Date: Tue, 26 May 2009 14:43:07 -0700 (PDT)
From: Jo Jo <crossingboi2004@yahoo.com>
Subject: The Living Years Chap. 29 "Memories in Small Doses"

Disclaimer: The following story contains activity that would be
considered of homosexual nature between consenting college students.
While none of it crosses into a gratuitous nature, if such material is
offensive to you or you are not of the legal age to read such material in
your area, please do not. Other than that, please enjoy the story!



The Living Years 29


Chapter 29 "Memories in Small Doses"


This is what they knew so far. He was a 6'1, superbly built, delicately
tanned, blonde haired, blue eyed specimen of perfection that everyone had
to admit was a looker.

There was that and that he had no name.

With no identification on the guy that had literally wandered into their
lives two days earlier, the most anything could say about the guy was that
they wouldn't kick him out of bed.

Other than that they knew nothing other than that he'd been unconscious for
nearly two days from something they'd heard the doctors describe to them as
blunt force trauma.

Apparently, whatever had happened to him had been enough to cause him to be
in the state he was in. Apart from that, though there wasn't a scratch on
him.

"He's up!" Grace spoke, rushing out of his room.

Trey, Noah and Zoey stood up and walked into the room, each one a bit
nervous.

"His vital signs are good, remarkably so actually for a guy that's been
unconscious for two days," his doctor, Dr. Brooks spoke, looking over the
guy's chart. "Now maybe you can tell us what happened to you."

The guy looked over everyone before trying to sit up.

"No, no don't try to move. Just stay where you are," Grace spoke.

"She's right," Dr. Brooks said. "As best as I can see you suffered some
kind of fall or trip that amazingly enough didn't leave a scratch. Does
that sound about right?"

The guy looked around at everyone.

"Uh...I...guess," he replied.

"Is that what happened then? You fell?" Dr. Brooks asked.

The guy looked around for a few moments before sighing, a bit frustrated.

"Who are you people? Where the hell am I?" he asked.

Everyone exchanged glances before Dr. Brooks spoke.

"I was hoping this wouldn't happen," he said.

"What?" Grace asked, concerned.

"Ordinarily I wouldn't tell you but since you did all bring him here and no
one seems to know who he is, I guess it won't hurt anything," Dr. Brooks
started. "It seems as though our John Doe here is experiencing what we call
retrograde amnesia."

"Amnesia? For how long?" Grace asked.

"Could be a day or two. Could be a week or two. It's hard to say,"
Dr. Brooks replied. "But him having amnesia is going to make it
significantly harder for the police to identify him and find his family."

"But they will right? I mean, find his family. They are gonna find him
right?" Grace asked.

"Let's hope so," Dr. Brooks spoke before excusing himself from the room,
shutting the door behind him.

Grace looked over at their John Doe, feeling concerned. She had no idea who
the guy was yet felt like she was completely responsible for what had
happened to him.

"Am I related to any of you?" the guy asked.

Grace sighed, feeling like she almost couldn't handle the situation so Zoey
spoke up.

"No," she said. "Sorry. But you heard the doctor. I mean, the police are
working on finding your family. You'll probably be home safely in no time."

"Yeah but what if they don't find them? Then what?" Grace spoke up.

"What?" Zoey asked.

"You heard the doctor. He has amnesia. He's not gonna be able to help
anyone find his family any time soon. He could be in here forever," Grace
finished

"Grace!" Zoey said.

"I don't wanna be in this place forever," the guy spoke. "Please, you have
to help me."

Grace looked down at him.

"I wish I could but what can we do?  I mean, we don't know who you are-"

"But you could help me figure it out," the guy argued. "Please, I don't
wanna stay here like somebody's prisoner."

Grace looked over at everyone.

"Okay," she started, walking over to the chair that had the guy's now fully
dry clothes on it.

"Grace, what are you doing?" Trey asked.

"You heard him and I agree. We can't leave him here to let the police take
they time finding his family when we can do it faster ourselves," Grace
replied.

"Grace, it's not up to us," Trey replied. "Guys, help me out here!"

Noah and Zoey said nothing for a moment before Zoey was the first one to do
so.

"I actually agree with Grace," she said. "I mean, the doctor said when he
woke up he'd be okay to leave. He's pretty much fine. You think someone
that can leave anytime they want to is gonna get the same attention from
the police as opposed to someone on deaths doorstep? He could be here
months as long as he can't remember who he is."

Trey looked over at Noah.

"Noah!" he exclaimed.

The truth of the matter was that he'd been having a few problems with trey
lately. Needless to say he could barely stand to even look at Trey at the
moment and this John Doe was probably one of the most attractive guys he'd
ever seen.

Apart from Trey he hadn't really felt this nervous to be around another
guy. It was a weird feeling, one that he knew that he shouldn't have had,
but had nonetheless.

If nothing else, John Doe was nice to look at.

"Sorry Trey," he spoke. "I'm with them."

Trey sighed as he watched Grace helping John Doe get dressed.

"This is crazy. This is goddamn fucking crazy!" he sighed.

John Doe stared at the tag on the shirt lying across his lap as Grace undid
the buttons to the back of his hospital gown. It read "Chad Sports". He
liked the way that sounded.

"Chad," he spoke aloud, which caused Grace to stop unbuttoning.

"Oh my god, boy! Is that your name?" she asked, hopefully.

He looked around at everyone a smile growing on his face.

"It is now," he replied.

Grace mulled it over in her head.

"I like it," she replied, as she continued to help him get dressed. "Now
let's get you ready to break out of here."

"I never thought we'd be doing this again," Noah spoke, amused with the
situation.

"Ya'll are crazy," Trey said. "And I'm crazy for helping you."

"Shut up boy and go keep watch," Grace spoke as she and Zoey helped Chad
out of bed.

"Hi," Chad said aloud to himself. "I'm Chad. Chad Sports."

*****************************************************************************

Jesse had finally pieced together what all had happened to him a few days
earlier.

Happy to have his parents gone, he'd thrown what had amounted to a mini
party, ladies only. One thing led to another and soon enough, his entire
apartment had ended up looking like a tornado had swept through there and
only there.

Apparently, as he was just discovering, Elsa had returned sometime during
that night only to see what she had only described as `un nido del pecado y
la suciedad', whatever that was supposed to mean. So she quit just like
that. Thus the reason he had no food and had awoken to such an untidy
place.

Which meant only one thing for him now: he now needed to find a new
housekeeper, as there was no way he was going to consider buying his own
food and cleaning his own place when he could pay someone to do it for
him. And as such he'd been conducting interviews all day long, having
interviewed nearly twenty people, most of whom were fellow students, who
all seemed to want the job.

"So, tell me what you don't like about yourself," Jesse spoke, sitting
back.

"What?" the guy sitting across from him asked.

"Sorry, my Tivo has been recording something going by the name of
`Nip/Tuck' and I can't seem to bring myself to get rid of the trainwreck in
disguise. Shall we move on?"

"Uh..."

"I see here it says your name is Chuck," Jesse spoke looking over the guys
application. "Or Charles, rather, but you expect people to be fool enough
to call you the silly little nickname you've somehow unfortunately deemed
as being cute."

