A/n: Thanks to all reviewers. Hope you enjoy this chapter.

"We can never turn back the pages of time, though we may wish to relive a happy moment, or say good-bye just one last time, we never can, because the sands of time continue to fall, and we can't turn the hourglass over."

The group stayed on the beach until late evening, when the sun was starting to hide behind clouds, sending out a dusky pink and golden glow over the water. Well, all apart from Quistis. She got restless and began to worry about some papers she hadn't marked, so had left earlier than the others.

Only a few people remained on the beach now, making it altogether a quieter and more peaceful place.

Squall and Rinoa had gone down to where the tide was going in, to sit and hold hands whilst watching the last rays of sunlight peep through the clouds. Zell was sitting up on his towel, making a hot dog out of sand and Irvine had gone off to get drinks from the snack bar at the other end of the beach. Selphie simply sat watching Zell tackle his problem of trying to make fake food items with the crumbly sand.

"Zell, are you hungry or something?"

The tattooed blonde glanced at Selphie, looking sheepish, "Uh, no . . ."

Brushing his sandy hands on his shorts, he turned to lay on his front, hands propping up his head and big blue eyes staring at Selphie.

She began to get self conscious, as she usually did when a guy looked at her for too long, even if that guy was one of her best friends.

"What?" she asked, fidgeting with her loose yellow t shirt she had put back on over her bikini.

"Nothin'" Zell continued staring at her.

"What?!"

Zell turned over again to lie on his back, not one for keeping the same position for an extensive amount of time. Although he was no longer paying attention to Selphie, it still bugged her why he was in the first place, so she reached over and twisted one of his nipples.

"Ow! Shit . . . you really know how to turn me onnn . . ."

Selphie sat back on her haunches and gave her friend an appalled look before slowly shuffling away from him.

"Hey! I was only jokin' . . . don't sweat it," Zell whined.

She turned her head away from him, pretending to be in a mood. He moved nearer her, still laying down, and placed his head on her lap, giving her puppy-dog eyes.

"You love me really . . ."

Selphie looked down at Zells head resting on her crossed legs and smiled. In the distance, a figure was coming towards them. It was Irvine. Zell got up quickly, startling Selphie in the process. He leapt to his feet and jogged over to his male friend, taking one of the drinks out of his hand. Zell said something and Irvine laughed, but Selphie couldn't hear exactly what had been exchanged.

She tensed up a little when Irvine seemed to be coming in her direction. A few seconds later he was standing in front of her, holding out a bottle of mineral water to her.

Selphie looked up at him, a tad confused.

"Oh, I didn't ask you to get me a drink."

"Yeah, I know that, I jus' thought with all the sea water you swallowed today, maybe you should have a drink, y'know, in case you're dehydrated."

"Oh . . . thank-you," Selphie said as she took the drink out of Irvine's hands.

He fixed his eyes on her and gave one of his smiles that never failed to make Selphie feel all warm inside and always managed to melt away all her doubts.

"Er . . . can I sit down with you?"

Shit shit shit.

"Yeah, sure."

What the heck am I supposed to say? And where the hell did Zell go? Zell if you can read my thoughts, then come over here!

Selphie looked around and spotted Zell down by Squall and Rinoa, picking up rocks and skimming them into remaining tide that was left.

"The sun sure looks pretty, doesn't it?"

Irvine's deep voice startled Selphie; she only hoped he hadn't seen her jump out of her skin.

"Yeah, it is . . ." wish I had someone to share it with . . .

"Are you okay now? Not feelin' dizzy or sick?"

"Oh, I'm fine. Just a bit shaken still, I guess. It's not everyday someone tries to kill you."

"I'm sure they weren't trying to kill you . . ."

Why is he sticking up for them?!

"But, if you do start feelin' sick or anything, then tell me straight away okay? There's a lot of bacteria in that water, don't want you gettin' ill."

Selphie stared at him for a split second; he appeared to be looking out towards where the sun was setting. This might've been romantic for her, had the current situation of them not getting along lately been so apparent.

"Um . . . Irvy . . ."

Irvine tipped his hat back from his eyes, so it wasn't obstructing his view of Selphie. He gazed lazily into her large emerald green eyes. This made her feel sad. She longed for this strangely tranquil connection with him to last forever.

"What was it you wanted to say, Sefie?"

