----- Chapter Two -----

"You gonna go after him?" I ask. I'm pretty good friends with Scott too, we've had our fair share of deep and meaningfuls. Abs nods,

"Come with me. You can talk to him. He actually listens to you."

We make out way out and see Scott sitting on some stone steps outside the entrance. He looks up at us and then buries his head in his hands.

Abs sits down next to him, "Wassup Scott?"

"Leave me alone," Scott grunts, then sniffs. Abs tries again,

"No seriously mate, I wanna help…"

"I said leave me alone. Just piss off," Scott gives Abs a bit of a shove. Abs looks at his friend and shakes his head as Scott reburies himself in his arms.

"I'll talk to him," I say quietly. Abs walks back in and shrugs,

"See ya later."

I sigh heavily - that's the last I'll prolly see of him tonight now. I sit down on the steps next to Scott and wait a few moments before touching him gently on the shoulder and asking, "What went wrong Scott? What did she do now?"

His head snaps up, "She didn’t do anything…"

"Yea. Now look me in the eyes and tell me the truth."

Scott stares me in the eyes, "She…she didn’t…" he sighs and looks away.

"Hey - you don’t have to tell me," I say softly, "Just that you're ok. I don’t want you sitting out here getting all suicidal or something…"

Scott shakes his head, "I'm alright. Nothing that a hug from my girl ain't gonna fix."

"Will I make do in the meantime?" I smile. He nods and holds his arms out for a hug. A few minutes later, me and Scott are still hugging and Billie stumbles out.

"Ooh sorry!"

"No, no," I say flatly, "Scott's just upset." If it got back to Kerry that me and Scott were hugging - boy would he be in the shit!

Billie laughs and promptly throws up in the nearest bush. I don’t like her. I mean, she's a year younger than me and she's allegedly already had two abortions (not Ritchie's though). Slut. Ok so I respect her for doing her singing thang and I spose she treats Ritchie well - which is all that counts in the end. She understands that on a day off, Ritchie wants to chill out most of the time. Kerry always wants to take Scott out and show him off. So, although I don’t really like either of them, Billie's good for Ritchie.

Finally, Billie seems to finish and she leaves us in peace. Scott pulls back.

"Wanna talk?"

He shrugs, "She's too jealous. She argues…all the time. She makes me so unhappy. But I love her."

"What did she do tonight?" I ask. Scott stares at his hands,

"Well, I was talking to your friend…" he gulps from a beer bottle, "your friend…y'know?"

"Marie. She's called Marie."

"Yeah. Marie. And Kerry, she seemed cool. I was just talking! So me and Kerry are dancing and I just happen to SMILE at Marie and Kerry slaps me."

"Oh," I nod. It doesn’t help that Scott's a total flirt. So Kerry gets jealous a lot over nothing and they argue. It'd be almost alright if Scott wasn’t so sensitive. It'd be a breakup/makeup relationship; stormy and passionate. But, as it is, she just makes him miserable, "Well…no comment. You know my views."

"Yeah. I know you don’t like her."

I sigh. Why can't everyone just have perfect love lives? Why can't Billie not seem like such a slag? Why can't Kerry treat Scott nice? Why can't I be with Abs? Why isn't he interested…? Before I know what's happened, a tear plops onto my face.

"What's wrong?" it's Scott's turn to ask me. I sniff and shrug.

"The usual. Unrequited love…"

"Oh. Anyone I know?"

"Oh yeah. Verrry well," I stare at the ground, "It's Abs. He's so nice to me…I think I love him."

"Wow. That was unexpected…I mean, well yeah it was."

I shrug, "I donno how it happened but I can't cope being so close to him but not being with him, y'know?"

Scott nods, "Yeah."

"I don’t know what to do. Risk our friendship on a small, small chance - or stay friends?"

"Well…" Scott leans back on his hands, "I remember, a few years back, before Kerry, when…"