"Cassandra?"

Mush could not believe it. "What the fuck was she doing here? How dare she!" Mush thought. "Wow, I sound like a girl. Maybe I should say this stuff out loud. It might be more affective."

"Mush! Omigod it's so great to see you!" Cassandra leaned in for a hug.

"Cassandra! What do you think you're doing? I made it perfectly clear that I never wanted to see you again after what you did to me. And now you're just showing up here wanting to hug me?"

Cassandra's lower lip started to quiver. It always did that when she was about to cry. It was one of the things Mush loved about her, that unlike most other girls, she had a warning signal, and didn't just cry out of the blue. Shit. He should stop thinking about her lips.

"Crap. Race broke up with you didn't he?"

Cassandra burst into tears. "After two years Mush! Two years he just breaks up with me! He said that he stills loves one of his ex girlfriends! What the heck could that mean? Two years!"

All that Cassandra had just said added up in Mush's mind. For the second time in fifteen minutes only one thought went through his head.

No way. No fucking way.

"Cassandra, do you realize what this means? Race still loves Laura and I love Laura and Spot loves Laura and………….

"I love you."

"What, Cassandra? No you don't. You were just all crying over Race. You love him, even though he was never right for you."

"I know that now Mush. I know now that you were right for me all along. I love you."

"Cassandra! I can't listen to this! There is no way that I could ever trust you again even if you did love me! So stop saying that you love me and let me think! I have to get Laura back! Even though I am wicked pissed off at her and two other guys that I thought were my friends are in love with her, I still love her! And I always will!"

"But Mush, I love you."

"So?"

"So you have to take me back."

"What the fuck, Cassandra?"

"Its me Mush, you have to take me back. Who wouldn't take me back?"

"You're kidding right? Please tell me you're kidding. Cause I would never have gone out with someone so bitchy and full of herself."

"C'mon, Mush, you know you love me." Cassandra tried to put her arm around Mush's waist, but he backed up into the boarding house.

"That's it Cassandra. You are possibly the stupidest girl I know. Cheating on me then expecting me to take you back. That's it. I'm not gonna be the softie anymore. I'm gonna let Laura explain to me what happened, and if it makes any sense at all I'm gonna get back together with her. So just leave me the fuck alone."

He slammed the door in her face and walked upstairs, even though he knew that he had to go outside and sell his papers.

Laura was still in the same position on her bed when she heard the bedroom door open. "Go away, Seth. I don't want to talk about it." Still, the steps came closer, and finally the person sat down on her bed. "Seth, I said………" Laura stopped midsentence because when she looked up she saw her father, not Seth. "Hi dad," Laura said sheepishly.

"Laura. Its been awhile, hasn't it?"

"Only three weeks, two days, and sixteen hours," Laura replied.

"Wow, that long? I forgot you have the best memory for time and how much has passed."

"It's my special gift," Laura sighed.

"What happened, Laura?" Her dad asked her in the calmest of voices.

Laura opened her mouth, intending to tell him the same thing that she had told Seth, that it wasn't any of his business, but instead she found herself spilling the whole awful story.

When she had finished, her father just sat there with a thoughtful look on his face. Finally after one minute, but one minute which had felt like a lifetime for Laura, he spoke.

"Seems like you're at it again Laura," he sighed.

"And what is that supposed to mean?"

"First Tom and Race, now Mush and this Spot fellow. So let me ask you one question Laura. Why do you do this? Why must you keep proving to your boyfriends that you love them by going out with other guys? Why can't you stay committed?"

"I guess it's just my personality. I seek reassurance. I have to know for sure that I'm not making a mistake about my boyfriend, but then I end up making a mistake when they find me cheating on them. I just can't stay still. I love the wild times that some guys bring, but I can't handle the fact that those same wild guys don't want to remain my boyfriend for too long. I seek a combination of those two types of guys. A Mush and a Spot. A Tom and a Race. But I just can't choose."

