his anger and he crouched to the ground digging his hands into the ground in frustration.

"Dammit Iz, you can't just…" he growled

"You Liar" Iz she'd called him, (lie is to deceive, cheat is to deceive, don't cheat, don't cheat, don't cheat)

"… my obsession you can't…"

"YOU LIE TO EVERYONE YOU MEET" (lie to family, hurt family, not protect, must protect protect protect)

"… to question my obsession… to attack it, it'll attack back" he muttered

'Though was it' he thought again, 'I called her a mumbling psycho because she ignored me, she was hurt'

"But I was scared" he tried to justify weakly, "I was scared, and the last time…"

"Jerry… are you listening man?" he asked a touch worried, Jerry had been so withdrawn lately

"…I'm here To- Danny, I'm never going to forgive you for letting me think that's your name." despite the lightness of the statement, his voice was distracted, disinterested

"…Jerry, you don't… sound alright man" he said shyly weakly,

"I'm fine Danny, I'm fine"

He'd let it go then even with his senses screaming at him(Not right, wrong, protect protect protect), but he'd been too nervous to pry, scared to see his rock was just as human and prone to weakness as anyone.

"I just didn't want a repeat of what happened the last time I held my tongue" he mumbled guilt starting to tear at him, "How was I supposed to handle something like that?"

"Y-you can do it if you want" Jerry stuttered out

"What" he couldn't contain his surprise cause what the heck, was this guy serious?

"Y-yeah, I'm just some guy from Cincinnati with an old habit of stealing my dead beat bitch mom's alcohol" Jerry continued, clearly trying to seem unaffected by his sudden rather unstable confession, "I don't even know your real name s-so if you want to o-off yourself, I c-can't stop you Tommy boy."

It really was a terrible act of nonchalance

"Heh" he chuckled, looked like even the crazy dude thought he was crazy

"But if you want someone you don't have to bullshit too, Tom,someone who doesn't care what you've done, and has some issues himself to yell and bitch at when the voices become too much without consequence, then I'm your guy"

There was a moment of silence as he simply absorbed what this crazy dude was saying

"I-if you want" apparently his silence had made Jerry boy lose his confidence, "y-you really don't have to if you don't want to. I-if you're deadest on offing-"

"Jerry" he interrupted

"Gerald" Jerry unnecessarily corrected

"You're having a cool moment don't sabotage it"

"Oh" he sighed dejected, "Well thanks for calling me cool, Tom"

"…Danny, my name is Danny"

"Probably better than I did" he said as he thought about an amazing guy who'd handled a worse situation as a teenager younger than he was now.

'Whatever happened to teenagers simply having stupid teenage problems?' he thought with an exasperated sigh

"You don't have the BALLS to say that you don't want her"

"Oh yeah, their they are" he said sarcastically, before ultimately deciding to shove that crises where it belonged; buried and shunned until it exploded

Letting out a sigh he leaned back and watched the early morning joggers go about their day, the sun still barely kissing the sky; that made a full 24hours without sleep in his worry for her.

At the thought he felt a small flicker of his temper reminding him that, yes there was a damn good reason he'd been so worried in the first place.

"She is not alright" he muttered out loud

I'm fine I'm fine I'm fine

'No you weren't you lying bastard'

"Are you friend of Mr. Basset" said the deep voice of the officer

"Yes, what happened to Jerry" worry starting to creep into him (Something Wrong, Protect protect protect)

"This was the last and most frequent number we could find on your friend's phone… I'm afraid I some bad news, there's been an accident. This morning he was in a car crash, there was alcohol in his system and paramedics couldn't save him time… I'm sorry"

I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry

I'm fine I'm fine I'm fine

"That's great Danny" "Let's not pretend this is for anybody's help" "You don't know what you're talking about"

"No Iz, you don't know what you're talking about." He said closing his eyes

(Protect Protect Protect)

Eyes flashed open, he needed to talk to her