I realized a total flaw in my plot as i was writing this chapter, but i tried to fix it as best as i could. I won't tell you my mistake either because maybe you won't notice it. well read and reaview please!

Disclaimer: No, sadly, I do not own Jesse McCartney or his sexy body l0l. Summerland ain't mine either...

"You what?" asked Sienna who couldn't help the skeptical tone that was in her voice. Braden and Vegas had been having a lot of fun together over the past month, but love? They had only been together for a little while, how could he think he loved her when he barely even knew her yet.

"Well, I can't explain it, but really think I love her" Braden was staring intently at Sienna, as if he needed her to say that it was okay to be love with Vegas.

She shook her head as she spun around, "You don't even know her."

Braden couldn't understand this, "We've been hanging out constantly for over a month now. I know a lot about her!" He was starting to sound really defensive and he didn't know why he felt the need to explain himself.

Sienna rolled her eyes, "You can't figure out everything about a person in just a month. Your still in that stage of the relationship where you think she's 'perfect. Give it time, and you'll see that she has imperfections. Love is when you learn to appreciate the flaws in a person, and you don't even know what they are yet!"

"Oh, like you know anything!" Braden did not like that she was telling him how he felt. Sienna didn't know anything about how he felt. "Your just jealous!" He winced as he spoke these words. He hadn't meant to actually say them.

"Don't be so full of yourself, I'm not jealous. Just because I'm saying something you don't like doesn't mean I want to have hot steamy sex with you. I'm being honest." Sienna shrugged at him and continued her work. Braden didn't like this response though.

"Okay fine then! I'm not in love with her, but I'm on my way."

"Well isn't that just simply splendid." Sienna said in a darkly sarcastic tone.

He'd finally had enough, "What is your problem?"

She shifted her weight uncomfortably, and shot back, "I wasn't aware I had one." Sienna had her hands on her hips now and was contorting her beautiful face in anger. Braden stared at her, and didn't really know if he should continue to press her buttons, even though she had no problem doing so to him. She was so frustrating! As Braden continued to look at her with fury, he notice a faint bruise on the side of her face that she had clearly tried to hide with make up.

"Where did you get that bruise from?" he asked with concern. He didn't mean to catch her off guard but he felt uneasy about it.

Her pale face grew red as she lifted her hand to cover the place where the bruise had formed. She bit her lip and lied, "I had another run in with Boston's latest bimbo." She hoped beyond hope that he would believe her. She needed him to.

"What, and she hit you?" Braden's eyes were wide with shock as he stepped closer to her to get a better look at the bruise.

"I guess I was being a little too nasty…sometimes I get carried away with myself when I tell people off." She said meekly, and smiled up at Braden's face

There was no anger there, only concern as he reached out gentlytotouch her dark bruise and his fingers tickled Sienna's cheek. She didn't remove them though; she liked the feeling of Braden's touch. His fingers were tracing the outline of the injury as he rested his palm tenderly near her jaw. She gave a pleasurable sigh. She closed her eyes and nudgedher face deeper into his strongpalm.Her hot breath was warming his skin and she slowly raised her eyelids to look deeply into Braden's face. She never wanted him to stop touching her. Way too soon though, he dropped his hand from her cheek and stepped backwards. He had just realized what he had been doing, and knew that he shouldn't go there. He was a little embarrassed that he had just spent a full minute trying to caress Sienna, but he had honestly not thought of it that way until he looked into her eyes and realized that he wanted her.

It was his turn to grow red as he stuttered, "Yeah well, uh…."

Sienna wasn't really paying attention to him though; she was deep in thought. She had just thoroughly enjoyed that tender moment between the two of them and it made her uneasy. She didn't want to be having feelings for Braden, because that would be very unwise. He was her best friend's boyfriend and besides that, she didn't want a guy like Braden. She didn't want a guy period at the moment. Sienna didn't want to have to go through all the lying and secrecy that she did when she was with someone. It was draining to have to come up with lies for all the injuries, or why her eyes were blood shot. Plus, she wasn't prepared to be hurt again.

Braden was watching her as she was standing there biting her lip and staring past him. He felt awkward and he wanted her to say something. The silence was deafening. "And did you hit the girl back?" It was the only thing he couldthink ofto say.

She snapped into attention and muttered, "What?"

"The girl who hit you….Did you hit her back?"

"Oh," she said. Sienna raised her eyes to look at him and shook her head, "No, she would have kicked my ass. She was practically a foot taller than me!"

Braden smiled, "Well, considering that a toddler could be taller than you, that's not very difficult." He was eager to create the joking atmosphere that had just recently evaporated.

She beamed at him and replied sarcastically, "Ouch, that hurt! But, I wouldn't be talking if I were you."

