Here's the next chapter.

After three hours, Lilly and Miley left the beach, driving back to Miley's house where Jackson was anxiously packing the rest of his belongings while Mr. Stewart loaded the boxes and suitcases into the back of his truck. Miley pulled into the driveway just as Jackson dropped one of his boxes, spilling its contents all over the driveway. He hurriedly packed them all up again and loaded the box into the truck.

"Where've you guys been?" he asked, wiping his hands on the back of his jeans. "Miley, you were supposed to be here. This is my last night in Malibu, you know that. Dad is going to be really mad at you."

"I already talked to Daddy," Miley said, smiling reassuringly at Lilly, who was hesitantly getting out of the car. "There was an emergency, okay? This wasn't something I could ignore. Besides, I would have been at my concert if it hadn't been for the emergency."

"What was this emergency?" Jackson asked suspiciously.

"It's a secret emergency, which means it isn't any of your business," Miley said. "Come on, Lilly, let's go inside and see if the mess is any better in there. I got a few movies out yesterday, we can watch those while they finish up, then Daddy can make us dinner."

"Am I being volunteered to make dinner after you just cancelled a Hannah Montana concert you've been working towards your whole career?" Mr. Stewart asked as they walked in the door. "I don't think so, young lady."

"Daddy, can I talk to you in the other room please?" Miley asked. He nodded and Lilly sat down on the couch, staring sullenly at the blank TV. She had ruined everything. If it hadn't been for her, Miley would be at her concert right now, which was the most important concert of her whole career.

"Sorry about that," Miley said, jumping over the back of the couch to sit next to Lilly. "Daddy can get a little mixed up sometimes."

"It was the most important concert of your career?" Lilly whispered.

"No, it wasn't, and even if it was, you're more important than a stupid concert," Miley said. "Lilly, you're my best friend, and I wouldn't risk that friendship for anything in the world, believe me. I just had to explain the situation to Daddy. He's going to be making steak, mashed potatoes, and his famous chocolate pie."

"You told him?" Lilly whispered.

"No, I told him that there was an emergency and that it was something that was a number ten on the scale of emergencies," Miley said. "Then he said he would believe me and that it had better not be about boys, which it isn't, is it?"

Lilly shook her head. "Not really," she whispered. "Wait, you have a scale of emergencies?"

"Apparently a fashion emergency isn't a ten," Miley said, and they both laughed. "So do you want to watch a movie or do you want to do something else?"

"What movies do you have?" Lilly asked.

Miley jumped up off the couch and grabbed a stack of DVDs from beside the TV, handing them to Lilly. "I was just picking random movies, so I don't know what I got," she said. "We can always watch something on TV if you don't like these."

Lilly looked through the DVDs, which consisted of The Dark Knight, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Mamma Mia, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Slumdog Millionaire, and Finding Neverland. She threw Finding Neverland at Miley and set the rest down on the coffee table.

"This is a good movie," Miley said, sticking it in the DVD player. "Hey, do you want me to make some popcorn or something?"

"Uh, sure," Lilly said. "I'm, um, I'm gonna go outside really quick to get a breath of fresh air. I'll be right back."

"Okay," Miley said, looking at her worriedly.

Lilly stood up and left the house, walking down towards the beach and out onto the abandoned pier that was right behind the Stewart's house. She sat down at the end, crossing her legs and staring out at the ocean. The ocean was so peaceful. Sometimes she wished she could just walk into the ocean and never walk back out. She had tried to do that once when she was in seventh grade. Her mother had taken her to the beach and she had just sat on her surfboard in the ocean, refusing to come back in. Three hours later, her mother had finally left, telling her to borrow someone's cell phone when she wanted to be picked back up.

That night, she had lay on her surfboard and stared up at the stars as she floated twenty feet away from the shore. The life guard was surprised to see her still there the next day and had swam out to get her mom's phone number so she could come and pick her up. She had still refused to get out of the water. Her mom bribed the guard a hundred dollars to swim out to her and pulled her surfboard back to shore. By the time he got back out there, Lilly, and her surfboard, had been gone.

Lilly had started to swim down the beach, her surfboard being pulled behind her due to the fact that a cord around her left ankle attached it to her. She finally stopped when she came to a private part of the beach where large houses lined the shore. That was the first time she had gone to Miley's house. Seeing the abandoned pier, she had swum towards it, not knowing that Miley was sitting on the end staring out at the ocean. When she had gotten close enough to see Miley, it was too late to turn around and swim away because she had already seen her.

