A/N: Thank you so so so much for the reviews! You guys are so awesome. I especially loved those super long ones. Thank you for giving me a minute of your life to tell me what you liked about it. Anyways, on to the chapter! Enjoy.

Ps. I'm sorry if if doesn't sound like Nate and Lilly are getting any closer but I'm trying to make it really gradual. I didn't want one of those 'I hate her, but she has awesome eyes and hair and everything, and oh no! I think I like her' stories. And, Uh, I don't want to give away too much, but they'll be getting a lot closer soon enough. Take it whatever way you wish.

Disclaimer: Don't own.

Anyone But You

Chapter Four

For the entire day my mind had been elsewhere. I wasn't able on concentrate on much because I knew that at any second anything could happen. I had just witnessed a murder, and the only thing keeping me alive were six hidden discs. That wasn't much to rely on, and even I knew that. I was six discs away from dead, should the guy actually be able to find me. Then again, finding Nate Gray wasn't much of a task, considering crazy fans were at our house daily. How they managed to know where we lived when we worked so hard to keep it a secret was beyond me.

The day has started out especially awkwardly though. I hadn't slept more than those few ten minutes all night. I was worried about Lola, even if we disliked each other. The way she had looked last night made her seem so vulnerable, something I had never seen in her before. For those first few moments, when she'd hugged me so close, it had been like treading on enemy territory. But when I saw that she was just as afraid as I was, it kind of just, eased that thought away for the time being. It gave me a new view on her, made me look at her in an entirely different light, if only for a couple minutes. She wasn't Lola then, she was a person, and people needed other people, so I was there. And thats when I told myself, if she would stay open long enough and if she didn't push me away, I'd put our past behind me and try, just try, to be a friend to her, no matter how hard it was going to be.

That was when Shane had come in. Just like Lola, Shane didn't seem so much like Shane. He had an all new different side to him, one that had fears. For so long, it had seemed like the people around me had been so strong and had never been afraid of anything. But this, this showed that I couldn't have been more wrong, because everyone, even the strongest person, has a breaking point. And when I talked to Shane, this was his. Not so much the idea that someone had died that night, but more that it could have been someone else in their place. That's when I realized that Shane wasn't more afraid of anything than losing one of us. It touched me and made me think a little about how much he really cared about us all. I wanted to tell him, but I couldn't, so I didn't. But that wasn't the end because we had talked for so long that night. I think in that night, I really truly opened up for the first time in all my life to someone. Me and my brothers were close, yes, but I was typically the quiet one. I thought about all my words before I said them, but not that night. That night I let everything spill, wanting to get it all out in case Shane's fears weren't so much a fear anymore, but a reality.

"What about Lola?" Shane had asked. We were still talking just as the sun was starting to come up. I was in my computer chair and he was on the floor next to me. Less than two seconds ago we'd been talking about true meanings of words. What it meant to love someone, to trust someone, to hate someone.

"What about her?" I asked, my eyes darting over to her still figure. She hadn't screamed again, and for that I was thankful. At least she was sleeping pleasantly, unaware of the danger we were in.

"Do you hate her?" He asked, and my eyes shot back to him, "You guys fight all the time, and she's told me she hates you. I think you've said it a couple times too, but, do you really?" His eyebrows were furrowed as if he was the one who had to answer the question. He looked deep in thought, and I couldn't help but wonder why since he had just asked something. I couldn't see why he was looking for an answer, shouldn't he have merely been waiting for one?

"I don't hate her, no," I sighed, my head coming down to rest on the desk, "She's just so damn difficult to deal with, y'know?"

"No, I can't say I do," He answered, "She's always so nice, and fun. I mean, I could list a million things I like about her."

"Great to know," I grumbled, listening to Shane go on and on. I, however, differed from Shane. I could list more than a million reasons why I didn't like her. I mean, she was always so rude, and she didn't even try to act civil anymore. She was just so down right open with her distaste for me. Hadn't she ever heard of being polite? Was the word respect not in her dictionary?

"And she's funny too," Shane droned on, "Remember that time she cut the curl out of your hair? You know, the one in front, and you looked so weird for like.. two months until it fully grew back in?"

