As he enjoys his sleep, Evan shifts in his chair, pushing off his desk with his feet, causing his chair to fly backwards, dropping to the ground, frightening him awake with a thud. With a groan, he rolls backwards off the chair, slowly getting to his feet. He looks over to his bed to see if he had awakened Amy, but finds his bed empty. He looks around his room, seeing if she was in a different area, but finds that he is by himself. Rubbing the back of his still-throbbing head, he heads up the stairs. He hears movement in the kitchen and heads in there. He finds Amy sitting at the kitchen table, a mug of hot chocolate in front of her. She smiles at him as he enters the room. As he sits at the table, she turns around towards the counter. She returns with another mug in-hand and sets it in front of Evan. He takes a sip of it, the chocolaty warmness instantly waking him fully.

 

“How long have you been up?”

 

After taking a drink of her chocolaty goodness, Amy responds.

 

“About twenty minutes.”

 

“Ah. How’s your—Yknow what, hold that thought, I’ll be right back.”

 

Evan sets down his mug and gets up from the table. He heads out into the hallway, into his grandparents room. He grabs one of the many orange pill bottles off their dresser and pops it open, removing two of the little white pills inside. He walks back into the kitchen and sits back down. He pops the pill in his mouth and takes a drink of hot chocolate, chewing the pill up and swallowing the mixture, wincing at the taste.

 

“What was that for?”

 

Evan takes another drink of his hot chocolate, washing the taste out of his mouth.

 

“Headache. I banged my head pretty good when I woke up. In about twenty-five minutes, I’ll be feeling pretty good. Now, back to my original question. How's your back?”

 

“A bit achy, but otherwise okay.”

 

Evan hands her the second pill he grabbed.

 

“Take this. You’ll feel better with me.”

 

Amy pops the pill and takes a drink, swallowing the pill whole, preferring not to deal with the taste. Evan looks at the clock on the stove, which reads 3:16 PM, and then back at Amy.

 

“Getting to be about that time.”

 

“Yeah…”

 

“You could always stay here for the night.”

 

“No, I’ve got to go home some time. No point in putting it off.”

 

Evan gets up from the table and walks over to the kitchen counter. He opens the top drawer and pulls out the device he used to shock Randy the previous day. He sits back down at the table, setting the device down in front of Amy.

 

“Just in case.”

 

Amy picks up the device, holding it in her hand, staring down at it. After gathering her thoughts, she takes a deep breath, deciding to confide in Evan. Still looking at the device, she begins to talk.

 

“I’ve…I’ve never told anyone about it. What he does to me, I mean. He didn’t used to be like this…Before mom died, he was a great dad. When she passed away, he started drinking. I thought he would snap out of it eventually, but, after a while, he started….you know. I never told anyone because I knew that if I did, they would go to the police and I would be taken away from him and sent to a foster home. I don’t want that. He may be a heartless drunk, but he’s still my dad, and I love him. He never even apologizes for what he does when he’s drunk, that makes it hurt even more.”

 

Evan sidles his chair to her side, putting his arm around her when he gets close enough. She leans into his touch, resting her head on his shoulder as he rubs her arm.

 

“Look, you can’t keep letting him do this to you. Next time he tries, use the Shocker on him, I can guarantee he’ll never lay a hand on you again. I don’t like seeing you hurt.”

 

Amy looks up at him from his shoulder, getting caught up in the moment. She begins to rise up towards him, while he leans down towards her, their faces now inches apart, each transfixed on the other, her lips parting. Just as they move in, a bang from the living room kills the moment and the two quickly move apart, embarrassed by what nearly happened.

 

“Uhm…I’m gonna go see what that was.”

 

“Yeah...okay.”

 

Evan steps into the hallway, immediately seeing that his grandfather had come home and, as always, decided that a loud entrance was the best kind of entrance. He tosses his keys down on the coffee table and heads towards Evan. Evan turns back to the kitchen and sits back at the table, drinking the rest of his now-cold drink. Edward walks into the kitchen and to the refrigerator. He grabs a can of Sierra Mist and pops the tab. After taking a drink, he looks at the two teenagers.

