I.

"May I come in? I heard that Ronald was sick so I brought him some soup."

"Yes, you can come in. Ronald's here, he's just asleep in the bed room." Bonnie answered after seeing the look of confusion on Tara's face.

Nodding her head in semi understanding, Tara walked towards the kitchen and placed the soup on the table as she tried to collect her thoughts and organize her questions in to some sort of coherent order. Seeing Bonnie after all these years and then finding her staying at Ronald's apartment of all places had been quite surprise, almost as surprising as what happened next. Tara turned around and was about to ask the first of about two hundred questions that were running through her head when she suddenly found her self being embraced by a softly crying Bonnie.

"Bonnie, are you ok?" A confused and concerned Tara asked.

"I'm sorry Tara. I'm sorry for the way I treated you in the past. I didn't deserve a friend as good as you." Bonnie mumbled between soft sobs.

"It's, its ok Bonnie," a still confused Tara said as she wrapped her arms around Bonnie to return the embrace, "I know you where having a rough time of it in high school."

"Yeah, but I still should have treated you better. You kept my secrets and were there for me when others would have laughed at me. You actually cared about me when no one else did."

Tara gently pushed Bonnie back until the tear streaked face of the brunette stood arms length from the blonde's. Tara had never see Bonnie like this before, the Bonnie she knew had always been strong and confident, and had usually hidden her emotions. The Bonnie before her now was humble, meek, and has not hiding behind any sort of mask. Tara was about to ask Bonnie about her life, how she had come to the place in her life that she was now at when the sound of a large sneeze caught both girls off guard.

"Excuse me." Ronald said meekly with a soft smile as he stood in the door way to his bedroom, "But I thought I heard a familiar voice in here."

Bonnie, whose back was still toward Ronald, lifted her tear streaked face till her eyes were level with Tara's and for just a second Tara saw the conflict in Bonnie's eyes as the brunette attempted to decide whether or not to turn and face Ronald.

"Here Ronald, I brought you some soup." Tara said.

"And I'll serve you some, when you get back in to bed." Bonnie said firmly as she turned to face Ronald. The confidence in her voice was in direct contrast to the how vulnerable her tear streaked face made her appear. The fact that Bonnie was willing to show this side of herself to Ronald spoke volumes to Tara about how much Bonnie had changed, and how little Tara knew about this "new" Bonnie.

"I'll go back to bed if you promise to clean yourself up first." Ronald countered, "Then you two can catch up on things."

"You need to rest Ronald, I'll catch up with Bonnie later." Tara suggested.

"No! Don't leave, I haven't finished saying I'm sorry yet." Bonnie pleaded.

"Bonnie its ok; I forgive you."

"No, I need to finish. I can't let things go unfinished again."

Neither Ronald nor Tara knew what she was talking about but from the way Bonnie was becoming more and more agitated they decided it was probably best to let Bonnie say her piece.

II.

After serving up a steaming bowl of Tara's soup for Ronald, the three former cheerleaders retired to the bedroom. Making sure Ronald was seated comfortably, Tara sat on the foot of the bed that was opposite from Bonnie and settled in to hear her friend's tale.

First looking at Tara, and then Ronald, whose slight nod of encouragement she was happy to receive, Bonnie sat down to tell her story.

"You both know how my parents got a divorce in my junior year of high school and how ugly it got between them. My father basically turned his back on my mother and me when he left along with my sisters. At first this seemed like a good thing, there was peace at home with out my parents fighting anymore and with my nagging hypercritical sisters gone it was a lot quieter. But then I found out that my father had stolen all of the money that had been set aside in my college fund. My mom had to spend a lot of her own money on court costs and keeping a roof over our heads, so if any one was going to rebuild my college fund it was going to have to be me. During our senior year I started trying to work as a model, and it paid pretty decent, better than working at Bueno Nacho, when I could get a photo shoot. I spent a lot of time just sitting around waiting and waiting for someone to come and take a look at me, decide I was the right look, and say they wanted to use me in a photo shot."

"It sounds like you were off to a good start." Ronald offered, but Bonnie's cynical laugh removed that idea from his head.

"Like you Ronald I was pretty naïve when it came to the modeling business. I thought I would just walk in there with my good looks and they would all be tripping over themselves to sign me up as the next big model. I learned a few things that first week. One, there are a lot more beautiful women out there than I thought and a lot of them are really cut throat. The second was that you have to start at the bottom and work your way up, I started out doing a lot of photo shots for clothing apparel where you might just see my hand or arm or leg, but nothing that would stand out as Bonnie Rockwaller. To work my way up I had to invest more and more time at the talent agency getting any photo shot I could. That's why I dropped out of the cheer team that year; I just didn't have enough time for both."

