Damn Good Reasons **DISCONTINUED - SEE NEW VER!**

Chapter 26 - Brothers For Life

"So, you made it to fourth base yet?" Charlie asked.

"That ain't ever gonna happen," Billy laughed. "I bet she wears one of 'dem genuine chastity belts, you know? Iron, padlocked..."

"And if she don't, she should start," Charlie laughed back.

"Get the fuck out, you two. Come on, Cass – I forfeit. Let's get outta here and get Nat."

---

I didn't make good on Vince's forfeit. I split the cash with him – we took back our bets – and he seemed to appreciate it. We had planned to get Nat at 11, and it was just a bit before, so I figured she would be awake and getting ready. Vince waited in the backstreet behind the diner while I jumped the picket fence and went to her window. I leaned over the garden and tapped the glass and waited. And waited. I tapped it again, and it soon pulled up with a very flustered looking Natalie to greet me.

"Cass," she whispered down to me with her head out the window. "Something's come up. I can't go out tonight." She spoke very quickly like she was all in a hurry.

"Oh no... Are your parents still up?"

"No... they're not here."

"Isn't that... a good thing?"

"My brother's here." She looked over her shoulder for a few seconds, and I expected him to walk through her bedroom door and bust us. But the room stayed silent. I also noticed that she was dressed and not in her nightgown as if she had gotten ready to come out.

"What's happened?" I asked.

"Uhh... umm..." She was bobbing up and down like she needed to pee real bad, but I was pretty sure that wasn't why. "Oh boy... please... you need to go."

"What do I tell Vince? He's waiting for you! And he's gone all out for you tonight, so I need to tell him something!"

"Umm... just tell him... tell him I'll talk to him tomorrow. I'm so sorry, Cass." She shut the window down, almost catching my fingers and leaving me in complete confusion. A confusion which I had to take back with me to Vince.

"I don't know what to say," I told him apologetically. "She wouldn't tell me what was wrong."

"Well, go back and find out! I got everything set to go!" For a moment, I thought the old version of Vince who I knew and... ahem... didn't love was back in action. But on second look, he wasn't threatening me to do anything. "Look... I just like being 'round her, OK? And... I just... I mean I wanna... If she can't, you know... but I just needa check..."

"You want me to check everything's OK with you two."

"Yeah!"

The back door to Irby's opened some distance away down the backstreet, but we were so wrapped up in our little dilemma that we didn't care to look.

"She shut the window on me. I don't think she'll open it again."

"Well, you gotta try – you just gotta! Or I will."

"OK, OK! I'll try to find out what's up. Just wait here."

"What the fuck's going on?"

Vince and I jumped at the voice and turned towards Irby's to look. Ace emerged from the darkness and came to a slightly wonky stop right underneath the only streetlight there. He'd had a few drinks sure, but not enough for a guy of his stamina to be intoxicated. He seemed to have sunken into some kind of angered, mourning depression – one that I hoped wouldn't last forever.

"You," he growled, pointing a finger at Vince. "You stop messin' with my girl."

Vince's look of concern suddenly became one of alarm. "There's nothin' goin' on, Ace..."