*She liked to hide inside herself, where no one knew how she felt*

The wind pushes against her, blowing her shirt into her wound. Her blood rushes as she feels it, speeding up, slowing down, heart scattering it's actions. The pain's there but yet it isn't there. It's like she can feel it on some level, but she's too far away from it, detached from her body. Tyler isn't high, she hasn't even taken any painkillers since this morning. But as they walk past the 'Knickknack Shack', she feels like something inside her is going to hide away. The grocery bags containing the snacks for tonight's fest smack against her knees, but she likes it, the reminder that she's actually there.

"There's your job!" Kitty reminds her, rubbing elbows with her as they pick up their pace, wind rushing them.

A car honks, and another honks in return, but its as if the street, the noises of the city, can't reach Tyler. She smiles at Kitty, unable to contain her thoughts but unable to voice them. "There it is."

"Does it make you anxious?"

"A little."

"Have you ever had a job before?"

Tyler shrugs the slightest bit, "Something like that."

Their conversation ends there, as if Kitty can sense that she doesn't need to ask about it. Despite her chatterbox personality, she doesn't seem to talk constantly, like Tyler had originally thought. No, rather she talks when she can, and when she can't, she's fine with it.

It's not until they get inside that she speaks again.

Door closing behind them, the first thing Tyler notices is that the guy from the Pizza Parlor, and the guy who took her home, is there. Leaning against the counter, chatting with the lady there, he doesn't notice them at first.

"Jakie!" Kitty practically pushes past Tyler to give him a hug. Jake rubs the back of his neck, looking the slightest bit uncomfortable. "There you are! Why'd you ditch me like that? It's been like, four days! No word! Oh! Yeah, I almost completely forgot. My sink drips at night. It's starting to annoy me. Do you think you could spare some time to send someone to fix it?"

He blinks, then seems to understand what she's talking about, "Now, what kind of manager would I be if I just sent someone? Besides, I hear you've got a guest. I'll go up and take care of it now, if that's okay."

"Guest?" Kitty looks back to Tyler, laughing just the slightest bit.

Tyler presses her lips against one another, cautiously walking up to them two, "Actually, I'm her roommate. Don't I know you...?"

"Really? Well, then I better warn you that she's quite the handful. And, to answer your question, no, not really. You've met me a couple times before, but we've never been really introduced. I was in Don's English class a few times, and I've taken you home before. It's Tyler, right?" He gives her a grin, looking very pleased with himself. Tyler doesn't know what to say, and he takes that as an advantage to grab her bags from her hand, "I happen to own this building, and Kitty here is a good friend of mine. Shall we go up?"

Kitty giggles as Tyler rolls her eyes, and the two of them follow him to the stairs. "Don't think he's a gentleman," Kitty whispers to her, "he's just pretending to make himself look better."

"Oh really? I couldn't tell." Her sarcasm definitely isn't lost.

"Don't mind him though. He'll probably look at the sink, run back down and get his stuff, fix it within like, twenty seconds, and be on his way. The guy's really good with his hands, you know?" She giggles again. "He's pretty too, if you happen to be into people like him."

Tyler just nods, still unsure about how to respond. So many new people in such a few amount of days just blows her mind. But he's not really new, she reminds herself. His name just is.

She can't concentrate as they get in the room, something in her refusing to just accept that this is all that's happening. He gets to fixing the sink right away, Kitty starts to clean up the place, but Tyler can't do anything. She paces, helps Kitty clean off the counter for a moment, then paces again. Her hands shake. Something in her just won't be still, and for the life of her she can't figure out what it is. It's like the truth of the day is alluding her, making it impossible to focus, keeping her mind distant but her body stuck there.

The clock is the worst though. Every time she glances its way the hands haven't moved, and yet they do, each tick a beating on her mind. Each little tock a scream without an echo. She licks her lips, brushes her hair with her fingers, sweeps the floor, does everything she can to distract herself. Her mind won't think though, and that's the worst part. It keeps her from understanding, rendering her bones to stick together and her skin to feel tight.

By the time Jake is finished with the sink the world is crashing. "Alright, that should be good, Kitty. You have fun tonight." He nods to her as he leaves, sending a smile towards Tyler and tilting his hand up just the slightest.

"You too! Feel free to drop in and join if you want to hang out."

"Well, I'm a bit busy tonight, but I'll see if I can come on over for a drink or two later." He grins, "Now, don't you ladies be doing anything illegal in here."

"'Course not." She giggles, swatting him out the door until it's closed. Leaning against it with her eyes shut for a minute she looks at peace, then she looks at Tyler. "Now, tell me what's wrong." Once again that determined voice is back, like she's on a mission and nothing could ever possibly drag her away from it.

Tyler sighs through her teeth, "If I knew, trust me, I'd tell you."

"Alright..." Kitty sighs, pulling away from the door. Without warning a grin breaks out on her face, "Well, turn on the radio!"

"Radio?"

"By my vanity-mirror." She tells Tyler, seemingly unaware of her redundancy. Tyler grins at it before walking to the other side of the room, searching around her cluttered area until she finds the Alarm-Clock-Radio, "This thing?"

"Yeah! Just press the 'on'. We can listen to some jams. And dun' worry, it's set to the Pop! F50 station, plays everything and everything." She says, giggling as she starts to swing her body about the room as if dancing to invisible music.

