A.N. This story has 60 reviews! Thank y'all so much! I hope you still like it after this chapter *laughs nervously* Enjoy!

Chapter 17

Pants on Fire

'Are you sure you want to leave Jill?' Gus asks me. I'm standing at the start of the path between The Valley and Mineral Town. I'm so close to my old home. Whenever I walk by this path, I usually turn my head away, but now I'm forced to look down it. I close my eyes and imagine how the tiny town used to be. I smell the ocean, feel breeze, and see the people. I remember why I knew I had to leave.

'Yes.' I sign to Gus, and the sprite nods and moves out of my way. He doesn't ask if I'm done with work like he does to everyone else. I never leave The Valley. He knows I mean business.

I begin to walk along the path. There are trees on either side of me, and the scent of nature is very strong. I imagine the sounds that must be occurring, and I pretend that I can hear them all. This path was so familiar, and it brought up nostalgic thoughts that I figured were lost forever. As I continue further and further along the path, Mineral Town comes into view. I can see some of the buildings, and even though it's so close to The Valley, the atmosphere is completely different. My old home begins to appear before my eyes, and suddenly, I'm so afraid. I stop right before the path ends, and glare into my old town.

'You're almost there Jill.' I tell myself. 'Just one more step.' It was very early in the morning, and no one was out yet. I'd planned it this way so I could make it to Karen's without being seen. If I waited too long, the people would come out, and I knew I would fall apart. 'Move Jill.' I tell myself, and I step off the path and into the town.

Once I'm off the path, it's much easier to walk, and I don't have to think about where I'm going. I walk pass several shops, and so many memories appear in my mind. Any time I begin to feel overwhelmed, I think about how much I don't want to be seen and keep walking. For once, my paranoia and high anxiety work to my advantage. After passing the library and the mayor's house, I come across the tiny supermarket. There's a bench in the front, and I think about all the firsts that happened there. I met my first love, Karen and Rick shared their first kiss. Claire had her first heartbreak. I smile a little at the old bench, and I want to sit down on it and relive all the things that happened there. Fear of being seen wins out though, and I force my attention to the supermarket door. I lift my hand and knock once, twice, three times. I wait a little, still thinking about everything that I've been through in this town. A few moments later, the door opens, and one of my old best friends steps out.

'Jill,' Karen lips say.

'Karen,' my hands sign. We stare at each other for a long time. Karen looks a little older, but she's just as pretty as ever. Her hair has grown a little longer, and the blonde streak is vivid in the early light.

'You came.' She signs.

'I had to.' I sign back.

'I didn't think you would.' She signs with great accuracy. I pause, annoyed, and roll my eyes.

'Funny, since you obviously still know me so well.' Karen is taken aback for a second, then she breaks out into a huge grin.

'There's my Jilly.' She signs and says at the same time, and she pulls me into a huge hug. She's griping me tighter than she ever has, and all at once the feelings lost over the past few years flood over me. Karen lets go after a short moment, never one for too much emotion.

'Come on in Jill.' She signs. 'We have a lot of catching up to do.'

I'm sitting on the floor in Karen's room, looking around at all the familiar surroundings. Besides Claire's room and my own, I'd never known another place better than this one.

'How's Rick? 'I ask, and Karen smiles and laughs.

'I can sum up what you've missed on Rick over the past few years in a few statements: He's still in love with me, he's still protective over Popuri, he still smells like chicken, and he's missed you like hell.' I can't hold back the laugh that escapes my lips, and Karen grins her bitter grin. 'Seriously though, he's missed you at lot. After all, you're the one that got us together.'

'I'm still not sure that's a good thing.' I sign freely, and Karen laughs. There's no conversation for a moment, and I'm hit again with the extreme feeling of nostalgia. We've had this conversation so many times before, and the atmosphere was laid back. The bad part was, it shouldn't be. Karen had abandoned me during a time when I needed her the most. I hated how easy our conversation was now. Even if my brain knew I shouldn't forgive her, my heart had already made up its mind to. I'm about to raise my hands and tell her how wrong the situation was, when the door to Karen's room opens and Rick walks in.

