“Seth just told me that he wanted to break up,” Marnie explained to me, and she looked like she was about to burst into tears. “I don’t even know why! I thought things were going just fine… But then he said he wanted time apart, and there wasn’t anything I could do to change his mind!”

“That isn’t like Seth,” I sighed, rubbing my chin like I was some kind of detective. “He doesn’t do things without a reason. He told me that you two were growing apart, but you two seemed perfectly fine the last time I saw you guys together.”

“I thought we were fine!” Marnie cried, now scrubbing at her eyes. I hated seeing her this way. First River and me, and now Seth and Marnie? What was the world coming to? “I thought everything was going great between us, but obviously he didn’t feel the same!”

We were talking about Seth here! He didn’t just do stupid things for no reason. Why would he break up with Marnie? It definitely wasn’t because they were growing apart or anything.

Seth had risked his life and killed three men for this girl, and now he just broke up with her for no apparent reason? That was total bull. There had to be a reason that he wasn’t telling me.

“I’m sure you’ll get back together with him,” I told her, rubbing her shoulder lightly as she continued to cry. “This isn’t like Seth at all. He’s probably just going through some stupid phase, or a midlife crisis.”

“A midlife crisis is for an old man!” she sobbed, burying her face into my shoulder now.

Oh, this was going to be so difficult.

*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~*

I hated having to see River and Kendra walking hand-in-hand, or see them kissing or hugging. I hated seeing them together, period. It was so painful for me to see.

River’s roots were black, obviously because his hair was growing with its original color. As they were walking by me one day, I heard Kendra telling him that he had to dye it again, but he disagreed and said that for some reason he liked having black hair.

Yeah, he liked a lot more than just black hair.

I couldn’t wait until he was back to normal.

And I also hated that Kendra’s locker was almost exactly across from mine, so I had to see her meet up and kiss River before and after classes. She knew I was there, and she knew I was pissed off, but that didn’t stop her from kissing him any chance she got.

“Someone’s jealous,” someone teased from behind my locker door, and I moved it out of the way to see Seth smirking at me.

“Of course I’m jealous,” I grumbled taking a text book out of my locker now. “That’s my fiancé over there, not hers. She stole him.”

Seth frowned now. “I’m sure you’ll get him back.”

“I can only hope.”

When I saw Kendra stretch up on her toes to kiss River again, it took all my willpower not to cringe. She knew I was watching them, I was sure, and she just liked to torture me. The bitch…

When they finally pulled away from each other after they were done sucking face, I noticed River looking in Seth’s and my direction. Taking this to my advantage, I grabbed Seth by the collar of his shirt and pulled him in to kiss me. He was supposed to be my boyfriend, after all.

When I pulled away from him, he looked surprised for only a second. “It’s going to take some time getting used to that.”

I sighed. “Yeah, same with me.”

Internally, I grinned when I saw River was still looking at us as Kendra continued yapping away, as if he knew that something was right. The look in his eyes told me that he knew something was wrong, even though he didn’t know what.

This was totally working! River was getting jealous, I just knew it! I couldn’t believe that this was actually working!

But it was the same person in that body, even though it didn’t seem like he. He got easily jealous, and something would have to tell him that he didn’t like seeing me with other guys, even if he didn’t know why.

“He’s still looking. Kiss me again,” I demanded, grabbing onto his collar once more and pulling him in. His lips were so much softer than I had remembered them being, but it wasn’t like I was complaining or anything. It felt so good to kiss someone again, even if it wasn’t River.

When I pulled away from Seth again, I now noticed River scowling at us as Kendra continued going on and on about something he obviously didn’t care about. I couldn’t help but smirk this time, because I knew my plan was working. River was going to remember me sooner or later if I kept this act up.

“I’m not just a kissing machine, you know,” Seth informed me, feeling his lips with two of his fingers. “And you didn’t have to kiss me that hard.”

