She liked him. She didn't know why. They had nothing in common and he was only going to break her heart, but she liked him. She could admit that in the safety of her mind at least. So he kissed her and she let him. Her hands trailed up, hesitated when they reached his neck, but then continued up to frame his face and hold it there. It wasn't hard to believe that he'd managed to entice the other girls at school when he kissed like that. When he broke the kiss and moved to make a trail along her jaw and down her throat, she very nearly purred and pulled him closer, but then she opened her eyes and saw a pair of joggers headed their way and pushed him away with a small yelp.

Irritated by the interruption, Cooper looked up and then followed her gaze to find Jay and Matt headed their way. "Oh god," Candice moaned, catching the dangerous glint in Jay's eyes. She pulled away and brushed nervously at her clothes as she tried to take a step back, away from Cooper. "Of all the people." Cooper's arm shifted around her waist, his right hand resting on her hip and pressing her closer to his side, a hard expression on his face.

"Sorry to ruin your chances."

"Chances?" she repeated incredulously, shooting him a quick look before returning her attention to the approaching boys. "What chances? Jay's going to kill you. Let go of me, he's coming." But he didn't listen.

Jay and Matt had slowed their pace as they approached and then they were both stopped in front of them. Matt's expression may have been one of mild concern, but Jay's looked murderous. "What are you doing out here?" With him, she knew he meant.

"I told you before that this is nothing to be upset about."

"This looks like a hell of a lot more than detention," Jay replied, glaring at Cooper. "It looks a lot like taking advantage."

"Advantage?" Candice looked from Jay's murderous expression to the cocky smirk on Cooper's face as his grip, if anything, tightened on her. "No one is taking advantage of anyone."

"Nah," Cooper agreed, a smug tone in his voice, patting her hip companionably, "she wanted it."

Candice shot between them when Jay stepped forward, baring his teeth and clenching his fist. Pressing her hands to his chest, she pushed him back. "I think we both know he's antagonizing you." Heated brown eyes shot Cooper a threatening look, "It's hardly worth bruising your fists on such a hard head."

"Candy, we were just finishing up our run. Why don't you let us take you home?" Matt stepped over, shooting a brief, unhappy, look towards Cooper. "I've been wanting to talk to you anyway."

Candice frowned and stepped back, still watching Jay warily. "Cooper agreed to take me home so there's no reason to cut your run short. Thank you though."

"Candy−"

 "I'm fine, Jay," she snapped. "Don't overreact." Before he could reply, she was grabbing Cooper's hand and pulling him back the way they'd come, not wanting to leave it up to him and Jay to behave like adults.

"What's he want to talk about?" It didn't break her stride, but she wasn't oblivious to the hard tone of Cooper's voice. She never should've gotten in that car.

***

Candy glanced over at him from her spot just ahead of him as she pulled him along the path, her hand gripping him like steel as if to keep him from turning around, not that she would've been able to stop him if that was really what he wanted to do. "If I had to guess, he wants to check in about last weekend." Eleanor going over to question everyone on Sunday had also included as he'd been hanging out with Jay that day. Cyn has mentioned, in passing, that he'd been worried too.

"After Seraphina attacked you? He didn't do anything?"

"He didn't know," she replied, sending him an irritated look. "I didn't tell him or Jay what happened. It's not their business. Not everything has to be a fight. You didn't have to antagonize Jay."

Coop didn't walk away from a fight, but he rarely really tried to start one. The fact that he'd done so over a moment of jealousy for her was enough to piss him off on its own. He was thrown off at another reminder that he'd been the first person she'd told about what had happened. "I didn't antagonize him."

Having decided that there was now enough distance between the two of them and the other boys, she let go of his hand and narrowed her eyes. "What's wrong with you? I've seen you with nearly every girl in school, and I've seen at least a dozen angry boyfriends and brothers come looking for a fight, but I've never seen you act like a territorial idiot. It's out of character."

"So you've been watching me for a while, have you?"

"I watch everyone, it doesn't mean what you're trying to make it mean. Take me home."

"If you wanted to go home, you should've gone with John and Mike."

Her mouth twitched upward, but she turned it back into a flat line and studied him. "Now you're just being facetious." He only stared back at her without saying another word and she rolled her eyes. "Fine, I'm sure Jay is headed this way anyway. I'll get a ride with him." She started to walk past him, and he scowled.

"Your bag's still in my car."

"So I'll get it from you when we get to the parking lot."

