Dear Dana,

I am so stressed out! Two guys like me and I like only one, so how do I turn the other one down? I hope all is going well at PCA. Here are the Pants and I hope they bring you the best of luck. They brought me my first kiss and an unwanted confession. Hope they only bring good stuff for you.

-Zoey

Nicole sat on her bed in the dark, her phone clasped in her hands. She slowly dialed the number of her mother's phone, her fingers trembling as she did so. She took deep breaths as her cell phone made beeping noses when she made contact with the numbers. Finally, she had finished dialing. She raised the phone to her ear. The ringing made her want to throw the phone out the window.

"Hello?"

She had answered after three rings, just like she always had. Nicole felt tears in her eyes as imaged of her mother flashed through her head. She was just about to hang up when she found her voice. "Hi, mom, it's me."

"Nicole! I'm so glad you called."

"Yeah… um, I'm sorry I've been avoiding your calls."

"That's ok you had a valid reason…"

"And I'm sorry for all the other things I ever did wrong."

"What? Nicole, are you ok?"

"And I'm sorry I'm such a bad daughter!"

Nicole was sobbing uncontrollably now, just as she had the day before. She was shaking and crying into the phone. "I'm sorry… I'm sorry…" She wept and tears ran down her face like a never ending waterfall.

"Nicole, what's wrong?"

Her mother sounded so alarmed, so caring for her, that Nicole cried harder. "You… you… you have cancer!" she cried. "You're sick and I… I treated you like… like…" She took a deep breath and choked. There was silence on the other line.

"You know?"

Nicole nodded her head, but then realized her mother couldn't see her. "Yes."

"Oh, Nicole…"

The two of them, mother and daughter, both cried on the phone that night for who knows how long. They both sobbed into the telephone, letting the other hear their sorrow and feel their tears of sadness.

He wasn't going to do it. Really, he wasn't. But he couldn't help it. He had read Quinn's diary.

Michael sat in the student lounge, the diary in his hands. He felt light headed just thinking about what he had read. Quinn likes me? How can that be possible? He shook his head and frowned, feeling… well, stunned. How would he be able to turn Quinn down without hurting her?

Just then, who but Quinn herself, came running into the room, frantically searching for her diary. Michael took a deep breath and stood up, preparing to go tell her the truth. He marched right up to her when she let out an enormous sneeze. He yelped and took a step backwards, tripping over the couch. Quinn gasped and, pulling a tissue out of her pocket, ran to help him.

"Are you ok? I'm sorry… I… I'm so stupid…"

"That's ok," Michael said, getting up to his feet. Quinn's eyes suddenly popped out of her head when she saw what Michael was holding.

"What's that?" she asked, her voice quivering.

Michael stood up, holding the diary out as if it were a bomb. "Uh…" He took a deep breath. "This is… a book. YES, it's a book." Telling the truth was a lot harder than he had anticipated. "I… um…"

"You didn't read the book, right?"

Michael bowed his head in shame and suddenly Quinn felt her entire face turn red. She snatched the diary out of his hands and ran. Her heart was thumping loudly in her ears and s he felt tears start to run down her face. By the time she was her dorm room she was crying. Then she sneezed.

Dana was walking down towards Logan's dorm room to give him a surprise. She had just received her first paycheck and thought it was only fit to share it with Logan since he did help one day. She wondered what his reaction would be and excitedly hurried to see him.

Once reaching his door, she knocked three times and then decided just to open it. She pushed the door open and then gasped. The room was freezing. The window was open and Logan stood by it with his back to the door. When Dana came in, he turned around and his eyes turned huge. A cigarette was hanging out of his mouth.

"What…"

"Dana, I can explain."

Realizing what was going on, Dana screamed and walked right out of the room, slamming the door behind her. She walked fast down the hallway when she heard Logan's footsteps after her. She started running, feeling betrayed and shocked. She thought he had quit. She thought… Well, she had thought a lot of things, but now she guessed it was all lies.

"Dana, wait!"

Dana turned around and started to yell. "No- you know what? Why SHOULD I wait? You won't be able to give me a good explanation so just forget it."

"I… it's hard to quit, you know?"

"I know," Dana said quietly. "But it's harder to quit when you don't try."