A/N: Lol, I don't even remember the last time I updated. I wish I could update faster, but I've come to the stage where I've got the whole story planned out in my head but I can't put it into words. That, coupled with all the extra work my teachers keep piling on me, makes it hard to sit down and write.

Anyway, just to warn you people, I'm not happy with this chapter. It's kind of like a filler, except for the end. But please bear with me. I promise I'll make the next chapter more interesting.

Chapter Nine

Conner strummed the first few chords of his new song on his guitar, and sang the first two lines.

"Baby, I know I was the one who left you,

But that didn't mean I stopped loving you too..."

Conner stopped playing and groaned out loud. Was it just him, or did that sound extremely corny?

Deal with it, McDermott, he thought to himself. He had tried over and over again, but every new song he wrote seemed to revolve around Elizabeth. And not just any heartfelt song about her. Corny songs. So finally, he had decided to just go ahead and sing some corny love song. He didn't have anything better to sing at the moment. And anyway, he hadn't yet finished writing this song, so maybe he still had time to make it better.

Conner sat down to work. He was determined to make the song better. Something that would be as much of a hit as his other song 'Stone Heart' had been. He racked his brain for almost two hours, forgetting homework and anything not related to his music. He stayed on his bed, writing and rewriting lyrics.

Finally, when his page seemed to be covered in scratches and his scrawl of a handwriting, Conner sat back to read his work. It was still sketchy in some places, and some lines still seemed corny, including the first two lines, which he had decided to keep because even though it sounded corny, it was true. But he thought it was passable. Enough to make someone sit and listen instead of getting up and walking away in disgust.

Conner got off his bed and stretched. Time for a break. But just as he was about to go down and grab something to eat, the phone rang. He walked across his room and picked it up on the third ring.

"Hello?"

"Anti-social man," Andy's voice greeted him from the other end.

"Hey, man, what's up?"

"Okay, so I was getting bored sitting around at home and playing Quake III, which I'm getting quite good at...except that I keep getting killed. Anyway, I made some calls and we're all planning on meeting up tonight to unwind from all the stress that seems to have been in the air lately. So meet us at the Riot tonight."

"Who all are coming?" Conner asked, his fingers tightening around the phone cord.

Andy exhaled impatiently. "Can't you just come?"

"Who all are coming," Conner repeated through gritted teeth.

"If you absolutely must know, Evan, Jade, Ken, Maria, Jess...Tia...and, um, Liz," Andy finished hesitantly.

"Count me out."

"But the others-," Andy started saying, but Conner hung up before he could finish his sentence.

Great going, he sighed. He was starting to feel quite immature. But he couldn't be bothered about that. He had to concentrate on unclenching his fist, slow down his racing heart and keep it from twisting painfully. His appetite seemed to have disappeared as well.

Funny how one girl could affect him in so many ways. And funny how he was letting her do so.


Elizabeth sat on her bed, twisting her bed sheet into knots. She was supposed to be at the Riot in another fifteen minutes and she hadn't even made the effort to get ready. She was thinking about just ditching her friends and staying at home. Tia would definitely kill her. She had personally called Elizabeth and bugged her till she said that she would come. But Elizabeth would have to deal with Tia's death glares. Either that, or spend the next two hours forcing smiles and laughs.

She decided to stick with her plan of staying at home. Mrs. Sandborn was out with her usual club friends. Megan had gone over to her friend's place to study. And Conner would most probably be locked in his room, not going to the Riot thinking that she would be there.

Elizabeth sighed. This whole thing of Conner avoiding her at every chance was getting old. She was almost tempted to go over to Conner's room and beg till he took her back, but even she had some amount of dignity left.

Elizabeth's stomach growled loudly without any warning. When was the last time she'd eaten? She couldn't really remember. Ugh, you're turning into a complete damsel in distress, she thought in disgust. She got out of her messy bed and headed down to the kitchen to grab something to eat.

Just as she was in the pantry, getting a cup of yoghurt, she heard Conner's heavy footsteps coming towards the kitchen. Trying to appear nonchalant, Elizabeth turned around casually, just in time to see him walk in. His eyes flicked over to her and widened ever so slightly in surprise.

"Thought you were at the Riot," he muttered, walking over to the fridge and grabbing a soda.

Now it was Elizabeth's turn to be surprised. Was he actually talking to her?

"I was supposed to go, but I-,"

"I wasn't asking you," he cut her short, and then walked out.

Elizabeth's nonchalant demeanour vanished and her shoulders slumped forward. When was this going to end?


"Shoot," Jessica muttered, rubbing vigorously at the orange stain that was forming on her white shirt. How had she managed to tip half a glass of orange juice on herself? Now she had to rush to the Laundromat immediately if she wanted to get the stain out and if she wanted to be at the Riot on time. Nowadays she wasn't even using Lila's million facilities to get her clothes washed. Who knew whether Lila would "accidently" add some sort of dye to her clothes on seeing them?

Jessica quickly changed, gathered all her other clothes that needed to be washed, took the stained shirt and rushed to her jeep. While driving to the Laundromat, Jessica started thinking about how Melissa would affect her Art classes now. Every move she made around Mike would be reported to her minions, who would then go around spreading the news to the whole school that 'Jessica the slut' was back in action. Jessica had to know this by now. She'd faced it before. Even though Melissa hadn't done anything today, Jessica knew that the witch would strike soon.

