A/N - Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot. PLEASE READ AND REVIEW!!

PREVIOUSLY:

"I'm not letting you go."

Miley placed a soft kiss on his lips, before whispering into his ear.

"I'm not giving you a choice."

Miley started to walk away, turning her back on loving him, feeling a suffocating weight press harder and harder against her chest.

"Stay…" Nick said quietly, knowing she didn't hear him, watching Miley leave with his heart.

CHAPTER 21

Demi looked over her textbook at Miley. She was still sitting under the window, strumming on a guitar. Oliver had left about half an hour ago, and Miley hadn't said much since.

"Miles, why did you break up with Nick?" she asked, blurting out the question she hadn't directly asked yet.

"What?"

"I know he's going away and stuff, but you didn't even give yourselves a chance to make it work."

"I don't want to talk about it, Demi."

"Well, I think you should," Demi huffed, unsatisfied.

"This is why having Oliver around was so much easier. He's a boy, he doesn't want to know about the girl stuff."

"Give him a little credit, Miley. He actually has been talking about it to me too."

"So you've been discussing this behind my back?"

"Don't get all offended," Demi said, screwing her face up at Miley's defensiveness, "we're your friends, we're worried."

"I'm not worried, so why should you be?"

"Shutting down doesn't make it go away."

"Maybe not, but it makes it easier to deal with," Miley took a deep breath, "you're not going to let this slide are you?"

"Nope," grinned Demi.

"Fine. You really want to know? I like Nick so much it hurts. I more than like him actually and that scares the hell out of me. Since Lily died, the world didn't matter so much anymore. Then he came along and I started to care again. I started to forget about how much I missed Lily. I caught myself in the reflection every now and then, smiling. A real smile, Demi. And the only thing that had changed was Nick being in my life. And now he's got this amazing opportunity that just landed at his feet, how can I be selfish and tell him to stay because right now he's the reason I want to wake up in the morning? I don't want to let myself depend on him so much that I go back to the way I was before. I like being happy, I like feeling hopeful, and if I don't walk away from Nick now, it's all going to come crashing down that much harder when he leaves. So instead of opening up my heart that bit more, it's easier to put it on lockdown now, and save myself the hurt because I know he deserves this chance, and I'm not going to stand in his way."

Demi was quiet for a few moments, taking in Miley's monologue, staring at the petite girl sitting a few metres away from her, who looked almost broken.

"Have you told him that?" she finally asked, breaking the silence.

"It doesn't matter anyway."

"Yes, it does. He's miserable. Joe told me. He thinks you don't care, that you don't want him."

"It's probably easier that way, anyway."

"You're being ridiculously stubborn."

"I've been told before," Miley murmured, her brow furrowing in concentration.

They sat in silence again, Demi looking blankly at the wall. Suddenly, she turned to look at Miley.

"If he stayed, would you get back together with him?"

"He's not staying."

"If he was?"

"I don't know if he'd want to be with me after all of this."

"Not the question," Demi replied, exasperated.

"It's an influential factor that needs to be considered."

"Don't make me call Oliver to come and literally knock some sense into you."

Miley felt a giggle escape.

"For argument's sake, Nick loves you, Nick is staying. Would you be with him?"

Miley merely nodded.

"What if Nick asked you to go with him?"

Miley scoffed.

"Following him to Queensland was bad enough, I'm not being some tag-along girlfriend to a dozen foreign countries, Demi. That's just insane."

"I'm going, and Joe's going to be there. Are you judging me for that?" asked Demi, a little hurt.

"No, no, no," Miley reassured, "you're going with your mother, and you're still studying and you get to make your films and go on adventures. That's why you're going, Joe just happens to be a very, very good by-product of that."

Demi nodded her head in agreement, before Miley continued.

"That's different to what you're saying, you and Joe are going on tour. You're not following him. I have my last year of uni here, I'm not going to flake out now. Knowing my attention span, as everything that's happened in the last few months, maintaining motivation is a real issue at the moment. If I don't go back, I can see myself giving it away all together. And that's not something I want."

"I was just asking," replied Demi, shrugging her shoulders.

Miley looked back down at her guitar, sighing. What she didn't see, was Demi's expression twist into a fierce look of determination, a grin spreading across her face. Her gaze moved from her textbook, to Miley, then back to her textbook. Her smile got wider, biting her lip as her eyes lit up.

"So, do you think it will work?" asked Demi, whispering in hushed voices to Joe and Oliver.

"You've definitely cemented your end of the deal?" checked Oliver.

"It's done. She was ecstatic, another person to boss around."

"And her parents?" Joe questioned.

"They were a bit hesitant," admitted Demi, "but after talking it through, they're pretty excited about it now. They were worried that I was trying to get them to agree for the wrong reasons, but I told them it wasn't just about Nick. I think Oliver pushed the whole thing over the line, though."

"What can I say?" said Oliver, grinning, "Miley's parents adore me."

Demi playfully punched Oliver, while Joe laughed.

"It won't matter though, unless we get her to the benefit tonight," mused Oliver, rubbing the non-existent injury on his arm.

"She saved me once didn't she? Like you said, Miley would do anything for the people she cares about. I hope in this case, it works in our favour," said Demi.

