"Well?" Reilly spoke, "What's the name?"

"I haven't read it yet," Zac said in a vigilant tone. He clutched the envelope face down in his hand.

"Come on Zac!" Taylor yelled, desperate to solve the puzzle. 

Zac was evidently hesitant. He spoke slowly and carefully, "What if we regret this?"

"Regret what?" I asked.

"What if I tell you whose house we're in and you wish you hadn't heard it,"

Zac was scaring me. We all looked at each other in bafflement. Zac looked down at the envelope, "What if we can't believe the decisions we've made to end up here."

I watched Zac's eyes flickering with all sorts of raw emotions, "....You've read it already, haven't you..."

Zac answered "Yes," in a tiny whisper. He swallowed hard.

"Tell us Zac," Taylor prompted. Zac glanced at me with his huge eyes and turned the envelope over, looking at each one of us once more.

"The letter says Mrs. M Walters," Zac said. "This is Connor's house."

The four of us had no idea what to say in response to such news. Taylor audibly gasped and I held my clenched fist tightly over my mouth.

I finally broke the silence, "Did he bring us here?"

"Connor's away in Houston for the weekend,"

This time Reilly gasped.

"So what are you saying?" Reilly asked, his voice faintly laced with anger.

"Did his parents let us in?" Taylor asked. The suggestion would have seemed ridiculous at any other time, but we were willing to stall for as long as we could before finding out the truth. 

"Well, did they?" Taylor asked again, he too was becoming angry. 

"His parents are with him, Taylor." 

"...What did we do..." I almost whispered. 

"We broke into this house," Zac said. 

I don't know why, but I started to cry. I cried helpless, almost desperate tears. Zac came to me and wrapped me in his arms. 

"How..." Taylor asked, more to himself than to us, although Zac felt he had to answer. 

"The study window was broken behind the curtains. We didn't even notice it before,"

"Shit," Taylor raised his voice above us, causing a painful wave through my head. Everything was hitting Taylor at once as he realized what we'd let ourselves do.

"How could we have done something like this?" I asked, crying against Zac's chest. He smoothed my hair down and kissed the top of my head. 

"I don't know, Kirb..."

"How did we get so fuckin drunk?" Taylor raised his voice again and smacked his fist against a wall. 

"What gives you the right to get so angry?" Reilly questioned Taylor, "We made some serious mistakes last night but we can't reverse them!"

"I know we can't!"

"So why do you have to speak about us as if we're idiots?!"

"I'm not!"

Taylor and Reilly's feud was unraveling in front of us. Zac tightened his hold on me and persisted on saying nothing to or about Taylor and Reilly. We turned our backs to them.

"We should probably get out of here," Zac whispered in my ear.

I nodded against his chest, "Do you think we'll be caught?"

Zac sighed, "I think it's worth taking that risk rather than facing the humiliation,"

I nodded again. I knew we were taking the easy way out of the problem and maybe making another one of those serious mistakes, but it wasn't in us to think of anything better, nor could we even comprehend dealing with a criminal record. 

"Why are you being such a fucking asshole!" Reilly was screaming at Taylor who stood with clenched fists at his sides, ready to pop at any second. 

"Because I'm sick of the way you try to control everything!!"

"TAYLOR! REILLY! SHUT THE FUCK UP!" I screamed, my hands separating the two. "You don't even know each other well enough to make such accusations!"

Taylor and Reilly's shoulders slumped.

I lowered my voice to a normal level again, "I understand that everyone handles fear differently, but this isn't right. You guys are nearly friends...Please...Calm down,"

Zac came to stand closer to us, "We have to get out of here,"

"But what about the window?" Reilly asked.

"We can throw a brick in from outside and make it look like some kids did it just to be annoying, but we have to fix the living room before we leave,"

Almost automatically, everyone straightened up the living room, gave one another one last scared-mindless glance and left Connor's house. 

-    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    

(cut to Kirby's boudoir)

By that afternoon, the majority of us had put the incident behind us and decided there was no use agonizing over it. We all lazed around my bedroom, half on bean bags, half on the bed. Although I felt, at first, that any immediate regrets and anger we felt had somewhat left for the time being, I knew there was still a terrible layer of tension between some of us.

Taylor and I sat on my bed. I lay on my back reading the latest novel from Literature class, Wuthering Heights. I was well and truly immersed in it when I felt a hand creeping its way onto my stomach and began to travel upwards.

My eyes widened.

"Taylor..." I whispered, "Don't..."

He frowned, "Sorry..."

Five minutes later, his hand had chosen to travel up my side instead.

"Taylor,"

He moved my arm out of the way and began to nuzzle into my neck, trying desperately to reach my mouth but I wouldn't let him.

"Quit it Taylor,"

He pursed his lips and sat back on the other side of the bed.

"What's your problem, Kirby?" Taylor asked. I suspected a little spite accompanying his tone of voice.

"I don't have a problem, Taylor,"

"Fine."

"What do you mean, fine?"

"What else would I mean?"

I rolled my eyes at his immaturity, "Anybody want anything from the kitchen? I'm getting some tea,"

Zac politely said no, Reilly shook his head and Taylor just stared. I left the room.