 

“So, what’d you kids do with your day off?”

 

“Slept mostly.”

 

Edward raises his eyebrows at Evan, prompting a hasty response.

 

“Get your head out of the gutter old man.”

 

Edward just smirks at Evan, before heading out of the kitchen and into the living room. A few seconds late, Evan hears the television come on. Knowing that Edward will be staring at the TV for hours to come, he gets up from the table.

 

“Come on, I wanna show you this place I found. Just gotta grab something out of my room.”

 

Evan leaves Amy in the kitchen, heading back into the basement. Several minutes later, he emerges, seemingly without anything new. He heads towards the back door, motioning for Amy to follow him.

 

“Okay, got it, lets go.”

 

Amy gets up and follows Evan out the door. He leads her out of his back yard, into the woods behind his house. Deeper and deeper they go, not even following a trail, the sun nearly blocked out by the trees. After several minutes, Evan stops, turning around to face Amy, a smile on his face.

 

“Here we are.”

 

She looks around, not seeing anything worth seeing.

 

“Where, exactly?”

 

His smile widening, Evan moves aside a large branch, revealing a clearing. At the bottom of the clearing runs a crystal clear creek, filling the air with the sound of water running over rocks. Evan leads Amy around the creek and up onto an overhang, just above the water. There waiting for them is a blanket and picnic basket. Evan sits down on the blanket, inviting Amy next to him. She sits down next to him slowly, confusion settling into place in her mind.

 

“What is all this?”

 

Evan pulls the picnic basket over to him, removing two bottles of Coca Cola from them, handing one to Amy as he answers her.

 

“Early birthday surprise.”

 

Tears of happiness begin to well up in Amy’s eyes as she launches herself at Evan, wrapping her arms around his neck in a hug, crying onto his shoulder.

 

“This is the nicest thing anyone’s done for me in a very long time.”

 

Evan pulls her away from him, chuckling at her reaction.

 

“I’m happy that I could do this for you. Now for your birthday present.”

 

As Evan reaches into his pocket, Amy tries to stop him.

 

“You didn’t have to get me anything…I’m used to it now. Dad hasn’t celebrated my birthday since mom died. Whatever you got, just...take it back, I know I won’t deserve it.”

 

Evan pulls out a long, thin box anyways, ignoring her words. Before opening it, he looks into Amy’s eyes.

 

“Amy, you have to stop believing what your father says to you. You are not worthless. You deserve every bit of this.”

 

Evan opens the box, showing its contents to her. Inside the box is a silver necklace. On this silver necklace is a white gold heart-shaped pendant with two sapphires embedded on it.

 

“It’s beautiful…”

 

Evan removes the necklace from the box, motioning for Amy to turn around. She does, lifting her hair out of the way so Evan can slip the necklace around her. He fastens the clasp and she lowers her hair, turning back towards Evan. She looks down at the necklace, then back at Evan, who proceeds to explain the gift.

 

“That may look like just a necklace, but, in reality, it’s so much more. The sapphire on your left side is a trigger. If you push the sapphire, that’ll send a signal to my watch, telling me that you need me to be wherever you are at that moment, which is why there is also a GPS tracker in the same sapphire. The one on your right is a bit different. That one is linked to me. It’ll start to flash whenever my heart rate elevates, due to excitement, anger, pain, that sort of thing. I’ve got one linked to you, also in my watch. You never know when something like that could come in handy.”

 

Amy looks down at his gift yet again, noticing that the sapphire on her right side was flashing. Evans heart rate was up. She looks over at his watch, a flashing beacon signaling that hers was as well. As even more tears begin to spill out of her, she hugs Evan again. This time, Evan doesn’t pull her so far away, but puts his hand on her cheek, leaning in close to her. Eyes full of surprise, Amy doesn’t move as Evan slowly pulls in closer, finally touching his lips to hers, softly kissing her as the tears continue to flow. After a few seconds, she closes her eyes and kisses him back, letting Evan know that his affection is returned in full. As Amy pulls away, the two begin to smile; Amy breaks the silence moments after that.

