"Oscar!" Izzy actually seemed shocked as he answered the door, "What the heck are you doing here?!"

"Nice to see you too Iz," I walked in uninvited. A horror movie was playing  on the TV and all the lights were off. i could hear screaming from the living room and walked in to find Ann and Dylan n the floor munching on popcorn and watching the screen in fascination.

"Hey everybody," I zzy said in a forced cheerful tone, "Oz's here."

Everybody immediately lost interest in the film and all eyes snapped to me. I smiled and waved.

"Oscar!" Anne shot to her feet and dusted off her skirt with a blush on her face and looking very guilty and uncomfortable. "So nice to see you! What are you doing here?!'

"hey Oscar," Dylan said with ease. I loved the way nothing fazes that guy. One time, during halloween, I had tried nearly everything to scare him or get some reaction out of him but all to nothing. Solid as a rock. one of the reasons i liked him. he held up the pop corn bowl to me. "Pop corn?" he asked.

"Don't mind if I do," i replied as I went to sit beside him on the floor. I also snuggled up to him a little. He looked at me as though mildly wondering what i was doing, then he shrugged and went back to watching the movie. I didn't see the silent panicked expression that Anne and Izzy exchanged because just then the kitchen door opened and in walked a platinum blonde, boobalicious girl with glasses, and a fresh bowl of pocorn in her hand.

'Hello," she said as she caught sight of me. I sat up to study her. She was tall in an endearing way and modest from the way she dressed. She gave me a curious look.

"Friend of dylan's?" she asked, her voice a little shaky.

"Yeah," i replied. Dylan looked at both of us, his brown eyes flashin in the dark and his brown hair looking mussed.

"hey babe," he said to the blonde, "this is my best chum, Crazy gal Oscar. Os, this is my girlfriend Honey."

There were indrawn breaths from both Izzy and Anne and they waited as if expecting me to fly of my handle or something. And maybe two days ago I would have. But then this actually seemed mild compared to the last two days ordeal and i just shrugged and said, "oh". i actually felt more embarrassed than anything at the moment and shifted a little away from Dylan. She smiled at me, a little thankfully and a little sympathetically. I merely shrugged at her again and turned back to the movie. She sat in between me and Dylan and he put his arm around her. anne sat by me and squeezed the hand in my lap. I shrugged her off and tried to cross my legs. I winced and remembered my ankle.

"Holy-!" exclaimed Anne, "What the hell happened to your ankle?"

I looked down at it. It was now swollen and a very ugly red colour. I could see it through the light flashes from the TV.

"Shit Oscar!" said Izzy, "What is wrong with you? Did you go to a doctor? That could be infected idiot!"

i smiled. My friends.  It's nice to know how much they cared. I'd actually missed them a lot and a tear came to my eye.

Anne ran off to fetch a first aid kit and I was hurried to the couch. Dylan, who was probably the smartest of all of us, took my ankle and surveyed it.

"Bone's fractured," was his verdict.

All we could come up with was wrapping a bandage around it since Annes parents weren't home.

'So I'm guessing this injury has something to do with the reason you came all the way here to see us?" Dylan asked, his soulful brown eyes that i could now see because the lights had been turned on to see my leg, searching. Gosh, the boy was clever. another reason i liked him.

I thought i didn't learnt to talk about it but it turns out i actually did because it all came pouring out like a stream. By the time I was finished, everyone was staring at me wearing this stunned/outraged/sympathetic expression on their face.

"Crap," said Izzy in a soft voice.

"And you actually take that shit from them." This from Dylan.

I nodded.

"Have you told anyone?" asked honey who i was surpried to find, I was actually comfortable in her prescence.

"Nope and I don''t plan to." After telling them , I was feeling a little better. We talked about it for a while and then I saw it was getting very late.

"Gotta go," i said, "Don't want my mother to blow a complete gasket." And then we said our goodbyes and then I left.

it was raining outside and so Dylan offered to drive me to the bus station. I accepted, though Honey didn't look very happy about that.

"So what's going on?" he asked me in the car.

i looked at him. "i just told you guys back in there."

Dylan smiled. He smelled like cologne and something cofee-flavoured. "oh come on," he said, "it can't be all bad."

I was bout to tell him that it was, then thought better of it. "actually I met this guy."

"Oh," he said. No other reaction. "And how is he?"

"He's cool," I said, "Knows more about manga than i do. Funny."

"Cool." he paused for a while, "So you guys going out?"

I looked at him. "What do you care?"

He shrugged and I changed the subject. We talked about baseball for a while and then he dropped me off with a  "Take care of yourself. Don't let the b****** get you down."

I rode the bus all the way back home and this time, i didn't sleep. I was thinking about too many things and when i got home i seemed that my problems had only multiplied. Because surrounding my house was a flock of police cars.