Note: this chapter is in both Duncan and Courtney's point of view.

Duncan clapped Geoff's back in a manly affectionate kind of way.

"Have fun in Cali, man," he said, smiling slightly.

The blonde man smiled back, pulling up the handles of his luggage. He bumped fists with the other and clapped his back, as well.

"Live a good life, Duncan." He sighed wistfully and started walking to the door where that led to the airplane.

Duncan, honestly and without a doubt, would miss Geoff. Even though it sounded terribly unmanly, he would miss him. Lately, Geoff was the only sane person in his life and the only person that actually made him think that life was worth it. While the ex-delinquent was crammed with so much stress and problems, Geoff was there—totally unaware of what was going on with Duncan—and cheered him up no matter what. He was a true pal, always there, never nosy, and was just plain loyal. No wonder he was the only popular guy he came to like back in high school.

Geoff was about to give his ticket to the lady when he stopped. He looked back. Duncan could see spots of regret and sadness hidden in those blue eyes. He grinned.

"Tell Bridgette to take care, Duncan!" he yelled out. He apologized to the lady, grabbed his luggage, and went inside, speed fast.

What?

Unibrow furrowed, Duncan wondered how Geoff knew Bridgette. He didn't know that. Geoff never told him. Bridgette never told him. Did they have a thing with each other back then? It was impossible, though—Duncan never knew her back then; they went to different high schools most likely. Geoff would've told him…

It's probably some personal shit between them, he thought, rubbing the back of his head roughly.

He took out his phone and was about to dial a certain ex-therapist's number. He paused. He shoved the phone back inside his pocket and mumbled to himself. He shouldn't call her.

But then he took the phone out again and dialed someone else's number. The phone rang and rang and rang. Finally, someone answered.

"What?"

"Nice to hear your voice too, Gwen."

. . .

Duncan grimaced at the sign of the coffee shop. It was the place where people went up on stage and groaned on about poetry and sadness. They wore dark clothing and had this grave expression on their faces to "match the mood," apparently. People snapped their fingers—which Duncan never comprehended.

The last time he went there was the last. Gwen had forced him to go sometime during their high school days. It was horrible and incredibly boring.

He sucked it in and opened the door, hearing the jangling of the bells.

The room was dim. The atmosphere yelled out mellowness, angst—a lot of it—and everything and anything; but the "everything and anything" was all related to a certain kind of "woe." There were a couple of customers scattered about the room. A barista was behind a mini bar, wiping the counter. Thankfully, no one was on stage.

He spotted Gwen all huddled up on the corner in solitude. She was practically isolated from the other customers. She was sipping her latte bit by bit, dark eyes staring out at the tinted window. Then, she saw him and gestured for him to come and sit down in front of her.

He put his hands in his pockets, suddenly feeling all cold. He obliged quietly and took a seat in front of his supposed "ex-girlfriend."

"How've you been, Duncan?" Gwen inquired casually, holding her cup with both hands. "How's Courtney, too?" He could detect a tone of bitterness at her name and ignored it.

"Doin' fine, I guess," he replied. "And Courtney's"—he thought about the stress she was holding on her shoulders—"doin' okay… I haven't spoken to her in a while, 'cause I was spending some time with Geoff."

"Oh. That's right. He's here." She had a strange expression.

"What? Why do you look like that?"

She gulped down the latte. She seemed hesitant to answer. "It's just that—that I—" She broke off, sighing. "Look, I thought that after we broke up you would be staying at Courtney's house. I thought that you'd be canoodling with her. Damn, I can't believe I said canoodling."

He chuckled, feeling a bit more comfortable. That was Gwen, able to make you feel comfy with her. "Well, no. I stayed at Geoff's crib for a while." His face slowly turned serious.

Gwen, noticing, smiled. "I guess it's time to talk, huh? You have questions, and I have questions—all that crap."

"Yeah. All that shit."

"I said crap."

"Yeah, like it matters." He had a full-blown teasing grin on. He wiped it away once he realized that. "You were cheating on me."

