Malik dragged himself out of the pool, after he finished doing some late afternoon laps. Sometimes a swim at the community pool was just what he needed to end his day... and the sight seeing that... "Hey pretty girl..." He started, before she looked up at him, and he realised who it was. Shit. He recovered, acting like he knew it was her all along. "What brings you here?" He asked her. 

To: Kathleen Lopez From: Marty Bukowski Subject: Party seeing as Shelia's going to kill me might as well do this in style. Rachel's going to stay with a friend Saturday. Dad's out of town. Still up for providing the booze? -Marty.

Mary Anne breathed in the smell of the ocean as she and Dawn spread out a blanket. She turned to her sister and grinned, "I just love the smell of the ocean!" she exclaimed, excitedly giving her sister...had covered herself head-to-toe in sunscreen, hoping for the best from the summer sun. It was no secret that she burnt to a crisp in ten minutes flat and she wasn't planning on taking any risks.

"So... " It was at this point  that Troy realized he'd rather be anywhere else than sitting on his crappy bed in his crappy trailer with the only girl he'd ever loved who might or might not still be...had probably done more thinking in the past seven days than he had in the past seven months -- a practice he had every intention of returning to as soon as this particular conversation was over. 

Katie stood outside the manor, wondering if she was going to ever have the guts to ring the doorbell. She'd been standing across the road for twenty minutes, trying to find the courage to ask for Renée...family, looks (the thinner is the winner and Katie sure wasn't) and Troy. She wished it didn't break her heart to think about it. Ringing the doorbell once more, she took a step backwards -- and waited

It wasn't as if Stoneybrook was exactly a small town. It had malls and restaurants and a train station. Everybody didn't know everybody . You could walk down the street and not see a single person you...friend Katie... Ashley didn't want to just sit idly by and watch her friend get hurt. So, after much deliberation and several shrugs from Jack, she finally texted Katie. hey. want to meet up? thelmas?

To:  katie_lopez   From:  mr_retlin   Subject: ...it can't rain all the time. “You live like this, sheltered, in a delicate world, and you believe you are living. Then you read a book... a song, and it awakens them and saves them from death. Some never awaken.” -Book Of Mirrors, Anaïs Nin "The trouble with words is that there are only so many ways to say them." -Cary Retli

"There's this thing called the library... " Kristy's words echoed in Cary's head as he browsed idly through the shelves of books.  While the boiler room had been visitor-free since Kristy's surprise...her , he thought to himself, watching the tiny, dark-haired girl from a distance.   Right... so, quit being a stalker and say something, Retlin... "Hey, so... you, uh... ever finish Catcher ?"

It started when she was nine. Katie sat by the kitchen table drawing when her mother took out the bottle of pills, swallowing one down with water. "What's that?" Katie asked curiously. "It's medication...again, the bottle of Xanax - now prescribed in her own name - was emptied, and her hands stopped shaking enough for her to pick up the phone and call for what she mentally referred to as reinforcement

To: Katie_lopez   From:  amalia_polocity   Subject:  James Message: Katie, I just wanted to let you know that you won't have to worry about James again. -Amalia