I suck, again. I actually do have the next chapter done, dusted, sorted. Go me. JK. Thank you to people who have actually bothered to keep reading this, even though I'm slower than a snail!

Nickelback - This Afternoon.

Don't wanna wristwatch or an alarm clock
To see what time it is
From the moment I wake up
I just love being with my friends
We barely get by, but have the best times
And hope it never ends.

"As far as I know everyone's coming. Luanne's even bringing somebody."

"Ooh." Lilly mocked. "Some hunk?"

"I have no idea, she just asked if she could bring someone."

"Why don't you ever tell me these things?" Lilly asked as she placed dips and chips around the table.

"I forgot." Miley shrugged. "She'll be here any minute, I told her to come straight in." Miley took a chip covered in tomato dip and stuffed it in her mouth.

"Okay." Lilly looked up. "Miles?"

"Hmm?"

"Come here." Lilly grabbed the front of her girlfriend's shirt and kissed her.

"What was that for?" Miley said as she pulled away slightly, Lilly still holding on to her.

"You had sauce on your lip." She pulled Miley for another chaste kiss. "Hot sauce." She licked her lips and turned away. "I'm gonna put the guest towels out." Lilly turned at the door with a cheeky grin on her face. "You taste nice."

"So I've been told." Miley replied as she watched Lilly's swaying hips.

"What have you been told?"

Miley whirled at the voice coming from the side door. "Lu!" Miley grabbed her cousin in to a bone crushing hug which was happily returned. "So good to see you."

"You too."

"You look so well." The Californian lifestyle seemed to have done her a world of good, for the first time in a long time Luanne seemed happy to be in other company.

"I hope so, you pay enough." Both girls laughed. "Where's Lilly?"

"Putting towels..." Miley smiled and shrugged. "What does it matter? She'll be down in a minute."

"So caring." Luanne rolled her eyes.

"Anyway, where's this friend that you said you were bringing?" Miley flashed her eyes at the word friend.

"Ha. Not that sort of friend." Luanne looked at her cousin. "Sorry to disappoint Couz, but she was just finishing up a phone call. She actually said you know her." Luanne put heavy emphasis on the 'she.'

"What?"

"Here she is." Luanne turned her body and smiled at her friend.

"Mikayla?" Miley said with surprise. "What the hell are you doing here with Luanne?"

"It's a rehab facility." She stated, for a moment Miley mistook Mikayla's direct answer for her usual rudeness. "I'm in it." She raised her eyebrows at Miley when she didn't respond.

"Oh." Miley stayed quiet for a few moments while she deliberated what to do next. "I didn't know."

"Good. That means my PR are doing their jobs." She smiled.

Miley noticed something different from Mikayla, the smile seemed genuine, not like the fake one she'd been plastering on time and time again.

"Yo Miley!" Lilly's loud voice broke everyone from the awkward silence. "What have you done with all the towels?" She blinked twice before rephrasing her question. "Mikayla? What the hell..?" Before anyone could respond Lilly had disappeared from the balcony and reappeared at the sliding door. "Am I hallucinating? Miley, I think I am, I'm seeing Mikayla, queen bitch sensation standing in our house."

"Lilly!" Luanne and Miley said together.

"No, I deserve that one. Last time I saw Lola here I told her that she looked like a explosion in the children's department."

Miley struggled to hide a snigger.

"It's not funny. You're supposed to be on my side!"

"I'm not on anyone's side." Miley held her hands up and walked away.

"What are you doing here?" Lilly gave Mikayla a look.

"Luanne asked me."

"So what, you're friends now?"

"Yeah." They both smiled at one another. "Mikayla is in the opposite room at Respite."

"Well good luck with that." And with that final sentence Lilly stomped away, more annoyed that Miley hadn't defended her.

"Hard little case isn't she?" Mikayla smiled, not in the least be phased at how she had just been treated.

"She's softer than she looks, she was actually the one who defended me to Miley when all my shit went down."

"Hmm." Mikayla hummed, she was surprised, if anything she would have thought it would have been the other way round. "Do you know where we're supposed to be putting our bags?"

"Noooo..." Luanne drew out as she noticed Lilly give Miley a hard shove in to the pool. "Although I have a feeling Miley might need to change, maybe she'll show us."

"You're not gonna do the Climb again are you?" Moaned Jackson as he stood eating yet another hotdog.

"Well I hope you're not gonna sing, you broke all the windows last time." Jackson pulled a face and continued stuffing his own. "What do you suggest?"

