"And the winner is…"

The whole country seemed to hold its breath as the host of the highly-rated reality show, America's Top Talent, gave a dramatic pause before announcing the winner. The two remaining contestants, Oliver Oaken and Mellissa Warbeck, clutched each other's hands tightly as they squeezed their eyes shut, ears straining to hear who the winner would be. Hannah Montana, celebrity judge, crossed her fingers under the judging table, desperately hoping it wouldn't be…

"Oliver Oaken!"

Hannah looked over to the side of the stage where her best friend, Lola Luftnagle, was standing. The purple-haired girl gave Hannah a sad smile before turning away and walking backstage. The pop star wanted to run after her, pull her in her arms, and tell her everything was going to be okay, but at the moment, everyone in the building was celebrating Oliver's win.

Oliver was hugging Melissa, then he was jumping up and down on the stage, then he was speaking into the microphone, the grin on his face getting larger and larger with every passing second. Everyone quieted down as they waited for him to speak.

"I can't believe this is happening!" he said excitedly, his eyes shining. "This has to be the best thing that has ever happened to me! I want to say thank you to Byron and Andy for being awesome judges, all the people out there who voted for me, my parents for supporting me, and most of all, Hannah Montana for being such an inspiration!"

There was more cheering and Hannah winced. The host of the show took the microphone back from Oliver and faced the judge panel. "Hannah, come on up here and perform your song!" he yelled, and the building rumbled with the cheers, foot stomping, and hand clapping from the audience.

The blonde stood up, plastering a smile to her face, and jogged up onto the stage. Grabbing the microphone the host held out to her, she faced the audience. "Congratulations, Oliver, you really deserved it!" she said, and Oliver's grin grew wider, if that was even possible. He was now sitting in the audience with his parents. Lola was nowhere to be seen. Or Lilly. Hannah felt a stab of sorrow hit her and struggled to hide it.

"This song is, as usual, dedicated to my best friend, Lola Luftnagle," Hannah said as the opening notes of True Friend started to play. "Because she's always there for me when I fall. And today, it's also dedicated to Oliver Oaken." She hoped that the song would remind him that fame isn't everything, but that friends are the best. As she glanced over at him halfway through the song, she realized that the meaning went right over his head, because he was already signing pictures for the people around him and not even paying attention to her performance.

Miley walked up to her house from the limo, her Hannah wig in her hand. Lilly was sitting in the chair on her deck, her purple wig in her hand and tears running down her face. The brunette sat down next to her and put a hand on her leg, making the blonde look up.

"Hey, I'm sorry," Miley whispered.

"It's okay," Lilly sniffled. "I…I just saw the look on his face and I knew…I knew that everything else in his mind just sort of got wiped out at that moment and…I'm afraid, Miley, that he's going to leave me. It's like…it's like being offered a steak and a piece of fat. What are you going to take? The steak, of course. It's like his career is the steak and I'm the piece of fat. What's he going to choose? His career."

"You don't know that," Miley said gently, although she felt like she was lying through her teeth. She pretty much knew that if Lilly told Oliver that he had to choose between her and his career, he would choose his career.

"Don't lie to me," Lilly murmured. "I mean, did he thank either of us while he was up there on stage? No, he just thanked Hannah Montana, and she doesn't even really count because she wasn't the person standing by and supporting you the whole time. It was the two of us, Miley, not her. Not the judges. Not even the audience and the people who voted for him. We were there for him when he thought he was going to lose, we were with him the whole time."

Miley put an arm around Lilly's shoulders and pulled her close. "Everything's going to be okay," she whispered. "If things don't work out, I promise that I'll be here for you. I'll be here for you no matter what."

"Thanks, Miles," Lilly whispered, leaning into Miley.

Miley looked up as Oliver walked into her room, halting her comforting of Lilly. It had been two hours since she had gotten home and Lilly had started freaking out, thinking that Oliver was just going to abandon her without even saying goodbye. She had told her that that wasn't true and that he was coming as soon as he could. After an hour and a half, Lilly had fallen asleep.

"We need to talk," Miley said quietly. She carefully extracted herself from Lilly's grip, careful not to wake the sleeping blonde up. Giving Lilly one last glance, she motioned for Oliver to leave the room before her, quietly closing the door behind her.

