Chapter Five

Jo sat calmly on the swing, next to her were the eleven-year old version of Lacey. The brown hair as long as ever, those eyes sparkling with happiness as she yet again tried to break her own record in swinging higher than Jo. She looked around at the scenery, it looked just like she remembered it. Soon she knew Danny would walk out with the jump rope in his hands, his eyes completely blank as if he couldn't believe what he had done. Jo hadn't wanted to go inside, it was Lacey who had wanted to see what had gotten Danny so shaken up. Even now, Jo didn't want to go there, she didn't want to see it. Despite that her own legs pulled her towards the house.

"I don't want to." she said desperately, her eyes tearing up as she walked towards the house. "No, no, no."

The tears ran down her eyes, she could hear Lacey saying her name from behind her, yet Jo couldn't stop. She couldn't stay, she was going to relieve it over and over again. Jo closed her eyes as if that would hide it, she wouldn't see the dead body, she wasn't going to see Danny broken up, conflicted and confused. She kept her hands over her eyes until she heard his voice.

"Jo, help me?" it was the childish version of his voice. Despite sounding so different from the voice he had now, the effect were the same. Jo shook her head, but when he asked once more all she could do was open her eyes. Tara's dead body were on the floor, Danny had his hands reached towards her, desperation evident in his eyes. "Help me?"

Oh god, Jo groaned as she woke up. Her head felt as if it were going to split into two. And this was before she had even opened her eyes. Not quite sure about what had happened she dreaded doing just that, who knew what she was going to find. What had she done last night, and more importantly, what had she been drinking? Oh god, her heart felt as if it were going to break apart her ribcage from beating too hard. She still felt afraid, still felt nervous and the picture of Tara's body were still clear inside her head. She hadn't had that dream in years, not since she was thirteen. But it still affected her the same way, it still made her feel weak, it still consumed her thoughts and made her feel out of control. Jo hated not having control.

"Jo," who was that? Jo didn't remember ever hearing his voice before. "Jo, darling, wake up."

Darling? What? Jo gently opened her eyes, looking at the person in front of her. The moment she did that glimpses of the night before appeared in her mind. That boy, that handsome boy had kissed her and then he had .. had he cut her? She looked at her wrist, confirming what she thought she remembered. Among the the old scars, the more or less healed there was a brand new one and it appeared as if the blood had dried not long ago.

"Yeah, sorry about that but I just assumed that you wouldn't mind." he said, a charming smile gracing his face. Jo shrugged, pushing herself into a sitting position all while watching him.

Without thinking about it herself she compared him with Danny. This boy appeared cockier, his smile were somewhat crocked, his nose a little too big for his eyes and his lips appeared to have a natural pout. His eyes were grey and deep in some way, making her feel as if he was hiding something. Was that how her own eyes looked, as if she was hiding something or did people just not see it until they had something to hide themselves.

"Max right?" she asked, he nodded and sat down on the couch next to her. Before then Jo hadn't noticed the two cups he had in his hands. He placed them at the table in front of them before sitting down next to her, comfortably placing his arm around her neck. "You probably noticed last night but I was pretty drunk. I don't quite remember, but did we..?"

Jo never thought she would find herself in this situation, with some strangers arm around her, asking him if they had sex the night before. Because that was what she wanted to know, and there was something about Max making her not sure whether he would do something like that or not. Danny never would, she thought to herself ignoring the pain. She missed him, even though she would never admit that to anyone. Jo missed Danny, god, she even missed Lacey.

"No." Max took a sip of the cup he had in his hand. "We did not. Like you said, you were really drunk and I were really drunk. THat would never have ended well."

He laughed at his own joke and pushed the second cup towards her.

"Drink this, its for the hang-over." Jo had almost forgotten about the headache, the nightmare had caught her of guard and the terror were still stuck in the back of her head. "It tastes terrible but it works like a charm."

She took the cup and drank a small sip. She frowned as she looked at the fluid inside of the cup, it looked green almost which didn't make it look less disgusting.

"I told you it tasted terrible." Max said, laughing as he drank some more, cringing as he did. For a moment neither of them said anything, Jo drank more despite the horrible taste and were only vaguely aware of the fact that Max were staring at her scars. "So, what's your story?"

"What do you mean?" Jo asked, the same numbness to her voice as always. "Why do you think I have a story?"

"Well, people who cut themselves usually do. Its not in my experience that they do it for the fun of it." Max began raising one of his eyebrows as if daring her to claim the opposite. "Also, before I woke you up you were talking in your sleep. Were you dreaming of Danny Desai?"

"Why do you think that?" Jo said, starting to feel both annoyed and worried. What had Max heard? There was a reason why therapy had never worked for Jo, she never spoke about anything, especially not to some guy she had just met.

"Well you said his name a few times. Also, you and Lacey are pretty much famous in this town after finding his aunt dead." Jo let out a long sigh, looking away from Max as she leaned back into the couch. As if by habit, Max placed his arm around her shoulders and she could practically feel him watching her. "Was that what the dream was about? It wouldn't be strange if it was. I would imagine that it would be traumatizing to find that your best friend had murdered someone at the age of eleven. For any kid, not just you."

