My feet thuded softly against the carpeted flooring of the hall as I walked towards the stairs. I passed by my dad's office, the door slightly ajar allowing me to see him sitting at his desk, his elbow propped on the desk supporting his chin as he stared intently at his computer.

I bounded down the stairs, my hand sliding against the smooth wood of the banister as I jogged down. Lacey was going to be here within the hour to pick me up so we could start our dress shopping adventure. I groaned at the thought, but gave up. Maybe Lacey was right. I needed something to get my mind off things, even if it was a little less suffering than chinese water torcher.

I counted down the thirty minutes as I walked into the kitchen. My mother sat at one of the stools pushed into our kitchen table with her laptop planted in front of her. She was babbling about something to it as if she were talking to a friend. I had heard her in my room talking to someone and I imagined it was my father. But after passing him in the hall, I figured she may have been on the phone. But now as I look at her, she clearly was on Skype. Oh dear Lord this is not good.

She spoke quickly telling whoever was on the other end to hold on a sec. She quickly slid from her seat and came to stand in front of me. On her journey I watched her with a questionable expression, wondering what the hell was going on. As soon as she came close enough that I could smell her winter mint breath, I knew anything she said from now on was sending me straight to hell.

"Dylan," she whispered gently. I knew that tone. It was the tone she used when she's about to tell me something I didn't want to hear and know I'll get pissed. And I knew at that moment of who was on the other end of that Skype call.

"I have Alex on Skype," She said, proving me right. I crossed my arms and switched my weight to one of my legs, waiting for her to continue. She knew I didn't want to talk to him, yet she was just about to suggest it. "I really think you should talk to him."

I sighed loudly. She was not suggesting it, but demanding I do it in a nicer way. I was about to tell her there was no way in hell I was going to talk to him, but the guilt in the bottom pit of my stomach started gnawing at me again. I felt kind of guilty about yelling at Alex the other night, even though he totally deserved it. Didn't he? It made me feel better knowing that everything I've been holding back for years was finally out, my thoughts spoken. But now I needed to mend it. Now I needed to decide whether or not I should forgive or forget Alex.

"Fine," I said, uncrossing my arms and dropping them to my sides. I may regret it, but it needed to be done. I walked across the room to the chair my mom sat at and slid in front of the computer. My brothers familiar face appeared on the computer screen, his eyes going wide as he was taken by surprise by my appearance.

He quickly recovered and shook his head, "Hey."

"Hi," I said weakly. I was tired of the drama. I wanted this over with.

"Dylan," Alex started saying, but stopped abruptly. He was testing the waters. He wanted to see if I was actually going to allow him to speak, and I was. I looked up at him, showing him I was all ears and looking at the screen with minor curiosity. Heaven only knows what he was about to say.

"Dylan I'm really sorry," Alex said. I was about to open my mouth, but thought better. This was Alex's turn, I had my shot to voice my opinion.

I nodded, taking it in. I knew he was sorry for what he did, but it didn't make it any better. It didn't change the fact that what he did still stung like a bitch. I wasn't sure if I wanted to forgive Alex. There was still a question nagging at me, keeping me up at night tossing and turning. And only he could answer it. And since I refuse to speak to him on any other terms, I thought I would ask it now.

"Why didn't you say goodbye?" I squeaked out. I was embarrassed by how my voice sounded. I flushed red as I cleared my throat, trying to break down the lump that formed. Alex didn't seem to notice my choke as he sighed in defeat.

"I honestly don't know Dylan," Alex whispered. I could barely hear him over the computer. His voice was fuzzy and a bit staticy from the computer reception. I sighed, pondering my thoughts on this. "Dylan," Alex began again. My head shot back from my hands to his face on the computer. Alex hesitated and continued.

"Look, I know I'm not your favorite person right now. What I did was wrong, and I now see it. But I didn't mean to hurt you Dyl." I nodded at his words, showing him I understood. He continued. "I hated the feeling before when you gave me the cold shoulder for ditching you, and I hate feeling it now. I honestly loved having my sister back. You're not Jack, Zack or Rian."

"Nor," I corrected his grammar just to piss him off.

"Whatever," he said, and continued going on. "Anyways, Dylan I am so very sorry about what I did. Can you please forgive me?"

I wasn't totally sure I believed any of Alex's words, they seemed too good to be true. His apologise was along those lines the last time, and he broke it. I wasn't sure I wanted to forgive him. I wanted the drama to end. Everything that dealt with Alex or the band made me feel sick and dizzy. I loved having my brother too, it was great, along having the rest of the band at my back. But how many times do you forgive until you finally realize they are just going to keep fucking you over?

At that moment Lacey's car horn blared through the neighborhood. I looked out the front window to see her jeep sitting by the curb in front of the house. I released a breath and turned to Alex.

