While the phone rang, Ren jumped up on the kitchen counter, waiting for an answer. She clicked her fingernails on the countertop impatiently.

"Hello?"

"Hi," Ren answered. "Is Elizabeth home?"

"Nope, this is the refrigerator speaking."

"Hi Elizabeth," she laughed. "This is Ren."

"GUAH!" Elizabeth cried. "REN! I was kinda wondering who was phoning because I have no friends and no one would phone me and stuff so I was like 'who the hell?' and then it was YOU and oh my goodness, I haven't talked to you in forever, how are you?"

Giggling at her excitement, Ren replied, "I'm good, thank you."

"That's nice. Why are you phoning?"

It was very un-Elizabeth-like to cut to the chase like that. "I'm bored," she said honestly. "Do you want to come over?"

"Yes!" she cried. "Don't go anywhere! Give me like five minutes!"

Coaxing a ladybug onto her finger, Ren sat on the front porch on the rocking chair and waited for Elizabeth to show up.

Finally, she spotted her turning the corner and heading towards her house. She must have spent a lot of time outside this summer because her normally dark blond hair had natural sun streaks in it and her usually porcelain-pale skin was tanned a golden brown.

"Hi!" she said cheerfully, making her way up the front walk. "How's it go--WOK!" She fell up the porch stairs. "Son of a bitch…Hi!"

"Graceful, Elizabeth," Ren said.

"Oh, thank you. Keep watching, I'll probably run into a wall at some point." She grinned. "How is your day?"

"I'm bonding with a bug." She held out the ladybug, which had crawled onto the palm of her hand.

Elizabeth squealed in fright.

"Yes, Elizabeth, ladybugs are the epitome of evil."

"Bugs are tricky ones. They fly. Get it the hell away from me or I'll squash it."

"Sorry. Didn't know you were so racist towards ladybugs," Ren said. "Do you want to go inside or stay out here?"

"Is your brother home?"

"Yep."

"Outside is fine."

"What, are you scare of Ryder or something?" she asked, smirking. "You don't have to be. He's harmless."

"I prefer not to take chances." She sat on the railing by Ren and crossed her legs in front of her. "How's everything, Ren?"

"Good." Ren didn't want to talk about herself. She was tired of people asking her how she was doing. "Has Gordie left for college?"

"Yeah," she sighed. "I'm going to visit him the weekend after next."

"So the long distance relationship thing is going to work?"

Looking at Ren, almost coldly, she said in a monotonous voice, "We'll make it work. It's possible for a relationship to survive trying times, you know."

"Not that I'd know, you mean," Ren assumed.

"I guess so." The look in Elizabeth's bright blue eyes was surprisingly condescending for her age, not to mention for her carefree personality. "You shouldn't have broken up with Chris, Ren. It was stupid and thoughtless of you."

Ren stared at her.

Under Ren's glare, Elizabeth faltered and she glanced down at her hands. She murmured, "I just thought someone should tell you that." Suddenly, she looked up, her eyes wide. "Don't kill me."

"I wouldn't do that. Then I'd really have zero friends."

"Oh, shut up with the 'poor-pitiful-me' shit," she snapped irritably. "I'm sick of it. You let your own stupid insecurities break an incredible guy's heart, and you're just sitting here outside your stupidly big house pissing and moaning about how no one likes you. Should I get out a piece of paper and write down all the great things about you so that you can just shut up? People love you, you fucking idiot, and no matter how hard you try to push them away, they're always going to love you."

"I don't push people away!" Ren barked back, her fury biting in her voice.

"You do so! Why did you break up with Chris?"

"Because he didn't love me."

"Bullshit!" Elizabeth yelled, standing to make herself taller than Ren. "You broke up with him because for once you were almost happy and you just can't have that happen because then you couldn't feel sorry for yourself anymore."

"Shut up, Elizabeth."

"Chris loved you to death, Ren," she said heatedly. "He claims that you just don't know how to accept love so you wouldn't know if someone loved you because you've never experienced it. But you knew, didn't you? Every girl knows when she falls in love for the first time, and every girl knows what it's liked to have a guy really love her back for the first time. I could tell you that I love Gordie thiiiiis much, but oh gee, I just don't think he loves me back. But I know that he does, even when he says nothing, I know when he's thinking that he loves me. So you pushed Chris away. I'm not sure if it was so you could go on being a miserable biotch for the rest of your life, or so that other people could feel sorry for you and tell you how wrong you were. Or maybe you just wanted Chris to tell you how fucking much you mean to him and how damn bad you were going to hurt him if you let him go. I don't know. But you didn't break up with him just because you didn't feel loved enough. How could you not feel loved when you're around Chris? Hell, I even feel loved when I'm with him. So what was it, Ren? What the fuck is wrong with you?"

"You know as well as I do that I didn't deserve someone like him," Ren seethed.

"I'm not going to argue with that, Ren. I love you, you're one of my best friends, but with the way you act maybe you don't deserve everything he wanted to give you, but you still mean everything to him."

"I don't need a fucking lecture from a sixteen-year-old, okay Elizabeth?"

"Ooh, and you're all mature, I forgot," Elizabeth marveled sarcastically.

"I know how stupid I am!" Ren suddenly flared. "I broke up with him because I am so not ready to have someone see who I really am. Especially someone like Chris, because I couldn't stand to let him know me completely in case he didn't like it and then I'd just get hurt…But I'm a fucking retard and I end up hurting myself and him all at the same time. I have no idea what is wrong with me. I'm just so incredibly fucked up, Elizabeth, you have no idea."

"Chris knew who you really were, Ren," she told her. "He watched you so closely and you didn't even know it. You were so busy worrying about doing something wrong in front of him that you missed the incredible way he would just look at you sometimes. He knows about how insecure you can be and how sad and impossible you are. But he loves every single part of you. He's seen you at your worst and he still loves you, Ren. How often do you get a guy like that?"

"It must be easy to see everyone's problems from up there on your pedastal."

"Fuck you."

"Don't talk about how sad and impossible I am then. You don't know anything about me."

"Fuck, will you ever wake up? You're not tough as nails like you think you are. You're not some grand enigma that no one can figure out. Why do you think you get hurt so easily?" she demanded. "You're so easy to read that everyone knows exactly what will hurt you the most."

"Whatever, Elizabeth."

"No, don't put up that barrier! How do you ever expect to get close to anyone when you act like this?" Elizabeth sighed. "You're a beautiful person, Ren, and you're not hard to love. But you are sad and impossible, and that's hard to get around."

Looking up at her, all of her anger spent, Ren nodded. Everything she had said was true. The good and bad, it was all true. It pissed her off to think that a high-school junior could see everything about her when she herself couldn't. A small smile appeared on her face. "You use wild hand gestures when you get mad. I thought you were going to take my eye out."

Elizabeth grinned. It wasn't easy to get her upset, but it wasn't too great a feat to make her smile again. "I'm sorry for yelling at you. It's that ladybug and its damn evilness."

"Oh, that damn ladybug evil."

"Friends?"

Ren nodded. "If I ever try to push you away, chase after me, alright? I don't think I could get a better friend."