Sorry it took me a little longer to get this chappie out! Gawsh! But here it finally is =)

START ALL OVER

chapter 3

in the end, it won't even matter

"WHERE'S THE FIRE?"

Shane froze, dropping the carton of milk he'd held as his front door was forced open.

He was immediately greeted by a river of white foam as he was pushed to the ground, slipping on the foam. He groaned as he made contact with the wooden floor and hastily blinked his eyes open.

What the hell was going on?

"Shane! Are you okay? No third degree burns? Should we call a-

"Shut up Jason! Can't you see he's perfectly fine?" He recognized that as Nate's voice.

Wiping the stray foam from his face, hoping he hadn't gotten some in his contacts, he shook his head. With his vision coming into focus, he could make out the blurring figures of Nate and Jason and a fire-extinguisher in Jason's hands. He shook his head again – this was some messed up dream.

But the stinging in his palms told him otherwise.

He felt a hand latch onto his arm and suddenly, he was unwillingly pulled into a standing position. The sudden movement caused his vision to fade again as his head began to ache. Nope, definitely not a dream.

"See, told you he'd be fine." That sounded like Nate.

"Hey, it's Shane. And he hasn't been out of here in the past two months!" And that would be Jason, the one with the fire-extinguisher and the one who'd just showered him in foam.

Was it too much to ask for some normal in his life?

"True…" Nate commented before sighing, "Hey Shane, you okay?"

"I was," he croaked, his voice still shaky, "Until Mr. Fireman over there thought I was on fire. Now I know I'm smoking, but it's not cool to try and kill the flame." Hey, he really was getting over his depression. First time he'd cracked a joke in months.

"You know that if I wasn't a rock-star, I'd be a fireman," Jason remarked in retaliation as he put the extinguisher on the floor beside him. Nate groaned and resisted the urge to run his palm down his face. Sometimes he wondered where he'd found these two… the one was still a kid and the other thought he was the sexist thing the world had ever seen.

"That's not the point," Shane interrupted, brushing the foam from his arm, "What are you doing here with a fire-extinguisher anyway?" He added extra emphasis to the 'anyway'. He had called Nate about an hour back, asking him to come over, but he hadn't mentioned anything about a fire-extinguisher.

"Well, I was with Nate when you called. You said you had some bad news and that we should get over as soon as possible," Jason spoke, gesturing with his hands, "And I thought you'd only call if you were in trouble and therefore just assumed the worst. Hence the fire-extinguisher." He seemed proud of himself.

Shane merely raised an eyebrow and shook it off.

He turned to Nate, "And you let him because..?"

The curly haired singer simply grinned, "You never know. You could've actually been in trouble. And hey, it was funny."

Shane rolled his coffee-coloured eyes. "Yeah, hilarious."

"Well, hello, you haven't spoken to us in nearly two weeks!" Jason exclaimed, "And then you call out of the blue sounding as though you'd just been knocked over a train!" Shane flinched. Jason was right, he had been ignoring them. And they were two of the most important people in his life. He hadn't been fair.

He didn't answer. He simply shrugged his shoulders and motioned for them to follow him. They did so without protest and he led them to his lounge, which from the entrance, was straight ahead. He still kept quiet as he grasped the small package that'd been delivered a few hours back and tossed it to Nate. He didn't feel like explaining.

Nate caught the brown bag with ease and frowned. But he said nothing as he and Jason peered inside. Their eyes widened in unison as the small, silver and metallic objects caught their gazes. They then glanced at each other as Jason gently took the object out and observed it.

Yeah, it was what they thought it was.

The purity ring that matched their own, Shane's one that he'd given to Ashley.

With one look at Shane's broken expression, they dropped the bag and rushed over, unsure of whether to comfort him or not.

"Sit," was all the shaggy haired rocker said as he followed his own command and flopped into the leather couch. His best friends followed, both keeping a safe distance from the distraught singer. They knew how he could get.

"I got it about two hours ago in the post. The bag is completely unmarked with no return address, but I know it's her." Nate and Jason weren't about to argue. "And I don't know whether to put it back on or toss it out the window." He weakly tried to joke, but no-one was laughing.

"I can't believe she'd do this!" His tone had changed within moments, "First, she sweet talks me into giving it to her," they knew he was only partly referring to the ring, "And then she cheats, humiliates me and makes me seem like the bad guy and then she goes as low as returning it to me!"

Truth be told, he wasn't even sure if he'd actually slept with Ashley. All he could remember was getting drunk at some party, going back to her place and then making-out with her. He'd woken up beside her in her bed with his shirt off, she was only in her underwear and his boxers were ripped in two places. Not to mention his purity ring was on Ashley's necklace. He could only assume he'd given it to her after they'd done it. If they'd even done anything! He could only guess they had as when he'd asked her, she'd giggled and asked if he'd wanted a replay. He'd politely declined.

"You know Jason and I have never liked her," Nate spoke, cautious of his words, "We told you she was trouble when you first began dating her. C'mon, she played as a blood-sucker in her first movie after all." Actually, it was her only movie. But Shane simply nodded in agreement. They had warned him.

