It had been a week since Shelli and I broke up and it had been three weeks since Manders got here. Unfortunately that meant that she’d be leaving in a week. I loved having her here. She was such a great friend to have. I haven’t seen her in person in four years, and now, with her living with us, it was like nothing had ever changed. Except for the fact that she was dating Jacob and not me, but there really wasn’t much I could do about that.

"Hey Ash." Manda said walking into my room.

"Oh, hey Manders, what’s up?"

"The sky?" She said with a questioning look on her face.

" Nooooooo." I replied as she walked over to sit on my bed.

"You?" she asked looking at me seriously.

" Oh HA fricken HA Manda." I said throwing one of my pillows at her. She cracked up and started laughing really hard. I grinned evilly at her and then began to tickle her mercilessly.

"So you think that’s funny huh?"

" Uh- huh" she said laughing even harder than before.

"Ash! STOP!" she yelled after I’d been tickling her for a minute or two.

" Nope." I replied simply, continuing to tickle her.

" PLEASE! I’ll do anything! Just stop tickling me!"

"Hmmm? Anything?"

" YES!! ANYTHING!!"

" Let me see...NOPE!" I said tickling her even harder.

"ASHLEY PARKER ANGEL! STOP TICKLING ME THIS INSTANT!!"

" Yes mom." He smirked at me after he FINALLY stopped tickling me.

" Oh real mature Ash."

" Like your comment before right?"

" Shut-up!" I said throwing his pillow back at him and giggling.

"So what’d ya want." Ashley asked lying back down on his bed.

" I’m bored." I said shrugging. I crawled up next to him and laid down next to him. I had my arm bent at my elbow and my head resting on my palm for support.

"Well, why aren’t you with Jake?"

" He’s busy. He had to go into the studio today."

"Oh. Well, what do you want to do?"

" I don’t know. What do you want to do?"

" I don’t know."

" Well, gee, you’ve been a big help."

"I know." He said laughing.

" Hmm, do you wanna go see a movie?" I asked.

"Sure. What movie?"

" I don’t know. Uh, why don’t we see a scary movie."

"Ok, which one? There are like, what, 5 out?"

"Uhh, yeah, I don’t know? This is too hard. Why don’t we just rent a movie."

"Ok what movie do you wanna rent."

" I don’t know. What movie do you wanna rent?"

"I don’t know, how about ‘Thirteen Ghosts’."

"Ok. That sounds good. I haven’t ever seen it before. Let’s go." I said getting off the bed. I reached down for Ashley’s hand and pulled him up. We started to walk down the stairs when my stomach growled.

" Are you hungry?" I asked.

" Yeah, sort of."

" Why don’t I stay here and order pizza while you go get the movie."

"Alright. I’ll be back in fifteen minutes."

" Ok Ash."

After Ashley left I went to go order the pizza. I ordered a medium pepperoni pizza, which would be there in 20 minutes. Twenty minutes later Ashley came in carrying a pizza box and a bag, which had the movie in it.

"The pizza guy pulled up at the same time as me so I just went ahead and paid for it." Ashley explained, obviously seeing the confused look on my face.

" Oh, ok. Well let’s go watch the movie. I closed all the curtains and brought down our pillows and blankets to living room so that we’d be comfy."

" Thanks."

While Ashley took our pizza into the living room I went into the kitchen to grab two cans of coke. After I had gotten them from the refrigerator I walked into the living room and plopped down on the floor next to Ashley.

"I’ll go put the movie in." I said taking the movie from the bag and crawling over to the VCR. I made sure to fast forward through all the pre-views and then crawled back over next to Ashley.

" I’M HOME!" I announced as I walked into the house after I got back from the studio, around 5:00pm. When no one answered I walked into the living room to see Manda and Ash watching ‘Thirteen Ghosts’. I couldn’t help but feel a pang of jealously when I noticed that Manda was clinging to Ashley’s arm. I walked over and sat down next to Amanda and then tapped her on the shoulder.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!" she screamed really loud. I plugged my ears and then reached out for her hand when she stopped.

" Calm down, its just me."

"You scared the CRAP outta me Jake." She said snuggling up in my arms.

" I didn’t mean to." I whispered to her, before kissing her on the temple.

"It’s ok. I’m glad that you’re home." She whispered back and then kissed me on the lips. We got comfortable on the floor and watched the rest of the movie curled up together.

I was in heaven while Manda was clinging to my arms. That, of course, was ruined when Jake came home. He tapped Amanda on the shoulder, which scared the crap outta her. Then she went over and practically sat in his lap. I couldn’t help but feel jealous of their relationship. I was still in love her and I really wanted to be with her, but I wasn’t going to do anything while she was still with Jake. I can’t believe I was so stupid. When she got here she wanted to be with me, and what’d I do? I said no. NO! How could I be so stupid? Ack! I hated all of this. Grr. Now I have to settle for second best and just be the "best friend". Fun, fun, fun. After the movie I went upstairs to my room. I couldn’t stand to be around those two for even a second longer.

