A/N: Thanks for all the wishes of good luck guys. I'm gonna need it if I pass those exams. I thought I best give you something for being so great. Here's one of my pre-written chapters for ya. X

Chapter 24 – Never Giving Up

She spent the entirety of the Dinner talking quietly to Mandy and Joe, ignoring everyone else – including her mother. She didn't eat much… she didn't' really talk to anyone or do anything for the entire two hour duration of speeches and eating luxurious food that had been made by the finest chefs in the world. It was only the best for their wondrous employees. They were to have whatever they wanted. They would be treated like princes and princesses.

Pfft… yeah right… Miley thought to herself, If we were treated like that I would have been able to behead someone by now…

Preferably, her first choice would have been Nick. The boy had been staring at her all night, unable to stop as he sat across from her on the left of Joe and Mandy. Miley was sandwiched between her mother and Nick's mother who had been talking over her for the entire time she'd been sat down. She'd seemed to have got her message across that she was uninterested in talking to anyone by sitting their silently pushing her huge ice cream sundae around in its bowl as she slowly scooped it into her mouth. It was the only thing she could think to eat. It was the only thing that gave her enough happiness. She would have rather of spent the entire night in her bed… but yet again she was forced to go to some stupid benefit or awards show or stupid work related dinner.

"Hey… what's up with you tonight?" Mandy asked her as they stood in the girl's bathroom after locking the door so no one else could get in. Her mother had left to go home straight after the dinner leaving Mandy in charge of getting Miley home in one piece. Mandy, of course, was being watched over by Joe's mom and Joe himself – just to make sure.

Mandy was fixing her make-up and checking her hair, while Miley simply stared at herself for what seemed the millionth time, looking into her own eyes and trying to see what she really wanted. She looked at herself and tried not to judge. She tried not to be angry at herself for being so torn and so confused. She hated herself because she wanted to be so forgiving. He'd done nothing other than what he should have done in the first place and she still wanted to forgive him. It was going to have to take a lot more than that, based purely on principle. She couldn't forgive him if he hadn't shown her that he had stopped thinking about himself all the time and about what he wanted. He had to learn what other people wanted. He had to figure out what was really best for the people that he loved. He had to help everyone but himself.

"I'm not…" she sighed hopelessly, "I'm not really in the mood to talk to anyone today… I kinda just want to be alone…" she tore her eyes away from the mirror and shook her head, "Or something… I don't know what I want anymore…"

Mandy looked at her through the mirror and shook her head, "What's wrong?"

Miley shook her head with a smile, "Nothing of great importance…"

"It sounds like it is…" Mandy shrugged as she pulled out her eyeliner and began using it, "You sure you don't want to talk to someone who loves you more than life itself?"

"I'm fine…" Miley laughed and wrapped her arms around Mandy's shoulders as she moved the eyeliner away, "But thank you for caring…"

Mandy squeezed the hands that were clasped around her shoulders and kissed them caringly as Miley looked at her through the mirror. Mandy winked at her and Miley was sure that with Mandy around she was always going to be okay than if anyone else was around. It was the most reassuring feeling in the world to have someone as great as her as her best friend.

"Are you sure that you're okay, Miles?" Miley nodded as Mandy turned to face her in concern, "Really? You don't seem like your usual self?" She paused cocking her head to the side, "Is it still all the stuff with your Dad and the family?"

Miley shrugged, "Yeah… but I'll get over it…" she bit her lip, "I just wish that… I don't know… I wish that-"

"It was last year?"

Miley smiled and nodded, "Yeah…" she nodded and her eyes glistened, "I could go back and just slap myself and tell myself to be stronger and more powerful in my own mind and… to know what I actually want and to not make stupid mistakes like I have done…"

Mandy laughed at her and hugged her tightly until she couldn't hardly breathe, "You don't need to be stronger or anything like that, Smiley…" she sighed and kissed her on the forehead, "You're more than that already…" she pulled away but not before grabbing her and pulling her forward until she could messily kiss her on her forehead again, "We have to go back to Joe… he keeps texting me…"

Miley nodded as Mandy quickly made to open the door, "I'll be there in a minute… I just have to go get a drink…"

She arrived at the bar and didn't expect to see the small lonely figure that sat there looking just as radiantly beautiful than ever. She was nursing a Shirley Temple, stirring around the red liquid with the straw that was stuck into the glass. She was dressed completely in black and her hair was loose, hanging around her shoulders and partly hiding her solemn looking face. She should have been with her boyfriend, the second boyfriend that Miley had given up easily and the second boyfriend that she'd taken sloppy seconds of. She was the lucky one. They'd actually wanted her… both of them had wanted her and had happily forgotten Miley for her.

But still, Miley pitied her.

"Hey…" she mumbled brightly as she moved to stand beside her.