"That wasn't funny, Shane," I glared. His laughter died down, but didn't fully stop. He had that far away look in his eyes like he was just imagining how I had looked when she'd first done it and was still chuckling.

"Good times," He reminisced, and I felt the need to cut him out of the memory.

"Oh yeah? And remember the time she stole your phone, went into your phone book and put my name under her number, then sent you those texts and had you avoiding me all week? Not so funny now, is it?"

"Actually, I'm oddly okay with that," He shrugged, "It was mostly to embarrass you anyways. Sure, I was a little freaked out, but your face was priceless."

"Okay, enough with the Lola memories," I growled, realizing that in every single one she had done something to make it clear she didn't like that I was around.

"You just don't like it that she doesn't like you, and she admits it."

"She doesn't admit it! She's just plain mean about it." I settled my head in it's place on the desk top again. My eyes were heavy, begging me to let them close. But I wouldn't, I would stay awake all night.

"What's the deal with you two anyways?"

"Hmm?"

"Why does she hate you? Did you do something to piss her off, or?"

"I don't know," I answered, seriously considering it. Why did we hate each other anyways? I had always thought that she only hated me because the first night we'd met, I hadn't really taken a chance to get to know her. I hadn't met her before, and from what I'd heard from Hannah, she was nice, but we didn't get around to talking. But boy Hannah was wrong, if she was anything, she wasn't nice at all.

"It's just always been that way," I admitted, mulling over it, "She doesn't like me for whatever reason, and I don't like her... well, because she's Lola, and she hates me, therefore making my life miserable whenever she's around."

"That's stupid," Shane added in, watching the tiny rays of sunlight stream through my window.

"How can I not dislike her? She goes out of her way just to annoy me."

"I don't know, man," Shane sighed, standing up, "But the two of you really need to figure out a way to put this behind you. Jason really doesn't like it that you fight. You know she's his best friend? That's a girl anyways,"

"I know," I breathed. I almost wanted to bang my head against the desk, but what good would that do?

"I'm going to go make coffee or whatever, before I die," He hadn't really noticed when he was saying it, but once it was in the air, he froze. "Uh, I mean, before I crash."

"Sure," I replied into the uneasy air. I listened to Shane creep across my room once again quietly, trying not to wake the sleeping figure in my bed. When he was gone, my head immediately came up, my eyes trailing over the program that had been minimized all night. God, what was I going to do with this evidence? I had to find a way to keep it safe, to make sure that I would always have it in case I should need it. Then it came to me that I needed copies. For a while, I had just sat there, making copy after copy of the tape. I'd decided I would make as many as I could, keeping them hidden from anyone who needed to find them. They might've needed to get rid of evidence, but I needed to keep myself safe. But not only would these discs be responsible for my safety, but that of the red headed fireball asleep in my room, too. And I had had the camera on, and I had so stupidly led us down that alley, so I felt morally obligated to make sure nothing happened to her, so that's what I was going to do.

After I had burned my own six copies and I was working on her fifth, I realized it was getting pretty late. I stood from the chair I hadn't left for hours, and walked to my closet, preparing to get ready for the day. All I really needed was a change of clothes and a shower, and then I'd be done. Naturally, I picked out plain skinnies and a white tshirt, not needing to be all fancy and famous today. It had taken less than a minute to pick out. I walked out of my walk-in closet and threw the clothes on to the computer chair. Leaning over, I checked to see if the contents of the film had burned onto the CD, and saw that they were. It took mere seconds to pop the copy out of the disc drive and place it on Lola's pile. But before I knew it, she was screaming again.

Stunned for just a moment, I regained compose. She had probably had another night mare again, and I was worried that she would revert back to that same frozen state. My feet guided me to her bedside, my arms wrapping themselves around her awkwardly again. I just tried to remind myself, this wasn't Lola anymore, this was a person, with actual feelings and hopefully a conscience. Except in moments that image was destroyed and I was on the ground being yelled at by her. It didn't make sense to me that she had wanted me so close to her last night, and yet here she was, shoving me away like absolutely nothing had happened. To say the least, yelling on both our parts ensued, as did an awkward conversation.

