After she'd seen that glare, she had gone to see Scott, who had looked only too pleased with himself over something and she knew it had been him. His flimsy denials had meant nothing, and she'd screamed at him, then stormed off.

They hadn't spoken since and she was still unsure what she should do about this. This thought that she couldn't get out of her head was if he would do that to a guy who had just looked at her. How long would it take before that level of jealousy, distrust and rage was directed at her.

Anna's father was abusive and she feared that sort of domestic violence more than anything. Anna might have looked small and petite but she also possessed a natural athleticism, after the bastard had died, she'd spent every moment she could learning self-defence, and had become proficient in two different martial arts and was working on a third.

She wasn't fooling herself as she didn't think her training made her untouchable, but she needed that sense of control. Just to know that if it came down to it, she wouldn't go quietly and maybe it might make the difference and allow her to get away.

Anna couldn't continue to deal with Jenna's blind devotion to Scott, she probably fancied him and was doing anything to prove she deserved him. Well, whether or not the little hussy could have him, Anna hadn't decided yet. So she stood up and said, "I'm going to my prac, I'll see you guys later." Jenna smiled a knowing smile, as if she'd beaten her, as she said. "But it's not for another half hour."

"I have to see the professor before class," she said to the smiling little bitch, as she hurriedly left the coffee table. Anna was able to stave off the doubts about her friends and boyfriend for the next three hours as her studies kept her mind occupied. She left class, and took a different route out to her car, one that went by the library block, where she knew Jenna wouldn't be waiting to ambush her with more crap about Scott.

She got out to her car, alone in the parking lot and a dark patch caught her eye, and the images that she'd been trying so hard not to see again came rushing back. Matt laying there, the look in his eyes, the look later and Scott's smug look of satisfaction as he lied to her about nearly killing Matt.

These four moments in time resonated like a drum beat that called to her, as she decided she no longer cared what her friends thought. Her and Scott were over, and she was going to see Matt. Now.

The drive home took Anna about forty five minutes, mostly because traffic was nightmarish at this time. This city might not be that large but it saddled a major transport route between the coast and the grain belt.

The time between leaving Uni and reaching home had given her too much time to think, too much time to replay the last week in her mind. Finally she turned off the twisting road that led to her house.

A secluded piece of bush hidden on a hidden road that used to be the service road for the range crossing. She pulled into her garage, and turned the car off. She got out of the car, and shut the door and after a quiet moment in which she dreaded what she had to do next, started walking over to the hidden path through the bushes that they'd made as children, that led to Matt's house.

Anna walked the path as carefully as possible, it hadn't been used in years and was overgrown. It took some doing, but after a few false starts where she had left the path accidentally, she emerged into Matt's backyard.

Even after all these years, and all their history, the place still looked the same. She hadn't been here since she was fifteen, but it could have been yesterday. She walked around to the front door and knocked on the door. She waited a few minutes, and then the door opened and her eyes widened in shock.

Several hours earlier...

Matt had stayed in his room, and let the emotional deluge work its way out of his system. The

sadness had welled up out of nowhere, and retreated just as abruptly. He had never been one for second guessing himself, but now.... all he ever seemed to do was replay the moment over and over in his mind.

Analysing possible actions, coming to the same conclusion over and over. He did this often while awake, and even sometimes dreamed about it. But thankfully, that was growing rarer as his mind recovered from the shock of a sudden, unprovoked violent attack.

He quietly hopped into the shower, and let the hot water soothe him, as the water washed away the remnants of the tears. He got out and looked in the mirror at himself with the harshest eye possible. Criticising every flaw, the small amount of flab that was on his body.

If he had trained during high school as well as study, he might have been more toned, he might have even been good enough to date Anna, and this horrid mess would never have happened. Hindsight assailed his reflection, and after a while his resiliency re-asserted itself. Scott thought he had him beat did he, he'd show the prick.

Matt came out of the shower with a towel wrapped around his midriff, and went into his room and changed into his PT gear. As he came out of the room, Ian looked over from the computer and said, "Dude! You sure you should be running so soon? Doc said to take it easy for a while, besides why have a shower first, and then go for a run."

Matt smiled and said, "Don't worry, I'm only going to find the kinks. Most I'll do is jog, I promise." Ian nodded, "I'll hold you to that, wait up and I'll get changed so I can go with."

Matt shook his head and then said, "No man, got some stuff I want to jog out of me, I'll only be going up the old ranger's trail. Nothing that a toddler couldn't handle. Can you cook tea while I'm out, and I don't mean order take out. There's Hokken noodles, and chicken in the fridge. A chicken stir-fry sounds good for tea."

With that he sat down and put his runners on to Ian's martyred expression about having to actually cook. Matt smirked back at Ian, then stood back up and exited by the back door, heading down the trail that led from the house to the set of naturally occurring animal trails that wound through the bush and the sleepy valleys.