"That's not a question, but…no, I wasn't. Or I sort of was." She sipped her latte some more. She looked out the window. "When Trent came back, he called me. And then we started hanging out more and more, because hey, I missed him. We did a lot of stuff together: go to the park and I'll listen to him play guitar, listen to some music that we both actually like, go to this place and listen to poetry; he'll pose and I'll sketch, or we'll have some insane doodle war; and so on and so forth." She suddenly had a soft smile on her pale face. Duncan felt a tinge of jealousy towards Trent.

She continued on, "He told me he was sorry for being gone for so many months. He didn't know that his grandma's condition was that critical. He said he missed me. He even—oh my God, he even—he…asked me out again behind your back." She smiled sheepishly. "But I said no, because…well, of course it was wrong.

"After you and I fought, I went over at his place and literally blew up at him. He merely listened and listened. He was so nice to me… He hugged me, and I started bawling like crazy. And the he kissed me, and I kissed him back. It was so ama—" She blushed and cleared her throat.

Duncan didn't want to listen anymore, because it was sickening. He held in his disgust, though.

"A-Anyways, we kissed. We almost went all the way, but then I thought of you and stopped." She gave him a scowl. "I at least thought of you."

He rolled his eyes. "All right, go on."

"Before you came over, before the fight, we had a 'semi-date.' He brought over some wine, and we just hung out. Eventually, we went over to the couch and got into the mood. We made out like hell. And that's where you came in…" She shrugged and finished the last remnants of her latte.

Duncan leaned back against his chair. "So you did cheat on me," he muttered.

She narrowed her eyes at him. "You cheated on me, too, Duncan. Don't make it seem like I'm the only one at fault here. So tell me: what's between you and Courtney?"

"Everything. She helped me, I helped her. You didn't help me."

"I was scared! And tired! You never told me anything! What was I supposed to do? Keep begging and begging until you tell me? I'm not going to do something as low as that just to help you. In order for me to help you, you fucking jerk, you have to tell me something."

Courtney said somethin' like that. "So I'm a fucking jerk now, eh?"

She smirked. "Always have been, always will be."

"What does that make you, then? A bitchy bitch?" He returned the smirk.

"You know that label belongs to the Queen of Sluts, Heather."

"And she speaks the truth."

She laughed and so did he. They both bonded, talking about their wacky moments in high school and all the pranks they had done. They reminisced about messing around with the high school dork, Harold, and the high school geek, Cody. They talked about how Geoff yelled out, "Fuck yeah! Freedom at last! You go girl! Whoo, whoo!" after their school's valedictorian speech. They just talked about all the fun times they had together.

Although it was like this, Duncan knew it was going to…end. He wanted to be with her, because it was so easy. But she loved someone else now, her first love. And even though Duncan and Gwen had a lot in common, their relationship would soon die out. Somehow, Duncan always knew that that their relationship wouldn't last much longer.

He loved Gwen for her quirkiness, rebelliousness, creativeness, her intuitive mind, and overall her badass personality. She was his best friend besides Geoff. They both thought alike and got along really well.

But…it was over.

Gwen gently placed her hand over his. "I still love you, Duncan," she whispered.

He averted his eyes away from her when she said that. A nasty feeling was crawling up his throat, bugging him. "But it's not the same anymore, Gwen," he answered back just as quiet.

They both stood up. Gwen childishly took out her hand to shake, and he shook it, chuckling a bit. He leaned forward and kissed her cheek softly, breathing in that peppermint smell he would miss. He caressed her cheek, stared into those dark orbs of hers, and left.

No turning back.

. . .

Courtney's grip on her Sidekick tightened.

"So…you're not together anymore?"

"No, not anymore."

"Why?"

"Because—because he's still obsessed with some other girl." Lindsay paused. "And that girl is you."

The ex-therapist did a spit-take, the smoothie she was drinking spurting out messily. "I beg your pardon?" she shouted. "I don't even know your boyfriend! Just his name!"

"You don't have to beg anything, Courtney." She sighed from the other side. "He told me that he met you in a club some time ago, and you guys hit it off. I think you were both drunk or whatever. The relationship lasted for, like, a couple of hours until your blondie friend pulled you away. He never saw you since. And since then he's been, like, looking for you. I…was just his favorite pastime."