'Jill?' Rick's lips asks when he sees me sitting on the floor. 'You came?' Before I can do anything, Rick bends down and hugs me. Instantly I knew Karen was right: he still did smell like chicken.

'Hey Rick.' I sign to him. He laughs.

'Goddess you smell like a farmer.' He signs to me. He and Karen grin at each other. I roll my eyes.

'Really? Your girlfriend here was just telling me how you still smell like chicken.' Rick smiles.

'I know, its one of my many faults. But she loves me anyway.' Rick signs, and this time Karen rolls her eyes. Once again, I'm struck with how weird this all is. Why am I here? Why is it so easy to talk to them? Why did they leave me? Why did I leave them? No matter how many pleasantries went between us, those questions just wouldn't go away.

'How's the farm?' I ask them. Rick and Karen share a look.

'Not the best.' Rick admits, and I look away from them. Claire's family had owned that farm for generations. It was a shame it was going to waste.

'Claire's cousin, Jack, comes by every once in a while and clears the weeds out, but he's been so busy with his own farm.' Karen adds, and I glare at her.

'What about everyone here? Nobody else bother to take care of it?'

'It's not that easy Jill. You of all people should know that.' Karen signs defensively. 'Claire left, you left, and the whole town became,' she pauses 'empty. What were we supposed to do? Besides, you're the one she left it to.' I close my eyes and think about what she said. When Claire 'left', it was harder on me than on anybody. As close as Karen, Rick, Claire, and I as a group had once been, it didn't come close to me and Claire's relationship. She had been my world, and when your world disappears, you move on and find a new one. So I'd started looking.

'I'm going to the farm.' I sign to them. They both look a little surprised, and Rick looks at me, concerned.

'Are you sure Jill? That was going to be the last stop of the day. We were going to show you around, take you to see people, remember the-'I shake my head quickly to cut him off. I could feel my anxiety rising, and I quickly pushed the feelings down.

'In your letter, you told me there would be no drama. I'm here to see Claire. I'm not here to remember all I left behind and why, and I'm not here to visit the people in this town who haven't given me the light of day in years. I left this town behind for a reason.' I sign to them. They both just stare at me. I had turned on them in one quick moment, and they weren't used to that. I was always the easy going one. I never questioned anything they said, and I just quietly followed along with the group. The looks on their faces almost made me smile. If they'd stuck around longer, maybe they'd know that about me.

Rick looks me right in the eye. I can see the hurt on his face, but the surprise has gone away. As little as he knew about me now, he's always known I'm a little crazy when it comes to Claire.

'Let's go then.'

I insist on taking the back way to the farm. I know they both want me to talk to some of the people in town, but I'm not interested in what I've left behind. We walk without communicating with each other, and I catch Karen and Rick giving each other worried glances. We arrive at the back entrance of the farm, and I'm about to walk in before Rick grabs my shoulder.

'It's not like you remember Jill.' He signs to me. 'It's even worse than it was before you left.' He and Karen were staring intently at me. I could see the worry embedded in their features, and for a moment, I hesitate. As much as I now hated to admit it, there had been a time when these two knew me better than almost anyone. They thought this was going to hurt me, and they were probably right. If a had come a season or two earlier, I probably would have broken down the minute I walked into the town. Now though, I'm sick of all the crying, and I'm sick of being scared. The anxiety and panic that always threatens me is just as strong as ever, but in that moment, I felt completely free. As if on cue, Claire's voice enters my mind.

'I will never die!' she screams, and I step onto the farm and relive the moment my best friend became a liar.

A.N. I have no words. Hope y'all don't kill me before the next update. Thanks for reading and please review, they mean so much to me.

-Goldengirl