A/N: I would really like to apologize if you find more mistakes in this than usual. My computer got rebooted yesterday and I lost Microsoft word, so now I have to use the other program that doesn't have spell check or anything like that until I can afford to buy another disk, or find the reinstallation disk. If this chapter is too bad, I will take it off.

It had quickly turned into the greatest summer of my life. After the fair, Jessica and I arranged to go out the next night. This time, far from Lizzie and Gordo. She was to arrive at my house at eight p.m. and take me away from the city to a place where no one could find us. I was almost bursting with excitement when I thought about what we would be doing.

I searched through my closet, trying to pick out an outfit that said that I wanted to look good, but not too good. I didn't want Jessica to think I was some little kid trying way to hard to impress her. After moments of arguing for and against outfits, I finally decided to go for the black hip-huggers and maroon tank top. I went to my mirror. "Up or down?" I asked myself. I wasn't sure what to do with my hair. I scooped it into my hands and looked at my reflection left and right to see how a ponytail would look with my outfit. It was alright, but I thought down would look better for the night. Using my comb, I parted my hair towards one side, then I curled the front so that it flipped towards the back. I reached for my stick of cherry flavored lip gloss that was on my dresser and applied some. I smacked my lips and gave myself one last look in the mirror. "Perfect," I said.

"Miranda, you have a visitor," I heard my mom call up to me.

I took a look at my clock. 7:50? I wasn't expecting Jessica to be so early, but it was ok. I was ready and excited to see her. "Send her up," I said. Before she had a chance to see me, I unneccesarily smoothed down my hair, just trying to look my best for her.

There was a knock at my bedroom door. "Come in, Jes..." I trailed off when I saw the blonde girl poke her head in. "Lizzie?" What was she doing here?

"Hey, Miranda. I just rented this movie and I thought that maybe we could watch..." Her eyes looked up and down my body for a moment. "Um...you look really nice. Were you planning on going somewhere?"

"N...no. What on earth would give you that idea?" I asked nervously.

Lizzie started to slowly walk closer to me. With every step she took in my direction, I took a step back until I was on my bed. She sniffed the air. "Are you wearing perfume?"

"Maybe," I replied, not looking in her direction. It was useless, I realized, to pretend that I was staying home tonight. "Ok, look, I'm going out." I broke the news to her.

She sat next to me on the edge of my bed. Her cheeks—her whole face, even her eyes from tearing up, went rosey red. Lizzie's eyes looked down to her hands as they rested on her lap. "With Jessica?" she asked in a saddened tone.

I didn't want to hurt her, but what else was I supposed to say? With the same saddened tone in return, I confirmed her fears. "With Jessica."

Lizzie looked up, anywhere but at me as she wiped away tears from her eyes. I didn't expect it to bother her this much. Why do you guys spend so much time together?" she asked me.

"We don't spend that much time together," I lied.

She finally looked at me, head tilted to the side, telling me that I had to be kidding. "What about the movies? I know you both left. And what about when you came to my house at night. You didn't even want to talk you me. All you wanted to do was see Jessica. Don't even get me started on yesterday. What was that all about? You guys totally ditched us and y...you did it on purpose a...and..." she faltered, looking away from me again. "Miranda...d...did I do something wrong?"

"What?" I asked, completely surprised by this "Of course you didn't do anything wrong." I pulled her into a hug and gently patted her on the back. "Why would you think that, Lizzie? You're my best friend."

"I don't know, I guess it's because it seems like we never spend time together anymore and your more interested in being with Jessica and I just can't see what you see in that girl. She's just so...uggh!" she said in frustration.

I let go of her and looked at her. "What do you mean, 'uggh'? If there's something here that's hard to see, it's how you can hate your cousin so much. She's amazing," I said, in Jessica's defense.

"Shows what you know," Lizzie mumbled to herself.

"I've had it! What is going on between the two of you? Why do you hate her so much?" I asked.

"Why do you like her so much?" she asked in return.

I wasn't just about to tell her how I truly felt about the girl. It was far too private. "I just do, ok?"

"No!" Lizzie shook her head. "No, it's not ok. I want to know, Miranda. What is going on between you two?"

"I do not need this right now. Why is my friendship with your cousin such a problem?"

"Like you care," Lizzie said under her breath. I still heard her, though.

"I do care. If I'm involved, then I would really like to know what's going on. Why does it bother you that I'm good friends with your cousin?"

"You want to know why it bothers me so much? Because...because of this..."

Lizzie collected me into her arms and pressed her lips hard against mine with passion, bringing my body as close to hers as possible. This can't be happening, I thought as I struggled to break free. I finally shook myself away from her.

"What the hell was that?" I yelled, wiping my lips with the back of my hand.

"It bothers me because I'm in love with you Miranda."