"We really did miss you when you left Bonnie." Tara said as she placed her hand on to Bonnie's shoulder.

"Yeah, even Kim had to admit that we were better with you than with out." Ronald added.

"I know, she asked me several times to come back to the team. I hated the fact that I couldn't and I took it out on Kim. You saw some of the cat fights we had that year Ronald, it wasn't pretty but it did give me a chance to vent some of my frustration."

"That's ok Bonnie, I think if Kim knew your reasons she would have understood."

"I'm glad she would have, my mom never did."

"Huh?"

Bonnie sighed deeply and debated if she wanted to continue or not. However, a reassuring squeeze of her hand by Tara caused Bonnie to find the confidence to continue.

"After I had quite the cheer team I was able to spend more time at the talent agency looking for work. At first things didn't work out to well but then I was approached by a couple of men who said that I was just what they were looking for, a fresh young face for their magazine, all I had to do was pose in a bikini and they would pay me nicely. I figured a bikini photo shot wouldn't be to bad, it's not like people haven't seen me in a bikini before, but it was the last picture that went too far."

Ronald's look of confusion completely contrasted with Tara's shaking head as if she knew the rest of the story. After several minutes of silence he finally asked Bonnie to continue.

"The last picture was of me topless. Well not really topless, I covered my breasts with my arms, but I dangled my bikini top in one of my hands in as if I had just taken it off, I guess the playful way I winked said it all. I got paid pretty well, but then a month later that photo shot came back to haunt me. The pictures ended up in a gentleman's magazine that one of my father's co-workers read. He recognized me in it and showed it to my father who promptly showed it to my mom, which caused a huge fight between us. She was so worried about maintaining appearances amongst her social groups that she demanded that I stop modeling or else she would throw me out. I for one didn't want to end up working some crummy minimum wage job so I refused. After a few more heated exchanges she gave me an hour to pack my stuff and then she kicked me out."

"You should have seen her that night Ronald", Tara filled in, "It was the night we had that cold snap and Bonnie showed up on my doorstep broken hearted and with no where else to go."

"I remember that", Ronald said, "Bonnie didn't show up to school for like three days. Kim and Bonnie had one of their disagreements the day before so Kim felt as though she might have caused Bonnie's absence."

"No it wasn't my little fight with Kim," Bonnie chuckled. "I had bigger issues on my mind. Things like finding a place to stay and trying to finish school while working enough to pay for my new place. Since I was eighteen at that point I was able to find a relatively cheap apartment to live in, but it wiped out most of the money I had managed to save up. So the cycle started again, I needed to do more photo shots to get better modeling jobs that paid more so I could afford both my apartment and go to college. So I ended up letting my school work start to slide and I came close to not graduating."

"After being top of the food chain at Middleton High for so long I thought I would be sad when we finally graduated from there, but I was actually glad when we graduated, then I was able to focus even more on modeling." Bonnie sighed. "But I was still far from being humble." "Ronald, where did you go to college?" Bonnie asked as she changed conversational gears.

"I started at Middleton community college."

"I know." Bonnine acknowledged. "Because of my slip in grades and lack of money I wasn't able to get in to any of the schools I wanted, so I lowered my standards and applied to Middleton Community college."

"How come I never saw you there then?"

"Because the day I applied I saw you there. Like I said I was still far from humble and my pride wouldn't let me go there and let you see me, so I never went."

"After that I focused my energies to my modeling career and oh yeah, did I tell you my car got reposed during that time?" Bonnie then chuckled slightly, "If it weren't for bad luck I would have had no luck at all. So after losing my car I began to spend all day every day at the talent agency or seeking out free lance work."

"I continued to try and find work in the modeling through the modeling agencies, but the jobs were usually few and far between, and be the time the agency got their cut I was barely making enough to get by, so I decided to try and branch out a bit. That's when I applied for a photo shot of me in an adult magazine, which is when I first meet Molly."

At the mention of her former best friend's name Bonnie looked at her still best friend and cast a sad smile her way.

"After living with Molly for over a year she and I had a falling out over how to live one's life. She was turning more and more towards drugs and alcohol and was trying to enjoy the party lifestyle, the playboy lifestyle if you will. But that wasn't for me, I worked at the strip club because I had to, but no I didn't actually strip. I still had my self respect. Anyways after a while both Molly and I got black listed from most of the modeling agencies around here, probably due to Sal, so work and money began to get scarce. Molly and I had a big fight one night, she said we could get by if I would just get over my self and actually start stripping, I told her she was destroying her own life by hiding her shame in alcohol and drugs. We parted ways shortly there after and I had to fend for my self again. The money I had saved up didn't last as long as I had hoped and soon I was doing things to win the favors of guys to let me stay the night."

