"What are you doing?" Reid asked amused, as he watched his girlfriend, who was leaning against the wall with her eyes closed. She hadn't been to school for a few days and had even quit her job, claiming she didn't feel good and that she needed a few days, or weeks, to pull herself together. This was the first time Reid saw her out off bed.

"Shhh!" Lizzie hissed playfully at him. "I'm trying to listen here." Reid lifted an eyebrow and say down beside her, placing his ear against the wall as well.

"HOW COULD YOU!"

"I didn't do anything!"

"DON'T YOU DARE LIE TO ME! I KNOW THERE WAS NO MEETING!"

Reid removed his ear from the wall again and turned back to his girlfriend.

"You do realise it isn't very nice to eavesdrop on people, right?" Lizzie shrugged.

"She's always bullying Rachel about Brian, so next time I'll just ask her if she knows where her husband was the day before." Reid laughed and moved forward to kiss her on the lips. Quickly, Lizzie turned her head and Reid pulled back again. This wasn't the first time something like this had happened, and he was really starting to worry about her. Tyler had said he just needed to take things slow and wait until Lizzie was ready to talk about what had happened, but he had never been a very patient man.

"Rachel and I are going out tonight." Lizzie told him while standing up. "Don't wait up." With those words she walked into their bedroom, closing the door behind her.

Reid hit the wall with his fist.

"Bad timing?" He turned around to see Rachel and Tyler standing in the door opening. Quickly getting up, he shook his head and answered.

"Great timing actually. Tyler, we need to talk. Now." Rachel lifted her eyebrows, but didn't ask anything.

"Alright." She said instead. "Then I'll just go find Lizzie."

"Bedroom." Reid said simply, while grabbing Tyler's wrist and pulling him outside. Tyler didn't ask any questions and just followed his friend to his and Rachel's apartment.

"She still won't let me kiss her." Reid snapped at his friend after closing the door behind him. "She won't even let me near. What the fuck did I do?"

"Well that would be the million dollar question, wouldn't it?" Tyler and Reid spun their heads around, staring at Lizzie in shock. She looked at them, with so much sarcasm that Reid started to feel like his head was exploding. Lizzie huffed and turned around, facing her friend, who looked just as surprised as the two boys.

"You coming, Rachel?" Lizzie asked, before moving towards the door without waiting for an answer. Rachel hesitated, staring at Reid and Tyler as if she was waiting for permission. Tyler nodded to her, knowing it would be a really bad idea to let Lizzie leave the apartment on her own. The girl obviously wasn't thinking straight, and it would be a matter of time before she'd do something stupid. It had been proven long ago that Rachel was the only one who could really calm Lizzie, even it was just because of Lizzie's want to protect Rachel.

"Have….fun." Tyler told his girlfriend, while his brain was still spinning, knowing that Reid would soon turn to him for answers about Lizzie's behaviour. Rachel nodded as a greeting to them, before running out of the door, hurrying to find her friend before she'd take off. Tyler sighed softly, before turning back to Reid, trying to form a coherent sentence.

"Reid…." He started softly, but Reid shook his head.

"Save it, baby boy." Reid stood up from the couch, walking out of the door without looking back. Tyler groaned softly and fell back into the couch. He really wished Pogue or Caleb would be there. Or maybe Sarah. After all, she was studying for fixing these kind of situations, right?


Rachel followed Lizzy to the cab that was waiting right in front of the door to the apartment building. Apparently, Lizzy had called for one a while ago.

"Liz…" She started, but Lizzy completely ignored her friend while getting in the car. She didn't close the door, instead waiting for her friend to follow her. Rachel hesitated again, but then complied. "Where are we going?" She asked, realizing she would never get an answer to the question 'what the hell is wrong with you?'. Lizzy shrugged.

"I don't know yet. Let's just follow the music, I'm sure we'll find some fun place to party." Rachel frowned, but didn't object. She decided it was probably best to follow Lizzy and to try and keep her out of trouble. Which was probably going to cost her all of the energy she had saved up during the morning. Sometimes, Lizzie didn't know which was more tiresome: four witchy brothers, or one insane friend.