-    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    

(cut to the kitchen)

I'd just plunked the tea bag in the cup when I heard footsteps entering the kitchen. They came closer until they reached me. I turned around and found myself face to face with Taylor, his expression transformed and his hands, once again, began to wander.

He pulled me up against him and got what he wanted, well, part of it. He slammed his mouth against mine, kissing me madly and frantically. I snaked my hands up between us and pushed him away. He looked shattered.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" He asked.

"Nothing! I already told you,"

"Nothing is wrong? Nothing? So you're sickened by me for no reason?" He asked, his anger already rising.

"I...."

"Tell me why you don't want to kiss me," He demanded.

"I don't know, Taylor,"

"TELL ME!"

Taylor and I stood in front of each other in the kitchen, glaring, the tension that had been laying quiet since we left Connor's house becoming louder. 

"Why do you care so much!" I nearly yelled.

"Why do I fucking CARE? I thought you liked it Kirby!"

"You're just looking for a fight," I turned around and tried to finish making my tea.

"Don't turn your back to me!"

"Don't treat me like your-" I stopped.

"My what?"

I said nothing. I stirred the sugar into my tea.

"FUCKING ANSWER ME!"

My anger flared, "STOP TREATING ME LIKE YOUR GIRLFRIEND BECAUSE I'M NOT!"

"You bitch!"

"I never said we were going out Taylor! You don't have to be all over me all the time!"

"You lead me on!"

"I never did anything of the sort! We never even considered going out, and you know that!" I set my tea back down on the bench after nearly dropping it.

"I never knew that!!"

"Oh don't play dumb with me Taylor!"

"You're the one playing dumb, how can you treat me like that? You're hot one minute, cold the next,"

"That's bullshit,"

"You slept with me,"

"I know that! Why are you reminding me?"

"Oh, so now that was a mistake, too?"

"I don't know what to say to you," I took my tea and stalked down the hallway, Taylor following close behind.

"Why don't you wanna talk about this!"

"Because we're not talking, we're yelling!" The argument had originally started due to the mistakes the four of us had made the previous night, but Taylor and I had ventured into much stronger topics that hit much closer to home.

"Whatever we're doing, I want to discuss this problem!"

"WHAT PROBLEM!?" I screamed, and stopped at the middle mark on the stair case, almost losing my tea.

"Why do you keep denying that there's a problem!!"

"Fucking hell Taylor, because there isn't one. We're not together!"

"And that means we have no feelings for each other? Is that what you're trying to say!"

"Maybe it is..." Taylor and I stopped in the hallway to the bedrooms. Zac and Reilly huddled beside the door and eavesdropped.

"How can you have sex with me and still have no feelings for me!! How can you use someone like that!"

I wanted to cry but used all my strength to control myself.

"Why can't you just leave everything behind!"

"Because not everyone is as heartless as you are!"

"How dare you say something like that!"

"YOU DESERVE IT!"

I bit my lip to control the anger, "GET OUT!"

"You can't pretend this problem doesn't exist Kirby! It's not something you can sweep under the rug!"

"GET OUT! GET THE FUCK OUT!"

Taylor glared at me and thrashed out of the house, slamming the door behind him. Zac and Reilly scampered out of my way when I headed in their direction. Zac looked at me before I shut the door to my bedroom. I wasn't planning on coming out for the rest of the night.

-    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    

(cut to work on sunday afternoon)

Work at the ice-cream parlour was quite boring the next day since it was an unusually cold day in town. I'd spent the majority of my shift perched on the bench laughing at MonoBrow trying to mop the floors. Rita was huddled in the back room watching her brand new portable TV. I was about to attempt at helping MonoBrow when I noticed the Hanson car pulling into the space in front of the shop.

I raced out of the shop, almost slipping on the wet floors and ran out to the car. Mrs Hanson smiled and waved as she ran off in the direction of the doctor's surgery, little Zoe waddling close behind her. I looked back at the car and watched Zac hopping out of his seat.

"Hey Zac,"

"Hey..." He said, his expression mixed as he closed the car door.

I watched him curiously as he locked the car and walked around to the front of it, "So..." I said, trying  to fill the gap void of any sound.

He acknowledged me standing there with a strange little grin and pocketed the car keys, causing his cargo pocket to sag as he walked.

"Zac?"

"Hmm?"

"...Are you angry with me?"

Zac turned to face me and gave a disappointed sigh, exactly the way parents do when you've broken their rules.

"I don't really know what I am, Kirb. Angry isn't really the word...I guess I'm more...."

"Disappointed?"

"Yes,"

"I'm so sorry, Zac..."

"I just....I just didn't know that you'd slept with Taylor,"

I gasped.

Zac blushed, "I mean it really isn't any of my business, but I guess it's something that you kind of just want to know about for stupid reasons,"

"...I'm just so sorry you had to see that side of me,"

"I don't think any less of you for it..."

"Really?"

"Yes, really...Everyone makes mistakes and I can see it on your face that you're sorry,"

I smiled, then thought of Taylor and it quickly faded into a frown, "I have to talk to him sooner or later,"

"If you feel that you need to...I'm here for you,"

My smile reappeared and Zac came to swing an arm around me, hugging me towards him.

"I'm glad we're ok Zac," I said, squeezing his hand.

"Me too, Kirb,"

"Want some ice cream? My shift is nearly finished,"

"Sure! As if I'd ever knock back ice cream!"