Tori sat on the beach staring out on the ocean as tears spilled down her cheeks. She was so confused. She didn't know how she felt about anyone right now, and was so angry that Blake would barely look at her, let alone speak to her now.

"Tori." Came a voice. She wiped at her cheeks and turned to see Shane. He walked over to her. "Hey." He said as he sat next to her. Tori gave a weak smile.

"Hey." She said.

"You ok?" He asked. Tori bit her lip as her chin quivered slightly. She shook her head.

"No." She sobbed out. Shane took a deep breath. Tori wasn't one to cry a lot. It wasn't that she was emotionless or anything..But she also didn't display intense feelings like saddness like that a lot...Ever...He was unsure how to react to it all.

"Everything's so screwed up right now." She sobbed, hugging her knees to her chest. She laid her face on her knees as she cried. Shane put an arm around her shoulders, sensing that was the best thing to do right now. She leaned

aganist her friend and cried.

"I'm sure everything will work out soon." He said gently as he hugged her tightly.

"I'm just so confused and all right now." She sighed. "I mean, I don't know what to do. I like Dil, but I like Blake too, and they both like me.....It's so difficult. What should I do?" She fretted. Shane wasn't sure what to say. Blake was his friend, and he could say to forget Dil and go with Blake, but he didn't know if that's what Tori wanted.

"I can't tell you that." He responded. Tori sighed and sat up.

"I fiugred as much."

Blake lay in his room, listening to music that seemed to match his sentiments.

I

Played the fool today

And I

Can see us vanishing into the crowd

Longing for home again

But home

Is a feeling I buried in you

I'm alright

I'm alright

It only hurts when I breathe

And I can't ask for things to be still again

No I can't ask for you

To offer the world through your eyes

Longing for home again

But home

Is a feeling I buried in you

I'm alright

I'm alright

It only hurts when I breathe

I'm alright

I'm alright

It only hurts when I breathe

My window through which

Nothing hides

And everything sings

I'm counting the signs

And cursing the miles in between

But home

Is a feeling I buried in you

That I buried in you

I'm alright

I'm alright

It only hurts when I breathe

I'm alright

I'm alright

It only hurts when I breathe

When I breathe

It only hurts when I breathe

When I breathe

It only hurts when I breathe

Blake sighed staring up at his ceiling. Whenever he thought of Tori, he felt his heart crumple. And all he could think about was Tori. He heard his door open. He looked over to see his brother.

"All right, man, you've had that song on repeat for almost an hour. If I have to hear it one more time, I will be forced to kill you." Hunter said. Blake blinked and simply stared at him blankly. Hunter sighed and hit the play button on Blake's cd player. He sat by his brother.

"Why don't you just forget about her?" Hunter asked. "I mean, if she wants to be with that other guy, then she obviously is too stupid to see you could run circles around that dude." Blake had a slight pang of anger in him.

"Don't call her stupid." Blake said. Hunter sighed again.

"I'm just trying to be all...Big brother-ish...and lifting spirts and all..."

"I don't want my spirits to be lifted." Blake replied. "I just want to lay here and listen to my cd, if you don't mind." Hunter looked at him and stood up.

"Fine, whatever." He said. He turned on the music again and left. Blake shut his eyes and let himself drift to sleep, the sounds of "Breathe" in his head.

Tori sat in her room, thinking about all that had happened the past few days. Her thoughts where just one big jumbled mass of confussion. She liked Blake, at times she thought maybe it was more then like....But she also liked Dil, and she had met Dil before she met Blake...Didn't that count for something? She sighed and laid back in her bed, thoughts of Dil and Blake filling her head as she drifted off to sleep.

Dil sat with Tori at an outdoor cafe. He looked at her. She looked tired, troubled, and just, generally not ok. She was absently poking at a salad with her fork.

"What's wrong?" He asked. Tori looked at him.

"Huh? What makes you think something's wrong?" She asked.

"Well, you look like something's bothering you." He said.

"No, no, everything's cool." She insisted. Dil looked at her.

"Lying isn't your forte." He pointed out with a smile. Tori gave a frustrated sigh.

"I really don't want to talk about it." She said somewhat harshly. Dil looked at her apologetically.

"Uh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you mad." He said. Tori rested her face in her hand.

"I need to be alone right now." She sighed. She looked up, pulling out her wallet. "How much wa-"

"No, forget about it." Dil said. "I invited you out to lunch."

"All right." She said. She stood up.

"Uh, I'll call you later." Dil said. Tori didn't seem to be paying too much attention to him.

"Yeah, sure, whatever." She said as she left. Dil watched her leave and sighed. He really wished he knew what was going on.

"So what's going on with you and Tori?" Kelly asked nonchalantly as she and Blake where working at Storm Chargers. Blake looked at her.

"What?"

"Well, it's obvious somethings going on. Seeing as anytime she comes in, you insist on working in the backroom." Kelly pointed out. Blake sighed.

"Nothing's going on...I just realize that there's a lot of stuff that needs to be done in the backroom..Has nothing to do with Tori."

"Uh huh, right, and pigs fly." Kelly said as she walked away. Dustin walked over to his boss.

"Did he talk?" He asked. He knew Kelly had gone over to talk to him about Tori.

"What do you think?" Kelly asked. Dustin sighed.

"I was afraid of that. The guy is totally shutting himself up." They both looked up to see Tori coming to the door. Both sighed.

"In 5....4........3......." They began. Blake looked up and saw her walk in. Their eyes locked. Blake stood up and went to the backroom. Tori sighed and walked over to them. She grabbed a can of surfboard wax.

"Hey guys." She said, giving a forced smile.

"Going surfing?" Dustin asked. Tori looked at him.

"No, the ingridiants in the wax make my hair so nice and shiney." She said curtly.

"Really?"

"She was being sarcastic." Kelly sighed.

"Uh......Right." Dustin chuckled. "I knew that." Tori sighed.

"I just need to do some thinking, surfing helps." Tori said. Kelly nodded and rang up her purchase.

Dustin walked into the backroom and saw Blake sitting in the corner. He sighed.

"You do realize that you are going to eventually have to talk to her...You know, since we're all," he lowered his voice, "power rangers." Blake didn't respond. "Don't even think that Shane, Hunter, Cam and I are going to play messenger or whatever between you two. We're not doing the whole 'Blake said this' 'Tori said that'."

"Dustin, no offense, but this isn't any of your buissness." Blake replied.

"That's where your wrong dude." Dustin said. "Look, Tori's one of my best friend."

"So you're taking her side in this?" Blake asked.

"What side?! There are no sides. Tori's trying to talk to you, and you're running away from her. Tori's one of my best friends, and so are you. So, yeah, I kind of think that Shane, Cam...maybe not so much Hunter....Anyway, I kind of think everyone else would agree with us that if something's bothering our friends, we make it our buissness." Blake sighed and stood up.

"I'm going biking." He said as he left.

Tori glided through the waves, feeling little of her tension leave with each passing wave. Her mind kept going to Blake and Dil. She tried to keep her mind focus on her surfing, knowing that not paying attention to what she was doing wouldn't be advisable. But she couldn't help it. She closed her eyes. She didn't even notice that she was heading towards some rocks. Her board bumped with the edge.

"Whoa!" She exclaimed as she fell. Her head colided with the edge.