"Wow, I never realized how rough you had it." Tara said as she gently hugged Bonnie.

"Yeah I did have it rough for a while. Having to be with men that I wouldn't even have thought of as losers in high school and having to debase my self to make a living, it was rough. I hit bottom when eventually I did wind up pregnant and had to abort the fetus." Bonnie's last sentence was a bombshell that shocked both of her friends. "But then things looked up for me, I was desperate for a decent meal so I went to Ronald's diner to beg for a meal, and the rest as they say is history."

After several minutes of minutes of shock Tara finally leaned over and embraced Bonnie in a tight and tearful hug. "Bonnie, I'm so sorry to hear about how things worked out for you, but I'm glad that things are better for you now." Then after a moment's contemplation Tara added, "Ronald, why don't you give Kim a call? I'm sure she would love to hear that you're doing ok and to hear about Bonnie." Tara suggested, "I'm sure both Kim and …"

"No." Ronald said flatly as he cut Tara off.

"Ronald, I know she hurt you but you need to get over that."

"Look Tara I appreciate that you came over to check up on me, but I don't want to talk to Kim. If you want to let her know how I'm feeling then you can tell her."

"Even that you were sick and that you found a new friend?" Tara asked while nodding towards Bonnie.

"Tara, Ronald said he doesn't want to see Kim, leave it at that." Bonnie said before adding. "Besides, you know that Kim and I never got along in the past and I don't particularly feel like "catching up on old times" with her. So, just leave things as they are." Bonnie added.

Tara was slightly taken aback by Bonnie's seeming defense of Ronald's rebuffing of Kim. But considering everything that she had learned in the past couple of hours she figured that perhaps more things had changed than she realized. Letting out a yawn, Tara glanced at the clock and realized just how late in to the evening it had become.

"Bonnie, Ronald, I hate to leave but I have to go home and get some rest for work tomorrow."

"That's ok Tara," Ronald answered, "We should probably get some rest too."

"I'll be sure to come by and see you at the diner then. Bonnie, I'll even introduce you to my husband." Tara said with a wink.

"You're married?" Bonnie asked in excitement, "I guess I should have noticed your ring earlier, but we were kind of busy catching up. So who is your husband?"

"I'll introduce you to him when we come by the diner." Then to cut off Bonnie's emerging complaint Tara continued, "You were the girl full of mystery and stories tonight, let me have a secret or two ok."

III.

After seeing Tara out for the night, Ronald turned and spoke to Bonnie.

"I didn't realize just how rough you really had these past few years. Did you really have to get an abortion?"

"Yeah it was pretty rough. After my abortion I, I bleed for several days and took a while to heal up. That's why I was looking so thin and pale when I asked you for a hand out that night. And speaking of looking pale my friend, you aren't looking so healthy you're self right now. Let's get you back to bed."

"That sounds like a good idea." Ronald conceded, "Besides we need to go back to the diner, got to be ready for Tara and J…"

"J?" Bonnie probed, "Is that the name of Tara's husband?"

"I know nothing, nothing." Ronald said with a terrible German accent as he retreated back to his bedroom.

"Well tell me about you and Kim then."

"I'd rather not." Ronald said firmly.

"Come on Ronald, I thought we were friends, friends share things."

"Most things, yes. But this is something I don't want to talk about." Ronald said defiantly before closing the door to his bed room and cutting off any further conversation that night.

IV.

"Welcome home. I was starting to worry that you had left me for Ronald." Josh joked as his wife walked in to their bed room.

"What makes you think I would do that?"

"Well it's almost midnight, you were there for quite a while." Josh said as she sat up in bed and watched his wife undress.

"Ok so I was there a while, I didn't mean to be, it's just that you won't guess who I ran in to over there."

"Kim?"

"No not Kim. If any thing Ronald is still hurt by her actions." Tara said as she slid on a sheer night gown that stopped just before midthigh and clung to her in just the right places before sitting down next to Josh.

"Hmm, was it his little sister? What's her name…Hana?"

"No, it was Bonnie."

Josh just sat there and blinked his eyes as if the name meant nothing to him.

"Bonnie Rockwaller. She was on the cheerleading team too remember?"

"Oh yeah, I remember her now, she was the really snooty one wasn't she."

"Hey that's my friend you're talking about there," Tara mock warned, "But yes she was."

"Isn't she also the one that sort of fall of the face of the earth a while back?"

Tara nodded her head yes.

"So she's living with? Dating Ronald?" Josh asked.

"I'm not sure. I went to Ronald's place and the last person I expected to see there was Bonnie. Apparently Ronald found her living on the streets and is letting her stay with him. Oh by the way, since you brought home Bueno Nacho for dinner, you get to make it up to me by taking me to Ronald's diner for dinner.