"I don't love you, Serena. I never did," Seiya exclaimed.

"What are you talking about? You don't...you can't mean that," I cried, grabbing a hold of his shirt.

"Yeah, I do. It was JUST a joke that Beryl put me up to. Okay, yeah, you grew on me and I enjoyed your company to an extent. BUT, come on. Look at you. YOU'RE UGLY baby, nothing I'd ever really be attracted to," he tried unsuccessfully to shake my hands off of him.

"If...if I'm so ugly then why did you make love to me, that's an act of love," tears made their way down my face but I refused to wipe them.

He laughed "no that's an act of fucking. COME ON, BABY. I'm a guy, we'll sleep with anyone if we're horny enough. And I have a vivid imagination, you've been Angelina Jolie quite a few times." He shrugs, "But then again... you do have something good going for you."

"And what might that be?" I took my hands off of him. I had the feeling he was about to say something that would completely disgust me.

"You're a great fuck. Now, that I think about it, you're the best I've had and there's been a lot. Now... we can continue to fuck if you want," he placed a hand on my breast. I shook my head in disgust, this wasn't the man that I fell in love with. This was someone totally different and I didn't want him anywhere near me. I pushed him and his hand away.

"Get out," I whispered.

"Excuse me?"

Looking at him, I said the one thing, I thought I would never tell him "I SAID GET THE FUCK OUT. I NEVER WANT TO SEE YOU AGAIN."

"Like I'd have a problem with that," with that said he turned around and walked out of my house seemly without a care in the world.

'God, how could I be so stupid," I cried to myself as I collapsed on the floor.

I shot up from my sleep, tears already running down my face as my dream continued to flash in my mind

"It happened last year, Serena. Get over it," I muttered to myself. Sitting up in my bed I looked at the clock to see that there was no point in going back to sleep. I got up and proceeded to get ready for school. After I finished eating breakfast I decided it was time to start making my way to school. Just as I stepped out onto the porch, Raye pulled into my driveway.

"Hey chica! What are you doing here?" I questioned as I walked to the car.

"I'm here to escort you to school. Now get in!" Raye exclaimed.

"You don't have to tell me twice," I walked over to the car and got into the passenger side.

"God, I don't feel like going to school today," she groaned out as she backed out of my driveway and proceeded down the street. We managed to make small talk until the school came into view, "Serena, have you ever skipped?"

"Naw, I never had anybody to do it with or any place to go once I did. So I never really saw a point to it. Why?"

"Well... today's your lucky day because we're skipping, but first we gotta go to my brother's place," Raye muttered, driving past our school.

"Your brother's place, but I thought he lived with you."

"OH GOD NO! We couldn't live under the same roof again. Don't get me wrong I love my brother, but he would start to irritate the hell out of me and vice versa. We almost killed each other growing up, numerous times. He lives in the apartments, up the street from here. They're nice I have to admit. He has a two story penthouse courtesy of being the junior executive of my father's company."

"If he has his own place why was he staying with you last week?"

"A water pipe burst in his building and he was staying with us while it was getting repaired. He went back yesterday," Raye replied as we came to a stop.

"We're here, come on," she exclaimed, getting out the car and walking inside.

KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK

We waited a good couple up minutes but when there was still no answer, Raye began to pound on the door.

"DAMN! HOLD ON! I'M COMING," Darien yelled and after about a minute the door swung open to reveal a half-awakened Darien in only his boxers.

"What the hell? Raye, Serena, what are you two doing here? Aren't you suppose to be in school?"

"No shit Sherlock! Serena and I are skipping today, so I need to borrow the Escalade," Raye pushed passed him and walked into the house, leaving Darien and me alone.

"Come on in, Serena," he ushered me inside, uncaring of the fact that he was practically naked. We followed the noise that Raye was making and found ourselves in the kitchen where Raye was eating a bowl of Honeycombs.

"Yeah, go ahead, Raye. Grab a bowl and have some cereal," Darien exclaimed, sarcastically.