"Mft."

"I'm sorry, perhaps if you learnt to chew I might get that."

Miley moved away from Jackson to stand behind Lilly. "How he ever got Sienna will forever remain a mystery to me." Miley rested her cheek against Lilly's head. "You alright?"

"Yeah, fine." Miley felt Lilly's cheeks contract with a smile. "Aren't you going up there?" She nodded with her head.

"Why, want me to put on Kiwi again?"

"No!" Lilly flushed a deep scarlet. Miley's last rendition was in a more literal sense. "You can't."

"No, you're right, I can't but it's always fun to tease you. Any suggestions?"

"Blonde Bad and Beautiful?"

"Ah come on, I only did that for a laugh in the studio."

"I thought it was pretty good. Besides, you've got most of your recording band here. Do it for me." Lilly reached behind her and gently ran her fingers over Miley's nape. "And these will go a lot lower later."

Mikayla silently observed the antics of Luanne and Miley's large family. It was a very different environment to what she was raised in. She still sometimes wondered if she was the reason for her parents' divorce, though her psychologist said that was nothing to do with it. A loud crash made Mikayla jump, her eyes immediately widening, searching for the impeding trouble. Looking over at where the drums were she noticed a cymbal and Jackson lying on the floor. She breathed a sigh of relief. Despite hours spent with her shrink the sound of anything crashing down around her put her on high alert. She silently thanked her Dad for that one.

"You alright?" Luanne smiled, jolting Mikayla out of her thoughts. "You look like Uncle Earl when he was told all the ice cream was gone."

"Am I ever gonna meet this famous uncle?"

"We all use him to describe things, it's sort of a family joke."

"Gotcha."

"Mingle a bit, I don't want you to be sat here alone. My family may be a little crazy but they are nice people."

"I'm okay really."

"Mikayla you're eventually gonna have to mix with the normals, I suggest starting with my family, they make a good middle ground."

She laughed. "Fair point. I just feel kinda awkward, last time I saw your cousin and girlfriend I was nothing but a bitch to them."

"You liked Miley though, you didn't know she was Hannah, what's so different now?"

"That's precisely my point, Miley and Hannah had the same morals, persona and I liked one and not the other."

"Just get on with it. She didn't flatten you when you got here so I think you'll be okay. And as for Lilly, well she may be hard nut to crack but eventually she will. We hated one another for years but now..." Luanne shrugged. "We get along just fine. She just likes to suss people out, see what their agendas are. She was like that even before she started dating Miley. Now she is just extra protective." Luanne decided to stay with Mikayla for a bit, that way she might actually interact with some humans. She watched Miley pick up the symbol that Jackson had knocked over before grabbing a few guys. "Batting for the right side?" Luanne yelled with a mischievous smirk.

"I'd take that back quickly."

"What ya gonna do?" Before Miley could respond Lilly had wandered up behind Luanne with a pitcher of frozen margaritas and tipped them down her. "Lilly!" Luanne screamed, much to the delight of her cousin.

"Told ya."

"Sorry, I slipped." Lilly smiled before she watched Luanne's features change in to a expression she knew all too well. "Oh shit." Lilly dumped the pitcher and ran as fast as she could.

"Lillian Truscott! Come back here!"

Miley laughed to herself as she watched the pair of them disappear behind the house. "Hey Mikayla? You wanna have a go?" Miley gave Mikayla a devilish smile, holding out the guitar, giving it just a little wiggle to try and entice her.

"Erm..."

"Come on, get your butt over here."

Mikayla did as she was asked and perched herself on one of the stools. "I can't play it." She said quietly.

"Oh." Miley bit her tongue, in years gone by she would have ripped in to Mikayla for nothing more than sweet revenge. "Nothing at all?"

"Nope." She turned her back slightly, knowing that everyone was staring at the artist who couldn't play a single chord.

"Never mind." Miley smiled. "What about singing? We all know you can do that."

Mikayla shifted uncomfortably. "I, I um..."

"It's alright you don't have to." Miley smiled. "We just all like to sing."

"Can you play the guitar for me? Or someone back me up, I'm not used to singing without back up."

"Sure. What would you like me to play?"

Mikayla shrugged. "I don't know what you know. I didn't really know you could play if I'm honest."

"I just never play in concert. Come on Mikayla, name a song and we'll see what we can do, nearly everybody here plays, my guys are pretty good too."

"You really are a country family aren't you?"

