"Abigail Scarborough?" Eugene asks me when I mention her name. "I know where she lives. Why do you ask?"

"You know she's been one of Rude's victims in the past, too, so I was wondering if there's something we could do for her, as well."

"She's been under our protection after the incidents she's been involved in last year, after her mother passed away," he explains to me, somehow using a solemn tone. "That's the only reason why all abuse toward her ceased out of nowhere. Rudolph knows better than going against us."

That kind of explains a lot of things, but also leaves some new questions unanswered. After all, Abigail doesn't seem to know she's under protection. I ask Eugene about this.

"She doesn't acknowledge the new us the way you do, John," he says, and a hint of sadness tints his features. "You can't blame her, though. The previous leader was the one who issued the order..."

"I understand."

"Are you perchance a friend of hers?"

"I'd like to believe I am." I'm not in the mood to explain to him the intricacies of our feeble agreement, or how Potato's lies severed it.

"Can I ask you to keep me informed if you notice anything wrong with her?"

"Wrong like what?"

"Ms. Scarborough has a strong tendency to get in trouble, which hasn't worked in her best interest." He's definitely talking about stabbing Amanda. I shouldn't be surprised by him knowing about this. "Will you do that for me?"

"I'll let you know if she's in trouble, sure."

With that promise, I get another piece of paper with an address from him, this one belonging to Abigail. I'm almost sure she'll be in her safe haven in the woods, but I've only been there once in the past, and that was months ago. I won't be able to find my way there even if I tried, so I have no choice but to try her house instead.

As everything else in Maple Heights, Abby's house isn't far away, even though it retreats into the far edge of town, where the houses with the big lawns are. If my internal compass isn't off, we're actually close to the old factory. There's no way to miss the tall, burgundy picket fence surrounding the property, as Eugene explained. The single-story house has a small porch where a man sits in a folding chair. That's probably Abby's father. By the time I get to the gate, I already have this man's attention, even if he talks to me from his chair.

"Who might you be?"

"Uhm, hi! I'm John Foster. Abigail's classmate."

"Abigail? You got the wrong house, boy," he says, waving me away with a flick of his wrist. "There's no Abigail here. You can go home now."

I look around to see if maybe this is the wrong place, but nope, this is the only burgundy picket fence in the block. This man is clearly pulling my leg, but there's not a lot I can do about it. After all, I get it. I don't think Abigail has received a visit after that thing with Rude and Amanda.

"Okay. Sorry to disturb you. Have a good day," I say, but then the black mass of muscle that is Wonder comes from the backyard and, what do you know, he seems to recognize me, even after so long. He runs along the fence back and forth a few times before resting his front paws in it, his tongue dangling with the effort, and pretty much begging to be pet. "Hey, Wonder. Glad to see you, too, buddy." I look up at the man, who's now ogling me with curiosity. "Do you mind if I pet him?"

"If you feel like losing a hand, go ahead."

I resist the urge to roll my eyes as I take a step toward Wonder, carefully petting his head. He doesn't resist to the touch, and actually rewards me with some heavy licks.

The man I presume to be Abby's dad finally abandons the folding chair and walks to me. "So I imagine you're not one of those stupid bullies from High School."

"That would depend on who you ask," I reply, thinking I probably bullied Rude out of school if you want to look at it through that particular lens. "But I want to believe I'm not."

"Wonder here doesn't seem to think you are," he says. "And that's saying something. He doesn't usually take lightly to strangers."

"You should know," a female voice says, definitely belonging to Abigail. We both turn to her, who's now standing by the front door. "You trained him."

"Hey, there, sweet bee," the man replies. "Do you know this kiddo?"

"Never seen him before."

"Hey, now."

"You heard the girl, kiddo. Now scram," the man says, waving me off with his hand like I'm some sort of fly. I watch Abigail retreating back into the house, so I decide to say what I wanted to say all along.

"Can you at least come back to school?!"

"Back to school?" the man asks, now turning to the door, too. "Now wait just a second, young lady."

Abigail turns around on her heels and comes back outside slowly. "I don't know what this stranger is talking about. I want you to kick him out of our lot immediately."

"It seems to me that the stranger here knows something I didn't and I'm demanding an explanation before I call Ms. Higgins."

I watch Abby and her dad glare at each other for a few seconds, after which Abby walks up to me, opens the gate, and pulls my ear to drag me inside.

"Ow, OWW!! Hey! What the hell, girl!"

"Shut up and walk. You wanted to talk to me, right?" she asks, letting go of my ear, and I follow her to her backyard, ignoring the many shouts from her father. Wonder trails right behind us in a lazy trot.

