A/N: Hey, thank you so much for your reviews! They’re really great and really entertaining too. :D

-- UPMBT I really did try to write this faster and I can’t really say I did it oh so well… but you know. My head hurts. (That’s a good excuse.)

BUT, actually, I did manage to rewrite my first three chapters, although their not quite masterpeices yet... but... they're coming along... heh. I rewrite them after I poster chapter four, I think, so you might need to just... scan throughthem or something? I don't know if the story won't make sense now, but I didn't really make all that bigger changes.

Also, could I recommend the song "Sugar, we're going down" by Fall Out Boy?! I don't know if anyone has trouble finding Slashy songs (unless I'm taking the song the wrong way...) but I do. Don't worry, I'm slowly building a collection. Heh. If you know any good ones, you know, let me in on them, yeah?? :)

Okay, sweet. Read on?

Chapter Five:

In the land of dirt and plaster
Lies an army of a thousand nowhere kids
Losing ground and falling faster
Into a life that no one should have to live

We are the people that you hate
We are the bastards that you created (the fucking bastards that you created)
Ageneration with no place
Ageneration of all your sons and daughters

Behind the fake family image
Behind the smile of a thousand moms and dads
Inside the cage that we've been given
I see an image of the future that we don't have

"No where Kids" -- Smile Empy Soul

I woke up in the fucking wicker chair, cramped and uncomfortable, the blinding sunlight hurting my eyes, birds chirping and trees swaying. I watched a squirrel for a while, running around the road, fascinated beyond all reason, really. I went inside when I lost sight of it.

Aunty Sue was pottering around the kitchen, pans were spitting and she didn’t notice me come in. I avoided the sight of Nathan, because, well, I was still pissed off at him and he was, well, topless.

“Kaden!” she exclaimed when she finally caught sight of me, sat quietly in a chair opposite Nathan but never glancing in his direction. This didn’t fail to amuse him, and in the bad mood I was in, should I make eye contact I probably wouldn’t be able to stem the constant stream of abuse that would flow unblushingly from my lips. “Where were you all night?”

“I was… on the porch,” I said, and you could just here the wonder in my voice. Sleep outside in Birmingham and you’d have been mugged before you closed your eyes. I’d forgotten Charlotte was a world away.

“Enjoying the country air?”

Flatly, “No.”

Although, if Nathan had done the whole make me pissed of and horny back in Birmingham, I had to sleep on his bedroom floor… I reckon I would have chanced being mugged. Bitch.

Frustration flared inside of me.

Nathan was looking at me. “What do you want?” I snapped.

He studied me for a moment. “Good sleep?”

I scowled at him, “Dead to the world.”

“I’m going to go into town, today, get the paper work from the post office,” she told me over her shoulder attending to the breakfast. “Would you like to come?”

Would’ve liked to last night, I thought sourly.

x

The phone was shrill. It hurt my ears. I wanted to rip the cord out of the wall. I stood there awkwardly, feeling and looking kind of affronted, wondering why the hell it chose to ring while I was walking by it. Didn’t it like me either?

After a couple of rings, “Are you going to answer that,” he called, slightly perplexed.

Is this my house? I’d been stood here watching it ring with my hands in my back pockets and hadn’t made a move yet, so no. “Doesn‘t look like it.”

His chair scraped back on the floors, and he managed to catch it before the person hung up. It had been ringing forever - they must be desperate. And he’d managed to slip in a “You’re so obnoxious” before a “Hi?”

Then he got a stupid smile on his face. “Hey.” I folded my arms across my chest. “No. Sylvie wanted to do something later, but that’s like, eight or whatever. Yeah sure? What now? Um, sure. Just give me a chance to have a shower, okay? Uh huh, sweet. See you then. No, me neither.”

And then he turned to me with a big goofy grin that didn’t falter at my scowl. “What’s wrong with you?” he asked cheerily.

“Your voice gives me a headache.”

Nathan laughed. “Lighten up, Kaden. Try dropping the world hates me attitude for once.” He brushed passed me, but stopped at the top of the stairs. “If Ross gets here before I’m ready,” he said. “Tell him to wait in the kitchen. And, like, play nice, okay?”

I didn’t answer him, just kind of looked at him, standing there at the top of the stairs. He was so tall. He shrugged and turned away, and I watched him leave without checking out his ass.

x

I had been lolling in between sleep and consciousness when there were knuckles rapping against the front door. I pulled myself off the sofa, scowling because I knew this was going to be Ross, and I just knew that this was the gay from last night.

My stomach turned at the thought, and I wrenched the door open, tempted to leave it but figuring that he wasn’t going to get lost.

“What?”

He looked slightly surprise until he realised I was the shadow on the porch from last night. “Hey,” he said, and the confidence of that irritated me. “Kaden, right? I’m Ross.”

He wore a smile, although I clearly didn’t, and extended a hand at me, which I just looked at.

He laughed at me. “Its called a handshake, love. It’s used a greeting around here.”

What a fucker! Dark curls wrapped around his ears and over his collar. “I don’t want to touch you.”

He didn’t laugh this time, fucking ass, he just dropped the hand and with the other kind of massaged his neck. “Okay,” he said, looking me up and down. “Did I, uh, do something offensive?”

My thin eyebrows narrowed even more, and I shut the door in his face before he hacked me off even more. Only the door stopped halfway, and I was aware, then, of a presence behind me after taking a step back, kind of jumping back to where I was and I felt a light pressure on my waist, steadying me.

“Oh,” I said, moving away from his touch and turning my back on Rossy. “Its you.”

“I’m glad you really took note of the whole, “Play Nice” thing.”

I raised my eyebrows as he had his raised too. “Oh,” I murmured, “You were talking to me?” His hair was wet from the shower, and my stomach just sort of flipped, completely. He smelt divine.

I raised my eyebrows as he had his raised too. “Oh,” I murmured, “You were talking to His hair was wet from the shower, and my stomach just sort of flipped, completely. He smelt divine.

“Hell, Kaden,” and he was kind of exasperated. “I forgot how obnoxious you could be.”

“You’re in my way.” And you’re really hot.

“I don’t think you’ve changed at all.”

“Nathan,” I said, tired of all this talking and aware Ross’s eyes were burning holes in my back. “Your boyfriend is waiting for you, he said he’s not waiting forever before he still needs to milk the cows and get a life, so if you could just move…”

“Whatever,” he conceded, and I slipped past, and before I was out of ear shot (so the tele hadn’t reached maximum volume yet) I heard Ugly Ross wonder out loud, “What’s his problem?”

“Dunno,” Nathan said, although I tried to ignore them.

“Not enough love as a child?”

Fuck of, spare me, I silently fumed. Not enough? My parents were never there to give me any, and I’m not even sure they knew how, or know how. But I don’t need it, and I still don’t. I mean, I’ve never experienced “love” and I don’t know how to love either. I can’t miss something I never had. And I don’t want it, either.

“Delicate soul, Kaden is,” I heard Nathan laugh light heartedly, and it was a nice sound. “Deeply affected and in tune to all the worlds misery, and he takes it as a personal insult.”

And you’re a fucker, too.

He’d been really close, when I had stepped into him. Why was he wasting his time with Ugly Ross? I mean, he’s alright, if you want the whole Beauty and the Beast effect, but really? Ugly Ross is also a tosser.

There’s something about Nathan that just won’t leave me alone. I want him and I hate him and its so Goddamn frustrating! And he doesn’t know me, not anymore. He can act like he does, but I have changed. We’ve both changed. And maybe when I’m in a better mood, it might be fun to get to know each other all over again…