Five or so minutes later, I was ready to give Roxie's crazy plan a go. Casually, I walked up to Holly Snow - Roxie had pointed out who she was, which made things a lot easier. "Hello," I said, hoping she'd talk to me.

"You must be Victoire," Holly said, girlishly giggling. It didn't quite work - she was a level of pretty that is uncommon in 20-year-olds, which is to say that I would have bet money she was part veela like my mother.

"Yeah, that's me. So, I heard you're Teddy's girlfriend." Internally, I cursed myself for how casually I brought that up. Luckily for me, Roxie was chasing a kid that was probably related to me, so she didn't see this.

"Yes," she said, "I am. He's so sweet. Odds are he'll propose around Christmas."

Thankfully, that wasn't news to me. I decided it was time for Roxie's key idea. "I wouldn't bet on that. He's not much for commitment, unless he's changed since I last saw him."

"What do you mean? He seems PERFECTLY committed to me."

"In that case, you don't know him like I do. This avoidance-of-commitment stuff runs in his family, so it's inevitable that he's the same way."

"Really? What do you mean?"

I had Holly where I wanted her now. "It's not my place to say," I cooed. "Ask him about it yourself."

Roxie apparently knew what she was talking about. As I sauntered over to a kid that was probably my cousin Lilly, Holly went off in a different direction.

---

I got lucky - Lilly, now age 11, talked my ear off for a good five minutes before the next part of Roxie's crazy idea kicked into gear. Right as Lilly started into what was probably going to be a lengthy discussion about cats, I told her to shut up. Holly had cornered Teddy, and I had to watch what happened.

"How COULD you?" she yelled loud enough that there were probably people in France who heard her.

"What did I do?" he asked, looking extremely confused.

"You never TOLD me that avoiding commitment runs in your family!"

"It does? Who told you that?"

By now, realizing that Holly was going to mention me, I figured it would be a good idea to pretend I cared about Lilly's cat obsession. Still, as I listened to her surprisingly intelligent argument on why cats are better than dogs, my attention was on what was going on twenty yards away.

"Vickie, of course," Holly moaned, as though it was blatantly obvious. "That girl... It's like she thinks she can pick up where she left off with you!"

"You don't understand," Teddy said in my defense. "We grew up together. She's like a sister to me, nothing else."

"Yeah, sure," Holly rolled her eyes in disbelief. "If that's the case, why does it seem like you've spent every spare moment you've had at that hospital, waiting for her to wake up?"

"Family means nothing to you, does it?"

"That's IT! I've had it with you! Goodbye and get lost!" With that, Holly Snow dashed out of the house.

---

I debated hiding after that, as it was, in a twisted way, my fault that my childhood friend had just been dumped by his extremely pissed-off girlfriend. I didn't, of course; Roxie would have killed me if I'd tried, and it just seemed like a good idea to stay put. I walked around aimlessly, not talking to anyone, until I heard a voice I wanted to hear more than anything in the world.

"Victoire? Is it really you?" I turned and saw Teddy standing about five paces from me. Determinedly, I walked towards him.

"I'm so sorry," I said, but he cut me off.

"Sorry for what?" he asked, and I knew he really did have no idea what I was talking about.

"It's my fault your girlfriend ran off like that," I said, almost regretting what I'd done.

"Strangely enough, I should probably thank you, not forgive you."

There was something I was missing, so I looked at him in a way that was clear up the fact that I was now the clueless one.

"I'd been trying to think of a way to tell her it wasn't working for nearly a year, but none of the things I came up with worked. You basically did it for me, without having any idea what you'd done. Thanks."

I was stunned and speechless. I'd gotten rid of his girlfriend, and here he was, THANKING me for it. Wherever Roxie was, for I knew she was watching this, she was probably cracking up.

"And I should be the one apologizing, not you," he said, bending the topic a little. "It was my bad aim that caused your accident, remember?"

This wasn't something Roxie had prepared me for. Not knowing what else to do, I fled from the room, went out the back door of the house, ran to the rose garden, and realized I was having an emotional breakdown.

---

A/N: I really need suggestions! Please review and let me know what should happen next.