After the movie was over Ashley immediately went upstairs, leaving Manda and me to clean up the mess.

"Well, he was certainly in a hurry to get out of here." I commented after Ashley had left.

"Yeah." Amanda replied, seeming like she was somewhere else. " I’m gonna go see what’s wrong with him." She said, still seeming like she was somewhere else. With that she got up and ran up the stairs. I sighed and began to pick up the mess.

" Who made the mess?" Dan asked walking into the living room.

"Amanda and Ashley. They were watching ‘Thirteen Ghosts’ when I got home so I decided to join them. As soon as the movie ended Ashley dashed out of them room and Manda followed after him a few minutes later to see what was wrong. So now I’m stuck cleaning everything up."

" That sucks man."

" Don’t I know it. The worst part is, is that, like, even though she says that she’s in love with me and that she wants to be with me, in my heart I know that she’d rather be with Ashley."

" Do you really think that?" Dan said picking up a blanket and folding it.

"Yeah. I mean, I’m not blind. I see the way she looks at him, the way she acts around him, and the way she talks to him. She still loves him."

"Well, yeah. I’m sure she still loves him. They’ve been best friends for twenty years. But just because she loves him doesn’t mean that she’s IN love with him. You know?"

" I know, but I just have this feeling that she’s still in love with him."

"Are you gonna break up with her?" Dan asked sitting down on the couch.

"That’s the thing. I’m not sure if I should stay with her and keep fooling myself or give in and let her go."

" I wouldn’t do anything until I was sure, if I were you. I’m not sure that I’d break up with her either. I mean it’s obvious that she loves you and that she’s happy with you. Why ruin that?"

" It’s not like I wanna ruin it, but if she’d be happier with Ashley then she should be with him and not me."

" Well, whatever man. It’s up to you. I’m just telling you what I would do."

" Thanks man. That helps a lot."

"You’re welcome."

I was in my room lying on my bed, which, by the way, had no covers or pillows on it courtesy of Manda, listening to ‘Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing’. It was the song I listened to whenever I just needed to be in my own world. I heard a soft knock on my door and told whoever was on the other side to come in. I heard the door open and then softly shut. Then I felt the bed move and looked over to see Amanda sitting on the edge next to me.

" Hi." I said softly.

" Hi." She said just barely above a whisper. She looked like she was debating something in her head for a minute and then her facial features relaxed.

" Why’d you leave so fast after the movie was over?" She asked, concern written across her face.

"I was jealous."

"Of what? Me and Jake?" she asked, confusion replacing the concern. I just nodded in reply to her question.

" Why?"

" You know why." She still looked confused so I went on to explain.

"I’m still in love with you Manda. I told you that. I love you and I wanna be with you. It hurts me to see you and Jacob together. I can’t help it, it just does."

" I’m sorry Ashley. I still have feelings for you, but I’m with Jacob now. I love him and he makes me really happy."

" I know that and I would never even dream of trying to jeopardize your relationship with him."

" Thank you. Can I still talk to you? I mean like, about stuff that has to do with me and Jacob?"

" Of course. Feelings or no feelings, you’re still my best friend and I want you to be able to talk to me about anything, no matter what it is."

" Ok, well, then there’s something I need to talk to you about."

"Shoot."

"I’m moving to Orlando." I nearly fell off the bed at her announcement.

" Y-Y-You’re what?!?"

"I’m moving to Orlando." I repeated.

" Does Jacob know?"

"No, and I don’t want him to know until either the day before, or the day I’m supposed to leave. So please don’t tell him."

" I won’t, but wow. Are you moving in here?" he asked, still in shock about my announcement.

" No." I said shaking my head. " I got an apartment about ten minutes away from here. It’s completely furnished, so I don’t have to worry about that, and my mom is shipping my clothes and my other stuff to the apartment sometime this week."

" Wow. So, what about school?"

" I transferred all of my credits to the local university and I’m signed up to begin class in the fall."

" You’ve really thought about this haven’t you."

" Yeah, I have. I want to stay with Jake this time. Last time we broke up because of the distance. That’s what broke you and me up too. I didn’t want that to happen again, so I decided to move here."

" Wow. I mean, just wow. That’s gonna be awesome. I know Jake will be happy."

" Are you happy about it?"

" Of course I am! Why wouldn’t I be?"

"I don’t know."

" Me either" he said laughing.

"We’ll have to go out and celebrate once you tell Jacob."

" Yup. Thanks for talking to me Ash." I said leaning over to give him a hug.

"Welcome Manders. I’m here whenever you need to talk so don’t ever hesitate to come and talk to me. Ok?"

" KK MWAH!" I said blowing him a kiss and leaving his room.

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Chapter 8-All Or Nothing