Chapter 12: Twisting Places

(Both)

I've thought about you for a long time

Can't seem to get you off my mind

I can't understand why were livin' life this way

I found your picture today

I swear I'll change my ways

I just called to say I want you to come back home

I found your picture today

I swear I'll change my ways

I just called to say I love you, come back home

"Otto!" Reggie yelled to her little brother the following evening as she dug through her closet in search of her new pair of sneakers.

"What do you want?" His voice came from his bedroom, sounding irritated from being bothered.

"Have you seen my new sneakers? " She asked. "I swear I thought I put them in here." She wanted to look nice tonight because Lars was taking her to a restaurant. A real restaurant with fancy decorations where people sit at tables and get waited on while soft music plays in the background—not the Shore Shack. Sneakers were probably not the footwear that most people would chose to wear to a place of that nature, but she couldn't imagine trying to cram her foot into a pair of high-heels—not that she actually owned any. The best she could do was put on her new sneakers, instead of the old ratty ones that she wore on a daily basis.

"How should I know where you left your stupid shoes?" Otto responded with his usual 'like I give a damn' attitude.

"You could at least help me look." She was getting stressed now. She was supposed to meet Lars in his driveway in10 minutes. Giving up on finding them in the bottom of the closet, she began to search the top shelf. She pushed several boxes out of the way before finally recognizing the one that held her shoes. As she pulled it from the shelf, another object came tumbling down with it and landed right on her head.

"OWW!" She yelled, bringing her hand up to rub the bump that was already forming. Her eyes settled on the object that was lying face down next to her feet. She immediately recognized what it was. She picked it up and unconsciously sucked in a deep breath as she turned it over to look at it. The sight of his face in the picture caused her eyes to mist over.

"Why should I help you? So you're not late for your little date with Lars?" Otto's voice coming from the doorway started her back to the present. She had zoned out briefly and lost herself in thoughts of the way things used to be.

"Just forget it and leave me alone!" She shouted, taking out her frustration on Otto.

"Damn! First you tell me to help you, and then you say get out! Make up your mind!" Otto threw his hands in the air in exasperation before going back to his room.

A quick glance at the clock told her that she only had a few minutes left. She quickly put on her shoes and gave herself a quick check in the mirror before rushing out the door.

Lars wasn't in the driveway yet so she went up to the front door. Her finger was poised to ring the bell when the door suddenly opened. It wasn't Lars, but Twister who was staring at her with surprise from the other side of the threshold

"Hey." She said timidly.

"Hey…uh, sorry about that. I was on my way out wait in the driveway. Someone's meeting me here in a few minutes." Twister said, nervously adjusting his hat.

"I was just coming to see if Lars is ready to go."

"Yeah, I think he's almost ready."

"Oh."

"You can go in and wait…if you want." Twister offered.

"Thanks." Reggie turned to go into the house, but abruptly stopped in her tracks. She couldn't keep going on like this, pretending that everything was okay. She had to talk to him and tell him how she felt. Even if he still wanted nothing to do with her afterwards, at least she would have it off her chest. "Twister?"

"Yeah?" He turned to face her once again.

"Can we talk? Just for a second?"

"Sure, I guess." He shrugged his shoulders, then followed her to the curb to sit down.

"I don't know where to start." She said, feeling very awkward. "I-I miss you so much, Twister. I can't stop thinking about you."

Twister couldn't believe what he was hearing. Her words had shocked him so much that it took him almost a minute to respond. He could only sit and stare at her in wide-eyed amazement as his heart nearly pounded out of his chest. "I miss you too. I've wanted to talk to you for so long, but I thought you hated me. I'm so sorry for how I acted that night at the pier. I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions. It haunts me every night, I made a huge mistake."

"It wasn't really your fault, Twister. I know how it must've looked from your point of view. I totally understand why you got so upset."

"I can't believe all this happened over some damn shoobie." He muttered.

"Lets just forget about it then. Forget about everything in the past two weeks and pretend it never happened. I want things to go back like they were. I can't keep acting like everything's going great when I'm completely miserable without you...I love you, Twister." She wrapped her arms around him and rested her head on his chest, silent tears trickling down her cheeks.

"I love you too, Reggie." He returned the embrace and gently tilted her head up to kiss her lips. Suddenly, the rest of the world melted away around them. Everything felt so right once again.

"I missed you so much, Reggie." He murmured when they finally broke the kiss. "I swear I'll never hurt you again. I want to be with you forever."

The moment was broken when Twister caught movement from the corner of his eye. He turned his head to see Lars watching them from the porch. He quickly jumped to his feet to go talk to him and Reggie followed close behind.

Lars didn't appear to be angry as they approached, but the hurt in his eyes was obvious. "You don't need to explain. I've been standing here the whole time." He spoke softly.

