1I pulled on the lock for at least the third time. It refused to open.

Ugh, this day completely sucks. I thought. I looked around. The hall was nearly empty. Everyone else had gotten their lockers open, their books out, and their butts out of the school. I pounded my fist against my locker.

Lyrissa was always able to open my locker, I thought. No, Lyrissa turned her back on me. She got Marked and now she's becoming a stupid, bloodsucking monster. She's gone, she's at the House of Night. That's it. But I was wrong, and I knew it. Lyrissa was still my friend, I was the one who'd turned on her just a few months ago. Man, I wish I wouldn't have been so mean to her when she got Marked. The sad, sad truth was, I really missed Rissa. She'd been my best friend, she understood me. My Twin was gone now, I guess. The nearest House of Night was in Milford, Pennsylvania, and I was stuck in New York.

I decided it wasn't overly important that I put my unneeded books in my locker, my bag wasn't that heavy. I turned to leave the school, contemplating wether I should go to visit my old friend. I needed to apologize. I'd really hurt Lyrissa. The only problem was, would she forgive me? Did she even remember me? I'd heard somewhere that when a fledgling is turning into a vampyre, he...or she, starts losing her memories of her human life.

Or maybe she'd been trying to forget me.

No, I couldn't think that way. Rissa and I had been friends since the 6th grade, she wouldn't just turn on me because I freaked out that day. It was a lot to take in, and I was hurt that she'd have to leave, and scared that she wouldn't need me anymore. I just didn't want her to change, I couldn't lose her.

I made up my mind to drive to Pennsylvania tonight and visit my friend. She wouldn't just reject me that way, Lyrissa was understanding, she'd give me a chance to explain.

I made my way out of the school and toward the parking lot. Once there, I rushed to my baby. My baby being a little, sky-blue V.W. Bug. I got into the driver's seat.

As soon as I got home I found my best friend's phone number, and called her. She answered on the third ring.

"Izzy?" She asked in a sleepy, yet shocked voice.

"Yeah...it's me. I was wondering –" I began, before she cut me off, sounding completely awake now.

"Ohmygoddess I haven't spoken to you in so long, not since I was Marked! I'm so glad you –" She stopped. We stayed on the phone in complete silence for what seemed like hours, but was probably just an awkward minute or two.

"Lyrissa?" I asked, wondering what she was thinking.

"Why did you call me?" She asked. Her tone was an ice pick through my heart. She hadn't gotten over the last time we'd spoken.

"I called because..." Why had I called her? Ugh, I knew I shouldn't have called before I visited, I should have gone and given her no choice but to hear me out. " I called because I was thinking about you today, Rissa. I wanted to apologize to you. I miss you, and it was completely wrong of me to freak out on you like that." Silence. I checked the face of the phone to make sure she hadn't hung up on me.

1. Rissa

Alright, she was still on the line.

"You're right. That was really messed up, Twin, that hurt a lot. It was hard enough for me to be becoming this monster without you freaking out and deserting me. When I got home that night, I had to endure the same thing from my family, who, by the way, called me as soon as I got to the House. You haven't called me in months, Isabella." Her tone was no longer ice, but just plain hateful. Her use of my full name was something I hadn't expected. She'd never, not since we met, called me Isabella. I was always "Izzy" or "Twin." Never Isabella. Then again, I'd never called her a freak, and run out of her life for 6 months.

"I know...I never meant to do that," I managed to say while holding back 6 months of tears.

"Then explain to me why you did, Isabella." She shot at me.

I couldn't hold it in anymore, I was crying. Bawling my eyes out. I let out every tear I'd been building up in my unconscious mind since Rissa had been Marked. I'd thought of every moment I'd been without her, and every moment I thought about it, it hurt me, and with each new pain, a hundred tears were shed.

"You abandoned me," She said, her tone softened. "At the moment I needed you most, Bella, you abandoned me. I'd felt like I was dying, my world was being ripped apart, and everything I knew was changing, and the one person I thought I could count on to help me through these times looked at me like I was a monster. She was disgusted in me. She called me a freak, and ran away. That ruined me, Izzy." I'd calmed down a bit, and the dramatic tears had subsided to steady streaks of water down my cheek.

"It was hard for me too, Rissa. You were always my best friend. The only person who I could always count on, and now you were going to Change into something I couldn't understand. And, it'd be different if you'd been Changing here, but you weren't. You had to go to the House of Night, you had to leave me and move to Pennsylvania. I didn't mean to call you a freak. I didn't mean to ignore you for so long, but it hurt. I needed to protect myself from hurting, and that was easiest if I...if I acted like didn't care. As if it were better for me instead of worse..." I was surprised at the fact that I was able to choke that out between little sobs and hiccups that were now escaping my mouth.

Rissa remained silent for a long while. When she finally did speak, it was with words I hadn't expected to hear from her. "Come and visit me, Bella. I want to talk to you in person." She sounded empty and distant, like she hadn't been my friend for 6 years.

I was going to respond and tell her that I had planned on going there anyway, but she'd hung up on me.

I got back into my little blue bug and set off toward the house of night.