The rain dripped onto Lea's bedroom window as if the sky was torn and sprung an undying leak, fueled by a dam flowing from the hands of God himself into the clouds. Hours it had been rain and hours McKenzie sat in the dark room in draining silence, her knees hugged close to her body, her teddy bear laying loyaly by her side, Lea's phone patiently waiting for word from Jesse. McKenzie left him 3 urgent voice messages; he had to answer them sometime this millenium. Was his life on tour really that hetic?

Becoming restless on how to occupy the silent, empty time laying like an iron gate between her and Jesse, she shuffled off her bed to the floor, her legs aching and stiffening from her pretzel position executed on the bed. Limping through the pain with the pace of a withering old man, she flipped on Lea's radio; the well-suited song of "U Got it Bad" snickered around her ears and tore at her brain. Scowering, she retreated back to the cold sheets on her bad, wrapping herself in self-pity, heartbreak and bone-chilling comfort.

The replenishing screams of the phone shook her from slumber, her eyelids still closed like blinds as she grappled for the phone sightlessly, desperation leading her fingers to it. Once locked securely in her hand, she lifted it without hesitation. "Hello?" she asked drowsily, wrining the phone's cord around her finger in responce, her eyes valiantly blinking away the sleep that still irritated them like salt.

"Kenny?" the familiar voice asked, "It's Jesse."

She glanced sideways at the blue clock perched on Lea's dresser, registering it was 2 hours since she left her last message on his voicemail. "Took you long enough," she gruffed moodily, itching her side with her free hand as a well-caverned yawn crawled out of the moist pit of her throat.

"What can I say?" Jesse asked her arrogantly, pulling at his collar suavely, "I'm a busy man..."

"Boy, you mean," McKenzie corrected him, usual cracks of that nature sending her into a fit of unstoppable giggles. But not today.

The melancholy drone of her voice just hit Jesse as he lowered his eyebrows in suspicion. "What's wrong, Kenny?"

"It's...kind of a long story," McKenzie stammared, reaching across the ripples of oceanic sheets to her teddy bear. She held it close to her heart, the only thing that could make it warm as she sat on pins and needles for Jesse's responce.

"Can you give me the cliffnotes version of it?" Jesse asked awkwardly, "I have practice in 10 minuetes."

"Not funny, Jess," McKenzie warned him as a few snickers seeped to her ear.

"I'm sorry," Jesse apolgiesed, sneaking some Doritos from a vulnerable bag sitting across from him. Chomping away on some vauable enegry being stored away for the show, he urged her to "Lay it on me."

McKenzie told him about her confrentation with Brad; every sickening detail she could recollect without a sheen of tears blanketing her eyes. Jesse listened astounded, his respect for BMOC Zach lowering at least a thousand points. Her story was told gracefully, only in a few sticky, frightening parts did her flow falter a few steps. Then she continued on about Friday and her fight with Tricia, about how Brad mucked every thing up, no interruptions interjecting her tale from her cousin. Her teddy glared up at her in assistance as she glanced down on it every few moments for reassurance. That teddy was her golden shield, the only thing that kept her locked in the belief that there is love in the world. Her dad gave her that when she was born, a reminder to this day that her parents once did love enough to create her. Its plushed fur was fading, but its comfort never faded. Just like Jesse, his belief and love for her was right next to her at her whistle during the hard times of her life.

"Then she walked down the street," McKenzie concluded deep in misery, her eyes glued to the floor and her finger wounded in an untangable knot at the core of the phone cord. "And said she needed to think."

A brief pause of deliberation, then Jesse responded with, "Wow...a lot can happen in a few days I guess, huh?"

"Got that right," McKenzie sighed hopelessly, slowly working her finger out of the chinese finger trap she created out of the cord. "It's like Brad is stirring up all this shit, and now the one person who didn't hate me hates me."

"Maybe you guys should cool it for a while," Jesse blantantly suggested, unsure of what he felt about their sitation.

"What?" McKenzie asked breathlessly, that thought being the last thing she expected Jesse to tell her.

"I mean, it's causing so many problems for you," Jesse continued, lifting his feet up onto the tour bus's tan table. All these thoughts came rushing into his head like a flood with just as much potency. "It isn't a walk in the park for me, either. I defend you all the time on terms I don't necessarily agree upon. I mean, do you know what they call you? It's gross, horrible. It's hard to hear those words and not do anything."

Her whole body sank like air was being released out of it. Jesse always told the brutal truth; that was for sure. Grief on her behalf was interfering in his school life, the only point of normalcy he had left. "I can't just stop seeing her," McKeizne retorted sternly, "I care for her too much."

"It sounds like she's willing to stop," Jesse pointed out, his head scolding him with a slap like a ruler for giving her advice on this touchy subject. Is family really this strong?

"She was angry!" McKenzie yelled, slamming her fist down on her cuddly companion, Pure indefference slipping from her tounge, her voice mixed with despair and anger, her heart constricting with the icy though of that. "She didn't know what she was saying!"

"Alright, alright!" Jesse replied loudly, pushing his hands down as if she could see his gestures for her to calm down. "Listen, I can't tell you what to do, it's your life. I know my personal beliefs are different than yours, so I really don't feel it's my place to tell you what to do..."

"But your opinion is important to me," McKenzie interrupted him meekly, begging squeaking her voice. "It always had been."

"It's time to grow up, Kenny," Jesse told her like a mother, knowing she wasn't buying his tough, macho older cousin bit. Kenny secretly smiled through the wires of the other line, but knew he was right.

"I like her so much, Jess," she sighed truthfully, sifting her hands along the cool material of her sheets. Defiantly, she bolted her sulking head up and a look of determinated melted onto her face. "I'm going to make it up to her."

"I know you do," Jesse responded, peering into the deep cave of the empty Doritos bag, but his attention totally in tune to McKenzie.

McKenzie's eyes flew about the room, her eyes finally floating on a vacant wickered basket shoved brutally between Lea's dresser and desk. An idea crackled and boiled in her brain, a gift she herself would be overwhelmed to receive. She was starting to feel better...about everything. Her last words shock both her and Jesse as they traveled with speed that could crumble the sound barrier. "I think I love her."