Tyler? Club? I—oh no, that's right! That guy, drunk, haziness, lips—it all happened! Bridgette told me he was my supposed boyfriend since we were—EW! The first and only time I ever went to a club and I had a boyfriend! Oh, yuck! Courtney screamed internally, panicky. She hoped that he wouldn't know that she was the therapist for Lindsay and she lived in the same city.

"Um, well, Lindsay, all of that was nothing. It didn't mean anything, but if he's that obsessed with me, he isn't worth it. You can't stop it. It would be better, though, if you talked to him properly instead of lashing out at him and overreacting. Sometimes, you can't help being obsessed with someone. Obsession is a powerful and crazy thing." Let's just hope it's not anything more.

"All righty then, Courtney. I miss you! I wish you were still a teacher! That way, I can come over anytime I want and talk about how jerky Tyler is!"

"Lindsay, I'm a therapist—or I was…"

"Oh. Right. See ya! Toodles!" She hung up.

Courtney threw her phone on the bed and shuddered. She should be careful whenever she was out in public doing errands.

Speaking of errands, she had to look for a new job. She shouldn't be slacking around, sulking, and wishing death towards a specific ex-boss. Although she had more time with school, she didn't like going home and doing nothing. With Lindsay calling for help—it was a shocker that she actually remembered to put Courtney's number in her cellphone—it made Courtney know that she had to take responsibility despite the fact that it wasn't her fault.

She considered finding another place where she could be a therapist. She also considered starting off low like working at a music store. She loved classical music and violins, as well as other instruments. So she could work at an adjacent store. But she dreadfully wanted to be a therapist. She loved that job, she did. And she would suffer without being one.

"Lost, Princess?" a voice she knew so well said from the doorway.

Courtney's head flew towards the voice, and she rolled her eyes. She didn't know that she was staring at her phone for so long.

"Pick-locking is so immature and wrong, Duncan. Who said you can come in, anyway?" She put her hands on either side of her hips.

He raised a pierced eyebrow. "I said." He walked over to her and put his hands on both side of her waist. "What's buggin' you?"

She wondered why he was being so intimate with her. "Nothing," she replied quickly. "Just wondering where I should start off, you know, for my job."

He nodded. "Uh-huh, uh-huh." He bent down and locked lips with hers unexpectedly.

Courtney's eyes widened at the sudden action. She didn't know what the hell was going on with him. He was acting so forward, as if he could do whatever he wanted with her. She didn't like that, because it also gave off this feeling that something was going to happen.

Duncan kissed her harder when she didn't respond. She should just kiss back, and they would have a full-on make-session. He wanted to kiss her, because he needed to. Her not responding was ruining everything and he himself. He grabbed her arms and roughly placed them around his neck. He pulled her closer until she was squashed to his body.

Once he started kissing her neck, she gasped for breath. "D-D-Duncan!" she breathed. "What the hell are you doing? What's going on? What's wrong?"

"What do ya think I'm doin'?" he mumbled against her skin. "I'm kissing you. So shut the hell up and enjoy it while you can."

While I can? "Why are you—Something's not right!" She tried pulling away from his iron grip, failing. "Stop it!"

He tightened his hold on her, getting angry with her. He kissed her lips hard and forcibly pushed his tongue through. He just needed her. He needed her. He needed her.

"Dun—DUNCAN!"

Quickly, he let go of her, holding her shoulders at arms-length. His lips were swollen, and she was sure hers were, too. She felt that hot feeling on it; it was tingling, too.

Courtney glared at him with cloudy eyes, gasping for breath. Her cheeks were flushed. "What in the world were you doing? Huh?" she screamed at him. "You're attacking me like some hormonal monkey! Ugh, who gave you the right to—to manhandle me like that? You insensitive Neanderthal!"

He felt a sting of guilt inside of him. She's right. What the fuck am I doing?

"My goodness! You're practically sucking the life out of me with that hard kissing! Just what were you thinking? Were you trying to tear off my lips? Ugh, what if—?"

"I talked to Gwen."