 

“So, where do we go from here?”

 

Evan strokes his chin, mock-thinking, before forming a response.

 

“Well, I don’t know about you, but, my pain pill has kicked in. Yours should have too. Right about now, you should be feeling kinda floaty.”

 

Amy moves her hands around, testing the feeling.

 

“I thought that was the kiss.”

 

Evan laughs out loud at this, stopping himself after several seconds with a reply.

 

“Thanks for the ego boost. That’s definitely the painkiller though, much as I hate to admit it. I suggest we enjoy the floatyness here by the water.”

 

Evan lies back on the ground, his hands behind his head, staring up at the clear blue sky; Amy lies down next to him a few seconds later. After several minutes of comfortable silence, Amy, without changing her gaze, speaks up.

 

“Think we missed anything important in school?”

 

“Doubt it. Probably just information on the trip to Helmsley Research & Development. Nothing we don’t already know. I’m hoping to get a look at this new technology I read about. It’s called Dragonskin. I wasn’t able to find anything specific about it, not even who originally created it. Maybe they’ll give up more info on Friday.”

 

“I’m not sure dad’ll sign the permission slip.”

 

“Doesn’t matter, we’ll forge it if the need rises, cause I’m not going to this thing without you, I may be a geek, but I’ve got my limits on the amount of geekiness I can take.”

 

Silence comes once again, allowing their pain pills to really dig down deep. Getting an idea, Evan rolls onto his side, now facing Amy. She looks over at him, waiting for him to speak.

 

“I just had a possibly stupid idea.”

 

She rolls her eyes and sighs, before rolling over, now facing him.

 

“I’m afraid to ask…..what is it?”

 

Getting a big grin on his face, Evan quickly climbs to his feet, now looking down at her.

 

“Let’s go for a swim!”

 

As Evan begins to remove his shirt, Amy looks at him incredulously.

 

“Are you insane?!”

 

From inside his shirt comes a muffled reply.

 

“Probably.”

 

He finally succeeds in removing the shirt and throws it to the ground, working on his pants next. The Oxycodone he had ingested earlier was proving to be affecting his ability to remove his belt, so, he simply forces the jeans down without loosening the belt or even unbuttoning the pants, leaving in his black and red boxers. He takes several steps back, hopping up and down to warm himself up, before charging at the edge of the mini cliff they had been resting on. He hurls himself over the edge, plummeting towards the slow moving creek below. He slams into the water hard, nearly a cannonball, sending water up onto the mini cliff, barely missing Amy. His head pops out of the water and, caught up in the heat of the moment, he lets out a loud whoop.

 

“WOOOOOOO! Jesus, this waters cold! Get in here girl!”

 

Amy had gotten to her feet during Evans running jump and is now staring down at him, her arms crossed over her chest, shaking her head at his typical teenage antics.

 

“You’re out of your mind, there’s no way I’m getting in that water, it has to be freezing.”

 

Now floating on his back, Evan shouts back up to her.

 

“Ah come on, it’s not that cold once you get used to it. Tell you what, you either get in, or I’m coming up there and putting you in!”

 

She rolls her eyes at his comment, thinking that he wouldn’t do it.

 

“Yeah, right. I’d like to see you try…”

 

With those words, Evan rights himself and begins to swim for shore, prompting Amy to cut him off.

 

“Wait, wait, don’t bother. I’ve changed my mind; I’ll be in in a minute.”

 

She steps away from the bank, mumbling to herself about crazy teenage guys and cold water. With her back to the creek, she begins to unbutton her blouse, still mumbling. She slips the shirt off of her shoulders, several whistles and woops from behind her. Evan was obviously watching. Where there were once bruises was now smooth skin. Unbeknownst to Amy, Evan had done some tinkering with the pill he gave her. He had been able to modify it so that it, as well as making one feel floaty, made the healing process speed up ten fold.

