Author's Note: I liked this chapter in the beginning, but now I'm not so sure, so tell me what you think pretty please?

Previous Chapter: Annabelle and Tim decided to go steady.

Disclaimer: I do not own any familiar characters, situations or places. The lyrics are from Careless Whispers by George Michael.

Itsallaboutme: Good, I'm glad Tim seems realistic. Thanks for the review!

Hawaiichick: Thank you! Yes, Tim is rather sexy, isn't he? Haha. And yeah, enjoy the drama in this one because there's definitely some in it...

"time can never mend the careless whispers of a good friend"

I woke up slowly, yawning and blinking against the sunlight streaming in through the window. For once, I didn't instantly wonder whose bed I was in or whose arm was hugging my waist or whose lips were kissing my shoulder. I knew, and I snuggled in deeper against Tim's chest with a content grin.

"When'd you get this?" he murmured softly, tracing my tattoo with his finger.

"Mm… not too long ago. A month or less."

Tim nodded and was silent for a minute or two before he asked abruptly, "You hungry?" When I nodded, he climbed from bed, putting on his jeans. I pulled an old baggy tee of Tim's on that hung down to just below my thighs and we wandered on to the kitchen.

We had the house to ourselves, and Tim seemed to be on his best behavior, fixing me toast and coming up behind me, hugging me to his chest.

We stood like that for a minute, my ear pressed against his beating heart and my fingers brushing along his strong arms. He opened his mouth to say something but before the words could leave his throat, the sound of giggling met us. It was Angie, and from the sound of it, James was with her.

Oh lord, I thought frantically, I ain't ready for this. Tim caught my panicked look and raised his eyebrows. "You know everyone woulda found out anyway if you wanna be my girl."

He said it with a hint of a question in his tone, as if he were asking me if I had changed my mind, and I hadn't. I did still wanna be with Tim. I just didn't want a big confrontation with my best friend when she found out.

So I kissed Tim's lips softly and tried to keep from jumping into my defensive mode as the kitchen door swung upon and Angie stumbled in, James right behind her.

"Oh God." She stopped laughing, stopped smiling, nearly stopped breathing as she stared at Tim and me. My hand itched to reach down and tug at the bottom of my—Tim's—shirt, pulling it down a little more, but I wouldn't let it, instead meeting Angie's steely gaze with a cool one of my own.

We musta held glares for a good minute 'fore Tim cleared his throat uncomfortably. "Ang—" he started, but she wasn't even glancing at him.

"You. Whore," she spat out, her eyes narrowed angrily. Tears sprang to my eyes at her harsh tone, and Tim even seemed a little surprised.

"Takes one to know one," I shot back, swallowing the lump in my throat, determined not to let her see me cry.

"Real original, Ann. You come up with that yourself?" Her face was twisted in a snarl and I remembered back to seeing her treat other girls like this and thinking that I never wanted to be on the other side of that glare. Angela Shepard ain't someone you want to cross.

We were both tense, and when James tried to set his hand on her shoulder, she shook him off angrily.

But Tim had seen enough. "Stop." He stepped between us, giving Angela a stern glare and then shooting one at me. "Cool it," he snapped as Angie opened her mouth to protest.

He nodded his head at me, gesturing for me to go upstairs with him and leave Angela alone in her fury, but I wasn't quite ready to let it go. "Do you always have to be such a bitch?" I asked angrily.

She didn't even flinch, only tossed her head back and laughed, the sound harsh and rude. Instead of replying to me, she turned her head to her brother but kept her eyes glued to me. "You're really gonna screw with this trash? Do you have any idea the kinds of things that she's done?"

So this is how she wants to play the game, I thought grimly. Stupid move on her part. "Ha. At least I've never gotten trashed and then stripped naked on Buck's pool table."

Her eyes darkened considerably. "Oh please. You're the druggie that can't get through a week without some kind of a fix."

"Hey!" Tim snapped, grabbing Angela's arm to push her out of the kitchen before him and into the living room. The swinging door caught on the wrinkled rug and stayed open so I could still see Angela and she me, but Tim was talkin' quiet enough that I couldn't hear him. With them in the living room, James and I had been left alone. He seemed invisible though, for all the part he was taking in this fight. He just stood off in the corner and watched, playing with his lighter in boredom. He'd seen his girl get in a million fights just like this, so why should it have been any different for him?

