Abby goes back to her Mountaineer and sees the door to the shop is still open, she looks at the keys in her hand and walks slowly to the door. She takes a breath and walks on in, its hers now for a year.

She stares at the piles of full garbage bags and all the old newspapers. Glancing at the date on the paper on the counter closest to the door makes her stop in her tracks, October 12, 2000.

She reaches out for the paper and unfolds it on the counter, looking at the headlines.

Local politician basically caught with his pants down. McKinley High lost their opening game. The county Fire Department get a new fire truck. The Fall Festival is announced for the first week in November.

She notices the water droplets on the newspaper and realizes she is crying, again. She crumples up the paper and slings it across the room.

(Abby thinking to herself, I hope that it makes sense cause I am writing it as I see it and hear it)

I remember the game and how upset Jeff was that they lost. We went back to his parents house and I let him take out his frustrations on me. I loved him and I loved the way he made me feel when he touched me. I thought we were so in love at the time.

The Fall Festival was wonderful, we won King and Queen. What else was suppose to happen, we were the head cheerleader and the quarterback in our senior year of high school. I remember feeling so proud that we had made it.

Two weeks later my world came crashing down around me. My life was destroyed with one conversation, and with the help of their manipulation and lies.

I had no one to talk to, to confide in, to tell them what my side of the story. The looks, the stares, the whispers….

When they were done with my life all I could do was run away, far away.

Why? Why couldn't someone just be my friend, my friend?

Now I am back to the this place that some call home and I call hell, to find myself. I have to be free from the demons and the ghosts that haunt my dreams.

I have to do this, I have to be strong and not let them win again.

She walks out into the cold brisk evening air and locks the shop door. Walking to her SUV, she turns to look in the direction of Tom's office.

She is tempted to go back there and hand him the keys and tell him the deal is off.

Instead, she looks around the town square and with her head held high yells, "Lima, give me your best shot, cause the whore is home!"

She notices the looks from people walking on the street, she just smiles and waves at them. Now she just has more thing to do while it is still daylight before she can call it a day, go home.

Getting in the SUV she drives to what a lifetime ago was her safe haven, her childhood home.

Tom's POV

I can hope that I did the right thing, getting her to stay here in the place that destroyed her life.

I know what we all did to her and I have always regretted my part in it. I knew that she wasn't the type of girl my parents portrayed her as, she loved my brother. I saw that every time she looked at him.

All my parents saw was a girl after their golden boy son. He was the quarterback, the big man at school. He was up for scholarships at several prestigious colleges, unlike me who chose a local community college.

My brother gave them the social status that my mother craved and my father wanted her happy so when she set out to destroy Abby we all helped her.

I never knew that my mother was such a vicious woman, the lies, the gossip she started everywhere about Abby was devastating to Abby's family. She made sure that the source of the lies never came back to her, until it was too late for an innocent girl.

The lies were convincing enough that her own family didn't believe her. Abby didn't have one single friend in this hellhole for a town. The only time anyone talked to her was to learn some sordid detail to spread around town.

Noah Puckerman is in the same place that Abby was ten years ago and still is stuck there. God, I can only hope that I am doing the right thing. Who knows maybe they can help each other heal.

Tom picks up the folder with Puck's name on it and looks for his home phone number, finding it he dials the number.

(I am doing this dialogue one sided, I think Tom's reactions will tell Mrs. Puckerman's answers. )

Mrs. Puckerman, this is Tom Watson Noah's probation officer.

No he's not in any more trouble, I need to talk with him though is he home?

What the hell is up with his mother, she sounds like she expects or maybe wants him to go back to Juvie…

Oh okay, could you give him a message for me?

Its not like I am asking for you to take a bullet for him, cause I really don't think you would…

Tell him I will be by tomorrow around four to pick him for a job interview. He needs to wear something nice.

She is some piece of work….

I am sorry that it is an inconvenience for you to have to find a sitter for your daughter, but it is part of his probation agreement to pay for the damages he caused to the store.

Damn…No one wonder the kid is screwed up, she expects him to be the fall guy for her..