"Well, Laura, there's your problem. Life is about choices. Sometimes you make the wrong ones. I did. I chose my job over my wife and kids. That was a wrong choice. But sometimes you have to make the wrong choice before you can figure out what the right choice is. And the guy that is right for you will understand that. Tom wasn't right for you because he didn't understand that you made the wrong choice about Race. Maybe Mush will understand. Then you'll know he's the right choice."

"Thanks, dad. I love you."

"I love you too, Laura." They shared a sweet father daughter hug, and then he stood up and was gone.

Laura raced down the stairs to see if Seth knew where their father had to go in such a hurry. "Seth? Where is dad going?"

"Umm, he said he has to go back to work, but he'll be home in a couple of hours."

It seemed that in making the wrong choice, her dad had found out what the right choice was, too. Laura smiled to herself, but what Seth said next made her smile inside and out.

"He also said that there is some guy waiting at the door, but he wouldn't say who."

"Mush!" Laura cried. She was so excited to see him and explain everything. She wanted things to be okay between them. And she knew that if he forgave her that he was the right choice and that she would never have to prove it again. So right at this moment, she knew things couldn't get any worse.

Then she opened the door.

"Hey Laura."

Never mind. Things had just gotten worse. Things had just gotten a lost worst.

Nessa sat with her head in her hands. It was sort of a trend going around, sitting with your head in your hands. Nessa imagined that Laura must have sat this way after Mush saw her, and that Mush must have sat this way after he saw Laura, and that maybe Spot was sitting this way now, too. "Ha," Nessa laughed half heartedly. No way was the mighty Spot Conlon sitting with his head in his hands, sulking about a girl he didn't even like. "He liked me as a friend," Nessa thought. "Nothing more, but at least a friend. Now he doesn't like me at all." Nessa felt so stupid for being mad at Spot, but on the other hand she wanted to be defiant. Spot had been a big jerk, but she still couldn't keep her heart from soaring every time she heard someone knock on the door. But it was never him. And it would never be him. Nessa just had to face the facts and get on with her life. She kept telling herself this over and over again, but she wasn't sure she was at all closer to making it happen.

Turns out that the mighty Spot Conlon did happen to be sitting with his head in his hands, but not because he was crying over Nessa, as she might have wished. It was just that sitting like this helped cool his head off, and that was just what he needed to do right now. Nessa had said some pretty mean things to him back at her house, and he laughed in spite of himself because he knew that they were all true. He was an idiot, but it wasn't his fault. That was just the way he was. He did think he was better then everybody else, but what was wrong with that? "It's not like I'm self absorbed or anything," he thought. "Nessa doesn't have the right to judge me like that," Spot went on in the little battle inside his head. "She doesn't know me that well." "Oh but she does," the other little voice in Spot's head replied. "She has been best friends with you since you were five. She knows you better then anybody. Even your own mother." "So?" Spot argued to himself. "That doesn't give her the right to call me all those names. I didn't do anything wrong. Laura's the one who agreed to go out with me. And if she really loved Mush, she wouldn't have gone out with me. So I just proved that their relationship is failing. I did them a favor. Laura and Mush should be thanking me."

"Spot, that's the stupidest thing I ever heard."

"Shut up, voice inside my head!" Spot screamed out loud.

"That wasn't the voices inside your head, Spot. That was me, Straw."

"Oh, hey Straw. Uh………How long have you been standing there?"

Straw sat down on the ground next to him. "Long enough to know that you have serious problems with talking to yourself," she replied with the trace of a smile.

"Uh, this is awkward."

"Don't worry, about it Spot. I talk to myself all the time. It helps me figure things out. And I already knew that you talked to yourself. We've been friends since we were five, remember?"

"Can I ask you a question, Nessa?"

"Shoot."

"If I'm always so horrible to you, and you always get mad at me, how come you always forgive me?"

"Well, I guess it's because I like you, Spot. And even though you're really stupid a lot of the time, and I get mad at you, I still can't imagine my life without you, and how boring it would be. So I always end up forgiving you, even though sometimes I think I shouldn't. It's what friends do."

"So do you think that means that Mush will forgive me?"

"Not a chance Spot."

Spot leaned his head on Nessa's shoulder. "I think that I might just be okay with that," he replied.