Selphie looked down at her hands clasped together on her lap. She smiled to herself, pretending that just for a moment, none of this had ever happened. She never really lost Irvine, she didn't slit her wrist and he didn't sleep with Celia and her crew. That nagging voice in the back of her head wouldn't let her enjoy this make-believe for long though.

It did happen . . . all of it, every last little bit of it.

"I just . . . wanted to thank you. For, like, saving me . . . and stuff."

Selphie desperately wanted to ask him a million questions on the subject of Celia and him, but she held back, not wanting to ruin the first moment they'd gotten together without anyone barging in.

"That's okay, darlin'."

She smiled, but then reminded herself that he called almost everyone darling, even Squall, much to his annoyance.

"Got into a bit of a scuffle with Seifer before hand though. Sick bastard seemed to enjoy watching what was happening to you."

Selphie hung her head. She must've been looking pretty sorry for herself, because even Irvine noticed she'd gone down yet another notch in the happiness department.

"Hey, what's the hang-dog expression for?"

"Everyone seems to hate me . . ." she mumbled, more to herself than the cowboy seated next to her.

Unexpectedly, he wrapped his arms around her shoulders, pulling her into a warm embrace.

"You're a very misunderstood lady, Sef," he whispered in her ear, his breath making her hair stir and tickle the side of her neck.

It was very hard for Selphie not to lose herself and sink into his chest, savoring the feel of his body, and think that everything was okay again. But it wasn't. There was still the issue of Celia, Amber and Nichi. When thinking of this, Selphie pulled away from Irvine, suddenly shuddering inwardly at his touch. Had those hands really been on Celia? Had those lips really kissed her? Had they really . . .

Irvine wasn't as dumb as to not know something had suddenly made Selphie feel uncomfortable. It was written all over the way she had sharply pulled away from his friendly hug and folded her arms over her chest.

"Okay . . . I only hugged you, Sefie."

And kissed other girls, and slept with other girls, and broke my heart.

Selphie got up from her sitting position and hugged her arms around herself. The wind had picked up a bit, throwing her hair in various directions, and pushing her loose t-shirt against her curves. She could see Zell in the distance annoying Rinoa and very much feel Irvine's eyes on her, thinking she was oblivious as she stared at her other friends.

Selphie wanted to walk away, but her legs wouldn't let her move.

He did kinda save your life . . . cheesy as it is . . .

She looked down at him and met his eyes.

"Selphie . . ."

Huh? Oh great, he's gone all Mr. Serious on me.

"Selphie . . . we need to sort this out."

"I don't want to talk about it Irvine."

"You never do! I've tried to apologize but-,"

"Do you still fuck them?"

This question caught Irvine off guard. Selphie even shocked herself for asking it, but was glad she'd got it out.

"Answer me then, Mr. 'I-dumped-my-best-friend-for-an-easy-lay'."

"That's kind of private, Sefie."

Selphie balled her fists together and let them fall down to her sides, leaving her T shirt to be thrown every which way by the evening wind.

"NO! Don't even give me that. I mean, geez Irvine, if you were frustrated then you could've just . . . but no, you had to. . ."

No no no, don't cry, don't do it in front of him.

Selphie turned away from him and found herself running down the beach, away from Irvine. She stopped at the lapping edge of the diminishing tide, breathing heavily and holding back tears which were fit to burst.

Zell turned around from tormenting Rinoa, spotted Selphie and tiptoed up to her.

"BOO!"

Selphie didn't flinch, she just stared out towards the sun on the horizon, looking but not seeing.

"Go away, Zell."

"Uh . . . okay. Sorry."

Zell turned to walk slowly back to Squall and Rinoa, looking scorned and dejected.

Selphie thought she wanted to be alone, but when Zell was halfway towards his destination, she realized it hurt more without a friend around.

"Zell," she called out quietly. He stopped and turned to face her.

Selphie held her arms out to beckon him for a hug, her chin beginning to shake, signaling that she couldn't hold back tears that wanted to be set free.

The blonde bounded towards her, looking concerned as he stepped into her open arms and put his own around her heaving shoulders.

"I'm guessing its Irvine, right?"

Selphie didn't answer him, too intent on finding comfort from the warmth radiating from Zells body. After about five minutes of this, Selphie stopped crying so heavily and looked up from under Zells chin, which was where she happened to burrow into every time she cried.

"I wanna go back now. Can you ask Squall for me?"

