Rating: PG13?

Disclaimer: I own no one… But the story's mine…

Summary: Sometimes it just takes certain things to awake some people's realization.

A/N: I know I said 3 weeks, which is next Friday. But I was feeling depressed and just needed to write. So I wrote this one part fic, which is kinda short, and now that I've finished, I feel a little guilty. Anyways, hope you guys enjoy.

"Let go of me…" the brunette cried in Jessie's arms. "Please…"

"I don't want to…" the blonde pleaded back, who was still holding on from behind.

"Please… just let go of me…" she slumped onto the floor in a mess, pulling the blonde down with her.

"I can't… Don't you understand?"

"Why are you doing this?" she questioned barely above a whisper, "why did you come back… you could've just left me…"

"Katie, don't say that… I wouldn't just leave you… especially when you're like this."

"But you already did."

Three years ago…

"OMG Jess did you see the face he pulled?!" Katie laughed as she flopped onto Jessie attic bed. "Priceless!"

Jessie was smiling too, something she always did when she was around the girl. She sat down onto the bed, and they engaged in one of their famous stare competitions. Silence engulfed the room, having replaced the moments of laughter. Jessie looked away when she felt a certain guilt run through her.

"Ummm… Katie, I have something to tell you." She hesitated.

"You can tell me anything…"

"I'm going to move to Australia with my dad."

Katie's heart shattered. She wasn't even dating this blonde beauty, but she felt her heart shatter. So this was the true meaning of being heart broken, she never thought she was capable of feeling this way. Well, not before Jessie came along into her life.

"Why?" Katie squeaked out, trying to hold back her tears.

"I… I just thought… that maybe I could just…" Jessie didn't know why she had agreed to going, even Rick had his doubts.

"Are you trying to avoid me?" Katie questioned, her eyes shining, "Is it because of that stupid letter I wrote you few months ago?"

"No. It's not that. And the letter wasn't stupid!"

"Then why are you leaving?"

"I… I don't know. I thought it was for the best…" She shouted. Right after the words left her mouth, she prayed she could take them back, but she knew it was already too late.

"For the best…?" Katie snorted sarcastically, as she immediately stood staring at the younger girl. "Right… It's for the best. I guess now its just best that I leave you…"

Before Jessie had time to react, Katie had already stormed down her attic stairs and out the front door.

Present

"You didn't have to leave…"

"I couldn't be around you knowing that you were going to be leaving soon."

They were both sitting down on Katie's single bed in her dorm room. The room was small and compacted, but Katie preferred it this way than to share a big room with another person.

Ever since leaving the attic three years ago, to numb her pain, Katie studied. For the rest of her Junior and Senior year, she would decline any invitation to parties, and she would just lock herself behind her door and study. She was even admitted to schools she never considered possible for her to get into, and here she was, New York University.

The silence was getting a little overwhelming for Jessie, "why do you do this to yourself…?"

"To numb myself. To forget about you." Katie answered, still not looking into the blonde's face, afraid that she might be broken a second time.

"By drug abusing, sleeping around with anyone willing, and getting drunk in the middle of the street?!" Jessie asked a little too angrily, staring at the brunette she had never forgotten.

Katie didn't know how to answer, so she stayed silent. Jessie got down on her knees in front of Katie and looked up at her bowed head. She took Katie's hands into her owns. The older girl wanted to pull away, but the soft touch the blonde was giving her was too addictive to pull away from.

"Why are you here?"

"Tad called me, he told me he was really worried about you, that you were in a mess. I got worried too and I knew I had to find you."

Last week…

"Hello?" Jessie picked up the phone.

"Jessie?"

"Tad?"

"Yeah, hi."

"Hi Tad, I never thought I'd be hearing from you. How are you?" Jessie questioned excitedly.

"I'm good… yeah, I'm fine. But uh, Katie…" he said sullenly.

"What's wrong with Katie?" She jumped quickly.

"Jess, ever since you left, Katie wasn't Katie anymore." The guy replied, "Junior and senior year, she was still fine in the sense that she wasn't in danger."

"Danger?!" the blonde's heart began to race, "What are you talking about?'

"Just listen… She wasn't in any danger as in she was all buried in her books. That's weird enough as it is, but that was safe… But now, Katie, she, she gets drunk every night. She sleeps with any girl who hits on her… she's even…" He gulped, "She's even into drugs…"

"Tad…" she wasn't sure of what she was hearing, she didn't want to believe it. "Are you sure?"

"Jessie, I've been her best friends since diaper wearing years. She was always that happy carefree girl. But in the past three years, she's changed. The last time I saw her, she was in a mess, lying on the street outside some park. I had to carry her back to her dorm."

"Oh my god…" she breathed out.

"Look, I don't know what happened between you two, but it doesn't take Einstein to figure out that she's been like this since you left." Tad told her, "Could you please, for Katie's sake, please come and see her."

Last week, the same night…

"I um want to say something…" Jessie spoke up at dinner.

Everyone in her family looked up at her, waiting for her to continue.