"I'm sorry...is...is that rhetorical?" Chuck asked.

Jesse simply eyed Charles over his application before returning his gaze to
the application itself.

He felt like some kind of actor. He knew that he couldn't completely
replace Elsa so he was treating the entire process like a game. He'd even
gone so far as to buy a cheap pair of non prescription glasses from the
local drugstore to look like he was taking the entire thing more seriously
than he actually was.

"What would you say your greatest skill is?" Jesse asked, not caring in the
least actually.

"Uh, well typically I like to get as much done as possible in as little
time as it takes to do it," Chuck replied.

"So you like to rush things, then?" Jesse asked.

"I was kinda thinking more along the lines of me being time efficient,"
Chuck replied.

"Oh," Jesse replied, looking back over at Chuck. "Of course."

Jesse could see how nervous the guy was. And despite the fact that he was
having a decent amount of fun getting under his skin like he'd been doing,
the truth of the matter was that he was actually starting to get
tired. Interviewing a bunch of perfectly normal people and turning them
into insane nutcases by the end of it all really took a lot out of a
person.

He felt like he was going to actually have to start looking for positive
things in the people he was interviewing. The problem with that was that he
almost didn't want to find something positive in anyone.  He'd already seen
what having a girl he trusted turn psycho on him could do for his life and
the last time he let himself be stupid enough to trust someone of the male
persuasion, the guy had kissed him, his brother captured the entire thing
on video and proceeded to blackmail him for six weeks.

Needless to say, he had trust issues.

And besides, he was still having more than enough fun with the tormenting
to console him.

"A male housekeeper? Ever heard of one?" Jesse asked.

"Um...are you being rhetorical again?" Chuck asked as Jesse rose from his
seat and began circling him. "Because if you are, I can't...really....what
are you doing?"

Jesse had placed himself directly behind Chuck and was now right over the
side of his shoulders, so close to his head it looked like he might have
been trying to smell his hair.

"I'm having some doubts as to what kind of real man you are, Chuck," Jesse
spoke. "Shall we be frank?"

"Oh..okay..."

Jesse rushed over so that he was right in front of Chuck, not too far away
from his face.

"I've never heard of a male maid slash housekeeper slash nanny before-"

"Nanny? You have a kid-"

"You want to shag me don't you? Admit it, that's the only reason you're
here!"

"Er..."

"Just admit the truth. Or is it that you can't handle the truth? Is that is
Charles? Can you not handle the truth about yourself?"

Chuck stared at Jesse before looking away briefly.

"Is being gay a requirement of the job?" he asked. "Because if it is, I
think you probably have the wrong guy."

"Come again?" Jesse asked, feeling like his thunder had just been stolen
from under him.

"And if you're gay, I hope you're not expecting me to like, fall in love
with or something because that would just be unprofessional," Chuck
continued.

"Huh?" Jesse asked, now thoroughly confused. He was `this' close to feeling
like he should be ransacking his apartment for some hidden cameras to a
gameshow he didn't know about. He really was not expecting to get the
reaction he'd gotten, especially after the routine had worked so well on
all the others.

Jesse stared at Chuck staring back at him. It was a weird, awkward moment
that neither of them quite knew how to break. That was about when Jesse
realized that he had somehow in the heat of everything jumped into Chuck's
lap. He looked down and then back up at Chuck before jumping up and
straightening up his shirt as if something had happened to it.

"Well, obviously that was something I don't usually do," he spoke, not
really sure what the right thing to say was in that moment.

Chuck seemed to think about the words he'd say next before actually saying
them.

"So.....?"

"So you're hired," Jesse spoke, liking the idea that someone was actually
able to stump him in a way that he pretty much deserved granted how he'd
been acting. "And I'm hungry. You do cook, yes Charles?"

*****************************************************************************

"Can I touch him?" Jeremy asked, inches away from Chad's face as he stared
him down.

Grace, Noah, Trey and Zoey had managed to successfully break Chad out of
the hospital without anyone knowing before deciding to retreat to the boys'
room to talk about the entire situation.

Noah removed his jacket as he walked past Jeremy.

"Yeah, just don't play with him. He bites," he said.

Jeremy looked back over at Chad who clinked his teeth together loudly
causing Jeremy to blink and stumble back a little.

"Are you okay Chad? You need anything?" Grace asked, sitting on the edge of
Noah's bed rubbing Chad's back.

So far all anyone knew about Chad was that he knew his name wasn't
Chad. That and he was one supremely good looking guy. They figured he
couldn't have been any older than 21 or 22 years old. Which meant that he
could blend in with them perfectly and no one would ask any questions.

Other than that, they were pretty much up dry creek when it came to what to
do otherwise.

"So to recap, random, bruised but unbloodied blonde Justin Timberlake light
asks for help, collapses, you all take him to the hospital, proceed to
break him out from said hospital pending likely uncomfortable criminal
investigative questioning and bring him back here to...do...what, exactly?"
Jeremy spoke in only two breaths.

Everyone looked around at each other.

"You're the one that never leaves the room right?" Chad asked, as Noah
who'd previously been signaling to Chad to shut up, put his face in his
hands and sighed.

Jeremy looked over at Noah before deciding to play it all off.

"Only if there's a power outage," he replied.

Chad looked around at everything in the room. He found it strange how his
memory was working. It was like he knew what some things were and what some
things did but then there were a lot of things that he was unsure about. He
felt stupid. Like he was a child that needed constant hand holding
otherwise he'd end up somehow hurting himself or worse.

He just couldn't figure out what he knew and what he didn't know, and that
was the part that was frustrating him so much. But so far the people he'd
run into had shown him nothing but the utmost patience so he was going to
do his best not to get frustrated with any of them.

"I'm sorry but you guys are crazy," Jeremy spoke matter-of-factly. "Well
except for you Zoey. I bet you had nothing to do with this."

"Please, her ass drove the getaway car," Grace spoke.

"At least somebody agrees with me," Trey said. "People saw us with him. How
long do you think it's gonna be before the police are around here looking
for Chad?"

"Try never," Zoey started. "We never signed anything with our names so they
only have sight to go on and the hospital is miles from school. There's no
way they'd look here for him."

"Unless he's a student here," Trey shot back.

Everyone looked over at Chad. While the home building site wasn't too far
away from campus, the fact was no one knew for sure because of where they'd
found him whether or not he was an actual student at school. He could have
been from the neighborhood they were building the house. Or not; no one
knew and that was the underlying issue.

"Well, I think we all can agree that until we figure this all out, Chad's
gotta stay somewhere," Noah started.

Trey looked over at Noah. He couldn't believe how willingly his boyfriend
was going along with inviting this unknown, albeit gorgeous, stranger into
their lives, willing to risk potentially breaking the law for him, among
other things.

"Well obviously this place is out," Jeremy started. "There's only one
potential bed sharing space left and I have that reserved for a very
special someone."

"You don't have like, a secret blowup doll somewhere in here do you?" a
disgusted Zoey asked looking around upon noticing Jeremy's wink at her.

