Bear had meant it when he'd offered for the girls to visit. Charlie and Teresa had taken it as an open invitation to a sleepover and came with blankets, pajamas, and a bottle of Malibu rum Charlie had lifted from her dad's liquor cabinet.

"Isn't your dad a cop?" Skylar asked when she'd first been presented with the full bottle of rum. "Isn't he going to notice his unopened bottle went missing?"

Charlie snorted. "If you saw how much alcohol he had, you'd know we were fine. If I took whiskey, then we'd have a problem." She poured three glasses a third full as Teresa splashed a bit of pineapple juice to top them off.

"How long do you get to stay here?" Teresa queried, taking her first sip and smiling triumphantly at the finished product.

"I didn't ask him," she admitted. Part of her knew she wouldn't be wearing out her welcome with him anytime soon. 

I love you. It echoed in her mind. Why hadn't she said it back right away? She'd only just met him. Likely he said those words to anyone that spread their legs for him. Maybe that was his way of making her feel like she wasn't as easy as she felt. Easy--used. But Christ he felt so good. He found parts of her body that she'd never known existed. His hands could do things that had her back arching and her--

"So Jet has a tongue," Charlie blurted, biting her lip.

"Oh does he?" Skylar smirked.

"How did you come across this knowledge?" Teresa rested her chin on her fist, squinting her eyes.

"Probably when he slid it across my downstairs." The girls burst into laughter. "Seriously though, I think he might actually like me."

"What gave it away? The fact that he went down on you?" Skylar shook her head, skeptically amused.

"What? No, he does that to anyone that asks."

"Did you ask him?" Teresa's mouth fell open.

Charlie scoffed, rolling her eyes as she said, "Of course I asked him! It would have been weird if I just whipped off my pants and pointed. Jeez, T. Anyways, when I asked him he totally remembered my name."

Skylar massaged her temples. "You think--hang on. You let him go down on you and he what--said your name? Now you have confirmation he likes you? How about the fact that he went down on you?"

Charlie's bemusement was written all over her face. "I'm not following."

"Okay, look," Skylar sat up, crossing her legs, "guys that use girls just for sex are doing just that--having sex. If he takes the time to go south--I mean what does he get out of that?"

Charlie chewed the inside of her cheek, nodding slowly as the puzzle pieces fell into their mental slots. "So what you're saying is that if he didn't like me he would have already hit it and quit it?" Charlie feigned an inquisitive look, arching a brow as she tapped her chin.

"In a sense," Skylar sighed.

"In all reality, Charlie, I think Skywalker is right. Jet can get any girl he wants."

"Why am I Skywalker?" She stared at the pair. "But more importantly, why does Jet get any girl he wants? If I was out giving blow jobs to any Dave, Dan, and Don, there is not a fucking chance in hell that guys would be pining after me. Looking to get blown, sure, but definitely not looking for anything further. What makes Jet so damn special?"

Charlie opened her mouth to retort, but only a small choking sound escaped her throat. Teresa finally broke the silence with, "Let me break this down into words Charlie here can understand." She steepled her fingers. "Jet is a whore." 

Charlie put a hand to her chest. "Blasphemy!" she gasped dramatically.

"No, sweetie, he's a slut. You probably have a disease just from his mouth." With a wicked smile, Teresa added, "Viktor seems promising." She patted her friend's knee with an exaggerated pout.

Phantom hands grabbed at her from her mind. She could still hear the popping sound when Viktor crushed the man's nose. "You don't even know how old he is."

"Can't be much old than Bear," Charlie sang the name with a wide grin.

Skylar pulled a couch pillow over her face and growled into it. "Why are you the way you are?"

"It's what makes me so goddamn endearing," she retorted proudly.

"I seriously doubt that man is looking to score a high school girlfriend though," Skylar thought aloud. 

"Bear did." Teresa's face was stoic; challenge in her voice.

The three had been sprawled out on the sectional couch for hours simply talking the night away. It was a nice reprieve from the day to day, though Skylar didn't particularly enjoy where the conversation was heading. She preferred the lighter topics of Charlie's sexual conquests or Teresa's constant problem with government surveillance. Talking about Bear only lead to dark places in her mind. Through no fault of his own, thinking of him made her think of the first time she met him. Those disgusting perverts in the alley. Viktor was no better--he'd witnessed the encore and hadn't hesitated in the slightest to leap in. It was chivalrous, yes, but she could have sworn there was something akin to delight in those green eyes when they'd helped her.

"Star wars," Charlie said, snapping her out of her thoughts.

"Huh?"

"Luke Skywalker. From Star Wars." Charlie waited for a reaction and then screwed up her face. "You've never seen Star Wars?" 

