My dearest Delilah,

It’s so strange, what with you and River being back together and everything. But if I have things go my way, and I’m intended on it happening, everything will be even better than it is now.

                                                                                         It’s What You Do to Me, Delilah

I glowered down at the note I held in my hand, not knowing what else I was supposed to do. I was way too used to getting notes like this, and I seemed to be more angry than scared. I just couldn’t wait until all this ridiculous crap passed and I was finally just left alone.

Walking through the hallways by myself to River’s dorm room, I clutched the note tight into my fist. Since River knew now, I knew that he was expecting me to tell him whenever I got a note. Since I couldn’t tell Seth anymore… I hadn’t even spoken to him since what happened when River got his memory back, and that had been weeks before.

“It’s been a while since we talked,” a voice said from behind me as I passed by Headmistress Pease’s office, and I jumped in surprise at the sound of it. I let out a long sigh when I saw that it was only Gabe, and I then remembered that he was supposed to be coming to visit me that day.

“Yeah, well… I’ve been kind of busy,” I sighed, rubbing at my eyes after I shoved the stupid note into my back pocket. “River got his memory back and we’re back together now. But Seth…”

“You’re back together?” Gabe asked before I could finish, his eyes going wide as we stood in the main hall of the school. “How did you manage to do it so quickly?”

“I wouldn’t say it was that quick,” I grumbled, crossing my arms over my chest and cocking out my hip. “It took months to get his memory back. Five months, to be exact.”

“And Seth?” Gabe inquired now, an eyebrow rising on his forehead. “I take that you guys broke up then.”

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, you could say that we did… If we were even going out in the first place.”

“Are you alright?” he asked again, taking a step closer to me now. I took a half step away, and I hoped that he didn’t notice. “You’re really stiff.”

“Have you been sending me notes again?” I blurted, quickly biting my lip after I had done so. Why did I just ask him that? Of course it wasn’t Gabe! Gabe was… Gabe! Yeah, he sent me all those fake notes before, but that was before he was my friend and when Arianna was paying him to do it.

“What are you talking about?” he asked, his eyebrows furrowing in confusion. “Why would you think I’m sending you notes again?”

Because I’m paranoid, I wanted to tell him, but I didn’t dare do so. I knew that it wasn’t Gabe who was sending me notes, but I just had to make sure. I was starting to get seriously freaked out now. Who would keep a prank on for this long? Gabe kept it on for a while, but only because Arianna kept on bugging him…

“Um, I guess I just found one of the old notes you sent me lying around,” I rambled on quickly, trying my best to come up with an excuse. “I guess it fell out of the box with all the other old notes.”

Gabe’s eyes widened in shock. “You kept them?

Ah, crap.

There goes not telling anybody that.

“Um… yeah?” I answered, but it sounded a lot more like a question than an answer. “But don’t tell anyone, alright? I don’t want anyone knowing.”

“Why did you keep them?”

“I don’t know,” I shrugged, exasperated now. “After what happened, I don’t think I’m exactly the sanest person on the planet. Why wouldn’t I keep the notes? They’re an important part of my life, even though they’re also a part of something bad. I just thought that it wouldn’t make any difference if I kept them. Maybe I wanted to look back at them and have a good laugh at Mr. Higginson after I’m married to River and he’s still rotting in jail!”

By the time I was finished, I was out of breath and could barely breathe. I had no idea why I was ranting, but it felt good to let all of that finally out. Even though I wished that I had said it to River, it was good to finally say the words that I had been thinking.

“Don’t get offended, but I don’t think you’re very sane right now,” Gabe informed me, and I unfortunately didn’t disagree with him. It wasn’t like I was Kendra or Mr. Higginson crazy, but I definitely wasn’t normal anymore. Though it was rare, I would still see Mr. Higginson once in a while when I went out to the park or to the mall with Alice. I wouldn’t make as big of a scene as I did in the past, and I didn’t even tell anyone that I still saw him, but it was still scary. I hadn’t even talked to my therapist in forever because everyone thought I was fine.

I practically went crazy the year before with Mr. Higginson, and I didn’t want it happening again. But it sure seemed like it was going in that direction…

“I have to go see River,” I excused quickly, practically sprinting passed him and toward the direction of River’s dorm. “Go visit Seth and Rex or someone! I’ll see you later!”

Gabe either hadn’t said anything for a goodbye, or I just didn’t hear him. I didn’t really care very much as I continued my way to River’s dorm. When I knocked on the door, I was greeted by a bright and grinning face.

“Delilah!” Mountain smiled, and I just greeted him with a small smile. “I haven’t seen you in forever! Did you and River get back together?”