"—I didn't stop—What?" Her eyebrows furrowed. "Well, what happened, then?" She really wanted to know what happened, but at the same time, she didn't want to know what happened. She hoped nothing that she wouldn't like happened.

He let go of her and answered, "We just talked. Got questions answered. You know, closure. We needed it."

"Closure," Courtney said slowly, testing out the word. "Which means…?"

He sighed irritably. "It means we broke up. We ended it in a good manner. We didn't leave it off in a bad note and all that crap. We're no longer together. Finished. Kaput. You understand now, darling?"

She scoffed. "All right. The first sentence would've sufficed." But internally, she was jumping with joy.

He stared down at her, an unreadable expression on. His teal eyes went down to her still swollen lips and felt a desire to kiss them.

So he did.

And she, appreciatively, replied back with ease.

His large hand cupped the left side of her cheek while the other pulled her forward on the small of her back. Her arms enfolded around his neck, pulling him down, desperately wanting him closer and closer.

The kiss kept deepening. Soon later, tongues wrestled with each other happily, roughly. Duncan's rebellious hand snuck under her shirt and started stroking her soft skin. Courtney bit his lower lip once or twice. He started walking to the bed and so did she. She began taking off of her shirt when he grabbed her hand, ceasing her.

"No," he said.

She pulled back a little. "Why not?" she snapped.

'Cause I can't, he thought. "You're not ready."

"I am ready! Don't you feel the powerful mood in the room? I'm ready, you're ready. Isn't that enough? So let's continue, shall we? Before you kill the mood." She started kissing him again.

He pushed her away. "Sorry, Princess, but I'm gonna have to stab the hell out of this mood." He groaned and muttered a string of profanities. "We have to talk."

Confusion was written on her face. "Talk? About?"

"Us."

"What 'us'? There's no us. We're not even—we're not together." She tried to hide the disappointment from her tone.

"But you want there to be. I do, too. Like—wow, you can't imagine how much I want you and me to be together. Ever since I found out that I liked you, dude Courtney, I couldn't get you out of my mind. It's annoying, you know. And hey, I can't stop it." He winked at her. "And you can't, too. You like me, too, right?"

Her mouth was ready to protest and shout out many offenses, but upon realizing that it was useless, she focused her attention on her hands. She flexed her fingers and didn't dare look at those eyes staring at her with such intensity.

"You do, right?"

"And so what if I do?"

"Then all right."

Shyly, she peaked up at him. "Does…that mean we're together? Boyfriend, girlfriend?" she questioned, voice quiet.

Duncan turned solemn. He brought up his hand and started massaging his eyes hard. He didn't want to do this. He desperately didn't want to do this. It would hurt him, it would hurt her—it would hurt everything they had worked for.

"No, it doesn't mean we're together now."

A feeling of shock ran through her body. She gulped audibly and let out a nervous laugh. "Ah, what, is it because you didn't properly ask me?"

"It means we can't be together, Courtney." She could hear the reluctance in his tone. And since he sounded so reluctant saying that, why was he saying it?

Duncan saw the hurt and perplexity in her eyes. It pained him to say these words. It pained him to actually see the hurt in her eyes so clearly and closely. He didn't like this. He hated this.

"Believe me, I want to be with you," he explained. "I want to show you how fucking fun life can be. I want to show you everything. I want you to live a good life with me.

"But…we can't be together. Some would think that we should be together when we can't. Yeah, we'd look good together and we'd be happy together. We're attracted to each other. But after all of this shit, we can't. There's something that's making us not be together. Maybe we can't be together just yet. We just—damn it, it's hard to explain. We can't be together, I'm sorry."

Courtney opened her mouth a few times, but she didn't say anything. She didn't even know what to say. She thought that after everything had been fulfilled and they confessed, everything would be fine and they'd be a couple, a happy one. That was what she assumed, because that was what anyone would assume. She didn't understand as to why he was doing this.

"I don't follow what you're saying, Duncan," she told him, tone becoming a bit furious. "We want this! We want to be together, because we need each other! We like each other! I—I love you!"

