Promise Me The Stars

Matt and Forest made their way out of the house and ended up in the front yard where a large white moving van, the same that had been at Forest's house in Colorado, was sitting with it's back end open.

"Where are you two going?" Brian asked, pausing as he pulled out a guitar case from the end of the truck.

Forest automatically knew it was Hazel's, the bright green and purple splatters all over it made it hers. They had both decorated their guitar cases so they didn't accidentally walk off with each other's guitar like they had done many times before the decorating.

"Going to go grab lunch and I decided to take Forest with me." Matt said shrugging like it was nothing. Like Forest's mental well being wasn't hanging in the balance at that exact moment.

"Which one of you is the lefty?" Jimmy yelled from inside the truck, his voice echoing off the walls in there.

"Jimmy stop going through their things!" Brian yelled preparing to jump into the truck.

"I just opened the guitar case, sheesh." he said jumping out with Forest's guitar clutched in his hand.

"That's mine." Forest said motioning to the guitar by pointing with his chin.

"You're a lefty?" Brian asked looking at Forest, he nodded.

"Just like your fatha'." Jimmy drawled looking at the guitar. Brian and Matt chuckled and Jimmy went to put it back in it's case. His case was covered in random pictures that didn't seem to have any meaning. But they were placed meticulously by Forest and he was the only one that knew that.

"So this is your sisters?" Brian asked looking down at the other guitar case that he had placed on the ground. Forest nodded and he motioned to the case, silently telling Brian it was okay to open it. He watched as Brian set it on the hood of Matt's car and pulled open the case, revealing Hazel's purple bass guitar.

"Hey short shit!" Brian yelled once his eyes hit the instrument.

"What?" Johnny asked sticking his head out of the truck. Forest looking at him with mild surprise since he had no idea Johnny had been in the truck.

"Hazel plays bass, you finally have a friend." Brian said. Jimmy snickered from behind him
before pushing him out of the truck and screaming 'you can fly gnome!'.

"Jimmy!" Hazel yelled crossing her arms from the porch. Jimmy looked at her and smiled innocently like he hadn't just pushed a man out of a truck.

"Hey look, a box that says Hazel on it!" He yelled turning away before grabbing a box and running into the house.

"What do you want for lunch?" Forest called over to Hazel. She looked at him and bounced over like a bunny rabbit, she definitely had sugar today.

"I want a frosty from Wendy's." she said. Forest smiled slightly and shook his head at the request.

"You need real food, no more sugar." Hazel pouted when she heard his words.

"But EVERYTHING has sugar in it Forest."

"You know what I mean." he said rolling his eyes. Hazel sighed and fell so Forest had to reach out quickly and catch her before she hit the ground.

"Just get me a burger and fries and a large frosty." Hazel said looking up at her brother.

"Small," Forest reasoned, not at all fazed by Hazel spontaneously falling since she did it all the time.

"Medium," Forest sighed, knowing he wasn't going to win the argument or she'd steal his Frosty.

"Fine, but if you go insane, dad's dealing with you not me." he said pushing Hazel so she was in a standing position again. Then he patted her on the head and started for the passenger side of the black Escalade.

"Don't think I didn't catch that Forest Baker!" Hazel yelled as he hung out of the open passenger window waiting for Matt to get in the car and leave.

Forest rolled his eyes and stuck up his pinkie, the twins way of saying "Screw you" without getting in trouble from any adults. Hazel glared but then went and jumped on Jimmy's back as he headed into the house with a small box in his hand. Right as she jumped on his back the car started rolling and Forest pulled back into the car.

"You protect your sister a lot don't you?" Matt questioned.

They had been driving in silence for the last 5 minutes and Forest was glad someone had finally spoken, he just wasn't too fond of the question since it involved his family. And he personally didn't like sharing too much about his past with a man he had barely met yesterday. But he was trusting him to get pills right now wasn't he? So he should at least know a little about his family.

"I protect her with my life, someone has to since there's no one else anymore. If I don't she'll be alone and she's too busy having fun all the time to protect herself efficiently."

"So while she gets to have fun you're just there to protect her." Matt stated trying to process what Forest had just said.

"Sounds about right." Forest said leaning his cheek on his fist as he stared out the window with his elbow propped on the arm rest.

"That seems a bit unfair don't you think?"

Forest shrugged, not caring if Matt had seen it or not.

"As long as she's happy i'm fine."

"Don't you ever wish that you could be happy for once?" Matt asked, prodding deeper into Forest's thoughts, trying to gain access to the areas he had closed off.

"I'm just happy when I have my pills." Forest said at last.

"Can we talk about that?" Matt asked quietly looking over at Forest, who looked smaller then he had last time Matt had really looked at him. Maybe it was the way he was sitting there looking scared shitless.

Forest bit his thumb nail out of nervousness as he thought over Matt's questions. His secrets were eating away at him inside, Matt already knew about the pills. But could he really trust him with his biggest secret?



Zacky came home and helped unload the rest of the twins' things that the guys had slacked off and left in the truck. They were all currently in the living room watching TV and relaxing for a little while before Matt and Forest got back with dinner for everyone.

"Hey Hazel," Brian said after the show they had been watching cut to commercial.

