A/N: sorry for the delay in updates! I'm back on schedule now!

Vanessa Bender sighed as she struggled to get an earring through her almost-closed hole. Frustrated, she hurled the tiny ball down on her desk and watched it bounce onto the carpet with a tiny plink.

Why'd I ever agree to being set up? Damnit Callie, you can always talk me into anything!

"No way I'm going to let you cancel," her best friend said when she'd phoned her this afternoon to say that she was having second thoughts. "So don't even think it. This isn't any big deal. The guy's new in town, and it's about time you left your house."

Vanessa agreed, but she wished with all her heart that it was Joe coming to pick her up, Joe who would rescue her from her isolation. They could rescue each other. After all, hadn't they promised that's what they'd do for him? Had everyone else forgotten? She hadn't.

"Van, honey? Your date's here!" her mother's voice drifted up from the downstairs.

"Damnit!" Vanessa cried, throwing herself to the floor and looking under her bed for her shoes. "Be right there Mom!" she called back, reaching for her black flats.

She stuck her stockinged foot into her shoe with one hand and rubbed eye shadow above her lids with her other, all while hopping on one foot to keep her balance.

Joe always kidded you about being late. He even showed up ten minutes late on purpose, knowing you wouldn't be ready.

"Stop thinking about him, Bender," she said allowed. "He's—OW!" her bouncing foot had landed directly on the fallen earring. Vanessa growled, stuck her foot in her other shoe, and bent to throw the ball in the trash.

Then something caught her eye, down on a corner of the darkened lawn below; a flash of gold, a flash she could have imagined, a flash that seemed all too familiar.

Vanessa flung herself out the door and down the stairs, racing right past the nervous looking boy at the bottom.

"Hi…" he started. She flashed him a quick grin and darted past him toward the kitchen.

"Vanessa, honey, what on earth…" her mother called as she flew by her and flung the back door open.

The lawn was black and empty.

Panting, Vanessa slumped against the door frame. What was wrong with her? She'd never been one to be this obsessed. Was it guilty? Depression? Or something more?

"Um…excuse me…are you all right?"

She turned to see her date looking at her anxiously. She sized him up; nice boy, a bit preppy, a little shy. He'd make for a nice, normal evening.

"Fine," she sighed. "I'm sorry. I thought…I thought I'd left something outside."

"Oh."

Great start Bender, he already thinks you're crazy.

"Let's just go," she said, grabbing her coat and calling good-bye to her mother.

"Are you sure you're all right?" he asked her as the two stepped outside.

"I'm fine. I thought—" the word died in her throat as the flash of gold appeared again; this time, connected to a face, and to two beautiful but pained blue eyes that locked and held her own. She saw their tears; she saw their betrayal.

"Joe!" she cried, leaping forward.

But in another flash, the eyes were gone.