The car was quiet, me behind the wheel, and a sleeping Haley in the passenger seat. I had managed to get Kelly and Heather home with little effort as the booze was beginning to wear off, and sleep began to take over. I glanced over at my passenger as I headed to her house. She looked so peaceful as she slept, her head turned so she was facing me, head bobbing slightly with the bumps the car took from the road. Her foam costume was billowed up around her chest and shoulders, giving her an ample comfy spot to rest her chin. It was amusing.

"Haley, hey, wake up." The engine turned off as I parked in front of her house, I gently slapped her. Blue eyes opened to look at me for a moment before sitting up and looking around. I saw a hand absently go to her mouth to wipe away some drool that had gathered in the left corner.

"Oh, Andi, I can’t go here." My brows drew as I glanced up at the house.

"Why?"

"I, um, I don’t want my folks to see me like this." She grinned, lopsided, but she seemed to be mostly with it. "Can you take me to a motel or something?"

"Oh. Well," I sighed, forgetting she’d told me that on the phone. Well, the truth of the matter was I hadn’t taken her real seriously. She was wasted, after all. Turing the car on, I pulled away. "I know a place."

The house was still dark as my mom hadn’t returned home yet, and Chris was long asleep.

"Be quiet." I whispered as I helped Haley up the stairs, trying to avoid any serious cotastrophies with the furniture. I pushed her into my bedroom and closed the door before I turned the light on. How I wished I had a basement bedroom. I didn’t want Chris waking up or my mom finding Haley here. I wasn’t sure what she’d say to this.

Haley stumbled into the room, looked at me for a moment, then slid down to sit in a blue heap on the floor. I smiled, staring down at her.

"Do you think maybe you should let your parents know where you are?" I crossed my arms over my chest, nodding toward the phone laying on the side table. She glanced at it, then up at me, her eyes red-rimmed and bleary, then nodded. I grabbed the phone and handed it to her. She dialed, cleared her throat, and waited.

"Hey, I’m sorry to wake you, dad, but I just wanted to let you know that I decided to stay over at a friends house tonight." I watched, absolutely amazed at how she was able to hide the fact that she was totally drunk, and about to fall asleep in the middle of my floor. Her eyes drooped further and further down with every second that ticked by. "Okay. I love you, too. Sure. Goodnight." She clicked the phone off, and plopped back onto the floor, her M&M costume rising up to nearly cover her face.

"Okay, you. Let’s get you into bed." I pulled her up by her arms, hauling her to her feet as I reached for the covers on my bed, pushing them back so I could push her in. She plopped down on the bed, bouncing slightly on the mattress as I knelt down to unlace and remove her shoes, and help her get the foam costume off to reveal a blue body suit underneath. Figuring she’d be fine in that, I brought her legs to the bed, and looked at her to see she’d fallen back against the pillow, sound asleep.

Out of breath from the effort, I brought the blankets up and tucked them around her shoulders and under her chin. I stood, stared down at her. She was breathing deeply and evenly, gone to the world for this night.

With a sigh, I hurried to the linen closet in the hall, grabbed two sleeping bags, and made myself a bed on the floor next to the bed. I wrapped my arms around the pillow, glanced at the clock to see it was nearly five in the morning, and closed my eyes.

* * *

I saw him coming, fast and mean as I tried to dodge, roll out of the way as his foot got closer and closer to my face…

"Wake up." My eyes shot open, and I turned to see Haley leaning over me. I turned to my back from my side, and cringed as a pain shot up my back. What the? Then I remembered I’d spent the night on the floor. I squeezed my eyes shut for a moment as I tried to get my bearings. I sat up, pulling the sleeping bag closer around me, and turned to look at Haley who sat on the edge of the bed, her legs curled up under her. She was a sight, that was for sure. Her hair was a mess, mussed and sticking up in places, which was amazing as it was fairly long. Tiny smudges of blue could still be seen near her left ear.

"Hey." I croaked, still half asleep. "What time is it?"

"Ten. Your mom was just here."

"Oh." I stood, stretching my back, then it hit me. "Shit!"

"What?" Haley looked alarmed.

"I have to go to practice, shit." I ran to the bathroom to brush my teeth and comb my runaway hair. With the trials yesterday, we didn’t have our normal Saturday practice, so it was today.

"Practice what?" I heard from the bathroom doorway. Haley stood there still in her bodysuit, socks half off and flopped out to the side of her feet. I chuckled, then looked at her.

"Tae Kwon Do."

"You do Tae Kwon Do?" I nodded as I rushed into the bedroom to grab my dobok, then hurried back into the bathroom to change.

"I’ll be right out." I closed the door on a very surprised and confused Haley.

"Can you drop me off on the way?" she called from the bedroom.

"Sure," I called back, tying my ti just right, all the stripes in the right place, the ends of the belt even. I opened the door to find Haley standing near the bed, the blankets in her hands. She looked at me, her face pale and eyes wide.

"I’m so sorry." I looked to see where she was looking; my pillow had blue smudges all over it, including on the edge of the sheet. "I’ll buy you another set, Andi, I promise." I grinned, finding the entire situation incredibly amusing, and shook my head.

"No, that’s okay. You don’t have to, Haley. It’s no big deal."

"Are you sure? God, I feel terrible. I’ve ruined your sheets."

"Haley," I turned to her, my face falling at the look of devastation on her face. "Really, it’s okay. Alright?" I stared up into her eyes, waiting for some sign that she heard and understood. Finally she nodded, avoiding my eyes. I smiled reassuringly at her. "Come on. Let’s get you home. Want to borrow some sweats, or something?" she looked down at herself and her wrinkled body suit, then grinned, shaking her head.

"That’s okay. I’ll just make a full-out sprint for my bedroom." I grinned, nodded.

"Let’s go."

