Tobey turned into a small alleyway. He could hear the rhythmic beat of the music on the other side of the wall and knew he was where he wanted to be. He opened the door and the volume of the music slapped him in the face, but he pushed forward into almost pitch black. His eyes adjusted quickly - it wasn't much darker then it was outside, really. Pink and orange lights pulsed from the ceiling, and everything glittered around him.

Tobey stuck out. The girls in this club were all barely dressed, all in tube tops. short shorts, and tall heeled shoes. Each one looked sixteen, and too young to be dancing that provocatively. At a glance, every one of these girls was pretty, but if he looked for more than a moment he could see each girl's makeup melting off her face. He could see the glitter of sweat on each girl's shoulders. He didn't fit in. The other boys in the club all looked as though they belonged in gangs, whether it be the Tight Pants Gang or the Pop A Cap In Your Ass Gang. They all looked like they could belong at the circus. His normal plaid, flannel shirt, open over a brown T-shirt didn't fit in. His plain jeans barely passed. No one looked at him, though. His perfect ordinary-ness made everyone's eyes pass right over him.

Tobey headed over to the bar area. It wasn't a real bar, since Tobey was in an under-21 club. This "bar" served all kinds of carbonation imaginable. As Tobey approached he noticed that the only person already at the bar was a girl. She looked just as out of place as Tobey. For one thing, she was clothed, and not covered in sweat. Her makeup wasn't overdone, and her hair hung down, long and light. He sat down, leaving a seat between them. The young boy, who looked only a year or two older than Tobey, asked him what he'd like.

"Just a Mountain Dew," said Tobey. The girl turned to look at him with an odd look on her face.

"You like Mountain Dew?" she asked. Her voice sounded strained. Tobey was taken aback. He hadn't planned on talking to anyone tonight if at all possible.

"Yeah," he said, not looking at her.

"Oh," she said, turning back away from him. "Oh..." She sniffed and rubbed her eyes. The boy behind the counter tossed Tobey a cold bottle of Mountain Dew, and he caught it.

"Are you okay?" Tobey heard himself ask. The girl shrugged.

"I have to be," she said. "I don't really have a choice right now."

Tobey contemplated. He could stop now - he could fulfill his mission. He could sit here and brood about his own problems, his own anguishes. Or he could talk to this strange girl who had to be okay. He looked at her profile, and felt a kind of tug towards her. Her face was composed, but there was a deep sadness in her eyes that seemed to mirror the sadness in his own heart.

"What's the matter?" he asked her. She looked up at him, with a surprised look on her face.

"Why?" she asked, confusion obvious in her eyes. Tobey shrugged. She looked away, at the tabletop for a moment before she responded. "My brother... He... he died last week." Tobey's heart froze in his chest. How could he have asked this poor girl about her problems, assuming they were petty or insignificant? How could he have been so callous? He knew the pains of death on those whom the dead left behind.

"I'm so sorry," he said, unsure if she wanted him to stay. She sniffed again, and Tobey saw that her eyes were glassy with tears.

"It's okay," she said. "You didn't hit him with a car... You're the first person who was even brave enough to ask me if anything was wrong, and you don't even know me. I haven't really spoken to anyone in three days." She looked up at him. "It's so hard. I can't even believe how hard this is. How do you go on when someone dies?"

"I don't know," said Tobey. He didn't need to throw his own sorrow on her, not now. He wasn't completely lying, either.

"He was ten years old," said the girl, her voice breaking. "Ten! How fair is that?" Her voice held the bitterness of someone much older.

Tobey had never felt so uncomfortable in his life, or so morbidly curious. This girl's pain intrigued him. He wanted to know more about it - about her.

"Can I ask... how it happened?" he asked. "If you don't want to talk about it -"

"No," said the girl. "I probably should talk about, that way I won't need as much therapy." She took a deep breath. "He was playing with a soccer ball, and he kicked it into the street. But we live in a city, obviously, and he went after it. There wasn't much traffic, but there was a car coming. I don't think they saw him. They were... speeding up..." She couldn't continue. Tobey was silent for a moment.