“Sorry,” I apologized, but I just couldn’t stop smiling. “I guess I just got excited.”

Seth rolled his eyes. “Obviously.”

He held out a hand for me to take, and I quickly laced my finger with his and we started off after I had closed my locker. We started walking past River, who was still scowling, and Kendra, who didn’t even seem to acknowledge us, when I realized I had forgotten a text book that I needed for homework.

“Oh, I forgot something in my locker,” I told him, pulling my hand away from his. It felt kind of cold without his around mine. “I’ll see you later, I guess.”

Seth nodded. “Okay.”

I fast-walked to my locker and quickly opened it, grabbing my book and slamming the door shut without a second thought. But unfortunately, I now saw that Jay Harris was now standing next to me.

“I want you to come to my birthday party,” he informed me.

“What makes you think I want to go to your stupid party?” I snapped, slamming my locker door shut as I tried to turn away from Jay. “It sounds pretty lame to me.”

“A Hollywood star’s party sounds lame?” Jay asked, a smirk obviously plastered onto his face. “Sure, whatever you say. I can tell you’re lying through your teeth.”

Maybe I was. But I didn’t want to go to Jay Harris’s stupid birthday party. I didn’t care if he was turning eighteen or not. I didn’t even know his birthday was in January.

“I’m not lying,” I denied, crossing my arms over my chest and cocking out a hip as I continued to glare at him. “I just don’t want to be anywhere near you or your family. Especially your slutty sister.”

“Look, I know Kendra’s a slutty whore,” Jay started, waving a hand in front of his face. My eyes widened just a little. Did he really just call his sister that? “But that doesn’t mean you should hate me.”

“I hate you because you tried to break River and me up,” I reminded him flatly, as if he had somehow forgotten. “You wanted me for yourself, remember?”

“I still want you for myself,” he informed me as he shoved his hands into his pockets. “And I’ll get you eventually, I assure you.”

Not if I could help it.

“Even when River lost his memory and we broke up, you still didn’t have a chance,” I began with a cold glare. “I’m going out with Seth now.”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Jay sang quietly with a shake of his head, his hands still stuffed deeply into his pockets. “You two always acted like brother and sister. And you seemed to get over River very quickly.”

“Well, I couldn’t wallow away in my own sadness,” I informed him with a shrug, now definitely lying through my teeth. There was no way I was ever going to get over River. “And Seth and I have always had a thing for each other, so it all worked out, I guess.”

“If you’re over River, then why do you still call my sister a slut?” Jay asked, a smirk growing onto his face once again. “If you’re over River, why are you still obviously mad about what my sister did?”

“Of course I’m still angry,” I snapped as I placed both of my hands on my hips. “Why wouldn’t I still be mad? What she did was absolutely ridiculous, low, and slutty. I’ll always hate her for what she did. She’s a whore.”

“I could have told you that from the beginning,” Jay sighed, now running a hand through his hair as the other one stayed in his pocket. “I already told you that she was planning on doing something like this from the beginning, but I agree with you. She’s always been a slut and what she did was really low. She took advantage of all of you when you were all vulnerable. But that’s the kind of person Kendra is.”

My jaw dropping, I stared at Jay for a few moments. He sounded so sincere as he was saying this; so truthful. It was kind of hard to believe that this was the same person who tried to break my fiancé and me up. How ironic it was that it turned out to be his sister that ended up splitting us up…

“Well, I’m still not going to your party,” I snapped suddenly, crossing my arms over my chest and sticking my nose up into the air. I wasn’t going to go to that stupid party of his, because I knew his dumb sister would be there and she would bring her puppet along with her.

“Come on, Delilah,” Jay grinned, taking a step closer to me, resulting in me taking a step back. “It’s a party! There’ll be dancing, drinking, and loads of other fun stuff.”

“I don’t drink,” I informed him, my nose wrinkling.

“You could start.”

