hey beautiful people! This chapter definitely came quicker than usual, and that is because I have to ship my laptop back to DELL computer company to get some stuff fixed, so I wanted to update one more time to let you all know! I WILL continue updating to my OLD 2003 computer which runs SO slow, but i posted my FIRST EVER story on there, so that's fine...vintage haha! My updates might come even slower from there, but hopefully not! It depends on my mood, i guess lol. I saved everything onto a flashdrive in case it gets deleted, so we are GOOD! Thank you all so much for your reviews, comments and feedback! They make me smile oh so much! Love you all! My next update will be from my old computer, yikes! haha. Maybe i'll start typing it tomorrow! I have a snow day, this is my FOURTH one! We never get snow days too! Awesome. Oh, and today I picked out what classes I will be taking for next year, my senior year. CRAZY! Okay, enough rambling, enjoy! I love you all!

I jumped too eagerly when I heard the door bell. I threw my door open and trampled down the stairs and opened the door. I was so relieved when I saw both Courtney and Gwen together standing in my doorway. (A/N just to be clear they didn't arrive together, they just got together at the same time!)

I immediately opened my arms and hugged both of them, and they embraced me in a hug too. It's nice to have friends. It's great to have friends who will drop what they're doing, and drop their differences just for me. That's true friendship.

"Oh my gosh, Bridge. Have you been crying?" Courtney pulled back and rested her hand on one of my shoulders. Gwen pulled back too and shut the door behind us.

"Um, yeah. A little bit. Okay, I'm going to wash my face, my bedroom is up the stairs to the right." I sniffled and forced a smile to my friends.

"Okay, we'll get settled in." Gwen said to me and I led the two up the stairs and I pointed to my room. I shut the bathroom door behind me, and turned on the dimmed lighting. I let the warm water run, and I splashed it on my face a few times until the redness and the puffiness of my eyes settled. I didn't look nearly as hideous as I did five minutes ago.

I patted my face with the yellow hand towel, and shut the light on my way out of the room. Gwen had rolled out a large navy blue sleeping bag, and set a pillow at the top of it. At the foot of my bed Courtney had laid out her purple sleeping bag nice and neat, practically parallel to my bed.

I walked barefoot to my bed and sat in the middle of it, crossing my legs. I patted my bed for the girls to join me and they both did.

"How long have you been alone for?" Courtney asks.

"Um, like thirty minutes. Give or take." I shrug.

"So…do you want to just start from the beginning? Or would you rather just not talk about it for a little bit?" Gwen asks.

I consider this, and run a hand through my hair. "No, I'll just tell you both now. I need to get this off my chest. No way can I tell my mom, she would freak. I've never kept anything from my mom before either, so this is kind of a big deal."

Both girls wait and listen.

I take a deep breath, "After school Geoff came over and we were just watching a movie, the usual. Then…I don't know. He just started getting all touchy, more so than usual." I shift uncomfortably. "Then when the movie ended I went upstairs to change my shirt, and I guess he followed me up here. I was fully clothed and everything, but then we just ended up kissing, and when I asked him to stop, he got mad and we ended up fighting. He just wasn't hearing me out, and he-he was acting like a total, a total ass!" I said angrily. Suddenly, my emotions took on a drastic change from sad to angry. "He was being so unfair! Like, he wouldn't even give me a chance, he kept trying to…well you know what, I'm not even totally sure. All I know is my neck is sort of pink from him, I just hope it goes down." I run my fingers over the spot.

Gwen moved my hand to see the spot. "Oh yeah, that will go down in a half hour." She says surely.

I smiled weakly at her. "Thanks, my mom would murder me, and then my dad would go after Geoff."

Courtney interjected, "That doesn't sound like a bad idea right about now."

"I'm with you." Gwen said nodding her head, and to my surprise the two girls high-fived.

"I seriously have no idea how lucky I am to have you guys." I smile to my new best friends.

