She was done. It had been a swell occasion getting out and being a social creature, but Lucy knew when she had reached that point where she couldn't continue the evening. Sadly, that became the case when her heart demanded she escape from it, and she found herself throwing herself outside into the cold. It did absolutely nothing to slow her beating heart. She felt her anxiety reach its peak when she was suddenly ambushed by two 'dude-bros' who were quite adamant to get her number, and something a little extra on the side that evening. Unfortunately for them, like every other creep who tried that evening; Lucy wasn't willing to oblige, not with the former and certainly never the later. She'd find herself as quite the interest for the boys that evening and that took some getting used to. Lucy had known before that a few people at school had found her attractive, a few people had tried to let her know that. Tried, she'd never let them. They'd find her abrasive nature the only block, but they'd be wrong; they simply never had a chance. She was only gunning for one other boy at school, none of them could compare. He was gone now, in some town far, far away, probably with his girlfriend. She could only wish them the best.

It became a whole thing of getting used to the attention again, but naturally her guard was up and none of them tried to open with a topic she would've liked to talk about first. What about wasn't as important as the idea. She couldn't help but wonder about the reason for the attention. She'd been largely avoided at school, maybe they thought she was still pining for Mike. All the boys here were interested. Was it because of the effort she put into looking like being at a party? (A rare thing for her, as she would have just appeared without a care into dressing up. She let her mother help her with make-up.) She shuddered at a worse though, because she was much younger than the other girls. She had that feeling throughout the night and stuck to hanging around the girls in hope of some reprieve from the boyish antics. She learned a great deal from Katie's lady friends, most of them knew each other through their work or colleges and had an idea of who these boys were dating, if any. Some relief came when it was the case and a less than loyal boyfriend came up to chat her up and propose an idea to her. She'd refuse naturally, and there wouldn't be a girl too far away who would recognise him, and people would talk. It happened just before and there was almost trouble. She didn't need to dissuade them from perusing the venture, as each one of their cohorts weren't too far behind them, and she saw nothing but a glare that meant death when they looked at her. To her relief it steered away towards their boyfriends. Then an object found itself hurtling towards their direction. She didn't need to dodge the one that gracefully veered and met with the first boyfriend's face. She took that as her cue to go and her only chance to avoid an altercation, as the man rose and threw a fist in the direction the object came from probably thinking someone was trying to start a fight. It turned out he was wrong when he hit the wrong person in his dazed swing for only a second, as the person hit then turned around and socked them back with their own swing. But she could only tell it happened from the sounds and the gasps that went on behind her. She didn't stick around. There wasn't an interest to find out who collected it; the girlfriend or the other dude-bro. She scurried into the next room but deciding this wasn't where he wanted to be either. She needed some time to herself. That became a problem. There weren't too many places where she thought she could go. She stopped when she realised, she was close to the room where her old friends were. Stacy saw her. Stacy could see the panic in her eyes, and she thought for a moment there was a gesture that beckoned her over. Her heart couldn't help but beat faster. She shook her head and instead took another direction, the only one available to her. If there wasn't a place, she could be alone inside the mansion, there was only one other place she could think of. Just so. Every minute she stayed inside was another minute she found herself in hell. She did nothing but run, and her heart was feeling like it couldn't take another few minutes more of this.

Sanctuary was outside in the freezing cold. She kept running as far as her legs could take her until she was further into the gardens, all before collapsing in a heap. She tried to catch her breath before bringing her head up and glancing back at the mansion. She'd ran some distance, surprising her. It did wonders for her heart. Finally, she rose, feeling better. She could stand to stay out here for as long as needed. She could too despite the cold. Roseville winters never bothered her in more ways than once, certainly never with the amount of fur she had. She'd take pity on anyone else who'd happened to have shorter fur than her. They're certainly feel it. That too would keep the most of them away from her.

Then again, she considered how many of them were out of their regular minds to try, there was that much being served in the way of alcohol.

