"Where are you going, dressed all fancy?" she, meaning my mom, asked me, a small smile on her face, as I got dressed for my date with Ben.

My date with Ben. The mere thought had sent butterflies to my stomach, nervousness to my brain, and goosebumps to my skin. Scared as hell for my first real date? Understatement of my life.

Turning to my mom, my hair down, with little makeup on, I smiled. "What do you think?" I twirled around in my jean skirt, showing off my pink, glittery tank top.

"You look beautiful, as always," she said. Crossing her arms from the doorway, she said in a motherly tone, "Are you going out with that boy we saw earlier?"

Uh oh. I froze. I swallowed, pushing thoughts of Shane to the side. "Actually mom, I'm not going out with Sha - Shawn," I corrected myself, remembering what I had said to her earlier.

Her expression changed to one full of concern. "Mitchie," she stepped forward, "I don't want you to be like those other girls." Oh, I knew who she was refering to. No worries girls, you shall remain nameless. "Talk to me," she finished softly.

I frowned. Turning away, I stumbled for the right words. "Mom, nothing happened with Shawn," - it felt weird not saying Shane - "yesterday. You have to know that. You know me. I'm not going to lie to you or dad about that. And we're not together, we're just friends."

I know. The last line was lame. What else was I supposed to say though?

"Just friends?" Her eyebrow went up, unbelieving to what I was suggesting.

Okay, so the "just friends" thing actually was a lie. As if Shane and I could ever be friends, especially with the whole "Voices In Heads" thing. Awkward much? I'd say so.

"Mom," I said jokingly, "would I lie to you?"

She sighed. I held my breath. "No, you wouldn't. Or at least I hope you wouldn't." She looked at me, as if daring me to comment.

I ran a hand through my hair. "Mom, you don't have to believe me, but it's the truth. Shane." I corrected myself, "Shawn, and I are just friends. We could never be anything more and we never will be. I'm going out with Ben tonight and we'll see how it goes from there. I'm not having sex either. If I was, I'd let you know." She sighed, putting her hands into the backpockets of her jeans. "You have to trust me," I finished firmly.

She smiled, reaching forward to hug me. "I do trust you Mitchie, but I'm your mother. I'm inclined to worry about you."

"I know."

"Good," she laughed, "now tell me, who's this Ben boy of yours?"

I blushed. "Only the most perfect, handsome, beautiful -

The doorbell rang. I panicked. "He's here!" I screamed through my nervousness.

"Calm down honey," she laughed.

I scrambled around my room, picking up various little necessities, tossing each and every one into my pink, shoulder bag. "Okay, I'm ready." I paused, making sure my hair looked right, and that my outfit was perfect. "Are you sure I look okay?" I asked, biting my lip.

"You look great!" Mom smiled, pushing me out my bedroom door. "Now go before your father scares him away."

Yes, I did run downstairs after mom said that. It wouldn't do me good to have a dead date, after all.

"Dad! Leave him alone!" I screamed, as soon as I saw him leaning up against the door.

He turned around, a smile on his face. I stared, confused. "Why are you smiling...?"

"Ben," he said simply, pointing to, well, Ben. He put a hand on my date's shoulder. "Mitchie, you picked a winner in this one."

Both of my eyebrows went up. Dad approved? I had a hard time deciding if that was a good thing or a bad omen.

I settled for pushing past dad, grabbing Ben's wrist, and pulling him away from the house. "I'll see you later!" I yelled as we got to his car.

We got into his car - a cute old miata, a metallic blue color. "Nice car," I commented, not sure of what to say.

"Thanks!" Ben said brightly. I glanced down. Ben drove an automatic. For some reason, I found that funny. Maybe Shane had rubbed off on me in the short time we had "spent" together.

"So where are we going?" I looked to him questioningly.

He turned right at the end of the street. "Well, how do you feel about Chinese?"

My least favorite food. "I love it."

"It's my favorite food," he said back.

Of course it is.

In the middle of dinner, me picking through the contents of my plate, Ben said, "So..."

I perked up. "Yes?"

"You excited for school?"

My smile turned upside down. "Not really, you?"

He took a big bite of his food, before saying, "Kind of. High school only happens once."

"Yeah, I guess."

"Why? You don't like school?"

I replied, "No, it's not school that I don't like, it's just the cliques and the gossip. I just get kind of sick of it, you know?" I glanced down at my plate, moving the food around with my chopsticks.

'Oh God, she has nice legs.'

I froze. I turned my head sideways, before checking behind me. No sign of Shane. I sighed, knowing what was happening. Regardless, I said, 'Please don't tell me this is round two.'

'Not again!' I heard.

Dully, I thought, 'Hi Shane.'

'Mitchie,' he thought curtly.

Aloud, I moaned, wanting badly to bang my head against the table. To Ben, who was staring at me oddly, I said, "Heh, excuse me for a moment." Getting up, my purse around my shoulder, I practically ran to the bathroom.

'How the hell did this happen?' Thought, well. obviously, you know who thought that.

'How am I supposed to know?' I thought back viciously.

'Don't you blow up at me woman! This is your fault!'

'How is this my fault? Obviously there's more to this warped riddle than we thought.'

'Nooo, you think?'

I paused, staring into the mirror. My reflection depicted a pissed off Mitchie.

'Talking about yourself in third person? Nice.'

I clenched my teeth. 'Shut up. And no Shane, don't you dare say a thing about not saying anything out loud!'

'Does that even make sense? And just so you know, I wasn't going to.'

I rolled my eyes. 'Of course you weren't.'

'Look, we need to meet up now. Obviously this is a bigger problem than we thought. Where are you?'

I paused, staring at my reflection once more. It was then that I noticed the window behind me.