• tab What the hell had he been thinking?
    tab Throwing himself back onto his bed, Nate covered his eyes with his hand. The truth was he didn’t even know anymore. Ever since Cassidy had spoken to him, he couldn’t seem to stay focused on anything else expect her words. For the last three days he had walking around in a daze, constantly trying to pull his head out of the clouds. And now because of his foolishness, Jenna hated him.
    tab Last night, he had attempted not to let Cassidy’s words get to him and at first he was fine. But when Jenna brought up Fantasia, he completely lost it. The next thing he knew he was on top of Jenna who was begging him to stop.
    tab Reaching over to the side table, he grabbed his phone and checked the time. Only thirty minutes before he had to go down to the lobby and meet up with Theo and Jenna. But he couldn’t face her, not yet. He had to resolve this thing that was going on with Cassidy first. Of course, he knew that he couldn’t tell her about this, that’d only make it worse.
    tab Sighing, he opened up his phone and quickly dialed Theo’s number.
    tab Theo picked up on the second ring, “What?”
    tab “Hey, I know that you probably don’t want to hear this but…but I’m not coming today,” Nate said at last.
    tab “Why not?” Theo’s voice was sharp and direct; Nate knew that he’d have to lie as if his life depended on it if he wanted to get past Theo.
    tab “Something came up and I can’t get out of it.”
    tab “Really? Funny, Cass said the same thing,” Nate heard Theo sneering on the phone. “Whatever you did, I strongly suggest you apologize. It’s bad enough that your girlfriend already ruined the summer but could you-”
    tab “What did you just say?” Nate snapped. He had had enough of Theo’s rotten attitude. “Listen, I know you’re mad at me, but leave Jenna out of it. She didn’t do anything wrong so stop giving her a hard time.”
    tab There was a long pause on the other end and Nate feared that Theo might have hung up on him. Then at last he heard his friend’s cold voice, “I don’t know what’s going on between you and Cass, but whatever it is, fix it now. I’m already at the castle, I’ll tell the princess that the game’s canceled and then I’m gone.”
    tab Nate slid out of bed and walked over to his window and opened the blinds. Great, now Theo was mad at him, just like Cassidy and Jenna.
    tab “Wait Theo, I know you don’t want to do this, but I want you to hang with Jenna,” he whispered.
    tab “Hell no!”
    tab Nate pulled his phone away from his ear while Theo yelled at him. He knew that he was asking a lot of him, but Nate couldn’t let Jenna be alone. The last thing he wanted her to do was get involved with his conflict with Cass.
    tab “Why do I have to hang with her? She’s your girlfriend,” Theo concluded after he was done ranting.
    tab Running a hand through his hair, Nate sighed as he leaned against his wall, “I did something stupid to her last night and I-”
    tab “I get it,” Theo said interrupting him. There was a long silence before he added, “You don’t have to tell me what you did, its not like I want to hear about it anyway. I’ll hang with her, but I’m warning you, get your act together or come the end of the summer, your not going to have any friends left.”
    tab Nate knew what Theo was doing. Though his tone was bitter and cold, Nate knew that his friend was only looking out for him. They both knew that if he didn’t fix this conflict with Cass, than things would never be the same again. And as for Jenna, Nate was just thankful that Theo had understood the importance of his request.
    tab “You have no idea how much I owe you. But Theo, try not to make Jenna hate me more than she already does.” He didn’t know why he had bothered asking. Even though Theo had promised to stay with Jenna, he was sure that he would act sullen and grumpy as usual.
    tab “Yeah, yeah. Don’t bother talking to me until you’ve patched things up with Cassidy,” and then he was gone.
    tab Closing his phone, Nate slid back onto his bed. Fixing things with Cassidy wasn’t going to be easy. She was stubborn like Nate but hopefully he could talk some sense into he. And Jenna, well, he’d deal with that later. He didn’t trust himself enough to confront her without the risk of his mind wandering away from him again.
    tab “I’m going to fix this.” He had to or Theo’s warning might come true.

    tab It shouldn’t have been a surprising to her that Nate wasn’t there in the lobby when she came down that morning. Of course he wouldn’t be here, she thought as she glanced around, trying to find Cassidy or Theo. After last night, she had hoped he might call to finally explain to her what was going on but obviously, he hadn’t.
    tab “Over here,” a voice called from the far end of the room.
    tab Turning around, Jenna sighed to herself as she saw Theo striding towards her. Like always, he didn’t look exactly thrilled to see her, in fact today, he looked especially angry.
    tab “Where’s Nate and Cassidy?”
    tab Sitting down on one of the couches, Theo grabbed a magazine and thumbed through it, “Cassidy’s got this family thing and Nate…” his voice trailed off as he stared intently at one of the ads.
    tab So Nate was avoiding her, what a surprise. Sinking down next him, Jenna drew her legs up besides her, “By any chance, have you noticed anything strange about Nate?”
