Author's Note: This story is probably, most likely going to be angst through and through. There will be moments of other, more lighter material, but the majority of it is going to be angst, no holds barred. So prepare yourselves according. Don't forget to review! Reviews are a life source for writers.

Chapter 1: I'm Not Unhappy

Lacey tapped her pencil in a quickened, hasty manner against the notebook in front of her. Her textbook and various school supplies lay on the booth table along side the notebook, as she made her second attempt to refocus her attention on where it should be. Her attempt was met with the same impermeable obstacle that had been halting her concentration for the past 10 minutes. She stared out the diner window as her mind began reeling once more. She didn't know why he had been taking up so much space in her mind lately. Actually, that was untrue. She did know why. It was always this way with her and him. She'd go weeks feeling like they could successfully exist in a certain space, but before long he would look at her in a striking way, or say something specific that caught her off guard or they'd have the type of fight that wasn't normal or customary for friends to have, and she was right back where she didn't want to me. Doubting herself and her choice. Trying to ascertain if she had made the right decision when Danny had returned to school after being cleared of Regina's murder, and if she'd made worse and more compromising ones since then.

They hadn't been a couple in almost two years. Some days it seemed to be a tolerable existence, one they both managed as best they could. Other days she felt herself purposely avoiding him, because anything he did or said instantly sucked all the air out of her lungs. Almost the way darkness falls on a room when you hit a light switch, expansively and immediately.

She thought about their lack of coupledom and what that actually meant in the grand scheme of things. Because when she thought about the nature of their relationship, she tried to be as honest and forthcoming as she could bear, but sometimes that proved to be a futile attempt. In truth, they had a terrible fight just five months prior. The type of fight that most would have characterized as one that would end a couple, but yet they weren't a couple, so it didn't have the capacity to end them. They were in some unfamiliar space that she liked to label as "just friends" and he liked to not assign a definition to. But they definitely weren't together. But that didn't mean that they hadn't slept together almost a year ago, which Lacey still felt an unrelenting sense of guilt about. Because it was her fault, she had started it and he expertly obliged, after attempting to talk her out of it. Which, in and of itself, was supremely baffling at the time. And then a few months before that, they'd had an almost close call involving each other's lips and body parts, but had managed to disengage before it went all the way.

So, when she thought about it in its totality, there had only been two pertinent, insanely inappropriate encounters in almost two years. Which wasn't that terrible. She'd actually managed to keep it together and on something that resembled a platonic level more often then not, those ridiculous fights one of them would get pulled into against their on accord, aside. Sometimes they would even be afforded shared laughs and jokes when all the necessary elements seemed to line up just right, and their moods weren't being dangled on the hinge of the fact that they weren't together. Sometimes it was really good between them, though those moments seemed transient. There was always that part that was inherently omitted that she secretly and silently ached for. The part that she had convinced herself that she just couldn't have.

It was also, not as if they hadn't tried to be together. They had. Once he had returned to school they were together for three months before things started to unravel. She had tried to make it work, and he had tried harder, but eventually it was in shambles and she felt more confused and dejected than she had in a long time. Sometimes she felt like they just couldn't handle one another. Almost as if their unwavering depth of feelings and the laden intensity that existed between them, wasn't something meant for people barely 18. But that didn't stop her from caring about him so completely, and telling him so. Because on many occasions she would verbalize to him how much she worried about him. About his choices, about his lack of vision, about what he was going to do when this high school thing was all over. She wanted so badly for him to reach the full expanse of his boundless potential, but had seen him, countless times, not even give it a second thought.

She knew he was dealing with a lot. She sensed it. He'd never say as much but when you'd gone through half the things that he'd been through in his 18 years, you'd surely be a bit worse for the wear too. His lack of willingness to express himself honestly and clearly when it came to his feelings, his experiences and his issues was one of the reasons that Lacey had suggested they just be friends. He had a way of assuming he protected people through his silence. As if he thought they couldn't handle his reality and his truth, or rather, that they shouldn't have to. Even if they desperately tried to figure it out. Even if they attempted to decipher it amongst the remains of the young man still standing.

So instead of sharing and dealing with it, his actions and reactions became a testament to how disgruntled and lost he really was. He was a bit of an enigma that walked around the halls of Green Grove high. Most of the girls were secretly or even blatantly obsessed with him, half of the guys out and out feared him. His temper was disastrous at times. He'd gotten in a series of fights, most of them off of school property, which was probably the only reason he hadn't been expelled, though he had been suspended twice for threats made or fights that took place on school grounds. He was still a member of the soccer team, though not the captain because those privileges had been revoked due to his lack of judgement. He didn't have plans for after graduation, unlike she and Jo, and pretty much all of their friends. He still maintained a bit of that manipulation whenever it served or was useful to him, which was probably one of the top three reasons he'd graduate. But Lacey still worried about what would happen after that, when she and Jo left and he was still there. What would he do? Would he be okay? Who would talk sense into him? Who would take care of him? It rattled her nerves and unsettled her to her core when she pondered those questions for too long.