When she'd told me she thought she could be pregnant, I thought she was going to open up to me. I thought that maybe, just maybe, she had remembered how I had put our past aside last night in her moment of need, and that finally she was willing to forget it for good. Clearly, I was shocked when that wasn't the case. Actually no, not only was I shocked, I was extremely disgusted. She had thought that we had... uh.. did it. I could have sworn I was both entirely red and green at the same time, as if Christmas had come six months early on my face. How she could have ever got an idea like that into her mind was beyond me. I had made a promise, and she definitely wasn't a deal breaker. It was gross to even think of her in that way because we had been rivals for so long. There just wasn't even the slightest possibility I could ever be attracted to a ruthless, cold hearted- well- bitch. And if I was really being honest, that's all she was to me.

Thank God she had remembered though. We had manged to fall into a semi civil conversation as I handed the evidence off to her, telling her exactly what to do with it. However, it had all been interrupted by Shane. I know he didn't realize it, but I would have liked to at least managed to talk with Lola for more than two minutes without either of us insulting the other. But it seemed that things just didn't go my way, because before I knew it we were at each other's throats yet again.

I hadn't seen much of her after that. We'd all sat down at the kitchen table and my mom had wished her a happy birthday, trying to be as pleasant as one could with such a disastrous night hanging on our shoulders. The gloom was in the air, but we all tried to ignore it. Not much longer, Jason had taken her home, and after it was too late, I remembered that she had left with my shirt on. She had stolen my favourite shirt. She didn't even know who Elvis Costello was, for god's sake. She shouldn't have worn the shirt, and now she practically owned it. How did she always manage to win?!

Sulking upstairs, I grabbed the clothes I'd put aside before Lola had woken up and went to take a shower. When I walked into the washroom, the first thing I noticed was the mirror, or rather, my reflection in it. My hair was disheveled and my eyes were tired. I looked just like I did every other morning, but there was something different this time. I couldn't place my finger on it, but something just didn't look right about me. Everything seemed the tinniest bit off, but I could easily contribute that to the lack of sleep, and the horrible memories.

Looking away from the mirror and stepping towards the shower, I soon found myself on the ground. I'd tripped, and when I looked to see what it was, I noticed a measuring tape abandoned in the middle of the floor. It seemed so out of place. Maybe Mom and Dad were working on doing renovations, or wanting to fix the tiling? That was the only explanation I could come up with as I stood back up and placed the object on the counter and took my shower.

The shower was relaxing to say the least. It was the whole cliché feeling where it washes away all your thoughts. But something different then the cliché was that the second I stepped out everything immediately came rushing back to me. I'd been lost in the water, but now I was back in reality- a reality I wasn't to fond of at the moment. I found myself trailing back to the counter top, watching myself in the mirror yet again, adding a few products to my hair. I got dressed, and then went to go make one last copy of the CD. By the time Lola had woken up, I had only made her five copies, so I'd nicely given her one of mine, so I was still in need of one last disc to complete my 'collection'.

After copying my last disc I wasn't sure what to do. I knew I had to hide them, but I was never the best at that. I was usually the first to be found as a kid, when me and Shane played Hide and Seek. I considered for a second, enlisting his help, but I didn't want him to be involved. I'd already put Lola in enough danger, I wasn't going to do that to my own family. My family meant far too much for me to get them mixed up in this. I couldn't even be certain what I was dealing with here. Was this some simple, impulse murder, or a high profile mobster type thing? I could be the prey to some twenty something first time criminal, or someone who had known the ropes for years. This was Malibu, and I didn't have a clue what to expect.

I grabbed the six discs off the desk in front of me, looking them over and over. I had set the cogs in my mind at work, and my thoughts were at full speed. I was trying to remember any place in my house, or anywhere else for that matter, that would be good enough. Somewhere that wouldn't be expected. I could keep one in the house, but I couldn't think of somewhere that it wouldn't be found. There were plenty of places I knew that he wouldn't think to look, but those were places that my parents or brothers might get a hold of it, and that was something I wasn't going to do. I wouldn't risk their safety over mine.

