It had been years,years since I last saw her. I stood gazing stupidly at her from several feet away; she hadn't noticed me as she was facing the opposite direction, pleading with a man that had passed too close. I looked her over again, reaffirming that it really was her sitting Indian style on the damp cold concrete of a downtown sidewalk.

She was nothing like the girl I knew in high school. She was dressed in rags that hung ragged and dirty from her body, and her limp brown hair ended in greasy wisps just below her shoulders. She held a rusty old soup can that clanked with the cold sound of discarded change. But it wasn't her attire or her hair that had changed the most; it was her eyes.

She had turned to face me and I looked into those eyes I had known so well. The eyes I had seen light up when she smiled, or crinkle when she laughed, the eyes from which I had seen saltwater diamonds leak, or flutter close in the dark of the night. But they were not there.

The doe-brown eyes that had once been the embodiment of innocence had been swept away. In their place where hard brown orbs, tainted and torn by harsh injustices and bitter-sweet realities.

Tearing myself from my reverie I took a few steps forward, closing the gap between me and my old friend.

"Caterina?" I asked. My voice was hardly more than a whisper, so I was surprised when she answered me.

"Hello? Do I know you?" A confused expression flashed over her too pale face.

"Cat, it's Jadelyn. We were…" What were we? I didn't even know anymore. Friends? Best friends? Sisters? No, none of those things.

Thankfully I didn't have to finish as she interrupted me.

"Jadey?" her eyes glistened; the first life I had seen in her since I spotted her from across the street.

I smiled. It was a sad bitter-sweet gesture, but the next thing I knew Cat had thrown her arms around my neck, gripping me tighter than I thought she possibly could, given her unbelievably frail appearance.

"Kitty Cat." I gasped. I wrapped my arms around her middle, almost pulling away in surprise. I was hugging a skeleton. Her bones were hard ridges beneath her thin clothing, and her arms, once tan and strong, were mere twigs. I buried my face in what was left of her hair; she smelled of grease and blood and bile.

"Cat," I asked "what the hell happened?"

AN: This will most likely be a multi-chap, but I am a procrastinator, dyslexic, and only thirteen, so don't expect toooooo much from me. And thanks in advance for the reviews 'cause I trust that you will… RIGHT? 8)

Peace ;)