It's me again!

Disclaimer: Not mine!

Disclaimer 2: The last part references another HEAIMverse fic I wrote, so if you haven't read it and you're confused, I apologize in advance.

"We're doing what?" Cathy asked incredulously. I'd kept her in the dark abut my fix-it plan, but I needed her to be in on it now.

"We have to talk to Pete." The two of us were huddled in front of what some ever-so-subtle snooping through Mom's address book had revealed to be his house.

"But-" I cut her off.

"I know we hate him, but this is the right thing to do." I wished we didn't have to, but I didn't feel like I had a choice. "Maybe he's not so bad if you ignore his stupidity."

"Oh my God..." Cathy muttered to herself as I knocked on the door.

I spoke as soon as Pete opened it. "I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"For the coffee and the death-glares and the water incident and giving you a mild case of food poisoning. We were being selfish and immature. I'm sorry." Cathy shook her head in exasperation.

"That's very sweet of you," he replied in that annoying voice, "But I'm not really interested."

"You sound like we're selling Girl Scout cookies!" I answered indignantly.

"Well, I'm not. I loved Louise, I really did, but she isn't worth enduring you two. Tell her I'm sorry." He closed the door in our faces.

"Well, I guess I've really done it this time." I remarked sadly as Cathy and I walked away. "Homewrecker Becca strikes again."

"You hate being called Becca."

"Yup. Says a lot about how I feel about myself right now."

"To be fair to you, he was awful."

"Vile." I agreed.

"And it was really rude of him to slam the door on us." Cathy continued. I smiled in spite of myself.

"Yeah, it was. And what did he mean, not worth it? Mom's a good person!"

"I know, right? If she was a he, Dad woulda stayed with her for sure!"

"We offered him a second chance with all three of us and he just tossed it aside! Talk about ungrateful!"

"I think the two of us have done the entire Pierce-McIntyre-Dixon family a favor." Cathy said. "Do we really want a slimeball like that hanging around?"

"No, we don't."

"Maybe we should get a medal for this."

"At least you tried." Mom signed wearily after we told her about our mission.

"You deserve better." Cathy replied.

"I know. Why can't I ever have a relationship that works?"

"I dunno." That was me, being as helpful as ever. "But, just in case you're thinking of trying to drown your sorrows, they probably know how to swim."

"Thank you, Beck." She responded in that tone of voice that meant my input was very much unwelcome. I figured I should leave. It's not really fair, though. I'm pretty sure I saw an open bottle of wine in the kitchen before we left that morning.

"It'll be OK."

The next morning, she still looked a wreck, but at least she wasn't hungover or quite so depressed. Actually, she didn't look anywhere near as bad as she had done before. Maybe she'd actually really considered what we'd said. I didn't have time to think about it properly, though. I had something to do. You see, Petebog's refusal to take the second chance we were giving him made me wonder if I had a second chance with someone. Hazel Cartwright, my best friend until I was eleven years old. She and I had been inseparable when we were younger, but then we just kinda stopped speaking. She was the one who initiated it when we were ten, around the time I became Beck. After a year, it was all over. We hardly even saw each other around, because we'd stopped looking.

I had to know why.

"Hazel."

"Becky?" she asked. I guess I must've looked slightly different. When we were friends, I was slightly neater, with shorter hair (or at least not-as-long hair). Last time we even looked at each other, my hair was always braided at Mom's insistance and I was still vaguely presentable.

That was not the girl she was confronted with today. My hair was loose and unbrushed, I looked more disheveled than I had previously, and I was staring her down.

"Beck." I corrected her.

"Sorry. It's just, it's been so long since we spoke, and-"

"I know. Why did we stop speaking?"

"Because my mom said you'd grow up to be a train wreck, and I guess I just didn't want to get dragged down with you."

"Some friend you were! " I snapped. "I am a lot of things, Hazel. I am a terrible strategist. I am an underage drinker, although to be completely fair to it was just one time when I was really upset and it will never happen again, ever. I am the worst thing that could happen to anyone's love life. But I am not a train wreck, and never will be. Because to become a real, actual train wreck I would have to go defeatist. That isn't who I am. And maybe I wouldn't be the things I just mentioned if you'd have just stood by me."

"So your crappy decisions are my fault, then?" She glared at me.

"No. I just really needed someone to help me make them less crappy. You and Cathy were my best friends. Then I only had Cathy. Then I didn't even have her, and we're only just starting to make up again. We're all going through a rough time and I figured you deserved a chance to explain yourself. But you don't." I turned to leave.

"Wait!" I stopped. "I suck at apologies, but I'm sorry I let you down. You are a bit of a disaster, but maybe we can fix that."

"How?" I shrugged, notb really seeing a way out.

"By trying to get back to where we were."

"Sorry, Hazel, but your spot's been filled. I have Cathy, and I have Xanthe Bennet back home, so yeah."

"What do you mean, back home?" She was confused.

"Whaddaya mean, what do you mean? Didn't you know? Dad and I moved away after the divorce." Technically, we moved before, but I wasn't going into that.

"Your parents split up? Oh my God, how did I miss that? I feel so bad for you."

"Why? I've never been better." I laughed. "Look, I know we'll never be really close friends again, but next time I'm here, we should meet up."

"I'd like that." As I left, she called after me." Just out of interest, where did you move to?"

"Maine."

"So you're really doing that travel list, then?"

"Something like that. Next stop, Korea-country." I joked, before leaving her behind.