She'd decided she had enough of the party. She tried to mingle despite the voice in her head and the hesitation her heart begged her. That was the best anyone could've asked for and she was happy for trying. All that she needed to do now was to get her mother to come and pick her up and take her home. She brushed her hand around behind her neck before realising her mistake; she wasn't wearing her ribbon this time. Her choice of place to store her cell phone. The dress she wore didn't have any pockets. Then it dawned on her she might have bought it with her, and she didn't. She swore at herself. She'd forgotten to bring it. She looked back towards mansion, realising she'd have to go back in there at some stage and use Katie's phone. Her heart dropped and protested. She couldn't right now, at least, she thought to herself. Prompting her to wonder how long it would take for her to work up the courage to.
The sound of metal clanking against metal caught her attention suddenly, and she found her interest piqued immediately. How couldn't it? No cell-phone meant she couldn't pass the time with the snake game on Augustus' old phone. No one was meant to be outside, so who was out here? It only interested her further. She'd have to search; she was much too small to see over the hedges and plants. Another problem as she couldn't tell where it came from either. She turned that all into optimism, it just meant she had to look for it, something to do to pass the time, and she weaved through the gardens looking for the source of the sounds. Eventually she found the source. It became quite a surprise to her in more ways than one.
For starters, she found she wasn't quite done with David.

'What the hell are you doing?' She called out, finding herself slightly humoured when David shot a fair distance into the air at the sudden shout. Upon landing his feat back onto the ground, he twisted around and planted his back against the object he was playing with. Lucy didn't have to guess; it was the lock to the shed. He'd been trying to work out the combination and having no luck. She still felt the need to ask on the off chance she was wrong, 'What are you doing?'

David shrugged. ''Nothing.'

'It didn't sound like nothing, David. You're trying to break into Katie's shed, I saw you just before. What are you doing out here? You're not supposed to be here, no one is.'

'Then why are you out here?' He asked.

'Because. . .' She swallowed. 'I needed to get out of there.'

'Then we're the same then!'

'Except I'm not trying to break into places I shouldn't be. What're you up to? You know Katie would freak out if she knew you were trying to break into it, and she could take that out on everyone else. Fess up, what're you doing?'

'You know, stuff?'

She rubbed her eyes with her hand. 'I'm not playing these games, David! Give me a good reason I shouldn't go back in there and warn Katie you're up to no good? I don't want to, but you're testing me right now. You're not meant to be here.'

He shrugged. 'Good luck with that, she's far too busy trying to keep all her boyfriends from fighting each other.'

'Then what would Sue and Stacy say about it then?' She knew that had a reaction when he stared back down towards her.

'Why are you even getting involved?!'

'You don't think I know that Katie has it out for Sue? I still remember; we used to talk about it. Katie would use anything as a mean against her and I know they don't need the trouble.'

'Like the trouble you caused, right?'

Her eyes narrowed back onto him. Her mouth didn't know if it wanted to stay open or closed from the accusation. 'Excuse me?! This isn't about me!'

'Nothing I'm doing is going to cause as much trouble as last year!'

'You're trying to make this about me! I didn't *do* anything!'

'You did something!'

'You weren't even there to know what I'd done!'

'I know it was bad enough to know you broke Paulo!'

'I did nothing! I didn't tell him anything we hadn't discussed in the past! I only told him we couldn't be together, the same as last time! He already knew we couldn't be together!' She shouted, heaving as she did so. 'I already explained that to him the time before that! Get off my case!'
Her blood boiled, until it didn't. 'What do you mean by breaking Paulo, what happened to him?'

'S-Sorry.' David gulped. He'd said too much already, he turned to try and leave but Lucy's hand kept him from doing so. He tugged at it, but she kept hold.

'What happened to Paulo?' She asked again, 'Is that why you've been avoiding me all night? Why do you think I did anything? He. . .He looked okay when he walked away!' She tugged his arm harder and forced him to turn around to her. 'David, what happened?'

'I. . . I don't know! All I know is he wouldn't come out of his room all Summer. I went back every single day; he just wouldn't come out.'

'He shut himself away for the whole Summer?'

'I didn't see him at all.'

'The. . . the entire time? But he looked fine with it once we were done.' She said, looking back at the mansion. 'He's fine right now though, right? I guess you only suspected me because I didn't stick around afterwards, huh?'

He nodded with a glum look in his face 'Where did you go?'

