I decided to add this chapter, which will be added to the edited version of Love Potion. This is to better explain why Davis is Davis and how he came to be so protective of Andie. Most of you already understand this kind of friendship and love, but for those of you who got mad about it, hope this helps!

Bus seven and the Joy Road litter-box.

(How Andie met Davis)

Andridge Gellar waited behind the stone pillars in front of Deerview High school, counting to the very second the giant bee would roll up to the curb, open its mouth to let her in. Her baggy clothes were too big, her hair unruly, dark and twisted looked like it could poke an eye out if you got too close. She wore thick rimmed glasses, filled with the enormous orbs of her green eyes. Her face looked like aliens had crashed landed on it and then got into a brawl. Pink full lips, stretched over her ever counting mouth of metal.

The ritual she followed to be first on the bus and last off at her stop, staved off the ridicule and insults. Today her routine was falling apart, bus seven was late, nowhere in sight. No amount of counting could reset the events about to unfold. She sunk as the bells whistled in the halls setting the bees free into a frenzy, piling out the doors, surrounding her. She would be the last on and have to walk the gauntlet.

Bus seven showed up three minutes and forty-seven seconds late; she counted despite the swarm of students that devoured her. She made no attempt to force her way through the crowd. She followed the last backpack, hoping to go unnoticed to find her seat at the back of the bus. Eyes down, to the right side of the lane, counting each row as she passed. One through four, the small kids, not old enough to bother with her. Five, six, seven, the pretty girl seats, eyed with looks of disgust, and rumbles of laughter as she passed. At eight, the school bullies, the Trosy brothers. A pair of greasy haired, dirty handed boys who always wore the same clothes soaked in the stench of metal and gasoline. Eyes wide, mouths spewing obscenities as she passed. She counted over the insults that they flung at her. When she got to nine, she touched the stiff leather and glanced down at the young boy who always sat alone. His shoulder slumped against the window. He looked her over and looked away. The number ten circled in her head. She kept moving and counting until she reached twelve. She slid in and pressed herself into the metal and glass. The door closed, and the rumbles of the motor set the sway of the axles in motion. She watched the street names go by. Montana, thirty seconds to Swift, twenty-two seconds to Hall, twenty-five seconds to the stop sign. In four minutes and twelve seconds, the door would open at Joy Road and three students would get off. She would be one of them. The bus slowed and swayed, the Joy road sign rolled past her, and the bump of the curb told her the door was going to open in five seconds, and in eight seconds she could stand and travel the twelve seats to the door. Today the boy at nine stood up and started the walk off; it was not his stop, he was messing up her routine. She wondered why and counted as she followed him off the bus.

The boy was Davis; he managed to avoid the bullies by staring them in the face. So far it had worked. He had big brown eyes with bits of blue, and yellow streaks, like a storm tearing through them. Average size and height for his age, with an attitude that was bigger than he was and the bullies, would learn if they pushed him. Though the Trosy brothers were idiots, they knew the eyes of a fighter when they looked into them, and recognized this was a not worth getting into scrap with, not when there were other easy targets available. Davis sat behind the Trosy brothers for a reason, every day they talked about some hideous plan to torment someone. He wanted to be one step ahead of them, never too sure they would not plan on targeting him. The latest was for the strange girl at the back and for her cat that was always waiting for her. What they had planned was beyond cruel and today the rehearsal was over, it was their opening act and she was the star of some sick show. Afraid for the girl, he got off at her stop. Knowing he was in for a fight, he had rearranged his backpack. He moved three hardcover books and stacked them with the edges facing tight against the side. He loaded his hands with a pile of recently sharpened pencils and gripped them in his clamped fist.

The four of them they made their way down the quiet side street. The Trosy boys were about twenty feet ahead when they stopped and looked back, to their surprise, they saw Davis behind them. Andie behind him. Annoyed, they continued, passing her house. Davis passed next, and Andie stopped at the mailbox, opening it and taking in the letters as she did every day. A small black cat with a twisted head waited for her at the front door. She called him Twisty. When he was kitten he liked to nap on the stairs, and one day she stepped on him, twisting his neck and her ankle as they both took a tumble down the flight of eight steps she kept count of as they fell. Whatever happened that morning stunted his growth, but had made up for in wits. The cat knew the sound of the bus meant Andie, and the door was going to open to food and a comfy bed. Davis thought his presence had stopped the assault. The boys kept walking, and Andie was heading to her door. Relieved for her, he loosened his grip on the pencils. When the brothers stopped and turned to head back, he knew the plan was still in place.