Unconsciously, I began to shuffle the discs. It looked odd, but I still managed to do it somehow. I was thinking of places around town, places that normal civilians wouldn't think to look, or even stumble upon. Hopefully Lola was having better luck with finding a good place for her six life lines. If either Lola or I could find just one good hiding spot, we would hopefully be fine. We had to make sure we had at least one copy of evidence to barter with, or it could cost us both our lives. Then again, if this was some amateur, I wasn't sure that I had much to worry about anyways, but I didn't want to let my guard down. I had to be aware of everything, because there was still the possibility that this wasn't an amateur, and that's what I was afraid of.

By the time the afternoon rolled around, I'd managed to find places for four of the copies. I figured that I should keep one close to me at all times, so I'd come up with the perfect solution. When the idea had come to me, I had run downstairs, grabbing myself a roll of duck tape. I noticed the same measuring tape from the washroom in the kitchen, and figured that Mom and Dad were re-tiling the house. They and Frankie had actually gone out a while ago, probably to look at samples. Anyways, back to the kitchen. I grabbed the duck tape and headed back up to my room, grabbing a CD off my desk. There was an acoustic guitar leaned up against my wall on a stand with the strings already loosened a bit. I managed to fit the CD through the sound hole, taping it to the front-inside of the guitar. Neither of my brothers played my guitars since they had their own, and Frankie would hardly notice it should he walk in and want to play one night. No would would ever guess that this acoustic guitar was harboring evidence. It was genius. I was genius. Yeah, who's smart now Lola?

Wow, apparently she is, because she still has me competing against her when she's not even around. How she does this, I'll never know. It seemed like she had the ability to annoy me to no end, and yet anything I did never had an effect on her. I swear, for every four hundred and fifty two wins on her part, I had maybe one. I could never catch a break with her. I was too nice and she was just..well, too manipulative. I honestly didn't understand what Jason and Shane liked in her. Even more so, I couldn't understand how they could still like her knowing exactly how she treats me. Some brothers.

It was about six when my parents called, asking me and Shane to pick up groceries for dinner from the store. At first I was hesitant, not wanting to step anywhere near Shane when he was driving a car, but when I looked in the fridge it was basically empty. I would have asked Jason to drive but he had gone back to his apartment, where I'd safely hidden one of the discs, along with one under the floor mat of his car when he wasn't looking. So unfortunately, Shane was going to have to do the driving, considering I still only had my permit. I wanted my full license, but I didn't have nearly enough time with the amount of concerts and press we had on our shoulders.

"Shane! Let's go!" I yelled, standing at the front door, waiting for my older brother. Of course, he had to look perfect before leaving the house, and then ask me a million and one times to be sure.

"Coming, coming," He muttered, jogging down the stairs. I still stood, completely ready with my hands crossed over my chest. I rose my eyebrows at him incredulously. I swear, he could take longer than a girl sometimes.

About ten minutes later we were walking down the aisles of the grocery store, which believe me, was a very hard thing to do with Shane. He was stopping so often picking up things we didn't need that I had actually been forced to get a basket to hold all his crap in. There must have been at least four bags of chips, but yet he refused to get anything else but water to drink because it wasn't 'healthy'. This kid, sometimes, just wow. I think I might be adopted? Or maybe he is, because we can't be related.

"Come on Nate! I want fudge-sicles!" He yelled, pulling my arm. Is he seriously twenty one?

"Shane, we haven't even gotten what Mom asked for," I told him and he frowned.

"Your no fun, come on," He replied, and before I knew it I was being tugged down the aisle with the freezers on either side. His eyes were scanning the contents behind the glass, trying to look for ice cream or Popsicles or fudge-sicles, or basically anything he wanted because that's what he'd been doing with every other aisle. When he spotted the last box of the chocolate treat hiding inside the freezer he practically ran for it. I didn't see why, considering there wasn't anyone else in the aisle anyways trying to get it before him. When he went to grab it he shouted, gaining the attention of a woman rounding the corner.

"What kind did you want again?" The woman asked into the cell phone. I scrunched my eyebrows together, trying to remember where I heard that voice. This lady was familiar, and I was positive I had met her before.

