"Lilly, she's your understudy for the play." echoed in Lilly's ears so loudly that she didn't hear what Miley had said next. It wasn't until Miley shook her shoulder and said "Are you OK Lilly?"

Lilly was so startled that she dropped her car keys. After a moment she responded "What , I'm OK I was just thinking about what you said about Jenny Park being my understudy."

Miley bent over to pick up Lilly's keys for her. "It's not a big deal Lilly, its kinda like insurance for the play. It's there just in case something happens to you, but it probably won't be needed." She put the keys in Lilly's hand then went on to say. "What I asked after that was where do you want to go celebrate your getting the part of Rachel? My treat, anywhere you want to go? Remember Hannah can get you into all the hottest spots in town on a moments notice."

Lilly was more than a little bit confused by the feelings she had when she saw Jenny kiss Miley on the cheek. It was similar to what she had felt while watch Miley kissing the other girls during the auditions but more intense. For a fleeting moment the word jealousy came to her mind but she dismissed it just as quickly as it came. There was no way she could be jealous because first of all she wasn't gay and second Miley was just he best friend not her girlfriend. Then she just mentally pushed that thought aside and concentrated on what Miley had just said and replied "Can Oliver come or is it just you and me?"

"Sure he can come in fact why don't you ask your mom too and I'll ask my dad." Although her words seemed cheerful enough there was still a hint of disappointment in her eyes and voice. Miley handed Lilly her keys and said "You might need these."

"Thanks," Lilly responded . She had noticed the hint of disappointment in Miley's voice and decided to think about it. "I'll think about where I want to go for dinner then call you later OK. See ya later." Even though the dinner had gone well and everyone had a good time she had the feeling that Miley wasn't having as much fun as she seemed to be. Lilly had the feeling that Miley had wanted it to be just the two of of them and that she wanted to talk to her about something.

The next day Miley went about her usual weekend routine of 3 to 4 hours practicing after breakfast. Then she did her homework before having lunch. As she was eating her dad said "What's bothering you bud?"

She was a little surprised by his question. "Nothing daddy," She replied feeling a little guilty about her lie. "Why do you ask?" She hoped that he wouldn't press the issue. Even though she was confused about the unexpected feelings she had while kissing all those girls during the audition, especially when she had been kissing Jenny, Miley had no desire to talk about it with her father. What she really wanted to do was to talk to her mom but that was impossible and she was sure that her mom hadn't made a video message for this situation.

"You just seemed distracted all morning long that's all." Robbie Ray was sure that something was bothering her. He wanted to help her if he could but he had learned from the last time that she said nothing was wrong in that way it was better not to push it. A couple years ago she had replied exactly the same way when he had asked what was wrong but he had pushed the issue that time. He wound up trying to deal with a teenage girl's emotional conflict that utterly confused to him and therefore was absolutely no help to Miley. He had to resort to using one of the videos that Susan had made for such occasions. This time he couldn't fall back on that since over the last few years all those videos had been used already. So he decided to just leave it be and said "Are you and Lilly going to be practicing for the play later?"

"I don't know yet. I haven't talked to her yet today." She stopped to take a bite of her sandwich before continuing. "I'm gonna call her after I finish lunch."

While Miley was talking to her dad Lilly, who had been struggling all morning with the feelings that the previous days events had evoked but had made no headway in making sense of them, finally went to her mom and told her everything that had happened. While the talk with her mom hadn't given her any real answers about her feelings it did convince Lilly that her confusion was normal and that in time she would get the answers she was looking for. She had also told her daughter about things from her past that had convinced Lilly that she understood her feelings completely.

When told about what Miley said and her apparent disappointment Mrs. Truscott said "Lilly, honey, of course she was disappointed. Miley's probably just as confused as you are plus she just got hit on by another girl for the first time in her life. Remember that she doesn't have a mother anymore to talk about things like this and I'm pretty sure that she wants to talk things out with you just like you have with me."

"But she has her dad to talk to and Oliver is her friend too."

"Lilly you've got a dad and Oliver is an even closer friend to you, did you talk to either of them?"

"No, why would I and besides they're guys so how could they understand my situation."