"What about Jesse?" Grace asked.

"Who's that?" Chad asked.

"He's the British asshole that kept suggesting we leave you on the side of
the road so the police wouldn't think we tried to kill you," Noah replied.

"Oh," Chad replied, still not knowing who Jesse was but making up his mind
that he was probably someone Noah didn't like very much.

"We could still ask," Grace spoke.

"Not tonight, though," Zoey spoke. "I think it'll be a good idea if we all
just stay here tonight and work on sorting this all out tomorrow."

"Good idea," Grace said.

There was a short silence in the room, filled with gazing looks amongst
everyone, the majority of the eyes in the small space plastered upon Chad's
built frame before there was a series of odd knocks at the door.

No one immediately moved before Jeremy spoke up.

"Oh yeah, make the fat guy get up," he stated.

"I'll get it," Noah spoke, walking over and opening the door.

"I was looking for...oh, what is this? A party?" Sierra asked, looking
around.

She had bag filled with things Noah couldn't quite see in her hands that
she shifted from one shoulder to another before altogether throwing on the
floor in the room and moving past Noah to let herself in.

"Isn't that Sexy Amnesia guy?" she asked, taking a seat directly on top of
Chad's lap.

"Do we know her?" Chad asked, looking around at everyone.

"Sometimes," Zoey mumbled.

"Well I don't wanna know how he got from being babysat by police in the
hospital to here, all I wanna know is who is he?"

Chad, who didn't particularly mind the delicate and sweet smelling Sierra
sitting on his lap, shifted a bit as he laughed uncomfortably, a little
nervous to look her in the eyes.

"You mean, you can't tell me?" he asked.

Sierra seemed to think about the statement for a moment before she pulled
out her cell phone and took a quick picture of Chad.

"Not yet," she replied. "That's so going on MySpace, by the way."

"What's a my space?" Chad asked.

"Seriously? You've had him out of the hospital how long? We have to teach
the poor guy!" Sierra spoke.

"Or you can just leave," Noah spoke. "You're the only one not taking this
seriously."

Sierra, who seemed to be offended with the comment, stood up and marched
over to Noah.

"Now you listen to me to you sad, sad little man," she started. "Just
because I'm not crushing on the guy like some twelve year old school slut
doesn't mean-"

"What are you talking about?" Noah asked.

Sierra stopped, looked back over at Chad, seeming to mull something over in
her mind before changing her path of conversation entirely.

"So none of you know who he is or...how to even figure it out?" she asked.

No one spoke for a moment before Grace decided to take the liberty of doing
so.

"We're gonna do our best," she said, hoping it was reassuring enough to
Chad.

Sierra chuckled to herself for a moment, the wheels spinning around in her
mind.

"Yeah, I know exactly what all of you guys' `best' is," she said. "I'll
leave you to it then. Wouldn't want to slow you down or anything like
that."

Everyone watched in mild confusion as Sierra gathered her bag and exited
the room, no one quite sure why she'd even shown up in the first place but
everyone sure she was probably up to something.

"I'm not entirely sure, but it kinda seemed like she was a little...crazy,"
Chad spoke.

"Yeah," Zoey spoke, standing up. "You definitely fit in with us."

Chad hoped that it was true as he was starting to really enjoy
everyone. But he couldn't help but to wonder what he'd be doing in that
moment had he not lost his memory.

*****************************************************************************

Grace looked like she needed several more cups of coffee before she'd even
be halfway functional. Zoey looked like someone had kicked her neck
sideways and it was permanently stuck that way. Trey looked like he hadn't
even heard of the word sleep, his eyes were so bloodshot. And Noah's hair
was so unruly he looked he'd just rolled all the way down a large hill,
fallen asleep for a decade and was cruelly awoken from his slumber.

The night hadn't been good to anyone, which wasn't surprising since six
people had decided to cram themselves in a room that was just barely big
enough for two.

Needless to say, it was now morning and the only person who seemed to be at
full alert was Chad, who seemed to be taking in all the sights and smells
around him as students buzzed about with trays full of bacon and eggs.

His head followed everyone that passed him. He seemed completely fascinated
with everything. He knew what food was and what a kitchen was but he'd
completely forgotten about breakfast and when anyone was supposed to eat
breakfast.

Apparently, the most appropriate time was 7:30 in the morning.

"Are you guys okay?" Chad asked, concerned for his new friends.

Noah and Trey had given up the bottom bunk bed for Grace and Zoey who had
graciously decided to let Chad sleep in it with them. Now both girls were
realizing that three people sharing a single twin bed was the craziest
thing they could have ever thought of.

"Yeah, yeah," Grace yawned, before pouring herself some more coffee. "You
just gotta give us a minute. We'll be alright."

Not really remembering altogether how sarcasm worked but how time worked
perfectly, Chad looked over at the clock on the wall, actually hoping that
a minute would pass and everyone would be just as ready to explore and take
on the day as he was.

As the five of them all sat around in complete silence just trying to wake
themselves up, Shawn and Ben sat a few tables away. Ben was gulfing down on
his second plate of food while Shawn had barely touched his. He was too
busy checking out what was going on with Trey and the random guy they'd
found.

"What is he doing with them?" Shawn asked.

Ben, whose back was to Trey and the others, turned around and looked over
to where Shawn was looking before turning back around and attempting to
speak with a mouth full of food.

"Ben, swallow first," Shawn spoke, waiting for Ben to do so to get his
response.

"Why don't you go ask em why," was Ben's response before he picked up his
glass of orange juice and swallowed down nearly the entire glass.

Shawn couldn't figure it out but he was really thinking about several
possibilities, including the most hopeful one for him-that the guy was now
Noah's boyfriend or something. The truth was the guy was one of the most
gorgeous guys he'd ever seen and while he wasn't his type, he was happy
that he was so good looking. He was hoping maybe it would cause turmoil for
Noah and Trey somehow.

Then again, he knew that he was really, REALLY reaching in his thoughts.

Ben looked over at his best friend, who'd barely touched his food, had been
almost completely silent the entire morning and had seemingly been staring
down someone he claimed to be over.

"Come on," Ben sighed, standing up.

Shawn looked up at his rising friend.

"What?" he asked.

"We're going over there," Ben replied, not even waiting for Shawn's
response.

"What? Ben, no....Ben...shit!" Shawn mumbled before getting up and rushing
over to his friend who was already nearly at Trey's table.

Ben had reached the table and Shawn stood just a little behind him, a
little nervous to be at their table.

"You guys look like shit," Ben, master of blunt, spoke. "You go clubbing
last night?"

"Hi, I'm Chad," Chad spoke, being the only one to pay any attention to
Ben. "I have amnesia. Do you know me?"

"Should I know you?" Ben asked.

"I guess not," Chad replied before realizing that a minute had since passed
and no one looked any more ready to take on the day than they had
before. "Wanna sit down?"

"Don't mind if I do," Ben replied looking back at Shawn before taking a set
next to Noah, who's head was resting in his arms on top of the table. It
looked almost like he was knocked out cold.

Shawn relented and took a seat next to Ben, almost across from Trey who
seemed to notice that he was there but didn't give off anything in his
facial expression that would indicate how he felt about it.