"Oh..." She answered whoever was on the other end, "They're all out, sweetie. Someone just grabbed the last box." Shane turned to me, giving me an 'I told you someone would take them if I didn't get there fast enough' look. I rolled my eyes at him as we both continued to eaves drop in on the conversation.

"I can get you another kind if you want," The lady said. It became kind of obvious she was talking to her son or daughter, probably some little kid that made their mom go get Popsicles at dinner time. "I can get you the rainbow ones, you like those right?" Another pause as the person on the other end spoke, "Okay, I'll get the rainbow ones, and then the chips. You just go watch the movie and forget all about last night okay and have as good as a birthday you can. They'll catch the guy, don't worry."

Woah, woah, woah. Then it hit me where I'd seen her. This was Lola's Mom! I think her name was Holly Luftnagle, but I couldn't really remember. I turned to Shane, giving him a look, but he didn't seem to catch on.

"That's Lola's mom," I whispered forcefully, glancing back at Ms. Luftnagle as she searched the freezer for the popsicles she had promised her daughter.

"I knew it!" Shane whispered excitedly, "I knew I recognized her from somewhere." Then he pieced together a few more pieces of information, frowning and looking down at the box in his hands. He tugged me over towards Mrs. Luftnagle, and I was nervous about what he was going to do. I mean, Shane never really did make a good impression.

"Miss Luftnagle?" He asked. She pulled her head out of the freezer, box in hand, and looked at us curiously.

"Uh," She seemed confused for a moment, "Yes?"

"Here," Shane said, offering the box of fudge-sicles to Lola's mom. She looked down at them suspiciously and then back to us. It seemed as if she was silently questioning why we would give them to her when Shane had made a full speed run for them.

"Oh!" Shane smiled, "Uh, I'm Shane, and this is Nate. We're Lola's friends." When she realized who we were, she instantly light up.

"Oh! Jason's brothers, right?" She smiled, I nodded, and Shane seemed a little put off by the fact that he was being referred to as 'Jason's brother' and not Lola's friend. See, Lola was mean.

"Yeah," Shane nodded after a few minutes, "We know it's her birthday, and I overheard you saying she wanted these, so... Here," He handed them over. She took them graciously, and continuously thanked us.

"How is she, anyways?" Shane asked, tiling his head, "I.. uh, assume you've heard..."

"Yeah," She mumbled, a frown settling down on her face, "It's awful. She's doing alright. She said you boys really took care of her last night. Thank you so much for watching her. Is there anything I could do?"

"Oh, no, that's okay," Shane answered, "It was really all Nate here," Shane added, pointing to me over his shoulder with his thumb, "He let her have his bed and gave her his shirt and everything. Stayed up all night to make sure she was okay." Of course Shane didn't realize what he was saying. Truthfully, they put her in my bed without asking me, ransacked my closet and put it on her, and I hadn't slept all night because I didn't want to have the nightmares she had had. There was definitely no kindness involved. Kindness and Lola didn't even go together.

"Really?" Lola's mom asked, raising a suggestive eyebrow, "Hmm, she never mentioned that. She did recall having an awful nightmare and having someone to hug until she fell back asleep."

"Er- yeah," I admitted, rubbing my neck nervously. Shane shot me a look over his shoulder as if he couldn't believe we'd had any kind of contact. According to Lola, that was strictly forbidden.

"Well, on behalf of my daughter, Thank you," Mrs. Luftnagle smiled. I think that was the only 'thank you' I'd ever gotten from Lola, and it came from her mom. "Well, I've got to get home. Lola has.. um.. Hannah and.. Mike over, and they need their snacks," She laughed, shaking the basket she was holding. "It was nice to meet you. Maybe the both of you and Jason could come over some time, Lola would like that, I'm sure. Especially you, Nate, since you were so nice in helping her out last night."

"Uh..." I mumbled, "...Maybe. We're- Uh, very, um, busy?" It was so obvious that I was hesitant, and it was even more obvious that Mrs. Luftnagle had no idea of mine and Lola's yelling matches.

"We'd love to!" Shane interrupted, ignoring whatever attempt I had been making to get out of the situation. Lovely, now Lola's mom was making play dates for us all. Okay, again gross. Any pronoun that includes me, Lola, and the word 'date' do not go together either. That combination is evil, and makes me want to be sick on the spot. Lets remember to block out any more uses of those three words in the same sentence.

