“Hey baby. Are you okay?” Jordan's worried voice makes it through the buzzing background noise.

“I'm fine. I'm sorry I haven't been able to call you until now. We've been really busy trying to get everything settled down. You know, in case this is more permanent than not...” I trial off.

“Don't say stuff like that. I don't want you worried. All you should be worried about is what dress you want to wear at prom this year.” I can hear Jordan smile his picture perfect smile. But for some reason, my heart doesn't race like it usually does when we talk about prom. It's a big thing for a senior to take a junior to prom. That kind of date set up use to happen all of the time, but it just doesn't anymore.

“Yeah. I think I'm going to go shopping in a few days. Hopefully the storm lets up. If not then I guess I'll just have to wear something that I already have.” I sigh. I was so determined to get a new dress for this amazing occasion. Now I probably won't.

“Or you could borrow something. All you have is your semi dress. I wouldn't want you to wear something twice.” There was an usual sharpness in Jordan's voice. He's such a fashion police, he hates it when people repeat their wardrobe excessively.

“I could do that too. I really like that dress though.” I try.

“I think it would be better to find something new.” The sharp tone is still there.

“Fine. I will.” I drop it, agreeing is so much easier than arguing.

“Good. I've got to go. I'll call you later if I'm not busy.” He hangs up.

“Love you too.” I mumble into the dead receiver of my cell phone. I slowly close it shut and set it in front of me on my bed. Without warning, the tears come. Things have been changing so much lately. Jordan has been acting different. As if it's a hassle for him to be with me, like I'm always in his way or wasting his time. But we've been dating for a year, we've had our little bumps in the road but he's never been mean. The tears keep pouring over my eye lids for a while. Then the door bursts open.

“Oh. Sorry. I should've knocked...I didn't mean to....” Trey stammers. I quickly wipe my face, even though it's useless. He's already seen the tear streaks filled with makeup.

“It's okay. Do you need something? I thought you had left awhile ago...” I sniffle and reach for the tissues. He rushes up and passes them to me instead.

“Yeah. I was hoping, well, I haven't heard from my parents since they left for work last night. And the house is so big alone and in this storm...” He trails off.

“Oh Trey! I've got an idea! Would you like to stay here tonight until you hear from you parents?” I try to make it sound like I just came up with the idea on my own. He smiles and plays along.

“Oh my God, Marley! Thats such a great idea. Thanks.” I stay sitting on my bed looking up to his tall stature standing in my doorway. Everything about him seems so natural. He coughs. “So um...” He gestures at my phone. “Troubles in paradise? If you don't mind me asking.”

I look down at my phone, the blank screen reminds me of how blank our relationship is turning into. I slide it further away from me, as if that would help with what's really wrong.

“Do you think that if someone made a really big mistake, that could hurt the person you loved, if they loved you like they say they do, they would forgive you?” I ask, taking a chance at trusting this basically stranger.

“That's a good question. I think that if they did love you enough, then yes, they should forgive you. But I think it would help my advice giving if I knew the whole story.” Trey walks over to the edge of the bed and motions to sit down, I nod and he does. “If you want to tell me.” I look from his face back down to my hands. “You can trust me.” I look up, realizing that I can.
*

Jordan's car pulls up in front of the house. He get's out and I see that he's texting on his cell phone. I figure that he's sending me a quick text that he's here. I never get a text from him. I run downstairs to met him at the door, slowing down just before he walks through the door. He stands next to my dad as he watches me come down the stairs. His smile turns from a cute one to one that stretches from ear to ear when we make eye contact. I can feel my face forming to mimic the same smile. I continue to walk down the stairs, making sure I don't trip and fall in my borrowed high heels. Courtesy of my mom.

“You look beautiful. Like usual.” Jordan whispers in my ear when we pull close together for pictures. “Are you ready for semi?” He asks louder, away from my ear.

“Yes. I'm excited.” I look up at him and he plants a quick kiss on the tip of my nose. Mom captures it on the camera.

“EWWWWWW. Kisses!” Charlies yells from the top of the stairs.