He sighed and turned around to go after her, "Candy, I−"

She turned and smiled at him, her eyes full of uncharacteristic humor, and patience written all over her face. "Candy, I'm sorry for being a jerk. Please let me take you home," she finished for him. He frowned but didn't say anything, and she resumed her walk towards the parking lot, taking his silence for agreement. "You're not nearly as uncaring as you act."

Coop watched her walk for a minute, before trailing slowly behind her, muttering softly, "Not when it comes to you.

***

"Just when the hell were you planning to tell me Cooper Daniels was harassing Candy?"

Hope looked up from the ice cream cone in her hand in surprise as Jay slammed through the entrance of Bananza and made a beeline straight to the counter, completely ignoring the line of eager customers. Giving him an easy smile as she handed the completed cone to a waiting little girl, she silently wished that Fay were just a smidgen more approachable so that Jay might bother his actual sister instead of her friends whenever he needed information. "Jay, I'm really busy here. Maybe we can talk about it later? I'm sure it's just a misunderstanding."

"It's four thirty," he snapped irritably, "you were supposed to be off two hours ago."

Her brows shot up in surprise. "How do you know that?"

Jay rolled his eyes and leaned over the counter to glare at her further. "You have been working every Saturday at this place from nine to two-thirty every week since the beginning of this past summer, Hope. It doesn't take a rocket scientist."

"Well Julie called off this weekend and I said I'd stay until Brian and Cindy got in today, so−"

"Fine," he bit out, "I'll wait."

Hope's eyes widened and she watched him move toward a corner table before she turned and offered an apologetic smile to the next family of customers. "I'm so sorry about that wait; what can I get for you?"

***

Jay waited for another forty-five minutes before Hope finally clocked out. It irritated the hell out of him that the place took advantage of her the way they did. Hope was as sweet and kind as a Disney fairytale, and it wasn't hard for someone to convince her to offer up all that she had. She was so different from his sister, it was a wonder they'd ever become friends in the first place.

He watched as she smiled widely at everyone who stepped up to the counter. She was as bright and sunny as a warm summer day. Of his sister's three friends, Hope was always the one he could count on to discover the most recent comings and goings of the group. He expected this time would be no exception.

When she came out from around the counter, she was running a finger through her hair, causing the sunlight to bring out the red. She smiled, just the way she did to make someone feel as though it were just for them, and she slid into the chair across from him. "So why do you think Cooper is harassing Candy? He had his hands all over her at Winfield Park. They were kissing."

There was a look of surprise in her eyes before she managed to hide it. "Did you ask her about it?"

Jay's jaw locked for a minute as he replayed the interaction. "Matt said he wanted to talk to her and she practically dragged Coop away. Said I was overreacting."

Hope frowned at that, and Jay could all but feel her disapproval. "The two of you may mean well, but we just got her back to school. He really shouldn't have pushed her."

"Cooper Daniels, Hope," Jay ground out, smacking the table with a loud slap. "He's not a good guy."

"Jay, if she told you, you were overreacting it's because she felt that she had it under control," Hope said softly, patting his hand sympathetically. "If she was in any real danger, she would've let you take her home. You've got nothing to worry about."

"Of the four of you, she's the one I should be most worried about," Jay snapped. "Fay can take care of herself. My sister's snarl alone is enough to keep even the most oblivious of guys out of harm's way. Cyn's got her music and a solid head on her shoulders. Nothing gets past her. Even you, I don't have to worry. Candy can't even speak to the opposite sex without her face turning red and her voice coming out in a whisper."

"We'll look out for her," Hope assured him, looking down at the clock on her phone with a sigh. "She'll be just fine, Jay. Don't worry about it, and look, I'm sorry, but I have to go. I'm supposed to babysit for Mrs. Davidson in an hour and I've still got to run home and get changed. I'll see you later, okay?" She didn't wait for him to answer as she shifted her purse further up her shoulder and stood from the table with a small wave. Within thirty seconds, Hope was gone, and Jay was left to stew in his thoughts.

***

Candice and her friends spent their weekly Sunday sprawled around Faith's room. Hope was braiding Faith's hair while they watched some made-for-TV movie. Candice's focus was on Cyn and Cyn's math homework. Cyn made it no secret how deeply she despised numbers. "It's useless," Cyn moaned, pushing her textbook away and letting her head fall to the desk. "I'm never going to pass this test Wednesday."

"Maybe if you'd stop shoving the book away every other minute, you'd stand a chance," Faith drawled, giving her friend a bored look.

Cyn's head came up and she made a face in Faith's direction. "You're hardly any better than me."

"She's not wrong," Hope put in, her gaze locked on the movie. "You should probably be studying too, Fay."