“Goodbye,” I waved, turning on my heal and starting away from him before he could stop me. There was no way I was going to a party where the person I hated the most would be, especially if there was alcohol involved. I wasn’t about to drink.

But I sure hoped River didn’t drink. He had told me that his family had problems with alcohol, and I had seen it with his father… But I wouldn’t have really minded if he got drunk and beat Kendra up. That would just save me from having to do it.

As I walked into my dorm, I could see Alice passed out on her bed asleep. Letting out a sigh, I plopped down onto my bed and pulled out a book to read. I just needed some quiet alone time; I needed to think. I needed to think about how I was going to get River’s memory back.

It seemed impossible. It seemed like he actually wanted to be with Kendra now. And the longer I thought about it, the more it hurt. I wanted River back. I missed his touch and his embrace. I missed his smell and how he used to tell me he loved me at the most random times. I missed his laugh and his smile, and it had felt so long since I had heard and seen it last.

I missed my River. The River that was there now was a robot, a puppet. He wasn’t River anymore. It was like someone else was inside of River, controlling his body.

“Everything’s so unfair,” I whimpered, my voice cracking as tears blurred my vision. Not being able to make out any words on the page, I dropped the book to rest on my chest. “Why does everything bad happen to me and the people I love? It’s just not fair.”

By this time, tears were streaming down into my hair. I was so tired of crying, but that didn’t stop me from doing it anyway. “I’d deal with Mr. Higginson all over again if that only meant I’d be with River…”

“You don’t really mean that, do you?”

The voice caused me to jump, and my head snapped in the direction Alice was sleeping in. I looked over to see her sitting up, staring and smiling at me sadly.

“I do mean it,” I nodded, wiping my nose with the back of my hand as I sat up myself. “I’d go through everything all over again if it meant that River was going to be by my side. I just want River back.”

“Even though Seth broke up with Marnie for you?” Alice now asked with a smirk.

“What?” I blinked, my eyebrows furrowing in confusion. “What are you talking about? He didn’t break up with Marnie for me.”

Alice rolled her eyes at me, as if I was the stupidest person on the history of the planet, and I might as well have been. “You’re completely clueless.”

“You’re losing me.”

“Of course I am.”

“Alice!”

She rolled her eyes once again, crossing her legs as I did the same. “Isn’t it obvious that Seth is absolutely in love with you?”

Seth, in love with me? There was no way that that was possible. That was just Alice being crazy, like usual. There was no way there was any logic behind what she was saying.

“Seth is not in love with me,” I laughed, knowing that she was just kidding with me. “Seth loves Marnie! I know they broke up, but they’ve broken up before and they still loved each other. There’s no way Seth’s in love with me. That’s just impossible.”

Alice rolled her eyes for the umpteenth time. “You don’t notice the way he looks at you, do you?”

“He doesn’t look at me any different than he looks at you or Rex or River,” I sighed flatly, running a hand through my hair. I was kind of starting to get frustrated now…

“Uh-huh,” Alice shrugged, shaking her head with a small smirk on her face. Her face suddenly became serious as she continued. “Be honest with me, okay? Do you have any romantic feelings for Seth? Have you ever thought of him as more of a friend… ever?”

I had to sit and think about that question. Had I ever thought of Seth as more than a friend? Sure, Seth had had a crush on me before, but… did I ever like him that way?

Honestly, I didn’t even know.

“I don’t know,” I answered quietly, staring down at my lap. “I honestly don’t know.”

“Well, Delilah, I think you should give Seth a chance,” Alice informed me truthfully, a frown evident on her face. “I can tell he really wants one.”

“But… River,” was all I could say, not really knowing what I could say. Was I seriously considering giving Seth a chance? There was no way! Seth and I were best friends… Nothing more than that.

Right?

“Right now things don’t look good with River, Delilah,” Alice murmured, looking down at her lap. I could tell that she didn’t want to make me upset, but she had to tell me this anyway. “Right now it doesn’t seem like his memory is ever going to come back. And he’s not going to believe anything you say because he’s so tightly wrapped up in Kendra’s sob story.”

