"Lyria no...you don't love me." Jim said and she looked at him in shock and confusion.

"I don't?"

"No. You're too young to really know what love is, you only think you love me but you don't." He stated and Illyria could feel tears threatening to fall but she held them back.

I'll be damned if I give him the satisfaction of knowing he made me cry! "I see. Well, since I'm too young to love you I guess that means that I'm too young to be with you too so I'll just go...it was fun while it lasted Jim. Thanks for making my dream come true then shooting it down in flames." She whispered, stood up and walked out of the room. Illyria walked downstairs and outside to where Scott was who immediately noticed something was wrong with her.

"What is it?" Scott asked.

"I'm going to go home to Battle Creek (Michigan). I just told Jim how I felt about him and he said that I'm too young to feel for him what I do so I told him if I'm too young to feel for him then I'm too young to be with him. I'm sorry Scotty, I wish I could stay longer...just have my clothes shipped to me would you?"

"Of course, I'm sorry Lyria."

"There's no need for you to apologize. You had nothing to do with it at all, this is about him not being able to accept the fact that someone actually cares for him." Illyria replied and watched as Scott pulled the steaks off the grill.

"Come on, I'll take you to the airport." She nodded and followed him through the house, stopping to get her cell phone off the floor and continued to follow him out to his car. An hour, a tearful goodbye to Scott and a phone call to her brother later Illyria was on a plane home. Once home she settled down on the couch and dialed Terry Brunk's number.

"Hello?"

"T...Terry?" Illyria whispered as the tears she had been holding back finally fell from her eyes.

"Illyria Ann is that you?"

"Yeah, it's me."

"Honey what is it? What's the matter?" He asked and she could hear the concern in his voice.

"It's Jim..."

"What about him? Did something happen to him?"

"No, it's not that. I told him how I feel about him and he said I was too young to have the feelings that I do." She explained.

"You told him you love him then?" Terry questioned and she couldn't stop the little smile that formed on her lips.

Leave it to Terry to know exactly how I feel. "Yes. I told him since he thought I was too young to be with him then that means I'm too young to be with him too. That was a few hours ago and I left Atlanta right after that."

"Where are you now?"

"Back home in Battle Creek. I had to get away from Jim and everyone else." Illyria stated.

"I understand. Are you coming to the show Tuesday?"

"I don't know Terry, I'm not sure if I could handle it."

"Sweetie you have to come. You can't stay away and let him win like that, you have to show him that you are stronger than he thinks you are...show him that even though he doesn't think so that you're not too young to love him." Terry told her and she sighed.

"What am I supposed to do Terry? He gave up on me, on us. Hell, I had just talked to Terry Gerrin right before that after he talked to Jim and found out his feelings for me."

"What were his feelings for you?"

"Terry said that after threatening him with bodily harm he finally got Jim to admit that he's head over heels for me which makes it all the more difficult for me to understand why he said what he did." She said, tears falling from her eyes again.

"It sounds to me like he's scared."

"Jim? Scared? Terry did you get hit in the head one to many times?" Illyria asked, unable to believe that Jim would actually be scared of anything and Terry laughed.

"No sweetie, I didn't. Think about it though...he tells Gerrin that he's head over heels for you but the minute you tell him that you're the same way for him he freaks out."

"Only because he thinks I'm too young to really know what love is."

"That's bullshit and you know it. If Jim thought you were too young he would have never even approached you in the first place." Terry stated.

"Maybe you're right, I don't know. What I do know is that it hurts like hell and I really just wanted to kick the shit out of him."

"Of course you did. You just confessed your feelings to him only to have him turn around and say something like that. I can honestly say that I'm surprised you didn't hit him." He laughed and she giggled a little.

"As much as I wanted to at that moment...I honestly don't think I could ever lay a hand on him to try and cause him harm, I love him too much to do something like that. I suppose I should tell you what happened while we were at Scotty's house though incase this thing turns ugly and it comes out all fucked up, making me look like a slut."

"What happened?"

"After Scotty showed me around the house so I wouldn't get lost Jim said he wanted to talk to him alone about something. I sat in the living room while they talked watching The Devil's Rejects. Well, when they came back in Scotty kissed me. I went to slap him but Jim grabbed my wrist before I could and told me not to...I ended up sleeping with both of them." Illyria mumbled, blushing even though Terry couldn't see her.

"Illyria Ann!" He exclaimed, shocked. "What possessed you to do something like that?"

"I've had a crush on Scotty for nine years and told Jim about it before we left to go visit him so I wouldn't be hiding anything from him. Well, when they both started doing stuff to me and I saw that Jim wasn't getting pissed about it or wasn't trying to stop it I wasn't going to be stupid enough to turn the chance down. I'm sorry if you're disappointed in me."

"I'm not disappointed in you Illyria Ann, I'm just shocked that you would do something like that."

"I never thought I would truthfully...sure, I had dreamed about it before, I'm not going to sit here and lie to you by saying I didn't but I never thought that I would actually get the chance to do it." She stated.

"I understand. I have to go now but I will see you at the show, right?"

"Yes."

"Good. You go get some rest and I promise that everything will work itself out." Terry said.

"I hope so Terry, I really do."

"It will. Bye."

"Bye Terry." Illyria hung up the phone, went upstairs and laid down on her bed, falling asleep almost immediately.