"Oh I already did, Darien. Don't worry about it," Raye apparently didn't catch the sarcasm or just didn't care and chose to ignore it.

"Uhmmm, Darien where's your bathroom?" I asked.

"It's down...you know what? I'll show you, come on," he demanded, grabbing my hand and pulling me out of the room. We walked down the hallway and opened a door to a room that I hoped was the guestroom, it was incredibly plain and empty.

"Yeah, this is a nice room but I asked for a bathroom." He pointed to one of the doors and I started to walk towards it. As I reached for the handle, he grabbed my arm and turned me around. He pushed me up against the door and kissed me. Before long I felt his tongue invading my mouth. We kissed for a couple of minutes and by the time he let me go, we were both gasping for air. He made another motion to kiss me but I stopped him.

"You're gonna have to hold that thought cause I really do have to use the bathroom," I turned around and rushed into the bathroom. I did my business, washed my hands and walked out the bathroom to find Darien sitting on his bed waiting for me. Suddenly, I remembered his two 'girlfriends'. Reality struck me hard at this point, I was just kissing a playa, a guy that had never been faithful to a woman or a girl for that matter. Did I really want to subject myself to that, knowing that enviably he would hurt me in some way or another?

"So, where were we?" he asked, getting up from the bed and walking over to me. He put his arm around me, only to have me shake it off.

"Nowhere as far as I'm concerned," I bit out coldly.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" he looked at me expectantly.

"What's wrong with me? How about the fact that you keep kissing me and I just realized that you're just playing with my head. In the past week I've seen you making out with two different girls why you still pursued me. They could be models while I'm a dorky girl with big ugly ass glasses, untamable hair and grandma's wardrobe and you expect me to believe that you want me over them. BULLSHIT," I started walking to the door. He grabbed me and turned me to face him before I managed a few steps.

"Hold on! Hold on! Okay, yeah I kissed them but they didn't mean shit to me. Wait… that doesn't sound good. What I meant to say is that those girls knew the deal. They were just fun and neither of them were my girlfriend and they knew that despite what they may have said. You're wrong because I do want you. I'm very attracted to you, I don't know... it's just something about you, like the way you bite your lip when you're nervous or play with your hair when you think nobody is paying attention. I really can't say what's gonna happen between us but I'm willing to invest my time and see," he looked down at me. "You don't believe me do you?"

"Quite frankly, NO I DON'T. It sounds like a load of BULLSHIT," it took some effort but I did manage to get out of his arms.

"Okay then, let me prove it to you. Go out with me tomorrow."

"What, where the hell did that come from?"

"Go out with me and let me prove to you that I actually have a genuine interest in you," he started giving me a puppy dog look.

"No"

"Why not? If you're so sure I don't like you, then you shouldn't have a problem going out with me to prove me wrong."

"No!"

"What do you have to lose?"

"Alright, alright I'll go, but it's just this ONE time," I gave in.

He immediately broke out into a big ass grin and grabbed me by the forearms and looked into my eyes, "you won't regret this. I prom-," was all Darien could get out before Raye bust into the room.

"Hey, I'm ready to-, Oh I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt," Raye exclaimed, as she turned away and tried to leave the room.

"Wait Raye! You weren't interrupting anything. What were you saying," I questioned.

"Oh just that I'm ready to go. I got the keys and I called Emanuel. He's expecting us, so we need to get going."

"Who's Emanuel?" I asked, getting out of Darien's arm once I realized that he was still holding me.

"Don't worry about it, it's a surprise. Meet me outside when you're done," she walked out of the room leaving me and Darien alone, once again. We just stood there facing one another in an awkward silence for a while until he grabbed my hand and led me to the front door. When I opened my mouth to say goodbye, he put his finger to my lips and silenced me.

"I'll pick you up tomorrow at 8:00 p.m. Be ready," he gave me a quick kiss on the lips before he all but pushed me out the apartment. When I got outside, I saw Raye waiting at a black Escalade with the cheesiest smile I'd ever seen.

"Shut up, there's nothing going on," I walked past her and got into the passenger side.

