Turning the music that she had turned up on her way to Joel's house down, Brianna turned off the ignition of the car and sat there for a minute, deciding whether she should go talk to him or not. She finally decided on doing so, and strolled up to the front step, hesitantly knocking on the door. Lori, the twins' mother answered.

"Hello Anna," she said, looking rather tired and worn out.

Brianna had met her once or twice before, so she cheerfully returned the greeting. "Hi Mrs. Combs. Is Joel here?"

"Yeah," Lori answered, pulling the door open some more and motioning for Brianna to come in, "he's in his room. You can go ahead down the hall and go on in."

Brianna stepped inside. "Thank you." she said, making her way down the hall. She stopped at the second door to the left, knowing that this was Joel's room. She knocked lightly.

"It's open," she heard him call.

Brianna opened the door, stepped into the room and closed the door behind her. Joel didn't look to see who had come in, but continued to throw some darts at a dartboard - which he was horribly missing. "Hey." she said, trying not to laugh at the ratio of darts on the wall to the ones that were actually on the board.

Joel glanced over at Brianna for a moment and then turned his attention back to his darts. "How did you get in here?" he asked with a snotty attitude.

"I fucking crawled through a window. How the hell do you think I got in; your mom let me in." she remarked, using the same tone he had. Joel glared at Brianna but said nothing. "Joel! What is your problem?" She sat down next to him on his bed.

He stood up and picked up the darts. "What's my problem? What yours?! You're the one coming in here and bitching at me." he yelled at her. He set the darts down on his desk and began picking up his room, obviously trying to avoid eye contact.

"Bitching at you?! I came here to because I wanted to know what's wrong! I don't like seeing you act like this."

"Like what?" he asked, slamming something on the desk.

"Like that! Pissed off and angry at the world. You're going to have to say something eventually otherwise you're going to keep it all inside and you're gonna get even more pissed off and angry and you're going to blow up at someone one day, and it'll more than likely be me or Benji."

Lori opened the door about halfway and looked into the room. "Is everything okay in here?"

"Yes mom." Joel answered.

"Are you sure?" Lori implored, concerned.

"Yes mother. Everything is fine." Joel snapped, getting more agitated.

"Okay. Just checking." Lori stepped out of the room and shut the door.

"See." Brianna commented. "Your mother doesn't need that shit from you. She has other things to deal with and your attitude isn't one of them."

Joel didn't say anything. Both teenagers were silent for nearly two minutes; Joel continued cleaning and Brianna played with the zipper on her sweater, not knowing what to say next.

She couldn't take the complete silence anymore, so she walked up behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist. She stood on her tip-toes (<~ that is the most retarded word I've seen in a long time!) A bit to rest her chin on his shoulder, since she was slightly shorter than him. "Will you please tell me what's wrong? Or at least let me know that you're okay?" she asked softly.

Joel didn't say anything right away, so Brianna thought he had given in and decided to tell her, but she was wrong. He walked away from her loose grip, going to sit down on his bed. "Nothing is wrong, and I'm fine." he grumbled.

Brianna sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "Alright, fine. Whatever. I came here to talk to you before I leave tomorrow so that we weren't arguing over ... whatever stupid thing it is we're arguing over ... while I was gone. But if this what I'm going to get in return, then so be it."

A knock was heard at the door and Lori once again looked in. "Joel, honey, your brother is on the phone and wants to know if you can go pick him up from Natalie's."

"Yeah mom, I'll go get him."

"Alright," Lori put the phone back to her ear and began talking to who Brianna assumed to be Benji, as she yet again closed the door.

"Okay well, I'm leaving." Brianna stated.

"Well, so am I." Joel replied.

"Okay ..." Brianna grabbed her keys off the bed where she had set them when she first arrived. She exited the room followed be Joel. The two walked out of the house and got into their separate vehicles without saying goodbye.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Brianna arrived in Arizona the next afternoon, still a bit upset about the whole Joel thing the night before. The minute she stepped off the plane from the big, long tunnel thing (<~ oh my gosh!! I cannot think of the word for that!! Is it a terminal??), she was greeted by a big hug rom her cousin Jenna.

"Anna!" Jenna screeched, "hi! How are you?!"

Brianna smiled and hugged her cousin back. "I'm good, how are you?"

"Good! You remember my boyfriend Andrew, right?" Jenna asked, pointing to the guy next to her.

"Yeah," Brianna smiled at him, "what's up?"

Andrew smiled back. "Nothin' much."

"You look just like Jeremy," Jenna commented, tugging on the pocket of Brianna's black dickies. Brianna smiled cheesily. "You look different. I don't know why, but there's just something about you that looks different." Jenna continued as they walked through the airport to the baggage claim.

"I got glasses." Brianna said, pointing to the 'emo glasses' that covered her dark brown eyes. "And my hair isn't brown anymore."

"Oh yeah! Ha." They arrived at the luggage carousel and waited for the bags to start coming. "So, Anna. You got a boooyfriend?!?" Jenna teased.

Brianna laughed slightly, more out of courtesy than amusement. "I don't know." she practically uttered.

"How can you not know?" Andrew asked.

"Um ... long story. I do, but we got in an argument last night before I left and it was never resolved, so I don't know what it's going to be like when I get home. Eh .. I don't want to talk about it."

Jenna nodded. "That's cool. I totally understand. Are you hungry?"

Brianna smirked, glad to have gotten away from the subject of Joel so quickly. "A little, yeah."

"Alright, we'll take you to lunch." After getting Brianna's bags, the trio headed to Andrew's truck and headed to his and Jenna's apartment to settle in for a few minutes, and then went to lunch.