* * *

God, had Tracy gotten better in the last twenty-four hours? She sure seemed to be a hell of a lot faster in her punches. I was having a heck of a time trying to keep up. I felt so dead, definitely not getting enough sleep last night. All I wanted was a bed, I wanted to go home, flop down on my bed, and-

POW!

I saw lights behind my eyes as my head hit the mat with a solid thump. Extraordinary pain raced through my head, centering in my right eye. I brought my hands to my face, expecting to feel something wet and sticky, but there wasn’t. Instead someone pushed my hand away, and fingers trailed along my nose and my temple.

"Can you breathe, Andi?" my Sabum Nim asked. I thought for a moment, then nodded. "Open your eyes." I did, then quickly slammed them shut again as the pain radiated out once more.

"Ah, crap that hurts!" I yelled, hearing a quiet round of chuckles around me.

"I’m so sorry, Andi. Oh, god. I’m really sorry."

I reached out blindly, trying to find Tracy, and my hand was filled with hers. I squeezed it to let her know it was okay, and so was I.

"Can you sit?" I was helped to a sitting position, the pain coming with me. I heard the instructor tell someone to get some ice, and then that person quickly running out of the room. Sabum Nim kept a small refrigerator in the back room for this specific purpose. Within a few seconds someone handed me an icepack, and I had it on my eye. The other one opened to see the entire class standing or kneeling around me, and my teacher looking at me with concern and disdain. "Why did yon lose your concentration, Andi?" he asked.

"I’m sorry. I didn’t get enough sleep last night." I said, feeling lame.

"That is no excuse. I want you to go home and rest. You’re no good if you can’t focus."

"Yes, Sabum Nim." He helped me to my feet, and patted my on the back.

"We’ll see you next time." I bowed to him, and turned to head to the lockers. My head was pounding, and I hoped I’d be able to drive. I could barely keep my eye open. I knew there would be one hell of a shiner there tomorrow.

* * *

I pulled into the driveway, the ice cubes already melting in the baggie they were in. I grabbed it from the passenger seat, and headed into the house. I walked to the kitchen, straight to the fridge. My mom was sitting at the table reading the paper.

"Hey, honey. Why are you home so early?" She looked up at me, and was immediately on her feet. "Oh, Andrea! What happened?" she looked into my face, bringing her hand up to gently touched the red, puffy skin around my eye, her eyes narrowed in concern. "Oh, sweetie. You’re going to have quite the bruise there."

"Yeah. I’m so excited, too." I muttered.

"What happened?"

"Just wasn’t concentrating." I sighed. "I’m going to bed."

"Okay, honey. Oh, there’s a message for you on the answering machine."

"Kay. Thanks." She gave me a kiss on my forehead, and putted my butt as I walked to the living room where the answering machine was. I pushed the play button, and sat on the arm of the couch to listen.

"Hey, Andi. Um, well, I just wanted to say thank you for last night, and that I’m really embarrassed about it. Um, I don’t really do that often, and so, well, I just wanted to let you know that I’m really appreciative. Okay? Um, see you at school. Bye." I stared down at the machine, a smile on my face. Anytime, Haley.

* * *

I turned the page in my book, my teeth crunching the potato chip I had just tossed into my mouth. I could hear the loud conversations all around me, most talking about what they had done for Halloween weekend, no doubt many of them had been at the party Haley was at. Haley. A grin spread across my face as I thought of her drunk Saturday night. The poor girl had been so gone, and so wiped out. She was always so cool and collected, so to see her so out of control was certainly new.

I glanced up when someone kicked my shoe. Haley smiled down at me, her expression shy and sheepish, it slid right off her when she looked into my face.

"Oh, god, Andi! What happened to you?" She knelt down getting a closer look. "Oh, jeez. Does it hurt?" I shrugged, then nodded.

"Well, as you know I had practice yesterday morning, but, um, well, I blocked kick with my face."

"Oh, Andi. Are you a beginner, or something?" I grinned.

"Hardly. I just couldn’t concentrate due to lack of sleep."

"Oh, no!" She covered her mouth with her hands, her eyes huge. "Oh, Andi. I am so sorry. Oh, wow. Man, what can I do? Anything?" I shook my head.

"No. It’ll go away all on it’s own, don’t worry about it." She swallowed, her eyes still on my eye. "Haley, don’t worry. It happens, you know? This isn’t my first black eye, nor will it be my last."

"Yeah, but you got it because of me."

"True,"

"Oh, jeez."

"I’m only kidding," I laughed, touching her briefly on the arm. "Really, I’m only joking. It’s no big deal. Hey, you got me out of practice and to bed, so that’s good, right?" She grinned weakly, nodding her head.

"Okay. Well, I just came over to say hi and thanks again."

"Well, hi, and you’re welcome." She smiled at me.

"See you later?" I nodded. With one last look, she stood and walked away.

The week flew by for me, the semester coming to an end, and Christmas break not far away. We had to get through November and Thanksgiving, and then were home free for a few weeks. I couldn’t wait.

I walked the halls of Winston High, ignoring the stares as people took in my shiner, looking at me in a way where I could read their minds. Yes, yes, I have a black eye, what do you know. Can we please try and state the obvious yet again? I shrugged my backpack a bit higher on my shoulder as I headed for the front door to the school, another week down, and another weekend before me.

The walk home was cold, so luckily I’d somehow managed to think ahead through my sleepy haze this morning. I was bundled up in a thick sweater and winter coat. Traditionally Halloween brought on the bad weather, but since the cold had come early this year, Halloween just brought on the really bad weather. Flurries just about everyday, some days all-out snow. Today was actually clear and bright, only cold. I marveled at the Halloween decoration that some people had yet to take down, pumpkins rotting on front porches, and plastic ghouls and goblins leering from windows and front yards.