"Why is that?"

"Because even the average Asian man is taller than you." Sienna pursed her lips in satisfaction and smiled as she went to go fold some of the surfing clothes that were next to her. Braden was relieved that they both were going to pretend that they hadn't just experienced the most awkward moment ever.

"Hey, I've got to go to the bathroom real quick, and there's a customer coming in." Sienna nodded towards the door and Braden motioned for her to go as he walked towards the register. She went in the back room, which led to the bathroom. She silently shut and locked the door and then she put the toilet seat down. Sienna rummaged through her purse desperately trying to find the coke she had put in there earlier.

"Thank god," she sighed when she finally found it. She expertly made a few lines and with excitement, she snorted them. Sienna didn't know why she felt she needed to feel better so badly, but she did. After that confusing moment back there, she wanted to forget and feel good again. When she was high, there was no confusion or any feelings of confliction, there was just happiness; there was only that wonderful thing called euphoria. Sienna took a long steady breath and put a lazy smile on her face, now this is what life is supposed to feel like.

She made her way out of the back room just as the customer slipped out of sight and Sienna told herself that this was because the coke was making her lucky. She laughed and didn't know why that had just made sense, but she insisted in her mind that it did. She twirled before walking up to the shops window and looking at the people passing by. Sienna started waving to them, and saying hi. "What are you doing?" asked Braden while looking at her as if she was insane.

"I'm making friends" she replied happily while continuing to wave at a particularly frightened looking little boy.

He raised his eyebrows and said disbelievingly, "Is that so?"

Sienna turned to him with a pout on her face. He could have sworn that she looked exactly like a bratty little two year old as she stomped her foot and replied, "I was, but now you're scaring them away! It's all your fault."

Braden didn't know what she was playing at but he laughed anyways. She may be acting psycho, but she was still being damn funny. "No, I think it's you who is scaring them. I've never seen someone with a creepier smile."

"I do not have a creepy smile!Those people can see the bruise and the black dot, that's why they are scared. No one likes someone who's injured, that means there weak."

Braden was confused, "Black dot?"

"I tried to make it go away but it wouldn't come off. I tried gettingthe dotwith my brush, but it wouldn't budge and then when I scratched it, it was still there. Even when I saw all the red dripping everywhere, it was still there," Sienna was getting frightened again that the black dot would be on her face forever. She reaced up to touch the place she thought it was in. Then, she suddenly remembered that it had been on the mirror the whole time and she smiled with relief, "but really, the dot wasn't ever on me. It was just playing with me….that mean little dot!" She giggled as she skipped over towards the door and started touching the people that were walking by while saying things like, "oh, your hair is so soft!" and "oh my god, that is so SHINY!"

Braden was starting to worry about her. She wasn't acting normal, he didn't know what she was on, but Sienna had to be on something to be behaving this way. And he couldn't believe that the scratches that he had seen earlier on her face, were from herself. She had said to him that she got the scratches while at dance. Sienna had told him this elaborate story of how she had hit the corner of the CD rack while doing some dance move. She had lied, and been extremely good at it. If she had lied about the scratches, she could have definitely lied about the bruise that she had right now. This last thought really disturbed him.

"What's wrong with you Sienna?" he didn't know how to handle this. She couldn't be drunk because she was walking fine, and it takes more than just two minutes to get this drunk. She was on something, he didn't know what, but there was no doubting that she was drugged up.

"There is absolutely nothing wrong with me right now, everything is perfect. Life is so wonderful…don't you think it's great?" She had a dazed look to her eyes, and Braden couldn't handle seeing her this way. He hadn't told her so, but ever since he found out that she didn't drink because she cared so much about her studies, he had had a certain respect for her. She was definitely stronger than he was. But that respect was gone now, but instead it was replaced by anger that she would do this to herself.

"Tell me what you took!" he grasped both her arms as she clamored towards him.

"Hey, these arms are mine. Get your own!" she whined loudly. She squirmed to try to get away from his grip, but he only tightened his hold on her. She was shooting it up while at work! What kind of person did that?

"What drug did you take," he demanded sternly. She turned her face away from him and he let go of one of her arms to firmly turn her face back to him. He looked into her eyes and repeated, "What drugs did you take?"

She looked worried by his question and her eyes started to dance nervously around the room. Her brow was sweating and he could see tears welling up in her eyes. Sienna let out a whimper and quietly asked, "Could you let go of my arms, they hurt. Then, I'll tell you."

He did so and looked down into her yellow and watery eyes. What Braden couldn't see was that Sienna was internally freaking out. When Braden had grabbed her arms like that she was immediately reminded of how Reece had done that on many occasions while trying to rape her. She had thought for a horrible, brief momentthat maybe Braden was going to attempt to do that. This last thought made her shudder. She wouldn't be able to handle it if he ever tried to do that to her.

