The wry smile on Felix's face as she nodded told all.

"That's it," she said weakly. "I got into an argument with him, because I praised Cheryl like a goddess. She was my queen, and whoever dared disrespect my queen would feel my wrath. By the time I finished raising my voice, he asked me what the problem was and why I was so mad, but I just -- I couldn't take it. My anger got the best of me. I grabbed one of his legs, yanked on it, and tumbling down he went. He never spoke ill about her again because he -- he died. I just couldn't believe it, though. Someone I considered my best friend lied on the ground with his neck snapped! How was I supposed to come back from that without being scared that someone might believe I did it on purpose? I couldn't. So I just . . . stayed home, dealt with it all in my own way. Scars heal with time, but these were deep ones. . . ."

"And Cheryl?"

"She blamed me. Of course she did. I was the one who did it, but I did it in order to protect her name. It really was an accident, in the way I couldn't control myself and how I didn't expect him to slip and fall off the arch of the slide. But she still went and blew me off. I never got to hang out with her again, other than a little side comment I overheard in the hallway that made me know she didn't forgive me." Felix sniffed, and wiped away the tears which formed at the edges of her forlorn eyes. "The whole thing was my fault -- I know it is, I just know it."

Tegmark considered this statement for some time. Felix didn't complain, though. She liked having the feeling of another warm body providing her comfort through her suffering, though it was evident Tegmark barely knew anything about comforting. But she was there, and for Felix, she constituted that as enough.

Then, lifting her head and leaning it against her shoulder: "Our wrongs don't define who we are as people."

Felix had to turn her head at that, snapping back into focus. "Huh?"

Tegmark squeezed Felix's hand, and the warm sensation barreling violently through her veins relaxed its pressure. "We see everything wrong in ourselves, but there are so many other things which are more important than that," the blonde girl said. "I've beat myself up about everything that happened with Beverly, and I accept the fact I've done her and many others wrong in my life, but I've learned that it was for the better, because she made me see there was some light to my life, there was at least something to guide me through. You deserve someone like that. You need someone like that."

"But who's gonna be the one to do it? Dylan's gone. Cheryl wants nothing to do with me." Felix glanced at Tegmark with downcast eyes, filled with sorrow and pain from months of unfulfilling life, unsatisfactory existence amid the pools of choler and melancholy. Broken and unhealed, she waited for someone, but no one ever came. Unable to move, she refused to look, to discover someone else who'd fill her heart with happiness and watch it drain as it cracked and cracked. And it was pouring all over Tegmark, like magma piling over a set of scuplted rocks, blazing it all in immense heat. "Who's gonna be there for me when we get out of here?"

"I will," replied Tegmark sternly.

And the hardness of her crystal clear eyes gave Felix hope, though it immediately came down once the foundation of thought surrounding that idea shuddered and shook. "We don't even live near each other. You live in Wisconsin. I live in Florida. That's at least a thousand miles away, and even then, you can't possibly --"

"I know where you go to school," Tegmark said. "And I know your address. I've seen your house more times than I wanted to, no thanks to your staying home all the time. I know the neighborhood, I know you."

Felix didn't agree. "But how --"

Tegmarked shushed her, pressing a slender finger to her lips. "Quiet." And when Felix stopped mumbling under her breath at the slight injustice, she continued, "I will go through whatever hoops I can, Cunningham. It doesn't matter whether I can't do it now, but I will do it eventually. I will come to you, and you won't have to suffer from Cheryl's idiotic ass. You have me now."

Felix wanted to object, tell her that there wasn't a point, she wouldn't find her, but she had to have hope, at least a little bit of it. Jennifer Tegmark cared for her and was willing to go out of her way in order to make sure she was safe, protected. To shroud her in a blanket of love and affection when she was missing all of it.

No point in releasing the only thing hanging onto you. No point in getting rid of something that needs you. No point, none at all, to let it all go when there's everything to be believe.

No point to think there's no point to it all.

Tegmark yawned and leaned against Felix's shoulder for support, an exhaustive wave washing over her like a surfer who lost control of their board.

A few uninterrupted minutes went by, the only sounds emanating throughout the voluminous box being the clicking of the timer. Its monotony grounded her in reality as her mind drifted into imaginative heaven, her arm cradling Tegmark's shoulder to keep her from sliding off her coveralls. Before she fell asleep, the blonde lazily reached up and chastely kissed Felix's cheek, smiling at the flushed expression the short-haired girl made when she returned to her peaceful position. "I ain't leavin you," she said softly. "You have me now."

click

A couple minutes after Tegmark was fast asleep, drool dripping from the side of her mouth and onto her shoulder, Felix looked longingly at the devices lying on the floor. Then she carefully reached forward, trying not to wake the sleeping blonde, and took both of them into her hand. With the help of her fingers, they slid into the dark corner, where the shadows ate and swallowed them. Looking back was left for times when things look atrocious, not when everything's getting better, and Felix . . . well --

"We have each other," she whispered.

click

As Felix's eyes slowly closed for her daily appointment with slumber, the lantern which shone bright light above them was blown out, encapsulating the metal box in oblivion. Felix didn't notice. She was already deep into her exhaustion, finding little wakefulness to keep hold of as her eyes rested, her mind shut down and her body filled with a fuzzy, warm numbness. She heard the clicking --

click
click
cli--