“Oh, come on bub. Give your sister some slack.” Dad calls up to him, surprisingly at ease. “Now time for the rules. List 'em.” Dad's face is stern as he turns to look down on Jordan. Jordan goes on to recite all of the rules that my dad had told him with perfection. Just like the perfection that he is.

“You ready to go?” Jordan asks one the rules are set.

“Yup. Let's get this show on the road.” I look up and smile at him.

The start of the night goes off without a hitch. We get to the restaurant and meet up with some friends. We're all having the best time of our lives. Half way through the dinner Kristen gets up, saying she has to go to the bathroom and I go with her. While she's in the stall I fix my make up, pausing when my phone buzzes in my clutch. YOU MAY BE NEW TO THIS BOY, BUT I'M NOT. DON'T TRUST THAT CUTE INNOCENT FACE OF HIS. I KNOW I SHOULDN'T HAVE. -A FRIEND My breath catches in my throat and I let out a little gasp in shock. What's this supposed to mean? Is Jordan cheating on me? I guess there's only one way to find out.

“Can we talk for a second?” I ask Jordan, we've made it to the school. After the text that I received in the bathroom I haven't talked much. I didn't even tell Kristen.

“Yeah. What about?”

“I...I got a text. The number was blocked but it said to not trust you...who were you texting when you showed up to my house?” Jordan's face turns solid, not the usual loose, hung back expression that he always has in place.

“What do you mean? I wasn't texting anyone.” He turns to face forward, not looking at me.

“Yes you were. I watched you put away your phone when you pulled up in front of my house.” Strike one. He's already trying to hide something from me. Who was he talking to?

“God Marley! Why does it matter?” He slams his palms down on the steering wheel.

“It matters because it was obviously someone that you didn't want me to know was texting you. Just tell me!” I look around the car, then I see his phone. Just sitting there on the seat between us. I look up to see if he was looking at me. He wasn't. My pulse races as my hands slide over, slip over his phone and into my purse. He still doesn't notice. “You know what? It doesn't matter. You go have your fun. I'll find you later.” I throw the door open and walk into the school.

I head straight to the girls locker room. I have to read his messages before he realizes that his phone's gone. Which won't be long since he's so attached to the thing. I open the door and thankfully, no one's in the locker room. I sit down on a bench and prepare myself for what I might find. There's the texts that I had sent him, some from a couple of his friends, but there's a substantial amount from Caity Welsh. I click onto the conversation, and I've found my treasure. The whole conversation is about them making plans for after tonight. There's texts saying how much Jordan hates me. There's texts saying that he wishes for me to never be near him. Then there's the text messages blatantly stating all of the stuff that Jordan's done behind my back. Jordan is cheating on me.

I leave the locker room filled with pure fury. I run out to Jordan's car and throw his phone back. The back breaks off. I leave it. I then run back into the gym to find Kristen and catch her up on all of the stuff that I've found out tonight. The biggest surprise though is that the tears I expected to come don't. “How could he have done this to me?! And that slut! She should've known enough to not mess with me.” My eyes scan across the mass of grinding teenagers, I can't find any of Jordan's friends or him.

“He's so stupid. So is she.” Kristen agrees. “What are you gonna do about it?”

“Once I find him...” The scanning settles as I find Jordan's hands placed on Caity's hips, as her butt rubs up against him. They both have big smiles on their faces. My fury completely unleashes. I run up to the disgusting couple.

“Oh..um hi Marley...” Caity stammers as she pushes away from Jordan.

“Don't mind me Caity. I'm sorry for interrupting. In fact, I'm so terribly sorry for being in the way of you two for everything.” My glare focuses in on Jordan's face and I can see that he understands.

“I don't know what you're talking about.” Caity says.

“Shut up Caity. Nobody wants to hear another word come out of that trashy mouth of yours. I know everything that you two have done. Jordan, if you don't want anyone to find out what's on your phone then I suggest using the delete button. It's a pretty simple concept, but I guess you never thought of that. It's a good thing actually, since I know now what scum you are.”