"Hmm?" She asked. She was laying on the couch. Her feet slung into Jimmy's lap as she watched whatever was on TV, she honestly wasn't paying too much attention to it as it didn't pick up her interest.

"Is there something wrong with your brother?"

"Brian!" Everyone yelled, making Hazel jump and look up right as two giant shoes went flying his way. She looked down and noticed they were Jimmy's.

"You don't ask her that you moron." Zacky said, a pissed off look finding it's way firmly on his face.

"I'm just asking! We all know there's something up with him and I didn't want to hurt her feelings by going behind her back and talking about him. Might as well just come right out and ask!" He argued throwing Jimmy's blue sneakers back at him.

Brian and Zacky started arguing as Hazel rolled her eyes and smiled at Jimmy who grinned back while waving with a shoe on his hand.

"Guys!" Hazel yelled over the fighting after about five minutes of them fighting. Brian and her father stopped fighting and looked at her.

"Thank you, jeez. Now stop yelling at each other and listen to what I have to say. Brian's right, it's better to just ask then to go behind our backs talking. And to answer the actual question, I don't think I can say. It's....really hard to explain and I think Forest should be the one to tell you because it's him."

"You mean there IS something wrong with him." Zacky asked in disbelief. Hazel looked over at her dad and slowly nodded her head.

"Shit," He mumbled taking his hands to his head.

"Don't feel bad dad," She said quietly, "It's not like it's your fault."

"But what if it is! What if because I wasn't there for you two it caused whatever's wrong with Forest. Son of a bitch." he muttered standing up and pulling at his hair. He started pacing the living room and everyone watched, their heads going back and forth like a predator watching it's prey.



"So you have...two personalities?" Matt asked in confusion as he stared at the steering wheel with squinted eyes. Forest nodded when Matt glanced over and then adverted his gaze down to the cup holders. He couldn't believe he had just told Matt pretty much everything.

"Yea and Shadow drives me crazy. He's all I see in the mirror, his voice is all I can hear in my thoughts sometimes, taunting me. Just waiting to get out and wreck havoc on my family and friends. Gahh I hate it!" He yelled putting his forehead on his knees and pulling on his hair.

It felt so good to be able to talk about it, to complain about Shadow and have someone listen without Forest feeling like it was a huge burden. He had never been able to do this before and he just felt so good yet he kind of wanted to cry.

"Forest, Forest. Hey look at me will ya?" Forest looked up slightly at Matt who was looking down at him.

"Everything's going to be okay, I promise okay? Trust me. You've trusted me this much this far, just trust me the rest of the way." Forest nodded and tried to calm down the hysterical tears that were threatening to spill over.

His breathing was crazy and he just couldn't calm down which scared him endlessly.

"Forest, calm down come on." Matt said. The car shifted slightly and he heard the sound of a seat belt unbuckling, his seat belt was unbuckled also and then arms were wrapping around him.

"Forest I don't care what Zacky says, I don't care what anyone says. I will protect you from everything in this world. If anyone tries to hurt you, you tell me. If you need pills, tell me. Absolutely anything you need i'll help you with and that's my promise to you."

Forest had never been hugged by another guy before, his mother and his sister and the weird friends of his mother that called themselves his aunts. They had all always hugged him, hell they lived on hugging. But he had never been hugged by a man that promised so much to him, a man that he suddenly wished was maybe his father because this guy right here was making him feel better.

"Thanks," Forest finally sniffed and rubbed his eyes before pulling out of Matt's hug. He hated crying, it always left his emotions confused and he looked like a dumbass while doing it.

"Can we go home?" Forest asked with his head down, his head hurt and he just wanted to sleep until the end of time.

"Sure, we have to stop and get lunch though." Forest nodded and leaned his head against the window before letting his eyes drift closed and his world be encased in darkness.

"There's one place to go.
There's one place to hide.
But when you don't know how to get there.
Well baby you might as well die.

He'll find you.
He'll dine on you.
The poor unfortunate soul that he stole.
He'll never leave.
You'll never believe...."

"Forest..." Forest snapped awake at the sharp push on his arm.

"Hmm?" he asked. His mind swirling with the words that had been spoken in his dream, he couldn't tell if it was a poem or a song.

"We're almost back so I thought i'd wake you up." Matt said. Forest rubbed his eyes fiercely and looking around slightly confused.

"You got pen and paper?" he asked looking over at Matt.

"Uh yea, check the glove box." Forest reached up and pulled open the glove box finding a small notebook and a sharpie.

He set away scribbling down the words that were burned into his mind. He hoped that by writing them down he would get them out of his mind. But as he looked at the paper it just made him think about it more.

"What're you writing?" Matt asked curiously glancing over. Forest ripped the paper off the pad and shoved it into his pocket.

"Just something I was thinking about." he muttered throwing the pen and paper back into the glove box. Matt let it go as they pulled into the driveway and Forest didn't pay much attention as he punched in the code.

"Matt," Forest said.

"Yea?" he asked glancing at the teenager that was folded up in the seat looking on the verge of sleep again.

"Thanks, for everything."

"No problem kiddo." Matt said smiling. Forest flashed a genuine smile that shocked Matt before he went off jumping out of the car the moment it stopped.