"'Fraid so. Okay, what type of music do you like, or listen to? We know a lot of the classics, between you and me we never get round rehearsing my songs, we normally end up goofing off with others."

"Such as?"

"Could be anything from my Aunt Dolly's to Whitesnake."

"You do realise you're not helping." Mikayla raised a half smile, that other side still concentrating. She wanted to prove, more to herself, that she still had it in her to perform.

"Come on, what do you know?"

"Well, when I was little my Mum used to play the old rock songs to me. You know Sweet Home Alabama?"

"Are you joking?" Miley said deadpanned.

"What?"

"We're a southern family, of course we know it. I'm just screwing with you."

"I'm not sure on all of the words."

"Don't worry, everybody knows the lyrics." Miley turned to yell at her band. "Yo guys! Lynyrd it is! Strap on those guitars!"

"I thought you were gonna say strap on something else." Luanne appeared from nowhere, covered in jell-o.

Mikayla and Miley looked her up and down. "Did you lose?"

"I think it was a draw." Luanne turned to look at Lilly who was stood by the chips, wiping off the dip.

"Mikayla's gonna sing for us." Miley grinned.

Luanne looked between the two. "You know you don't have to right? No one will think any less of you?"

"No, I know but I want to."

"Good luck then, I'll be watching."

"You were very sweet." Lilly said as she leant against the side of the house.

"Sweet? Me?" Miley stepped closer and rested her head on Lilly's.

"To Mikayla." She put her finger in the top of Miley's bikini bottoms and pulled. "And I like it. My sweet Miley."

"You are either drunk or horny. Which one is it?"

"Bit of both." Lilly grinned. "Just give me a little kiss."

Miley shook her head slightly before leaning in.

"PDA ALERT!" Heather yelled as she walked down the path, breaking up the kiss. "And Lilly, remove your hand. No one wants to see that."

"I do." Lilly grinned as fingered the waistband.

"Ssh." Miley hit Lilly. "Sorry, I think someone's been on the punch."

"I think they have. She's your problem now." Heather laughed as she disappeared in to the house. "Good luck."

"Mikayla? You alright?" Miley stop as she noticed the lonely figure steaming away.

"Yeah, just admiring the view."

"It's not bad. Do you want some company or did I disturb a deep thought?"

"No, it's fine. Please."

Miley took off her t shirt and slid her body in to the hot tub. "Do you want one?" She held out the pitcher of Mojitos towards Mikayla.

"No thanks. I don't drink anymore."

"Oh my God, I didn't think. Do you want me to..."

"No, no. Don't be silly, I've gotta learn how to deal with these situations. What happened to Lilly anyway?"

"She passed out on her bed."

"Oh so you guys don't... Sorry." Mikayla shook her head. "Too personal."

"No, it's alright. We do normally but she fell on it and that was the end of her night. I don't think I'd wanna share a bed anyway, she's probably gonna be sick."

"Nice." Mikayla raised her eyebrows.

"How come you're still out here anyway? You do know we gave you a room right?" Miley shrunk a bit lower in to the warm water, the night air just starting to cool against her skin.

"Yeah I do." Mikayla laughed. "I just wanted to say thanks I guess, I never got the chance to earlier. I know it was a shock seeing me with your cousin but I really wanted to come and see you guys."

"Why's that?"

"I've had a lot of time to think in rehab, it's probably the worst thing you have to do in there."

"You don't like being alone with your thoughts?" Miley blinked and took a gulp of her drink. "I love it."

"Not when you're stuck in a loony bin and everything has be earned, even shit like Jerry Springer can take you somewhere else for a while. The point of rehab is to make you think, but you have to change the way you think. It gets complicated, my shrink has explained it all to me but the bottom line is realising what you have done and how you've got there."

"So that what Lu's had to do?"

"It's what we all have to do. There's only so much meds they can give you before they make you go cold turkey."

"Do you mind it now? Thinking alone I mean."

"Not so much, I can go as far as saying I sometimes like it."

"Can I ask you something?"

"What?"

"What did you do to end up in rehab?"

"Coke, pot, alcohol, ecstasy, I could go on. But mostly coke and alcohol. God, what I wouldn't given for a hit of that." Mikayla looked at Miley's shocked face. "Welcome to the world of celebrity drugs, everyone gives you it for free. You can't say you've never been offered it?"

"Only pot. It's never really been something I wanted to try, the thought of smoking and what it could do to my voice is enough to say no."

"Hold on to that thought. Believe me, it's easy to get hooked."