"I'm sorry," he said quietly. He wasn't sure she heard over the music.

"Everyone is," she said. "Everyone's sorry. I wish it had never happened, and everyone can just say they're sorry." She turned to him with a nervous look. "I'm sorry!" she said. "I didn't mean to make it sound like I don't appreciate it, I do, I promise. It's just... so scary... I'm not trying to accuse anyone, and especially not you. I don't even know your name, and you're helping me. What is your name?"

He paused. "Tobey," he said. "You?"

"Eva," she said. "It's nice to meet you." She held out a hand. He reached over and shook it.

"You, too," he said, finally opening his Mountain Dew bottle.

"Your Mountain Dew," Eva said, "reminded me of him. His name was Mark."

"You want a sip?" asked Tobey.

"No, thanks," she said. "I never liked it, but we always had it in the house for Mark." Tobey nodded. He liked this girl. Eva seemed like a genuinely good person. She seemed like someone who was strong, despite her pain.

And she was beautiful. She stuck out at this club like a sore thumb, and it made him see her natural beauty. Her hair was long and sandy blond. Her lips were glossy red, and her eyes were a sharp green color. But she wasn't just beautiful in the tradition sense. She had her own style, and her sense of self and independence radiated from her, and that was her true beauty. Her beauty could shine through her sadness, and Tobey saw it.

"So, anything you'd like to talk about?" asked Eva, laughing quietly. "After all, I just spilled to a stranger. I can listen, if you'd like."

Tobey couldn't decide. This stranger, this girl, this Eva offered him something he hadn't had in a long time - friendship. Maybe not even that, maybe just someone to trust and care for. He stared at her, trying to choose. He'd held on to some of his secrets for so long he wasn't sure he could talk about her.

But he would try.

"I think..." he began, but then stopped and cleared his throat. "When I was sixteen, I met a girl named Lea. She was amazing... We were together for most of high school. End of tenth grade, all of eleventh and twelfth. I knew how stupid I sounded when I said I loved her, but I really did. And then... a few weeks before the end of senior year, she was... diagnosed with cancer. Terminally. A week after commencement, she died. It was... two summers ago, now. I don't talk about her, really, ever. I haven't talked to many people since it happened. My parents died when I was really little, and I lived with my aunt, and since I came to college she never calls me. I don't talk to anyone on the campus. I've got nothing here, really. Lea and I were going to come here together..."

"You aunt never calls?" asked Eva, sympathy in her voice.

"No," said Tobey. He shrugged. "I'm getting over it. I can't hurt forever."

"It can," said Eva. "Things can definitely hurt forever. It all comes down to what you think about. If you never think about it, it won't hurt until you remember it. But if it's in your mind, it can hurt forever. I believe that."

"I don't like to be pessimistic," said Tobey. He wasn't sure if he was lying or not.

"How could I not be?" asked Eva. "I'm nineteen years old, and I got my brother killer."

"No you didn't," said Tobey, shocked. "It was an accident." Eva snorted bitterly.

"My brother was left to my custody," she said. "My mother left my father when I was young, and he died a year ago. He was a lazy drunk, and his death wasn't too hard on us since I had a job and an apartment. They couldn't find my mother to give her custody, so I got Mark. And less than a year later, he's dead. Dead. Who else's fault is it?"

"The driver," said Tobey immediately. Eva shrugged.

"He's literally responsible, but if I had been more careful... It wouldn't have happened if I had been more careful."

"No one can expect something like that," insisted Tobey. "Don't blame yourself." Eva sighed.

"I guess," she said, but Tobey could tell she still blamed herself. He took a swig of Mountain Dew. They were silent. The loud pulse of the music shattered Tobey's eardrums.

"Do you want to go outside?" asked Tobey. "It's kinda loud and hot in here." Eva shrugged.

"Sure," she said. "There's an outside deck on the second floor." Tobey nodded. He knew. He came to this place once a week to drown his sorrows in caffeine.

They reached the small balcony, and Tobey took in a deep breath of fresh air.

"It's nicer out here," said Tobey.