"What's going on?" Oliver asked.

"I don't know, why don't you tell me?" Miley said, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Well, I have no idea what you're talking about," Oliver said.

"How about how you haven't spent very much time with Lilly since America's Top Talent began?" Miley asked. "She thinks that you're going to break up with her for your career. And while I may be both of your friends, I have to agree with Lilly on this one. You've been acting like a complete jerk."

"Hey, what about you and your Hannah Montana thing?" Oliver said defensively. "You're doing the same thing…"

"No, I'm not, because I've included both you and Lilly in that, because you guys are my best friends and I don't want to keep that from you," Miley said. "And don't you dare turn this conversation around. This problem isn't occurring because of me."

"How long did you plan on going without telling us about Hannah?" Oliver asked.

"You know what, there was a reason why I didn't tell you guys, and that's because I was scared," Miley said. "You have no right to bring something like that up, especially in the current circumstances. I explained it to both of you guys, and I wasn't ignoring you guys like you're ignoring Lilly and I."

"I'm not ignoring you guys," Oliver protested.

"So not thanking your girlfriend and best friend when you just won America's Top Talent isn't ignoring us?" Miley asked. "Telling us that you're going to hang out with us for our usual day at the beach and then not showing up isn't ignoring us? Not answering any of our calls is not ignoring us? Asking Lilly out to an expensive restaurant and getting her all hyped up for a date only to disappoint her by not showing is not ignoring us?"

"Miley, it's…"

"Oliver?"

Both Miley and Oliver looked over to see Lilly standing at the top of the stairs with a happy look on her face. She ran down the stairs and jumped into Oliver's arms, squealing at the top of her lungs. "Oh my God, congratulations!" she yelled, pulling back from him and kissing him full on the mouth. "You were amazing!"

"Thanks!" he said, grinning down at her. "And guess what? I have some big news!"

"What is it?" Lilly asked happily, but Miley could see the fear in her eyes, detect that small amount of dread in her voice.

"I'm going on tour!"

Both Lilly and Miley stared at him, Lilly in shock and Miley in disbelief.

"That's…that's great!" Lilly said unconvincingly. "How long after graduation are you leaving?"

"After graduation, are you kidding?" Oliver asked. "I'm having a meeting tomorrow to finish scheduling the tour and work out the rest of the details. There's going to be a tutor coming with me. And I'm leaving next Saturday."

"What?" Lilly said, stepping back as her eyes filled with tears.

"This is what I'm talking about, Oliver," Miley snapped. "You don't consider other people. You didn't even pause to ask our opinion on this. We're your best friends, Oliver. Lilly is your freaking girlfriend!"

"We can do a long distance relationship," Oliver said, taking Lilly's hands in his own.

"No, we can't, you know we can't, Oliver," Lilly said, pulling her hands out of Oliver's and stepping away from him again. "I can't even go on vacation without missing you. You aren't going to come back any time soon. How long is your tour going to be?"

"Six months, but…"

"But what?" Lilly asked, tears starting to stream down her face. "You're going to come home for the weekends? How about the holidays? How about even once a month? No, you're…you're going to have to make a choice. It's either me…or your career."

Oliver looked at her in shock. "Come on, Lilly," he said after a moment. "You really aren't going to make me do this, are you? You know I'm going to choose my career."

Lilly stepped away from Oliver, her mouth hanging open in shock. She shook her head and took another step back, right into Miley's arms. Turning, the blonde buried her face in Miley's shoulder as sobs started to wrack her body. Oliver had an expression on his face that showed that he didn't really care how his statement had affected Lilly.

"I hope you're happy with yourself," Miley growled, making Oliver step back from the venom in her voice. "You are the most heartless, selfish, obnoxious person I've ever met in my life. I want you to get out of my house and stay out. If I ever see you again, I'm going to kick your butt all the way to China, do you understand?"

"You can't do that," Oliver said. "I'm a celebrity and I'll have you sued."

