At dinner, Miley picked at her food, not all that hungry. Every few minutes she ate a bite, chewing, then going straight back to picking her food again. The table was quiet without her talking over everybody. It was different.

"Miley, something the matter?" her mom asked. The girl shook her head, not wanting to even talk in fear she would burst into tears then and there.

She quickly excused herself, rushing to her room. She couldn't face everyone anymore. She was too vulnerable, convinced that she would be pushed away if she grew too close. Caitlin ran after her Mom, wanting to spend the night with her. Not Brandi, not Noah, and not her grandparents.

"Mommy," she burst through the door. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, Baby. Don't you worry about it."

"Did someone yell at you?" she asked, confused.

"No... Someone didn't yell at me. You'll learn when you get older that silence from your friend is much worse than yelling."

Caitlin curled up in her lap. "What does silence mean?"

"It's when there's no noise whatsoever."

"Why is someone not talking to you?" she asked, her curious eyes staring up at Miley.

"I learned today, that keeping a secret is never ever good. You should never try to keep anything from anyone, got it, Squirt?"

"Got it," she smiled.

Miley yawned. "Wow, I'm tired."

"Me too," Caitlin mimicked her, yawning.

"Should we go to bed?"

"Yeah," she nodded furiously, running to get her pajama's on. Miley threw on some sweats, combining it with a T-Shirt before laying on her back. All she wanted to do was curl up in a ball, and let the tears cascade down her face. She couldn't, she had other responsibilities, people who she had to be strong for. So she stared at the ceiling, closing her eyes while she waited for Caitlin to call her saying she was ready for bed.

After a couple minutes she opened her eyes, feeling someone climbing over her to the other side of the twin bed. Caitlin adjusted herself on the pillow perfectly aligned to her mothers' arm.

"You wanna sleep with me tonight?" Caitlin nodded her head vigorously, beaming. "OK. You need to go to sleep! Kay?"

"Mhm."

Miley rubbed her back, watching her eyes flutter shut. After a couple minutes there were steady breaths coming out of her mouth, her head facing towards the wall looking peaceful.

"Miley," her dad whispered, pulling her out of the trance. "Come here."

She gently removed her arm from Caitlin's resting head, walking slowly to her dad. It isn't that she didn't want to talk to her dad, but that she didn't want to talk to anyone. Except for the one person who didn't want to talk to her.

"Are you OK?" Tish asked.

"Yeah, Mom," she brushed a stray hair of her bangs away from her face. "I'm fine."

"You told him, didn't you?" her Dad softly spoke up.

"Told him what?"

"Yeah... I did."

"How'd it go?" Billy-Ray continued.

"What'd she ask?!"

"Well, I want to cry if that tells you anything," Miley sat down at the table, resting her head on her arms. "He hates me."

"WHAT HAPPENED?" her mom snapped, startling them both.

"Daddy had me tell Nick about Caitlin."

Her mom's face went pale, a thousand emotions running through her eyes before she turned to him. "You what?"

"He had to know..."

"Why didn't you tell me? They're coming over for dinner this weekend!"

They both turned to Miley. Inside her heart stopped, world froze, outside she looked just as blank.

"Can you cancel it?"

"Billy, I can't just call her and say you can't come. She knows we have no other plans, and Noah's already so excited about seeing Frank."

"I am so screwed," Miley moaned, getting up to go back to her room. Nothing ever worked out good for her, there was always another freaking obstacle. Even when someone hated her it couldn't be easy, she had to see him more than before.

-xox-

"I'll see you later, kay?" Mitchel asked his best friend, before giving her a hug. She nodded, plastering on another smile. So many girls would die to have a poker face as good as hers. She had a talent of showing no emotion, almost no one could read her.

"Okay. Later, Mitch."

Miley bent down to pull her books out of her locker, begging to see a pair of feet appear, a hand to hold. It had been two days of pure agony, for both of them. He looked horrible, she felt horrible, they both had lost something. Nick never smiled, Miley's blue eyes lost that sparkle, they didn't know what to do.

She knew that this would come though. She knew that he would be angry with her, he should be angry with her. Hate... She was almost believing he could. There was still that small glimpse of denial in her, that he loved her. He had to let it out, she knew that, but she never in her nightmares would expect it to stab her this much.

"Nick!" she heard a voice from behind her yell. Their spot had to be right across from her locker, go figure. Miley didn't even have the courage to look up anymore, she simply concentrated on her locker.

"Hey, man," her heart leaped, it was him. She hadn't really heard his voice since yesterday, she wasn't used to the pain.

"What's up? How are things with... going?"

"Horrible. I never saw it coming. Sometimes... I wish she would have never even came into the picture, I wish she could just go back to where she came from," he said darkly. Miley's eyes watered. She couldn't cry, not here. She had cried each night at home when no one was there to see, she had to hold it in. The words came from him though, which made it a lot harder to live through. "where she belongs."

She blinked away the tears but that only made them fall. She turned her head to face him, needing to see him in order to believe that the words were really from his mouth. A tear silently fell when she looked at him, locking eyes. He instantly regretted ever saying that, ever saying anything that he had mentioned. He wanted so badly to go over to her and hold her and kiss her tears away. He wanted more than anything to be her one hero that she could depend on through anything. She looked away, slamming her locker and walking to math.

"Sometimes, Nicholas Jerry Gray, I absolutely hate you," she said venomously under her breath when he couldn't hear. She hated how rude he was, she hated that he thought that, and she hated that she could no longer change his opinion. But that didn't stop her from being inescapably in love with the curly haired boy. Nothing ever would.

wow, im so good with updating stories ;D haha, no, not really. but, here you are [; reviews are greatly appreciated! if you have time ;]
im listening to miley on youtube ;D haha, she's talking about how she can't live w/o demiii. anyways, reviewwww :D