Rolling her eyes, she turns it on, feeling the creep creeping back into her mind. It's a disease, eating away at her until there's nothing left whatsoever. But there's still something left right now...God. God! When will this end? What is this? Outside the light of the day is fading, quickly changing into the nighttime, as if the sun was hiding. A shadow falling in the corner causes her to jump, paranoia climbing through the tunnels in her brain.

"So," Tyler starts, shaking it off, "who's your 'friend' again?"

The blush on Kitty's face is brighter than before, "She's just a friend, okay!"

"No, really, just tell me her name!"

"You'll find out soon enough!"

Tyler sighs, running a hand through her hair.

A knock at the door saves Kitty from anymore questions though, the both of them jumping at it. Eyes wide, eyebrows raised, mouths slightly open, they look at one another, as if silently asking, "Are you going to get that?" For an entire minute it's like that. Radio playing, knocking at the door, and the two of them just looking at one another.

The walls seem to close in, the lights seem to flicker, and everything seems to get insanely grave. Then again, Tyler thinks, that's just my imagination getting the best of me. "I'll get it." She finally announces, loud and clear. Follow the leader, she thinks with a chuckle, looking down at her feet as if they always know where to go. The doorknob is cold in her hands but it doesn't matter. The second she gets it open she starts to laugh.

It's the type of laugh to take your breath away. The one that makes you feel like everything has been one huge joke, like any second now someone's going to jump out and say "Gotcha!". The kind of laugh that you remember for years after it happens. The one that causes people to look at you and think, "Oh my God, is she having a fit"? Tyler knows the laugh she's laughing, even as she's doing it. She knows the one because it's so common to her.

It's the laugh that she's not supposed to laugh.

Pure joy, shock, happiness, insanity, irony, all of it rolled up into one snorting ball of laughter that causes her to double over, falling flat on her butt and making her useless to anything else.

It's only the sound of her best friend's voice that finally starts to calm her down. "Tyler? What the hell?"

"Alise! Sorry about her, I think she's having some sort of...issues right now. We'll just let her work those out. Come on in!" Kitty ushers her in, still slightly flushed but her grin is bigger than Tyler's seen it all day. She gives one look back at her, "Tyler, please explain to me what's so funny. You're freaking out my guest."

Tyler shakes her head, the pain in her back clear as day. It doesn't take but a second for tears to start falling. Her laugh quickly turns sour, "Oh my God. Tell me this is a joke."

"What the hell-"

Alise cuts her off, "Tyler, what's wrong with you?"

"You!" She shouts, sobbing, "you're what's wrong with me! Goddamn you! Every time that I think I'm free I'm not! And you're always there! You're always finding a way to show up! Just to spite me!"

"Oh, yes, because I planned this." Her voice is flat as a board, her eyes narrowed. "Tyler, has it ever occurred to you that it might, just might, be the fact that you don't listen to anything? I mean, for God's sake! I'm still your best friend, Tyler!"

She shakes her head, rocking back and fourth. A low moan escapes her lips as the pain rocks with her. Everything inside her feels as if it's coming undone all at once. Everything hitting the fan again.

"Quit sobbing, Tyler! Stand up and look at me! I want you to really look at me, and tell me if you think I'm here to spite you!" Alise says. She's not screaming, but she might as well be. Tyler slowly pulls her hands apart, forcing her body to stand despite the pain she's in. She closes the door as well, looking at Alise with tears still running down her face. "Well, Tyler?" Now she's just tired, her voice near defeated, but Tyler knows all too well that she won't back down.

Her only response is to shake her head, crying still, before brushing past Alise to go into her room. Kitty just stands back, silent as the grave, watching the two with huge eyes.

"You're...dang it, Tyler, get back here!" As Alise grabs Tyler's shoulder the pain is almost too much to bear. Her legs crumple, arms useless as she falls onto her knees, unable to push herself back up or to stand. "You're bleeding."

Kitty seems to snap out of her daze, shaking her head as she takes a few steps closer to the two of them. The white-tan shirt that Tyler's wearing is stained red, the spot growing as they look at it. "She hurt her back...oh my God...that's..."

Alise lifts her shirt carefully, flinching a bit when she cries out in pain, "We've got to get you to the hospital."

"I can't go to the hospital!"

"Who did this?"

Tyler doesn't respond.

"Don. He did this, didn't he?"

No response.

"When did he do this?"

Tyler cries out again as the shirt is slowly lowered back down, "Last week."

There's a million things Alise could say. She could ask 'Why didn't you tell me?'. She could say that it shouldn't still be bleeding now. She could ask a million questions as to how it happened. She could ask if that's why Tyler left. Yet, she doesn't do any of that. "Give me your phone." It's not a question, it's not even a statement. It's a full blown out command and Tyler gives in easily.

.

Alright! Well, there's nothing I can really say here besides that this chapter is freaking short. I've edited it a whole lot, added as much as I can, and there's nothing I can do to make it any longer than this. But, to make up for it (I hope) I'll have another chapter out on Friday! :)

How many times is pizza mentioned in this story? The first person with the correct answer will get the next chapter dedicated to them, and they'll also get to ask me any question* about the characters and I'll tell you.

*Ask by PM. :)