The fact that Theo might actually know something and even tell her about it was along shot, but it was worth a chance.
    tab Placing the magazine back down, Theo picked up another one, “Stay out if it. Let Nate deal with his problems, he’ll just get mad if you try and butt in.”
    tab Jenna frowned, why did Theo have to be such a jerk? Would it kill him to actually be nice to her? Folding her arms she looked away. Though she didn’t want to admit it, she knew that Theo was right; Nate would get angry if she tried and helped him. That was just the way Nate was. Sighing, she wished Cassidy were here, she’d know what to do.
    tab “Come on, we’re leaving,” Theo said after he had finished flipping through another magazine. Jenna watched him stand up and crack his knuckles before heading towards the door, “You coming?”
    tab What other choice did she have? Besides Nate, Cassidy, and Theo, she didn’t have anyone else to hang with. Reluctantly, getting to her feet, she followed Theo outside. It was a cloudy morning, though Jenna could see the sun attempting to break through the thick gray clouds. A head of her, Theo walked at a fast pace taking big strides with his long legs, making Jenna have to run just to catch up with him.
    tab “I know you won’t talk about Nate, but can you at least tell me where we’re going?”
    tab Theo stopped so abruptly that Jenna nearly collided into him, “Nowhere specific, Nate just said to keep you out of his away.”
    tab She didn’t want to believe that Nate had given such an order, but from the way Theo had said it she couldn’t help but believe it. This wasn’t fair, if he would just talk to her, than none of this would be happening.
    tab For a while they just walked in silence, Theo occasionally glancing back, probably just to make sure that she was still behind him. Eventually they reached the beach, though Theo didn’t walk out onto the sand, he merely stood there staring at the waves.
    tab Some day that this was turning out to be, it hadn’t even been twenty minutes and Jenna was already eager to head home.
    tab “Not that I care or anything,” Theo turned towards her and folded his arms, “but what exactly did Nate do that made you mad at him?”
    tab Was he serious? After he had denied her any information about Nate, Theo had the nerve to ask her about her personal life, like they were actually close friends or something.
    tab “It’s none of your business, and I’m not mad at him, I just want to understand what's going on,” she mumbled as a flock of cyclists biked by.
    tab Running a through his hair, Theo cracked a rare smile, “He’ll be relieved to hear that. This morning Nate was going on acting like you were about to dump him or something.”
    tab Was that really what Nate thought? That she was going to dump him after what had happened.
    tab “Don’t worry about it, Nate tends to overreact about things,” Theo replied obviously having noticed the look of worry on her face, “he’ll calm down and come to his senses eventually.”
    tab Remembering the story that Cass had told her, Jenna knew that he was right. Soon enough Nate would figure out that she wasn’t mad at him and things would hopefully return to normal.
    tab “Jenna?”
    tab At first she hadn’t heard the voice, or if she had, she had clearly chosen to ignore it. But the second time her voice was called, the warm summer air turned brittle and frigid.
    tab “Jenna,” the voice called again, getting closer.
 It wasn’t possible she was only hearing things. If she turned around, she’d be able to prove to herself that this was all in her head. Taking a deep breath, she watched Theo turn around, his eyes narrowing.
    tab “You know this guy?” His voice asked coldly.
    tab She prepared herself to say no, that it was all just some twisted mistake, but of course that would have been a lie. Turning around, Jenna felt the blood drain in her face as an all too familiar person approached her.
    tab Since the last time she had seen him, not much had changed. He was still gawky, his skinny arms not doing justice to the muscles hiding underneath his skin. His hair was longer, hiding his amber eyes behind long strands of thick rusty blonde hair.
    tab “Jason?” Jenna had to force her voice to come out, “What…what are you doing here?” If it was possible, she was equally scared and surprised.
    tab The smile he flashed to her and Theo made Jenna’s skin crawl. That smiled was the trap that had lured her in, had made her believe that Jason could hardly hurt a fly. That he was someone she could trust.
    tab Ignoring her question, Jason held out his hand to Theo and said in a friendly voice, “Jason Warner, me and Jenna go to the same high school and she helped tutor me in math, would have flunked without her. Isn’t that right?” He winked in her direction before nudging her with his boney elbow.
    tab Inside she was screaming, ‘stay away from me,’ but instead she merely nodded in agreement as Theo hesitantly shook Jason’s hand while he mumbled his own name.
    tab Once the introductions were over, Jason turned his attention towards Jenna. “I heard you went of town for the break, never thought we’d end up in the same place huh?”
    tab “You said it,” her voice was shaky, but Theo didn’t notice. Instead, he kept his eyes fixated on Jason, as if he was trying to see through the mask that Jason was wearing. Unfortunately, Jenna knew that Theo didn’t see the truth, Jason was just too convincing. He could charm his way out of anything, just by flashing a smile and knowing the right words to say.