"Don't mention it, that's what we're here for. I mean if we were just going to hang around by ourselves all the time then we wouldn't need friends." Gwen says.

Courtney nodded her head and said, "Yeah, and I know sometimes I'm not the easiest to get along with-"

"Ya think?" Gwen interrupted, raising an eyebrow.

Courtney ignored her comment, "Anyway, I do need to thank you for putting up with me, and I'll always be here for you." She patted my knee.

My cell phone which was sitting on the floor where I had left it before started to ring. I unfolded my legs from underneath me and walked over to my phone and picked it up. When is saw who was calling I scoffed angrily. "It's Geoff. Who does he think he is?" I shoved my phone into the draw of my old bureau, drowning out the sound of the ringer.

"That's disgusting. Men are pigs." Courtney said shaking her head.

"Hey, not all guys are like that." Gwen says a little defensively.

"Oh, really?" Courtney challenged.

"Yes, really. Trent would never do that sort of thing Geoff is pulling on Bridgette now." Gwen tells Courtney. Courtney simply rolled her eyes. Ah, she's back.

"Only because he's afraid of your freakish Goth ways." she says dismissively.

"Okay, that's it. I told myself I would be on good behavior tonight only because Bridgette needed me, but if you're going to act like a little brat all night, then don't expect me to-"

I couldn't take this, and I had to stop one of them. "Girls, girls! Stop fighting, please. It isn't worth it. You're not even fighting over anything." I tell them. Gwen's expression softens, and I can sense Courtney relax a little more. "Let's just take a deep breath." I suggest.

Gwen took my suggest and looked back to Courtney. "Look, Courtney. I-I'm sorry for verbally attacking you just now." Gwen shrugs. "I don't know, it's just something about me that gets really defensive. I've always been that way." She tells the both of us.

Courtney takes a deep breath as well. "Apology accepted, and to be honest I'm a little defensive now and again too." Gwen and I exchanged looks and started giggling.

"What?" Courtney asked, turning heads between the two of us. "What, what is it?" She asked again.

"Nothing, Court. Nothing." I smiled and crawled onto the bed in between the two of them.

"So now what?" Courtney asks.

"What do you mean?" I say.

"Like, what do we do now?" She blinks.

"You've never been to a sleepover before, have you?" Gwen says.

Courtney bit her lip for a second, and shook her head. "Nope. Never." She sighed. "I guess I've never been the best at making friends, but you already knew that, didn't you Gwen?" I swore a look of guilt flashed over Gwen's face. "It doesn't bother me because I keep busy, I have tons of activities. I honestly have no time for friends." Courtney says stiffly.

"Well, what about us?" Gwen asks.

I was surprised when Gwen said us meaning she was her friend now too. I guess it's possible for two totally different girls to become friends. Maybe not best friends, not even close friends. But friends, that's enough. Courtney picked her head up and looked at Gwen, and smiled pretty big. I beamed in between the two of them, and sighed happily.

"Girls, this is the start of a beautiful friendship." Then I laid back on my bed, resting my head on my pillow.

"You got that right." Gwen says.

"Definitely." Courtney agrees.

An hour later I had called my mom's cell phone and told her that I had two friends sleeping over, and she sounded pretty thrilled that I was making friends, and invited them over for the night. She told me that she would be home late, and that if we got hungry then we could just order pizza or take out.

We settled for ordering a pizza, a small vegetarian, and a small cheese. We hung out in my living room for the most part and left the TV volume on low for some atmosphere in case things for quiet, but when there are three girls in the house loaded up on junk like pizza, things don't get boring or quiet for the matter.

We were chatting and laughing for hours straight, it was like we were programmed that way and we couldn't stop. Our energies were up so high; we were just so alive and we weren't doing anything out of the ordinary.

Once we calmed down we crashed all over the living room, Gwen laying on the floor, Courtney laying out on the recliner and me sprawled out on the couch.

"Wow, I love Fridays." Courtney says in amazement.

"Who doesn't?" Gwen agrees.

