Daniel woke up early Monday morning from the regular nightmare, but still in psychedelic colors, with a handful of jumbled memories of anything past noon last Friday. The flashes of what he could remember told him that he got tied up in something seriously dangerous this time. He did remember both women vividly, and didn't know what to do with their lasting impression.

Daniel ignored it all with the same dance and routine: getting showered, eating breakfast with the most normal people in town, then out the door to Oscar. He almost found himself turning onto the sidewalk. He couldn't take the cheery home or the bloated pile of sin that sat in that car. He still found himself sitting next to Oscar before he finished his debate with himself.

"You know Cara would have been the best lay of my life if she could just shut her mouth."

"I really don't want to know, man." Daniel suddenly remembered she did say it was ultimately what she agreed to, to try to manipulate Oscar, but everything felt off about it. If he couldn't get this ass to shut up, it would be memory after memory pulled up to smack him in the face.

"Too bad, my car my rules." Oscar obviously wanted to give more details but he's seen Daniel in this mood before. He fell mostly silent, occasionally grumbling for the rest of the ride.

At school, the whispering stares were everywhere, which made Oscar preen, but that's not what he was looking for. Cara was at her locker, in her boyfriend's hoodie. So the idiot cornered her with Daniel in tow. "Hey baby, ready for round two?"

She squeaked and nearly slammed herself against the locker.

"Man, fuck. Leave the dumb girl alone!" Daniel could feel the edges of whatever went on this weekend creeping in, just looking at her. It was bad enough he remembered the gyst. Did he have to call her dumb, though? Was it really dumb to just not know what Oscar was like?

"Why are you choosing now to mess with my game, Danny?" Oscar was in his face before the first word left his lips.

"I told those idiots to quit pushing the girl to try to get information out of you and turn it in to the cops. People aren't staring at us for the normal reasons—if you would have paid attention."

"Well, hell!" Oscar threw his hands in the air and walked off, not liking how things looked.

That jerk had no problem being the bad guy, but if he went too far people could turn on him, and he'd have to bring in Evan.

There was a sense that if he did, every girl here would be begging on their knees for a taste, but that's because their life was on the line. As things were, people mostly got to live. The whole town went to hell begging for status quo.

Cara threw her arms around Daniel from a blind spot and started crying, jerking him out of his disgruntled thoughts. He was most relieved that he didn't swing at her. "Could you not?"

If she wanted to touch him when everything blew over, he'd have a hard time saying no, but first he had a fight with his best friend to get through.

~~~

That fight came at lunch, right where they normally smoked together. It was expected after directly messing up Oscar's plans. He was probably attempting to hit Daniel for the lost hooker as well.

That afternoon, instead of classes, the whole auditorium was taken over by the local police force and counselors as they announced that their prized quarterback had been kidnapped and that the counselors would talk with anyone who needed to.

It was an excuse for a free interrogation, hoping someone knew about the boy. From how many cops were there, Evan wasn't behind the missing teen. Someone had poached on his territory.

~~~

Daniel walked home after school. Cara trailed him a good three houses back because she lived along his route but had no one with Sean missing. He ignored her until some classmates threw a bottle at her as they drove by, yelling all sorts of insults.

People weren't happy she slept with another guy while her boyfriend was missing. Daniel thought of all the times he was willing to be thought of as the bad guy just save people a little pain, that they wouldn't believe if they told him. Was this girl any different than himself, now?

The obvious answer forced Daniel to wait on her to catch up before shoving her under his arm—the side away from the road—daring anyone else to throw shit at her. "Are you alright?"

"No."

"Well, it's going to get worse before it gets better, and I can't always walk you home."

"I know you don't want to..."

Daniel chose to ignore that start to her apology, and distracted her. " Ah... Cara, you're taking my dumb girl comment too seriously. I've been playing games with Oscar long before you tried."

"But I did something stupid."

"No, that was desperate and ignorant. Brilliant people do that. It has nothing to do with intelligence."

The walk was a little less painful, having something to protect for a moment. He rarely had anything this concrete to hold onto. He felt sad that she'd never know how he saw her. She'd stand taller if she'd believe it.

Daniel walked her up to her porch steps—Cara turned after she took a couple steps, to stare deeply into his eyes. "You took a beating for me, didn't you?"

"No, not you, it was the best chance of keeping that idiot from going too far since no one will do a thing about him legally. If I could easily win against him, I'd just bully him into behaving, so don't go around trying to see a savior in me. I don't get to be a good guy with him in my life."

Cara made the sign of the cross. Figures an angel would be somewhat religious."Then I'll pray for your freedom."

He waited until she opened the door and slipped inside before walking home.

It was the first time he felt free in quite some time.