During the entire time in which he had spoken, Jo had started getting more and more annoyed. Except for the pain that constantly appeared in her chest when someone remembered her of that event, there was a buzzing almost inside her chest making her want to punch something. Once he had stopped talking, Jo placed the cup at the table in front of her and stood up. Her arms were crossed over her chest as she stared at him.

"What do you think you are? My shrink, some kind of protector? You have no right asking me about that day, or Danny, or even Lacey for that matter. What happened that day and the day that came afterwards are my business and my business alone." Max had calmly been sitting in the couch listening to her angry ranting, not moving a muscle. After a few moments he leaned forward, a somewhat amused expression on his face as he opened his mouth.

"I don't think that you need protecting and I know for a fact that I'm not your shrink." he said, his smile growing. "I'm just some guy who wants to get to know you. I wanna be friends at first."

Jo swallowed, suddenly feeling nervous.

"At first?" Max nodded as he pushed himself into a standing position. He placed his crossed over his chest, mimicking her. Then he slowly walked towards her, only stopping when being so close that she could feel his breath on her skin.

"Yeah, at first." he almost whispered, looking directly into her eyes. "You see, I'm a firm believer that from friendship anything can grow. That's why I wanna start with being your friend and then we'll see what happens. Its up to you, but I already know what I want."

Jo almost felt afraid to ask what he wanted, yet she could feel the question at the top of her tongue. He intrigued her, even more now than he had last night, but at the same time he scared her. There was something about those grey eyes that made her feel as if she was supposed to run to the hills, as far away from him as possible. But she pushed that feeling back, old Jo would have ran. The new Jo, didn't.

"What do you want?" her voice quivered as she asked and a smirk appeared on his face as he moved closer to her, being only inches away from her.

"You." Jo looked between his lips and eyes, did she want him to kiss her? She didn't know, but she never had to think about it. The voice she heard next caused her to jump backwards, quickly hiding the scars on her arms.

"What is going on?" Tyler asked, standing in the doorway, a frown on his face as he looked at both of them. Jo didn't answer but quickly grabbed her jacket, hoping to god that he hadn't seen anything.

"We were just talking." Max answered for her.

"I'm sorry to end your little talk but Jo and I have to go now." Tyler said, indicating for Jo to go to him, which she did. Before leaving the room, Jo looked back at Max.

"I'll see you soon, friend." Jo didn't answer but merely gave him a small smile before following Tyler.

It was clear that he was upset, he said nothing on the way to the car and even remained silent for most of the car-ride back. It wasn't until they had arrived at her house that he started talking.

"What happened to you last night?" Jo frowned, pulling her hand through her hair. "Jo, I'm talking to you. What happened to you? One minute you were there and the next you weren't and then I find you in a very strange position with no other than Max fucking Jamesson?"

"Why do you care?" Jo asked, looking at him, twirling a strand of hair between her fingers. "You're not my father, Tyler. If I wanna hang out with Max then I can and your opinion doesn't matter."

"I care about you. I don't want you to get hurt." Jo rolled her eyes. "I'm serious, Jo."

"Yeah, thanks Tyler." she replied opening the door to get out. "I'll see you in school."

She got out of the car and closed it before Tyler had any time to object. Perhaps he understood that there was no point in trying to change her mind. Now, all she had to deal with was her father. Oh god, Jo groaned internally as she opened the door and walked inside. Just like she expected, Jo had barely gotten inside before both her parents stood before her, matching equally angry faces. Her father however, as Jo had also predicted was the first person to speak.

"Jo Marie Masterson, where have you been?" Jo let out a deep sigh before hanging up her jacket on the hook. "Jo, look at me while I am talking to you."

"Yes sir." Jo ironically replied turning towards him and her mother.

"Well?" her father asked. "Where were you and what have you been doing all night?"

"I was at a party." Jo replied. "I think I remember telling you where I was going last night. As to what I was doing or who I was doing it with, well I don't really think that its any of your business."

"You do not speak to your father that way." her mother said, for the first time saying something. It rarely happened that her mother interfered in something like this. Often Jo and her father would argue, while as Jo's mother most of the time stood in the background unsure of what she was supposed to do. She must be desperate, Jo thought to herself crossing her arms over her chest.

"But I just did, didn't I?" she countered, Jo could almost see the anger building up within her father.

"You are grounded, young lady." Jo rolled her eyes. "You do not get to leave this house except for school, you can not invite people here and you are to spend every waking moment studying, have I made myself clear?"

"Chrystal." Jo walked in between her parents and up the stairs. They wanted to ground her, fine, they wanted her to spend every day in her room, okay, they wanted to have control over her, well.. they could always try.

AN: Hi guys! I did my exam and I now have some days off which hopefully means updating at least twice before I have to study some more. I can't make any promises though, except for writing this fic I am also looking into writing another one as well as writing on my own projects which I have planned to send away to publishers at some point this year. But I am going to do my best and write as often as I can. Anyway, I hope that you like this chapter, it was a very hard one to write!