"You guys were eating breakfast too?" Chad asked.

"Were?" Ben asked before taking a piece of bacon from Noah's completely
untouched plate of food. "I wasn't finished. Shawn here wanted to know why
you were here instead of the hospital we took you to."

Apparently that statement had caused everyone to perk up some because just
as Chad had taken it upon himself to respond did Noah sit up, Trey shift in
his chair and both Zoey and Grace seemed to look a little tense.

"You know what boy? Mind ya business, nobody wanna get into all that shit
this early in the morning," Grace said, looking a bit angry.

"Okay, okay, I'm set," Ben replied. "I don't think Shawn is though."

Trey looked over at Shawn who was looking back at him.

"It's okay, I don't mind telling them," Chad spoke, a smile on his face.

"Except that you can't go around telling every damn body about what
happened and why you're here, boy," Grace replied. "You want people to tell
the police so you have to go back to that hospital?"

"People would do that?" Chad asked, actually surprised.

Grace chuckled cynically.

"Boy, just wait to you remember how the world works," she replied.

Chad seemed to still be a little confused but he didn't want to annoy
everyone by asking them questions every five seconds, even though he had a
new question to ask every three seconds.

"Did you eat my bacon?" Noah asked, looking over at Ben.

"Sorry, did you want that?" Ben asked, chewing contently on Noah's
hashbrown.

Shawn continued looking over at Trey. He felt like there was just a bunch
of stuff that Trey wanted to tell him but that he couldn't because Noah was
around. And that, as he was starting to realize, was his greatest problem
at this point.

"Well, is it safe to say Chad here is sticking around for a bit?" Ben
asked. "Cuz if that's the case, having a guy that no one knows anything
about around is gonna work wonders with the ladies."

"Really?" Zoey asked, fully interested on how it was Ben thought he could
use Chad's situation to his advantage.

"Yeah I mean can you picture having dozens of hot girls wanting to teach
you the joys of sex because you forgot what it was?" Ben explained. "You
did forget sex right?"

Chad didn't respond.

Zoey looked back over at Ben.

"How does that help you out, though?" she asked.

"Because I'll just tell people he's my brother," Ben replied. "Girls like
that kind of stuff. Sorry bro."

Shawn just chuckled at Ben's thought process as Zoey rolled her eyes at
Ben.

"I feel sorry for the girls you know," she said.

Chad continued to watch people passing him, now taking notice of the people
who seemed to be exiting rather than entering the cafeteria.

"Where are those people going?" he found himself blurting out.

Everyone looked over at Chad for a few seconds before looking over to where
he was looking.

"Shit, we gotta go," Grace spoke, standing up.

"Go where?" Chad asked, confused.

"Class," Grace replied. "We all have class."

"Who should he go with?" Zoey asked.

Chad couldn't quite grasp the idea of a class even1 though it sounded like
something he'd be familiar with. As everyone started debating who he'd be
going to class with and which classes they al had, Chad found himself
getting frustrated. He was grateful to everyone for what they'd done so far
but he was counting on being able to go out and explore things in order to
get his memory back, or at the very least re-learn what things were so he
wouldn't feel so ignorant.

Still, he knew that he was nowhere near ready to be out on his own yet,
which was the thing that frustrated him the most. He wanted to get to that
point and knew that until he did, he needed everyone to help him get there.

"For now I think it would be a good idea if he just came with me and Trey,"
Grace spoke.

The two of them shared the first class of the day together and it worried
Trey that he'd be among the first to play babysitter to Chad. It still
didn't sit right with him that he and everyone else had pretty much broken
the guy out of hospital arrest only to parade him around school like there
was no possible way they could be found out. He seemed to be the only one
concerned which in itself concerned him.

And with no objections from anyone, it seemed like Grace's idea was going
into effect, as much as it bothered Trey.

"Fine," he spoke. "Let's go then."

Everyone stood up, each one of them having classes that started within the
next 15 minutes but no one particularly in any mood to go to them.

"So, what is the first class?" Chad asked as everyone started out of the
cafeteria.

"Criminology," Trey mumbled, trying not to revel in the sheer irony of it.

*****************************************************************************

"Aha! Oh wait, aw," Sierra spoke, tongue sticking just-so out the corner of
her mouth as she clicked towards a new page.

Shawn looked over at her.

The two of them shared a Computer Skills class together that was more or
less a throwaway class that counted for their computer credit. You pretty
much got an `A' for showing up and not much more than that.

For being 8:30 in the morning, most people were barely awake so the entire
room was pretty silent. So Sierra's outburst had been something completely
unexpected and what's more, alarming, once Shawn got a good look at her
face.

"What are you doing?" he asked, quietly so the attention focused on her
could die down faster.

Sierra didn't even look over at Shawn.

"I think that gay lover of yours just sent you a message on Facebook," she
replied. "Why don't you check it out?"

"What?" Shawn asked. "I don't have a gay lover."

"Well then look up Match.com, find one and stay out of my business," Sierra
replied, a bit more harshly than she would have liked.

Shawn wasn't faltered by her brittle attitude. In fact he found it
amusing. It seemed like out of everyone he knew, he was behaving the most
normal at the moment. He decided to just ignore it and go back to doing
what he'd been doing before, which had actually in fact been checking his
Facebook page.

Meanwhile Sierra was hard at work once again. When she visited everyone the
previous day only to learn that they'd broken Chad out of the hospital,
something instantly went off in her mind. She knew that they weren't
thinking deviously and that they had only broken him out of the hospital
out of some kind of compassion they had for the guy.

That left her to do all the devious thinking. She realized that Grace and
her friends were one group of people who already had enough problems of
their own to even consider giving their full attention to someone who
wanted their own life back. She figured she'd do the work that would
normally take them weeks or months as fast as she could and reap the
benefits for herself.

After all, Chad, or whatever his real name was, was a pretty good looking
guy. Probably the most gorgeous, non celebrity she'd ever laid eyes on and
she knew a lot of good looking guys.

But that wasn't the point. The point was that she wanted to be the one who
knew who he was before he did. It made things more interesting that
way. And of course if it turned out he was a total fake, she wanted to be
the one to completely rip the guy to shreds and take all the credit.

So far she'd uploaded the pictures that she'd taken of him into the
computer and had been doing what she could to try to match them with
anything on a lot of the major sites she knew of to see if he was some
D-List actor or escort service man whore. Or at the very least, something
that would give her some kind of idea as to who he was before he went all
John Doe on her and everyone else.

Unfortunately for her she didn't seem to be getting many hits, mostly
because she wasn't quite sure where 3she should be looking. Without a name
or any information whatsoever to go off about the guy, all she pretty much
had was that face of his. And so far that hadn't been going so well over
for her.

Just when she thought she'd been close, it would turn out to be nothing at
all and it was starting to frustrate her. It was starting to frustrate her
to the point of getting help for her little problem.

"What do you know about computers?" she asked, expecting Shawn to realize
she'd been talking to him.

Shawn realized this but decided not to completely give in to her.