Just make sure he is ready when I get there Mrs. Puckerman.

God, I had to hang up on her….This is about her son for pete's sake, not her…Fucking bitch from hell….

Tom picks up the receiver once again to set up the meeting between Abby and Noah, he takes a deep breath as he dials her cell phone number and prays.

Abby pulls up to her parents home and just sits there for a minute before she turns the key off. Even in the daylight it is still scary for her to be there.

She feels her body shaking as she reaches for the door handle and says a small prayer to help her open her heart and her mind, to be able to forgive.

She looks at yard remembering the way her mother loved her flower beds and rose gardens. The smells that the summer winds would blow through the house, closing her eyes she could still smell them. She can still see her mother pulling weeds and smiling at her. The tears slip down her cheeks.

She opens her eyes and wipes away the tears taking a step towards the house. She follows the stone pathway her father, after much persuasion, laid for her mother. Her mother saw it on a gardening show and wanted to spruce up the place.

Abby makes it to the front porch, she feels her chest tighten, she feels like she is going to pass out. She sits on the stoop, trying to collect herself and her thoughts.

"Oh God I think I am going to throw up", she thinks as her stomach starts rolling. She starts breathing deeply trying to sooth the knot that is so tight in her stomach. After a couple of minutes she stands and walks to the front door, key in hand she unlocks the door.

She steps into a time warp, the house looks the same as it did when she left ten years ago. The kitchen is still the same wall paper and all, flowers and tea pots. She opens the curtains over the sink, letting in much needed sunlight into the room.

Abby's POV

From the kitchen on….

Mom's kitchen, her favorite room of the whole house. She always said it was the first and last place the family was together each day. She was right, breakfast and dinner were the two meals we could not miss.

I can still see her hovering over the stove top asking me or Dad to taste her new recipe from some cooking show she watched over the weekend.

I walk to the dinning room, the only time we used that room was for holidays or special occasions. Mom's china still sets in the cabinet Dad made for her, she was so proud of that piece of furniture.

I open the double window to let in the sun and air.

I walk to the stone fireplace in the living room, I can still smell oak and hickory in the air around it. Dad always built Mom a fire in the winter, she said it helped her to relax after work. I always thought it was a special thing just for them.

I open the windows that line the east wall of the room, Mom loved the sunlight but not when her favorite soap was on, then it was pain in her ass.

I run my hands along the bookcases that line the walls. My Dad made these too, but for me. He wanted me to fill all the shelves with books that I had read and I made it more than half way.

I walk to their bedroom in the back of the house. The door is shut and I feel like a monster is waiting for me behind it. I find I can barely breath as I turn the door knob and open the door.

I see their four poster bed and the handmade quilt that lays across it. My mother made it after they were married and living on their own. I let my fingers slide across the fabric and look around.

I see her vanity where I used to play dress up when I was little. I see my fathers wardrobe where I would hide from him when I was bad.

I cant stay in the room, the memories are too much.

I walk up the stairs to my old room. I close my eyes as I open the door. I expect to see it destroyed, to be barren,. But it isn't only the posters are gone from the walls.

I enter the room and walk to my old closet and find that even the clothes I didn't take with me are still there.

I cant believe that they didn't erase me, didn't get rid of my things.

I run back down the stairs and out the front door, I cant take anymore of the memories, the pain that is tearing my heart apart.

I am sitting back in my SUV when I see the light on my blackberry is blinking, I push the screen to see what I missed, text or call. I see a local number as a missed call and I have a new voice mail.

I call my voice mail to listen to the message, it is from Tom, he wants to meet tomorrow around four in the afternoon.

I scroll down the screen to the missed call number and push send, knowing that what happens next is all on me.

He answers on the second ring, I let him know that four is fine and I will be at my parents old house. He thanks me and I push the end button.

I look at the house and know that it is going to take more than just cleaning for me to be able to stay there, so I head back to the hotel for the night.

Pipedreams by Mark Salling

But there is a bottle I drink

That makes me feel fine

And I am watching my life pass by