She shook her head. 'I can't be expected to fix everyone's problems. I have my own!'

'I—I know! I just want to know.' David shrugged.

She stared up at him. Not sure what to tell him herself. 'Nowhere, really?' She said. 'I just figured I needed some space from everything. Just a change of scenery. I ended up hanging out with a bunch of freshmen who moved into the school.'

'Oh! So you did a Tess!'

A bit of a laugh escaped her at the realisation. 'I guess I did!'

'Is that why you stopped hanging out around us at lunch?'

'I've got problems David. I needed to start again to figure myself out.' She blinked, realised why she was here. 'Enough about me already! What are you doing out here?!'

'I said I wasn't doing anything bad!'

'It is bad! You're not supposed to be out here. Like I said, what if Katie finds you out here loitering about? She likes to micromanage; Katie would have a fit if she caught you and she will take it out on Sue and the others! I know you don't want that! So, again, what the hell are you doing?'

His shoulders slumped; he knew it too of course. 'This party sucks; Nobody's dancing, nobody's doing party tricks. Nobody's playing games. They're all just talking. They can do that at school!'

'That doesn't explain why you're trying to break into the shed.'

He mulled over it before lifting himself off the lock. 'I spoke to the DJ, I heard some of the unused audio equipment is in here. Katie bought some a couple of days ago but couldn't figure out how to do it herself. So, she hired them to do it for her and stashed the rest of it in here. Supposedly she's going to throw it away at some stage, so I figure we could use it before then and have our own party outside in her lawn.'

She understood him but couldn't help but think it such a vain effort. 'As opposed to inside, where it's not freezing?' She asked.

'Yeah but then Katie would notice if I set it up in our area.'

A hand went to her head. She understood what he wanted to do. She'd reluctantly have to agree with him; the Party was awful. But setting up another party? That was really going to get on Katie's nerves something horrid, and she knew precisely who'd she'd take it out on. Someone had to be told about this.
Then again, she told herself, Katie had been unbelievably mean to a lot of people that evening. She watched her shout at her servants and threaten to kick people mind their own business out. True, Katie would flip her shit at David doing this. But she'd probably be waiting for some excuse that evening to kick out the others, that's why they weren't doing anything outside of talking and eating. She wasn't going to forget seeing Katie getting in Sue's face earlier. This wasn't at all a good party, David's idea started to sound a little appealing, if not fun. 'Step aside.' She told him.

'Huh?' He stepped to the side, perplexed as Lucy pushed him away just a little further so she could get a look at the lock. 'Are you. . . are you trying to solve the lock combination?'

'Ha, better. I'm going to try opening it using my hair clip.' She told him, her fingers went into a pocket in her dress and produced two hair clips when they withdrew and set to work.

His jaw dropped and his eyes lit up. 'That's so cool! Where did you learn that?'

'Just a little something I learned from Augustus.'

'Oh? How's he doing?'

She didn't say anything for a moment. 'He's well.' She answered, not putting her full thought in it. The lock shuttered and released the door. She stood up and dusted her hands off before turning back towards the mansion. 'There. Done.' She said over her shoulder. You shouldn't have any trouble doing what you need to.'

'Where are you going?'

'Inside, it's freezing out there and I suppose there's nothing more for me to do here.'

'Did. . .Were you interested in lending me a hand?' He asked.

The idea sounded interesting to her to be sure. Getting up to mayhem at a party sounded like real fun. But the only problem outside of Sue and Katie's rivalry was she never had anything against Katie herself to get up to the kind of mayhem David was likely to get started with. 'Nah.' She said with a shrug. 'I'm thinking I might leave soon instead, actually. I'm going to go back inside, maybe call my folks.'

'Oh, well, thank you for helping. He shouted back.

She smiled. That was more than enough for her.

She hung around outside for a little while longer before she thought she was ready to head back inside again. Her attention went to the commotion going on in the main room. Her interest piqued, oh god, was it a fight? She started to wonder. As awful as it sounded, that would make a better highlight of the evening, at least much more of one than being hit on relentlessly by every wannabie that Katie could've invited. She tried making her way through the crowd but her small stature made it difficult to push two of the people in front apart and get through. She stopped when something else broke them and ran into her. She found herself falling backwards with the other person. She'd seen them before.