"How did you? If you don't mind me asking." Miley silently cursed herself for letting her mouth run on. "Sorry, I tend to speak and then think."

"It's alright." Mikayla gave a heavy shrug. "Coke and vodka seemed to go hand in hand for me, you know when you get tired and need a little pick me up here, a drink to relax you there. It just starts as a helping hand and before you know if you're doing line after line and more shots than you can handle and then it's hello rehab. Cheers." She picked up her juice and raised it to Miley.

"Wow. I mean how long? When we first met?"

"I must have been 15, 16? I don't know, those few years have been a blurry mess, I couldn't tell you what day it was most of the time, let alone what I was doing."

"I wondered why you dropped out of the scene. Please tell me you fired that awful manager of yours?"

Mikayla laughed. "Yeah, that was the first thing I did when I could finally think straight. Margot wasn't even the one who put me in the rehab, she was still trying to get me to promote all sorts of shit."

"Who did?"

"Me. I did. I woke up one morning and it was just... I was fucking trashed. I didn't know who I was with, there was just some naked guys next to me, he had white powder smeared across his nose and lips. My bedroom was littered in bottles, there was someone in my lounge who I didn't know and when I got to my bathroom it was just covered in sick. It was the worst thing I have ever seen. It was a real eye opener, surreal if you want. The worst thing was when I looked at my phone I realised nearly a week had passed and I hadn't got a clue what had gone on. It was my Mum's birthday and I couldn't have cared less."

"You mean somewhere in that time you had forgotten her?"

"Yeah. I have never felt so low in my life. That's the thing with coke, the first high is the best, after that it you can never achieve that same high no matter how much you take. And the more you take that worse it is when you come down, all it did was mask my depression and make it 10 times worse."

"Oh my." Miley said softly. "I just never knew."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to dump all this on you."

"It's alright. It's just hard to hear that someone you know went through all that. How long have you been there?"

"Nearly 7 months, still a long way to go but I'll get there."

"Well here's to you doing well." Miley raised her glass and took another gulp. "I don't think raising a glass of alcohol for you is actually such a great idea." She laughed and Mikayla joined in.

"Irony more like. Never mind, the sentiment was there."

"I've been dying to ask, how did you get to know Lu, despite the obvious."

"I actually thought it was you. I just saw her from a distance and well, you two look so alike."

"I know, she nearly exposed my secret once, that's how alike we look."

"It doesn't surprise me, she told me what happened and how she felt."

"Yeah, I know, I still feel to blame for that." Miley fiddled with the bottom of her glass.

"You weren't. I don't know Luanne as well as you but talking to her, well, there's a lot of problems there."

"How she doing? I want to ask her but I don't know whether I'd get the entire truth."

"Okay, she still does lose it sometimes but the last few times she's dealt with it."

"Wow." Miley swirled the remnants in her glass around.

"I think the reason we get on so well is the fact we have quite a few of the same problems. She told me about the coke and how she used it to get herself out of bed, I completely understand that. The first thing I'd do when I woke up was either throw up or do line a of coke."

"You ought to do a lecture for kids because what you're saying is enough to put anyone of drink and drugs for life."

"Realising your mistakes is the first step in AA, if you can't do that then you're not ready to do anything else. I actually came here because of Step 9 of 12, apologising for the misdoings you did while drunk or stoned, or both in my case. That's actually why I wanted to come here and say how sorry I was, for the way I treated you."

"It's..."

"No, it's not. The one thing they've taught me is I have to accept what I've done and to try and fix it." Mikayla's voice hardened. "I want to say how sorry I am, for the way I treated you and Lilly. I was jealous of Hannah, she seemed to get every sweet deal and I just couldn't hack it. You always got better record sales, better publicity and I always came in second."

Miley felt her defences go up, Mikayla was sounding more and more bitter as she went on. "I'm no better than you Mikayla. I.." Miley didn't really know what to say, she did do better but she had no idea why. "I suppose it was luck."

"Well, it doesn't matter now. I just want to put my life together and start fresh. I would like it if you'd be a part of that."

"Me?"

"I liked you before all the drugs, I just hated Hannah. You were always trying to be nice to me even when I was a complete bitch to you and I never forgot that. I would like it if we could try and be friends."

"That's all I've been trying to do over the years." Miley smiled. "It'd be nice to have someone understand what it is like to be followed around and have every move scrutinised by the world."

"How about a coffee at my apartment sometime next week?"

"I'd like that."