    tab Then there was a long silence that was sharply interrupted by cell phone ringing. Jenna’s heart sank as she watched Theo pull his phone out of his pocket and bring it to his ear.
    tab “Hello? Yeah, I know where that is. Twenty minutes? No problem I’ll be over in a few, bye.”
    tab Shoving his phone back into his pocket, Theo sighed, “Listen Jenna, I got to go, Dora has a delivery she wants me to make,” he pointed down the boardwalk while his eyes drifted over to Jason, “but look on the bright side, this leaves you time to catch up with your friend. I’ll see you later.” Then he was gone, walking away quickly almost as if he couldn’t have planned his escape from her any better.
    tab The moment Theo was out of sight, she felt the wide space separating her from Jason close as he stepped closer to her.“Your boyfriend’s a bit of a jerk, didn’t even kiss his girlfriend goodbye,” he breathed into her ear.
    tab Jenna moved away from him. “Theo’s not my boyfriend,” she replied flatly “just a friend.”
    tab A defiant smirk flashed across Jason’s face as he moved closer to her again, placing a hand on her cheek. “Doesn’t matter, I could have taken him anyway,” he brought his hand down to her lips which he traced with his fingers. “I missed this,” then he reached out and grabbed her waist until her chest was pressed against his, “and the rest of you.” A look of hunger had broken out upon his face, letting slip a hint of who he truly was.
    tab “Stay away from me,” she ordered, still trying to sound strong as she shoved him away. “Now tell me, what are you really doing here.”
    tab He sneered confidently, “Don’t flatter yourself, I didn’t come here because of you. I’m here visiting my cousins.”
    tab Jenna seriously doubted this, not with the way he was looking at her. She felt like a meal, like he was undressing her with his eyes
    tab “Then I suggest you stick close to them,” she sneered as she turned to walk away. However, Jason caught her arm and pulled her violently into him.
    tab “Listen, I know what I did to you was wrong, disgusting, let alone illegal but,” his eyes glinted evilly as he bent down until his eyes were even with hers, “I don’t regret a God damn minute of it. In fact…” he dropped his voice down to a whisper, “…I can’t wait to do it again.” Then without warning, he grabbed the back of her head, pulling her into a kiss.
    tab Jenna kept her eyes open the whole time while she tried to break free. Instead, her attempts proved useless and they only seemed to encourage Jason more. She felt his tongue part her lips and Jenna had to fight herself from gagging as she felt it slip inside her mouth.
    tab No!
    tab Yanking her arm free, she pushed him away just as his other hand had made a grab for her chest.
    tab Gasping for air, she watched in disgust as he started to laugh, “Resist me all you want Jenna, but we both know that you wanted me to sleep with you, why else would you insist on coming over to my house after school?”
    tab It was a lie, she hadn’t wanted him, had never wanted him. “Shut up Jason,” she cried, “I only came over because you asked for help.”
    tab Shrugging his shoulders, Jason turned and started back towards the beach. “Say what you want, but I know the truth, just like everybody else at school.”
    tab He reached the ramp before turning back at her. “By the way, next time we run into each other, try wearing something more flattering. I can’t even begin to explain how long I’ve been waiting to see you in a bikini.”
    tab “Why the hell would I do something like that?”
    tab Shrugging his shoulders, Jason smiled wickedly. “Cause if you don’t, I’ll tell that friend of yours all about the real you. Who knows, maybe I’ll even treat you to another go around depending on how sexy you look,” he called before walking out onto the sand and vanishing among the crowds of people scattered out on the beach.

    tab For the first time in his life, Nate was afraid to see Cass. He knew very well what she was going to say to him the moment he walked into her bedroom with Hilary smiling behind him, mistaking his visit for something else.
    tab Ever since he had turned sixteen, Hilary seemed to have gotten the idea in her head that he and Cass would end up with one another. At one time in his life, he had considered that possibility since Cass was the only girl that he ever seemed to interact with. Up until that day in the pool with Jenna, had he secretly clung to the chance of Cassidy and him being with one another, of course he thought differently now.
    tab Sighing again, he stepped back from Cass’s front door and paced the surrounding area for the hundredth time. Earlier, he had purposely taken the stairs, just to give him time to come up with the right words to say. But now that he was here, he wishing he could turn around. But, he had come this far, and if he didn’t talk to her now, he might never get the chance again.
    tab Taking a deep breath, h walked over to the door and knocked likely with his fist, half hoping that nobody was home.
    tab Unfortunately, Hilary’s bright red curls greeted him the moment the door swung open, along with the sounds of Cass’s younger brothers playing video games.
