A/N - Hello everyone.  I am so sorry I am such a horrible updater and this is so short after such a long wait...  Thank you for sticking with me despite that.  I wish the story would flow better but I'm really always thinking of how to fill the gaps....  Enjoy! ^_^

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~Micky~

The door opened and Andrea’s fake friend almost came in.  What was her name…Stephanie…Sophie?  I don’t know.  It’s not worth remembering.  She was surprised.  I glared at her and she went back out.  I assume to start spreading rumors we would hear later. 

I sighed.  Because I had to know, I asked. 

“Is it him?” 

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~Andrea~

“Is it him?”

That’s what he asked.  Micky, my friend who would follow me into the girls’ bathroom in the middle of lunch hour.  It took me a few minutes to process what on earth he was saying. 

“Him?  Peter?”  I laughed and hiccupped and sobbed all at the same time as I realized he had heard the rumors.  “Micky, despite what you’ve probably heard, I’m not and will never be pregnant with Peter’s baby.”  He searched my eyes.

“You’re sure?”  I nodded.  He searched my eyes completely then relaxed with a sigh of relief. 

I swiped at my eyes, thoroughly embarrassed.  I took a shaky breath and put on a smile.  The entire time, he watched me quietly. 

“Don’t smile if it hurts.”  He said shortly.  I almost burst into tears again, right there on the grubby floor of the lady’s room.  “Hey, let’s get out of here.”

Cut class?  Me?  Never before in my life…and, yet, I left with him.  We stood up, got our bags and walked out of the school without hesitating. 

Micky was a lot of firsts for me. 

He was my first real friend, the first person who cared enough to see me and see through me, the first time I skipped school, the first time someone heard me pour my heart out… and other firsts I can’t mention yet.  

We walked for a long time after we left the school.  I don’t know if he was directing me, leading me, or following me, but he was there, ever present.  He wasn’t impatient and didn’t rush me. 

“Food.”  He moaned after some time of aimless walking.  I turned and laughed at him.  He frowned.  “Food is important.”  He muttered. 

So we took a bus to where the food was.  We ate.  We went to the arcade.  Then we walked some more.  The day was already dreary and cloudy as it began its end. 

We were at the park - abandoned by the local children and mothers because of the time and weather – when Micky finally said something.  It was so simple.  He said just three words.

“Talk to me.”

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~Micky~ 

“Talk to me.”  I whispered.  She didn’t.   “You can trust me.”

“You don’t even know me.”  She said the words so softly.  Like a breath of air. 

“Of course I know you.”  She shook her head gave this wry smile that made my stomach twist.

“I don’t think people can really know each other.”

 I cursed.  “I know you!”  She looked up at me blankly.  “I know you love the moment before a big rain storm.  You like the way water feels against your skin.  You squirm when you’re embarrassed.  You won’t cry if you get hurt, but you cry as soon as someone else does.  You can’t stand loud noises or fighting...what’s it called- confrontation.  You can’t even kill a bug bigger than a mosquito because you’ll feel guilty.”  I reached out and brushed my fingers over her shoulder.  “You flinch away from a person’s touch…but I’ll bet you really want to be held.”  I whispered.  She turned her head away, but not before I saw the panicked look she hid behind her hair. “You’re…smart and pretty…”

“Maybe everything you think you know about me…is wrong.”  She murmured to herself, interrupting me.

“I’ve been trying to get to know you since freshman year.”  I said.  “You won’t let me get close enough.  Andrea, you know everything about me.  Do you know that?  I’ve told you more about my feelings and myself than I’ve ever told anyone else.  Why won’t you trust me!?!”  She glanced at me.  She looked like she might cry.  She looked tired. 

“I don’t think I know how.”  I didn’t like how cold she sounded.  It wasn’t her. 

“You can trust me.”  I whispered.  “I won’t hurt you.”

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~Andrea~

“You can trust me.”

Four words.  I looked up at him and shook my head. 

“It isn’t that I don’t trust you.”  I murmured more to myself than him.  “You want me to talk to you…but there’s nothing to tell…”  I laughed and he stayed quiet, waiting for me to continue.  “Micky…I’ve been hiding for so long…”  I pressed my head against the tree and shook my head.  “I don’t know what I’m really thinking.  You think you know me so well…I don’t even know who I am.”  I stood up and stepped toward him.  “Why do I interest you?”  I whispered.  “You seem to think there is so much beneath this surface…”  I spread my hands and looked into his eyes.  “But there is nothing here…nothing.”  His brown eyes searched mine and he took a step closer to me.  He raised his hand as if to cup my cheek, but seemed to think better of it...something so intimate did not seem to fit our relationship.  Instead his hand rested tentatively on my arm, his thumb brushing back and forth over the fabric of my sweatshirt. 