"I'm so sorry Lars." Reggie said sincerely. " I had a great time with you, but I just couldn't stop thinking about Twister. I'm sorry…."

"Don't worry about it, Reggie. I knew this was going to happen sooner or later so I prepared myself for it. It was fun while it lasted though." Lars shot her a weak smile. He gave Twister a brotherly slap on the back, then shoved something into his hand. "Your reservations are in 30 minutes, bro. You should probably be leaving."

Puzzled, Twister opened up the piece of paper and found a wad of cash along with the name and address of the restaurant that Lars was planning to take Reggie to. Completely shocked, Twister could only throw his arms around his brother in a tight hug. "Thanks bro! You're the best!"

"Hey, get off me, dork! Have you lost your mind?" Lars pushed Twister away from him, looking around to make sure that no one had witnessed the incident. "If you breathe one word of this to anybody, I'll give you the whomping of your life! Got it, lame-o?"

"Sure Lars. Couldn't have anyone thinking that you really do have a heart, could we?" Twister joked.

"I don't have a heart! I'm only doing this cause…cause…" Lars racked his brain, trying to think of a cleaver comeback, but his attention was diverted to the auburn-haired girl that was skating towards their house.

Twister followed Lars's gaze. "Oh shit! I forgot!" He said when he recognized who the girl was.

"Hey Twister!" Autumn called as she approached. "Is that your brother that you're always talking about?"

"Yeah. This is Lars and this is Reggie, Otto's sister."

"Hi, nice to meet you." Autumn said.

Reggie gave a weak smile, but made no attempt to be friendly to the girl. Sensing the tension in the air, Twister took Autumn's arm and pulled her into the house. "Be right back." He said to Reggie and Lars, closing the door behind him.

"What are you doing, I thought we were going to the pier?"

"I can't go tonight, Autumn…or any other night. I'm really sorry for doing this to you all of a sudden..." He said.

"Doing what? What are you talking about?" She interrupted, confused.

"It's a long story." Twister sighed. "Basically, before I met you, I was dating Reggie, but we broke up over something stupid and…"

"And now you're getting back together." She finished his sentence for him. "Now I see why she was so snotty to me."

"I'm really sorry, Autumn. I had no idea that this was going to happen." He studied her intently, trying to read her feelings that she was hiding so well. "Are you okay?"

"Yes, I'll be fine, I guess. I like you a lot, Twister, and I wish things could work out between us, but at least this is happening now. You know, before we got more involved."

"Yeah…I hope we can still be friends though." He said sincerely.

"Sure. I'll see you around, at Madtown or something."

"Awesome." He smiled, beginning to relax a little.

"Well, I guess I'll be going then." She started toward the door.

"Hold on. There's something else." He lightly grabbed her arm to halt her. "I really wish that you'd stop drinking Autumn. I know that I'm as guilty as you are, but I've only done it for a couple weeks. You've been doing it for a while. Sure, it's just for fun right now, but if you keep doing it, you could totally mess yourself up."

"I know." She said softly. He was surprised to hear her agree with him, he expected an argument. "I wish you'd said something earlier. I thought you liked it. I can't stand it. I only do it cause David and Chris do and well, they're the only people I have to hang around with."

"There's tons of people who'd like to hang out with you! Maybe they avoid you cause they know what kind of people Chris and David are. You need to stop hanging with those dudes!"

"You're right, Twister. David is my brother and all, but he's heading down a bad road. I'll going to talk to him when I get home. It probably won't do any good, but at least I'll try."

"Good. You're really sweet, Autumn. You'll find a great guy in no time."

"Thanks, Twister. I should probably go now. Reggie's waiting for you."

"Ok, see you around." He hugged her before opening the door.

Reggie and Lars looked up at them expectantly from their seats on the porch when they came out. "Bye." Autumn said softly, stepping past them.

"Hold on!" Lars spoke up as she was walking away "It's a shame that you came all this way for nothing. Wanna go grab a bite?"

"Uh…sure!" Autumn said, shrugging her shoulders.

"Sweet." Lars rose from his seat and joined her in the driveway.

Twister and Reggie just grinned at each other as they watched the two walk down the street together, happily lost in conversation. Without a word, they joined hands and started off on their own adventure.

The End

A/N: Thanks for reading, let me know how you liked the ending. I'm sure most of you already knew what was coming if you've ever heard the song, but I bet you didn't expect Autumn and Lars to hook up! And the morals of the story are:

1. Drinking doesn't make you cool.

2. Don't automatically assume someone hates you before you get a chance to talk to them.

3. Always listen to the other person's side of the story before jumping to conclusions.

4. Oh…and never kiss a shoobie!

Have fun guys, hopefully I'll get a chance to write something else soon! (If I do, I promise that I won't wait so long to finish it next time!) :-)