"Have you?" Teresa countered with a quirked magenta brow. 

Charlie pulled a face. "No," she admitted, "but I know who Luke Skywalker is." Skylar bit her lip, trying, and failing, to hold in her laugh. Charlie's confused expression shifted into one of amusement as her own laugh bubbled up.

Once the humor had gone, and the girls had successfully caught their breath, Skylar sighed. It hit her harder that she'd expected--the feeling of being an outcast, uncultured. There was never much time for entertainment when she felt the need to plan for her future because god forbid her parents send her into the world unprepared. "When I was a kid," she began in a small voice, "we moved around a lot. Sometimes more than once in one school year. Actually, most of the time more than once in a school year. So, I never really had time to watch movies, or tv series, or...anything really."

The girls watched her carefully, chewing on their next words. "Jesus," Charlie murmured. 

"Well we need to fix this, right?" Teresa checked, looking between the two of them. She jumped up from the couch and spun circles before finally asking, "Does he not believe in television? Who has an infinity pool and no tv?"

"It's here," Skylar giggled, grabbing a remote from the table and clicking the power button. A massive screen the length of a large sofa descended from the ceiling and came to a rest against the wall opposite them.

"Now that's some Bruce Wayne shit," Charlie muttered. Her big eyes were wide when the screen went from black to blue. 

"Bruce Wayne?" Skylar turned to her.

Charlie choked, whipping her head around to Teresa who barely managed to bite down on her smile. "Let it go, babe, let it go," she said, patting her back. Charlie made a show of taking deep breaths, working to steady herself.

"Here," Skylar tossed the remote in Charlie's lap. "Find something worth watching."

"On it," Charlie announced, flipping through channels and random scenes flickered on and off. 

"--another body found--" She skipped past the news report.

"Whoa, hey! Go back! Who did they find this time? Another girl?" Teresa took the remote and went back.

"We have Darrel at the scene now. Darrel?" The blonde bombshell in a powder blue dress was seated at a cushy desk somewhere in the bigger city of Colville a county north.

A man holding a microphone with the news station's logo appeared. Wrapped in a bright yellow rain slicker and a deep frown, Darrel said, "Thanks, Mandy."

"That's the quarry!" Teresa gasped.

"Where's that?"

"It's just right outside town. It used to be filled with water until the city had it drained. Kids kept drowning and stuff. Now it's just rocks and old tools." Skylar nodded, watching the man shiver in the frigid wind.

"Just moments ago police arrived on scene at Roman Ridge Quarry to find two bodies. The identities have yet to be released until they can be identified by family members, but Officer Dean--"

"That's my dad!" Charlie shouted excitedly.

"--spoke with me when I first arrived, and I have that clip here." There was a pause before Charlie's father appeared on screen. His brown hair reminded her so much of Jake that it was almost uncanny how similar the two were.

"What can you tell us about your discovery?" Darrel asked him, sitting just out of frame.

"Not much," her dad admitted. "We received a call late last night from an anonymous caller directing us to the scene. She appeared to be in distress--a panic, if you will--and I responded with my partner Officer Owens." A woman in uniform could be seen standing a few feet behind him.

"That's Stacy!" Charlie gushed.

"Can you tell us how many bodies?"

"I can, yeah, we found two bodies. Two males, looking to be between thirty and forty, give or take. We believe they fell from the the cliff. One of their faces were pretty injured--nose was smashed in."

"And that was from the fall?"

"We believe so, yes. But we'll know more after they've been examined."

"Any defining characteristics? Could this have been a murder?" Darrel pressed.

Officer Dean shrugged. "I mean, in Roman Ridge, anything is possible, but for now I think it's more plausible that they just fell. Their bodies smelled like alcohol, so I think this may have just been a terrible accident and I feel for their families." Turning to the camera, he said gravely, "There were no wallets or documents found on or near any of the men. If you have any information as to who these individuals were, we urge you to come forward. One of the men has red hair and a beard, built stocky. The other is similarly built with dark hair."

Skylar's heart stuttered. Her palms grew sweaty and she felt her spine lock up. "You okay?" Teresa checked.

She swallowed hard, feeling her breathing go uneven but unable to steady it. "F-fine," she said with a forceful clear of her throat. "Fine."

Teresa surveyed her, her eyes narrowed. Ultimately, she didn't contradict her and went back to watching the news report.

"I thought we were going to watch a movie and drink rum?" Skylar suggested enthusiastically. Anything to get rid of that damn image in her mind. The image of drunken breath hot on her face, the rotten smell that came with it. Those groping hands that ran up and down her body searching for something that they were hellbent on taking. 

Never again would they plague her thoughts.