"That's my point Lilly, she doesn't want to talk to her father or a boy about this and she hasn't got a mother. I'm sure she wants to talk to you and she can't do that with Oliver around. Also please remind her that my offer still stands." Mrs. Truscott smiled at Lilly then added "Maybe you two could get something to eat or a cup of coffee after practice tonight." Mrs. Truscott started to go back to what she'd been doing when Lilly asked to talk with her then turned and said "Lilly when you see Miley later tell her that whenever she has a problem or a question that she can't talk to her dad about, she can talk to me about anything at anytime just like we do."

Later when Miley pulled into the driveway Lilly hurried out to the car. When she started to reach for the door handle the door popped open and Miley said "Hop in Lils." Then as she got in Lilly felt a momentary urge to lean over just enough to give Miley a quick kiss. Unknown to Lilly, Miley had the same urge as well.

"What do you think Mr. Terry wants to talk to us about?"

"Lilly, Mr. Terry doesn't want to talk to us. I said that Mr. Terry had called me and I wanted to talk to you about what he told me. As for what it's about, well have plenty of time to talk about it when we when we get to the restaurant."

"Restaurant, what restaurant?" Lilly said while wondering why she had mistaken what Miley had said on the phone earlier. " I thought we were going to practice."

"I said that I wanted to talk to you about that while we had an early dinner."

Lilly felt a little dumb at how wrong her assumptions had been and the fact that she must not have been really listening to what Miley had said earlier. "Oh, I guess I misunderstood what you said on the phone."

"Ya think." Miley said in a mocking manner then quickly added. "That's OK Lils sometimes I make that mistake too."

Now it was Lilly's turn to joke a bit. "Sometimes, come on Miles you're the queen of misunderstanding what people say." She gave a little chuckle then added "I guess we all make that mistake." .For the remainder of the drive they talked about mundane things like school, the weather and Miley's summer tour.

They continued to talk about mundane everyday things all through dinner. After their deserts and the check had been brought Lilly said "So what was it that Mr. Terry had told you?"

"You know how he said he still needed to find an understudy for me, well he still hasn't found one yet but he did come up with a possible solution but he wanted to see how we liked it. When he said he'd

call you about it I offered to tell you the idea for him."

"So, what's this brilliant idea?"

"He said that he'd keep looking for someone but for the time being he thought that since you were already familiar with the play maybe you could be my understudy?"

"How would that ….." Lilly's voice trailed off as she thought about it the moments later she said "I get it. If you can't perform and I still can then I take your place the Jenny takes mine. The chances are pretty slim that both of us won't be able to perform at the same time so it would work. I gotta think about it for a bit."

"OK, I told him the same thing but I'm willing to do it that way if you are. So, how do you suppose we should practice now?"

"What do you mean by that Miley?" Almost as soon as she said that Lilly realized what Miley had meant. "Oh, you mean Jenny too."

"Yeah, that." Miley fidgeted with her silverware as she spoke. "I figured that for most of the scenes all three of us could practice together but there are a few more intimate scenes that we might be more comfortable practicing separately, at least at first I mean. We also have to practice Saturday afternoons with the rest of the cast too."

"Yeah I guess you're right about that."

"We should call Jenny to tell her about the changes and work out a schedule soon."

"Yeah we should." Lilly said in agreement then added. "Miley why so much practicing, especially for us?"

"First of all you, me and Jenny have the leading roles. Compared to a professional production this isn't much practicing. If it was we'd be practicing 10 to 14 hours a day if not more. I know that because when I was filming Indiana Joanie that was how long I worked every day. If I wasn't busy in front of the camera I was going over the next scene I was gonna shoot." Then Miley grinned and said "I earned every penny of the money they paid me."

As Lilly thought about it she realized that she'd have to practice with Jenny as well as with Miley. This was a perfect opportunity for her to find out something that she had been wondering about ever since she found that she enjoyed kissing Miley. She would be able to find out if it was just Miley that she liked kissing or if she liked kissing girls in general. Then she began to wonder what it would be like kissing Jenny.

"I guess I'll give it a try," Lilly responded. "But what about Jenny, do you think she'll agree with it?"

"Lilly she's gay, of course she's going to be OK with it." Miley chuckled then added, "Besides if you had seen her checking you out yesterday you wouldn't need to ask that question. I bet at the first opportunity she'll ask you out too."