Taking a deep breath, "I've already booked my ticket, I'm flying to New York tomorrow."

Rick and Lily dropped their forks, Eli just had his mouth hanging, and Grace and Zoë looked mischievously at each other. Grace and Zoë had maintained contact with both, Katie and Tad, Tad mostly. It was their idea for Tad to tell Jessie about Katie's current situation. The three of them could tell that the two girls were living a lie.

Present

Letting go of the hand she never wanted to. "You should go…"

"Why are you pushing me away?!" she asked urgently.

"I don't want you to see me like this. I never thought I'd see you again. Don't you understand, since the day I left that room, I tried everything that could get my mind off you." Katie explained, "I studied, I missed out on all partying in high school. It didn't work. I got here to college, and I just gave in."

Jessie was on her knees listening to every word.

"I slept with the girls to ease my pain, I even hoped that one of them may eventually be able to take me off you. But you are like this addicting drug, you never seem to go. I get drunk because I know I could at least temporarily take my mind off you, and that I could go home with another girl who is not you."

"You didn't have to do that… I never said I didn't want to stay your friend."

"Do you really think that our FRIENDSHIP would've lasted?!" The brunette puffed cynically, "Everyone knows relationships don't last, let alone friendship."

"Katie… I don't know why I left, but I did and I can't take it back. But all the time I was in Australia, I never forgot you, and I don't think I ever will." Jessie's tears flowed onto her rosy cheeks. "When Tad told me you've slept with practically every girl in New York, I felt jealous. Not jealous of you, but jealous of those girls. But when he told me you were getting drunk and taking drugs, I felt my heart break."

Katie peered up a little, but still leaving her head bowed down.

"When I found you on the first night, you were just as Tad had told me… I got really, really worried." Jessie continued to confess. "You looked kinda like you were dead on the street…"

First Night

"Where is she?" Jessie asked Tad who was driving her away from the airport.

"Club…"

When Tad pulled up and parked his car, it was already 11 pm. They both got out and walked down the path towards the music. Along the way, they could see college students stumble into and out of these clubs, some were already vomiting out in the street and some one was just lying on the pathway.

"There she is…" Tad pointed ahead.

Jessie turned to follow his hand, but didn't see the familiar brunette standing anywhere, only just a blonde girl. "Where?"

"On the floor in front of the blonde."

Jessie looked, and finally realized where Tad was pointing to. The blonde girl she saw before was pulling at Katie's arm. The two immediately rushed over to their passed out friend. Jessie immediately got down her knees to check on Katie.

"What happened?"

Tad looked at the blonde accusingly, "What did you do to her?"

"Hey, I didn't do anything, she asked me to go home with her. By the time I got out the door, she was already on the floor." The blonde answered.

Sighing, "Just leave please…" Tad told her.

"C'mon, lets get her home." Tad pulled Katie into his arms easily, having done it many time before.

On the ride home, Jessie sat at the back with Katie's head in her lap. She caressed the brunette's hair and missed the feeling of having this girl lie in her lap. It has been a long three years.

Present

"I thought he was joking with me, I thought it was just a one off. But I found you the next night in the same state." A tear fell, "Every time I went to find you, you were always drunk somewhere. I couldn't stand another night of seeing you like that… So I decided to stay with you last night after putting you to bed."

Katie looked at the blonde shocked… she really didn't know that Jessie was the one putting her away to bed the past few nights; she thought it was Tad. To find herself being wrapped by the soft slim arms in the morning wasn't anything special to her. But it just surprised the hell out of her to find the owner of those arms belonged to the girl with the face she could never forget. Well, that was the case up until all the pain and memories of the past three years came flooding back into her.

Just to ease a little bit of tension, "My family thought I was crazy when I told them the day before I came here that I was going to fly to New York."

Katie looked into those crystal blue eyes which taunted her even in her sleep. She couldn't believe she was listening to this girl's confession, it felt surreal. Maybe the drugs and alcohol hasn't gone, she lifted her hand to her face and pinched herself. It hurt.

"What on earth?" Jessie asked, her hand automatically rubbing the red part where Katie just pinched herself.

"This isn't a dream?" Katie questioned dumbly, loving the feel of Jessie's soft hands caressing her face.

Jessie chuckled through her tears, it was unbelievable that even in the most serious of situations, and Katie would still be able to make her laugh. "No you're not dreaming." Turning serious again, she placed both hands on the brunette baby smooth face, "Katie, promise me you'll never go down that road again."

"Only if you'll promise me that you won't leave again."

"Katie, I still have to go back to finish off my school year."

"Transfer."

"It'll take a while."

"I can wait. I've waited three years for something to happen, I can wait another few weeks or months."

"I'll have to tell my parents."

"So does that mean a yes?" Katie asked hopefully, her tear stained face turned fully to look at the blonde kneeling before her.

"Yes."

"Well, I guess I don't regret the things I've done. It brought you back to me…"

THE END…

A/N: Hope you liked this short nonsense of a ramble. If you didn't, then I'm sorry. Anyways, I should study for the 6 exams I have left. sigh