Abby leads us all the way to the back where her lot ends, and crosses another gate that leads to a narrow dirt path. She doesn't talk to me as we make our way through it, which seems to stretch longer than life into nothingness. I'm pretty sure I know where this leads, and my suspicions are proven correct once we make it to her Grandpa's log cabin. Then she produces some keys from her pocket and opens the door, and only breaks the silence to tell me to close the door behind me.

I do as she asks, and finally bring myself to speak to her, the first time after I fought Rude. "We didn't have to come all the way here, you know?"

"Actually..." she starts, and pulls her sweatshirt off, throwing it on the table, and looking back at me. She takes a few slow steps forward. "We kinda had to."

"Did we?" I ask her, taking her in as she inches closer to me, perhaps a little too close for comfort. "Why would that be?"

"Come on, John," she purrs, stopping just inches away from me, and reaching with her hands to fiddle with my shirt buttons. Her green eyes shoot up and hypnotize my own into staring back. "Are you really going to make me say it?"

"Okay, you can stop teasing me now."

"Oh, but..." she says, closing the gap between us, pressing her slim body onto me. "I don't want to stop, though."

To be honest, I'm more annoyed than anything else. First of all, and despite the fact that Lyle can't be argued against it, this isn't the kind of relationship we have, nor one I want.

That said, her hair smells amazing. Just letting that one out, because... reasons.

And, secondly, "I thought you were mad at me."

"Should I be?" she asks, nesting her nose in my neck and breathing me in. And, okay. I'm not that annoyed at this interaction now. Sure. Sue me. "You did save me from Rude, after all, didn't you?"

"When you put it like that..." I kinda did, but it was not only in the worst way possible, it could have backfired into a problem many times worse. Heck, Rude still will come back one day. Though for now, and out of pure luck (and Eugene's help), he's out of the picture.

My thoughts are kicked away when Abby nibbles on my earlobe, undoing my shirt buttons one by one. I take in a deep breath and swallow, hard. I don't even have the drive to push her away anymore. All I can do is keep my hands to myself at this point.

"Do you know what happens when the knight saves the princess, John?" she whispers in my ear, sending ten million volts down my spine, which collect somewhere around my groin. And then, all of a sudden, it all comes to a stop. Abby drops her gaze to my chest, and I notice her fingers tangled with the silver necklace. Vee's necklace. Abby presses her forehead to my chest, and shrinks against me, and that's when I finally have the impulse to hold her in my arms. She shakes at my touch.

"I'm sorry." That's all I can tell her, not like any of this is my fault. She shakes her head no against me, making my rib remind me I'm still not hundred percent healed. I kinda hate the stupid rib for staying oblivious up until now.

"Just... hold me for a second, okay?"

And so I do, trying not to notice the need in her voice, or the cracks. She shrinks more and more, until she's no longer a grown girl, but a little one who doesn't know what to do with herself. To her credit, and even though her breathing is uneven and ragged, she doesn't shed a tear.

Eventually, she puts her palms to my chest and gently pushes herself away. Her green eyes look greener in contrast with the red around her irises. She gives me a wry smile. "I'm sorry, John."

I shake my head. "I should have stopped you."

"Perhaps." She points at Vee's presence between us. "You're still holding onto that promise?"

Am I?

"I think so," I tell her, dropping my gaze to the necklace. Is that a promise I want to hold onto? Do I even hope to go back to her at all?

And when did I stop thinking about Celadon Bay?

Maybe I should take the necklace off, and just settle down here. There's a lot for me to latch onto. I have new friends, there's Abby, and also my new friends at Utopia Ranch. Besides, I need to be here whenever Rude comes back, just in case he's that good at holding grudges. On the other hand, that means forsaking not only Celadon Bay entirely, but also my family, my cousins, and Veronica. And my family will be my family forever. Veronica won't be waiting the rest of her life. I can't ask for that, either.

It's never fun when logic and feelings tear at each other like this.

I suddenly feel Vee's gentle touch cupping my cheek. But it's not her sixteen decibels calling my name. "John?"

I jerk back to life, and back into Abby's cabin in the middle of the woods. She dabs my tears away, and that's when I realize I'm actually crying.

"I'm... I'm fine," I say, but in reality, I feel like a steamroller ran me over. I return Abby's wry smile from earlier, and with it, I summon the tears she was rejecting to release. "Why are you even crying, Scar?"

"Because you are!"

"I don't even know why I'm crying!"

"You're a sad fuck, that's why."

"That, I am."

"Yes, you are," she says, now producing a sad grin. "And you're a mess, too!" she adds, pointing at my casted hand. "You scared the living shit out of me fighting Rude!"

"Couldn't help myself when I saw you that last time," I explain, but she cuts me short.

"Save it, Foster! He didn't even do anything to me!"