"Faith won't study until Tuesday night," Candice said matter-of-factly as she pulled the textbook back towards her friend and reopened it to their last page. "It's what she does every time."

"And I always manage to pass," Faith replied with a smirk. "Unlike Ms. Cynthia Carson." The statement earned her a shoe in the face, which she whipped back.

"So Jay mentioned that he saw you and Coop at the park yesterday afternoon," Hope said in a casual tone, casting her gaze toward Candice. "What's going on there?"

"When did you see Jay," Faith wanted to know, giving Hope a weird look.

Hope shrugged, her cheeks turning a slight shade of pink, but Cyn saved her from having to answer. "Who cares about that? I want to hear about what's going on with Candy and Coop."

It was Candice's turn to look uncomfortable, shooting all three of her friends disapproving frowns. "Nothing happened."

"Jay said he saw him kissing you," Hope put in helpfully.

"Jay seems to have an annoyingly loud mouth," Candice muttered. When her three friends only stared at her expectantly, she sighed and turned her attention away from the math. "He was at the school when I got out of detention. He offered me a ride home."

"And you got lost and ended up on the other side of town, in the woods, making out?" Faith drawled sarcastically, earning herself a hard yank of the hair that Hope still held in her hands. "I don't like it," she stated bluntly.

 "He is a bit of a man whore," Cyn agreed reluctantly, shooting Candice an apologetic look. "We don't want you to get hurt."

"People change," Hope said defensively. "And I don't seem to recall any stories of Coop popping up anywhere to offer a girl a ride home before, do you?"

"You're all overreacting," Candice said flatly. "We're friends."

"Call me crazy, but I don't recall you ever making out with any of us," Faith replied dryly.

"Fay," Hope hissed.

"This isn't going to end well," Faith snapped, pulling away from Hope and completely disregarding her half-completed braid as she leaned toward Candice with a frown. "You're smarter than this. He's cute and he's got that bad boy thing going for him, but he's bad news and you're just a temporary distraction.

"Maybe he's doing things out of character, maybe he's not. We don't know that he didn't do the exact same thing to other girls, maybe no one caught him last time. Either way, the fact is he's kissed over seventy-five percent of our school's girls. You're just the next check on his list."

It stung, though she'd told herself and even him the same thing. She got to her feet, careful to look unaffected. "I'm very aware of his reputation and the probable outcome. You'll be happy to know that I'm not nearly as enamored with him as the three of you seem to think."

"Candy, where are you going?" Hope asked, sounding distressed. "Don't leave."

"I'm just going to get a drink from the kitchen. I'll be right back." Before any of them could offer to come, she was closing the door to the room.

She found Matt in the kitchen, a plate of nachos in front of him and Jay nowhere to be seen. She came into view and he smiled at her, his blue eyes a bit wary. "Hey."

Candice shot him a smile she didn't quite feel. "Hi." She felt his eyes on her as she pulled a glass out of the cupboard and moved to the fridge to get some water.

"Listen," he began uncomfortably, "about what happened...if had anything to do with Sera—"

"What happens with Sera isn't your fault, it's hers. You don't have to apologize," Candice said, turning around to look at him. He ran a hand through his hair and glanced out the window, more uncomfortable than she'd ever seen him. Matt, the blue-eyed Adonis, was made uncomfortable by some nerdy junior. She smiled at that. "I'm fine."

"It was her, wasn't it?"

Though thinking about it still flashed her back to those moments and made her relive the terror, Candice donned a carefully careless mask and shrugged. "Yeah."

"She shouldn't get away with something like that, Candy."

"No, she shouldn't," Candice agreed. "But it's also my word against theirs, and it's over."

"If you're afraid−"

She shook her head, "I just want things to go back to normal. I'm not going to ruin her life over a petty decision she made in high school"

"You may not, but I will."

Matt and Candice turned to see Faith standing in the entryway, a dangerous glint in her eyes. She glared at Matt accusingly, "It's your stupid taste in women that caused this."

"As much as I love to take the credit for all the things you like to accuse me of, I couldn't have possibly known any of this was going to happen, Fay," Matt drawled, casting her an irritated look.

"You should've known she was a crazy whore," Faith retorted, arms crossed. "Of course, crazy seems to be your thing, doesn't it?"

"Stop it," Candice interrupted. "It's not his fault."

"Boy should get some standards. That's all I'm saying," Faith replied, deciding the best course of action was to simply pretend Matt no longer existed. "But what do I know? I can't be expected to know what goes on in such a superior head like his."

"Anything's better than being in the padded walls of yours, Princess," Matt shot back. Faith responded by flipping him the bird as Candice pulled her out of the room and back towards the stairs.