We had been back together for a few weeks, and he didn’t even know that? He was sure slow… But it was to be expected with Mountain, I guess…

“Yeah,” I answered with a nod, waiting for him to either move out of the way or leave. “We’re back together.”

“Well, I was just leaving,” Mountain informed me with another grin. “I’ll give you some alone time.”

I smiled at him now, a genuine smile. When he finally left, I stepped inside and closed the door being me. River was splayed out over the couch, flipping through channels. When he saw me, he tossed the remote onto the coffee table and jumped up, wrapping me in his arms immediately.

“I think you’re going to get tired of holding me sooner or later,” I smiled, petting his hair like he was a dog as he nuzzled his face into my neck.

“Never,” he countered, still not removing his face.

I pulled the note out of my pocket, shoving it into his hand without a word. He pulled away from me slightly, bringing the note up to his face so he could read it. As he read it, his eyebrows furrowed and his eyes narrowed at it. I knew his anger was boiling, but he tried his best to calm down.

“I just got it,” I told him before he could even ask. “It was in my locker.”

River sighed, slipping the note into my back pocket. “I hate that there’s nothing I can do for you, Delilah,” he told me with another long sigh. “I can’t protect you.”

“Yes you can,” I smiled, brushing my lips against his for only a second. “You can protect me when the time comes. There’s nothing we can do now. All we can do is sit here and wait. That’s what we had to do with Mr. Higginson a year ago. We’re just going to have to wait.”

“Well, I’m impatient,” River grumbled, bringing me down onto the couch with him. “So let’s watch a movie for now.”

I smiled at him. “Alright.”

River motioned toward the TV. “Your pick.”

I grabbed a random movie before walking over to River and grabbing onto his hand. I pulled him up and off the couch, pulling him toward the door. “Let’s go watch it back in my dorm. Alice has some after school class, so she won’t be there for a while. And who knows when Mountain’s going to be back?”

River grinned at me. “Good idea.”

When we got to my dorm, I put on the movie and we both plopped down onto my couch.

As the movie began, I couldn’t help but think about Seth. Was he angry at me? I wanted to know. Did he hate me? I wanted to know that more. If he really did love me, I didn’t think that he could have hated me, but I didn’t know for sure… I did break his heart.

“Do you think Seth’s angry?” I couldn’t help ask River as the movie that we had been watching ended. “I mean… I chose you over him. I even told him that. I know he acted like a jerk and everything a few hours ago, but… He’s still our friend, River.”

“Not anymore,” River argued, shaking his head and shutting the TV off. “At least not to me. You can be his friend all you want, but I won’t be that happy about it. I’ll always be worrying that you’re off with him or something.”

“That won’t happen ever again,” I assured him, running my fingers through his hair. I was so glad that it was black again… “I promise you that. I’ve already hurt you enough.”

“I think I’m the one that’s hurt you enough,” River sighed, moving into my touch a little more. I loved it when he did that. “I don’t think I’ll ever be able to make everything up to you. If it wasn’t for me, you never would have went off to Seth.”

“No,” I disagreed, shaking my head at him now as placed both of my hands on either side of his face. “If it wasn’t for Kendra I wouldn’t have gone off to Seth. It isn’t your fault, River. It’s not your fault that we got in a car accident, and it’s not your fault that you lost your memory. Kendra fed you false information, and you fell for it. It isn’t your fault at all.”

River looked like he didn’t agree with me, but he didn’t say anything more. He let out a breath as he leaned forward, resting his head on my shoulder with his lips pressed against the nape of my neck. I wrapped my arms around his neck, both of us just sitting there for the longest time.

“I missed you so much,” he breathed, his breath tickling my neck. “Every time you did something to try to get my memory back, I could tell that I knew you somehow. I wanted to get away from Kendra as quickly as I could and just grab you or something…”

“I wish you did,” I whispered, tears brimming at the edge of my eyes for some reason. “I wish we didn’t have to go through this. I missed you, too.”

River raised his head, bringing his lips to mine in a long kiss that I wished would have lasted forever. Months had been wasted, and we could never get them back. Sure, we had the rest of our lives ahead of us, but that wouldn’t make us forget what had happened.

“Adulterers!” Rex shouted when he suddenly burst through the door, but I didn’t jump like I usual did. I just turned toward him and gave him the nastiest glare I could muster, but this only caused him to burst out laughing.

“We’re not adulterers,” I scowled at him, and I felt like smacking him over the head for calling us that. “Neither of us are married, moron.”

“But still!” he cried out, plopping down on the couch next to us. “Poor Seth is bawling his eyes out back at our dorm!”

My eyes widened in shock. “What? Are you kidding me? You can’t be serious!”

