(Author's Note: Somehow, I wound up on the forums on IMDB for this movie and realized I haven't updated in forever! I'll probably drop a chapter on Runaway later this week too, now that it's summer and I'm not working two jobs anymore.)

"Andy….." Allie's voice was soft and misty, but she smiled nonetheless. The urge to cover the few feet between them and throw her arms around him was overwhelming, but she stuffed it deep back inside herself. Her friendly hug with John had been spontaneous, but Andy had erected a barrier between them in high school so strong she was sure it still existed today.

So instead of throwing herself at him like a demented quarterback, she disentangled herself from John and wrapped her arms around Andy briefly, unsure how he would take it after all these years.

Andy pulled her in tightly – so here was his answer. Allison Reynolds (for at a quick glance, he had noticed with relief that she didn't wear a wedding ring) as a woman was tall and strong, but softly feminine at the same time. He loosened his grip enough to pull back and look at her. "You look good, kid," he said quietly.

"So do you. Fit."

Andrew glanced over at Bender, who'd pulled back a bit to give them a minute. It was a level of consideration he never would have expected. He knew he had to take advantage of the miniscule amount of privacy before Bender remembered he was supposed to be the annoying one. "I better let you go or John's gonna kick my ass," he said as he finally dropped his arms.

Blankly puzzled eyes met his. "Why would he do that?"

"Um… well, you and he… aren't you?"

She continued to stare at him, utterly uncomprehending, for a few long seconds, and then burst out laughing. It was a free, open sound for once, not the quiet, shy laugh she had in high school. "So, what, we're still such antisocial hermits that we wound up together by default?" she teased him. "Or are we still such deformed and depraved losers that no one would have us but each other?"

"No! I…. shit….. that wasn't what I meant!" She was still laughing and, feeling like he had to justify himself somehow, Andrew blurted out, "You two were holding hands." The phrase sounded so high school to him, and it shocked him to remember that he was thirty-one, not sixteen.

Allison was now laughing too hard to respond, but Bender's voice came from behind him, "I was helping her up, sporto. You've still got it, Allie, hon – hug the boy once, and he's already jealous."

"I am not jealous!"

"Oh, but I think you are." John was smiling now, advancing a slow step at a time. "I think you're still so ass-backwards in love with her –"

"John!"

Both men turned to look at Allie. She had stopped laughing and was giving Bender a look of dire warning. John, however, was never one to take hints.

"—that you came all the way back to Bumfuck Illinois just to see if she was still single."

To Andrew, it felt, like a split second, it felt like being back in the library, when he had wrestled Bender to the floor, and the criminal pulled a switchblade on him. That quick impulse – to prove dominance physically, since he couldn't verbally – was hard to push down. In that split second before he could decide between hitting John or laughing it all off, the decision was made for him. He saw John's attention shift suddenly and his stature change.

Turning to see what had caught Bender's attention, he saw a flashy BMW with a slim redhead pull up to the curb. Looks like the Princess was about to arrive.

"Speaking of ass-backwards in love," Andrew muttered just loud enough for John to hear.

"Shut it, Jockstrap."

Andrew opened his mouth to continue speaking, but a gentle pressure on his arm made him look down. Allie had put her hand on his wrist and she saw she had his attention, she shook her head briefly. "It was hard for him," she said, so softly that Andrew could barely hear her. "He really liked her, and he was dumped on by everyone for so long that he finally thought his time had come to be liked for who he was – really liked, not used by his girls for pot or sex or a wild time…. It just reinforced his bad opinion of himself."

"He told you all this?"

"No, but wasn't it obvious?" At his silence, she sighed. "I forgot you weren't there for most of the fallout." She took her hand away and turned her eyes towards the car. "He needed attention, even bad attention, but neither one of us got anything from you two, you know. It wasn't as bad for me as it was for him, though. I was used to being ignored by the people who mattered most to me."

Andrew closed his eyes briefly as shame ate at his stomach. When he opened them again, she was already halfway down the steps, ahead of even John to welcome Claire back.