"What is that supposed to mean?" I asked hotly. It wasn't exactly right for her to put me in my place next to my mother when it was next to her.

"It just means that you seem to like her ways a lot."

"She did a lot of what I wanted to do with my career. Quite generally, I didn't like Link at the time. Not like that anyway," I defended. "The point is that my mother forced me to do things I didn't want to do."

"Like what?"

"Torment everyone on the Corny Collins Show. It was all for her reputation. I hated her, Penny. But I must give her gratitude for my advancement in my career. I mean, I'm already on my way to being a Broadway star, which was always my dream. She gave me the fame, but it was Corny Collins who taught me how."

"Is that why you like him so much, Amber? Because you could use him to learn how to dance?"

"I didn't manipulate him. He was my mentor, Penny." It seemed that I wouldn't win this argument, no matter how much I could declare I was telling the truth. After all, I hadn't before because of the snake I called my mother.

"How can I trust you? You lied to me for many years, Amber. Why did I even agree that we were friends?"

"Because you knew that you could trust me. When you took that phone call, you decided you needed a friend in the world. Was I really the only one you could talk to, or were you really trying to make amends with me?"

"I thought you could have changed." The words hit me hard. The knife plunged into my soul, and I realized that all of those years would amount to the fact that I would be alone for a long time to come, and it wasn't my fault.

We arrived at my house after the statement had finished being said. I silently got out and shut the door, but I didn't hear another open and close; Penny wasn't going to stay at the house. I waited for her emotionless mask to change, but it never did, so I entered the house, which seemed colder. The loneliness reverberated off the walls with each high-heeled step on the marble flooring. I was reminded of the red dress Penny had made that now lost its magic because of the fight; I was still wearing it, too. I liked the loneliness I felt when I hadn't had any friends before it.

-

Penny, like clockwork, picked me up at the same time for the next three days, but she wouldn't talk to me at all. She finally said something when the movers came to help me move from one chilled mansion to another, but it wasn't much.

"Amber, can I have few more days to mull this whole thing over?" she asked timidly, in an enclosed bathroom she decided was private enough.

"Sure," I said after a few seconds. I walked out rather briskly, but I did have a lot to plan. What was the real surprise was that Corny was standing at the open door; they had finished boxing and were moving them into the moving van. "Hello, Corny."

"I wonder how you managed to get a company that likes you. Generally it's the other way around."

"Here for a joust or Penny today, Corny?" I asked, crossing my arms over my modest dress; it was nearing a Baltimore fall.

"That's what I mean. They wouldn't dare deal with someone who has so much vitality in their sneers."

"So, you're here to give me compliments, Corny?" I pressed, angling a shoulder towards him before retracting it.

"No, actually I came to make sure that you aren't nostalgic over leaving this house."

"Goodbye to you, too, Corny," I finalized. I brushed past him and left to check how many boxes were in the van and how many had been put in the van.

"Amber, I..." he began.

"Anything else you'd like to say?" I was standing on the middle step on the outside foyer. I had uncrossed my arms when I left, but I now found them crossed again.

"I can't tell you when you're leaving for New York. It's just like I'm keeping you from what you want."

I saw a figure from behind Corny emerge questioningly, but I didn't bother with them. "Which would be what? Or is your tongue so tied that you can't tell me and you're just wasting my time so that I can't leave sooner so that you can see me tomorrow?"

"Amber, I can tell very much that you want to dance. It's your first love, and there won't be another to take its place."

"Where are you going with this?" I sounded harsh, but I didn't regret it. Somehow, I felt love and another friendship falling apart.

"You know what, just forget it."

"Right. Next time you want to get sentimental, just call me in New York. Get the number from Penny." I walked away, and I only saw him again after he climbed into his car and drove away.

-

"I saw your fight with Corny," confessed Penny. She decided she was okay enough to drive with me to New York. Her hands started twitching.

"It wasn't mostly a fight."

"He was frightened to tell you his feelings. I think they are mutual. Otherwise he wouldn't have freaked out." She put the darn lollipop back in her mouth.

"Thanks for the encouragement, Penny," I said, sighing as I took a curve slowly on the rainy road.

"What did one of you say that created this animosity?"

"'Next time you want to get sentimental, just call me in New York.' I don't regret it, though."

"That's the problem. But he probably didn't know that you regretted it. This is good."

"How? He hates me, you hate me, and everyone is avoiding me except for you two."

"Sometimes that's a good thing," mumbled Penny, staring out the opposite window with the lollipop hardly moving; something was bothering her…