Jessica pulled into the parking lot of the Laundromat and sighed. Maybe this war would never end. Even though the whole Will incident had gotten over so long ago, she knew that Melissa would never rest till Will was far away from Jessica.

But first things first, instead of thinking so much on the situation, she had to get this stupid stain out of her shirt. Jessica stuffed all her clothes into a washing machine, switched it on, and then sat on the machine next to the one she was using, fidgeting and looking at her watch every five seconds. Within two minutes, she was already bored and irritated. There was no one else other than her and an old, anti-social lady in the room, so she decided to occupy herself by staring at her clothes being washed.

"You know, it's real fun to sit inside the drum of a washing machine," an all-too-familiar deep voice said behind Jessica, making a goofy grin spread across her face immediately.

"Yeah?" she turned around to face Mike, all thoughts of rushing to the Riot disappearing immediately. "Had any experience recently?"

"Nah," he shook his head, grinning. "When I was a kid, I used to sit inside the drum and tell my mom that I wanted to have my bath there."

Jessica laughed. "I used to go in there and pretend to give my Barbie dolls a full body and hair wash in it. You know, like a day at the spa. Unfortunately my mom would never allow me to actually switch on the machine with me in it. I wonder why..." Jessica pretended to ponder on this.

"Ah, those good ol' days," he said, chuckling. "When we were still small enough to fit inside washing machines."

"And when we were still young enough to not have any problems other than being disgusted about having to sit next to a boy."

"Seriously," he agreed. "Life was so simple back then."

"Hmm, so simple," Jessica echoed, staring off into space.

"God, when did life get so complicated? I mean, I know we're still technically 'kids', but even at this age we face a lot. It'll just get worse as we grow older."

Jessica didn't reply. She was yet again pulled back to her first few weeks of senior year. The embarrassment, humiliation, and worst of all, regret. Her life now was constantly filled with 'what ifs'. What if she had never made the first move with Will? What if she had never called him home? Her whole senior year would have changed. She would never have to constantly avoid running into Will. She would never have lost her best friend. Everything would have been different. But she probably wouldn't have ever tried making friends with Elizabeth's group- the ones she now called her real friends.

But still, life would have been much better, she thought. And who knows? Maybe the whole Tia group could have gotten along with Lila and Amy. We would form the weirdest bunch.

"Lost in space?" Mike's voice jerked Jessica out of her thoughts.

"Huh? Oh yeah, um, sorry," Jessica apologized, suddenly noticing that Mike had moved closer to her, sitting at the edge of the machine next to hers.

"No worries. I do that a lot myself. So, is it time yet for me to get a gist of your...dark and twisted past, if I can call it that?"

Jessica smiled. "Dark and twisted, huh? Yep, you can definitely call it that. And, um, maybe I'll tell you some other time?"

Mike looked disappointed for a second, but he quickly covered it up and said, "Sure, sure. Take your time. I said I would wait."

Then, like the day before, he took her hand in his. An electric jolt shot up Jessica's spine. This was stronger than the reaction she had felt the previous day. She looked up to see Mike watching her closely.

"Don't tell me you didn't feel that," he said in a soft whisper, tracing random patterns on the back of her palm. Jessica's heart rate accelerated.

"Feel...what?" she choked out, trying to feign innocence.

He was not fooled. He put a hand on her cheek and traced her cheekbone with his thumb. Jessica's eyes fluttered closed. Every inch of her wanted him to kiss her. And he seemed to want to grant her wish. She could feel him moving closer, his warm breath on her face...

But before their lips could meet, Jessica heard a sharp intake of breath and felt Mike pulling away. Her eyes snapped open. She saw him put a hand on his face and shake his head.

"What-,"

"I can't," was all he said. Then he got up and rushed out.


Mike raced out of the Laundromat, his head swirling with thoughts. What the hell was wrong with him? How could he have let himself lose his self-control like that? How could he have risked getting into another relationship where he would end up disappointed again?

Mike mentally kicked himself. He could not do this to himself again. He had promised himself after that fateful day when he found Lisa cheating on him that he would never get involved in a serious relationship again. He was fine with flirting, and that's what he had been doing with Jessica. But somehow in the process, he started liking her. Really liking her. For some reason, he found that he could relate with her, even though he hardly knew anything about her other than the fact that she was beautiful, funny and intelligent. But he couldn't be with Jessica. He would just disappoint both himself and her by not trusting her fully. He would probably turn into one of those jealous boyfriends that he had always made fun of.

Mike shook his head in frustration. It had taken every bit of his energy to pull away from Jessica. He had been totally drawn in by the unexpected rush of electricity that he felt when he had taken her hand. But if he couldn't control himself when he was around her, what would he do the rest of the year, with her in so many of his classes? He had thought that he could trust himself around her, that she was just another girl that would eventually step out of his life without it mattering to him, but he knew now that that was not the case. Jessica could never be just another girl. He could tell this much from what he had interpreted about her.

He decided that he would have to resort to the most immature stunt, one that he had always hated doing.

Guess it's time to play the old game of hide and seek.