"Did you really just say that?" Miley asked, disbelief written all over her face. "Look at yourself, Oliver. You've changed. The old Oliver would have never even thought about saying that to one of his best friends. I never thought that fame would have gotten to you this much, especially not this fast. But I guess I was wrong. Let me tell you something, Oliver Oaken. You will never be holding a concert with Hannah Montana, even if I have to quit in order to avoid it. You're the meanest, most despicable, heartless… God, I can't even come up with words to explain it! Oh, I hate you! Get out of here! Get out!"

He stepped back once in surprise when she yelled at him then ran out of the house when she gave him a glare that would have killed him if looks could kill. The door slammed shut behind him and Lilly started to sob even harder. Miley clutched the blonde to her chest, rocking her back and forth as she tried to calm her down.

She was going to kill Oliver.

Miley flipped the pancakes on the griddle and turned when she heard footsteps coming down the stairs. Lilly stumbled towards the kitchen, leaning heavily on the counter with one hand as she tried to rub the sleep out of her eyes with the other hand. The brunette stepped forward, placing a gentle hand on Lilly's back and looking at her sympathetically.

"Hey, how're you feeling?" she asked softly.

"Crappy," Lilly mumbled. "You made pancakes?"

"Yeah, do you want some?" Miley asked. "I made your favorite, chocolate chip. And we have whipped cream, strawberries, chocolate sauce, and more chocolate chips for toppings. Or just plain maple syrup if you want. Here, I'll get the stuff out for you, why don't you go sit at the table?"

She sat Lilly down at the table, checked the pancakes, and then went to the fridge to get everything out for the blonde. This was something she only did for Lilly on special occasions, like on her birthday or when she had an especially hard breakup. Whipped cream, strawberries, and chocolate sauce on pancakes were some of Lilly's favorite things and usually calmed her down enough so Miley could talk everything out with her.

"There you go," Miley said, setting all the toppings down in front of Lilly along with a large stack of chocolate chip pancakes. Lilly reached for the whipped cream, squirting it on top of the stack while Miley cut up some of the strawberries and dropped them on top. Finally, she topped it off with chocolate chips and drizzled chocolate syrup over everything before taking a knife and fork and digging in. Miley noticed that she didn't eat with as much vigor as she usually did.

Miley flipped the pancakes onto a plate and poured a new batch onto the griddle, sprinkling chocolate chips on top of the batter that sizzled as it cooked. She turned towards Lilly, watching as the blonde morosely put forkfuls full of pancake into her mouth. She hated seeing her best friend like this, and she hadn't seen her moping around like this in over two years since she had started dating Oliver. And now the boy had broken her heart.

"Do you want more?" Miley asked when Lilly had finished cleaning her plate. The blonde nodded and Miley put another stack of pancakes on her plate, watching as she topped it with the sugary toppings and started to eat it. It was so wrong that Lilly felt like this, especially when Oliver had done something so horrible to her.

"Hey, do you want to talk about it?" Miley asked gently as she sat down next to Lilly.

"I… I just thought that he loved me," Lilly whispered. "There was this thought in my head that no matter what happened, he was always going to be there for me, and now… now his career means more and…."

She leaned into Miley, who put an arm around her shoulders as she sobbed. "Shhh, it's going to be okay," she whispered. "If he's going to choose a stupid singing career over you, then obviously he's not worth it. He's an idiot for not seeing that you're better than a singing career like that. You're amazing, Lilly."

"Would you leave me for your career?" Lilly whimpered.

The brunette sighed, pulling Lilly closer. "Of course I wouldn't," she murmured. "And if I really had to leave, I would ask you to go. If your mom didn't let you go, then I would have to hire someone to kidnap you so you could come with me. I would never, ever leave you, Lilly. You're my best friend and I love you too much to do that to you."

"Thanks, Miles," Lilly sniffled, snuggling into the brunette. "I love you, too."

Miley's heart fluttered when she heard Lilly say those words and she blushed in embarrassment. She had no idea why she would be excited when Lilly would say something like that and she knew that she shouldn't think about Lilly like that. But she pushed those thoughts to the back of her mind as Lilly sobbed in her arms. Her job was to comfort her best friend, and that's what she was going to do.

I give all the credit for the idea of this story to Freudian Slips Cause Problems. It's going to be twelve chapters long, like the last season of the show. Look at it as a sort of final season for Liley. I'm sorry I didn't update for so long. I'm not even going to try to explain myself away. Review please.

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