'Jasmine?' She asked them.

'Lucy?' she asked back.

She'd have mistaken her for someone else had she not seen her face in that split-second. The provocative outfit didn't help. 'Wow, nice get-up.'

'N—Nevermind that! Paulo's in there! We need to help him' Jasmine suddenly said.

Her ears fell onto her skull, 'What? Why?'

'He was trying to talk to me and someone came over and threw a punch! You have to help!'

She hesitated only for a moment before throwing herself at the back at the crowd. She wanted more of an explanation from Jasmine, more for looking like what she did, but Jasmine's face told her it was serious, and her thoughts went to Paulo. She wasn't going to wait. She needed to help him. The big idiot was a softie at heart behind all that bravado of his. That had been a problem when he had nothing to back it up with. Her thoughts went back to that one time where that ever became more the case, and she didn't want that to happen to them again. She wasn't making much way getting through to the centre, each time she pushed, she was pushed back. Being so small still had its disadvantages. God, it was just numbers, if she could thin them all out then there'd be no problem getting in there. Finally, she got an idea. The music had stopped a while ago, the DJ had gotten ill suddenly. The audio had been on loop all night, and the first disk on auto-play had ended. She saw her chance, but she felt sorry for David, she was going to ruin his mini-party, she could only hope he managed to figure out Katie's audio system. Even if it wasn't, she just needed them away until she could get in there. 'Hey everyone!' She shouted. 'The main event is outside! The real party's about to start!'

A few stares went in her direction matched with confusion.

'Outside?' One of them asked, 'Are you serious?'

'Yep, all the hot food will be taken out there and the audio gear's ready to go.'

At that same moment she heard music. It looked like David did manage to get it all working after all.

Although the music choice could have been better.

The older group looked between each other.

'I'm not going out there. It's cold outside.' One of them said.

'What, are you chicken or something?' Another said.

One of the girls shook their head, 'The music is really. . .what's the word?'

'Childish?'

'Oh—Em—Gee. You're so smart, Sam!'

'Oh my god. If you're all just going to be babies about it. I'll be the fucking DJ.'

'I thought you were on vacation?'

'Shut up! Come on, this fight's lame anyway.'

'Why not do it inside?' One asked.

'Do you think there's enough room to dance in here, idiot? Mosh pit. Outside!'

There were a few shouts from the others and immediately the group began to thin out. Lucy couldn't believe how easy and how well it all played out, but she could only hope David would forgive her if he found out. One other matter, Paulo was nowhere to be seen. She turned quick enough to see several people dart into what she guessed was the kitchen. She didn't follow them. She turned to Jasmine instead. 'Did they all go into there?'

Jasmine nodded.

She gave a sigh of relief. 'I hope he's okay. I couldn't get through.'

'I'm sorry.'

'For what?'

'Asking you to do something about it.'

Lucy shook her head. 'That's nothing. Someone had to try and do something to break it up. I don't know what I was going to once I got through though, it's does not like I intended to get my hands dirty. That's all behind me now. I don't want to see anyone getting hurt.'

'Y—Yeah.'

'You're not going in there?' Lucy asked. Pointing towards the door the others ran through.

Jasmine shook her head. 'No.'

'Why not? You and Abbey had a fight?'

'How did you know we'd been going out? I thought you stopped being friends with everyone.'

'I just wanted to be alone for a while. I didn't ever intend for everyone else to stop being friends. I still try and keep tabs on people. Besides that, I'd seen you two getting pretty chummy in the school hallway.'

Jasmine blushed. 'Ah. . .Well.'

'There's nothing to be embarrassed about. Good for you right?'

Jasmine couldn't quite pick up the courage to look her in the eyes. 'Well. . .'

'It's not going well then?'

'No.' Jasmine sighed.

'What's wrong?'

'Honestly, I shouldn't even be here.'

'I don't think anyone from our school should have bothered to come to this party.'

Jasmine gave a small laugh at that. 'I mean, really though.'

'How come?' Lucy asked, seeming puzzled.

