Disclaimer: No, I am not Kate Brian and I do not own anything. So please don't hurt me!!!

My life had just gotten very interesting. (End of Suspicion)

I re-opened my eyes and they found Sawyer's gray ones. He still had the shy, comforting smiling on and I felt like a weight had been pulled off my shoulders. Mr. Hathaway came and pulled him and Graham towards Hell Hall. I looked back at Noelle and saw her screaming into her phone at her dad. Wow, I am so glad I don't have to face the wrath of her anymore. If I was on the other end, oh, I would have been a puddle on goop by now.

"What!? Are you seriously saying you agreed to this?" Noelle fumed into the phone with her back to me. "Uh huh, you really just had to just tear down the thing that meant the most to me here at Easton? Thanks Dad, glad to know you would betray me like this." Noelle snapped her phone shut and turned to look at me. Her face looked unnaturally red. Red so bad it looked like burning sunburn that screamed when you applied a penny size amount of pressure on it.

"Reed," Noelle said in a tensed voice, "we are so going to fight this. I assure you that we will have Billings rebuilt by the end of the month. I mean, seriously!! You were going to come live there again and now we have to live in….Pemberley. Oh my god." she looked like she was going to be sick and ran in the door of Bradwell towards the nearest bathroom.

"What? You were going to move back there?" Ivy asked, making her presence known once more. Josh was standing behind her looking at me with the same unreadable expression. His eyes bored into mine and I felt my heart beat faster. Gosh, why did he have to do that to me? I was….over him. Yes, I was so over him….no….I wasn't. Why did my life have to be so complicated?

"Yeah, I was," I softly said while looking into Josh's clear blue green eyes. "I'm sorry. It's just, that single is crap and I finally got my friends to like me again and I just wanted to be there." I glanced down at my feet and looked back up to see Ivy with a confused expression on her face.

"Oh, I understand, I guess," Ivy started, "that single is a piece of crap." She laughed sort of breaking the awkward tension. "But I don't think you are going anywhere now. Billings looks gone and I really think we should be friends, since you are still going to be living right next to me." I stared at her in shock. She wanted to be friends with me? After getting her shot and practically drooling over her boyfriend? I composed my face and answered her.

"That would be…great, Ivy. And are you sure you are okay with this? I mean, I almost got you killed and you still want to be my friend?" I looked into her eyes and saw a caring look in them. Weird.

"Reed, you've been through a hell of a lot more than I have. Which by the way, are you sure you are okay? I was shocked and a little freaked when I heard you had been missing. Josh here looked like he was going to pass out," she gestured to Josh. I looked at him and he looked at me like he couldn't believe I was actually here. Alive. Does that mean he still loves me? Oh, please I hope so. Wait. I have Upton, I love him. I was going to sleep with him. But once I looked at Josh, everything I did over winter break flew out the window. Damn him. Why did he have to be with Ivy? Come on Josh. Come back to me.

"I'm okay at the moment. It hasn't really sunk all the way yet. I tell you when I can talk about it, but not right now. Thanks for thinking about me," I said with emotion finding its way into my voice.

"I'm glad you are okay Reed, really," Josh said. He looked like he wanted to say more but he bit his tongue.

I smiled at him and he smiled back. It was a real smile. It was the smile that I haven't seen in a really long time. He finally broke the unreadable expression and looked into my eyes. I could see several emotions in there. Joy, confusion, hurt, jealously…love? Was he happy that I was here, or happy about his relationship with Ivy? Was he jealous of Sawyer? Why? Sawyer was a friend. More like a brother to me than anything else. Ugh. Why does he have to be so confusing? Just break up with her, gently of course, and then come to me. Kiss me and tell me you love me.

"Thanks," I had to break eye contact before I fell over. "I'm glad you think that, but you guys didn't have to ruin the time you had together worrying about me."

"We care about you Reed. You're our friend and we're both glad you are okay. Hopefully this year will really be filled with happiness and no drama," Ivy said. No drama? Yes, that sounded perfect. A phone starting playing Full Service by The New Kids on the Block and Ivy pulled it out of her pocket. She looked at the caller ID and a smile spread across her face.

"Sorry, I have to take this. I really glad you are okay Reed, see you later Josh," she gave him a peck on the cheek and walked away. Josh face turned in a mask as soon as her lips pressed into his cheek. His eyes flashed to me and burned a hole in my eyes. Wow. What is that all about?