"Lacey..."

Lacey attention was instantly pulled out of her thoughts and towards the person sitting across from her in the booth. She instantly chastised herself for how engrossed she had gotten in her head. Especially because she was supposed to be focused. She had way too much to do to be going in circles about Danny and his future ad nauseum.

"Yeah, sorry." Lacey offered to her friend, flashing a small and quick smile. "I just got distracted for a minute."

"What's going on?" Jo asked directly, putting her own pen down and surveying her friends face. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah no, I'm fine," Lacey brushed off her friend's concern, as she attempted to hone back in on her textbook. "No big deal."

"Lacey," Jo offered sincerely, not buying what her friend was trying to sell her. She could tell that something was clearly bothering her and she wanted to help if she could.

"I'm just stressed out," Lacey breathed as she ran her free hand through her hair. "It's nothing. We're all stressed, it's senior year, they're so much going on."

"Is it about Danny?" Jo questioned directly as she eyed her friend closely.

"Not everything is about Danny, Jo." Lacey scoffed, feigning a bit of righteous indignation. But more than anything, she was hauntingly met with the sound of his name in the air and Jo's immense accuracy regarding what was truly bothering her.

"No, you're right." Jo assessed, as she sat back on her side of the booth and loosely crossed her arms. "Everything isn't about him. But where you're concerned many times it is about him. What happened now?"

"Nothing," Lacey offered almost hurriedly, she hated the way Jo used the word "now", as if something was always happening between them that shouldn't be, when that wasn't the case. As if they were in a perpetual state of getting caught doing something they weren't supposed to be doing. A couple of missteps aside, they were actually within the scope of normal friendship. Or at least that's what she told herself. "Nothing happened. I've just been... I don't know. I guess I've just been thinking about what happens after all of this, you know?"

"You mean after we graduate?" Jo asked, knowing exactly where this conversation was going, because she'd definitely entertained the same thoughts lately.

"Yeah," Lacey admitted lightly, a bit of sadness tinged her eyes. "I mean, we're both going away to college. Most of us are. So what? He's just going to stay here? And do what?"

"No, I know," Jo sighed as she looked at one friend, and thought about the other. "He and I have had that conversation."

"And what does he say?" Lacey questioned easily.

"Just that it doesn't matter or that he'll figure it out. He immediately changed the subject." Jo explained. "You know he doesn't like thinking about what it's going to be like without us."

"I don't like thinking about it either," Lacey pointed out briskly, pushing a loose piece of hair behind her ear. "But that doesn't mean I'm not going to think about the direction my life is going in."

"I almost thought about sending in applications for him," Jo admitted ruefully. "But that wouldn't even guarantee that he'd go. He said he'd just go to community if he wanted to go to school."

"I just don't get it because he's so smart," Lacey sighed deeply, as she briefly squeezed her eyes shut and pinched the bridge of her nose. "If only he would apply himself. Charm and wit can only get you so far."

"You're right," Jo agreed, watching the apparent unrest and anxiety that was currently plaguing Lacey. "But you do kind of get it, don't you?"

"What?" Lacey questioned with a surprised air in her voice. "No, I don't. Why should I?"

"Never mind," Jo offered, realizing that maybe she wasn't in the state to hear any of this. It may only compound the problem. "Forget I said anything."

"Well you haven't yet," Lacey corrected her, her eyes watching her closely, trying to gauge what she was going to say. "So say it."

"I've said this to you before," Jo warned. "And you didn't want to hear it."

"Okay, well try again." Lacey professed. "Maybe I'll be more receptive this time."

"You know he's unhappy because you guys aren't together." Jo stated plainly, watching her friend's face diligently for a reaction.

"So I'm the reason he's unhappy?" Lacey posed bluntly, irritation lacing her voice chords. The guilt started to fill her body.

"I didn't say that," Jo asserted firmly. "I think that his unhappiness stems from the fact that you two are not together. I think yours does too, to be honest."

"Me?" Lacey asked as her hand clutched her chest, her voice full of surprise and a look of shock plastered on her face. "I'm not unhappy."

"Okay." Jo offered with literally no sincerity attached to the utterance.

Lacey watched her friend silently without offering a retort for that clearly weak attempt at agreeing. She didn't think she was unhappy, at least not really. She was a jumbled myriad of things at any given time to be categorized as one thing so absolutely. She was just doing what she thought was best. She was doing what she said she would. The alternative option had already been vetted and the outcome was debilitating.

"Think about it from his perspective for a second," Jo offered gently as she watched Lacey's gears turning in her head. "We're leaving him. In a matter of months we're leaving him. But I'm only going to be a state away, you're going to be across the country."