Jasmine explained what had been going on over the last few months and Lucy was beginning to understand the picture. They both hooked up quite easily enough. Abbey being the kind of person he was spent a lot of his time doing things that Jasmine enjoyed with her but shied away whenever she wanted to learn more about the things he enjoyed. The surprise to Lucy was when Jasmine didn't speak to him about it, instead thinking it would be better just to 'experiment' and see other people. Lucy needed her to clarify about that, not believing she knew what that really meant. Jasmine realised too and flustered when she understood. All she was really doing was getting to know other people just to make sure she still had the same feelings for Abbey as she did when they were going out.

'Abbey's great, but he's not like Paulo, you know?' Jasmine said before realising. 'Oh, sorry. I didn't—'

'It's fine. I think that's long since being water under the bridge. You know you can't just leave Abbey in the dark over this. You've spoken to him about it, right?'

'I know, I just—'

'You actually rebounded for the antics Paulo used to get up to?'

Jasmine let a sigh go. 'I don't know anymore, it's just hard to figure myself out. Abbey's a good friend, but Paulo. . .You couldn't think Abbey could stand to be just a bit like him, right?'

'Abbey will never be another Paulo though, is it just because Paulo knew exactly what you'd want to hear, and Abbey is so blunt about it, right?'

'A—Ah, so you know the same feelings then?' Jasmine asked.

'N—No! Absolutely not! I just guessed as much!' She stammered suddenly. It was a sudden reaction, and she felt the skin on her face burn with the face Jasmine gave. She shook it off. 'I mean. I sympathise, right? Paulo's a fun guy to be around. . .for sure, I guess. I never really let him get too close. But he's got a love to give. If only he managed to get a clue.'

Jasmine laughed. 'Yeah.'

'I've heard he's doing better in school now, no longer a slacker, so I guess he's over being the idiot like he used to be.'

'Would you try though?'

'What?'

'If he'd want to try again?'

Lucy turned to the door and her ears fell. 'With him again? I wouldn't fancy my chances. I'd think if I were to talk to him about it, there's been that much change and a gap between us. I'd probably find he's over the feelings he had for me too.' She shrugged. 'For the better. Yeah? I'm a mess.' She turned and found Jasmine looking towards the door as well, she bought a hand up against her arm, and Jasmine's shoulders fell when she turned back to her. 'You need to decide what you're going to do with Abbey. Take it from me, you shouldn't play this game. He's a bit stuck up and far too chivalrous, but I'm pretty sure if he had the chance you could see another side to him. He's probably dying inside seeing you be like this too. Talk it out with him.'

Jasmine sighed. 'I know. That's what I should've done from the start, isn't it?' Jasmine asked.

Lucy nodded. She watched as she walked towards the door to the kitchen, there was one look back before she disappeared behind it. She could only wonder what would happen after.

A sound got her attention. She turned the other way to two older boys pulling one of their own up, bloody faced and all. She didn't recognise them.

'You alright, Zack? He really served you a good one!' One said.

'Fuck off!' The boy Lucy could only assume was Zack spluttered There was a great welt starting to form on his face.

Ahh, so that's the kid who attacked Paulo. Lucy realised.

'Fuck that kid! Where'd he go?!' He shouted.

'Saw them go off into the kitchen.' One of the others said.

The boy reached over and grabbed the boy's collar. 'Wipe that fucking grin off your face and get in there! We're all going in there and you're fucking covering me this time.'

The other one who stood beside the one helping Zack up shook his head. 'Hey, you were the one who was sizing him up. You finish what you started.'

That was the wrong reply, Zack swung into his face with such a force that pushed him over. 'You'll fucking do what I say.' He turned to the other boy. 'Where the fuck do you think you're going?'

'I think it's the kid's phone, must'a dropped it.' He said picking it up.

Zack's face looked up. 'Oh, yeah? How much do you think we can get for it?' He held his hand out. 'Pass it.'

The friend hesitated; it took only one look towards his friend to consider his own actions carefully. He looked ready to comply, walking over with it in hand. It disappeared when he got close to handing it over. Their eyes went in the direction of a girl who'd suddenly snatched it. She waved it towards them.

