This chapter is dedicated to my silent readers! Woohoo! I love you guys! You're awesome! Thanks for supporting and reading this thing I call a book! You are the best!

(To readers who vote and comment, do not be jealous, I love you all equally. The silent people just know where it's at! (What does that even mean? Where what's at? What are we looking for.) Sorry got distracted, ignore me and go do what you do best, READ!!)

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The office was deathly silent. Cups of cold coffee sat on the table. Notecards, that had once been neatly organized, were in a chaotic mess. Balls of paper littered the floor. Lost notecards were dotted about, holding scrawled words that had been harshly crossed out.

Elliot sat slouched on the couch, glaring with a quiet intensity at the tatters of her story. She felt the last two days of working on the book had been equivalent to pushing a body up hill and having the person wake up half way and attack her.

The rational side of her brain was telling her to accept Beck's help and improve the story. The other half of her brain was telling the rational side to fight a ninja and die.

Elliot roused herself from her arguing thoughts and leaned over her knees, trying to decipher the chaos that was her book. After a long moment, where her glares caused nothing to burst into flames, she stood.

"That's it," she said. "We have to stop. I have to get out of this office, because I met your mother and for her sake, I don't want to cause her grief."

Beck looked up at her.

"I appreciate you refraining from my murder on my mother's account."

Elliot leveled him with an ice like glare.

"Do you want to call it a day?" he asked, glancing at his watch.

The day had barely slipped into the afternoon. Beyond the windows the shrieks of children's laughter as they played mixed with the sound of traffic.

"No, I just need to get out," Elliot said. "Come or don't, I do not care."

She grabbed her purse and left the office. It wasn't until she was on the sidewalk outside the building, that she noticed Beck had followed. Without speaking, they crossed the road and headed into the Common. The weather had lessened its oppressive grip on the city and the air was warm, the humidity levels bearable. Elliot let out a tired sigh, her shoulder's relaxing as the pressure of confinement and the sight of her story were left behind.

"Elliot," Beck said. "About the story-"

"Shut up Beck," she said, coolly, not even looking at him.

He fell silent and put his hands into the pockets of his faded red shorts. Elliot pulled a rubber band out and tied up her brown hair, relishing the breeze that tickled her neck. They walked beneath the canopy of trees, the branches stirring, as if they were whispering to each other and making observation of the people below.

Elliot cut across the lawn, picked a spot at random and sat down. Beck settled beside her, his arms resting on his knees. Elliot took a deep breath, releasing her pent up frustration. Beck looked over at her, but said nothing. After a long span of silence, she spoke to the air before her.

"Let's talk in hypotheticals," she said.

"If you like."

Elliot took in another deep breath, bracing herself as her thoughts formed words and dropped onto her tongue.

"Hypothetically speaking..." She paused for a second, as if it pained her to continue. "If I was to change a story that has been dubbed as shallow, fluff stuff." Beck grimaced. "How would I go about doing that?"

Beck shifted and turned to her.

"Elliot," he said, "about what I said-"

"Nope, we are talking hypotheticals Beck, I don't want to hear anything else."

He nodded and looked back on the Common.

"Hypothetically, it wouldn't be difficult," he said. "It all depends on how much you want changed."

"Okay, for instance, hypothetically, I want it changed so I don't gag or have the urge to shoot my right foot every time I see it." Elliot sighed. "I want it to be something worth reading. Something I don't absolutely hate looking at right now."

Beck ran a hand through his blonde hair, guilt darting across his face.

"I believe," he said, "it wouldn't take much. The base you have is solid and there's plenty to build on."

"You forgot to say hypothetically."

"I was under the impression it was implied."

"Fine. Hypothetically, what would you keep from the original story and where would you build?"

Beck shifted, his own thoughts seeming to resist being spoken. Elliot looked at him and scowled.

"I'm going to hate you more after you say what you're about to, aren't I?" she asked.

"It's very likely."

Elliot turned away.

"Well, I hate you a lot right now, so a little more won't make that big of an impact. What is it?"

Beck let out a breathe.

"You could keep the location, Tess, Weston and the grandmother, though things within those relationships would shift slightly."

Elliot let out a groan and laid her head on her knees.

"I was wrong," she said. "I do hate you more."

Beck said nothing and Elliot eventually lifted her head.

"Hypothetically speaking," she said, "you would suggest we scrap a majority of the story and start from square one?"

"Hypothetically, yes, though we could possibly start from square two."

"Oh, so there is hope for this piece of crap I call my book."

"Absolutely."

Elliot looked at Beck with a flat look and he dropped his gaze. She faced forward again.

"What does starting from square two look like? Hypothetically," she said. "What would be the major changes?"

"Hypothetically, I've thought about it and I believe Tess's parents could be going through a divorce. They send her to her grandmother's for the summer as they deal with the settlement. You have come from a divorced house and would understand the state Tess would be in."