"Hello? I asked you a question," Sierra said, this time actually looking
over at Shawn.

"I know," Shawn replied. "And considering the fact that I'm in a freshman
level computer skills class, I'd say not much."

"So like if I wanted to find out who someone was..."

"And by someone would you happen to be talking about Grace's new pet
amnesiac, Chad?" Shawn asked.

"I said `someone'. Now don't think too hard about this, I don't wanna put
any strain on that brain of yours," Sierra replied.

Shawn pursed his lips together in a tight smile as he gently nodded his
head.

"Right, well let me go back to doing what all us dumb people do when we
don't wanna talk to someone," he said, before putting on iPod headphones in
his ears and turning his attention back over to his computer.

Sierra stared at him aghast for a few moments before sighing, frustrated
with her inability to do what she thought would be very easy to do.

She knew there had to be a sure fire way of figuring out who their new
mystery guy was and she was going to do her best to figure out what that
way was.

*****************************************************************************

They may have been in class but neither Grace nor Trey were particularly
invested in anything that had occurred. While Trey was too busy wondering
what the repercussions would be of helping Chad escape the hospital, Grace
had spent the majority of the class texting Zoey back and forward about,
who else, Chad. It was almost like the Pink Panthers, Josh, her mom's new
boyfriend and anything else she might have had going on in her life didn't
exist anymore thanks to Chad and that was worrying Trey to no end. Grace
was his best friend and he'd never seen her so wrapped up in something like
this before.

Meanwhile he was having his own problems regarding Chad. Shawn had been the
first guy he'd ever been attracted to in his entire life. Within hours he'd
met the second guy he'd ever been attracted to and for months now, that had
been it for him. He recognized when other guys were good looking but he'd
never found himself so attracted to another person like Noah or Shawn that
he found himself looking for ways to not have to be around him just so he
could save himself from getting caught up in lust.

And as much as he didn't want to admit it, probably the main reason he was
apprehensive about Chad being around was because he was attracted him. Full
on, boner popping attracted to the guy. There was a way about him, an
innocence that Trey hadn't experienced since Shawn and more recently
Noah. And that, was what worried him even more.

The last thing he wanted was for his boyfriend to discover his attraction
to another guy. A guy his best friend insisted on spending every waking
minute with.

Currently, he and Grace were waiting with Chad near the library at the
large water fountain he'd nearly drowned in months earlier. Chad seemed to
be taking everything in while Grace was on the phone trying to figure out
where everyone was so she could hand Chad over to the next babysitter of
the hour. As it stood, she had about ten minutes to gather everyone before
they both needed to get to their next classes.

"Do people take showers in this one like the ones at home?" Chad asked,
looking over the water fountain like a kid in a candy store somewhere.

"What?" Trey asked, having heard the question but not really paying
attention.

Chad hadn't waited for a response either. He simply began walking around
the circumference of the fountain, worrying Trey.

"Chad, maybe you shouldn't do that," he said, worried Chad would fall in
and hurt himself somehow.

"Why? I'm fine," Chad replied, obviously having fun.

Trey looked around at the various people watching Chad traverse around the
fountain before looking back over at Chad like a mother watching her child
ride a bike without training wheels for the first time. He was a wreck but
for a lot of different reasons.

Grace was still preoccupied with her three way phone conversations and Trey
was too busy worrying about Chad for either of them to notice Jesse
approaching the both of them, a curious look of awe plastered on his face
as he removed his sunglasses to get a better look at Chad walking the
fountain.

"Well if that isn't just a nutter gone mad then," he spoke as he watched.

Trey, having caught sight of Jesse walked over and stood next to him.

"You remember Chad right?" he asked.

"I remember that loon there asking for our help and you lot rushing him to
the hospital when he fell down face first," Jesse replied. "He seems to
have recovered quite nicely then."

"Not exactly," Trey said. "He has amnesia. Can't remember a thing about
himself or where he's from. He doesn't even know his name."

"I thought you said-"

"He called himself that," Trey replied.

Jesse and Trey watched Chad for a few more moments before noticing how well
he seemed to be handling walking around the thin edges of the fountain
before totally shocking them both when he flipped backwards and started
walking around the fountain with the palms of his hands.

"Have you gone off and befriended a carnie I don't know about?" Jesse
asked.

Trey was just as shocked as he was, not really sure what to say in that
moment.

A few moments later the two of them were joined by both Noah and Zoey who
just stood watching in awe as Chad continued to do his thing around the
fountain. Grace, realizing the people she'd been talking to on the phone
were now standing next to her hung up and looked over to where they were.

"Boy, get down from there!" she shouted.

"No wait, I want to see I can get him to catch a fish with his mouth
first," Jesse spoke sarcastically.

Grace didn't even wait for Chad to fully extend himself upright before she
pulled him over.

"Drawing attention to yourself is exactly the thing I told yo ass NOT to
do!" she spoke.

Chad seemed like he was ready to apologize before he caught notice of
Jesse. He stared at him for a few seconds before saying anything at all.

"Do I know you?" he asked.

"How should I bloody know if you know me? The more important question is
whether I know you," Jesse replied.

"I've seen you before," Chad replied.

"Yes, boy, at the site when you-"

"No, no, no, that's not it," Chad responded.

On the one hand Jesse was borderline creeped out that some random guy that
he'd only ever seen once in his life was claiming to know him in a way that
would suggest it wasn't in a way he wanted to know about.

On the other, however, the one that was most prevalent on his mind, he was
intrigued with the notion that a guy who didn't even know himself felt he
knew him. It made him feel important to know this. It made him feel like
Chad was someone he wanted to get to know to, at the very least, teach the
proper ways of life before Noah and his band of gay mates got to him first.

"Maybe you know me, maybe you don't," Jesse replied. "But I can assure that
if you don't, I am most definitely somebody that you WANT to know."

Grace sighed while shaking her head before checking the time on her cell
phone.

"Alright ya'll, who gon take him next?" she asked.

"There's only 12 people in my next class," Zoey replied. "He'll stand out."

"Perfect then, he can go with me," Jesse spoke, sounding excited at the
prospect.

"Uh, I don't think so boy. You don't know anything about Chad," Grace
objected.

Jesse crossed his arms.

"I happen to know that his name is most certainly NOT Chad," Jesse
replied. "Besides, according to him we know each other. Maybe we were old
elementary school mates. Who knows?"

"Point is, no one trusts you to be alone with the guy so one of us needs to
be with him," Noah replied.

"So go with him boy," Grace spoke. "I gotta get to class. We got group
presentations again today and people who are late usually gotta go first."

Trey wanted to say something, wanted to object as everyone seemed to be
fine with the arrangement. Already Grace and Zoey were making their way
towards their respective classes while Noah, Chad and Jesse seemed ready to
go wherever it is they were going. It was like no one even cared what he
had to say regarding the matter.

He just sighed, standing where he was before deciding that today would be
the first day in a long time that he'd actually be walking himself to
class.

*****************************************************************************

Sierra had to look at herself in the mirror one final time before entering
the building. She'd forgone the rest of her classes just to travel downtown
where she currently was to make it to one place in particular.