It seemed weird to me though that it was so clearly nothing special to James, but for me it was like the whole world was tipping. This girl had been my best friend. I had held her hair back while she puked her guts out into the bushes after having a few too many drinks, and she had sat with me through the night when I was flying so high on drugs that I couldn't even remember where the ground was.

We knew each other's deepest, darkest secrets. She knew that I had caught a glimpse of my father on a bus a year ago as he was passing through town. In fact, she had been the one handing me the beer and cigarette as I vented angrily about his nerve, traveling back through like that, almost like he was checking up on us. And I knew that she was terrified of her stepfather, and I was the only one in the world that knew that he hit her almost once a week. Hell, Tim didn't like to leave her alone with him 'cause he expected it to happen in the future, but he had no idea it was already going on, or that the reason she always seemed to have a jacket shrugged on over her shoulders was to cover the hand-shaped bruises on her arms.

I'd asked her once why she never told Tim; this was when I was sitting beside her as she held an ice pack to her shoulder where he'd grabbed her, and she just turned her head at me, her eyes lookin' scary they were so haunted. "I ain't gonna be the one to put my brother in jail for murder."

But right then, as I stared at her standing in front of her brother as Tim lectured her, I couldn't remember all that stuff. She wasn't my best friend in that minute, not with the way she had her eyes narrowed at me as she slowly, deliberately mouthed out "Bitch."

And I don't know, maybe it was because I wasn't thinking about all those good times we'd shared that I launched myself at her the second she turned her face away again, shoving her back with my hands.

She whipped around to face me with a disbelieving look and Tim's eyebrows shot up as she leaned over and popped me in the jaw. And then it was an all-out fight, complete with hair-pulling, scratching and loud curses and insults.

It didn't go on for too long though before Tim managed to shove us apart. "What the hell is wrong with you two?" He bellowed, stopping both of us in our tracks. We stood a few feet away with him between us, both of us panting. She had a good black eye starting up and I could taste blood from where I'd bitten my tongue, not to mention the long scratch on my neck that was dripping red.

Tim took my arm and roughly pushed me toward the stairs and his room, giving me a glare when I turned back to flip Angela off. He wasn't exactly in the mood right then, so I left it alone, falling onto his bed with an exhausted sigh.

I could hear his voice as he yelled at Angela, and the angry tone of her own as she screamed back, but I couldn't make out any words, and I wasn't so sure I wanted to right then. A few minutes later, the whole thing ended with the slamming of the front door, and I knew Angie had left in a huff.

The stairs creaked a little as Tim walked back up, and I didn't lift my head to meet his gaze when I felt him stop in the doorway. "Annabelle," he began giving me the same lecture he'd given Angela, but I sat up with an angry glare.

"Don't even start with me, Tim. I ain't your sister and I don't want you tellin' me what I can or can't do," my voice shook with emotion, and it wasn't just the fury I was feelin'. It was also a little bit of upset over having lost my best friend.

"Maybe you ain't, but that don't mean that you get to run around bitch-fighting with her whenever you want to." I could hear the protective edge to his voice that he always had when he talked about his siblings, and right then I hated it. I'd always thought it was attractive before, admirable, but when Angela and I were enemies, I wanted my boyfriend on my side, not hers.

I was too tired and too worked up to fuck around with him or to listen to his speech, so I just grabbed my clothes and pulled them on, tossing Tim's shirt back onto his mattress with an angry flourish.

I didn't look at him as I got dressed, even though I knew he was watching me, and as I pushed past him to get out of that room, he reached his hand out and set it on my arm. "Annabelle, come on."

"No," I snapped out, sighing in frustration as I felt him tense beside me, instantly on the defensive. Running a hand through my hair, I stopped and turned to him. "Not now, Tim. I just can't do this right now. I'll catch up with you later."

And he let me go, watching from the window as I started my walk home, grateful for the chilly breeze.

So are Angela and Annabelle going to make up, or is this the end for their friendship? Will Tim figure out about Angela's being abused? And there will be some Two-Bit in the next chapter...