"How does that effect her relationship with Weston?"

Beck continued talking, mapping out an in-depth plot dealing with grief, lose, insecurities and heart break.

"That is just something you could do," he said. After a pause he added, "hypothetically."

The corner of Elliot's mouth twitched but she didn't respond. The new ideas were taking form in her mind, scenes evolving from vague clouds of mist. As the story solidified, Elliot's mouth dropped into a scowl.

"Son of a sub diver!" she said, looking over at him. "You're a pain, you know that?"

Beck shrugged, digging his Vans shoe into a tuft of grass.

"Yes," he said. "You're not the first one to tell me this. I'm also going to say with all certainty you won't be the last."

"You have so much faith in that."

"It's something I have come to learn about myself. I've accepted it."

Elliot turned away.

"How you haven't been beaten up is beyond me," she said.

"I run fast and avoid dark alleys."

"Ah. My tactic is to blame my comments on Milo."

"I'm sure he appreciates the feeling of being tossed under a bus."

"I usually do it away from streets, so there is never any real damage."

Beck chuckled. They fell silent, the whistling of the breeze through the trees and the argument of car horns filling the air.

"I still hate you, you know," Elliot said.

Beck nodded and squinted off to the left, unfazed by her comment.

"I know."

He turned to looked at her.

"Hypothetically, do you want to get back to work?" he asked.

"Yes, but I want an non-hypothetical cup of coffee first."

*************

"That's fifteen me, six you," Elliot said.

Elliot and Cece leaned on the second story railing of Copley mall, overlooking the shoppers that walked below.

"You are usually are better at this than me," Elliot said. "What's up? Distracted for some reason?"

She held out a bag of sunflower seeds and Cece took one. She shrugged then waited for a second. A teenage girl walked beneath them and Cece dropped the seed. It hit the ground, missing the girl's Victoria Secret shopping bag.

"Fifteen, six," Elliot said. "What is causing your lapse in hand-eye coordination?"

Cece took another sunflower seed and played with it in her hands.

"It's nothing," she said, looking for her next target.

Elliot studied her but let that be the end of the topic for the moment. She turned back to the river of shoppers flowing under them and watched for an opening.

"Big hair, twelve o'clock," Elliot said.

A woman with dyed blonde hair, hair-sprayed to a high volume, slowly approached, her tight clothes restricting her movements. Elliot and Cece leaned further over and waited. The woman passed beneath and they dropped the two sun flower seeds. They landed in the woman's hair and nestled among the dark roots.

"I wish I could be there when she discovers them," Elliot laughed.

Cece nodded but said nothing, her expression holding a slightly distracted look. The noise of the mall's occupants and the undertone of music filled the space around them. Whiffs of perfume and lotions reached them as giggling girls left the Bath and Body Works store covered in the scents of the free samples.

"I think Milo is peeved at me," Cece said.

"At you or life? Because sometimes he's peeved at everything and we just get hit with it because we stand too close."

"No, I think it's me. I ordered coffee and he brought it to me two minutes later."

Elliot turned to Cece, her face covered in shock.

"What did you do?" she asked. "Insult his dog?"

Cece scoffed.

"Like I would ever insult Theodore Kristofferson."

"Only because you named him."

Cece shrugged and leaned over the railing, letting a seed free. It landed in a J. Crew bag.

"So what is the cause of Milo's displeasure towards you?" Elliot asked.

Cece made a face, looking out across the mall.

"I don't know," she said. "He was talking to a girl when I came in. Maybe that had something to do with it."

"Which girl? You're going to have to be more specific. Milo has talked to every girl within the greater New England area."

"I don't know. I haven't seen her before. She had black hair and smiled a lot."

"Ah, that would be SoSo," Elliot said.

"Is that actually a name?"

"I don't know Cece, is it?"

Cece gave Elliot a flat look, which Elliot returned with a smug grin.

"Who is this SoSo person?" Cece asked.

"A college friend of Milo's. They had an english class together or something."

Cece nodded, then looked at the crowd below them.

"Does he like her?" she asked, not looking at Elliot.

"I don't think so. He's said on multiple occasions that you are the one currently in possession of his heart."

A small smile tugged at Cece's mouth. She straightened and looked at Elliot.

"Then why was he peeved with me?"

Elliot shrugged.

"That is a mystery I shall let you solve my dearest Holmes."

"You suck, Watson."

"Yes, but I write stories so everyone loves me and puts up with my dim wittedness."

"That's true."

They turned back to the railing and continued their acts of mischief. Elliot had just dropped a seed into a Chanel bag when someone coughed behind them. Both girls turned. A large man in a mall cop uniform stood before them, his beefy arms crossed into front of his barrel chest. Elliot lounged against the railing, popping a fresh sun flower seed into her mouth as Cece took on the appearance of nonchalance.