 

Amy reaches behind her, grasping the zipper on her skirt. She slowly zips it down, deciding to give Evan a show. She grabs the waist of it and slowly, tantalizingly, moves it lower and lower; seductively shaking her hips as she slips it passed her buttocks. She steps out of the skirt, setting it on Evans clothing with her blouse. She crosses her arms over her bra, still quite shy around anyone else, and turns to face Evan, who has a wide grin on his face, once again floating on his back. As Amy steps up to the edge of the cliff, Evan calls out to her again.

 

“That’s my girl, come on, hop in!”

 

Finally moving her arms, Amy holds her nose closed with one hand and keeps the other tight at her side, before stepping off the ledge, plunging feet-first into the water. She comes up seconds later, teeth chattering, now speeding towards the shore, all the while yelling at Evan.

 

“You d-d-d-dick! I kn-kn-kn-knew this would be c-c-c-cold!”

 

Evan cuts her off before she can leave the water. As she tries to move around him, he grabs her and pulls her close to him, nearly wrapping himself around her, using his body heat to get her acclimated to the water. She attempts to wrestle out of his grip, but he presses his lips to her slightly blue set, stopping all attempts to get away. As she kisses him back, he swims backwards, keeping her afloat, moving them back to the center of the creek. Evan breaks the kiss, noting that Amy’s lips were no longer blue, nor was her eye blackened. He smiles at her as she wraps her arms around his neck, resting her head against his chest, allowing him to hold her up in the water. He whispers in her ear while he has her in such a position.

 

“See, told you it wouldn’t be cold.”

 

“I still say you’re a crazy nutjob….but, you’re my crazy nutjob.”

 

After several minutes of simply floating there, enjoying the others company, a voice from the ledge interrupts the silence.

 

“I see how it is. You two lovebirds ditch school to hang around all day and make out, then take an evening dip in a creek, all the while leaving your best friend to worry about why one of his best friends had a black eye. A black eye that appears to be gone now, no less. Well that’s just fuckin great. I can see that my friendship is no longer required from either of you, now that you’ve found each-other, I’ll leave you to yourselves and go pal around with my buddies on the football team, assholes though they may be.”

 

As Jay begins to storm off, Evan and Amy start to rush out of the water, attempting to get to him before he got too far, calling out to him as they swim.

 

“Jay, wait up man, it’s not like that!”

 

“Really, we didn’t mean to not tell you!”

 

Without turning back to them, or even slowing down, Jay puts the final nail in the coffin.

 

“Save it. Consider our friendships over.”

 

Jay begins to fight his way through the trees while Evan & Amy watch him leave, knowing that, in their current state of undress, they would only succeed in hurting themselves if they went after him. Evan walks back to the blanket he had set up earlier, running his hands through his hair in frustration, while Amy watches jay go, now shivering again. Evan notices this and grabs the cover from the ground and steps to Amy. He wraps the cover around her, hugging her as well, to warm her up even faster. After several seconds, Amy opens the cover and wraps her arms around Evans waist, pulling him into the blanket with her, resting her head against his chest, tears welling up once more, mixing with the water running down her hair.

 

“Why did he do that?”

 

Evan begins to rub soothing circles up and down Amy’s back, answering her after a few seconds.

 

“He did it because he’s scared. He didn’t really mean any of it, he just didn’t know of any other way to handle the change. He’ll come around again; we just have to give him time.”

 

After several seconds of silence, Evan gets an idea that might shock her out of her Jay-induced funk. He slowly moves his arms lower and squeezes her rear end, nearly lifting her off the ground in the process, eliciting a soft ‘oh’ from her. Once he releases her, she stars up at him, a surprised look on her face. Evans sly smile quickly lifts her spirits.

 

“I hadn’t realized we had moved on to groping in our relationship.”

 

“Well, you weren’t saying anything so, I figured, what the hell.”

 

Amy just shakes her head at him, moving back into her former position.

 

“What am I gonna do with you…”

 

“I’ve got a suggestion: Sit back and enjoy the ride.”