"She checked me out?" Lilly said in genuine surprise.

"Yep, she sure did. Lilly you're a gorgeous, sexy girl and any guy or lesbian would have to be blind not to at least checking you out." Miley was surprised that she had actually said that, but as soon as she said it she knew that she really meant it. Even as she was questioning why she had said it that way Miley found herself eying Lilly the same way she'd look at a sexy guy who caught her eye. In an attempt to change the direction her thoughts were taking she added "By the way Lilly, it won't be so bad practicing with Jenny cause she kisses almost as good as you do."

Miley almost groaned as she realized how the last few things she said must have sounded to Lilly. She was sure that Lilly must think she was hitting on her, which she wasn't. Not only that but she wasn't doing nearly as smooth a job of of it as when Jenny had hit on her the previous day. After they had finished talking to Mr. Terry Jenny had complimented her's and Lilly's acting by saying that they had seemed like they really were girlfriends. Just before they had exited the building Jenny had hit on her when asking her out on a date. Miley had not been expecting that at all and frankly had no idea how to respond to it. Normally she would have just politely turn her down but lately, mainly because of the play and her reaction to kissing Lilly, she was tempted by the offer while also afraid to accept it. After hesitating a few seconds she turned it down but in a such a way that hinted that she might be interested in accepting at a later date.

There was no way she could be hitting on her best friend or was she. Maybe she was and didn't realize it. What if she was subconsciously hitting on Lilly. It wasn't just the play and having to make out with her best friend on stage, although it was a big part of it, this was something she had occasionally wondered about ever since had started dating. That was, if she was really as interested in boys as she acted like, how come she could never have a boyfriend for more than a few weeks, if that long? And now that she finally had a boyfriend, namely Jake Ryan, it was a boy who was gone for more than half of the nearly six months they had been dating. She sure wished that her mom was still alive so she could ask her about all those things. She had tried to talk about these things with her dad but whenever she did it never came out the way she wanted it to and his answer was almost always to for her to just say no to the boys, which never helped her at all. The closest thing she had to a real mother these days was Lilly's mom and how could she talk about something like this with her. She wound up mumbling to herself "Shut up Miles before you totally freak out your best friend."

While Miley was busy mentally kicking herself Lilly was flattered by what she had just heard about Jenny checking her out. She was also a little concerned about the fact that she was pleased by knowing that a lesbian found her attracted. Before her talk with her mom it would have freaked her out a bit but now it was just one more factor in the whole straight or gay question she had to figure out. Not long after that the rest of what Miley had said sunk in which made Lilly wonder if her friend was hitting on her. She wasn't sure about it because there was more than one way to take what Miley had said. Normally the whole idea of Miley hitting on her would have been out of the question but with everything that had been going on with the play and the effect it had on her and obviously Miley as well, that had changed. Right then she knew that her mom had been just as right about Miley as she'd been about her. "Miley , there's something I want to ask you about?"

Miley's heart seemed to skip a beat as she imagined the worst before calmly replying "What is it?"

"Well all through our celebration dinner last night I had the feeling that you wanted to talk privately with me about something. Is that true?"

"Yeah I did and I still do. It just seemed that you didn't want to talk to me that's all."

"Why do you say that Miles?"

"Well the way you stuck so close to Oliver it was like you were glued to him. Plus it seemed like you were avoiding me the whole time."

Lilly was about to deny it but just before she actually said so she realized that she had indeed avoided Miley as much as she could the previous night. Oliver had even commented about that on their way home. After thinking about it a little longer she knew that she had been deliberately avoiding Miley as much as she possibly could last night and it was almost certainly for the very same reason Miley had wanted to talk to her. Now that she realized what she had done Lilly felt pretty bad about it.

"I hadn't realized that I was avoiding you until Oliver mentioned it to me on our way home last night. I'm sorry about that Miley." Lilly sighed then added "I guess I just wanted to think things ou......" Her voice trailed off as the look of disbelief told her that Miley wasn't buying her evasion. "OK, I was avoiding on purpose but it was because I wanted to sort things out first. I've been so confused by everything that's been happening and my feelings about it all that I wanted to talk to my mom about it first."

