Lance looked up. His girlfriend and her two best friends stood before him. He saw the tears in Valerie's eyes; they pleaded with him, begging him to assure him it was all a nightmare. It broke him into pieces as she looked at him, her heart broken. A single tear ran down her cheek.

She turned and ran away form him. She could hear the loud snickering and cat calls of Lauren's gang. Lance pushed his way through the group surrounding his locker, running after her. He caught up with her. He grabbed her wrist, causing her to stop.

"Let go, I don't want to talk to you. I just want to be left alone," she yelled at him, too torn apart to even look at him.

Lance could feel tears swelling up in his eyes at her words. He fought them back, and choked, "I won't leave, you have to listen to me. It wasn't what it looked like."

He silently pleaded with her. She turned to face him, her face washed with tears. she shook her head in agony, saying, "I trusted and loved you, Lance. How could you?"

Her words cut through him like a sharp knife; he had betrayed her, not intentionally, but he had. He let go of her wrist. Once free, she kept running. She didn't bother to look back at him as he stood frozen. He was unable to move. His heart felt as if it weren't even alive anymore. How could everything they had just dissolve into nothing in such a short amount of time? Was this the end? He tried to shake the horrible thoughts from his mind, but they wouldn't leave, not before they had completley stripped him of all hope and dignity. Valerie ran away from Lance. She tried to make herself believe the farther away she ran, the lesser reality became. this couldn't be happening to her. Her worst fears playing before her. The trust she had so strong was broken. Broken like her heart, into shattered pieces.

She stopped, leaning against a locker, letting the tears flow freely. She didn't care if anyone saw her crying. She cried her hardest, how could Lance have done this to her? Questions flew at her, leaving her confused and heartbroken.

Nikki glanced beside her at the vacant seat. It was the last day of school and Valerie was still making no effort to return to her usual group of friends. Instead she sat alone in the back of the classroom avoiding life itself. This wasn't like her to shy away from everyone and everything when things got hard. She was quiet and innocent, but always stood her ground. It broke Nikki's heart to see her best friend torn to pieces like this. She glanced across Valerie's usual spot at Lance. He was almost worse than Valerie. She couldn't stand to see either of them this way.

She was stuck in the middle, both of them turning to her for emotional support. She had known the two of them her whole life, and would never have the heart to take sides. This caused her much pain. They were constantly begging her to see it their way. She was to the point of forcing them to make-up. If having Valerie and Lance not speaking for only two days was this bad, how could they possibly deal with this for a longer time frame?

Lance cleared his throat, trying ot get his friend's attention. Nikki looked over at him. He sat next to the vacant seat beside her. He leaned over, passing her a waded up piece of paper. She took the note from him. Opening it, she read:

"Please get her to talk to me. She won't listen to me, she still doesn't believe me."

Nikki sighed. She scribbled down her reply telling him she would, and handed it back to him. Lance smiled at her, mouthing "thank you" to her. She nodded, hoping Valerie would lsiten to her. School was finally over for the summer. The eager students rushed out of the classrooms for home. Valerie wasn't in a hurry. She was happy to be out of school, but looking at her position at the moment made her feel as if it would be a lonely summer for her. There was going to be an end of school dance that night and she had suddenly become dateless. Her trip to Orlando was the only highlight of her summer, her only escape fromher heartbreak.

She noticed she was the only person left in the classroom. She grabbed her bookbag and headed for the door. Nikki was waiting outside the room for her.

"Hey," she said with a sympathetic smile.

"Hi," Valerie replied, smiling weakily.

Nikki took a deap breath, knowing that getting through to Val was going to be harder than ever, "Look, Val, I know you don't wanna hear this, especially from me, but I have to say it. You really should listen to Lance. He might be telling the truth about what happened."

Valerie's expression changed completley, she couldn't believe her best friend was standing before her saying this to her, "What so you're taking his side over your bestfriend's?"

"I'm not taking anyone's side, I just think you should hear him out," Nikki defended herself.

"Oh, yeah, that's right. I'm sorry, Nikki. I accuse you of taking sides when all you're really doing is prying yourself into something that's really none of your buisness. Just stay out of this, I don't need you to tell me what to do also!" Valerie yelled, not acting as herself.

"I"m just trying to help, you two are my best friends and I can't stand to see you guys hurting like this; but if you're gonna be a bitch about it I'll just leave then," Nikki yelled back. She turned and walked away, disbelief and hurt weighing down on her. Valerie had never acted this way to anyone, especially her.

"Good, no one asked you to get involved in the first place!" Valerie yelled back at her.

Nikki walked over to her locker. Lance and the others had been waiting for her, eager to hear about the conversation. They sensed her disgruntled expression as she reached them. Lance became worried, what if Valerie still wouldn't talk to him?

"What'd she say?" Amy asked concerened.

"She completley chewed me out for even beginning to imply that she might talk to Lance again," Nikki answered, her tone showing her unhappiness.

"I'm taking that as she's not talking to me still," Lance added.

"Give the boy a prize!" Nikki replied sarcastically.