"I don't totally forgive you," I admitted, because I didn't. I knew there was a good chance I was going to regret this, but I was also under a lot of pressure with my mom staring at me and my brother giving me bambie eyes along with Lacey blaring her car horn like she was being fucking murdered in the background. But if he hurts me again, it will be the last thing he does. "But I will forgive you enough."

"I'll take it," Alex said after a moment of pondering it. He slapped his hand on the table in front of him and gave me a smile.

"Okay then," I said. "I really gotta go."

Alex frowned, clearly for some reason wanting to stay and talk with me. With or with not Lacey blaring her horn every five fucking seconds, I would have left the conversation. I only semi forgave Alex. That meant that I was on meeting terms with him, willing to talk to him from here and there. I didn't fully forgive him for what he did nor was he becoming one of my closet friends again. That would be too much of a risk of getting my hear broken again.

"I'll see you later Alex," I said and got up. My mom took my place at the table as I dashed out of the room, grabbing my small mini backpack from the vanity sitting in the living room and my jacket off the coat rack. I slipped out the door while shrugging on my jacket and jogging to Lacey's jeep. She kept it idling as I slid in and buckled up, placing my bag at my feet and shutting the door.

"What took you so long?" Lacey questioned pulling away from my house. I shook my head, no sure if I wanted to tell her everything. I decided not to.

"Nothing. My mom just needed me to do some stuff," I lied, fixing myself in the chair. I glanced over to see Lacey shrugging as she turned a corner.

"Kay, whatevs," She said as she pushed a button, turning on the windshield wipers. It was a very cloudy grey day, the clouds releasing sprinkles here and there. It was a nice day besides the chilly eery weather.

I groaned as I leaned back in my chair, scrubbing my face with my hands. Why did the teachers have to give us homework on the weekends? It completely sucked ass.

I slapped my history text book shut and pushed away from my desk, rolling back as far as the carpet would allow me before getting up. The shopping trip with Lacey, which ended two hours ago, wasn't as bad as I made it out to be. We went to five different stores one in the city of Baltimore and the rest were in the town over, until we both found our dresses. I found mine at a bridle type shop which specialized in prom dresses and any outfit involved for a wedding. Even though the Fall Ball wasn't prom, it was still a formal school dance, therefore I needed a dress. Plus, the lady didn't need to know whether I was wearing the dress to prom or another formal event or not. It was a grey one shoulder dress with an Empire waist that hit just above the knee. It was beautiful and wavy at the bottom and I loved it. I thought I would never like wearing a dress, but this dress was perfect.

By the time we found our dresses, we were too tired and hungry to shop for accessories. So we headed to Starbucks to grab two caramel mocha's and split a scone before agreeing that Lacey will stop at Payless one of the days in the week to pick up a pair of heels and I will stick with my Converse.

I grabbed what was left of my coffee and sucked what was left of the drink, making a loud, inappropriate noise. My phone rang to life on my night stand, vibrating all over the table, Lacey's picture popping up. I grabbed the phone and pressed the answer button and stuck it to my ear.

"Hello?" I asked. My voice was drowned out by a wail that sounded like a cat giving birth. I cringed, pulling the phone inches from my ear as I tried to regain hearing. "Lacey? YO LACE!"

"Dylan!" Lacey sobbed. I immediately became alert. What would make her cry? It wasn't usual for Lacey to call me crying like mad women. All possible scenarios ran through my head. Did something happen to her dress? Did she rip it? If that was the case couldn't she just ask her mom to fix it? Her mom was a tailor after all, so I don't think fixing a rip on a dress would be anything. If not, then Lace's Aunt could defiantly fix it. After all, Lacey's Aunt Trace made our witch costumes for Gertrude's Mitchell's Halloween party last year. We were never sure why Gertrude invited us to her party since not many people like us or want to invite us to a party. Frankly I think it's because me and Lace scare the shit out of her and she doesn't want us to do Karma's work for her if she didn't invite us. Honestly, if she didn't invite us, it would have be fine. I did not care. Ever more, Tiffany is always passing out invites to everyone right in front of me and Lace all the time. It's not like I really gave a shit.

Lacey's words were a string of babble that I could not understand. I stopped trying to reason with her and let her rant in her own blubber language. When I sensed a break, I leaped.

"Lacey, calm down!" I said. "What happened?"

I rolled my eyes as Lacey's next words were a string of words I didn't think were even human. Her voice got higher and clearer as she began yelling, "How could he? It's the biggest dance of the year THAT ASSHOLE!"

"Lacey what the hell are you talking about?" I asked. I was getting frustrated. How the hell did she expect me to help her if I couldn't understand her? It was hard to have a one person and one alien conversation when you can't understand the other person.

"Hehblubamey," she said, speaking as if she had cotton in her mouth. Even though the words weren't totally clear, I could make out her babble. It was part of the friendship after all. But after decoding her sentence, I wasn't too happy about what I heard.