Derek winced at the sound of Miley in his bathroom, puking from yesterday's events.

Lilly rubbed her tired eyes, "Is she at it again?" She asked.

Derek nodded with a look of disgust on his face. "Sounds it."

Lilly yawned, sitting herself up in the sleeping bag. "Were you okay yesterday?"

"What? With Miley?" He asked, furrowing his eyebrows. He then nodded, "Yeah, she slept through the night."

"Good." She nodded, "But that's not what I was talking about."

His eyebrows came together in confusion, but his facial expression showed that he knew what she was talking about. "What are you -"

THUMP.

Lilly and Derek's heads both whipped around to the source of the noise. They saw Miley, definitely not looking her best, clutching her toe in pain. She groaned, "Shit!"

Lilly suppressed a giggle. "Rough night?"

Miley looked at her, unamused. "Ya think?"

Lilly laughed, and Miley laughed. Then they were laughing together. As if both getting the same message, they stopped abruptly, realizing that this reunion should be awkward. Not funny.

Derek fumbled with his fingers. "So. Yeah." He turned to Miley, "How are you feeling?"

She sighed, sitting on the edge of his bed. "Horrible." She replied truthfully.

Derek raised his eyebrows. "Yeah, well, you should of seen yourself yesterday.." He stopped, noticing her regretful gaze. "I mean.. you.. yesterday was fine. You were fine. You handle it well. You know.. um, you slept the entire night. And you were just puking.. So, yeah, feeling horrible is normal. Completely normal." He nodded, looking flustered.

"Nice to know something hasn't changed." She grinned at Derek. "But.. Seriously, guys." She nodded at Lilly, "Thank you so much. I don't know what I would of done if you hadn't helped me out." She buried her head in her hands, "I'm so embarrassed." She muffled.

Lilly bit her lip. She shared a glance with Derek. She sighed. "We're always here for you. No matter what."

Miley lifted her head up, staring at Lilly. "But after everything.."

"No matter what, Miley." Lilly showed a toothy grin.

Derek nodded in agreement.

Miley's eyes were shining, on the verge of tears. "I'm really sorry." She was sincere.

Lilly shrugged, "You know we'd never leave you like that on your own.. and you slept the whole time, so it was no problem."

Miley shook her head, "No, I mean for.. abandoning you guys." She looked down, ashamed.

"Yeah, well. That kinda sucked." Lilly smirked. "But seriously, I have to know; Whywere drunk yesterday at four in the afternoon?"

Miley's face flushed. "Um, no reason really.. Everything just kind of caught up to me."

Lilly eyed her suspiciously, "You sure?"

Miley nodded. "Yep." She tugged at a piece of her messy hair.

Derek glanced at Lilly, both knowing there was something she wasn't telling them.

"Alrighty then.." Derek sighed, clapping his hands together. "Who wants pizza?"

Miley groaned in disgust.

"On second thought," Derek said, remembering Miley's condition. "Make that a coffee and an Advil."

Miley's stomach decided to turn at that very moment. She clutched a hand over her mouth, and ran to the bathroom. The sound of puking could be heard again.

"Make that two Advil."

- - -

"Miley, I think your phone is ringing."

She shrugged. "Yeah, I think it is too."

Lilly furrowed her eyebrows. "Maybe you should.. you know, answer it?"

She sighed, reaching over to the table and grabbing her pink razr cellphone. She looked at the front screen before mouthing, "Kristine" to Lilly and Derek. The obnoxious ringing ceased when she flipped the phone open.

"Hello?" She answered, "Oh, hey Kristine. Where was I last night? I told you I had to help my dad, remember? What crisis?" She rolled her eyes, Lilly giggled. "Oh, well, I'm sorry. Couldn't you find something else to wear? Oh, right.. Um. Tonight?" She glanced at Lilly and Derek, she sighed. "Yeah, I'll see you at six. Bye." She flipped her phone shut.

She stared at the screen for a minute before looking up and locking gazes with a very annoyed looking Lilly.

She crossed her arms. "You're hanging out with Kristine tonight?"

Miley nodded slowly. "Yes. But only because I need to give her back her skirt!" She defended.

Lilly sighed. Derek leaned forward, "So tell me, how's life on the other side?"

"A lot of work." She answered.

Derek nodded. "I see. What do they exactly do outside of school?"

"What are you, writing a book?" Lilly interrupted.

"I just thought I should know about my classmates! I go to school with them everyday, and I don't even know them. They could be crack whores for all I know!" He pointed a finger at Lilly. "You don't know it now, but this information could help you in the future."

She rolled her eyes, then turned to Miley. "So tell us Miley, about all the crack whores we attend school with."

Miley laughed, shaking her head slightly. "No crack whores."

Lilly stuck her tounge out at Derek. "Told you."

"But.." Miley continued, "They're all so.. fake. It's kind of scary."

"Yeah." Lilly agreed. "I mean, I always said they were fake. But it would suck to be in the middle of that."

Miley sighed. "I thought I was so cool at first, but I don't know. Some things just aren't worth it."

Lilly grinned. "And some things are."

Derek pointed to himself, Miley chuckled. Lilly hit him off the head with a pillow.

"You're so abusive!"

- - -

"So, uh, here's your skirt." Miley said, handing over a plastic Target bag with the skirt inside of it.

Kristine took it carefully, glancing inside the bag. "Thanks." She said blandly.

Miley rocked back and fourth awkwardly, "So, yeah.. I'll see you later..?"