"Hey wanna play a game?" Courtney asked giggling, sliding down onto the floor, pushing the coffee table back a few feet.

"What kind of game?" I asked skeptically.

"Truth or dare." She smirked.

"I love dares." Gwen declared and slid onto the floor too.,

"Oh gosh. Okay, that's fine. As long as this doesn't involve anyone disturbing my neighbors, that's fine." I agree.

"So who wants to go first?" Gwen asks.

"Me, me, me!" Courtney's hand shot up in the air, Gwen and I exchanged looks. "Okay…Gwen, truth or dare?" Courtney asked deceivingly.

"Dare." Gwen answered confidently.

"Okay, I dare you to….hmm…what's a good dare." Courtney pondered for a moment.

I nervously hoped that Courtney wouldn't pick anything too disturbing for Gwen to do that would end in conflict.

"Okay, I have one! I want you to prank call Duncan." Courtney had just barely said, bursting in to a giggle fit. I don't see what's so funny, and neither did Gwen. But I wasn't comfortable bringing Duncan into this since I'm still itching to tell Courtney about his faux feelings for her.

"Fine with me. Hand me the phone, please." Gwen held her hand out and waited. I reached over and handed her my house phone that was settled in between the couch cushions. "Be sure to block my house number before you call okay? I'm pretty sure his parents are cops." I say before handing Gwen the phone.

"You got it, and besides Duncan won't do anything." Gwen says sure of herself. Then Gwen looked to Courtney. "So what do I say? How do I disguise my voice?" Gwen asks.

Courtney looked to me and I shrugged, "It's your dare, Court."

"Can you try a French accent, and call and just mess with him, it'll be hilarious." Courtney grinned.

I wasn't so sure what Courtney was thinking. I mean the dare was so random, it wasn't exactly daring. We could do this without playing truth or dare. Before I knew it, Gwen was calling and trying on her fake accent, which sounded pretty convincing actually. She has been taking French classes since grade six, so she has the accent down pretty fantastically, you can't even tell that it's her.

"Who is this? Listen chick I ain't in the mood to mess around with some foreign chick with a heavy accent." Duncan's voice said annoyed over speaker phone. Courtney covered her mouth trying to fight the giggles, I merely smiled at Gwen who was smirking.

"Excuse me, misoure, I was end this telephone call as soon as you connect me to a Anita Showa." I smirked, knowing that Duncan was totally going to fall into Gwen's trap, as cheesy as it is.

"Listen, lady there is no Anita Showa here." Then Duncan paused, and you could hear him muttering to himself quietly. "Anita Showa, A-nita-I need a…shower-GWEN, is that you?" She shouted angrily onto the phone.

"Quit, hang up!" I whispered frantically, and Gwen clicked End Call quicker than I could blink, and then we all busted into chaotic laughs.

"That was so corny, but so funny." I said in between laughs.

"What do you expect, I was on the spot!" Gwen said, her laughter dying down. "Courtney, why did you want me to prank Duncan. It was kind of random, don't you think?" Gwen says once we've calmed down.

"Um," Courtney bit her lip, and leaned up against the couch, and pulled her knees up to her chest. "Honesty time?" She suggested.

"Well, this is truth or dare." I shrug.

"Right." Courtney nodded her head. "I-I think I might, I mean I use the term 'might' very, very loosely. Anyway, I think there's a chance, that possibly, I might, might, might, might like…Duncan." She winced once the words came out of her mouth.

Gwen and I exchanged looks and started busting out laughing again. Courtney furrowed her brow at one point and huffed. "What's wrong?" I asked her.

"Well, I'd like to know what in the world is so hilarious about me expressing my feelings!"

"Um, everything." Gwen said smirking.

"Nothing!" I shot a look to Gwen. "Nothing, we just…we know you like Duncan." I tell her.

"What, what do you mean you know?"

"We just…we know." Gwen says lamely.

"Well, why didn't you tell me!" Courtney demanded.

Me and Gwen started giggling again, "We just thought you knew!"