"So, you and Reid had an argument?" She could see the taxi driver listening intensively, but decided she didn't really care. After all, it wasn't like he knew them, there wasn't really something she could do about it and, well, let's face it; times like these were probably the most exiting thing he would have all day.

"It's nothing." Lizzie replied curtly. Rachel groaned softly, rolling her eyes.

"Sure…. I mean, you're only engaged, so it isn't like you're relationship is that far along that you should be able to work these things out instead of running away from them." Lizzie glared at her, but didn't reply. Rachel glared back with just as much intensity, until Lizzie finally turned away and stared out of the window instead. "Liz…." Rachel sighed, finally caving. "You know how I hate seeing you two fight!" Lizzy turned around again, guilt evident on her face.

"I know, Rachel. And I'm truly sorry. But…. I don't know, it's just that after all that has happened, I just really feel like… like I need some space. And he's just not giving it to me, you know?" Rachel felt like her heart was breaking, because she could hear the tears Lizzy refused to cry in her voice.

"I understand, Liz, I really do. But he's only trying to help you. And for the past two weeks, he's given you all the space you asked for. So maybe now you just have to…. Well, I don't know, talk to him about it or something." Rachel silently cursed herself, really wishing she wouldn't sound like such a self-help book or something. Judging from Lizzie's face, she was thinking the same thing.

"Nice, Rachel. Really, that was beautiful." Lizzie was grinning now, and Rachel couldn't suppress her own smile.

"Shut up."

"No, really, I mean it. I mean, that was just full of inspiration."

"You're hopeless."

"You love me."

"I know, how sick is that?" The two girls laughed, finally forgetting all the drama of the last two weeks and enjoying the bliss that, as they both knew, would only last for a very short while.

"So where are we going again?" Lizzie looked out of the window again, before leaning forwards.

"Stop here." She commanded, in her normal, polite way. The cab pulled to a stop, and Lizzie quickly got out, motioning Rachel to follow her before turning back to the cabby. "Wait for a second, alright?" She handed him some money, causing him to nod enthusiastically. Lizzie grinned at him, before turning around and walking into the building behind her. Rachel frowned, but followed nevertheless.

"Liz…?" She asked softly. She heard the echo of her voice, before the sound faded away. Then her eyes widened, recognizing the building. It was where Reid and her and found Lizzie.

"Liz, what's going on?" Again, only the echo replied. Lizzie seemed to have disappeared in the dark.

"Liz!" She knew she was starting to sound desperate, but honestly, she was. Something, some small voice in her head, was telling her to run. That perhaps, Lizzie had never been completely cured, that whatever thing had controlled still was deciding every move she made.

"Oh, don't be a baby." Lizzie laughed, appearing out of a corner wearing a… well, you could call it a dress. Only it had the size of a shirt. "Let's go, I need some fun." Lizzie walked out of the door before Rachel really had a change to grasp the situation.

Yeah. This was NOT going to end well.


Rachel had been proven wrong many times, and she was starting to believe this was one of those times, something she was quite content with. She had danced with a few guys, never staying with one for more then one dance to avoid the whole awkward talk of 'I already have a boyfriend'. She had lost Lizzie a while ago, but wasn't that worried. After keeping an eye on the girl for over an hour without needing to pull her back from a bad situation once, Rachel decided she needed some fun as well. Right now she was dancing with a handsome blond who actually knew how to dance, unlike her previous dance partners. Rachel was testing him, throwing in some difficult moves to see how far he could keep up. It didn't take him long to get the game, and soon they became entangled in a playful dance battle. Lizzie had been right, Rachel thought to herself. She did need some time away from Reid and Tyler.

The boy, whose name she hadn't learned yet, spun her around and Rachel laughed as he caught her again. Then the song changed and she excused herself, pulling away from him to go and find Lizzie.

"Ah, come on!" The boy whispered in her ear. "I was having fun!"

Rachel grinned. Although she refused to think about herself as a slut, she did like it when boys tried to win her over. On occasion. When Tyler wasn't watching.

