Serendipity; Places to lose and find yourself.

Three

Sitting squashed on the couch with Mandy and her dad, we watched football and shoveled nachos in to our faces.

Terry was acting like a normal human, he wasn't screaming or tossing the house over. It was peaceful, a nice change from the hell I had been in.

My dad had shown up raving about the destruction done to the house only to be met by the entire Milcovick clan who brought an arsenal to their sides.

"Share the cheese kid." Terry nudged me with his elbow, sticking his hand out for the bowl.

"Here old man, I'm gonna go out for a smoke." I set the bowl in his lap and grabbed my pack, walking to the porch and sitting on the steps in the freezing cold.

The sky was crystal clear and I could see every star in the sky; only momentarily clouded by cigarette smoke and cold breath.

The street was silent, no fighting or squealing cars. It was almost like being somewhere different.

"You know, you uh- can catch frost bite like that." Lip Gallagher stood in front of me with a cigarette pulled to his mouth.

"I always thought it would be cool to have blue fingers." I blew out a drag as I examined my hands.

"Are you doing anything right now?" Lip tossed his cigarette butt to the side and stepped up to the edge of the porch.

"No not much to do really." I picked at nonexistent dirt out from under my nails to keep from having to look me in the eye.

"Grab a jacket and lets go do something ." He smiled, a half smile that had me feeling some sort of way as I finally looked up at him.

"Should I get Mandy?" She was his girlfriend after all and I didn't want to seem shady.

"She just texted me goodnight." He flashed his phone to me for a moment before typing a reply to his 'text'
"I'll be fine with out a jacket." I jumped from the steps and started walking in no particular direction.

3/4ths the way down the road my teeth started chattering uncontrollably, I was now regretting not grabbing a jacket.

"Not cold huh?" Lip smirked at me and started to shrug off his sweat shirt.

"No you don't have to do that." I rubbed my arm with my hand to generate some sort of heat really not wanting to be a burden.

"Ah it's alright, Gallaghers are known to be hot heads anyway. It'll be alright." He dropped his sweatshirt around my shoulders with out giving me any choice.

He smelled nice, like leather and cologne. It was a warm inviting smell.

"So, how do you know Ian?" Lip glanced at me from the side as he lit another cigarette.

"Met him at the Kash and Grab forever ago, he beat the shit out of my dad once and we've been tight as can be since then." I rubbed my rib cage instinctively.

"Why've you never come around before?" He guided me to the next turn of the side walk towards the park.

"Wiley's and gallaghers dont get on very well, my dad never let me go anywhere because of that."

"Kinda like a Hatfield and Mckoy sort of thing, minus the pig right?" He chuckled at his own joke.

"Let's stop here to get warm for a second, if that's okay with you." He slid the door open to a junk ice cream truck. Pulling keys from his pocket he cranked the engine over and turned the heater on.

The warm blast was a welcome against my frosty skin.

"This is a nice truck." There were battery powered lights strung up. And a fold out seat off to the side.

"This is my summer money. Too cold to sell from this thing right now." He stood up and walked back to the seat and pulled a blanket off the back of it.

"Here, your nose is turning blue." He tossed the blanket across my lap and sat back down.

"So, um." He rubbed the back of his neck. "Where to go from here?" He rubbed his hands back and forth a few times before placing them between his knees.

"Alcohol is always fun." I laughed quietly, only meaning it as a joke.

But he stood up and walked to one of the coolers. He pulled out a large bottle of whiskey. "Like this?"

He smiled at cracked the bottle. A long bubbling drink later he handed the bottle to me. This on the up side would definitely warm me up. But on the downside I didn't want to wake up in another Gallagher's bed for the second day in a row.

Even though Ian and I hadn't had sex and especially not with my best friend's boyfriend.

"If you want, I can find something else for you to drink. If you can't handle that." His tone was challenging, he looked at me like a deer ready to be pounced on with in the second if I didn't drink.

"Funny." I knocked back a large drink and whipped my mouth. "I'll be fine." My ears got hot immediately as the whiskey rushed to my brain.

"I forgot, most hood girls can handle theirselves." He smiled, another cockney half grinned smile.

"Are you expecting me to say I'm not like most hood girls? Because that's how break up arguments end." My eyes widened and I kicked myself for saying something like that. He would take it the wrong way.

"I thought you weren't like all those other hood girls. But I guess things changed." He looked me dead in the eyes, face stone serious, "You're just like all the rest."

His demeanor sent chills down my spine, it was almost real.
"Sorry" he took the bottle from my hand gently and took another drink.

"There really is something different about you that I can't put my finger on." He looked at me, blue eyes glimmering in the yellow street light.

"Thanks.."