She looked up from her drink and smiled not nearly as brightly as Miley knew she could do justice. She looked pleased that someone was actually talking to her after all this time and Miley realised that she hadn't even realised that Selena had been there this whole time until she'd been two feet away from her. Everyone had seemed to have ignored her presence and instead aimed on that of other people who hadn't completely been a walking scandal for the past month or so.

"Hey Miley…" she said flicking her phone open to look at the time. Just like Miley, it seemed she wanted out of this place as soon as she could get it, "How are you?"

Miley indicated for the passing bartender to get her the same as the young woman she was talking to, "I'm great, thanks…" Selena didn't even seem to hear her. Miley coughed uncomfortably, "How are you?"

Selena nodded and pulled the tiny umbrella from her drink, pushing the cherry impaled onto it up and down the stick, "I'm fine."

Miley watched her, in her own world as she avoided everything in the world around her, concentrating solely on the metre radius that surrounded her only. Miley leant against the bar and caught sight of her cheeks, stained with tears and pale with deathly white skin. Before she could even realise, Miley was jumping to the same conclusions that she always did, the ultimate conclusions… the ones that always seemed to come true.

"Where's Justin?" she mumbled pulling the drink towards her and taking a calming mouthful, "How is he?"

Selena sat up and looked around, taking a deep airy sigh and shaking her head in defeat, "He's umm… he's…" she shook herself out of it, "I don't actually know where he is at the moment Miley… or with whom…"

Miley realised guiltily and reached to pull the seat nearby closer to her old friend, "Oh…"

Selena nodded, "Yeah…"

Miley bit her lip and took another guilty gulp of her drink, "When?"

"Two days ago…" Selena rolled her eyes in a smile, "In an email… from Cancun…"

Miley exhaled in disbelief and couldn't help but let a smile explode on her face. He had nerve. She shook her head and let out a laugh not even thinking about the apparently lost little girl who was sat beside her, "What was his reason? Something completely stupid and void of all sense?"

Selena nodded, "I think his words were 'I think we should see new people… because I've met someone else…' or something of that idiotic calibre," Miley looked around at her and gawped, "Apparently he's found someone more famous and with more money than I have to… uh… to give him a lil push in his career…"

Miley shook her head. Was he really just jumping from famous girl to famous girl, month to month trying to see how famous he could become? That was low and sleazy. It wasn't even near to being human. It was inhumane and it was pathetic. How could one person have blown so many chances to do the right thing and ruin his own life? Miley guessed that he was just "climbing on up the food chain". He wasn't being "weak" like the rest of them.

"Are you okay?" Miley let out the breath she'd been holding and moved closer, putting her hand on Selena's reassuringly.

Selena shook her head and Miley could tell that she was trying not to cry and break down just like she wanted to. She was trying to show real strength and appear unaffected by the most disgusting man that had graced both of their lives… and between the pair of them, they had known many men.

"I'm fine…" she whispered and she gulped her drink almost choking, "I'm fine…" she wiped her mouth with a napkin, "I kind of expected it of him eventually, you know?"

Miley stared at her. The only thought she had running around her head was how if Nick hadn't of kissed her three and a half months ago when she'd with Justin, that right now this could have been her broken heartedly sitting at a bar at a party where no one wanted to talk to her. It could have been her that had jeopardized everything for someone that she would have later figured out was nothing… a nobody that had used her and made light fun of it. If the rumours were true, Miley could have been the person who gave more to Justin than his fame or his celebrity. She could have lost everything that she once held dear to her and that, for her, would have been the last fatal blow to the continuation of ruining her life. But it sure would have proved her father wrong… not that it mattered… he was a stubborn old fool…

"Yeah…" Miley nodded, "I could have expected a lot more than that from him though…"

Selena nodded and she leant down onto the table, folding her arms and resting her chin on her wrist in the middle, "I suppose that I thought that he actually liked me…" she laughed, "Stupid huh?"

Miley leant back on her stool and looked down at her, so innocent and so naïve. Miley knew better than to trust men. She'd learnt that at an early age. Selena was just learning a little later like most girls, that was all.

"Not at all…" Miley shook her head as she rested her glass in her lap.

The dark haired beautiful girl lay there on the bar for a few moments contemplating life and all the quick mistakes she'd made in the last few months as the younger wiser Miley watched on. There was so much Miley could tell her… so much that she knew that would break her heart even more. There was so many things that she needed to know, but so many things that she was afraid to tell her. Justin was such a dark and powerful soul. He could charm his way into anyone's heart and they would know no different to his true intentions. He was a virus that shook the body and made it sweat, it messed with the head and made it ache but soon it was quickly gone and you were never quite right again.

Selena groaned and lifted her head to rest her elbow on the glass top of the bar, "I should have listened to Nick when he came to get me…"

She stared at her confused and narrowed her brow. She gulped at the sound of his name and quickly placed her glass back onto the bar before she dropped in from her sweaty palms.

"When Nick came to get you from where?" she said coyly even though she was already halfway to knowing the entire story.