"Hi, Jerry," she said.

"Sun flower seed?" Elliot offered, holding out the bag.

Jerry gave a low growl and Elliot retracted the bag and shrugged.

"Your loss," she said, in a sing song voice. "They are supposed to be very nutritional for you."

"What are you two doing?" Jerry asked, in a gruff voice.

Cece and Elliot looked at each then back at Jerry.

"Tracking the habits of common Homo sapiens," Cece said.

"And their natural gathering patterns," Elliot said.

Jerry studied their calm expressions with an accusatory eye.

"That isn't a subtle way of you saying you're dropping things onto people, is it?" he asked.

Both Elliot and Cece rearranged their features into shocked expressions.

"Us?" Elliot said.

"Drop things on people?" Cece said.

"Jerry, the idea of it!"

"The mere notion that we would cause such mischief!"

"I'm surprised you would accuse us of such degrading pastimes, after all we have been through."

"I thought our friendship meant more to you than these claims of petty crimes."

"To think I signed every copy of my book you asked me to."

"I attended your daughter's Bar mitzvah."

"Son's," Elliot whispered.

"Your son's Bar mitzvah!"

"I thought you were better than this," Elliot said, in a solemn tone.

Jerry's face was passive, but a hint of amusement lingered around the corners of his mouth. After a long moment, where Elliot and Cece feigned innocent expressions, Jerry spoke.

"Just don't eat anywhere other than the food court, okay?" he said.

"Has that always been a rule?" Cece asked.

"I'm making it a rule for you two," he said.

Elliot and Cece glanced at each other and shrugged.

"Fair enough. We will take your rule to heart," Elliot said.

"See that you do," he said.

Both girls saluted and Jerry walked off, both of them watching him go.

"He's on to us," Elliot said. "We're going to have to learn his work schedule and avoid the times he's working."

"Don't worry," Cece said. "I already have Bill getting me the information.

Elliot nodded.

"Good."

She then looked over at Cece.

"Did you really attend a Bar mitzvah?" she asked. "Without me?"

"He doesn't have a son and he's not even Jewish," Cece said.

"Alright, as long as I wasn't left out."

Elliot's phone rang. As the two girls glanced at the screen, they exchanged grimaces.

"I should get this over with," Elliot said. "Hey, Michelle."

"Hi, Elliot," Michelle said. "I wanted to check that you and Cece picked up your bridesmaid dresses."

"We did, I think you'll the changes we've made to them. We were inspired by Jackson Polic."

A sigh whistled on the other end of the line.

"Elliot, are you serious?"

"Never, but sometimes on Sundays I get really quiet and people take it as me being serious. It's only because I'm thinking really hard."

Cece and Elliot held back their laughter.

"Please try to speak like a normal person for one second," Michelle said.

"I shall strive my darnedest to accommodate you in your request."

A beat of silence passed.

"Elliot, the bachelorette party is four days before the wedding, will you and Cece be there?"

"Yes, we shall be there to celebrate your future incarceration."

"You don't have to come if you don't want to," Michelle said. "I simply need to know for planning purposes."

Elliot glanced at Cece for a response. A shrug was all she got.

"We'll be there," Elliot said.

"Okay. Look, I have to go. I have to deal with a flower fiasco."

"Cake or petal variety?" Elliot asked.

Michelle paused again. "I'll see you in a few weeks."

"See you there."

For a long moment both girls were silent as they watched the river of people below them.

"I sometimes wonder what people would think if they observed us talking about Michelle," Cece said.

"They would probably be under the impression we don't like her," Elliot said.

"Probably. I wish I did at times. It would be a lot less complicated than loving her dearly as my sister and not really knowing her as a person at the same time."

"Agreed. But if we ever did reach the point where we've sorted out our emotions about the other half of the family then we will have reached the pinnacle of wisdom and enlightenment." Elliot waved her hand in disgust. "Then people would want to talk to us and learn how to make themselves better. It would be exhausting."

"Yes, I guess it's best just to remain in a constant paradox."

"It's not a bad place to be."

"True, I kind of love it and hate it."

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Mashed potatos!

(Okay is it just me or am I failing completely at being creative with these greetings. Never mind, don't respond to that)

Honest question time! Yes, you have to answer honestly because it's honest question time. You know the saying, 'opposites attract' well though this might be true, I want to know if you believe that opposites could actually make it in a long term relationship.

My opinion is no, unless they were really opened minded opposites. In general I feel like you need things in common to bond about. That is just my thought though. What is yours?

Vote, Comment, Follow! Go enter a long term relationship with your opposite and let me know how it goes, because there is this guy and I'm not going after him if there is hard proof we wouldn't last. So help a girl out!