"What?" asked Bianca, not sure she understood.
"Laura switched the slides that show the important events through out the year with slides of you and Frankie. Leo saw what she was doing and got to them in time before anyone saw them. Apparently he had discovered pictures of you and Frankie in Laura's room a few days ago and he destroyed them, obviously not all of them. Leo and I burned the slides right away."
"What exactly was on the slides?" asked Bianca slowly.
"I didn't look at them all but there was…there was one with you and Frankie in bed…together."
"How could she do this? I knew she was upset with me but this is beyond anything I ever would have believed."
"You don't have to worry, I talked to Brooke this morning and she's sending Laura to Philadelphia where she can get some help. She'll never bother you again."
"I – I have to see her."
"I can't imagine what you could possibly have to say to her."
"I have a lot to say, I'll see you later, Mom," Bianca said as she gave her mother a quick hug and then left.

When she got the English house she knocked on the door and Brooke answered the door. She looked as if she hadn't slept all night and when she saw Bianca she frowned.
"It's not a good idea for you to be here right now."
"I heard what happened last night and I just wanted to talk to her before she left, it won't take long. I promise I'll try not to upset her…I really need to see her," said Bianca hoping that she would agree.
Brooke thought it over for a few minutes and then she agreed, "Two minutes and if she gets agitated I want you to leave immediately."
"Okay, I will."
Brooke led Bianca upstairs and knocked on Laura's bedroom door. She heard Laura answer on the other side and Brooke opened the door and let her in.
Bianca looked at Laura who was lying on the bed staring at the ceiling, her room was in disarray, clothes strewn everywhere, dresser drawers were on the floor and next to the bed were packed suitcases.
Laura looked up, saw Bianca, and laid back down, completely ignoring her.
Bianca walked over and sat down on the edge of the bed, a part of her was more than a little scared about being so close to the person who had thrown a phone at her and tried to humiliate her in front of the whole town.
"Laura, I just wanted…I wanted to say that I'm sorry."
Laura's head shot up, "You're sorry?"
"Yes, I am, maybe if I had been a better friend, if I had stopped Leo from marrying you, if I would have done a hundred little things differently, maybe this wouldn't have happened, and I'm sorry."
Laura's eyed narrowed, "I don't want your apologies," she spat out.
"Okay, then tell me why you took those pictures of me and Frankie, why you tried to humiliate me in front of my friends and family."
"Because you did the same thing to me, you promised you wouldn't tell anyone what I did and you lied to me, they made me see a shrink and it was all your fault, now Leo has annulled our marriage and I'm off to Philadelphia for treatment," she spat the last word out as if it were a bad word.
"I'm sorry I broke my promise to you, I never should have made it in the first place but I thought – I still think – that I did the right thing. You were my friend and I cared about you, I thought I was doing the best thing for you?"
"You thought you were doing the best thing for me? Look at my life! You are a lying, scheming bitch, you have no right to come here and patronize me. Don't tell me you're sorry, that you care and you forgive me. You are fake, and you lie and I never want to see you again."
"You know what? I'm mad, I'm angry, I feel betrayed and I wonder how I ever let you become a part of my life, how I let you be my friend! I don't see how you could take something private between me and someone I love and try to show it to the whole town. My relationship with Frankie was none of your business!"
"And my relationship with Leo was none of your business. I want you to leave! Get out!"
Bianca left, slammed the door behind her and never looked back.

Frankie waited outside the door to her old friend, Jake's penthouse, impatiently tapping her foot, finally he opened the door and let her in.
"Frankie, I wasn't expecting you, how is the apartment working out?"
"It's fine, thank you for letting me stay there."
"That was some part last night wasn't it?" he asked leading her over to a beautiful antique sofa.
"Yeah," said Frankie running her fingers through her hair.
"What can I do for you?" he asked smiling.
"I – I was wondering…I need a job."
"A job? I thought that you didn't want to get back into this kind of life."
"You saw me at the party last night, it's a bit late for that. I need the money…"
"No need to explain it to me, you know you've always been one of my favorite girls, we go way back and I'll do almost anything for you but do you really want to start dealing? If I remember correctly you weren't into it back then either."
He sat down beside her and played with her hair.
"I wasn't back then but things change, I can't keep up with two jobs and I need the money."
"There are other ways you could make money," he said suggestively and when she cringed he laughed.
"I didn't think so, go to the park down the street tonight at seven sharp, you'll get the product and an address where to sell, tomorrow go back to the park at midnight and hand over any unsold product and the money. I don't have to tell you not to cross me."
"No, you don't," she said hurriedly and she got up and left. She walked down the street as it started to snow and she was halfway home before she realized she was blinking back tears. She kept on digging herself a deeper hole for herself and soon she wasn't sure she'd ever be able to climb back out. Her life was moving out of her grasp and it seemed like nothing she could do would stop the train that had become her life from crashing.

Bianca tried to finish her English paper after her visit with Laura, but she couldn't concentrate and soon she just gave up. She grabbed her keys and drove to the boathouse in the park. The night was beautiful; she wiped snow from a bench and sat down taking it all in. For the moment the snow had stopped, though the dark sky was overcast in gray clouds, and it was cold. Bianca looked out across the lake and pulled her coat closer around her. It's so peaceful here, she thought. The silence was a comfort to her, here there were no human problems, nothing but the chilly whiteness of the snow and the shiny surface of the frozen lake. Life was a funny thing; so many small little details could change it in an instant and just when you thought everything was going the way it was supposed to life slapped you in the face with a big dose of reality. Bianca dug in her pocket and pulled out a picture of Frankie, it had been taken in one of those photo booths at the mall. The camera had caught Frankie off-guard and she was looking at Bianca with a gaze that seemed impossible to fake. Bianca ran a finger over Frankie's face, if only they could go back in time. Bianca pocketed the picture and as she drove home she thought about the past wishing that somehow she could change it. Bianca got back home and got started on her English paper.

That night as Bianca lay in her bed under her warm blankets, Frankie stood out in the cold in a back alley breathing on her freezing hands. It was almost midnight but she was supposed to have one more customer. She just wanted to go home and forget about this whole day. She stamped her feet trying to keep her blood flowing when she heard a sound behind her. Coming towards her was a woman with a baby.
"Do you have it?" she asked anxiously.
"Y—yes," said Frankie digging in her pocket as the woman began screaming at the crying infant.
"Here," said Frankie handing her a small bag. "Are you sure you should be out with that baby, it's pretty cold out here."
"It's none of your business," the woman snapped, greedily grabbing the bag out of Frankie's hand and handing her a handful of wadded up bills.
Frankie watched as the woman walked away and she stood there in the snow thinking, long after they had disappeared.
When she finally got back to her apartment she sat down and pulled a blanket around herself, she was freezing, and she couldn't get that woman and baby out of her mind. That could be her one day, caring more about drugs than her own child, a child that would grow up neglected and unloved. Every time she went to a party she got wasted, for all she knew she could end up sleeping with someone unprotected, what if she got pregnant or contracted AIDS? What kind of future was she giving herself? In ten years would she be living on the streets prostituting? Or dead? How could she look at herself in the mirror knowing that tomorrow she might be dead because of her own stupidity? She owed herself more than that, she owed Bianca more than that, she had believed in her, she had saw the best in Frankie when Frankie hadn't even been sure their was goodness inside of her, something worth loving. Bianca was there, always in her mind, in her heart. Frankie realized if she was going to get better, if she was going to stop the turmoil in her life she had to resolve things with Bianca.