"Uh, well, we have to go too now," I spoke, my voice wavering just a bit.

"What? No!" Shane protested. I was sure we were making ourselves out to be a dysfunctional family in front of Lola's mom. Yeah, exactly what I needed right now.

"Come on, Shane!" I whisper yelled forcefully, grabbing Shane by the arm, "Nice to see you Mrs. Luftnagle, tell Lola we said hi!" I plastered a giant forced smile on my face as I dragged Shane out of the aisle. He complained the entire way that we didn't get any Popsicles, trying to run back to the aisle, and I could barely get the things Mom had asked for. Jeeze, Shane was such a hassle to shop with. It was like I had to play mother to him or he'd be a flight risk.

When we'd finally got home, we had taken half an hour longer than expected thanks to the four year old brain in a twenty one year old body. Mom had made dinner with what we had managed to get, and then yelled at Shane for buying the amount of useless junk he had. After that it was close to nine and I found myself trudging upstairs to my bedroom. Usually I could stay up much later, but I hadn't slept last night and I was running on virtually nothing. Even though I tried to act as normal as possible, I couldn't deny that this was eating at me. I couldn't remember being both this strong, and this scared all at once in my life.

Changing into my pajamas, I crawled into bed, pulling the covers around me. When I breathed in, I smelt the unique, and relaxing, scent of strawberries and apples. I couldn't remember my bed ever smelling like this, but that didn't mean I didn't like it. On the contrary, I liked it a lot. Maybe more than a lot. And soon, the scent had lulled me into a dreamless, peaceful sleep. But as we all know, no good thing ever lasts, because before I knew it, I was awake again. I heard my door creak open, just like last night, and then the floorboards squeak. A bang echoed off my desk, and my eyes cracked open. The clock read two am, and I inwardly groaned, turning over to face the wall.

"Go to bed, Shane," I mumbled into the darkness, relaxing again. All movements in my room stopped, until I heard the squeaking of the floorboards again as whoever was in my room left. Soon after that I was asleep again. I couldn't remember hearing anymore creeks or squeaks or even bangs from Shane, so I assumed he had left. This silence lasted the entire night, giving me the good sleep I needed, preparing me for the morning to come. Except nothing could really prepare me for what would come next.

"Hey Shane!" I called to my brother after I'd gotten out of bed that morning. I walked out of my room, towards his, knocking lightly.

"What?" He called back. I opened the door and he looked up to me from his bed.

"What did you want last night?"

"What are you talking about?" My forehead creased at his question as I tried to remember what time he had come in.

"Around two, you came into my room, right?" I asked, my face the image of confusion.

"Uh, No. I was asleep." He answered. Immediately my head began to work double time. Jason was at his apartment, Frankie didn't weigh enough to cause the floorboards to creak like they had, and Mom and Dad slept downstairs and wouldn't of had a reason to be up at 2am. "Nate?" Shane's voice cut my thoughts, and I let the confused face slide from my features.

"Uh, never mind," I told Shane, shaking my head as I backed out of his room and towards my own. If none of my family had been in my room last night, then maybe it was just my imagination. Maybe I hadn't really heard anything at all. And then thats when in the middle of my room, I fell flat on my face. When I looked to see what I had tripped on, I noticed a tape measure laying neatly on my floor next to my desk- The same one I could have sworn I left on the washroom counter yesterday. Hmm.

A/N: There was a major hint in this chapter about what's going to be happening really soon. Ps. I was wondering if anyone noticed that Lilly and Nate's stories about why they hate each other are different? They each blame the other for it. So yeah, :) I hope you liked it, Review!

Ps. I'm going to be in New York the 25th to the 28th, so there will be no updates.

Pss. The story I'm co-writing with Brooke is going to be up sometime tonight hopefully, so watch out for that and please please read. Its, uh, something that I haven't seen done anywhere in fanfiction before, so hopefully you like it. It's going to be on her account, Brookiebabbyy, so keep checking back. :) Hopefully you'll review both this and our new one.

Revieww!