"Damn it Lilly, I've been feeling the same way but I can't do that can I. My mom died almost 5 years ago so I can't talk to her no matter how badly I want to." Miley missed her mom all the time but lately she felt that loss even more in her time of need and it showed in her eyes and voice as she spoke. "I can't talk to my dad about it and I'm sure as hell ain't gonna talk to Jackson about it. You're the only person I can talk to about this kind of stuff."

Lilly waited almost a minute to respond while she thought about the pain she had seen in Miley's eyes and heard in her voice. It really made her feel even worse about how she had acted the previous night. "I'm really sorry about how I acted last night. I had no that I was hurting you like that. I really am sorry." She took a deep breath then continued before Miley had a chance to say anything. "When I was talking to my mom earlier today she said that was how you must be feeling right now and how you'd be missing your mom and all that."

Miley's eyes opened wide in surprise at hearing that. "Did she really say that?"

"Yeah she did. Almost word for word in fact. I guess my mom really does understand what's going on." Lilly considered telling Miley everything her mom had said to her earlier then decided not to. "What is it that you wanted to talk about?"

"I never told you this but I've wondered about what it might be like to kiss another girl for quite a while but not enough to actually do it. Then when I had learned that I'd have to kiss you, I mean really kiss you like I would Jake, I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to satisfy that curiosity." Miley paused to take a drink then said "When we finally did kiss I hadn't expected it to be they way it was. I had thought it might be like when I used to kiss my mom good night when I was little. I never imagined that I might like it as much as I did."

Miley watched Lilly's closely as she waited for her response. Most of what she had just said was true except that for the fact that Lilly was the girl she had been curious about kissing and that she'd been looking for an excuse to kiss her for quite some time. What really had Miley confused was that after finding that she not only liked kissing Lilly but that she was curious about doing more than just kissing. How in the hell do you tell your best friend that without creeping her out if she didn't feel the same way about you.

Lilly was relived to hear Miley say that. She had said almost the exact same thing to her mom just a few hours earlier this afternoon. She had wondered the same thing ever since had finally really understood what sex about, which happened shortly after she had hit puberty and had begun to experience sexual attraction boys first hand. Not long after that had happened she realized she had similar feelings girls too but not strongly enough to do anything about it. She wondered how long Miley meant by 'quite a while'. Was it longer or shorter than she'd been curious about girls. "Me too." Lilly said hoping to set her friend at ease which it apparently did judging from Miley's reaction. Then before she had taken any time to think about it she blurted out, "How long do you mean by quite a while?" She immediately regretted saying it even though she did want to know. "You don't have to answer if it's too personal. I'm just curious that's all." She quickly added before Miley had a chance to react to her question.

Miley thought about it for a second or two then "No, it's not too personal and I think I probably would of told you about sooner or later. " She took a deep breath to steady calm herself before starting the story. "About six months before my mom died my mom died Jackson and me were staying with my mom's sister's family while our mom and dad went to some big hospital for something. One day when I was hiding the hayloft in the barn to be by myself and I had fallen asleep. When I woke up I heard some voices which turned out to be my oldest cousin Mary Sue, she was about our age then, and her friend Alice. Since I wasn't supposed to be up in the loft I kept out of sight and as quiet as I could.

After a few minutes it got quiet so I decided to sneak out before anyone caught me up there. When I got to where I could see the rest of the barn below I saw my cousin and her friend kissing. I was really surprised because I'd never even heard about it before let alone seen anything like that. At that time I thought that girls only kissed boys. Any how I was so surprised that I just lay there watching them for I don't know how long. After a while I saw my cousin put her hand down inside the front of Alice's pant's. It wasn't long after that when I heard a someone outside the barn. They must have heard too because they stopped what they were doing and they left as quick as they could without being seen.

After my mom and dad came home I told my mom what I had seen and she told me that Mary Sue was a lesbian which meant that she liked kissing girls instead of boys. Since I was only 9 at the time I didn't much about it but as I got older I'd think about it every now and then and wondered what it'd be like to kiss a girl."

Lilly was so surprised about what Miley said all she could say was "Wow." She had nothing to compare to that story since she'd never witnessed anything like that in real life until she and Miley had kissed. "I don't have a story nearly that good. After seeing a few shows on TV with lesbian couples on them I started wondering what it might be like to kiss another girl, that's all."