“It took you long enough.” Jordan says.

“EXUCSE ME?” I yell in his face.

“I know you heard me. Stop acting stupid, oh, my bad, you can't help it.” He pulls Caity in close to him. “Now leave us alone.” Caity backs off. “What do you think you're doing?”

“I don't want her mad at me...” How stupid is this girl?

“No wonder you're so easy to all the guys. You don't have a brain.” I spit the words at her.

“That's not very nice.” She says.

“Sleeping with my boyfriend isn't very nice either.”

“You can't blame it all on me, he did it too.”

“I haven't gotten to him yet. But tell me this, did you know that I was dating him when you slept with him?”

“We were sleeping together before you guys started dating.”

“Did you stop after we started dating?”

“No...”

“Then you're at fault just as much as him.” She bows her head. “Now it's your turn. Do you have any explanation that you'd like to share with me?”

“Well you seem to know everything, so no.” Jordan says, no emotion hinted in his voice.

“I guess that's it then. Don't ever talk to me again.” I turn and walk away, the anger draining from me.
*

“I guess he talked to you again, didn't he?” Trey asks once I'm done telling my horror story of semi about a month ago.

“Yeah, for the next week or two he wouldn't leave me alone until I talked to him. So I gave him that one chance and nothings been the same as it was before I found out.” I look down at my hands, tears forming on my eyes again.

“He obviously doesn't know what he's missing.” I feel Trey's fingers gently brush away the tears that have fallen. I laugh.

“There's really not much to me.”

“Don't say that. I can see it now that you are this amazing person. You just don't see it because you get treated like crap from that idiot everyday.” I smile.

“Thanks.”

“And to answer you're question, no I don't think you should forgive him. I don't think you even should've given him the second chance. He doesn't deserve it.” He picks up my phone and places it in my hands. “What do you think?” I dial in Jordan's number and wait for the tone to change.

“I told you I would call you when I'm not busy.” Jordan's sharp tone travel over the receiver.

“I didn't want to wait for you. Actually, I'm done waiting for you to not be such an ass to me anymore. I shouldn't have given you the second chance. I shouldn't have even given you a chance in the first place. We're done Jordan.” I hang up before he gets the chance to change my mind. I look up at Trey.

“Well played.” We start laughing together and it's the most beautiful sound I have ever heard in my life.

“Thank you so much.”

“Nah, I didn't do much. I just made you realize what you already knew.”

“Wow Marley, you've grown quite the pair lately.” Kristen tells me over a steaming plate of pancakes.

“Funny. Trey has just made me realize how much of an ignorant asshole Jordan was.”

“Hmmm...Trey. You guys have been having a few sleepovers I hear?” I stop slurping down my orange juice. Where would she hear this? I wonder, since we haven't had school for the past week.

“His parents never showed up during the first day of the storm. He doesn't know what has happened to them.” My mind goes back to Trey's expression every morning when he comes back from his house with a new set of clothes. Sadness is etched deep in his eyes, with worry spread throughout the creases of his face. How could a face so beautiful be so sad?

“Oh god. I didn't know it was like that.” Kristen says, shifting uncomfortably.

“Yeah. He should be getting back soon with Mom. He's been so much help to us, with everything going on. He's helped Mom every time she's gone out. I'm really impressed.” I try not to think of why he has to help, but Kristen brings it up anyways.

“Have you heard from your dad lately?” Tears instantly spring to my eyes.

“No, not since the storm started...” My sentence drags off.

“Where was he the last time you talked to him? When was the last time you talked to him?”

“Well, I think the last time we talked was when he video called me on my birthday a month ago. He said he was off the coast of some place. Maybe Australia or Asia? I can't really remember.” I watch as Kristen whips out her Blackberry and types furiously. Her face falls after she pauses to read something on the tiny screen. “What is it?”

