I slowly walked into the kitchen door and snuck into my room right before sunrise. I went into my bathroom and looked in the mirror; there I saw a tired, dirty looking girl with a red mark on her cheek that soon would turn into a bruise. My reflection made my tears quickly return. If Jason didn't want me when I was wearing makeup he sure wouldn't want me with this huge hideous mark on my face.

I climbed into the shower to wash all the dirty off; I was scrubbing so hard my skin was turning red. Just then I noticed I wasn't scrubbing to get the dirt off; I was trying to scrub away my shame.

Finally once I was done with my shower I changed into some pajamas and crawled into bed where I slowly cried myself to sleep.

I was awakened a couple hours later by a knock on my door. I hoped that if I didn't answer the person would just go away, but man was I wrong.

"Jamie, we're coming in so you better be decent," I could hear Allie joke from the other side of my door before her and Lola walked in. I quickly pulled the covers over my head.

"C'mon Jamie, we know you might be mad but you could at least look at us," I felt tears come to my eyes. They told Joshua about Jason; it's their fault that Joshua had hit me. I then quickly pulled the covers back and sat up; making sure I looked them square in the eye.

They gasped at my face.

"Oh my goodness, what happened to you?" Lola asked as both my cousins rushed over to me. I shrugged away from them and stepped out of my bed.

"Joshua hit me last night," I started out bitterly, "and would you like to know why?" I asked them. They didn't respond.

"Because y'all told him about me and Jason! He said I was cheating on him when I wasn't even freaking dating him!" I yelled. I had never yelled at anyone before, let alone my own cousins.

"Jamie, we are so sorry," Allie said as she rushed over to hug me; Lola just put her head down and stayed on my bed. I started crying into my cousin's arms.

Allie slowly led me over to the bed and sat me down.

"And to top it all off," I said between sobs, "Jason stood me up. I guess y'all were right…he wasn't different," I said before I buried my head in my pillow to cry.

I could feel both of them gently rubbing my back, and soon I drifted off to sleep again.

Lola's POV

Allie and I slowly got off Jamie's bed so we wouldn't wake her, and as soon as we were out her room I started crying. I felt horrible; all this was my fault.

"What's wrong?" Allie asked me.

"This is my entire fault! If it wasn't for me telling Joshua he never would have touched Jamie," I cried softly. Allie and I slowly made our way down to the living room. I had to think of a way to make this up to Jamie.

"We need to do something for Jamie," Allie said, taking the words right out of my mouth.

"I couldn't agree more," I said with a sniffle.

We sat down and turned on the T.V.

There on the T.V. were clips from last night's The Tonight Show, and sure enough right in front of our faces was Connect 3.

"…Thankfully Connect 3 could fill in!" the T.V. announcer said after the clip. So, that's why Jason stood Jamie up; a last minute talk show.

"I think I know a way we could make this up to Jamie," Allie said, never taking her eyes off the T.V.

Jamie's POV

I woke up, this time several hours later only to find that the sun was setting. Normally I would be ecstatic, thinking soon I'd be with Jason, but not tonight. I crawled out of bed and looked in the mirror. Sure enough, there it was; an ugly black and blue mark right on the side of my face. Luckily for me my parents were gone for the night. I headed down to the kitchen. I made myself a bowl of cereal, but I just couldn't eat it; my appetite had left, along with Jason.

Suddenly, Allie and Lola busted through the kitchen door. They were in an unusually happy mood.

"Jamie, we have a surprise for you," Allie said with a giggle. I really wasn't interested in anything they had to say though.

"That's cool; thanks. Just leave it on the porch and I'll open it later," I said nonchalantly.

"Trust me; you don't want to keep this one waiting," Lola said with a grin. I sighed and stood up to go outside.

There in front of my eyes stood Jason Gray.