*Teddy's POV*
Chris came to the tree house soaking wet and pissed off. "I take it the lake was good." I said chuckling to myself. "Shut up Teddy!" He hissed back at me. "Woah," I said throwing my hands up to claim innocence, "What happened to you?" "Fucking Cashman dude." "Ooh, your lover." I said trying to make him annoyed with me instead of her. The only reason he hates her is because he loves her. Everyone knows it. "Fuck you. She can't just do that, she can't fucking do that." He was yelling. "What? Like you, try and be your friend? How dare she." I said, falsely feeding into his bullshit. "I know!" He yelled back. I just shook my head and laughed. "She tried to make me feel bad or something. Whining about Mark trying to kill her or something, which was probably fake. And then she tried to like lure me into a trap of liking her or something, I don't even know. Okay? Fuck this. Fuck her. Fuck everything!" He shouted. At this I was alarmed. "Mark did what?" I asked. "I don't know man. He was wailin' on her and it got bad, pulled a knife on her or something. She had bruises and blood all over her, she was pretty shakin. Crying and shit, probably did it to make me feel bad." "AND YOU JUST LEFT HER THERE?!" I was furious. "NOT EVERYTHING IS ABOUT YOU CHRIS! WHERE THE FUCK IS SHE!" I was screaming at the top of my lungs. "I don't know dude! I left her there in the mud okay! I'm sorry!" "DON'T FUCKING TELL ME THAT! TELL HER! BASTARD." I yelled at him. "I tried to help, okay?! I held her! I talked to her! She tried to trap me Teddy!" "Fuck you Chris!" I yelled and stormed out of the tree house in search of Cashman. When I left it wasn't raining as hard as it was a little bit ago, but it still wasn't a light rain. I couldn't really see anything, I had no sense of direction, and I wasn't really sure how to get to the lake where I assumed she was. I was at the woods edge, searching in pitch darkness and I heard slow footsteps approaching me. I wasn't sure which direction they were coming from, but I still advanced forward. The footsteps seemed to be getting closer, and I was nearing a clearing. I assumed I was close to the lake because I saw a little glimmer off the water. Just as I saw that, there was a figure in front of me. "Woah!" I jumped back a step, I was startled to say the least. I heard a mumbled "Sorry." And the figure pushed past me. I turned and caught it's arm right before they were just out of reach. "Cashman?" She turned her head slightly, and I felt her body go rigid. "It's Teddy." She softened. "Chris told me everything. Are you okay?" I asked softly so as not to scare her. "..doesn't need me.." She mumbled. "What?" "He doesn't need me." "Who?" "Chris. He said he doesn't need me. We aren't friends. He doesn't want me." She said softly, looking up. Her eyes were filled with pain. "No," I whispered, "No that's not true. He needs you. You've been his best friend all his life." I said. She just shook her head. "No, Teddy, he said he doesn't need me." She whispered to the ground. The problem was I couldn't tell if she was crying, or if it was the rain. So I couldn't tell how upset she was. I just had to assume she was crying. "Let's get you home." I said and put my arm around her. I walked her to her house, no one was home but that wasn't a big surprise. "Go take a warm shower, get some dry clothes on and then we'll talk. Okay?" She nodded. I went to rummage through her brothers clothes to find something dry, and also grabbed a towel. Once I was semi-dry, I changed. I sat on her old, worn out, dingy couch until she came out. I heard the water turn off and got up to make her some tea. Her house was cold, so I found a blanket to put around her. I brought the tea out to the living room, and put the blanket on the couch. I went to her bedroom door and knocked. "Are you dressed?" I asked. "Yeah, I'm just brushing my hair. You can come in." She replied. I opened the door slowly. There she sat at a mirror running a hair brush through her long, wet hair. "I made you some tea, and got you a blanket out in the den." I said to her. She smiled, "Thank you very much, I appreciate it. I see you also found some of Jacobs clothes." I nodded, "Something dry. I doubt he'll notice." She nodded and stood up, "Let's go out to the den." She had a somber look to her. She sat on the couch and wrapped the blanket around her and grabbed the teacup with both hands. I came and sat on the opposite end. "Wanna talk about it?" I asked. She stared into her tea for a long while before answering. She sighed and looked at me, "No, but I will." She waited a short time before telling me everything that had happened. With Mark, with Chris, she said she never meant to see Chris it was just a weird coincidence that he was there. She was talking fast and frantic as if she was re-experiencing the events and wanted to get them over with as soon as possible. When she was finished I looked over her bruises and such. The whole left side of her face was bruised and inflamed and her nose was crooked and had dried blood on it. "Well, I think he broke a few things in your face. Your left cheek bone and eye socket which is why you're face is like that. You're nose for sure, which also has blood on it. So we're all going to kick his ass for you. As for Chris, I really don't think he meant it. I think he was just mad at himself and wanted to be mad at anyone other than himself and you were the most convenient source. Don't worry too much, you'll be okay within a few days with him." She just nodded and looked into her now empty tea cup. "Would you like more? I'd be happy to make you some." I saw a smile tug at her lips and she looked up, "Thank you. I appreciate everything you do for me when things go wrong with other people." I gave her a quick hug and went to make more tea. I was enraged that he could treat her like this. No one should treat another person like that, but she deserved it least of all. If Chris didn't want to help us beat him even worse than he did her, then it'd be the three of us with some heavy chains. As for Chris, I was going to have to fist fight him just to knock some sense into him. But I couldn't show her all this rage. I had to be calm so that she didn't get scared because I could tell she was still in shock. I came back to the couch with the tea. She was holding the cup and playing with the string of the bag. "Don't beat him up." She said shaking her head lightly. "Why not?" I asked confused and even more mad. She put her cup down, "Because if you guys beat him real bad, which don't get me wrong I'd appreciate, but if he gets real hurt, and I'm real hurt then there is no justice. How am I supposed to trust any guy after him, or know for sure he won't do it again just because my absolute best friends in the entire world kicked the living hell out of him? I won't be able to. So no matter what we do, there will be no justice. But I really love you for trying to help, Teddy." I understood her point and just sighed and nodded. She kissed me on the cheek lightly, "Thank you." She laid down and just like that, she was gone.