Sienna was scared to death and could barely think straight as she thought of what to say to Braden's question. She could never tell him the truth. "I….didn't…" she was on the verge of tears and she couldn't explain why. She could feel her heart racing and it was hard to breath. She was panting as she continued, "I thought they were mine. I had cramps, so I put the bottle of…of…painkillers in my bag. They weren't whatIthought….that's not what they are, no no. They are my mommy's. She likes pills a lot…."

He didn't quite comprehend. "You took them by mistake?"

"My mom likes to take drugs, ecstacy is her drug of choice I think. She switches the bottles sometimes. I thought that I was taking something for my cramps. You have to believe me!" Sienna was desperately pawing at him now. He could never know the truth, he had to believe her lies. To her relief, Braden nodded in understanding.

He was just as relieved as her to hear this. So her mom was a pillpopper and she had accidentally taken some crazy drug. This made him feela lot betteras he looked down at Sienna. She wasn't some drugged up rich girl, thank god, she was different. She was better than that and Braden loved that about her. He smiled at her as he concluded to himself that he believed her, "I'm sorry I was so rough with you earlier."

"It scared me." She was looking at him while rubbing her arms in the place he had held them. Some of Sienna's tears had managed to escape and they trickled down her cheek. She frantically wiped them away and told herself to stop being to pathetic.

"I didn't hurt you did I?" he asked while silently yelling at himself for being so thoughtless and angry. "I was justmad because I thought you were taking drugs intentionally and I just had thought you were better than that."

Sienna's stomach plummeted. Damn him for making her feel like shit. She hated that she was a drug addict, but as much as she wanted to stop, she knew that she wasn't strong enough to get through life without cocaine. As much as she didn't want to disappoint Braden, she just didn't have it in her.

"Well, I guess you should probably sit down until it wears off. Then, you should go home and yell at that mother of yours!"

"No, there is still three hours left to our shift. I don't want to go home." Sienna was very determined about not going home. Even though her house would be empty until 5, when her dad got home, she still didn't like being there. It was the place where day after day, a part of her was destroyed, and she hated every agonizing minute she spent within those walls.

Braden looked at her and saw that she wouldn't let him send her home no matter what, so he caved in. "Alright, but your going to be sitting down the entire time. Okay?"

"Don't be ridiculous, I will work my but off every minute for three more hours. To give Jay his monies worth." Braden sighed with defeat. She was a fiery little devil, with enough determination to amaze even the greatest of people.

…………………..

As Braden lay awake that night thinking about Sienna, he managed to ignore what his heart was telling him. He wanted his feelings to lay buried inside him, never to reach the surface again. He only cared about her as a friend, was his favorite saying. Sienna was a great friend. He wouldn't let himself see it any other way, especially since it wouldn't get him anywhere. She didn't feel that way about him and even if she did, Sienna still wouldn't be with him because he was dating her best friend. As Vegas came to mind he sighed. She cared about him so much that it was almost overwhelming. Any guy was lucky to have a girl like her, one who was laid back, gorgeous, and knew how to have some fun.

After work, Braden had taken Vegas to Johnny's restaurant for some food and she had spent the entire time stressing out about how poorly things had went when she had had dinner with his family. It became clear to him that she so badly wanted to please him and this revelation made him realize how good he had it with her. She was perfect.

Braden's thoughts were interrupted suddenly when he heard a scuffling outside. He got up curiously from his bed and walked over to his sliding glass door. He couldn't really see very well, so he opened it and walked out into the night air. He looked around himself searching for the source of the noise, and soon he found it.

"Jay?" asked Braden uncertainly. Jay had his arms around some brunette's waist and he was burying his face lustfully in her hair. Braden was stricken when he realized that this girl was not Erica. "What in the hell are you doing?"

Jay pulled away from the woman who was leaning against the wall and he drunkenly took a step backwards to steady himself. He looked like hell; his face had smudged lipstick all over and his hair was sticking up at odd angles. He turned to look at Braden and slurred to him, "I think I am showing this young lady how to have a little fun."

"And he's succeeding too" cut in the strange woman.

Braden was at a loss for words. What happened to the Jay who was pining after Erica? The one who sat in front of the TV for weeks while spoon-feeding himself barrels of ice cream? "But what about…"

"Don't even say it, Braden. Just go back to bed, while I show Neva over hear the inside of my bedroom." Jay wiggled his eyebrows at him suggestively, probably thinking that he was being subtle, as he turned towards the girl and put is arm sloppily around her. Braden could think of nothing to say to this as he watched Jay, nibbling the girl's ear and grabbing her ass. It was the saddest thing Braden had ever seen.