"You think I'm running?" Lacey stated more than questioned. She could tell what she was inferring, by the way Jo spoke of the differences between the geographical locations of their respective universities.

"I don't know," Jo responded thoughtfully. "Maybe."

"You think he thinks that?" Lacey questioned carefully, she felt a strange sinking in her stomach.

"I'm sure it's crossed his mind," Jo replied.

Lacey was silent as she bit the inside of her mouth and contemplated Jo's words. She already felt a massive stress headache coming on, as she tried to will it away.

"But what do I know?" Jo added quickly, attempting to lighten the mood. "Maybe Sarita's right and you'll be together by the end of the year."

"Wait what?" Lacey questioned with great confusion.

"Oh sorry," Jo cringed apologetically. In her attempt to change the direction of the conversation, she had let something slip that she wasn't supposed to. "I wasn't supposed to say that."

"When did Sarita say that?" Lacey questioned, still a bit in shock she would even think such a thing, for the most part she was the only one who approved of Danny and Lacey not being together.

"It's something silly, don't worry about it." Jo tried to cover, though completely insufficiently.

"No, tell me." Lacey demanded.

"Sarita and I made a bet," Jo explained, as she sighed at her inability to keep her mouth shut. "She said that you two would be back together by the end of senior year, I said by the beginning. So technically, I already lost."

"When did you two start getting along well enough to be making bets?" Lacey asked, as she blinked in disbelief at the blond girl in front of her.

"It's a competitive thing," Jo responded, shrugging her shoulders. "One of us had to be wrong."

"Or you both could be wrong." Lacey corrected her firmly.

"Heeeeyyyyy..." Jo said suddenly, looking in Lacey's direction but a bit over her shoulder.

Lacey instantly realized that she wasn't addressing her, and that somebody they knew was walking towards their booth. In the very same moment that she realized this, she also realized she knew exactly who it was.

"Your ears must have been burning," Jo exclaimed as she quickly looked at Lacey and then back at the approaching figure.

"Oh?" His voice came out low and easy, as he walked passed Lacey's side of the booth and eased himself in next to Jo on her side. "You guys were talking about me?"

"We were studying," Lacey amended swiftly as their eyes locked. She had wondered for a nanosecond why he hadn't just sat by her, when her side of the booth was closer to the door, until right then in that moment when her eyes met his warm brown ones. It was completely in his nature to methodically choose to face her, just so he could look at her.

"What are you doing here?" Jo asked.

"Waiting for Cole," Danny answered, as he stretched out languidly in the booth. Lacey felt his leg come close to hers under the table. It didn't touch her but she still felt it. She wondered momentarily how that was even possible. It wasn't close enough to her to exude noticeable warmth, but all the same she sensed it's proximity. "We're gonna go ride motorcycles."

"Motorcycles?" Lacey asserted as her eyes roamed over him. "On a Wednesday night?"

"Yeah," Danny answered evenly, his eyes never leaving her. "Sounds fun right?"

"It sounds dangerous," Lacey countered hesitantly. "Do you even know how to ride a motorcycle?"

"It's not that hard." Danny replied easily, finally drawing his eyes away from Lacey to look at Jo.

"Where are you guys getting motorcycles from?" Jo asked, literally taking the words right out of Lacey's mouth.

"He knows this guy who has a bunch a cousins, apparently they ride together all the time. Some can't make it tonight so there are extra bikes."

"It's dark outside, Danny." Lacey spoke up, as she placed her elbows gently on the table and crossed her arms in front of her. "You think it's a good idea to be riding motorcycles at night?"

"They have lights just like cars do Lace." Danny offered, with less sarcasm than he had originally intended.

Lacey had another comment to add but it stayed in her throat, her mouth closed. She averted her gaze as they all heard Danny's phone buzz.

"Oh, that's him," Danny said as he glanced at the text message on his phone. "He's outside. See you guys tomorrow. Don't study too hard."

He playfully nudged Jo with his shoulder before rising from the booth, his eyes landing and sweeping over Lacey's face very briefly before he started walking away.

"Desai," Jo called out when he got halfway to the door. He turned to face her but kept slowly walking backwards. "You better be in class tomorrow."

"I already told you. No more ditching," Danny raised his hands in surrender, and then traced a cross over his heart with his finger. "Not until senior ditch day. On my honor."

Jo smiled at him and he turned back around heading for the door. He stopped dead in his tracks when he heard Lacey's voice call after him.

"Hey."

He turned around once more to face them, but only saw Lacey's face.

"Be careful." She offered, her voice sounding saturated with apprehension.

"Of course." Danny responded evenly, before turning and exiting the diner.

She watched his retreating form until she couldn't see him any longer, before she turned around and was met with a knowing look from Jo.

"I swear to God," Jo exclaimed. "You two are going to drive me crazy."