"Yeah," said Eva. "A lot less humid." She looked over the edge of the balcony. "I want to do something crazy," she said.

"Well, please don't kill yourself," said Tobey. "It'll look like I did it." Eva laughed.

"It would," she admitted. "Maybe I won't do that now. Maybe later." She paused. "Is it normal to want to die when someone you love is gone?"

"I don't know," said Tobey. "I did. But I'm... glad, I guess, that I never killed myself."

"Well, that's good," said Eva. "It's nice to know it at least gets better."

"It's hard for it to get worse," said Tobey. "But I bet it will get better for you." A moment passed, where neither one said a word. Tobey felt the electricity in the air. It was a charge he hadn't felt in years - attraction. It was almost foreign to him. He glanced at Eva, and noticed that she was looking away from him as he did. Maybe she was just as alone as he was. Maybe they were meant to find each other, alone and sad, so that they could be together and happy. Her presence seemed to fill him with a warmness that had seemed to evade him for a long time.

"I still want to do something," said Eva. "I don't know what though. I don't want to stay here. There's nothing left for me. I quit school a few months after I got Mark, and I just have a hell of a job that I hate now."

"I'm in school," said Tobey, "but I don't even care. I don't have a real major yet, and I could graduate with enough credits in a year. I don't know what I want to do."

"I want to leave here," said Eva. "I want to get away. I want to get into a fast car, and drive away. Find something. Maybe a life worth living, and not this shell. But I don't want to do it alone."

Tobey looked at her. Maybe she was suggesting they leave here together, tonight. Was it even safe? Were they allowed to do such a thing? Was it even worth it, running away from this life?

"I don't know if we could escape this," said Tobey.

"Any place but this place is better," said Eva. "But I won't go if you don't."

"You barely know me," said Tobey. "Why should my opinion matter so much?"

"Because you're teaching me more than anyone I've ever met," said Eva. "You've been through what I'm feeling, and I want to be like you."

"Why would you want to be like me?" asked Tobey. "I'm cynical at age nineteen. I'm unhappy, and the only person I can talk to is a stranger."

"Because I'm just like you," said Eva, "only you're stronger, and I want to know you." Tobey looked at her.

"How can you know you like me at all after knowing me for a half an hour?" asked Tobey.

"Because I can tell," said Eva. "I can just tell. Please. We can work together. We can make our lives better together. I can just tell - I need you to be happy."

"How can you tell something like that?" asked Tobey. "You don't know me!"

"But I do," said Eva. "I may not know things like your favorite food or your favorite color, but I can see you. I can see you. I know we can do this. I know that between the two of us, we are a force to be reckoned with. We could change everything - change our lives, change our futures! Don't you want that?" Eva's green eyes pierced Tobey's soft brown ones, and he could see her true belief that they were meant to be together. Maybe not together, but together. He could see that she never wanted to be from his side, no matter what happened. She trusted him with her whole being. And he realized, as he stared back into her eyes, that he trusted her too.

He trusted her not to break him. He felt safe, warm, and alive around her in ways he hadn't felt in too long. He felt his heart speed up as she reached out her hand and took his.

"You can trust me," she whispered. "I won't break." He let their fingers intertwine, and he knew his decision was made.

As their fast car sped off into the night, speeding so fast that the city lights behind them blurred, Tobey knew his decision was the right one. He laid his arm around Eva's shoulders and she leaned her head against his own shoulder.

He didn't know where they were headed, but Tobey felt like he was drunk. There was nothing that wasn't his right now. He had the future in his hands, and his true partner by his side. He didn't feel happy - he felt content. He wasn't worried about the future. He knew that he and Eva would make it through whatever life threw their way. They would make it. They were strong.

No one called for them. No one missed their leaving. Tobey never received a call from his aunt, and Eva's acquaintances assumed she hadn't made it a week without her brother. But they needed no one but each other. Tobey's strength was Eva's weakness, and Eva's strength was Tobey's weakness. They completed each other as only best friends could. They held tight to their love, and worked and tried, and finally, the future was theirs.