His eyes expanded. He wasn't expecting that. But she shouldn't have said that, because it would make everything even more challenging. "Oh, c'mon, don't do that. Don't give me that, Courtney. You're just making this hard."

She felt an ache to her heart when he said that. "But you love me too! Don't you? What's so hard? It's so goddamn easy! We said it, we're together! That's it! Everything will be fine! What's the matter, Duncan?"

"I love you, too."

Tears of joy started to come out of her eyelids, though tears of sadness overpowered it. This was just too much. "See?" she cried out, slightly jubilant that he said those words. "So—so that means that we're together—"

"Something's not right! We can be together, but we shouldn't! Not now, maybe. I don't know!" He clutched his head, groaning. "I hate this, all right? Now that Gwen and I broke up, we should be together, but we just can't.

"I'm going to…visit my family. I have some things to fix with them. I think I'll be fully all right if I talk to them. I mean, I was pretty fucked up to them when Elli died, you know? So it's fair that I talk to them, especially my ma." He sighed loudly. "I don't like hurting her, and this guilt inside of me is comin' back again."

Courtney said nothing. She refused to acknowledge the fact that they can't be together. She was well-informed with how he was doing the right thing, actually. Instead of becoming a couple and having fun, he was taking responsibility for his past actions. It was marvelous, but her selfish side didn't want that.

He grasped her chin gently and looked into her eyes. He knew what she was feeling, but he had to this. "You all right there, babe?" he murmured.

She glowered. "I'm not. I'm not 'all right.' I'm not—I'm not anything! You can't expect me to be all right after discovering the fact that we can't be together, evidently! I—" She cut herself off, exhaling. Why did this have to happen? "When are you leaving?"

He couldn't answer. He shouldn't answer. But he did, though. "Tomorrow."

She clenched her teeth and dropped her forehead on his chest. He gathered her in his arms until she was sitting comfortably on his lap. He placed his cheek next to hers, hot breath fanning her ear.

"So soon," she mumbled, small tears falling. "So…so…soon."

"I know, but today I'll spend the entire day with you, 'kay? We'll do whatever, whichever you want, no matter how boring it is. Study, do homework, talk about our feelings—all that jazz. All right, Princess?" He received no reply. "Don't be like that. Princess, say something."

"It's already the middle in the afternoon, moron."

He chuckled. "Let's start now, then. Let's do whatever, I don't care. C'mon." He had an idea. "Hey…hey you wanna visit my sister?"

If it were possible, her eyeballs would be popping out by now. She was highly, highly flattered that he would suggest such a thing. She wondered if he ever did this for Gwen.

"Are you…are you, um, sure?" Courtney asked, pulling back from to look at him square in the face "You're not just bringing up the idea just to make me feel good, right?"

He snorted. "'Course not. I just want you to meet her. I'm sure she'll like you." He grabbed her hand and made her stand up fast. "Let's go. I haven't visited Elli in a long while. We should stop at the nearby flower store. But, uh, you're buyin' it, not me. I don't wanna be in that place."

She kissed him.

He smirked when she stopped. "Well, what was that for?"

"You're amazing."

"You knew just now?"

Duncan intertwined her fingers with his, and they headed outside. He smiled briefly at her, and she returned the smile.

They'd be together again. Someday.

After all, although she wasn't a therapist anymore, they weren't done with their sessions yet.

Fin.

[*Sniffles*

Well, readers, this is the end, sorry to say.

You know, it gives me this feeling as I realize that this story is gone. I remember writing the earlier chapters of this story, and I actually loved writing it. I had so much fun, and I had super-mega-awesome reviewers.

I hate the fact that I stopped updating for a freakin' long time, but at least I finished.

Sorry if the ending was not what you expected—you could say it was a semi-happy ending.

I'll think about putting up an epilogue if I ever find inspiration, because if I do put up an epilogue, I would have no idea what to put. Ideas, guys?

Whoo! Done! Gosh, this feels great!

Thanks, guys. And thanks to those who kept supporting me and keeping up with my crappy updates and excuses. Blame school, man, blame school.

Bye!

Sincerely,

eat dots – formerly Monica-san]