She had a whole act planned and was hoping it would work for her so she
wouldn't have to deal with any further explanations as to what she was up
to.

She took one final deep breath before bracing herself and entering the
building. It seemed like such a busy place with all kinds of things going
on around her and people buzzing around past her. She wasn't sure where to
devote her attention at first before realizing that she needed to focus and
headed straight to the front desk.

She'd rushed over in a way that made it seem she was in some kind of hurry
and immediately added to the effect with a bit of breathlessness.

"This guy is following me," she started.

"I'm sorry?" asked the female receptionists who Sierra hoped didn't have
the stick up her ass it looked like she had.

"At school. He's following me around, grabbing my ass, talking about
fingering my you know what and ordinarily that wouldn't be so unusual, I
mean look at me, I'm hot," Sierra continued before leaning over the counter
assuredly. "It's just, I'm a role model for so many people at my school. I
need to set an example that being a slut is not something you want to get
yourself into."

"Miss-"

"Petigrew," Sierra lied. "I'm on my own, living for a day. I was afraid to
come here but I made up my mind that I need someone to help me figure out
who this guy is before I go nuts!"

Sierra watched the receptionist watching her and found herself having to
look down a bit uncomfortably as the receptionist rose from her seat, as if
trying to get a better look at Sierra.

"Miss, you are aware you've come to the Federal Bureau of Investigation
building?"

"Oh, yeah totally. I thought why go to the police when I can take this to
someone I know will get me the information I need."

The receptionist stared at Sierra for a few moments before sitting back in
her chair and sighing as she obviously went about doing things she found to
be more important.

"The FBI is too pressed for time to even consider handing something as
trivial as the petty problems of a teenage schoolgirl," the receptionist
spoke.

Sierra stared at how smug the receptionist looked before getting upset.

"Listen Brenda Beat Up Your Child," Sierra started, the fake sweet tone
she'd used before completely replaced by one that meant business. "I'm not
leaving here until I find out who the HELL Chad Sports really is!"

"Security!"

"Oh, so you're gonna call security on me? God forbid you do your job and
sort shit out before is goes that far. But I guess you just can't be
bothered to lift that fat ass of yours up again."

"Security-"

"No, no Terri, it's okay. I'll handle it," came the response of a well
groomed and suited man standing directly to Sierra's right.

Catching sight of him, Sierra gathered her things and started walking back
the way she came.

"I think I'll just leave it," she mumbled as she tried to get away fast.

"Wait, wait wait, honey-"

"Leave me alone dad," Sierra spoke continuing towards the exit.

"Will you stop acting like such a brat and give me just two minutes of your
time? Please?"

Sierra stopped, sighed and turned around saying something she'd wanted to
say to her father for a week now but hadn't had the chance.

"Why didn't you come to family weekend?" she asked.

Her father, a pretty high ranking FBI agent, seemed a bit taken aback
before he looked around while placing his hands in his pockets.

"I'll answer that for you. For the same reason you didn't come home for my
birthday. Or for Christmas, Thanksgiving or pretty much anything ever so
you know what, I'm gonna go and pretend like I don't have a father who
could help me get the information I need."

"Information? What information, Sierra?" her father asked.

She was hoping to do this all on her own, without her father but she was
starting to realize that she could use her father's desperation to her
advantage. And as much as she didn't even want to look at the man, she knew
she needed him.

"You're gonna let me help you?" Sierra's father asked as she turned around.

"I'm gonna let you prove to me you have what it takes to actually be my
father for once," she replied.

*****************************************************************************

Both Jesse and Chad looked around as Noah, who seemed to know what he was
doing, placed his bag down and immediately started his stretching off to
the side.

Chad watched Noah for a moment as Jesse removed his sunglasses and looked
around at everyone else stretching.

"Is this why you insisted we both get tennis racquets? To do a bit of
stretching and not much else?" he asked.

Noah decided to ignore him as Chad took a seat next to Noah and began
mimicking the types of stretches he was doing.

As Jesse stood watching the class full of people he didn't know stretching
around him, a man who didn't look to be too much older than him passed by
him with a cart full of tennis balls.

"You going to throw those at us as we attempt to hit them off?" Jesse
asked.

The man, obviously the instructor looked over at Jesse.

"Who are you?" he asked, sounding a little confused.

"I go through this much more than I'd like to," Jesse sighed. "I'm Jesse
Yorkshire, son of billionaire publishing mogul Thomas Yorkshire and if
you've never heard of me, you just don't read enough."

The instructor eyed Jesse for a moment before chuckling and beginning to
check things off on a list.

"Jesse! Get over here and sit down!" Noah called out behind him.

And only because he felt like having a seat for a moment did he actually
listen to Noah.

"I believe I'd be getting more thrill out of solving a set of complex math
equations right about now," Jesse mumbled.

"You like math?" Chad asked, still copying Noah's stretching.

"Oh I loathe math," Jesse replied. "Problem is, it seems to favor me."

The three of them continued as they were along with the rest of the class
for a couple minutes more before their instructor spoke aloud.

"Alright listen up," he started, everyone ending their stretching in the
process. "We're gonna start our drill lines. Half of you up here on this
court, the other half on that court. I want you practicing your forehand
first and then your backhand out of four balls."

Jesse watched as everyone gathered their racquets and began choosing sides,
feeling a little like the entire thing was ridiculous.

"What is this, Basics of Tennis 101?" he asked.

The instructor walked over with clipboard in hand so that he was standing
shoulder to shoulder with Jesse. He stood for a moment before looking out
over the other students and then back over at Jesse.

"Yeah," he said. "It is."

Jesse looked over at him as he walked away before deciding to catch up to
Noah and Chad.

"So, you, the big star athlete can't even manage to handle the basic
principles that go into hitting a ball over a net?" Jesse asked.

Noah, who was first in a lineup of about 9 or 10 other people turned to
Jesse with a grin on his face.

"Okay," he spoke, stepping aside. "You try then."

"Gladly," Jesse spoke, ready to prove that even only playing tennis a
handful of times in his life he'd still be better than anyone in the class.

He shuddered a little when he realized the person that would be throwing
the balls on their side of the court would be none other than the young
looking instructor himself but shrugged it off as he got into a
tennis-ready stance.

The first ball came rather quickly, Jesse felt, as he hadn't even realized
that they were starting. Shaking it off, he got ready for the next one,
which came virtually nowhere near him.

"You kinda have to run man!" the instructor called from the other side of
the court.

"Or you could just fucking throw the ball correctly you bloody twatter,"
Jesse mumbled loud enough for the students behind him to laugh in
agreement.

The third ball Jesse actually managed to hit across to the other side in
what looked to be a perfectly acceptable hit.

"Wasn't in," the instructor called from the other side.

"Are you serious? What are you blind? Of course it was in!"

"Try again," the instructor called before tossing another ball.

This time the ball was most definitely in and everyone could attest to that
as he heard a few `nice' and `good jobs' behind him.

"Has to be backhand. You were on forehand. Sorry, 0 for 4," the instructor
spoke. "Next!"

"Listen here you bloody tosser, don't fucking shit with me! That was in and
we all saw it!"