Courtney rolled her eyes. "Whatever." She sighed. "Confession time." She announced.

"Confessions? I don't believe I know this game." Gwen joked.

I nudged her in her side, and we let Courtney talk.

"Bridgette, I'm sorry for being such a…such a-I can't believe I'm about to say this- such a Princess, that time in the bathroom when we were talking about the 'fake date'." Courtney apologized.

"What fake date?" Gwen asked puzzled.

"We'll explain later." I told her. "Apology totally accepted, Courtney." I didn't feel like gloating and telling her that I was right about how when you mess with someone's emotions, someone always does get hurt. Although, at this point no one is hurting just yet.

"You're a good friend, Bridgette." Courtney says.

"Thank you."

"Hey, can we please get back to our game? Enough with this mushy girl stuff, please." Gwen said teasingly.

"Yes, we can most definitely get back to the game." I promised.

And at that point I knew there was no way that I could tell Courtney that Duncan was totally playing her. I mean how could I? She just told me how I was a good friend and she was totally honest with me and Gwen, whom she's disliked for so long, and I've finally gotten all three of us to get along.

I can't just drop the bombshell on all of us. I can't just ruin our little party due to honesty. Who does that? Besides a good person. I shake my thoughts away. If I'm meant to tell Courtney about Duncan then I will. The truth always finds its way out, and why do I need to be the one to tell her? It's none of my business anyway. And who knows, maybe Duncan likes her too. He hits on her enough.

To be real, as we continued our game of truth or dare, and goofed around I didn't mind not telling Courtney. We were having so much fun and I didn't want to ruin our happiness. I didn't want to think about boys or Geoff, or boys that know Geoff. I was having too much fun hanging out with just the girls, something I've never actually done before.

When my parents came home the girls and I headed up stairs and hung out in my room. The lights were off, and we were all in our 'beds' and we just talked until we drifted off into sleep. Gwen was the first to fall asleep, surprisingly since she is such a night owl.

I turned on my side, and glanced at my digital alarm clock, it blinked 2:09 am.

"Are you still awake?" Courtney's voice peered up from below.

"Court?" I blinked, and rolled onto my back, and looked up into my skylight.

I heard her moving around in her sleeping bag. She sat up, and crawled onto my bed, and laid down next to me. "Sorry, I just wanted to make sure you were away too. Mind if I lay up here for a few minutes?"

"Of course not." I say, and move over a little to make room for her.

"Thanks," Courtney made herself comfortable, and laid her head on my pillow as well. "I just wanted to say thanks for being such a good friend to me. I know we've only been friends for a few months now, but you're my best friend." She said in a hushed voice, maybe she was talking so quietly because silence is intimidating, or maybe she didn't want to wake Gwen. "I've never had a real best friend before." she admits.

"Friends are honest with each other, and we tell each other things that we might not want to hear, but we say them because we know that it will help each other in the long run. It's honesty that can make a real relationship work, friendship or romantic relationship, which is why I don't think it could ever work with Duncan…" her voice trailed off. "He's a…a criminal, basically. My parents would never approve of us in a million years. Never." She almost sounded really sad, genuinely upset.

"If you really want something Courtney go for it." I tell her. She was quiet and didn't say anything, I knew she was thinking. Thoughts are dangerous. "I promise that if you do what makes you happy, then it will be so worth it. There's nothing in the world that's worth risking your happiness. Just go for it, there's no reason not to." I'm speaking from my heart. All of the things I've learned from nature, I never thought I'd be telling to someone else, especially Courtney. The girl who was always together. The girl who is so sure of herself.

I almost wanted to bring a tear to my eye. I turned on my side to look at Courtney, and she turned on her side to face me. "You're my best friend too." I told her.

"Promise?" Courtney asked, putting her pinky out.

I giggled and wrapped my pinky around hers. "Promise."

I hope you guys liked it! Update as soon as I can. Love you all, much love! thanks for everything

- Johnna