What Lilly left unsaid was that Miley was the only girl she had ever considered kissing. That was until earlier when she found out about her being made Miley's understudy for the play. Now she was going to have to practice practice playing Miley's part with Jenny as well as her own. She knew that learning the lines wouldn't be the hardest part nor would playing the character of Julie right. The hardest part would be pulling off the kissing scenes with Jenny as well as she did with Miley. Lilly knew it would take practice but she was kind looking forward to it just to see if she liked kissing girls in general or did she just like kissing Miley.

Miley smiled and said "Lilly thanks for talking to me. It makes me feel a bit better knowing that I'm not the only one who was confused by all this." Miley sighed then said "I still wish I could talk to my mom about this stuff but I guess this will have to do."

Lilly knew this was the perfect time to tell Miley what her mom had asked her to tell Miley. "Miley you know that you can talk to my mom about this if you want to. She really does understand what we're going through. She even asked me to tell you that you can always talk to her about anything, anytime."

"I thought she was just saying that to be nice when she told me that almost four years ago. There have been times, like now, when I needed to talk to my mom about stuff I just couldn't talk to my dad about. I was really tempted to take your mom up on her offer but it just seemed too weird. Why would she want to help me like that, it's not like I'm her daughter or anything."

"That's just it Miley, she does think of you as family. In fact she's told me several times that you're like another daughter to her."

Miley smiled at hearing Lilly say that. "Really, that's fantastic. You know my dad says the same thing about you. Why do you think he gave you a key to our house?"

Now it was Lilly's turn to be pleasantly surprised. There was an awkward silence while they both thought about what the other had said. The silence lasted for a minute or so before Miley couldn't stand it any longer and said "You know it's still early enough for us to call Mr. Terry to tell him your decision, call Jenny about the changes and then we'd still have time to start going over the script thoroughly."

Lilly replied "Sure why not, since with all the work we have ahead of us the sooner we get started the better."

Soon enough the phone calls had been made and they were pulling into the driveway at Lilly's house. When they arrived Miley saw that Mrs. Truscott's car was gone which pleased Miley since it would give them time to go over the script and talk about how they would do the other even more intimate scenes that came later in the play. Soon enough they were in the living room and Lilly was asking if she wanted something to drink. The only thing Miley wanted was to drink in the sight of Lilly's beautiful face framed with gorgeous blond hair, with blues eye that sparkled like sapphires and luscious lips that practically begging to be kissed. As she thought about that Miley was hit by an almost unbearable desire to kiss Lilly right them so in an effort give her time to control that urge she said "Sure, just bring me what ever you got in the fridge."

Miley sat down on the big over-stuffed sofa and tried to relax as she waited. Before she knew it Lilly was back with two large glasses of iced tea and handed her one. Miley took a big drink of it then went to set it down on the end table next to her, making sure to use a coaster just like Mrs. Truscott liked them to. Lilly sat next to her and asked how she liked the tea as she set her own drink next to her copy of the script, which was on the coffee table in front of them. Then instead of answering the question Miley leaned towards Lilly and kissed her. Lilly responded by putting her arms around Miley and pulled her close while returning the kiss with a passion that surprised Miley.

They kissed like that for several minutes with both of their tongues taking turns exploring the others mouth before coming up for air. When they did Miley said "I've been wanting to do that ever since you got in the car when I picked you up."

Lilly's only response was to initiate an even more passionate kiss. As they kissed one of Miley hands began caressing Lilly seemingly of it's own accord while the other ran it's fingers through Lilly's golden tresses. Before she knew it Miley's wandering hand was cupping one of her friend's perfectly shaped breasts. As she fondled the breast it felt every bit as good in her hand as she had imagined it would.

When Lilly moaned with pleasure as they continued kissing it ignited a burning desire in Miley to go even further in pleasuring her best friend. She shifted her position just enough to give her even better access and continued exploring with her hand. Almost before she knew it Miley was slipping her hand down the front of Lilly's pants. When her fingers touched Lilly's womanhood she found that it was already very wet. As Miley began fingering her friend's wet pussy Lilly broke the kiss and began saying Miley's name over and over again getting louder each time. Eventually Lilly said her name so loud that it startled Miley and she suddenly found herself still sitting at the table in the restaurant.