“It says here that both the coasts of Asia and Australia were hit furiously with tsunamis and hurricanes. Apparently, there were a bunch of unknown volcanos that interrupted in Australia too. There was a lot of damage on and off land. They don't know about survivors or the deaths.” Her voice sinks as I sit there motionless. Dad was based on some boat waiting to be transferred to a base for this top mission through the Air Force. He has already been through so much, going through almost all of the Raiders training, just to be kicked out for some idiot breaking his back with a log. He can't be dead. He has to be one of the few that have survived. He just has to be. “Marley, are you okay? You just got really pale.” Kristen brushes away the tears that have started to pour down my face.

“Yeah. He's Dad, he survived. Don't you think so?”

“I sure do hope so.”
*

As the weeks grow on, the more restless our house seems to get. With Trey having no idea where his parents are, and the same deal with Dad. The house is so filled with some kind of tension, it's hard to even breath. School hasn't been in for weeks now, we really haven't been out of the house for much. The only times we would go out of the house was to grab the news and for Mom to go to work at the hospital. She's constantly at the hospital. Ever since the first big storm there have been a lot of people coming in from sickness and really bad injuries.

School decided to end the year until the spring, if things are better by then. I guess it's a smart move because of all that's going on. And apparently there's supposed to be more storms coming our way. It's hard to imagine how drastically things can change in a short amount of time. In a days time really.

“They have a list.” Mom states blankly as she enters the door. Trey and I are playing with the dogs on the living room floor and we immediately notice that she's holding a thick packet of paper stapled together.

“For what?” I ask, unsure of what she means.

“The dead. It goes for all of the people in the town who have been found dead. It also includes the men and women that have been diploid from our base.” That's when I take in the look in her eyes.

“No...he can't...” I trail off as I run up to grab the packet. It's already open to the appropriate page. Mark Welch. The font is so small and simple, like it means nothing; but it means so much, it causes so much. I look up at Mom and the second our eyes meet, it's over. We both start bawling our eyes out. Thoughts and questions rush through my mind. How could this have happened? Why were we not warned? Someone had to have known that something like this was going to happen. That's what all the scientists are for!

I break apart to look back at Trey, who's looking at the packet. I watch as he searches frantically for his parents names. He pauses on one page, just stares at it for the longest time. Then, without warning, he chucks the pages across the room. The pages spread as it goes flying through the air. It almost reminds me of a bird taking off. The packet is thrown with such force, I'm surprised that it didn't rip apart. I can't stop him before he runs up the stairs. A few moments later, the door slams.

I stand there, completely stunned. I have never seen Trey freak out like the way he just did. In fact, the only negative emotion I had ever seen show from him was in the morning when he came back from checking to see if his parents had shown up overnight. Even then I don't think he realizes that I can see that raw emotion, he always puts up a wall with me whenever I try to ask him about any of his family. It worries me, but I respect his space and don't push it very often.

“You should go see if he's okay.” Mom gently places her hand on my shoulder. I look at her, but what I see in her eyes is total understanding. “I can see more than you let on. Go upstairs, we can talk later. I pull her into a quick hug before racing up the stairs after Trey.

Once I get to the door, I pause. I knew my intensions of coming up to his room, but I had absolutely no idea what I was going to say to him. I've never been in his room. Well, I have since it's my house, but not since he's moved in. The butterflies that I often feel reach a new level as I knock lightly on his door.

“Yeah?” I hear his muffled voice filter through into the hall.

“Can I come in?” I ask softly, maybe too softly. Did he hear me?

“Yeah.” I open the door and find him sitting on his bed staring at the floor with his hands gripping his head. The grip is so tight that his knuckles are white. I don't really know what to do, but I start out by making the big step of walking towards him.

“Are you okay? If you don't mind me asking.” He glances up with a faint smile on his face. I was hoping he would remember when he said something similar to me about a month ago.

“I couldn't find their names.” His voice is so faint, so different then his strong, knowingly voice that I was use to.

“Shouldn't that be a good thing?” I ask cautiously, not knowing what I was getting myself into. That little voice that speaks up when I'm about to do something wrong speaks through me, but I just ignore it. I want to take the risk of finding out about this great guy, no matter what information may be waiting for me.

