Lanie was sitting up in bed, the dark circles under her eyes standing out in stark contrast to the paleness of her skin. "Hey there," Addison said, sitting down on the edge of her bed.

"Hi, Mom," she answered, putting aside the notebook that she was writing in.

"What are you writing about?" Addison asked gently, hoping she would realize that she wasn't trying to pry.

"What I…remember," she answered hesitantly.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Addison offered.

Lanie looked at her mother, her eyes shimmering with unshed tears. "I do…but I don't know if I can."

"Okay," Addison answered. "It doesn't have to be today. It can be whenever. I just want you to know that I'm here if you need to talk."

"Mom?"

"Yes?"

"You know I…I…I…I loved him, Mom." She chewed on her upper lip as a single tear fell off her cheek.

Addison could practically hear her heart breaking, and she wished with all of her power that it could be her own that was shattered instead of her daughter's. "I…Lanie, I wish I could make it go away," Addison said honestly. "I really do."

"I know, Mom. I'm just really sad," she said, embracing her and letting the tears bleed into her shirt. "I never got to tell him."

"I'm sorry, sweetie," Addison murmured, unsure of what else to say.

"Me too, Mom. Me too," she answered, pulling away and laying her head down on the pillow.

Addison stood up, taking that to mean that she wanted to go to sleep. She was almost to the door when Lanie stopped her. "Mom?"

"Yeah?" Addison answered, turning around.

"Can you sit with me until I fall asleep?"

"Of course," Addison assured her, cutting across the room and sinking into the papazon next to Lanie's bed as her eyes drifted closed.

Lanie's breathing took on the deep quality of sleep, and Addison let her own eyes drift shut as well. It didn't take long before she drifted off to sleep.

Lanie bent over her locker, pulling out her sixth grade math book. Swinging her backpack from behind her to under one arm, she shoved the book in and zipped it shut.

"Lanie?"

Lanie closed her eyes, the sound of his voice like nails on a chalkboard.

"Can we talk?"

She turned around, staring into Doug's hopeful face. "I guess," she answered, leaning back against her locker.

"I was wondering if…"

"What is it, Doug?" Lanie snapped, fighting impatience.

"There's…a dance on Friday. I was wondering if…I was wondering if you wanted to go. To the dance. With me," he added the last part as almost an afterthought.

Lanie shook her head slowly. "I can't. I already have plans…"

"What are you doing?"

She winced, she was sure visibly, as she said, "I have another date, Doug. I'm sorry."

"Oh," he whispered. "Okay, I guess, I…"

"What are you doing, nerd?" One of the older kids, an eighth grader, slammed his hand into the locker above Doug's head.

"Just talking," Doug said, staring at the floor.

The boy grabbed Doug's sweater and swung him around, shoving him into the opposite wall. Lanie realized she was shaking slightly, and took a couple of steps backwards along the locker wall.

Spinning Doug around again, the boy slammed him to a stop right in front of Lanie.

"Stop it," she whispered.

"What was that?" he asked nastily.

"Stop it!" she cried, a little more fiercely. "Just leave him alone, okay? He wasn't going anything to you."

"Don't," Doug hissed. "I can handle it."

The boy reached out and ripped Doug's glasses right off his nose. Dropping them to the linoleum floor, the boy stomped his boot down on top of them, shattering the lens into several pieces. "There," he said, an evil grin filling his face. "Now you don't have to watch your girlfriend save you anymore."

Lanie sat bolt up right in bed, shaking off the dream. Addison was at her side in an instant, balancing on the edge of the bed. "What is it, sweetheart?"

She held her hands out in front of her, shaking them out almost frantically. "I had a dream about…Doug," she answered, her voice quivering slightly.

"Are you okay?"

She nodded. "It wasn't anything that bad…it was…Did you know he asked me out when we were in middle school?"

"You never told me," Addison responded, in awe, as she found herself wondering how many other things Lanie had never told her.

"There was this dumb dance," Lanie continued. "He asked me out, and I had another date. I think it was in…sixth grade. And then right after he asked me out, this older boy came up behind us and slammed him around into the lockers. He ruined Doug's glasses, crushed them under his boot."

"That's awful," she gasped.

"Yeah. Doug cried," Lanie replied sadly. "But that was middle school, you know? That was the way it was for some people…it just…happened."

"Oh," Addison said, pulling herself all the way up onto the bed. "Did anybody ever do anything like that to you?"

Lanie thought for a second, leaning her head back against the pillows on her headboard. Shaking her head, she answered, "Not really." After a second, she added, "Pretty much only when I was with Doug."

"You guys were good friends when you were younger."

"Yeah," she said wistfully. "I don't remember when it happened, but…At some point, we weren't really friends anymore." She started to cry again, and swiped at her cheeks with the edge of her comforter. "And here I go, crying again."

"It's okay to cry," Addison murmured.

"I know, Mom. You taught me that. I'm just sick of it."

Addison reached out and wiped away some of the tears.

"Mom?"

"What's up?" she answered.

"If I would have still been friends with him…do you think I could have stopped him from doing this?"

Addison closed her eyes, praying for the correct thing to say. "You can't think like that," she replied. "You can't change the past."

"I guess…" Lanie accepted, stretching back out on the bed and closing her eyes.

Addison sat beside her on the bed, stroking her hair until she fell back asleep.