“There is so much more to you that this.”  He murmured.  “And you don’t see it.”  He shook his head and dropped his hand.  I turned my head away. 

“And if there isn’t?” 

“There is.” 

I swallowed hard and tilted my head up, as if it would keep gravity from allowing my tears to fall.  At the same time I smiled and shook my head, swiping my arm across my eyes. 

“Why do you hate yourself so much?”  Micky whispered. Gravity denied my one request and I felt the tears running down my cheeks.

“Because I’m like this!”  I cried.  “I’m acting like some pathetic girl who’s had it so hard when I’ve been handed life on a silver platter!  My parents are together, my family cares about me, I’ve never had to worry about having enough to get by…but here I am…acting like this!” 

“There’s nothing wrong with being lost and confused.”  He said in a low voice.  “Everyone’s confused.  Isn’t that what you told me?”  Our eyes finally met and he took a step closer.  “Listen to me.”  He murmured softly.  “I don’t know what you feel right now.  I have no idea why.  But I’m here.  Talk to me.  Cry.  Whatever.  I don’t care…just…don’t keep everything inside you!  Andrea, you're human...you're gonna snap at some point!”

I closed my eyes.   Him just standing there beside me was comforting beyond words.  He cared and I knew he did. 

That knowledge completely unraveled me.

............................................................................................

~Micky~

I was scared.  I didn’t know anything…but I was scared.  I wanted her to talk. 

We stood there for a while.  Quiet.  Neither of us moving. 

She in a shaky breath but turned to take her place against the tree.  I followed and sat beside her. She picked at the grass before saying anything.

“It’s really nothing, Micky.”  She whispered.  Like a child.  I gave her a look.  She bit her lip.  My heart dropped with icy cold panic.

“Andrea…are you sick?”  She looked at me blankly for a moment then shook her head slowly. 

“No…it’s nothing like that…I mean…”  She sighed and turned to me.  Her forehead wrinkled.  Anxious.  “It’s like I’m going crazy.  I’m so mixed up that nothing seems real anymore.”  She looked down at her hands. 

“Does this have anything to do with Peter?”  I prodded.  Carefully.  She shrugged.

“I panicked a little when he asked me out.”  She admitted.  “I don’t want that.  I liked him…I used to…but I don’t want to be with anyone.  He…told me he has liked me since middle school.”  She smiled slightly.  Glanced at me.  “The attention made me feel good…maybe I was just leading him on...”  She tipped her head to the side.  “It kind of hurt when he was dating another girl the next week…but…”  She laughed.  “Well…why wouldn’t he?”

“Were you upset?”  She thought for a minute.  Shook her head.  “I was relieved…what if I had dated him?  He must not like me that much if he needed to be with someone else so quickly.  I don’t want to be the kind of girl who is with someone just so she isn’t alone.”

“You deserve better than that.”  I mumbled.  She smiled slightly.

“No.  I got exactly what I deserved.”  She tipped her head back.  Looked up at the branches above us.  Her smile slipped away.  “Maybe I’m a really bad person, Micky.”  She whispered.  “I’m not as good as everyone thinks.”

“Just  because you’re confused?”  She looked at me.

“No…because of what goes on in my head…the things I think.  I feel really fake, Micky.  Does it show?”  She mused. She looked at her hands…like they weren’t hers.

“I’m not that nice.  I’m not even that smart.”  She whispered.  “I can’t seem to do anything right…first with people…then with school.  It’s like everything is falling apart when everyone seems to think I have everything so together.” 

“Hey.”  She looked at me.  “Are things okay at home?”  Her eyes widened slightly.  Skittered away.  Just for a second.  Bingo.  “Andrea-“  She cut me off by standing. 

“It’s late.  I need to get home.”  She stood beside me awkwardly.  Me looking up at her. 

I finally gave in.  Stood up.  Dusted the dirt and grass off my jeans.  I walked her home.  We didn’t talk.  It was the first tense silence between us since I can remember.  When we got near her house I started to hear it.  The man yelling.  Andrea froze in mid-step before turning to me to wave me off.  I grabbed her arm. 

“Come home with me tonight.”    

…