"Yup, sure. Wanna come with?"

Selphie looked back to where she last saw Irvine. He wasn't there anymore.

"Okay."

Squall and Rinoa agreed to leave the beach, saying that it was getting cold and darkness would soon fall. Naturally, someone had to go and find Irvine. Zell volunteered to, even though Selphie clearly opposed to this idea, showing it by clinging onto Zells arm as he tried to walk off.

"Selphie, someone's gotta find him. We can't leave him here.

"I don't see why not . . ." she pouted as Zell walked in the direction of the beach café.

He guessed that this was the only place he could've slinked off to. He was right.

As Zell pushed open the door, ringing a little bell at the top, he saw Irvine sitting on a table in the corner talking to some brunette girl in a white halter top, holding a milkshake and nibbling on the straw. It looked innocent enough, so Zell didn't judge his friend this time.

"Hey, Irvine . . . We're off now. Comin'?

Irvine looked up from talking to the brunette girl and turned to face Zells direction.

He said something Zell couldn't make out to the girl, then slid off the table and ambled over to where the martial artist stood waiting.

"Who's she?"

Irvine followed Zell out of the door and said nonchalantly, "Oh, I don't know, just started talking to her."

Zell looked over at Irvine with an eyebrow hoisted as they continued walking towards where Squalls rental car was parked.

"What? Why're you lookin' at me like that?"

"You've got to stop chatting to every hot girl you see."

"Why? Just coz you're Mr. Shy when it comes to them."

"Am not . . . You're just upsetting Sef a lot by doing so."

"Everything's like walkin' on eggshells with her, Zell. Anything I do is going to upset the girl. I've almost given up trying to resolve things.

Zell stopped and stood in front of his friend.

"No no no. Nooo you don't. You gotta keep trying Irvine. I know how much you mean to her. If you hadn't made all those mistakes this-,"

"Hey, I didn't make any mistakes. It's not as if we were goin' out or nothing. I just wanted a bit of fun."

"Are you blind? You were practically a couple! You never let go of each other, you were always together and laughing, then one day, poof, you float off and target the three worst girls in Garden."

"What the heck am I s'pose to do about it? What's done is done, and yeah it might've been a mistake but I can't get through to Sefie one way or the other. Every time I try, she'll end up sobbing into your chest."

"Has it not ever occurred to you that maybe you should be the one to comfort her?"

Irvine never replied back to this and a few seconds later, they were at the car, getting in ready to go. Squall driving, Rinoa up front next to him, Zell, Selphie and Irvine in the back, sandwiched together.

The silence in the vehicle was deafening, so Rinoa turned around and began to talk to Selphie.

"How're you feeling hun?"

Selphie didn't feel like answering her, but did, because she didn't want to offend her companion. After all, she was only being nice.

"Uh, I'm okay. Sleepy, still kind of in shock I guess."

"Oh, poor babe. I can't believe those bitches did that. And Seifer! What an ass wipe!"

At the mention of Seifer, a quiet, almost inaudible grunt came out of Squall by her side.

Rinoa ignored him and stared at Irvine in a way that made him squirm around in his seat.

"Hey, quit movin' man, its annoyin'", Zell said with a slight frown screwing up his tattooed face. The sharpshooter obeyed his friend but still had Rinoa's gaze on him. It wasn't often that a lady would make him feel almost petrified, but the raven haired beauty had it down to a T.

She only stopped what she was doing when Squall reached a hand off the steering wheel and tugged at her top, signaling that she should sit down properly in her seat.

Irvine breathed a silent sigh of relief, thanking Squall in his head for taking her gaze off him. He stole a glance over at Selphie, who was sitting on the other side of Zell, looking intently out of the window, watching the scenery rush by.

Has it not ever occurred to you that maybe you should be the one to comfort her?

Zells words passed through Irvine's thoughts as he sat and looked at the girl who used to be so carefree. Yet now, she seemed laden down with far too many troubles, her shoulders slumped as if she carried the weight of the world. She had tell-tale bags under her eyes which told of sleepless nights and a mind that worked over time on trying to sort out her problems. Problems a teenager shouldn't have.

If Rinoa's stare had the intention of making him feel guilty, it worked pretty well.

Irvine took his eyes off of Selphie and sank lower into his seat, wanting the ground to open up and swallow him whole for the misery he had caused her.