Part Seven: It Makes Me Feel Alive

A couple days later. ~Lizzie~

It had been a restless night for me and I knew exactly what was keeping me up. Thoughts of my real parents plagued me, and despite Jason's efforts to ease my pain, I was feeling worse than ever. The only way to make me feel better was to find out the truth, myself. I carefully pulled the covers off my body as Jason stirred. This time, I paused and then waited until he had gone back to sleep before I could get away. I was almost to the door when I heard a voice. "Going somewhere?" Jason asked sleepily. "Yeah . to the . bathroom." I lied. He had to have known something was up. "Lizzie, I know what you're trying to do. We had an agreement . you were going to leave this alone, remember?" "I am leaving it alone. Go back to sleep and let me go to the bathroom, okay?" Jason sat up. "You're not fooling me." "I wasn't trying to." I falsified.

~Jason~ I knew that the moment I turned my back, Lizzie would leave. Regardless of the promise she made . I was beginning to wonder if she had been using my kindness to get what she wants. "She's gone." Rainy whispered, sitting on the edge of my bed. "I know she is." By now, it was morning and I knew that neither of us felt like getting up. If we did, we would have to face the truth. And the truth is that we both let Lizzie go. She was all alone and if something happened to her, it wasn't Rainy's fault . it was mine. "I know what you're thinking, but you could've stopped her. Lizzie needs to find out the truth." "Not this way." I replied. "Don't stress over this. Just get dressed . you know that we've got somewhere to be." Rainy demanded, completely ignoring the guilt that was plaguing me. I couldn't even tell if she cared anymore. "You go ahead and tell the guys that I'm not feeling up to it. I-" Rainy cut me off. "What? You can't just decide not to go. This is an invitational, Jase . I can see you skipping school today but not the invitational .. if we want to compete we need everyone to be there." "Who cares about that?" I sighed and lay back on my soft bed. "You do? Why do you care about her so much anyway? You use to hate her and now as soon as she starts kissing your ass you don't even care about us anymore. We've been friends since elementary school and now I'm second best?" Rainy jumped off the bed. "You're so predictable. As soon as a new piece of ass comes your way, you forget about your-" She didn't even get to finish her sentence. Before I knew what was happening, my hand flew against her cheek, producing a loud 'smacking' sound. Rainy didn't even give me the satisfaction of a hurt face. She just walked away and took it like a man . and I knew that I had blown it. Rainy had had a bad past and I know that me slapping her was reminiscent of it. "You're just like . I hope you fucking burn in hell . I hope that she gets run over by a bus!"

~Miranda~ "Calli!" Ethan yelled, following her down the hallway. She was walking so fast that I had to take three steps for every one of hers. "Keep walking Calli." I told her, but Ethan was gaining fast. I attempted to trip him up, but failed to do so. Instead, all my things ended up all over the ground.

~Ethan~ I grabbed Calli's arm. "Just let me explain." "You can't explain. There's no reason . there's nothing you can say to make it all better." Calli avoided my gaze. "I love you Calli." "Not enough . please don't do this here." Calli begged. "I can't talk to you now . maybe never." "I won't stop trying." "I doubt that you will ." Calli turned away, turned the corner, and briskly walked away.

~Gordo~ "Let me help you with that," I said to Miranda who was bent down in the middle of the hallway trying to pick up her books and papers that was splattered everywhere. "Thanks." Miranda smiled at me. "Have you heard from Lizzie yet?" She shook her head and her smile faded. "I've been praying for her . who knows where she is." Rainy walked by. I could tell that she was avoiding me. "Come on." I gathered up the rest of Miranda's things and ran to catch up with Rainy. "Where's Jason?" "Do I look like Jason's keeper? Don't ask me about that asshole." Rainy rolled her eyes as Miranda caught up with us. "I know you know where he is." I pressed. "Hmmm . if I were Jason, where would I be ." Rainy pretended to be thinking really hard. "Seeing that he's NOT here, I would guess that he's at home." "Ah-ha. So, that's where Lizzie is too?" "What?" She seemed startled by my question. "What does Lizzie have to do with Jason being at home?" "You were suppose to find out what was going on with him." "So?" "So, you probably know stuff that we don't." Miranda butt in. "If you think I know something you don't, go over to Jason's place. You can search the whole house for all I care." I let Rainy walk off, as Miranda hooked her arm in mine. "Well, that was productive." I shrugged. "It's a start."

~Lizzie~ I had been thinking about a way to find my family for a while . ever since it sunk it that it wasn't a dream. It's my reality. The only way that I could think of to find them was an international source called the Internet, but I had already found a piece of the puzzle. my family was living somewhere in the USA, and I was going to find them, no matter what it took.

(A/N: It's November5th and I know that it's been at least a month since I've updated. But, my writer's block left me for a moment. Just remember to review so that I know that people are actually reading my story. Whether you hate it or not is something completely different . and remember, suggestions are always needed. {Send all suggestions to musicaangel28@hotmail.com} Oh, and if you want to read any of my O-Town or B2K stories, which have been banned from this site e-mail me at the address above! -NL )