'I'll be giving this back to its owner. Okay?'

'But he's right here.' Zack said.

'There's not a hint of Orange on you, and I doubt you know the girl on the cover.'

'Well, not from a lack of trying. Now I know why that nice piece of ass was holding out.' He said, he smiled and shrugged. 'Nevermind her though, what's it take to get with you?'

His crude description of her friend didn't help him. 'Decorum.' She said. 'Don't say you have it; you don't.'

One of the friends must have found it funny. Zack shot them a glare, they stopped. That was all he needed for them to get back in line. 'Got that.' He proclaimed, '. . .and a little more just for you, if you're interested.'

Her scowl ran deeper. This guy was real trouble. She knew full well the moment she let him out of her sight he was going to go straight into the kitchen where Paulo and the others were. She couldn't have that. She had no idea where Katie was. No idea if she would do anything to help. Getting the bouncer from the front of the mansion would take too long, and it's a question if he would even help. He wouldn't leave her alone either if it meant he was going to get something, something she was sure he would never get. He either came for that, or a fight.

The answer seemed obvious. Although she wasn't sure if she wanted to return to those days. She only needed to distract them for a few minutes.

'Don't have her just to yourself.' One of the boys said.

'If you're lucky, I might share.' Zack answered.

On second thoughts. Lucy said to herself.

She needed to catch her breath. Couldn't think. She didn't have too much time to as a matter of fact. Everything happened so quickly it might have almost been on instinct once they cleared the doorway, and her hand ran across and found a loose brick on the handrail leading down to the courtyard in the snow.

He never saw it coming.

Her breath crystallised in the bitter coldness, forming a white mist before it disappeared into nothing. It was all she saw as she frantically gasped for air. She didn't mean to get this worked up. God, it was only meant to be a nice occasion out of the house. Now she looked like she'd been involved in a lot worse. She cursed; her mother was going to freak out seeing her like this. She could give any explanation but it likely just wouldn't make the situation any better. If worst came to worse, she might even find herself back in that place.

It seemed that was going to be her priority, she started by wiping her fist across the snow. It did nothing to help mask the blood that stained her white fur. If anything, it made it worse as the snow began to stick to it. Going back inside looking like this was going to be a problem, and she had noticed people had begun to realise the outside party was a sham, and they'd be rushing inside where it really was warmer. There was no way she could head back in looking like this.

She turned back to the three unconscious bodies in the snow for an option. There was an idea, but she had her misgivings in doing so; she already beat him senseless. There was little reason going further. Doing so would add insult to injury. But this was the man who only just attacked one of her friends a few minutes ago and did nothing but give bad vibes in the way he spoke about Sue and herself. Her misgivings disappeared. She reached down to the man's white shirt and dragged her small knuckles across them. Most of the blood transferred. Water was going to hide the rest. It would suffice until she found a tap. 'Serves you right.' She said to him getting up. 'You don't get to walk away smiling after attacking my friend like that! Never! You think you're a big man after that? Huh?! You've been beaten down by a girl! How's that?'

She stood there for a moment, might have been longer, an hour expecting a response. She wasn't going to get one. He was out cold when she ducked his swing after the brick connected and followed up with a fist to the side of the face. His other friends didn't put up much of a fight thankfully.

She chastised herself as she walked off in search of a garden hose, the remaining blood still on her mind. She couldn't go inside looking the way she did. She didn't want to draw attention to herself, especially after that.

Lucy tried to ask herself why she did that. She'd lost it after seeing that punch get thrown. Her blood boiled something fierce. There was only one other time where it was like this before. Ah. . . back then. It was much like back then. She'd done so much in the past to try and persuade people she wouldn't turn out so violent too. It risked one of her friendships, but whatever. That was a long time ago, and that's just who she was deep down inside. One day or another, she'd keep doing it again no matter what people thought about her.

No one could ever say she never fought for her friends.

Well. . . They would if she tried to keep them around.

She still fumed as she took the corner, then the next until she was well out of following range of any would-be pursuer. There weren't any. She stopped, taking a moment to herself to remember what her doctor told her to do, and she closed her eyes once she was around the corner. She counted to ten before breathing in deeply and exhaled. Then she opened them, and for a small minute was mesmerised by the white mist evaporating in every direction it did.

