A/N-I DO NOT OWN THE NAKED BROTHERS BAND!

Hey guys!

This story is almost over...): but I'll be able to work on other ones and "Maybe There's A Reason" (:

So... Enjoy!

Nat looked at me.

I couldn't help but feel panicked. I've had to deal with Matt and Juanita at school but at home? In front of the whole band? What did they want? What would they say? What would I say?

"Hurry up, you guys come in," Nat said, stepping aside.

The band rushed in and Nat shut the door.

"What should we do?" Thomas asked, looking around at all of us.

"It's up to Alex," Cooper said.

The whole band looked at me.

"I…I, um…"

Someone knocked on the door. We all went totally quiet and slowly moved away into the living room.

"What do we do?!" Thomas whispered again.

"Just ignore it, and pretend you aren't home," David whispered.

Someone knocked again.

"You can't do that, it's rude!" Rosalina whispered.

"Oh and like backstabbing someone isn't," Thomas whispered.

"Guys!" Nat whispered, to get them to stop. "Alex, what do you want to do?"

I shrugged. "I…I don't know."

"Just open it and tell them Alex isn't home," Cooper suggested.

Nat nodded and cautiously walked over to the front door.

I leaned around the corner to watch him, but the band grabbed me and pulled me away.

We all listened quietly around the corner as Nat opened the door. "Oh…hey Juanita."

"Hi Nat. Is Alex home?"

"No, sorry he's not."

"Where is he?" A voice I recognized as Matt's asked.

"Sorry, who are you?" Nat asked, acting like he didn't know him.

"I'm Matt. I'm Juanita's boyfriend."

"Oh…well it's nice to meet you, but Alex isn't home. Sorry."

"Do you know where we could find him?" Matt asked.

"I'm sorry but I don't know you that well…"

I carefully and slowly peered around the corner, not even an inch.

Matt grabbed Juanita and I could see her flinch. "You know her, don't you?"

Nat just shrugged and shook his head. "Sorry."

"It's okay Nat, thanks though." Juanita turned and as she walked away, I could swear she looked…almost…disappointed.

Nat shut the door and ran back over to us.

"What do you think they wanted?" Qaasim asked.

Nat shrugged. "Who knows."

"Was it just me," I spoke up. "Or did Juanita look almost disappointed that you wouldn't tell them anything? And did you see her flinch when Matt grabbed her?"

"I noticed, but I thought maybe it was just me. Matt isn't anything like Juanita at all," Nat said.

"Wait, you think Matt could be like, abusing Juanita or something?" Rosalina asked.

"I don't think you could call it abuse," I said. "We're only in eighth grade. But I have a feeling that Juanita doesn't like Matt anymore."

~NBB~

The next day at school, I knew I had to talk to Juanita. And I needed to talk to her alone. I saw her at her locker and I rushed over there. "Juanita, we need to talk."

"Alex! You're right, we do but what about…?" She trailed off and I knew she meant Matt.

"Today after school. Just like on Friday."

She nodded and I turned to walk away but she stopped me.

"But Alex, I just…I wanted to say…I'm sorry."

"We'll talk about it later," I said and turned and walked away. Part of me was actually kind of glad that Juanita apologized but the other part of me was wondering what made her change her mind so quickly. It was just Friday that she was yelling at me that I couldn't believe everything I hear, and now on Tuesday she's apologizing. I wasn't going to complain though. This meant I would be getting my best friend back. As I walked to class, I heard someone calling my name and I knew who it was but I wasn't going to stop for them. Unfortunately, they caught up with me.

"Hey Alex, what's up?"

I didn't respond, and just kept walking.

"Alex?"

I still didn't respond.

"Alex, is everything–"

"I know, okay? I know that you're just pretending to be my friend and I know that you're only my friend because Matt told you to. And I don't know care if you go to Matt and lie and say that I've said things about him and Juanita because it doesn't matter to me anymore. I don't need people in my life who don't believe me. I need people who will be there for me no matter what. I've got those people. And you're not one of them. So I'd appreciate it if you'd stop following me around with this 'friend act' you've got going on here." I turned and continued walking to class like nothing happened. I wasn't going to let any of them affect me anymore. No matter what happened with Juanita, I wasn't going to let it bother me anymore. Nat was right. It wasn't fun being miserable, so I wasn't going to let them anymore. I spent the rest of the day basically alone, because everyone still thought I was a backstabber, and now Danny joined Matt's group. I was still nervous about what Juanita would say when I talked to her, but I kept telling myself not to care. As the end of the day came around, I walked with the crowd of kids towards the front door but stopped where Juanita and I had stopped on Friday.

A few minutes later Juanita broke away from the crowd and we moved to the side. "So…" She started nervously.

"What did you and Matt want yesterday?"

"I'd rather not mention what Matt wanted to do. I wouldn't let him though, so we agreed to at least go and talk to you. But I wasn't going to talk to you about what Matt thought I was. I was coming to…apologize."

I knew it was a stupid question but I asked anyway. "Why?"

"What do you mean? We've been terrible to you and–"

"No, I know that. But I mean what made you change your mind? On Friday you were yelling at me not to believe everything I hear and you wouldn't believe me when I said Matt talked behind my back."

"That's because I didn't believe you back then. But then on Saturday, when we went to your guys' show…and I saw you singing…it was sort of like I woke up, you know? Like I realized what was going on. After we left, and I saw the way Matt acted and I realized how rude he was to Tuffy and to everyone I knew that you were right. And I hate myself because I doubted you because you've always been good at that kind of thing. And I've known you so much longer than Matt, I realized I should've believed you. Then yesterday when I saw how rude he was to Nat…I knew that Matt wasn't the guy I thought he was."

I didn't know what to say, so I stayed quiet.

"Alex, I'm so, so sorry for how I've treated you. You really have no idea how mad I am at myself for doing that."

I shrugged. "It's okay, it–"

"No," Juanita interrupted me. "It's not okay. It was never okay. You don't have to forgive me. In fact, I wouldn't blame you if you didn't."

"How could I not forgive you?" I gave her a goofy grin. "You're my best friend."

She hugged me tightly, which was something eight and nine year old me would've have practically died over. Now it was slightly awkward, but I didn't care. I patted her back lightly. She pulled back and smiled. "Thank you Alex. I really don't deserve as good of a friend as you."

"It wasn't really you causing all the problems. It was mostly Matt."

"Yeah, but I believed him. But I don't now and won't ever again."

"Thanks Juanita." I smiled. The nervous feeling in my stomach was gone, and I had a better feeling it would never come back. It was the first time in a long time that I would walk out of school completely content and happy. Now nothing could ruin this. Not even if Matt showed his face. Even Danny the backstabber wouldn't ruin this. Like I said, I wouldn't let them. I was going to start new and fresh. I wasn't going to let them ruin my eighth grade year any more than they already had. I had my best friend back, and that was really all I needed.

A/N-So...

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~NatalinaFanForever~