Selena rolled her eyes and shook her head, "You know where…" Miley blushed, "He drove to Tijuana and made me leave Justin because he didn't want me to ruin my career. It was all very gallant and foolish…"

Miley laughed and rested her elbows on the bar. She couldn't stop herself from rolling her eyes at the thought of him racing in and saving Selena dressed in armour and riding a white horse. She was always going to be the girl that had him running for her, Miley couldn't get him to chase after her like he'd chased Selena. The stories of their wonderful first date and Mandy's passing on of rumours that he'd once taken a train journey all the way to Texas in disguise to see her were some things that he had never done for Miley. It only reassured her that he wasn't the guy for her.

She let out a devilish laugh from the back of her throat and tilted her head back as she drank the last dregs of her drink, "Well… he always did want to be the knight in shining armour when it came to you, Lena… he's liked you since we were together…"

When Selena did no answer, Miley looked around to find her watching her peacefully, exhaustedly with a glint of truth and mischief in her eye. Her face was void of amusement or annoyance. She was just watching her tentatively toying with the thoughts and the truths that had been bobbing around in her head since Nick had barged through her door in the middle of the evening and made sure that Justin was the one person who knew that if any male was to mess with her, or with Miley, he would make sure they paid for any pain they caused until they were in a heap on the floor just like he had soon become.

"He came to get me because of you…" she said blankly until Miley looked around at her in a mix of shock and simultaneous knowing, "Did you know that?"

Miley's cheeks flushed from pink to being pale, her head shaking softly and guiltily from side to side as she looked down at the hands she had placed silently in her lap now that she had no glass to nervously play with, "No…" she whispered, " I didn't know that…" she hunched her shoulders, "And I don't understand why he would…"

"I guess he wanted to punish Justin for using you… I'm more than guessing that he was trying to make a point that sometimes he and his friends make mistakes too… just like you and your friends…" Miley smiled remembering their parodying video of that of Selena and her best friend, "I guess he was just trying to prove that he cares about people other than himself… and that he's got more honour to protect than his own… he's got that of his friends…" she paused as Miley played with her fingers silently… expressionless, "He's got your honour to protect too… but he doesn't know what you want him to be anymore…"

"What do you mean?" Miley frowned, "I don't want him to be anything…"

Selena shook her head and leaned closer, "He doesn't know what you want him to be to you… friend, acquaintance… he doesn't know what you want him to be…" she paused and Miley closed her eyes trying to forget his pained face that she'd seen so many times, "He just wants to be part of your life, Miles…"

Miley hunched in her seat as Selena sat up next to her, straight backed and sure of herself. She blinked and shook her head in disbelief for what seemed the millionth time in the last couple months and picked at the blue nail varnish that used to be perfect.

"He broke my heart…" she stated plainly with the nonchalant pain of a thousand memories in the shape of forgotten tears, "He's an idiot for thinking that doing all these stupid things is going to change my mind…"

Miley shuffled quickly and uncomfortably on her seat, ready to cry yet again. She rested her arms on the glass top of the bar and clasped her hands together almost praying for something to save her. She felt her mouth take her peeping thumbnail into her teeth and bite on it to stop herself from sobbing. Her eyes shone brightly, looking across to the blank wall ahead of her as she kept on thinking about him and everything he had tried to do.

"Can't it?"

Miley's eyes flickered closed for a moment as the words of her companion filtered into her brain. She was shaking, she could feel her hands vibrating as she held them together. Her eyes jammed together as her thoughts, her realisations and the desperate attempts to not let anything cloud her principles mixed together.

"He's in love with you, Miley… he is in love with you and only you," Selena whispered to her, "You've been a constant thought in his mind for the past three years and all he wants is to prove himself to you and that's all he has been doing since he realised that he can't stop loving you.

"He's not going to give up Miley… he's not going to stop fighting to get you back in his life. He's made so many mistakes and he's tried so hard to fix them. He's been punched by his brother, he's bared all to you and the rest of the world… he's saved me from a motel in Tijuana and he kicked the crap out of our ex boyfriend until he was a crying bloody mess on the floor…" Miley looked up at her in shock. For a moment she didn't believe her, but soon Selena was nodding surely and Miley had never believed anything more in her life just from the way that her brown eyes bore into Miley's blue.

"He misses you, Miley…"

Miley squeezed her eyes closed and let a tear slip through her barriers… but only one.

"The least you can do is be his friend," she whispered, "Even if you don't love him anymore… even if he broke your heart… he's earned the right to be your friend again, don't you think?"

When Miley closed her eyes, it was her main intention to stubbornly come up with a good enough or stupid enough reason for her to not listen to what Selena had to say. It was her main intention to think of a reason why Nick deserved nothing from her. She'd given him all she had to give him a long time ago, she'd said what she'd needed to say. That was all she had…

But she was saved from her lies, and left basking in her realisation when her eyes opened and she found the beautiful and thought provoking young woman gone and the seat beside her empty.

A/N: Reviews are a great way to stop me studying and revising for my exams ;) and write more chapters.

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