It shouldn't have been very interesting to her. She'd been in many winters in Roseville since growing up. But this time, she made it as if it were, and concentrated on it.

Eventually the beating in her chest would quieten down after a while. Her blood stopped boiling from the fight her friend had found himself in, and her heart had calmed from the anxiety.

If not that, from the water from the tap she found, she managed to supress the shriek and winced to herself, it was far too cold. Her fur was going to work against her.

She still looked like shit. She knew as much. No mirror. Maybe she should call her mother and get her to pick her up. She never managed that phone call after all. But. Shit! She left her phone at home. She dried her hand on her dress, there wasn't a point trying to hide it, she wasn't going back inside for a while. The hand went into a pocket, and she withdrew a black solid object.

A phone, not hers. She pressed the power button, a smirk appeared on her face as the lock screen came up. There was a good picture of Sue on it. She made a guess the only phone she hung onto was Paulo's phone. She'd planned to give it back at some stage during the party, so long as she could work up the courage. If her anxiety won out, she could always leave it on his door stop.

She had a predicament, she needed to use the phone, if Katie saw her, she'd probably have a freak out.

God, what if one of her friends saw?

She looked down at Paulo's phone's again.

She couldn't. Surely, she couldn't.

Desperate times called for desperate measures, she told herself. One phone call wouldn't hurt him. She'd be able to pay him back if she needed to. She bought it open in front of her, unsurprised when the phone asked for a pin. 'Now, if I were Paulo.' She thought to herself. She keyed in her answer.

The picture changed. The smirk turned into a grin. She didn't know if that was because she guessed Paulo would've been so predictable, or from how lovey dovey they both looked in the picture. Sue's birthday, how predictable. 'Dug in quite hard, did you?' She laughed towards the still-image of Sue.

She keyed her home and spoke to her mother, explained the party went awry and she was using a friend's phone. Her mother agreed to come get her in the next couple of minutes. Her mood improved a bit, there was no need to head back inside now.

But now there was the question of what she was going to do for the next couple of minutes, something to take her mind off the cold.

She looked down at the phone.

Again, surely, she couldn't...

She did. Curiosity winning over. She did a lot of wondering about what had changed in her absence when she left Roseville, she found nothing. Then she left the group for real when she came back, and it looked like they moved on for real.

She chastised herself; she was done with them. Why get involved again?

She really had nothing left to do.

She scrolled through the messages from the start to the end. Rolling her eyes at the earliest when the two were at each other's throats but maintaining interest when it suddenly turns into emoticons and love hearts.

Next came the photos, clearly no stone was going to be unturned. A lot of pictures of themselves already, each telling a story. She snickered to herself as progressively Sue appearing reluctant began to get into having her photo taken with him as well.

She laughed when she got several pictures of Paulo doing various poses. God, she almost felt sorry for herself that she missed so much.

Her heart thumped against her chest.

She didn't want to admit it, but she did miss it all. There was a time when she did consider it being her and Paulo, if only she didn't have her mind set on Mike. Ultimately, she chose not to peruse it. Still, part of her made regret doing it the way she did, like she did when it was all said and done months ago.

She couldn't help but notice the envy building inside as she scrolled through the pictures with Sue and Paulo, secretly knowing that there was a time that it could have been her in those photos instead, as dorky as they both were.

She was happy for them. But at the same time, she couldn't help but feel she still could fall for the idiot again.

Her mother picked her not long after. She urged her to take the back roads, there was something she needed to do first.
'This is the place.' She said to her mother. She pulled out the phone. 'I'm just going to return this.'
There wasn't any trouble with putting the phone through the mailbox. Paulo would find it some day or the next. She got back into her mother's car again and it took her home.

With this chapter done we're finally back onto the original draft again. Sorry for the time it's taken to get these chapter's written, I just didn't like Lucy's discussion with David at all and it took several attempts to get it to feel right. Updates should be faster now. Thank you for being patient during that time. I've been remarkably busy. I'll try to pull whatever strings necessary to get this finished by hopefully the end of this year.