"Sorry." She replied sweetly, pulling away from him. He didn't follow her any longer and turned around, in search of a new girl to dance with. Rachel moved through the crowd without trouble. She had been to these kind of parties many times before, and she was starting to get the hang of it. But no matter how experienced she was, it still took her a lot of time to find her friend. Finally, she saw her, dancing in the arms of some guy. And then she watched how Lizzie leaned forward and pressed her lips against the boys mouth. Rachel froze.

She could still remember the bets that went around when Lizzie and Reid first started dating. Both had the reputation of being a bit of a player, so no one really expected it to last. No one, except for Rachel that is. Somehow she had always seen the two as 'the perfect couple', like they were born to be together. But it had been years, and neither one of them ever screwed up. At least, not as far Rachel knew. Not until now.

She forced herself to move and she walked towards the couple. Grabbing Lizzie's wrist, she pulled her friend away from the guy.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" She hissed angrily, making sure not to speak to loud. She didn't want anyone to overhear the conversation, even though she hadn't seen anyone she knew yet. Lizzie's eyes were wide, and the girl seemed to hesitate. "You're ENGAGED!" Rachel nearly snarled at her friend. She moved to grab Lizzie's hand, to show her the ring, but her hand stopped mid-air.

She wasn't wearing the ring. Rachel's eyes remained focussed on Lizzie's left hand for a few seconds, before she finally looked back up to her face.

"Where is your ring?" She asked, completely shocked. Kissing a boy was a … well, not exactly a mistake. Lizzie clearly wasn't drunk yet, so there really was no excuse for that. But the fact that she wasn't wearing her engagement ring meant that Lizzie had been planning on cheating on Reid all along. And that was more then Rachel could handle. She looked her friend in the eye, waiting for the explanation.

"I… I just…" The girl stammered, eyes filled with shock and something very close to confusing, like she wasn't that sure of what had just happened either. But Rachel had known her friend for a very long time. No matter what Lizzie did, she always thought it through. Rachel took a step back, shaking her head softly.

"I'm going home." She whispered. "I'll see you later." She turned her back to Lizzie and walked away.

"Please don't tell Reid!" Lizzie called after her, but Rachel ignored the girl. The tears were stinging in her eyes and everything was spinning way out of control. Her life was seriously messed up.

When she got into the cab, she said nothing except for the address. The driver tried talking to her, but she couldn't even bring herself to listen. Her best friend had cheated on her brother, and she was the only one who knew. Should she tell Reid? Or should she hope that Lizzie would do that for herself, to give them a change to fix this?

The drive to her apartment took about half an hour and when she got out of the car, she nearly forgot to pay the driver. She mumbled a quick apology, and then walked back upstairs, where she crawled into her bed. Tyler wasn't home yet, probably still working on Reid. Reid, who loved his girlfriend so much just having her yelling at him could bring him on the brink of tears. What would he do if he found out she had been cheating on him?

When Tyler got home that night, he found Rachel in her bed. She was still wearing her clothes and judging from the make-up on her face, she had been crying. Tyler sat down next to her, stroking the hair out of her face. Then he pressed his lips against her forehead and tucked her. After making sure Brian was fast asleep, he got in next to her, pondering over the exact same question as everyone else.

What the hell was wrong with Lizzie?


In case you're wondering, I do feel guilty. I wanted to update months ago, but... well, make your pick:

1) I missed way to much school last year due to an illness, which means I'm basically doing two years in one.

2) My teachers love killing me and give me way to much homework

3) They added another week of exams, which means I'm basically studying 24/7 about now

4) No one reviewed the last chapter. It made me sad :(

5) I had a really depressed day yesterday, and when I went shopping to cheer myself up, I couldn't find anything worth the money. How is that supposed to help me get into the writers mood?

Is it just me, or is way to much of the above about school? Anyway, I hope you liked the chapter. If you want the next on sooner, I'd suggest you review. PLEASEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

(no, I'm not desperate, where did you get that idea)

PS I might change the name of the story somewhere in the future. Yes, I know, I change names way to often, but well... I guess I just can't control myself.

The reviewers might just get a preview (if I can get myself to start writing the next chapter soon enough) and will hear a new idea I had in mind.