''What are you doing here, this isn't your stop,'' The older brother spat as he passed Davis, angry that their fun could be disrupted. He needed to scare Davis away. Bumping his shoulder to send a message to get away, but it did nothing but knock the pencils free and prove Davis did have a fight in him.

''It is from now on asshole, get the hell out of here, if you go near that girl or her cat I will shove those pencils up both your asses,'' Davis said, straightening up his shoulders pushing his chest out, standing nose to nose with the bigger brother.

''You got a thing for that freak?'' The bigger brother chest bumped him as he spoke.

''I got a thing for you asshole! You want to find out about it?'' Davis pushed back.

Andie listened to the fighting; she froze between the safety of home and danger beyond the mailbox. Something telling her not to run away, that that boy was risking the quiet safety of going unnoticed to help her. She dropped the mail and raced to his side.

''Look who it is, the freak and her freak cat.'' The older brother said.

Twister had followed, the five of them were on the street, doing a strange, stare down dance around each other, waiting for someone to make the first move. The older brother stepped up, taking a wild swing at Davis, missing him completely, managing only to spin himself around leaving enough space for Andie to insert herself into the fight. He struck her in the face. Her head twisted, and she tripped backward and with the help of her cat under her feet she flew forward, full speed into the older brother. Knocking into him, already in motion, aided by her shove his unsteady feet, landing him on the rolling pencils sending him face first to the pavement, the force enough to knock a front tooth out of him.

''My tooth,'' he cried.

Davis eyed her as she got to her feet. He smiled and began counting. ''One.'' His smile grew a smile of acceptance, a smile of so many maybes that filled her head. ''What you got little brother, what's that in your hand,'' Davis said to him, he knew it was a mangled mess of something to trap the cat and to torture it in front of Andie.

The younger brother shoved Andie, and scrambled after Twister, in his hands a small net, tossing it over the cat who quickly managed to avoid it. Davis stepped on the end with his size ten foot. With the strap of his book bag, held like a whip, he swung at the boy's face, knocking a front tooth out, sending him to the ground beside his brother.

''Oh, looky there, how many teeth fell out their mouths?'' He stopped, looked at Andie.

''Two,'' she yelled, excited to have been the potential victim of the disgusting plot, not for the danger, or the thrill of standing up for herself, it was much more than that. She had for the first time the promise of something new, a friend.

The cat decided the street could be an excellent new litter box. Scrapping together loose dirt, pebbles, and broken teeth, taking a small, but respectable poop, right in front of the grumbling, bloody-faced brothers. Its stench sailed into their nostrils, they gagged in response, standing up as fast as they could manage, taking quick strides, hands over their faces. Stepping right in the stench that would follow them home and into forever. Running with clumps of Twister's breakfast and broken teeth stuck to their shoes.

The Joy road sign came into view as she turned to face Davis. A feeling that she chased after but never caught. She sailed to the sky with her hands over her head in triumph, laughing and crying at the same time. Her joy sailed into Davis' heart, and he jumped with her, laughing together as they both found something they always wanted, friendship.

Bus sevens ride was never the same after that day. Andie stopped counting. She and Davis sat together at whatever seat they wanted. The toothless Trosy brothers always quiet and never bothered Andie or anyone else again. A fresh pile of poop, in the excellent new litter box, waited for them daily. Reminding them what happens to bullies.

Their friendship felt more like family; they were always there for each other, no matter what. He insisted she was beautiful; he could see beyond the messy girl there was a light inside of her, he was determined never to let it go out. She knew his secrets and kept them as long as he did, embracing him for who he was. After high school Davis had moved away to New Haven where he went to college, she wasn't far behind, leaving the small town and trying city life for herself. She quickly faded into the crowds the way she wanted, but couldn't in a small town. She stayed with him in his one bedroom, setting up the couch as her bed, most of the time falling asleep in his room. He didn't mind, and knew one day she would get her own place, but there was always going to be Andie and Davis.