New Chapter! Thank you to those who've been reading and reviewing. I love hearing feedback on what I write!

That night Jackie's dreams were filled with flashbacks.

"I'm an actor...well, gonna be one someday. But I got an agent n' everthin'. Says she's gonna make me famous," He smiled and ran his fingers through his blond hair.

"Wow," Jackie giggled, tipsy and awestruck, "You're the first actor...I mean aspiring actor I've ever met."

"Thas' cause they all in Hollywood. See, thas' where you gotta go to make it big," He held up his hands and spread them apart for effect.

"I've never been to Hollywood before," Jackie slurred, gazing up at him.

"I'm gonna go there one day real soon. Maybe I might even bring you along," He said with a wink, his deep, southern accent drawing Jackie in like a fish on a hook, blissfully unaware that it was being lured somewhere it didn't want to go.

Jackie woke up, breathing hard. It took her a second to remember where she was. She was laying diagonally across the bed, her head resting beside Steven's chest. To her left, the digital clock on the nightstand read 4:56.

The dreams had started a few months back, once she was on her own again. She didn't have them every night, and sometimes she didn't sleep at all in fear of them. Over time they'd begun to feel like an evil presence following her around, attacking her when ever she shut her eyes.

...

The following morning, Jackie and Steven ate breakfast at a diner near their motel. She had on her new dress and wore her bouncy curls down.

"So, what do you want to do today?" Jackie asked Steven, licking maple syrup off her thumb.

"Anything that's free, and doesn't involve driving, " He mumbled, before gulping down the last of his coffee. "Before yesterday, I pretty much drove for a straight 48 hours with no sleep."

Jackie thought for a moment and then gasped, which she usually did when she had an idea.

"We could have a photo shoot!" She clapped her hands and bounced up and down in her seat.

"Yeah!" Hyde said, with false enthusiasm, "And then we can get our nails done and buy matching outfits!"

"Alright, well do you have a better idea?"

"I have about a million better ideas, but after the very unpleasant awakening you gave me this morning, I'd rather we just go back to the room, take a nap until lunch time, then take another nap until dinner time, and then go to bed. Now there's a good idea."

"Steven, it practically is lunchtime. You wouldn't wake up so we didn't get her until 11:30."

To say the least, Steven was not a morning person. For at least half an hour after he wakes up, he doesn't like to be spoken to, to be touched, or to be rushed. That morning, Jackie, well aware of his grumpiness, did all of the above, and more. She'd tried everything to get him up. Playing loud music, yelling, pulling the blankets off of him, throwing things at him, shaking him, slapping him. But nothing worked. That's when she had an idea.

Around 10:30, Steven was awoken by a tickling feeling on his face, and when he opened his eyes, he saw Jackie leaning over him with a razor in her hand. He blinked a few times, trying to decide if this bizarre image was real, or a figment of his impending insanity.

"Wakey, wakey," She sang, seeing that he was awake.

"Am I dreaming?" He asked sleepily.

"Yes," She whispered, " I'm here to shave your beard, Steven."

At this, realizing what was going on, he'd bolted up and ran to the bathroom, rambling on about how there should be a law restricting sharp objects from crazy people. The door slammed, and after a couple seconds of silence, he erupted again, this time in a cussing fit, using about every word in the book. Jackie, swallowing back her laughter, watched as he came back out and stood in front of her, fuming, his face covered in shaving cream, except for one patch that she had already shaven.

"Oh good, you're awake," She said brightly, giving a little wave. "Well...who wants breakfast?"

"You may as well finish what you've started," He muttered angrily, pointing to his face.

She shrugged. "Fine. Lay back down."

"Fine. Come here," He marched back over to the bed.

"Fine. Don't fidget, or I'll cut you."

"Fine!"

She sat beside him on the bed, and with one hand gently holding the side of his face to keep it still, she started to shave the rest of his face. He closed his eyes and steadied his breathing so she'd think he went back to sleep, but he was awake the whole time. He'd never admit it to her, but he'd missed Jackie the past two years, and he didn't even mind the rude, and rather odd awakening. In fact, he enjoyed it.

...

Hundreds of miles away, in their two bedroom apartment, Brooke leaned over Michael and peered into the cardboard box he was going through. It was filled with memories from his childhood and teenage years, from photos and postcards, to the metal rod that was put in his arm when he broke it in middle school.

"Aww man, I remember this," He said, pulling out an old pair of red converse sneakers. He turned over the left one, and there it was, like it had been since he was in fourth grade. It had faded over the years, but Jackie's name could still be seen, in messy third grader writing.

"There," She had said, releasing his foot from her tight grasp, "Now I'll always be a part of you. Well...at least until you go up a shoe size."

The gang had made fun of him so much for that. Although he only loved Jackie as a friend now, seeing the shoe reminded him how much he missed all of his friends from back home. He tossed its back in the box and looked up at Brooke.

"The sitter just got here," She said, "You ready?"

"Yeah, I was just going through some old stuff," He said, opening the window for her to ask about the shoe. But he wasn't surprised when she just smiled at him, and checked her watch. She had never taken much of an interest in his life before Betsy. Especially now that they'd moved from Chicago to Springfield for her new job, and she was so busy. He hadn't been able to find work since they'd moved, so he didn't have much going on at the moment. However, he always had going home to Point Place for holidays to look forward to.

...

"See, now wasn't that fun?" Jackie asked, sliding into the passenger seat of the El Camino.

By Jackie's orders, the two had gone to see Young Doctors in Love, a movie that had just come out in theaters. To save money, they sneaked in, to which Jackie had gotten quite a thrill. Afterwards, they headed back to their motel where Steven immediately collapsed on to the bed. Jackie used the spare time to write to a friend she'd met in Georgia.

In all of the two years she'd been gone, Jackie had only come out with one real friend. They called her M.K., short for Mary Katherine, last name Rouse, a name that had been in the state for eight generations. She lost her virginity when she was twelve, in the trailer she'd lived in her whole life. By age fifteen, she'd become the girl who guys called to hook up with when they were bored, but all she ever really wanted was for a boy to buy her flowers, to hold her hand, and to win her a prize at the carnival in the summer. At age twenty-five, she was still waiting. She worked at the local convenient store, which was where Jackie had met her. The two girls had got to talking, and became fast friends, but Jackie had always had a feeling Mary Katherine kept a lot hidden. Nonetheless, they kept each other company, and Jackie even lived with her for a while. Once she left Georgia, Jackie tried to write to her at least twice a month to keep her updated on how she was doing. But because of her unsettled living situations, she'd never been able to receive a letter back from her friend, so their friendship for the past couple of months had been quite one sided. When she'd left Georgia, Jackie hadn't felt right; like she was leaving Mary Katherine behind in a place where there was nothing left for her, where she'd sit and grow rotten, like a forgotten tomato in the very back of the refrigerator.