Kristine threw the bag behind her onto her bed. "No, wait!"

Miley turned around, biting her lip. "I really have to go.."

"Why?" Kristine asked, furrowing her eyebrows. "I thought we were going to hangout?"

Miley shook her head, "I was just dropping your skirt off."

"Oh." Kristine said, sounding disappointed. She looked at Miley hopefully, "You can't stay?"

"Well, I mean.." She felt herself caving in. Sucking it up, she replied. "What about Colleen?"

Kristine laughed mockingly. "She's at Connor Foggarty's house." She rolled her eyes, "So much for grieving over Oliver."

Miley chuckled. "Yeah.."

"I feel like your my only real friend." Kristine blurted.

Miley's eyes widened. "Me?" She asked, shocked.

Kristine nodded. "Yeah." She sighed, "If you haven't noticed, me and Colleen aren't exactly ideal best friends. I mean, we're not like you and Lilly."

Miley decided to sit down, sitting at Kristine's pink computer chair. "But, well.. You guys are close and all.."

"Save it." Kristine said, sticking her hand out. "We're not. And you know it." She twirled her garnet colored birthstone ring around her finger, "And me and Jake have been official for a day and he's already ignoring my phone calls."

"I'm sure he's not ignoring them.." Miley said, trying to comfort her. "Maybe his phone's dead? Or he's busy.."

Kristine rolled her eyes, "Yeah, right." She sighed for the billionth time that night, "He's probably getting drunk with Oliver."

Miley gave her a sympathetic look before getting an idea that was going to make one person feel extremely awkward, and the other completely bullshit. She took a deep breath, knowing that this was a bad idea.

"What are you doing tonight?"

Kristine looked up, furrowing her eyebrows. "Nothing, why?"

- - -

"No. no, no, no, no, no Miley! Bad idea!"

"Come on, Derek!" Miley stomped her foot. "She's really not that bad. And she's going through some stuff right now."

Lilly crossed her arms. "Sorry, Miles. I'm with Derek on this one."

Miley groaned, "Well, she's outside of your house right now so you really have no choice."

"Miley! Do you remember who this is? She's been torturing us for, hmm, I don't know, our entire lives!"

Miley rolled her eyes, "People grow up. They change. Come on', she's not going to do anything."

Derek sighed, "Whatever." He mumbled.

Lilly looked at him, wide-eyed. "Derek!"

"Yes!" Miley grinned, then turned to Lilly. She gave her a pleading look.

"No!"

Miley rolled her eyes, "Who's the one dating Oliver Oken?! Hmm?" She raised her eyebrows. "You gave him a chance, and look how that turned out."

"I – I'm not.. that's.." Lilly stuttered, unable to find a way around it. She crossed her arms once again, "Fine." She mumbled. "But I won't enjoy it!"

"Thank you!" She cried out, giving both of her friends hugs. "I'll be right back. I'm gonna go grab her."

Once Miley was out of the room, Lilly walked over to Derek's window. "Hey, do you think I'd die from jumping out of this?"

Derek looked down, "Uh, probably."

"Dammit."

- - -

"You know, he's really not that funny." Lilly said, looking at Kristine like she had six heads. She was referring to her consistent laughter over Derek, whom Kristine found hilarious.

Kristine wiped a tear from her eye, "How can you say that? He's hilarious!"

"Yeah, Lilly, how can you say? I'm hilarious!" Derek grinned, looking at Lilly.

Lilly and Miley exchanged glances.

Kristine sat upright on Derek's couch, leaning forward as if interested in something. "So.." She started, "Is this what you guys do all the time?"

Miley fidgeted a bit, "Well, not all time.."

"I love it!" Kristine cut in, clapping her hands together. "It's such a relief to just sit back and hang out. Instead of parties and drama." She smiled, sitting back comfortably on the couch.

Derek furrowed his eyebrows. "You never just.. chill out? Ever?"

She tore her eyes away from her manicure to look up at him. She shook her head, "Barely." She sighed. "Besides, I hate being home. My mom is so.." She groaned, "I can't even describe her."

"Yeah," Derek nodded, "I know what you mean." He avoided eye-contact with Lilly.

"Alright!" Miley clapped, "Who wants to watch a movie?"

"I do!" Kristine beamed. "Is there popcorn too?"

Lilly pulled the bowl out from behind her, "Naturally." She grinned.

Kristine smiled. "What are we watching?" She asked.

"Um." Miley pulled out the movie from her bag, "The Grudge."

"No!" Derek squeaked. They all looked at him questioningly. He cleared his throat, "I mean.. I already saw that.. It was bad. Really bad. You don't want to watch it. Total waste of time."

Lilly looked at him suspiciously. "This wouldn't have anything to do with your phobia of scary movies, would it?"

Derek pointed to himself, laughing uneasily. "Phobia? Yeah, okay, Lilly. Stop making stuff up." He looked to Kristine, "I have no idea what she's talking about."

"Okay, then.." Miley said, "Then I'm just going to put in the movie now. If that's okay with you, Derek." She raised her eyebrows at him.

"Yeah! Perfectly fine." He smiled. "I just have to pee.. Yeah, I'll be right back." He said, walking out of his room and closing the door behind him.

Lilly plopped down on the couch next to Kristine. "We're not gonna see him for the rest of the night."

They all laughed as Miley joined them on the couch, carrying the bowl of popcorn with her.

- - -

I've been lazy lately with updates. Sorry about that.

Review? :)

- Cassidy