Author's Note: You guys are fantastic. Thank you. That is all. :D

"Do you really have to go?" I asked sadly, getting out Matthew's car, "You could come in."

"Now? I can't. I'm sorry." He did seem genuinely sorry.

I shut his passenger door with a sigh.

"What time do you want me to pick you up tomorrow?" Matthew asked, rolling down his window.

"Um, same time as today."

"Alright. See you then." He grinned, his smile radiant. I couldn't help but grin back.

"Yeah. See you tomorrow."

"We are going to school tomorrow, right?" he teased, his eyes sparkling with amusement.

"Yes. We probably should," I laughed, "See you."

"Yeah, see you."

He pulled away and I stepped back from the curb and walked reluctantly up to my house. I let myself in and - suddenly freezing - immediatly curled up on the couch under a blanket. I closed my eyes and replayed the glorious day in my head.

"Let's cut school today," I suggested jovially as I buckled myself into the passenger seat of his car Wednesday morning.

He grinned, "And do what?"

I shrugged carelessly, "I don't care. i just don't feel like sitting through eight hours of boring today." Or - more accurately - I didn't want to sit through six class periods sans Matthew.

He laughed.

"What?" I asked. He pulled away from my house, still laughing.

"It's just - have you done this before?"

"Cut school?" I asked, "Nope. Not once."

He shook his head.

"What's so funny about that?"

"Well," he started, looking over to meet my curious gaze, his warm brown eyes sparkling merrily, "I sort of figured that would be the case. So you, in all your years of school, have never cut school before. I, on the other hand, in my - what, three and a quarter months of schooling - have already cut school on numerous occasions for variously lengthy time periods. I suppose I just find the irony in the spectacle to be amusing."

I smiled, "Well, yes, I guess so."

"So, if I'm not going to the school, where am I going to?"

"I don't care... I'm sort of hungry." I hadn't eaten breakfast yet.

"Alright, where do you want to eat?"

I shrugged again. I was ecstatic the Matthew was going along with my plan to cut school. No school, and full-time Matthew; it was going to be a great day.

"Well, you have to decide; I still don't know which places are good and bad."

"Okay... I think we should just grab a quick bite and get out of town."

"Out of town?"

"Well, yeah. We can't stay in Elma; people know me anywhere we'd go, and would know that I was supposed to be in school."

"Ah. Of course. So where should we go then?"

"Well... I kinda wanted to go to Seattle," I answered hesitantly.

"Alright. To Seattle we will go!"

"But I am not mooching off you; I'll pay for gas and -"

"No need," Matthew cut in smoothly, "I've got it."

"But - "

"Nope. I really do not want your money. Besides, my tank is already full."

"Well then I can at least -"

"Paige. Let me. Please."

Nobody ever paid for anything of mine. I was used to doing it all by myself, and no one had ever let me deny them gas money before.

I was used to saving every penny; I had no idea why I was determined to blow my money on a pointless trip to Seattle, but I was determined to do it.

Still, it was really nice, and I was touched.

I sighed, flinging my blanket away. The absense of Matthew was taking a toll on me physically as well as emotionally; I was so cold, and the blanket was not helping. I would have to make myself some of my favorite drink, hot chocolate.

I got up and made my way into the kitchen distractedly. I passed the message board on the fridge at least twice before I realized that it was not in its usual state of being blank.

The message board was nothing but a plain white dry-erase board that my aunt and I had used as our primary method of communication for years. Whenever we had some question such as 'Have you seen my fushia V-neck sweater?' or 'Can't go to your performance, busy. Sorry. Next time?'.

Today it read, "What are you doing this weekend? We should hang out and catch up again. Btw, who picked you up for school today?"

I was taken aback. Cynthia had been awake at seven-thirty a.m.? Since when?

"Already have plans," I wrote back, "Sorry. And Matthew Black."

I shook my head, mystified as to why my aunt was suddenly being so - personal, and how she'd known that somebody had picked me up.

I wandered back into the living room and curled up with my blanket on a chair this time, sipping my delicious chocolate concoction. I closed my eyes and relost myself in my reveries.

We had grabbed breakfast and gone to Seattle, where - at my subtle suggestion - we'd proceeded to go to the mall. We both found several new books and CDs, and I found a few adorable clothing adornments.

Matthew had been a terrible critic, insisting that everything had made me look gorgeous (I had been extremely flattered despite my frustration at his lack of help) and that none of the perfumes or lotions I picked out smelled that great. He had the better sense of smell; I went along with it.

Conversation had flowed easily and unceasingly throughout the entire day; neither had asked the other any serious questions or touched on subjects regarding his mysterious background, other than a few jokes here and there on my part.

We had talked about the upcoming weekend and Matthew had refused to tell me what he had planned. The only thing I knew we would do was watch movies; I'd guessed and we'd ended up picking out and buying an armful of movies.

It had been a long time since I'd felt so overwhelmingly happy, light, and carefree, and I was still feeling the exuberating side effects.

I smiled to myself.

It had been a fantastic day.

I had expected Thursday and Friday to go by slowly but was surprised instead.

Thursday morning a new note had appeared on my message board, "Matthew Black?" it read, "We need to talk. What are your plans?"

"Yep," I wrote back, "Friday after school I'm going to Matthew's house for the weekend."

My aunt had never really cared what I did or where I went; as long as she didn't get a call saying I was in trouble, she was content to let me do my own thing. This was the first time she'd expressed any interest in what my plans were.