"Here's the moment of truth," hissed Joe, pointing to Miley's approaching figure.

"I can't believe you're making me do this!" whined Miley, shimmying into the ivory gown.

"I had no one else to turn to, Miles," Demi pouted, helping Miley into the dress.

"I really don't want to do this."

"Please," begged Demi, "it's for a good cause!"

"I already said yes, didn't I?" grumbled Miley.

"You did, because you're amazing," complimented Demi, "it's not my fault the entertainment pulled out at the last minute. The only decent band we could get in has another gig on before us, so they won't get there until later. We need something to start the night off with a bang. That's where you come in, and you can play that song you've been writing tonight."

"No, I can't," said Miley, shaking her head.

"HA!" cried Demi, scaring Miley, "so you admit it! You have been writing one."

Miley glared at Demi, cursing under her breath. Demi just laughed.

"By the way, that dress rocks."

Miley turned to look in the mirror, and raised her eyebrows in surprise at the sight before her. The pale material flowed down her body, pulling in tighter at just the right places, her soft curls draped around her shoulders. Demi had helped with her make up earlier, copying what Jacques had shown her the week before and it looked flawless. Miley allowed a small smile to creep across her face.

"Holy shit!" exclaimed Oliver, walking into Miley's bedroom.

"What?" said Miley, looking herself over for something wrong.

"Damn, Smiley. You're going to be the perfect accessory on my arm!"

Miley poked her tongue out at him, while Demi pulled out her camera and started snapping photos.

"Joe's meeting us there," explained Oliver, nodding in appreciation at Demi's outfit too, "he's going to fall over when he sees you."

Demi just giggled, blood rushing to her cheeks.

"Dad organised a car for us," said Oliver, "its downstairs waiting."

"I still don't want to go," complained Miley, both of her friends ignoring her as they dragged her out the door.

"Shit," swore Miley, "shit, shit, shit, shit, shit."

"Hey, language!" scolded Demi.

"Sorry, you're right. This requires a higher level of obscenity. Fu-"

"Stop!" hollered Demi, clamping a hand over Miley's mouth.

"What's going on?" asked Oliver, as Miley's muffled giggles escaped through Demi's fingers.

"She's being a diva!"

"Am not," Miley huffed, dramatically stretching her mouth now that Demi had lowered her hand.

"Smiley, quit being annoying," was the only support Oliver offered to Demi.

Miley glared at Oliver, pushing back the luxurious curtains that served as a barrier between them and the crowd. She peeked out, giving a small squeak before turning back to her friends, the colour drained from her face.

"Can't do it."

"You did it just last week, though. Just do it all over again," said Demi.

Miley shook her head, "Not the same. Last time I didn't have time to think about it, I just did it. This time, I have enough time to think and I think that it's a bad idea."

"Miley, look at me," demanded Oliver, "why the hell are you freaking out?"

"Oliver, look out there," she retorted, "how the hell could I not be freaking out?"

"Miley, for crying out loud. Shit. You know what this is like? This is like that time you lied to your parents about where you were after school for like three weeks, when you were at my house even though you were grounded. You told them you were at rehearsal for the Christmas concert, and then they were so excited that you had no choice but to actually agree to perform because they went ahead and bought tickets."

"I remember. How is it anything like that though?" asked Miley, laughing.

"At that point, you had never performed in front of anyone other than your family and a few of us, without Lily. You begged Lily to go up on that stage with you; you were refusing to go up there without her. You were being so flipping adamant that it was going to be Lily's fault if your parents were disappointed that you didn't sing that night, that she gave in. She went up on that damn stage with you, and you started singing. You sang that whole song, so perfectly, and your mother had tears in her eyes by the end of it. You never even noticed that after the first couple of notes, Lily had snuck off the stage."

Miley laughed, smiling as she thought back to that night. She had tried her hardest to be mad at Lily, but everyone kept congratulating her and Lily just let her bask in the spotlight. It was the first time she had ever performed on her own, and it was with Lily's help that she'd had the courage to get up in front of those people.

"She's not here now, though," Miley said sadly, casting her eyes down.

"Of course she is," said Oliver, wrapping his arms around her, "she's always here."

Miley tilted her head up, and Oliver pressed his forehead against hers.

"I miss her, Olly."

"She wouldn't want you to keep hiding, Miles. Don't deprive the world of your talent. You know Lily would be standing her agreeing with me, she'd push you onto that stage and force that mic down your throat if she had too."

Miley gave a small nod, looking to Demi.

"Well, shit," she said in defeat.

Demi gave a hearty laugh.

"You should sing this song too," said Demi, handing Miley a piece of paper.

Miley looked at it, horrified.

"Where did you get that? No one was meant to see that!" she cried.

"Doesn't matter how I got it. It's incredible, and I'm begging you to sing it tonight."

"It's not finished. I haven't got it quite right."

"It's perfect, Miley. I heard you the other night, and Demi is right."

"What did I tell you about spying on me??!!" yelled Miley.

"Since when do I listen to anything you say?"

"For the record, I hate you both," she muttered, narrowing her eyes.

They both just grinned, knowing they had Miley cornered.

"Well, shit."