A/N: Okies, I've left you in suspense long enough...here's the next chappie, enjoy and review!

Delaney suppressed a horrified gasp in her throat and to her dismay it came forth like an odd yelp. Delaney’s eyes flickered to the white paper, which he continued to hold in his hand. His gaze bore into her and she felt as if she was burning alive.

"Delaney?"

"…It’s my call back letter…" she managed breathlessly, which was half the truth. Doug raised his eyebrows in a questioningly manner and even in the quickly falling night, Delaney could see the trust in Doug’s eyes fade and the scepticism set in. Delaney searched for an answer, "listen if I could just have it back…" Delaney began before a scene started, but knowing her luck, a scene would start, continue and end with, or without her help. Doug pulled back his hand and glanced down at the letter, quite uninterested.

"Delaney what’s going on?" He lifted his gaze and shook his head in confusion at her.

"Nothing just…"

"No, it’s not that. I mean what’s going on with us? We used to be so close, and now I feel like I don’t even know you anymore." Those puppy dog eyes that she used to find so adorable now repulsed her beyond belief.

"Doug I’m just busy, that’s all. You know me, always running around doing something, somewhere. Now if you’ll just hand over my letter, I need to go or my parents will kill me." Doug took a step down the asphalt driveway, closer to Delaney and held up the letter in front of her face, as if taunting her.

"You see? This is what I mean. You’re so interested in this God damned letter and everything else. You’re shutting me out!" Doug’s normally quiet and peaceful voice had risen and taken on an angry tone.

"Doug please, I don’t have time for this, I have to go." Delaney pleaded anxiously.

"You always have to go! You never have time!"

"Doug just give me the letter!" Delaney’s voice hardened and so did her resolve, knowing Doug wouldn’t calm down for a while.

"Don’t tell me what to do!" seethed Doug through clenched teeth. Delaney reached for the letter in Doug’s hand, but he quickly jerked it out of her reach, but her fingertips lightly brushed against the paper.

"Damn you Doug. Give me my letter and let me go. Lilize is waiting." Delaney shouted in frustration.

"Fuck Lilize! And what the fuck is so important about this letter?" Doug turned his back to her and she realised, to her horror, that he was opening it. If he should see the mysterious note, Delaney had no idea what he would do. At times he could become very jealous and overprotective of her and was capable of resorting to anything.

She had to stop him.

"Doug it’s nothing, I’m just so happy to get a call back from my audition. Dancing is my life." Delaney placed her hand on his shoulder to comfort him, but it did little to help. Doug whirled around, grasped her arm and the letter in one hand, and slapped her extremely hard across the cheek with the other. Delaney was sent flying to the ground, her bags spread around her and tears in her eyes. It wasn’t the slap that had hurt her, it was the fact that the force had brought back the pain from her concussion.

"Stay away bitch!" he spat at her. The combination of the tears and the darkness blurred her vision so much that she couldn’t see Doug start towards her.

"Doug…" Delaney half whimpered, trying not to anger him any further. Doug stepped up to her and placed his foot on her chest so that she couldn’t stand up. The cold, wet pavement lightly seeped through her field hockey sweatshirt, but she didn’t complain even if it made her more miserable.

"Shut up and let me read this." Doug’s eyes reverted back to the paper as he began to read. Delaney was very fit, but she couldn’t move Doug’s foot to stand up and get the letter. It wasn’t that Doug was fat, but compared to how small he was, Doug was deceptively strong, which frustrated Delaney immensely. She hated when she couldn’t overcome an obstacle. Moments that seemed like hours to Delaney passed before the pressure on her chest was relieved and she leaped up painfully.

"Doug!" she yelled, but he held up a hand and Delaney stopped seeing his dejected body language. The sudden change in his emotions was a shock to Delaney, but she willed herself not to be drawn in.

"What is this?" Delaney froze at the calmness of his voice, where there had been only passionate anger before. The calm before the storm?

"Doug I can explain."

"No need to." Doug replied coldly.

"Oh." A flare of hope erupted inside of her. "Well then…" She continued uncertainly.

"I read it Delaney." Doug was weakly. "You’re not going." Delaney almost said ‘no I’m not’ when she saw Doug’s face, then her cheek began to sting and she remembered.

"I am."

"It wasn’t a question Delaney." Doug said evenly, "you’re not going."

"Yes I am. I don’t care what you think anymore." Delaney replied defiantly. Doug glanced down once more at the paper and Delaney took her chance while he was preoccupied.

"You don’t even know this man, he could be some sicko wanting to hurt you…Delaney!" Doug cried as the letter was snatched out of his hands and he saw her sprinting away with her bag towards her house.

"Like you Doug?" she shouted back over her shoulder to him and bolted in the door. Before she slammed it, she heard a crack of thunder and rain pouring down, and she smiled smugly, knowing Doug was out there freezing his balls off out there.