Chapter 3\\Try Again

{restart, rewind the hate}

{turn it into love}

Look, they're happy! They're hugging and kissing and crying tears of joy!

They're ecstatic!

Screams of joy and love and -

Oh, no. It's just a dream.

At least it's not a nightmare.

{this can't be real}

"I'm dreaming."

Heather sat on the floor, staring at her cell phone, which had been in use only moments before.

She was going on a date with Lindsay.

Okay, so it wasn't a date. They were simply two friend-ish girls going to the mall where Lindsay lived.

But Heather could think of it as a date if she wanted to. Either way, she was going to hang out with Lindsay for three days. She simply could not wait.

Best not to act too excited about it, though.

{why not just let go of her disguise?}

"Eee! Hi, Heather!" Lindsay hugged Heather and squealed. Heather allowed herself a moment of excitement and squealed with her.

Okay, they weren't just friend-ish. They were friends.

Heather would have been happy with just her friendship, if only she weren't so selfish. Of course everyone wants more than friendship from the person they love, but many would be happy with what they could get. Heather wasn't quite like that.

Love. Heather loved Lindsay? Heather loved Lindsay.

She jsut wanted Lindsay to love her too.

She would be satisfied with that.

{is all love unrequited?}

Crowds of people filled the mall. Giggling couples bonded by puppy love, parents dragged around by preteen daughters, girls admiring the window displays. Voices melted into an incredibly loud mess of sound. If Heather had to guess, she'd say this mall was at least double the size of the one at home and three times as packed. It was pure chaos.

Lindsay looked a bit worried, as though she hadn't expected so many people. She grabbed Heather's hand and slipped her fingers between hers. She gave Heather a look that said, "I don't want to lose you."

Heather wanted to stay that way forever, her fingers intertwined with Lindsay's. She didn't want to lose her, either.

The girls fought their way through the mass of people. Heather had no idea where they were going, and was about to ask when a Justin Bieber song she didn't recognize started playing from Lindsay's purse. Lindsay pulled out a pink cell phone.

"Hi!" Lindsay said. Heather didn't hear what the person on the other line said, but suddenly Lindsay started squealing more than she had when Heather had arrived at her house.

"Tyler! You finally called!"

Heather froze. Tyler?

It couldn't be. He hadn't called once in the two months since Total Drama Island had ended. He had to call now, when Heather was finally able to spend time with Lindsay?

Heather had been so distracted, she hadn't noticed that Lindsay had let go of her hand and wandered off. Like Heather wasn't there. As if she didn't even exist.

Heather was all alone in an unfamiliar mall. She couldn't even leave, because her car was at Lindsay's house. She was lost.

More importantly, she had lost Lindsay.

{she lost everything}

She couldn't cry. She wouldn't let herself cry.

She would never let anyone see her cry.

So Heather, fighting back tears and choking down sobs, tried to maker her way through the crowd. Bodies shunted her aside, shouted at her to watch where she was going. She was almost free, she could almost see the doorway to the outside-

She crashed into somebody.

Rather than shouting at her or pushing her away, he wrapped his arms around her in a tight hug. Confused, Heather looked up to see a familiar face.

Duncan was there to save her.

{an unlikely savior, but could it be true?}

Sometimes the most unexpected people show up in the most unexpected of places and do the most unexpected things.

Sometimes those things save your life, or at least your sanity.

In this case, Duncan is that person. The mall is that place. Kissing Heather is that thing, the thing that either saved her sanity or completely smashed it.

Maybe he didn't know what he was doing. Maybe he was just messing around with Heather's head, trying to play with her heart. But he was there.

For some reason, that meant everything to her at that moment.

"Hey babe." Duncan wiped a tear from the corner of her eye; she hadn't realized she'd been crying. "What's wrong?"

Heather shook her head. She didn't trust herself to keep quiet if she opened her mouth, and no way in hell was she going to say anything to Duncan.

He didn't seem to care either way. He just took her hand and led her out of the mall. She sent a text to Lindsay, a vague text saying she was going to to some other place with some guy.

She wouldn't care. She had Tyler.

{all alone now, with a man she barely knows}

Heather l o v e d Lindsay.

She just wanted L i n d s a y to love her too.

{it's just a dream}

{at least it's not a n i g h t m a r e}