As soon as Ivy was out of ear shot, Josh took a step towards me. His face softened and his eyes cleared. I swear my legs turned to jello. All my muscles relaxed and it felt like all my fear, uncertainty and worry left my body. How the hell does he do that? Why does he have that effect on me? Oh, I know why. It's because I love him with all my heart and I want to be able to hug, and kiss him all the time I'm around him. He looked at me like…he used to. The same look that he used to give me that held all the love in the world. Wow. Screw Upton. Josh Hollis all the way. He saw the change in my expression and smiled a little bit.

"Hey, are you sure you're okay?" Josh softly asked me. His blue, green eyes held love and longing.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Good as I'll ever be. I'm just a little shaken still, you know? I'm just glad it is all over, I guess," I said while gazing into his eyes. I wanted to kiss him so bad, but he wasn't my man. He was Ivy's man. God, what am I doing? Do I want another repeat of taking another girls' man. No, but I want Josh. He saw the change in my face again.

"I have to go. See you later," I told him. I had to get out of there. I didn't give him a chance to respond. I turned on my heel and headed to where Noelle had run to. I glanced over my shoulder and he was still standing there, looking at me. He had his hand stretched out toward the spot I was just standing in. I don't know what was going on in his head, but the one thing I did know was that he is going to find me to talk later. I had to be strong and ready. I just had to be.

After spending an hour trying to find Noelle I gave up. I glanced at the clock on my phone and noticed it was time for dinner. After grapping my dark blue pea coat I started heading in the direction of the cafeteria. Where the hell is Noelle? She probably went to scream her head off at Mr. Hathaway. He was so going to get an earful. Noelle suddenly came up behind me, looking a lot better than she had this morning. She probably did scream at him.

"Hey," she said, "ugh, I'm going to kill Hathaway. God, I've known him forever but he just…won't do."

"Won't do? What? Did he not fall for the charm of Noelle Lange?" I laughed. "You know some people just can't be bought."

"Whatever. If he doesn't rebuild Billings, he will never live it down. Do you know how much money all of the Billings Girls pay to this school every semester? Tons. When he doesn't get his check in the mail, he will know what hit him. And I even have more up my sleeve that he will not see coming," Noelle's eyes looked dark and cold. Oh, she was so going to get revenge.

"Can you just leave me out of it? I don't really need any more fights right now," I asked. I so did not want to be part of any of this. I have enough on my plate as it is.

"Fine," Noelle said. Wow, that was easy. I guess she knew what I was really feeling. We finally reached the cafeteria. Good, I don't think I can feel my ears. Stupid freezing cold weather.

We walked in and I felt the heat soak into my body. Eyes flashed to me and whispers started to fill the room. Great. Love it. People, just leave me alone! Noelle saw them and glared until everyone had their eyes in respectful places. We walked up to the line and got our food. I felt eyes on my back and tried to ignore the feeling. I waited for Noelle to be done and we walked side by side to the Billings table. God, I love it here. Constance looked like she was about to explode but I gave her a look that said 'later'. The conversation picked up but I concentrated on my food. I felt eyes on my head, but they just weren't anyone eyes. They were Josh's. I have no idea how I knew but I did. I looked up and locked eyes with him across the room. He was sitting next to Ivy while she chatted away with the table. He wanted to come over here, you could see that.

I broke eye contact knowing that if I would look in those eyes for too long, I would cause myself more pain later. I focused on my food and every now and then glanced up to see Josh looking at me. The thing I wanted to do was jump up, run across the room and hop into his toned baseball arms.

I finished my dinner quickly and excused myself from the table saying something about jet-lag. I walked out the door and was halfway across the fluffy white quad when I heard a man's voice call my name.

"Reed!"

Josh Hollis.

A/N: Hey!! My name is Nicole and this is my very first fan fiction. I been thinking about writing a story for the Private section for a while and here it is!! Please tell me what you want to happen and if there is ANY mistakes. I'm a little OCD about mistakes. Haha. Plus, I have read pretty much all of the stories in the Private section so yeah addicted much? And this was 6 pages on Word!! GEESH!!!

Please review so I don't think this is crap. Reviews will make me keep writing!!

Hope you like it--Nicole