    tab “Well if it isn’t Nate Porter,” Hilary beamed as she opened the door wider for him to walk through, “seems like decades since I last saw you.”
    tab “Well, I’ve been busy with work and stuff,” he replied as the door closed behind him.
    tab Putting her hands on her slim hips, Hilary started towards the kitchen, “Can I get you anything?” Nate politely turned her offer down. “So what brings you here on this fine summer day?”
    tab “Can I talk to Cass?” He felt stupid, asking permission to speak to his best friend, especially when he usually would just silently barge into Cassidy’s room unannounced.
    tab A bright smile appeared on Hilary’s face, “I think I can arrange something, just give me a minute.”
    tab Nate watched Hilary glide over to Cassidy paint covered door. She knocked three times, the first two times her knocks went unanswered. On the third, Cass’s door cracked open and Nate could make out a thin sliver of his friend’s blonde hair.
    tab “Cass, you have a friend here to see you, can I send him?”
    tab Though he was too far away to hear what she said, he was positive that her first answer was no.
    tab “Come now, don’t leave Nate standing awkwardly in the hallway,” Hilary protested, making him sound like some uninvited guest which he quickly had to remind himself, he was.
    tab Another few minutes passed until as last, Cass appeared besides Hilary, “Come on,” she whispered rather reluctantly as she beckoned him to follow her into her room.
    tab Once the door had closed behind her, Cass immediately climbed back on her bed before grabbing a stuff animal her mother had knitted for her when she was five.
    tab “Let me guess,” she picked a loose strand of yarn off the stuffed cow, “you’re here to yell at me again?”
    tab Looking away, Nate walked over to her desk chair and sat down, “No, I only came here to talk. I’m sick of fighting, first with Theo, than you, and now Jenna…”
    tab “Jenna? Don’t tell me you yelled at her too,” her voice sounded concerned, though Nate was sure that her concern was only directed towards Jenna, not him.
    tab Deciding to ignore Jenna as a subject, he went on, “I’m sorry for yelling at you, you caught me off guard and I over reacted.”
    tab A small smile appeared on Cass’s face, “Over reacted huh? It wouldn’t be the first time,” she joked and he knew that she had forgiven him. “I guess I should apologize too, I should have approached the situation differently.”
    tab “So you really meant what you said then?”
 She nodded as she placed the stuffed cow on her pillow, “I know you don’t want to hear this, but think about it Nate, we don’t need Fantasia to make us happy anymore.”
    tab She was right, they didn’t need it anymore, but even so, he couldn’t seem to accept that fact.
    tab Getting off her bed, she walked over to him, “I know how much Fantasia means to you, but can’t you see that we no longer need it to make our lives better? But now we don’t need Fantasia to make us happy, not anymore.”
    tab Yeah he understood, had understood long before she had even brought the subject up. Ever since his first date with Jenna, he had started to notice that Fantasia wasn’t making him as happy as it once did. And she was right about them not having problems anymore. Back when they were younger, their lives were living hell: sicknesses, bullying, death, and divorce. Whenever they could, they’d come together and journey to Fantasia just to escape their problems for an hour or two. But now was different, those issues didn’t exist anymore; their lives had finally started to work out in their favor.
    tab “I get it, but how are you going to convince Theo it’s time to move on? If you thought I was hard to persuade then you have another thing coming.”
    tab Cass sighed as she put the letter back in its envelope, “I’ll deal with him, besides, its not like were just going to pull the plug. I have we plan. We’ll slowly decrease the amount of time we spend in Fantasia until, poof, its gone.”
    tab He hated to disappoint her, but her little plan wasn’t going to be so easy. Theo was stubborn, and wouldn’t let Fantasia go without a fight. Remembering how determined Theo was to get rid of Jenna, Nate wasn’t sure if Cassidy would be able to handle him on her own.
    tab “So what this thing with Jenna?”
    tab Glad to be back on speaking terms with Cassidy again, Nate shrugged his shoulders. “If its any constellation, ever since we last spoke, I haven’t been able to get your words out of my mind. Last night, I…I did something stupid all because I wasn’t thinking straight.” It was a partial lie, he had decided to leave out the part about how freaked Jenna got whenever a guy touched her. Up until now, he had to yet to tell Cass about Jenna’s secret and for now, it would remain that way.
    tab A look of terror streaked Cass’s face, “You didn’t force her or something?”
    tab “No, but I didn’t listen to her when she told me to stop. She practically had to scream to pull my head out of the clouds.” This was why he liked having Cass as a friend; she’d listen to him no matter what the deal was.
    tab Going back over to her bed, Cass motioned for him to join her, “Why is it, every time I turn my back, you somehow manage to create a big mess?” She was smiling and Nate knew that’d she help him to the best that she could.
    tab “I guess that’s just the way I am.”
    tab One problem down, one to go.