"Come on. You had that shiner," I protest, noticing she still has a yellowish patch around her right eye, ready to disappear soon.

"My father did that to me, you big idiot!"

"What?" She can't be serious. "Come on. Don't lie to me."

"I'm not, you ass!" she says, shoving me with her shoulder. "I sneaked up on Dad when he was cooking and thought it'd be funny to tickle him. He overreacted and his elbow got me in the eye."

I look at Abby, waiting for her to crack and tell me she's actually lying, but she's dead serious. I blink stupidly at her. I kicked Rude's ass out of town for no reason. "WHY THE HELL DIDN'T YOU STOP ME, YOU FOOL?!"

"YOU KNOW WE'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO TALK TO EACH OTHER AT SCHOOL, YOU RUMBLING IMBECILE!"

We frown at each other for a while, not saying another word. Finally, I'm the one who sighs first, abandoning the whole tantrum.

"Is that why you're not going to school?"

"I'm not even leaving the house," she says, and walks backwards, taking one of the chairs. "I can't even imagine what Rude or his idiotic friends will do to me if I show my face outside."

"Rude isn't going to do anything," I announce, triumphantly. "He's leaving town as soon as he's more or less recovered. Was transferred to another school."

"New Harland. I know," she says, matter of factly. I wonder how she knows, given she hasn't left her house and doesn't talk to anyone else. Maybe she notices my confusion, because she adds, "In case you're not aware, your fight with Rude is the talk of the whole town."

"I didn't know that."

"It is. Dad heard about it from our neighbors next door," she explains, but I don't really get why her neighbors should know anything about it. "Everyone knows each other in Maple Heights, bucko. You'd do well learning that."

"Got it, got it." I pace the room, taking in the details of the place I couldn't make up that one night I was here, and I didn't have the time to observe the next morning before leaving, like the binoculars hanging above the fireplace. My thoughts stumble out of my mouth. "Newt will be coming back to school tomorrow."

"Charlie Newton?"

"Yes."

"Then he's a complete idiot," Abby accuses with disdain. "If he thinks he's safe just because Rude's out of the way, he'll have to learn the lesson again."

"I'll be there with him," I challenge. I take the other chair and sit across from her. "Nothing will happen. He's safe. And so are you."

"Do you think The Fist will take that lightly, you idiot? That they will respect you because you kicked Rude's ass? You think YOU are safe?"

"For all the things you claim to know, you clearly don't know dung," I counter, snickering as I look out the front window. "The Fist is over. Has been for a while now."

"Uh-huh," she mumbles, bobbing her head up and down like I'm stupid. "If you believe that dung about the farm?"

So she knew. And even after knowing, she doesn't trust them.

"Well, I do."

"Of course you do."

"Of course I do, yes. What's wrong with it? They're doing an awesome thing at the ranch."

Abby rolls her eyes as she sighs, standing, and walking around the table before finally sitting on my lap. "You really believe in them, don't you?"

"I do," I reply, locking eyes with her so she knows I'm not in doubt. "They were the ones who went to Newt's house, fixed the messes, pulled him out of his room, and also talked down the remaining Fists who are still not with them."

"They did that, didn't they?" she asks, her voice now softer. "I can see why you trust them, John. Everything about them looks just the way you want it to look."

"It does," I reply, just as soft. She hangs her arms around my neck, and presses her forehead to mine. "I understand you're angry about your mother, but the man who gave that order is no longer in charge, and the man who actually did it is in jail. They have been taking care of you, too. Why do you think Rude stopped bullying you?"

"You are really sweet, John," she says, and her voice cracks a little. "I love the romantic way you want the world to magically be nice and pretty, you know that?"

"I don't know if I want all of that," I say, pulling her into a hug. "But I do know I want you to live the happiest life you can, given the circumstances."

"You don't have the full picture yet, John," she says, placing a kiss on my neck. "And, to be honest with you, I don't want you to have it, either."

"Why not?"

"You'll never trust people again if you do."

"I don't even know what that means."

"The world is never black or white, Newbie."

"Isn't it?"

"No," she replies, idly caressing the back of my head. "It is not."

"You're so cryptic today," I say, pulling her tighter, and more or less I get what she's saying. It feels so nice to have Scar in my arms like this, smelling her scent, and having her arms around me as well. Yet there's the sinking feeling of knowing it's not Vee I'm holding, batting me all the way back to square one. I stiffen in her embrace, and we remain like that in silence for a while. We don't even move an inch. We just stay there and become mush together.

"I'll do it. I'll return to school," she finally says, pulling away. "But only if you promise to stay by my side."

"Clingy much?" I mock, and she chuckles.

"Is that a yes?"

"Of course it is, silly."

"Yay me," she says softly, pulling me into a hug again.