a/n: hey, I know there was som confusion with the dresses in the last chapter: I'm super bad at describing them, sorry! I also tried to post the links in but wouldn't let me--if you really want to see the ones I based them off of online then just let me know when you review (wink wink) and I'll send you the links...oh and PS, this story gets a lot better...I promise, I know it's starting out pretty slowly, but it's probs my fave story that I've written in a while--thanks for reading!

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The two girls didn't speak for the rest of the day, that night, or the next morning.

Oliver found Miley at her locker. "Hey."

She glanced at him briefly and said, "Hi."

"I heard you had a fight with Lilly."

"It's nothing. I was in a bad mood and said some things I shouldn't have. I'll talk to her later, I guess."

"Anything I can do to help?"

Miley thought of him shamelessly flirting with other random girls, and the feeling of fiery rage that boiled up within her. She felt a shadow of it beginning to surface now. "No," she said, forcing the fire down. "No, we're good."

"'Kay," he said. He hugged her quickly and then left for class.

Miley slammed her head against the locker and groaned miserably. The final bell sounded and she sighed.

♥♥♥

Miley sat stewing bitterly in science class. It was the last subject of the day, and thank goodness, because she was losing her mind. She frowned at Oliver across the room.

"Hey, hey, be my lab partner?" His newest victim acquiesced and he added smoothly, "Maybe sometime we could meet up at the beach and be dinner partners. Whaddaya say?"

Miley whimpered and put her head down on her arms. 'Why me?' she thought sourly. 'Why him?'

♥♥♥

Miley popped up at Lilly's locker.

"Okay, I know I was a total jerk earlier, but please tell me we can deal with that later—I've got major boy issues that need to be dealt with ASAP."

Lilly nodded and the two best friends headed out the door, heads bent together in emergency counsel.

Miley explained how over the past week she had been feeling increasingly possessive of Oliver.

"It's like…he's my date, and I know we're just going as friends…but every time I see him talking to another girl, I feel like a murderer—like I want to murder her, or him, or both! It's so weird, I've never really felt this before."

"So that's why you were so wigged out before?"

"Yeah. Look, I'm so sorry. That was not okay for me to—" Miley began apologetically.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, we'll deal with all that later," Lilly interrupted. "Don't you realize what you've just said?"

"The 'I'm sorry' part?" Miley guessed.

"Nooo, the murderer part!" Lilly said excitedly

"Oh yeah, that. Listen, don't let that get out," she said seriously. "People will think I'm crazy."

"Or, they'll think what I think, which is that you like Oliver."

"What!" Miley demanded, taking this as a personal affront. "I do not."

"You so do! The evidence: you're going to the dance with him, you want to look perfect, and you can't stand the sight or thought of him with other girls…you totally like him!"

"I do, don't I?" Miley admitted miserably.

"Come on, don't be like that. We'll turn this insane jealousy into the perfect recipe for looove."

"But, Lilly, I don't even have a dress yet. The dance is tomorrow night, and I haven't even found my perfect dress."

"I have an idea…"

♥♥♥

The next day at school, Lilly and Miley were enraptured in animated conversation at their lockers. Oliver walked up to them.

"So I see we've made up." They nodded. "Ooh, hold that thought," he said, as two senior girls walked by.

Lilly rolled her eyes and followed him, "Ollie, do us a favor: lay off the other chicks. You're taking a fabulous girl to the dance tonight: focus on her."

Miley smiled on the other end of the hall. It was good to have her best friend back.