I didn’t want to hear these words. I was thinking them, but I didn’t want someone to say them out loud. I didn’t want to know that someone else thought that River’s memory was permanently lost. There had to be some way to get his memory back.

“I love River,” I mumbled, looking down at my lap as well. “I’ll always love River.”

Alice looked up at me, her eyes showing sadness for me. It was so hard to believe that she had been the girl who spit in my coffee the first time we met, the girl who was after Seth herself. “Sometimes we don’t end up with our first loves, Delilah.”

Something with the way she was saying this made me think that this had a double meaning, but I knew that right then wasn’t the time to pry. I was going to have to do that later.

But I didn’t want to think that way. I didn’t want to think about the fact that River and I had no chance of being together at that moment. We were meant to be, so it had to work out for us… right?

It felt like I could only hope at that point.

“I really think you should give Seth a chance,” Alice continued quietly. “You never know. You could feel the same way.”

I didn’t think I would ever be able to love someone like I loved River. I didn’t think I would be able to take rejection like this from anyone else. I wasn’t going to give up on River until the day he says “I do” to Kendra and not me.

But I wasn’t going to let that happen.

“Changing the subject,” I began with a sigh, not wanting to talk about River or Seth any longer. “Jay invited me to his stupid birthday party.”

“Really?” Alice asked, a grin now growing onto her face. “That’s so amazing! Are you going?”

“No way,” I snorted, shaking my head and lying back down onto my bed. “There’s no way I’d ever go to Jay Harris’s stupid birthday party.”

“Are you kidding me?” Alice exclaimed, her eyes going wide as she stared at me. “You have to go! And you have to bring Seth, Rex, and me! It’d be such an amazing opportunity!”

“It’d be stupid,” I retorted, really not in the mood to debate.

“You have to go!”

“I don’t want to go to some stupid party,” I told Alice truthfully, not even looking away from the book I was now reading, or trying to, as I continued to stay sprawled across my bed. “I’m not the partying type of person, especially after what’s been happening the last couple of weeks.”

“It’ll be fun,” Alice insisted, plopping down at the foot of my bed. “You’ll be able to forget about River for a night and just have fun! Why wouldn’t you want to go?”

“Because River and Kendra will probably go, too,” I sighed, still trying to focus on the stupid book. “And there’ll be alcohol there.”

“So?” Kendra continued on, her arms crossed over her chest. “If you don’t want to drink, you don’t have to drink. Maybe you should try something new! It really isn’t that bad. But if you don’t want to you don’t have to! It’ll just be a party! Come on, Delilah!”

“It’s Jay Harris’s birthday party,” I reminded her flatly, as if she didn’t know. “The brother of the bitch that stole my fiancé. I don’t want to be there and celebrate the day of his birth. It feels like we’d be celebrating the day of Kendra’s birth also, which I definitely wouldn’t be celebrating…”

“It wouldn’t be like that,” Alice blinked in confusion, but I didn’t’ feel like arguing with her about it. I just wanted to get away from this stupid conversation.

“But he invited you,” Alice continued on. “And he’s a famous person! You could get on the news, you know!”

“I don’t care if he’s famous, and I don’t want to get on the news,” I snapped, almost throwing that book at the wall now. “I’ve been on the news enough after what happened with Mr. Higginson and whatnot. I don’t need to be on the news for something else.”

“Oh, come on, Delilah,” Alice whined, tugging on my sleeve ever so slightly. “It’s going to be fun! Please!”

Before I could say anything to disagree with her, our dorm room burst open, my annoying blonde best friend being the cause of it. I glared at him, tempted to chuck the book I was holding at his head.

“Rex!” I shouted, ignoring when I saw Seth walking in behind him. “You can’t just barge into our room like that! What if we were changing?”

Rex grinned. “Then that would be hot.”