Miley had helped her up onto the pier and run inside her house to get her a towel, a pair of shorts, and a t-shirt to wear. After Lilly had told her story, Miley invited her inside where her father called Lilly's mom, telling her where Lilly was. Twenty minutes later, Mr. Stewart had managed to talk Lilly's mom out of punishing her and convinced her to let Lilly stay over for the rest of the weekend.

"Hey, watcha thinking about?" Miley asked, coming up behind her and sitting down beside her.

"The first time I came over to your house," Lilly said quietly. "I remember you helped me up onto the pier and asked me what I was doing swimming to your house instead of driving. I had forgotten that you had invited me over that weekend."

"I still can't believe your mom didn't punish you," Miley said, laughing.

"Me neither," Lilly said. "Of course, she didn't really… care much, you know? For her, it was all about working enough to earn the money to pay the bills and stuff cause my dad… he didn't pay child support back then. Eventually she got a hold of her lawyer and his lawyer and they worked out an agreement, but still…"

They were quiet.

"What was your dad like?" Miley asked quietly.

Lilly hesitated. "At first… he was kind of like your dad. He liked to cook a lot. He made these huge meals that a family of ten couldn't have eaten. And he liked to sing and dance around the house. Of course, he didn't really have a good voice, so not really like your dad. But then… he changed."

They were quiet again.

"What was your mom like?" Lilly asked.

Miley furrowed her brow in concentration. "She… she was beautiful," she whispered. "Everyone always said that she could have been an angel. I always laughed and told everyone that she was an angel. She loved to sing, but not on stage or anything. That was always my dad's thing. My favorite part of the year was Christmas, not because of the presents, but because she was always hurrying around the kitchen, baking pies and cakes and singing Christmas songs. Her favorite Christmas song was Silent Night. Then… one year, she started getting these headaches. She refused to go to a doctor, saying they could just be taken care of by Advil or something. It turned out it was a brain tumor, and by the time we found out, it was too late."

"What… what's it like to have both of your parents love you?" Lilly whispered. "I mean really love you. Like they'll do anything for you, they'll stop anything, even if it means that they aren't… they aren't happy."

"Lilly, what are you talking about?" Miley asked. "Your mom loves you…"

"Not enough to stop him," Lilly whispered, tears coming to her eyes.

"Stop who?" Miley asked.

"My father," Lilly said. "She… she didn't do anything to stop him. He… he hurt me and she didn't stop him. She pretended like it never happened, and it hurt so much. Every night, he would come into my room…"

The handle on her door rattled as her father tried to get in. She had locked the door that night because she was afraid of the pain… afraid of him. Something clicked and the door opened, revealing her father standing on the threshold once again. Lilly whimpered and pulled her blankets over her head, as if that would shield her from the pain he always inflicted on her.

"What is it?" Miley asked. "Lilly, talk to me. What's wrong?"

He was touching her again, and he had left the door open this time. Lilly caught a glimpse of her mom's face in the doorway before she felt that stabbing pain that came every night. She cried out for her mom, but she never came. She screamed and yelled and cried, but she never came. No one came. She was alone, and no one would help her.

Tears were streaming down her face as she pulled her knees to her chest, rocking back and forth. She could feel Miley's hand on her back and see her lips moving, but she couldn't hear her.

She shivered as she scurried around her room, gathering up her clothes and pulling them on. Running to the bathroom, she locked the door and sat down in the tub, turning the water on with her clothes still on. The warm water surrounded her body, but she still shivered.

"Lilly, can you hear me?" Miley was asking. Her face was getting blurry.

Her father never wanted her to sleep over at anyone's house for birthday parties. He always wanted her home. Lilly started asking her mom if she could go and asking her mom to drive her. The last time, her father drove up to her friend's house and picked her up at ten o'clock at night, saying that she couldn't sleep over that night because something was happening in the family. He had locked her in her room with him and started it all over again. The touching… the pain… the screams… the tears…

Lilly was being carried and her head was leaning on someone's shoulder as she cried. The person was whispering in her ear that everything was going to be okay and that she was safe. She felt herself being laid down on a bed and then someone sat down next to her, softly stroking her hair.

"It's okay," the person whispered. "No one is going to hurt you, I promise."

"Miley?" Lilly whispered.

"Yeah, I'm right here," Miley said.

"He hurt me, Miley, he hurt me," Lilly whimpered, cuddling into Miley's side. "Don't let him touch me."

"It's okay, no one is going to touch you if you don't want them to," Miley said.

"He raped me, Miley. My father raped me."

Hope you liked it. Thank you to everyone who reviewed the first two chapters: k.226, AlwaysSoRandum, musicisinmysoul, Mildly Deranged, and JustAnotherSlowGoodbye. Please REVIEW!!! I'll get the next chapter up as soon as I can.

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