"Jesse!" Noah called behind him

Noah's fellow classmates were either laughing or cheering but all most
definitely enamored with Jesse's bold ability to speak up for himself
against an instructor who seemed to only show up for the paycheck and
nothing more.

"He did seem like he was a little unfair," Chad spoke.

"Yeah but Jesse's going completely insane," Noah said as he watched Jesse
throw his tennis racquet to the ground as he and his instructor met up at
the net to continue their shouting match. "I've never seen him like that
before."

"You think something's wrong with him?" Chad asked.

Noah wanted to say yes and knew the answer probably was yes but knowing
Jesse, he knew there was no telling what the real story was.

"There's always something wrong with him," he replied simply as Jesse made
his way back over to them.

"I don't fucking need this. That fucking waste of space isn't even a real
instructor. I could teach a class better than he could," Jesse spoke
fervently before tossing a handful of aspirin into his mouth.

"Whoa, what was that?" Noah asked, taking note of the action.

"Don't worry about it," Jesse spoke, swiping a water bottle from a nearby
student. "You don't mind do you? I'm parched."

"Dude you were awesome," the guy spoke. "You think you could teach us if
you really wanted to?"

Jesse looked around at everyone looking hopeful at the idea before placing
his arms around two girls nearby him and walking towards the back of the
line to continue the conversation.

Noah a little worried about Jesse watched him for a few seconds before
turning his attention back over to Chad.

"Alright, you go," he spoke.

"Yeah?" Chad asked.

"Why not?"

Chad felt a little nervous. He wasn't even sure if he knew what tennis
was. He knew what he'd seen so far but he was worried that he'd make
himself look completely stupid at the entire thing.

"Don't worry, everybody here sucks," Noah spoke.

Feeling a bit reassured, Chad stepped up to the baseline, ready to hit the
first ball. It came and went, landing perfectly in play on the opposite
court as if he were involved in an actual game. The second and third balls
both came and the same thing happened. The fourth ball came so that it was
so close to the net Chad practically had to jump at it to get it over. But
he did, the ball landing perfectly within play.

"That's...4 for 4. Good job," the instructor spoke, sounding almost
disappointed to have someone that could actually play tennis in his class.

"Wow, Chad that was awesome," Noah spoke.

"Yeah I don't know what it was," Chad replied feeling good about himself.

"I guess it means you're an athlete in your real life," Noah replied.

"Yeah," Chad spoke feeling supremely confident in that moment. "I guess
so."

*****************************************************************************

While the morning had started off pretty roughly for everyone, by the time
dinner had rolled around, everyone was in much better spirits. They were
all starting to adjust to having someone in their lives that knew nothing
about himself. And even though they wouldn't admit it, they were each more
excited to groom Chad to be another version of themselves than they were in
helping him find out who he actually was. Even though they were planning on
helping him out with that too, much as they didn't want to.

"We should have gone to Statham," Noah spoke. "Somebody told me they were
doing fajitas."

"We here now boy, quit complaining," Grace spoke as she looked over the
mini menu that had been made.

No one was sure what the special occasion was, but each of the dorm halls
that served food had turned eat in restaurant for the night, each one
serving a different set of foods, each one having hired extra staff to be
on hand as waiters and busboys. Everyone was excited and the place was
crowded. Grace and Zoey had to stay near the cafeteria since the minute
they had finished lunch just to make sure they'd get a table for all of
them.

"Ooh they having onion peelers for appetizers," Grace spoke.

"Are you gonna do what you normally do and get full on the appetizer and
NOT eat your real food?" Trey asked.

"Boy, I'm getting all the food I damn well want brought to me for free AND
I don't have to leave a tip when I'm done? Yo ass better believe I'm eating
my food tonight."

Chad looked everyone over. He was starting to get really attached to
everyone because they all seemed to be so really attached to each other. It
was seamless the way each of their relationships with each other worked. He
felt like because they were so in sync he could be in sync with them. It
made him care less and less about himself and more and more about wanting
to be one of them.

But then there were the little things. The breakthroughs. The things like
him being able to effortlessly defy people's expectations of gravity on the
courtyard fountain. Or his ability to outpace a former tennis pro at his
own game when he was supposed to be the instructor of the class. They were
little things, but they were obviously things that belonged to him. The
real him and not the him that he'd been telling himself and everyone else
that he was.

And of course there was the fact that he still couldn't shake the feeling
that he somehow knew Jesse. He wasn't sure how or from where or if he
really did even know him. All he knew was that it was just one more thing
on the small list of little things that were remaining glued to the back of
his mind as thought about himself.

But he felt like he didn't want to think about it right now. All he wanted
to do was enjoy his company and the food.

"Damn this place is packed," Grace spoke looking around.

Ordinarily no matter where they ate dinner, it was never really completely
crowded. They never had to wait in a line longer than a few minutes and
there were generally more than a handful of tables scattered around for
them to sit at.

That wasn't the case tonight however. Tonight not only were all the
available tables filled, but all the extra tables that had been brought in
just for tonight were also filled as well.

"Good thing we waited around then," Zoey spoke, setting her menu down.

"We better not be waiting all damn night to eat neither," Grace spoke,
munching on the bread that had been brought out to them earlier.

"You think they're serving margarita's tonight?" Noah asked, looking over
one of the menus.

"I don't see it in the menus," Grace replied, looking it over. "Ooh, but I
do see loaded baked potatoes. I want three. You think they putting a limit
on how much food we eat?"

Chad just smiled as he looked over everyone before noticing that there were
extra chairs at their table.

"Is someone joining us?" he asked.

Everyone looked over at him.

"What?" Noah asked, finally noticing the only empty chairs in the cafeteria
were at their table. "Grace?"

"Well I just figured Shawn and them would wanna eat too," Grace spoke
before getting into defense mode. "I know ya'll hating on him and
everything right now but the boy gotta eat."

Noah wasn't entirely comfortable with the idea of Shawn joining them for
dinner but he decided that he didn't want anything to spoil his good
mood. As a matter of fact, he felt like sharing with them all a piece of
news that made him very happy.

Trey himself decided that he wasn't going to give anything away either way
regarding the matter.

"So Jesse completely freaked out today," he started with a satisfied grin
on his face. "He had himself convinced he could play tennis better than us
when truth is he sucks just as much as I do."

"And boy don't you sound happy about it too," Zoey noted.

"Yeah well he was being an ass. You should have seen him. It was weird
actually, I've never seen him that pissed off and angry. I think something
might be wrong with him," Noah replied.

"He did take a lot of those white pills," Chad commented.

"Oh yeah, and this guy over here completely owned the court today," Noah
replied, rubbing Chad's shoulders like a proud father bragging to his
peers. "We figured out he's an athlete."

"Ooh, maybe you can join the football team with my boyfriend," Grace spoke
excitedly.

"You mean the one you're not talking to right now because he lied to you?"
Zoey asked.

Grace decided not to comment on the matter.

"Yeah, besides," Trey started happy to be the one to keep grounding his
friends in reality. "Chad's technically not a student here. He can go to
classes just fine but it's not like he's actually enrolled in any of them."