"I just wish I'd listened."

"Hey, don't beat yourself up about it," Jason said, "We all make mistakes. Some have greater consequences, but just learn from them."

Was that really Jason who'd said that? Since when was he the voice of reason in the group? That was usually Nate's job.

"But you really have to start coming out and telling people that she's the one to blame," Nate advised. That was also true. He had to stop hiding his heartbreak from the world while Ashley was wrongly forgiven.

That's where Mitchie came in.

He breathed in deeply, now was as good a time as ever to tell his best friends about the beautiful, funny and endearing nineteen year old.

"I'm already working on it," Nate and Jason seemed pleasantly surprised at this, "And I've got help." Now they were just confused.

"Well, last night I went out to grab some Starbucks and well I met someone who worked the late shift there. We ended up talking for two hours before I offered to drive her home." He knew that look he was receiving from both of his friends – it spelled 'Shane-we-think-this-is-a-bad-idea'.

"But you don't understand… for the first time in two months, I was able to forget all about Ashley for those two hours with her. I smiled and laughed so much my cheeks hurt and still do… so, I asked her to be my pseudo girlfriend."

"What?"

He wasn't sure who was more shocked.

"I know you two won't agree," he said as he held up his hand, silencing them, "But I really think it's a great idea. This way, I won't get my heart hurt and the public will see I've moved on and I'm offering to pay her college and other bills. And she'll be dating me, Shane Gray, so it's beneficial to the both of us."

"I still think this is a bad, bad idea," Nate said, giving him a disapproving glare. "Have you even thought this through properly?" Ah, here he was being the voice of reason again. "What if the public finds out? You'll be a laughing stock and Ashley will have won."

Shane's fist clenched involuntarily, "Well, we'll just put on a damn good act then."

He was now more determined than ever.

START ALL OVER

She'd slept through ten calls.

Damn, that sleeping pill worked better than she'd expected.

All the calls were from an unknown number and she guessed it to be Shane. She bit her bottom lip. It really wasn't a dream.

Grasping her cellular device, she quickly hit the re-call button and pulled the phone to her ear. Hopefully he wouldn't be too mad that she'd missed his calls and if he was, she'd just explain that she'd taken a sleeping pill. Easy enough.

But Shane didn't answer – it went straight to voicemail.

Mitchie frowned as she put her phone aside. Maybe something had come up? Or maybe he was ignoring her now? But then why would he have called ten times if was ignoring her? Maybe to tell her he wanted to end their little deal?

She shook her head. He wouldn't.

Well, she hoped he wouldn't.

But… just in case, she wouldn't quit her job just yet

Checking her watch, she found it to be 10:30am and she had half an hour before she had to start getting ready for classes. Might as well use the time wisely!

Jumping out of bed and quickly fixing the sheet and fluffing the pillows, Mitchie escaped to her living room, which was connected to the kitchen, and flopped onto her soft, cushy couch and started up her laptop.

It'd been a present from her parents to use during college and so far, the little silver device had come in handy.

Once it'd started and her wallpaper, a picture of her and her best friend Caitlyn, came on, she clicked the internet icon. There were a few things she was in need of Googling…

The familiar page opened and she went straight to the search bar

How to be a fake girlfriend

She nervously bit her lip and decided she'd clear her history when she finished. She wouldn't want anyone finding out about this. Especially if the media somehow got a hold of her laptop… not that she thought it'd happen, but she'd heard stories of crazy reporters before.

There was nothing on Google.

So much for being a great search engine!

It only came up with results on how to create an imaginary girlfriend, or boyfriend and she wasn't imaginary. There were a few reports on stars that had fake boyfriends and girlfriends too. Eh… this was going to be harder than it seemed.

Especially if someone found out that they weren't really dating.

Ugh, maybe this hadn't been the greatest idea. Last night, Shane just touched her and she tensed. They couldn't have that when they were in public. It would be so suspicious and obvious.

Mitchie groaned as she closed her laptop. Maybe it was time to phone Caitlyn…

She hesitated.

Would Shane approve? What if Caitlyn told someone that they were just being pretend boyfriend and girlfriend? Not that she thought she would, but you never knew… Ah, she wished she and Shane had discussed this more than they had. But then again, it had been 4am. Who really thought logically at that time in the morning?

Couldn't there be a guide on how to be someone's fake girlfriend? Maybe there was, she just didn't know how to find it. Hey, weren't there professionals? Weren't they called escorts or something? There was even a movie on one of those relationships wasn't there? But the girl fall in love with her escort at the end of the day. She strongly doubted there'd be any falling in love with her relationship.

Shane was using her to get over his ex wasn't he? She was just simply there to make it seem like he was over his ex, when he really wasn't.

She couldn't let her own heart get involved.

It'd only break in the end.

Bleh, it's short but I hope the beginning is a little funny? I think Kevin has potential to be one of the funniest men on earth =) But yeah, I don't have too much to say!

Lorey

Peace. Love. Jonas

=)