"You know..." Andrew began to speak as I was just waking up days later. "For such a short period of time you've been here, you've sure made a lot of intrusive friends."

"I've been here a month," I reminded as I stretched out my limbs.

"My point exactly."

"What do you want?" I asked. More like why are you in my room? I finally opened my eyes and finally didn't wake up with a migraine or aching joints. Maybe this phase has ended.

"You have visitors."

When I got to the door, the two people I saw were the last two people I'd want to see at this point. Or maybe I figured I was the last person they'd want to see since I threatened their lives.

"Hey, we're going into the next city over for new school clothes. Wanna come?" the beautiful girl proposed with a pure smile that I was surprised could hide her pain and/or hatred for me. I didn't know how to take that. It was odd.

Just come with us, I thought I heard Preston think, but then when I looked at him, he twitched an eyebrow with attitude just as I realized he had whispered it to me in a low voice. "Ask questions later."

***

I probably shouldn't have trusted myself to be in a car with Preston and Stella, driving out of the town to the nearest city, but I knew that nothing would happen without consequence. So now, three hours later, we were in a food court with bags of new clothes. Well, Stella was loaded with them, I had a couple, and Preston had none. He just followed us around like a secret serviceman all afternoon, gracing us with his pessimistic banter every now and then.

But now, after the shopping and Stella's unexplainable thrill, it was all weird. I assumed the shopping thing was a distraction for what happened this weekend, but she was completely clueless. I knew Preston had an idea what I was thinking, so when Stella had gotten up to get napkins off of a counter maybe thirty feet away, I immediately turned to Preston.

"Why is she—"

"She doesn't remember what happened," he interrupted in a hiss and crossed is arms. "Well...not exactly."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Why don't you ask her?" he grumbled. I gave him a doubtful look. "She wants to talk about something. Why else would she be faking her smiles all day?"

"I don't know," I lied. "Maybe because she made out with my boyfriend?"

He just looked at me with absolutely no emotion.

"She does remember that much, right?" I questioned. In a way, I hope she did remember the kiss and the immediate rejection just so there wasn't a chance of it happening in the future when she thought she had a chance with him.

"I don't know what she knows."

"Well then how—"

"Just ask her!" he yelled in a whisper right as Stella was only slightly limping towards the table.

"Okay, I officially need to go to the bathroom," Stella announced after placing the napkins on the table. Oh no. That was basically girl code for: "We need to talk."

So that's what I'd do. I went to the bathroom with her, which I needed for myself, and once an overweight lady left and the hand dryer cut off, I figured Stella would say something. But if Preston was right, what would she have to say if she couldn't remember anything? I finished washing my hands and attempted to walk out, but she called out my name, causing me to turn back to her.

"Can I say something?" she asked and I nodded. "We haven't really gotten to talk since, well, a long time ago when I accused you of getting Ryder in trouble," she began. "I just want to apologize. He and I have patched that up and he's made it clear of everything that's been happening."

Not everything.

"Well you're best friends right?" I questioned feeling my heart lighten.

"Yeah," she smiled, originally with the upmost content in her friendship with Ryder, but it quickly dropped when she thought I felt threatened.

"Well then that's that, right?" I figured. "You're his best friend and I'm his...whatever I am to him..." I couldn't exactly call myself his girlfriend or him my boyfriend at this point, I thought. "We have completely different ties to him so other than that, what you two do is none of my business."

Of course, possessively I was thinking the complete opposite to that, but I needed to be affable.

"Right," she just agreed and nodded with maybe a forged smile. I began to walk out again and she called me once more, but this time with guilt in her voice.

"Ash..." she had said and I turned to her once more. "This weekend..." she began and I wondered if Preston was right or not.

"Yeah?"

"Okay, don't hate me or anything—because somehow I feel like we'd actually be good friends—but this weekend—"

"Spit it out," I said, growing impatient to hear news I already knew.

"I kissed Ryder," she blurted out and I just started to slowly nod, acting as if I needed a moment to take it in. "I...I was just weary about your relationship and I kissed him because...because I don't know I just—"

"You kissed him because you thought it was your right to," I corrected. "Since I just got here and you two have a past of your own."

She looked at me like she was caught in a lie, but I was the cheater since I knew all of this.

"Did he tell you that?"

"No."

"Did someone else?" she switched.

"No one told me anything," I spoke the truth. "I just...I get it, okay. You were here before I was so—"

"You're not seriously justifying me are you?" she questioned in a forced laugh. I raised an eyebrow while she crossed her arms. "Maybe you are too good for him. Any other girlfriend of his would have just called me a bitch and tried to fight me."

"I'm not like any of his other girlfriends," I denied, feeling offended. But it was true. I wasn't like any of them, despite not even knowing who or how many there were. I don't even know why I admitted to being his girlfriend just now after being vague about what we were just a few sentences ago. "And I'm not too good for him—I'm tired of people saying that. Just as much as he has to prove he isn't a delinquent, I have to prove that I'm not a naïve idiot for thinking we're too good for each other. I hope as his best friend, you can understand that much, at least. You owe me that."