"He's right," Grace spoke. "We need to get you a school I.D. boy."

"We need to get 12,000 dollars tuition, Grace," Zoey spoke, seeing where
Trey was coming from. "Trey's right. Chad's fine for now but sooner or
later people are gonna realize he doesn't belong."

"So what? Let's just forget about that for tonight and celebrate figuring
out one solid thing about the guy," Noah spoke happy, his happy turning to
discomfort at the sight of seeing Shawn and Ben approaching their table as
Grace waved them over.

"Go ahead man," Ben mumbled, nudging Shawn forward.

Shawn had made up his mind about something that he wanted to happen and had
made up his mind that he was going to make it happen no matter what.

"Uh, can we talk Trey? Alone?" he asked, feeling a bit nervous to even ask.

"What?" Trey asked, briefly glancing over at Noah

"Shawn...boy, come on now," Grace spoke.

"No, you know what," Noah started, surprising everyone with how cordial he
actually sounded. "Go ahead Trey. Let him get whatever he wants to get out
of his system so we can be done with his constant bullshit."

Trey stalled for a moment then looked over at Shawn. He figured there was
some things that needed to be said between them but he hadn't expected now
to be the time for that. But he also figured there was never going to be a
time better than the one in which Noah was actually giving him permission
to be alone with the guy that had taken his virginity from him.

"Okay," Trey spoke, rising to his feet.

As the two of them started out of the cafeteria, Sierra entered, walking
right past them and over to Chad's table sitting in the seat that Ben
himself was starting to sit in.

"Uh, that was my seat-"

"Find another one," Sierra spoke without even looking back at Ben. "Hi all!
What are we up to?"

"Wondering who invited you?" Zoey asked looking over at Grace.

"Don't look at me," Grace replied. "Do it look like it's some more chairs
around here for her ass?"

"Oh come on, I come bearing good news," she started.

"Really?" Zoey asked, skeptically.

"Yeah. I think I know who Chad really is," Sierra replied shocking
everyone.

"Really?" Chad asked.

Sierra looked over at him with a smile.

"Or at least, I'm trying to piece it together," she spoke while sincerely
staring into his eyes. She touched his leg and moved in closer. "But don't
worry. I'm working as fast as I can. I really want to help you."

"Well thank you, that's so nice of you," Chad replied a small part of him
relived Sierra hadn't actually found his identity. He wasn't quite ready to
leave the new friends he'd made, even if he was desperate to know more
about himself.

"Oh please," Zoey sighed, rolling her eyes.

The truth was that Sierra knew exactly who `Chad Sports' was thanks to her
father, and who he was, was so much better than she could have possibly
imagined. Which was the very reason she was willing to leave him and
everyone else in the dark for awhile while she got closer to Chad. Because
when the truth came out, she wanted to be the one to be there for him when
it did.

As everyone mulled over what they wanted to eat, Trey and Shawn finally
managed to find a quiet place to talk in one of the stairwells near the
elevators.

Trey placed his back against the wall at the top of the first set of stairs
as Shawn leaned against the railing across from him.

He decided that he was going to let Shawn do all the talking because
whenever he got involved, emotions came out that he didn't want to come out
and he didn't want that. Not tonight and not anymore again.

However when Shawn refused to speak at all, Trey sighed and knew that he
had to speak up.

"Well Shawn, I'm here," he spoke. "What is it?"

Shawn sighed and decided to just go for it.

"What are we, you and me?" he asked.

Trey was confused.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

Shawn pushed himself off of the railing and sat a few steps bellow Trey,
looking up at him.

"I mean, we're not together, that's obvious and as much as I hate that fact
it just seems like we aren't anything. We see each other, we're around each
other all the time, but ever since the fire it's like we don't talk at all
and when we do we get into shouting matches."

Trey sighed.

"What do you want me to say, Shawn?" Trey asked. "You and my boyfriend
fought with each other about me for months and you both still start shit
with each other now. You can't really expect me to act all buddy buddy with
you when you can't even get along with my boyfriend."

"What about now? He didn't seem to mind too much letting us go off on our
own to talk."

"Yeah well maybe he should have minded. Maybe he does mind, I don't know."

Trey stood up, back still against the wall. Shawn stood up as well, staying
on the same step he was on.

"So nothing about that night when we...you don't remember what happened
that night?"

Of course Trey remembered what happened that night. They were both upset
for completely different reasons and they both gave into every little
insecurity and every little pang of lust and wanting that they had locked
up inside.

It didn't seem like such a mistake at the time but it definitely seemed
like one now to bother of them. Not what happened but the way it
happened. It was supposed to be something special but all that night of
passion had amounted to was the two of them having sex rather than making
love.

"I just wanna know if there's ever gonna be a time when the two of us could
try to rebuild and get to a place where we can actually talk without having
to worry about...I don't know, us. This. Whatever this whole deal is."

Trey wasn't sure how to respond. It was what he wanted, more than anything
in the world to get reacquainted with Shawn. But the fact of the matter was
that if he wanted to make his relationship work with Noah, he was going to
have to find a way to deal with the biggest problem they had. And
unfortunately for him, their biggest problem was Shawn.

And as long as Noah felt the way he did about Shawn and as long as Trey was
with Noah, there was never going to be a chance for them to rebuild. And
there wasn't anything that was ever going to change that.

"The truth is Shawn, we can't," Trey replied. "Not as long as I'm with Noah
and not you. And I don't want to do anything to ruin that."

Shawn felt like he understood. He DID understand. He'd even braced himself
for such a response just in case. It just wasn't what he was hoping the
outcome would be.

It was something, at least. At least he knew why they couldn't be
friends. Why they couldn't be as close as they once were. And why he was
going to have to try harder to get over Trey.

"Can we go eat now?" Trey asked.

"Yeah, whatever," Shawn replied, doing his best to fight back the tears he
felt like he wanted to let out.

Trey walked ahead of Shawn, not even waiting for him.

"Hey, babe! Somebody came to get drink orders while you were gone. I
ordered for you," Noah spoke, as Trey moved behind him to take his seat
next to him at the table.

Shawn joined them a few moments later, realizing there weren't any more
chairs left.

"Dude, I offered to let her sit on my lap," Ben spoke noting the look on
Shawn's face regarding the chair situation.

"And I offered to kick him in the nuts," Sierra replied. "He didn't take my
deal so I didn't take his. Pull up a chair!"

"I know she better be coming back soon to take our orders," Grace said,
sounding more impatient than ever. "You ain't supposed to be waiting to eat
longer than it takes you to get your food."

"Grace, there's like 400 people in here," Noah spoke.

"I see food on they tables," Grace spoke, crossing her arms like a spoiled
little girl who wasn't getting her way.

"Speaking of the devil," Ben spoke as the waitress returned.

"Are ya'll ready to order?" she asked.

"Hell yeah," Grace replied, sitting forward.

Even though one of them knew who he was while he didn't, Chad was hoping to
stick around as long as possible. With girls as nice and good looking as
Sierra willing to be a part of his life, he almost didn't care if he ever
got his memory back.

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