"Did I say anything?" she got into the truck and started it up. As she pulled into traffic her smile got even bigger and suddenly she turned off the radio and looked at me.

"Serena and Darien sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G. First comes love, then comes marriage then com-," was all she got out before I turned the radio back on and blasted it. For the rest of the ride I just ignored her and looked out the window. When she finally stopped, I looked around and realized that we were at a spa type place.

"Raye, what are we doing here?"

"You'll see. Come on," she got out of the car and walked into the establishment. I followed her inside and found some man I concluded to be Emanuel already sucking up to her.

"RAYE, it's been so long since you last visited, I was beginning to think that you'd forgotten about us," he muttered with a heavy Spanish accent as he grabbed a hold of her hand and kissed it.

"Of course not, Manny. I would never forget about you. I was just happy you could squeeze me and my friend in," Raye gestured towards me.

"For you Raye, we would do anything. Now, who do we have here?" he questioned, coming over to look at me.

"Her name's Serena."

"Nice to meet you Serena," he took my hand and kissed it too.

"Same here Eman-," I began but was soon cut off.

"Manny, call me Manny, okay," I merely nodded and he turned to Raye.

"Raye, what do you want me to book you two for?"

"Everything. I want the spa treatments and a trip to the salon after," Raye replied and that's all it took to get everyone in the place pampering us.

Six hours later and I couldn't even begin to tell you all the things that were done to me. I hadn't seen Raye in over three hours so when she finally saw me, she was completely and utterly shocked.

"OH MY GOD, SERENA! You look HOT, if I was into girls I would totally date you," she exclaimed.

"Ahhhh, thanks...I think," I stared at myself in the mirror. Even I had to admit I looked different, I almost didn't recognize myself. My hair was now straightened and just past my shoulders with bangs and highlights. Now that it was styled away from my face, people could see that the acne that I once suffered so badly from was gone and that I now had a clear complexion. My glasses were no more due to the stylist who "accidentally" broke them, suggesting that I wear contacts because I had beautiful eyes. Luckily, I always carry contacts with me just in case or I would have been pissed and assed out. My braces had been taken off two weeks before school started and now I had a beautiful white smile. All in all I was a full-blown hottie, which surprised me and obviously Raye. She paid for our little trip to Emanuel's on her credit card before we started to make our way to the mall.

"Raye, why exactly are you doing this?" I asked as we pulled into the parking lot of the mall.

"What are you talking about," she turned down the radio as she continued to look for a parking space.

"Why are you doing this? The trip to Emanuel's and now the mall? Are you trying to change me into someone that you can be seen with?"

"First off, I'm not ashamed of the way you look. I went to the beach with you yesterday, a place where everyone I know hangs out. It's just that since I can remember I've made your life a living hell and I know that no trip to Emanuel's or the mall is gonna make up for it but... I don't know, it feels like a start. So just let me do this, okay," she parked the car and looked at me.

"Alright, but I am gonna pay you back." We both got out the Escalade and made our way into the mall.

For the next 4 hours, we shopped. She bought me everything, shirts, skirts, pants, shorts, shoes, boots and anything else she happened to see that she thought I looked good in, never once looking at the price. I was in awe at how rich people shopped. This was also the first time in my life that I received so much male attention that wasn't some kind of cruel joke. They would whistle, clap and just plain follow us around. I had a few who actually came up and asked for my name and number. I merely said that I was involved with somebody and wasn't interested. Raye on the other hand was on fire. She was getting numbers left and right and anyone could tell that she was on her way to recovery and that Chad was almost if not completely forgotten about. By 8:00 that night we made our way back to Darien's house only to find out that he wasn't home. Raye decided to drop me off and just return the truck later. When we got to my house, we spent 15 minutes unloading my bags into the house and then Raye left but not before reminding me that she would pick me up for school tomorrow.

Once I was alone I made myself some dinner and spent the majority of the night putting away my new clothes. I finally managed to drag my butt into bed a little bit after our grandfather clock struck midnight.