Rex burst out laughing, and I found myself glaring at him once again. Was he just joking around? That wasn’t funny! If Seth was really crying, I would have felt even more horrible!

“Nah, he’s not crying,” Rex snorted, and I slapped him in the shoulder as hard as I possibly could. This did nothing to him, and he only continued grinning like the idiot he was. “I just wanted to see what your reaction would have been if you found out that he was crying.”

“Idiot,” I grumbled, crossing my arms over my chest and turning away from him. “I actually thought he was crying! You made me feel even worse, you idiot!”

“He is upset,” Rex mentioned, poking me in the shoulder lightly. “He wouldn’t even insult me like he usually does when I make stupid remarks. He just looked at me with this depressed look on his face and collapsed onto his bed. Whatever you did really beat him up.”

“Oh, no,” I groaned, running my hands over my face a few times. I was such an idiot! All I did was lead Seth on… I was never really in love with him. I just thought that I was! And all because I missed River… I didn’t think I was that stupid. “What am I going to do?”

“I’m sure he’ll get over it eventually,” Rex continued on, cutting River off before he could answer me. “He got over Marnie, didn’t he? Well… he never did get over Marnie. But he got out of the whole depressing stage!”

That didn’t make me feel any better. Seth was one of my best friends, and I had probably lost him forever. And all because I was stupid and lonely…

And because I was drunk.

Damn alcohol.

“This is making my head hurt,” I groaned once again, rubbing circles into my forehead slowly. “I don’t know what I’m going to do about Seth. I want to do something, but I just can’t think of anything right now. What am I supposed to do? I can’t just leave him all depressed!”

“Forget about it for now,” River told me, massaging my shoulders soothingly from behind me. “You don’t need any more stress. You have to worry about the notes right now, so I don’t want you going overboard thinking about what you’re supposed to do with Seth.”

“Notes?” Rex asked, his eyebrows furrowing as my eyes went wide. “What notes?”

River blinked at me, dropping his hands from my shoulders. “I assumed he knew.”

“Only Seth knew.”

“Of course.”

I rolled my eyes at him, punching him in the shoulder lightly. He grinned at me, rolling his eyes as well before the both of us turned back toward Rex.

“I guess I can tell you,” I shrugged, cupping my elbow as I adjusted myself on the couch. “I’m getting notes again.”

Rex’s eyes went wide, and I knew he was trying to get all of this through his supposed pea-shaped brain. It wasn’t even that hard to think about… I was getting notes again. It was as simple as that. But Rex was Rex, after all, and nothing was simple with him.

“What?” he cried out, suddenly wrapping his arms around my shoulders and practically pushing me down onto the couch, almost crushing River in the process. “Deli Sandwich! Deli Sandwich! How could you not tell me? I feel so betrayed! Why didn’t you tell me? I’ll protect you! Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because I knew you would react like this!” I shouted, flapping my arms around as I tried to get free from his grasp. River clutched onto Rex’s shirt, forcing him up and off me and the couch.

“Dude, she doesn’t need you crushing her,” River snapped, his eyebrows furrowed as he let go of the back of River’s shirt. “Yeah, she’s been getting notes.”

“Deli Sandwich!” Rex started again, but River grabbed onto his shirt once again when he came at me. “I’ll do everything I can to help you, Deli Sandwich!”

I knew he was trying to help, and I definitely did need it. Seth, River, and Rex all fought Mr. Higginson the year before and saved me from him… But was it going to go just like that all over again? Was I going to be hunted down and almost killed? I highly doubted Seth would come to my rescue this time…

“Thanks, Rex,” I smiled sincerely, honestly happy that he was offering to protect me. I was so glad that I had friends that would do this for me… But that also made me feel worse because it reminded me of how I had lost one of my friends because I acted stupid.

I didn’t even think about how Marnie was feeling either. Did she still consider me a friend? I hadn’t talked to her since I asked her why Seth had broken up with her. I highly doubted that she knew anything about Seth or me, but… it was always a possibility.

“No problem, Deli Sandwich!” Rex chuckled, a wide grin spreading on his face. “And oh, yeah! Did you get the dress for the wedding?”

I blinked. What was he talking about? River and I weren’t getting married until the end of the school year… What month was it again? There was no way we were that close to graduation… Time doesn’t go by that quickly!

“Dress? What are you talking about?” I asked, my eyebrows furrowing in confusion. “It’s like… April, isn’t it? River and I aren’t getting married until June, you idiot. I still have two months.”

Rex rolled his eyes, as if I was the idiot. “No, not your wedding dress. Just a normal dress for a wedding! Don’t you remember? Ms. Vierra and Mr. Ridgeway are getting married this weekend!”

