Around 10 minutes later Dawn felt a little calmer and stopped crying, she wiped her tears with some paper-towel she found in a drawer under the sink so now she could think straight about what happened. She realized she wasn't just hurt because Brandon said those things, she was hurt because she knew he was right, he was a jerk before but the moment he confessed his feelings for her he actually tried to be better for her, she knew he did, he stopped picking on her, he opened up to her and actually listened to her when she talked about her problems, and she took him for granted for that cocky high-schooler that now she realized never really cared about her and only then she wanted to be with Brandon again, he had the right to question why she changed her mind like that.

When Dawn opened the bathroom door now ready to face the music she looked around looking for Brandon but couldn't find him, but then suddenly she heard two knocks at the window glass and saw Brandon sitting on the stairs of the fire-escape outside and must have seen it when she got out of the bathroom

"Hey" he said the moment he saw her

"Hi" she said back as she opened the window

"Are you feeling better now?" He asked her

"A little, can I sit there?" She said as she looked at the stairs where he was sitting

"Sure" he scooted over to the side a little so Dawn could sit by his side

She sat there but didn't say anything for a while. So Brandon just went back to smoke the cigarette between his fingers

"Can I try it?" she asked

"Really?" he said confused

"Yeah" she kinda wanted to impress him, maybe show him she could be more like him, and who knows maybe she would like it

"Okay" he carefully gave her the lit cigarette and observed as she took it to her rosy lips "You suck it in, hold it for a little while and then let it go" he explained to her

Dawn tried to do it but a couple of seconds later she started coughing and weeping

"Oh God, I don't know how can you enjoy it" she said was she handed him his cigarette back

"I'm used to it" he took one last drag and tossed the lit stick onto the street

"So, uh... I think we should talk about what happened, you must be hating me by now" she started saying

"What? I don't hate you, why do you say that?" he asked her confused

"Well you were really angry and you had a point" she admitted

"Dawn I don't hate you, I could never hate you" it's quite the opposite actually "Do you hate me?"

"No, not one bit" it was true, she was scared of him for a good while and there were times she wished he would just leave her alone, but she never hated him, specially since she found out he liked her

"I'm so sorry" he told her while avoiding eye contact

"What for?" she asked him, she knew what he meant but wanted him to say it

"Well everything, all those times I hurt you, I'm never going to do it again" he swore, and she knew he meant it

"It's okay, I'm sorry for hurting you too, I shouldn't have broken up you, it was a mistake" she told him

"It's fine, I guess I shouldn't have been such a jerk about it" he knew he kind of overreacted when she broke up with him a week ago

"But you were right, I took you for granted and then just changed my mind, and then I thought you did something bad just because I heard so, it wasn't fair to you" she said as she moved closer to him

"I did worse and you never called me on my bullshit" he was aware of that "look, I don't care why you changed your mind, I don't care that you hurt me, I just... want you to stay with me" he confessed, it wasn't easy but he knew he had to "But I get it if you want to go back, I can by you a ticket-"

"No! I want to stay and I want to be with you!" she affirmed it and held his arm with her both hands

"Dawn, you can still go back, I can't, it's okay I'll call you whenever I can-" he started saying

"I don't want to go back! And it's not just because of you, I always wanted to run away!" going there was scary but the thought of going back and keep living like that somehow felt scarier

"Do you mean it? I don't want you to wake up someday and regret it" he needed to be sure

"I do want to stay with you! I swear I'll never take you for granted again" she told him without any hesitation

"Ditto, but still we don't have to date if you don't want to, I'm fine with just sharing the place with you" he didn't want her to feel forced to date him or anything

"But I really want to, I really like you Brandon and I want to be your girlfriend, I mean, if you still want it..." she started thinking maybe he wouldn't want to be with her anymore

"Of course I do" he always did "I had to go away from my dad and all but I didn't want to leave you behind"

"But if I didn't go there you would have left without even saying goodbye" she thought of how sad she would have been if Brandon had gone away from her life for good without her even knowing what happened

"Because I figured no one would give a shit if I was gone, if we were still dating back then I totally would've told you I was leaving, and... maybe ask you to come with me" he actually thought of seeing her one last time before going to the bus station just to say goodbye

"It's romantic, I guess" she smirked at the thought

"So, uh.. what are we going to do here? Do you have like a plan or something?" Dawn asked him feeling the need of a clue of what was going to happen to them now

"Oh sure, so we already have a place to stay and I brought some money that we can use to buy some shit we need for a few days and I'll look for a job ASAP, my uncle said he would help me with that" he explained to her

"What about me? What should I do?" she asked him

"I guess you can do whatever you want, you can stay here while I'm working, you can go out if you feel like it and maybe in a while you can find a job you like"

"For now I think I'll just stay here" she still got to get used to NY and all

"Okay, good" he said with a certain relief "being honest I think I'd rather if you stay here where it's safe when I'm not around, I mean these streets can be dangerous as fuck and no offense but you look like you'd lose a fight to an alley cat"

That made her laugh which caught him by surprise and he grinned

"You know, I don't think I ever saw you smiling before" until then Dawn was only angry or sad

"I guess I'm not used to" she shrugged

"Me neither, but we can try" he really liked her smile

"So... does this means we are boyfriend and girlfriend now?" she asked him just to be sure

"Fuck yeah!" that's exactly what he wanted

Then he lifted her chin to kiss her, it was the first time they kissed since they left the suburbs and even though it was just a few hours ago they missed each other's lips so much it felt as good as their first kiss, it was their first make-up kiss

"You're a really good kisser" she told him as she was catching her breath

"Really? Thanks!" Brandon smiled awkwardly, slightly blushing "So are you" he loved her rosy lips so much "Just so you know, we're not gonna get cheesy like those couples on TV do" he said in a slightly more serious tone

"Okay" Dawn kind of expected this from him "Can we go back inside? It's getting cold"

"Sure thing" he got up holding her hand and she followed him back inside

They went back to their tiny apartment, it wasn't much but it was a roof over their heads and it was kind of cozy and Dawn had a feeling soon it would feel like home to them