Matthew picked me up and drove me to school where we continued our cheerful banter of the previous day.

After gym had come to a close, Matthew walked me to my next class and I was shocked to see him enter the classroom with me.

He explained later that he had switched his schedule around a little bit. I wondered when he had done it, and how he had managed it; we weren't allowed to change our schedules after the first two weeks of school. I couldn't complain, however, for Matthew had every single class with me - Lorraine had wordlessly gone to another seat in science and he had taken her place as my desk partner.

Life was great, and the school day flew by.

That night there was another message waiting for me on the message board.

"Wait up for me tonight," it read, "I want to chat. I'll be home early."

I was floored. The last conversation my aunt and I had had had been the night she'd taken me out for dinner and I'd told her about Matthew. It seemed so long ago; like another lifetime. In fact, life had changed so drastically since Matthew and I had started dating, that anything else that happened - anything before or without him in it - seemed surreal and impossibly distant.

I knew in my gut that developing such a deep and strong connection and - well - dependence on another being's existence and willingness was not a healthy desicion to make. But this wasn't a desicion at all; I couldn't stop myself from falling harder and harder every day.

I did wait up for my aunt; she was home by the startling time of nine o'clock.

"Paige?" she asked, slamming the front door behind her.

"Yes?" I answered, getting up to meet her.

"Oh good, you're home - and got my message."

"Yeah..." I started hesitantly, watching her doff and discard her winter aparell, "And what are you doing here? So early, I mean?"

She raised an eyebrow skeptically and led me into the kitchen.

"I live here," she reminded me sarcastically, "What? I'm not allowed to be here?"

"I didn't say that," I contributed hastily, "It's just... unusual. So... why, again, are you here so early?"

She sighed and plunked herself down on a kitchen chair.

Her heavily made up face, very nice clothes, and perfect hair looked nearly as out of place in our dingy plain-jane kitchen as Matthew or Lorraine Black would have.

"And you wanted to hang out this weekend? What's up with you?"

She sighed again, and I got out two mugs and proceeded to make our common favorite chocolately drink.

"The truth is," she started sadly, "It sucks getting old."

"Old?" I laughed, "You're only thirty-four!"

She groaned, "Don't remind me! Paige, when you're thirty-four, you'll understand. It all starts with the marriages; all your friends decide they don't want to go out as much, now that they have a spouse to keep them happy. Well, that's not even that bad, because you can usually find at least a few people to go out with. It's the kids that really mess stuff up. 'The kids have school tomorrow', 'I wanna spend time with the kids', 'blah, blah, blah.'"

"I see," I commented impartially.

"Yeah."

"Shelly," she admitted after a moment of silence, "Shelly and Brad had a kid. Now their lives revolve around it. They were my last steady outgoing couple!"

"What happened to - oh, what was his name - Felipe?"

She wrinkled her nose in distate, "Felipe? Garderras? We broke up like, two years ago." She gave me a look that told me that I ought to have known that.

"Oh." It wasn't my fault she didn't keep me posted, "What happened?"

"Same thing that always happens. That has happened twice since. He wanted to get serious. I mean, come on. Guys used to have no problem with having extremely casual relationships. But now, they agree but change their minds. They want to see my place, they want to meet my family. Um, no. I warn them beforehand."

"Um. I see. So basically - I'm your last resort?" I asked, unsurprised.

"Well, you are eighteen now, and I'm your legal guardian... but no, you have plans, huh?" A malicious gleam came into her eyes, "Matthew Black? Didn't he dump you?"

I so did not want to have this conversation. I set a cup of cocoa before each of us and tensly sat down in the opposite chair.

"Well, we weren't dating, so no, he didn't. Now we are, and we are very happy together," I answered testily.

That was an understatement.

"I see," she started at me accusingly, "Have you had sex?"

"Um, no."

Sadly, we hadn't even kissed.

"Oh," she said, surprised, her mood lightening. A moment of silence passed before she continued, "I just have to warn you, Paige. Don't put yourself out there. You'll get hurt. Serious relationships are not worth the time, effort, and exertion."

"Okay," I answered, her words echoing in my brain, reinforcing my earlier doubts, "I'll be careful."

"Alright. And I want to meet him. Stop here after school before you go over there."

"What?" I asked, flabbergasted.

"You heard me. We'll eat here."

"Um. First of all, what?"

"Paige," she reproached me.

"Oh-kay. So A, you are going to be here right after school? Don't you have work? And you are going cook? Since when? And since when do you want to meet my boyfriend? Or even care who I was dating? Isn't that my choice?"

"I have the day off tomorrow. So yes, I am. And no, of course I'm not going to cook. I was gonna order pizza, duh. And since now. Since I know who you are dating and that he was rude to you before... and since I know his cousins. Yes it is your choice, but I do care... because, again, I've met his cousins."

"What does knowing his cousins have to do with anything?"

"Don't ask questions like that. I'm the adult, and I say he's coming over."

"You just admitted that I was the adult."

"Okay, fine. You live in my house, you follow my rules. I'm going to meet him."

"Fine. But I'm sure his par - cousins, his cousins have dinner planned. We could stop by here to meet you and stay for a little while."

"Fine. I have a feeling that's all I'm getting."

"Yes."

"Well alright then."

"Okay. I'm going to bed." I got up to leave.

"Fine. Good night."

"Night."

I left without another word.