“I guess it sounds like it should be, but in a way it's not. I mean, you and your mom don't have to sicken yourself by worrying all day where your dad is or what has happened to him. You know what's happened. Maybe not in exact detail, but you still know. Not knowing is killing me inside. I always hate it when I have to wait for the worst. I would much rather know, even if it's bad news.” His hands fall to his lap.

“That makes sense, but you can still hope that they're going to come back. I don't have that anymore.” Tears form around my eyes. I try to fight through it, I'm supposed to be helping Trey, but it doesn't work. They have a mind of their own.

“You don't know that for sure. How accurate do you think these lists are? There are hundreds of people that are dying or gone missing. That's what may have happened. He could've just gone missing with the rest of his crew and they're perfectly fine.” He wraps his arm around my shoulders and I lean into him.

“I'm so bad at this.”

“Bad at what?”

“When I came up here, I was supposed to be making you feel better. Not the other way around.” He laughs at my honesty, squeezing his arm tighter around my shoulders.

“I'm serious! You're always treating me so great and I just want to treat you the same way. I want to know you like you know me.” My eyes find his intense crystal clear blue eyes, and there's something I can't exactly place.

“You don't want to know everything.”

“Yes, I do. I want to know so I know what to say. It's like you said, I would much rather know then not.” I know I'm about to cross a fine line in this odd relationship, but I want to so badly.

“Family is really important to me. It has been ever since I almost lost it,” he says, “and I don't know if I will ever stop having the nightmares.”

“What nightmares? What happened?” I could tell that he was procrastinating in telling me everything.

“My twin brother, Tommy, and I use to be inseparable. We both did the same things, had the same interests, everything. But everything changed when we reached high school. Tommy started hanging out with a different crowd than me. Once that started to happen, he started acting different. We never use to fight, but we started to basically everyday. He started wearing different clothes, started to have the sort of attitude were nothing mattered.

“Then one day I came home and found him with a needle in his arm. I felt so stupid for not realizing that he was using drugs before then. 'You can't tell Mom and Dad,' was all he said to me before continuing to shoot whatever drug into his arm. So I didn't. I just thought that he would eventually see how it was hurting him and stop. I was being naïve. Once drugs entered his life, they weren't ever leaving.

“It went on for a few more months before I decided to tell my parents. That was when all hell broke loose. I couldn't have picked a worse time. I was telling my parents downstairs while Tommy was doing drugs upstairs. Some shit that made him think everyone was out to get him and made him have a really bad temper. My dad went storming upstairs and they started yelling. Then, out of no where, Tommy had Dad pinned against the wall with a knife against his throat. I jumped in to pull him off and got him to drop the knife, but Tommy came around and punched me in the head. I don't remember anything after that. All I remember is waking up in a hospital with cuts and bruises and the worst headache of my life. When I asked where Tommy was, my parents just told me that he was being taken care of now.” He stops, and I see that tears have streaked down his face. I don't know what to say, so I don't say anything for awhile. And he goes, “but they never told me what they meant by that. I didn't know if he was locked up in some mental clinic or if he was dead. I still don't know.”

His body started shaking next to mine as the tears poured down his cheeks. I put my arms around him and leaned him back down on his bed. He wrapped his arms around me, nuzzling his head into me. I don't know how long we stayed like that, but it was long enough for Trey's sobs to slow down to a stop. After he stopped crying, we continued lying there. I almost think he didn't want the moment to end just as much as I didn't want it to.

After awhile he lifted his head up so it was level to mine on the pillow. “You're the perfect friend,” he whispered to me, “how did you know?”

“What do you mean?”

“How did you know that's exactly what I needed?”

“I'm confused.”

“You being here and lying with me was all that I needed. I didn't need any talking. I just wanted to know that I had someone that would be there for me.” He closed his eyes.

“You don't ever need to worry about me being there for you. I promise.” He opened his eyes again, with the biggest grin I've seen all night.

“Pinky swear?” He asked, holding up his pinky. I chuckled as we clasped pinkies.

“Pinky swear.”