I couldn’t help myself now. I gripped the book tightly before throwing it at him as hard as I could, but all he did was dodge it and let it ram into the wall. I couldn’t see from where I was sitting, so I could have only hoped that it didn’t leave a mark.

“What do you want?” I demanded, crossing my arms over my chest and ignoring Seth’s gaze. After what Alice had said, I felt incredibly uncomfortable around him. Obviously noticing this, Alice smirked at me. “We were actually kind of busy.”

“This,” Rex started, flailing his arms around in the air a few times before shoving something into my face. “Explain yourself, young lady!”

“You’re not my father,” I snapped, snatching whatever he was holding so I could put it at a proximity in which I could see it better. My eyes widened when I saw what it was.

“What the hell is this?” I demanded, looking up at Rex.

“That was exactly my question,” Seth said from behind him, but I didn’t dare look at him. Seth had to have broken up with Marnie for a reason… Was that reason me? No, no… It couldn’t have been. But I still couldn’t look over at him, because my cheeks would have burned red if I did.

What I was staring down at shocked me so much that I couldn’t stop staring at it. I wanted to throw it against the wall, but I knew that there wouldn’t be any harm done to the flimsy magazine.

“There’s nothing going out between Jay and me,” I defended, glaring down at the magazine cover that had both Jay and me sitting on a park bench. I remembered when we were there, and how we had gotten swarmed by paparazzi. That felt so long ago… It was before River had lost his memory.

“Then why does it say it in the magazines?” Rex asked, grabbing it from me and flipping through it. “There’s a whole article about how you two were talking with each other and everything on a bench and how lovey-dovey you look! That definitely means there’s something going on! And it says the date that the pictures were taken, and it was early November! Before River lost his memory!”

“That magazine is full of lies, Rex,” I snapped, grabbing it back from him now. “I don’t have any type of relationship with Jay. I hate him. I hate him and his sister. And that’s why I’m not going to his party.”

I looked over at Alice as I said the last bit, and she crossed her arms over her chest and pouted. I knew she only wanted me to go so she could, but there was no way I was going to go to that stupid asshole’s birthday party. Not even if River still had his memory.

“Party?” Rex asked now. “What party?”

“Jay invited Delilah to his birthday party,” Alice explained, turning to them and away from me. “But she refuses to go! Isn’t that ridiculous?”

“You’re going,” Rex told me, now turning toward me with a wide grin on his face. “You’re going so all of us can go along with you!”

“I don’t want to go,” I deadpanned, placing my hands on my hips. “River and Kendra are going to be there. Knowing me, I’m going to be beating Kendra to the beat of the music.”

“That would be a sight to see,” Seth commented from across the room, but I still didn’t look at him. I could tell that he knew that something was up, but I wasn’t going to say anything.

“Please, Delilah?” Rex begged, now dropping to his knees in front of me. That was sure odd, even for Rex. “I want to go to a Hollywood star’s party! I want to go really bad, but there’s no way he’d invite me! You’d be able to bring all three of us! Please!”

Why did Rex and Alice want to go so badly? I knew that Seth didn’t care since he wasn’t begging, but why did Rex and Alice care so much? They knew Jay was a total asshole, so why would they want to go to a party that celebrated the day he was born?

Alice was now on her knees as well, her fingers laced together under her chin. “Please!” she begged, Rex doing the same as her. Why did I have to have such weird friends?

“Enough,” Seth snapped over from the wall, but I still didn’t look over. “Isn’t it obvious she doesn’t want to go? Obviously she doesn’t get along with the jackass, and she obviously doesn’t want to see Kendra and River together anymore than she already has to. Just shut up and drop it.”

“Someone’s grumpy that Jay Harris was in a romantic picture with Delilah and he wasn’t,” Rex teased, and I now only glanced over at Seth to see his eyes fiery with anger.

Whoa.

I didn’t want to admit it, but maybe Alice was right…

I didn’t want her to be, but all signs were pointing to that she was.

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