Life After High School - Ten Years Later

By Risty and Silver

Disclaimer: Ahem. We don't own them.

Summary: You figure it out.

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(Kane's POV)

The next morning, Ria seemed a little embarrassed around me. I'd stayed awake for hours the previous night, trying to figure out why she had kissed me. I didn't care that she had, I liked her a lot, but I had no idea what to do next. Did I just wait and hope that everything would just happen, or did I tell her that I liked her? In the end, I decided to just wait and see if she said anything.

A couple of times during the day she tried to get me on my own, but Vince was shadowing me constantly. The little kid was even following me to the toilet. What was wrong with him I had no idea, but I figured that the kid was just upset after hearing about mum.

When I got up during the afternoon to get us a drink, Vince followed me to the kitchen. As I reached up to get the glasses, he grabbed my arm, signalling that he wanted to talk to me. After putting the glasses safely on the table, I bent down slightly so that he could whisper in my ear.

"Is Ria your girlfriend?" he asked innocently. "I won't tell, I promise."

"No, she isn't" I told him. "No way."

"Do you want her to be your girlfriend?" he said with a smile. "You do, don't you?"

"No" I protested, but my little brother just grinned and shook his head to show that he didn't believe me. "Oh all right" I admitted after a minute. "Yes, I think I do. But if you tell anyone, I'll kill you."

"I won't tell anyone" he promised. "But maybe you should think about telling her."

He took two of the glasses and went back to the living room. I stood in the kitchen for a moment, completely confused. Vincent was right, maybe I should tell her, but I didn't think I could. I had never really been afraid of doing anything before in my life, but the thought of telling Ria how I felt filled me with terror. It was no good, I realised eventually. If she liked me, she would have to tell me…

(Benny's POV)

I had tried hard to get Damon to go home and sleep, but he refused. Lucas and Galia were looking after Crystal and the dogs and Blaze and Forrest were running the business. The night before, when she had been brought in, we had called Billee and Kivan to tell them what had happened. Both said that they would come up immediately and Billee arrived the following day, accompanied by Legolas, Colan and Wendy.

"What happened?" Billee asked as soon as he saw me. "Is she all right?"

"She took an overdose of sleeping tablets and ahcohol, then slit her wrists" I said slowly, wincing as I remembered how we had found her in a pool of blood. "They have been working on her for almost twenty-four hours now, but they have told us to expect the worst."

"Why did she do it?" Legolas whispered, wrapping his arms around Billee and holding him tightly. "Why?"

"I don't know" I told them. Wendy was crying into Colan's shoulder now, and even I felt dangerously close to tears. "I just don't know."

"You know something" Wendy said through her tears. "A few days ago, Colan and I were talking about what would happen if we were to get married at some point in the future. If we had Emma and Damon there, then we would not be able to have any of our friends from Jaime's side, except my mum and dad and even they wouldn't be happy. I said it would be so much easier if Emma didn't exist, if things hadn't have happened like they did. I hate myself for that now."

"Jaime and her friends can go to hell" Colan whispered, gently rubbing Wendy's back. "Emma will be our guest of honour, and we'll only have people there who can accept her. See, she has to survive now, she has something to live for."

"I hope so" I said quietly. "All we can do is wait now…"