"Oh I know," she said, lifting her chin. "I knew you two were serious the moment I kissed him and he pushed me away...The Ryder I know would've jumped at the chance to cause some drama at senior camp, but he's not Ryder that I know anymore, so—"

"I know, and I'm sorry for that," I cut-in. "Ever since I've gotten here, people keep saying how he's been and how he acts, but he completely contradicts that so I know he must have changed. I don't want him to be someone he's not just to keep me or whatever. I'm sorry to you and Preston and all his friends for that."

"Don't be sorry," she said. "Even though he isn't the Ryder that I would expect to jump at the chance of me making a move on him or the Ryder Preston gets in trouble with, he's better. Maybe the changes were a good thing."

We smiled together at the simple agreement about Ryder Ramon's behavior and then my phone starting ringing.

"Speak of the devil," I joked and she laughed once as I answered the phone and said she'd just meet me back at the table.

"Hello?" I greeted.

"Well you don't sound like you're missing me very much," he commented. I could just about see his twisted smirk that was fishing for an aid to his arrogance.

"Am I supposed to...?" I tried to play off as flirtation, but it was a real question.

"Hell if I knew," he replied. "How's shopping?"

"It just got better," I smiled, thinking of Stella.

"Better? What'd you do? Leave Pres and Stella there?"

"Maybe just one of them," I teased.

"Mmh, well at least she's left in her own habitat," he joked, referring to Stella.

"I would've left Preston before Stella any day," I commented with a slight laugh, but I meant it seriously. I didn't know what Preston was capable of and I knew he didn't like me no matter if Ryder could order him to.

"Look, about Stella..." Ryder sighed. "I have to tell you something about Saturday night—"

"I already know—I remember that much," I assured. He said nothing. "Not to mention, Stella and I just talked about that actually."

"Oh," he hummed. "Well I just don't want you to—"

"What? Call her a bitch and try to fight her?" I filled in as Stella expressed. I laughed at his silence. "Yeah, we went over that too."

"So then you know I pushed her off me," he wondered.

"That's not all I care about, but yes," I assured with a laugh. His guilt was amusing to me at this point. "I do want to know how she just conveniently forgot about me trying to kill her though."

"Then come over later and I'll tell you," he replied. I frowned.

"Is that an invitation?"

"It's a request, actually," he notified as if I needed an excuse to see him. I just wanted to know why he had a change of heart since he was set on the idea that seeing me would be unstable.

"What about...?"

"I was being stupid," he admitted and I wholeheartedly agreed. "Being away from you might as well be a generally bad decision in life if I want to get anything done."

"Oh really?"

"Yeah. It takes so much energy to try and force myself away from you that I have no energy left to actually accomplish the whole reason why we were apart," he sighed.

"That reason being...?"

"I'll tell you later," he promised. "So you'll come over?"

"Of course I will," I smiled and felt my heart swell in content.

"Alright, Preston will drop you off at my house then," he added and then I was hearing intense crushing noises in the background. It made me frown at maybe the noise or the frequency that hurt my ears.

"Where are you?"

"Um, I'm currently at the Tyriette, Texas car and junk lot," he answered and couldn't contain a pathetic laugh.

"Should I ask why you're there?"

"I'm repaying your brother and trying to make amends."

"That's probably not the smartest idea..."

"Why? Did he find another reason to kill me?" he laughed. I stayed silent. "Come on. What'd I do now?"

"It's not what you did; it's what I did and he's just blaming you," I grumbled. "He thinks you bit me."

"Well I mean—"

"You didn't," I said, but it came out as if I was trying to convince him and then questioning what he was about to say. But then I looked in the mirror and saw the faintest of bites on my neck. By now, it looked like a faint hickie more than anything...which made me question something that I had begun to think about two days ago."Ryder?"

"Ashlynn?" he reciprocated.

"Did we...do anything...Saturday night?" I asked him. I had never asked him about anything to do with turning until now. I didn't ask him what color of fur I had, or if my eyes lit up to a special color like his and Andrew's; I didn't ask him why I could hear Preston's thoughts; I didn't ask him if my cut to Stella (which was no longer on her arm) had the possibility to turn her; and I definitely didn't ask him why I woke up naked in a barn or how I got there. I didn't have a problem doing anything with Ryder. I had a problem with not remembering it.

"We..." he began to say and then the noise got louder and louder. Suddenly, it died out and made me wonder why we couldn't have had this conversation telepathically. "We'll talk later, okay?"

"Okay?" I frowned.

"I l—" he began to say maybe that statement of three words that usually ruined things and then stopped himself or maybe swallowed his words in order to make him turn it into an "I'll." He stammered for recovery, that's for sure. "...see you later. Bye."

"Good bye."