My eyes widened as I stared at Rex in shock. That was this weekend? Had I really gotten that caught up in everything with River and Seth that I didn’t even remember about their wedding? Wow, I was so unbelievable! I didn’t know I was that selfish…

“Is it Saturday or Sunday?” I asked him, freaking out inside my head as I scrambled over to my closet in search of a dress. If it was Thursday that day, then that meant I’d have some time to buy a dress if I didn’t have one in my closet…

“Saturday,” he answered, and I barely heard him because I had already starting throwing my dresses out of the closet and at him, and some of them had already covered his face. “It’s on Saturday.”

“Is this good?” I asked, spinning around with a light blue dress draped over me. “I don’t think I’ll have enough time to go out and buy a dress, so would this one be good for a wedding?”

“It’s fine,” Rex grinned, and River nodded his head in approval. I knew that even if I had picked out a disgustingly ugly dress, they would have said that it was fine as well. They were guys, so I knew that they didn’t care about dresses. But it didn’t bother me very much, since I thought the dress was great.

I couldn’t believe that Mr. Ridgeway and Ms. Vierra were actually finally getting married. It had only been a year since they had gotten engaged… But then again, River and I were going to get married a year after we had gotten engaged. And I couldn’t wait for that…

“Do you guys have things to where?” I asked, tucking the blue dress back into my closet. “I’m hoping that you’ll where something at least halfway decent, Rex.”

“Hey, I will!” Rex defended, trying his best to look offended. I knew that he didn’t really care about what I had said at all, and I couldn’t help but grin at him. “It’s my two favorite teachers’ wedding! Of course I’ll wear something halfway decent!”

I rolled my eyes at him, turning toward River now. “What about you?”

“I’ll find something,” he shrugged, and I didn’t press on. I knew he would find something, since he was River and everything. It wasn’t like he was Rex or anything…

“And what about… Seth?” I couldn’t help but ask, biting the inside of my lip. I didn’t want to ask about him, but of course I did so anyway. I wanted to know what was going on with him…

“Seth’s not going,” Rex informed me with a shrug, now creepily going through all of my dresses. “He didn’t tell me the reason why, but I’m sure I already know what it is. I don’t think he’s going because of you, Delilah.”

“No freaking duh,” I practically growled, grabbing the orange dress he was fingering and throwing it back into the closet. “This is so stupid. I can’t believe I did this. Of course he’s not going to go to the wedding because of me. I’m so stupid…”

“Oh, cheer up, Deli Sandwich!” Rex laughed, suddenly attacking me by tickling me all over the place. “You shouldn’t be upset!”

Even though I didn’t want to, I couldn’t help but laugh. Rex knew I was ticklish, since he tickled me back at Bentwood before, and River was the only one that was in the room besides us, just like it was now. I got such a strange déjà vu feeling, but I still kept on laughing as Rex continued to tickle me.

When the door burst open, Rex still didn’t stop. I was almost out of breath now and he had now pinned me to the couch as he continued to attack me with his fingers, as I he didn’t even notice that the door had opened. I tried hitting him to get him off of me, but it was to no use.

“Delilah!” a very panicked voice shouted, causing me to hit Rex hard enough to get him to fall off me. “Delilah! Delilah!”

I looked over at Alice, who had a very worried look plastered onto her face. What was she doing here? She was supposed to be doing some type of work for her one of her classes, and she said she wasn’t going to be back at the dorm until later that day. So what was she doing there now?

“Yeah?” I asked her, a slight smile still evident on my face. Though my sides hurt, I couldn’t help but smile. Rex could always get me into a good mood, no matter what was happening.

“I’m going to tell you something, and you have to promise not to freak out,” Alice told me, sounding as if she had run all the way here, and I was sure that she did. “You can’t freak out, Delilah.”

I blinked at her, my eyebrows furrowing. Sure, I was still smiling like a complete and total idiot, but I still couldn’t help but be confused. What was worrying her so much?

“I was watching the news with a bunch of other students in our study group just now,” Alice gulped, as if she was trying to get her breath under control. “We were supposed to be studying something about the channel, but what they were talking about caught my attention and I ran out without even telling my group why.”

“Okay…” I nodded, waiting for her to continue on. What was she talking about? She was really starting to freak out now… “What’s wrong, Alice? Is it something with your dad?”

She shook her head at me, looking like she was getting even more worried by the second. Rex was by her side in the next second, and I was now standing up from the couch and next to River. If it wasn’t about her dad, then who was it about?

She looked at me with wide eyes, and then uttered something that sure made any trace of the smile that was once adorning my lips erase completely from my face.

“John Higginson broke out of jail!"

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