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The next day was just like any other Thursday, Anna quietly went through the motions of school, only speaking when spoken to, and trying not to get in any ones' way. Not really concentrating on her work, just doing what she had to do to get through the day. The days were all like this for her now. Back in her old town, she had been popular, on all the committees, a strait A student, but here things were different, the kids were different, but so was Anna. She had never made any real friends here, everyone thought she was 'weird', and so did she sometimes. When she got home she found a note on the fridge from her father "Anna, I'm terribly sorry, but I have been sent to Europe at the last minute on urgent business for a week. I'm sorry to say that this means I will have to miss your birthday, but that doesn't mean I forgot. Go and look in the garage, Happy Birthday Anna. Dad" Her birthday, she had almost forgotten, in four days she would be 18. She went down to look in the garage, and when she opened the door, she had to pinch herself to check that she wasn't dreaming. Sitting in the garage with a big red ribbon on the top was a cute little silver convertible Mazda MX5. She had always wanted one of these. It was things like this that made the fact that her father had to go to Europe and miss her birthday almost bearable, not quite, but almost. Her spirits brightened a little, she ran upstairs to ring the only friend she had. Anna and Jessica had been friends since they were in diapers and they had never had a fight, not even once. Anna thought they would probably be best friends for ever. She still lived back home and they only talked once or twice a week, but they still considered each other best friends. She was the only person Anna would talk to after the accident and she was still pretty much the only person she talked to. The only time she was ever really her self was when she was talking to Jessica. "Jess!!" Anna cried as she heard the familiar voice answer the phone. "Anna!!" Jess cried back with the same enthusiasm, "I've been trying to reach you all afternoon, where the hell where you?" "Damn, I don't even want to talk about it. Hey, I've got the greatest news." "No way, I have to go first this time." "Okay, what is it?" Anna said "Well, you know how it's your birthday next week." "Yeah" Anna replied "get to the point." "Well, I've been talking to Mom, and anyway she said that I could take all of next week off school, and fly up to see you." "No way!!" Anna shouted down the phone. They hadn't seen each other for over a year now. "When are you gonna get here." "Well, my flight gets to New York about 1 o'clock tomorrow afternoon." "Wow, thats kinda short notice." "I know, if you can't get there to pick me up, give me directions and I can taxi or bus." "Nu uh, you aren't taxiing. I have the best thing to show you" "What?" "I can't tell you." Anna said with a smile. "Thats hardly fair!" "Don't worry, it's not like you have long to wait." "I know, it'll be so great to see you again!" "Yeah, you too. So, hows things back home?" Anna asked changing the subject They talked on like this for a while, when Anna realised it was late, and she would have to get up in the morning to get things ready for Jess. So they said their farewells, and for the first time in a long time, Anna fell asleep happy, well almost happy.
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"Hey you!!" Jess said as she ran up to her best friend and gave her a big hug. " You don't have any idea how much I missed you." "Yeah, I do" "Do not" "Do too" "Do not" This little fight went on until they were through baggage claim and on their way out to the car. "I almost forgot," said Jess, "weren't you gonna show me something when I got here." "Yeah," Anna replied with a cheeky smirk "Well, here it is" she said as she gestured towards her new car. "This is what you wanted to show me? Some rich ladies car?" "Hey leave my car alone, I like it" "This is yours?!" Jess asked, her mouth open wide. "Yup," Anna replied "Ain't she pertty!" "OMIGOD, where did this come from." "Um, I dunno, I think it was made in Japan." Anna said "No, I mean where did you get it." "Dads present for me, to make up for the fact the he got called away for my birthday, again. 'Urgent Business', you know how it is with him." And so they went back to Anna's empty house and just sat around enjoying each other's company doing nothing in particular. When, once again, Anna was running late for Piano lessons. "Crap, I'm late for Piano lesson again!" Anna exclaimed, as she got up and ran to get her music sheets. "Still haven't changed," Jess said with a smile, "Have you ever been on time for anything." "I doubt it." Anna replied, returning he friends familiar smile. "Hey, you wanna come?" "Nah, I think I'll just chill here for a while, you know how I am with pianos." "Yeah. Well, I'll be about and hour, is that okay?" "Sure, see ya soon." So, once again, Anna was running late, and once again, traffic did not go her way. She had to park ages away from her school, and ended up running to get there again. She ran up the stairs and busted through the door. The room had a musty smell to it, but with the well loved furniture and the old style piano it was homely never-the-less. "Lisa, hey" Anna said breathlessly to her slightly plump, rosy cheaked piano teacher "Sorry I'm late, again" "Thats all right," Lisa replied looking around from the piano she had been playing "I have a favour to ask of you, to make up for all the times you've been late." "What is it?" Anna asked sitting down. "Well, my nephew has come up to stay with me for the next two weeks, and I was supposed meet him for dinner, and well, I was wondering if you would go with him. I have late lessons tonite, and I won't be able to make it." "I dunno Lisa, my best friend is staying with me and..." "Oh, it's okay, you can take her too." Lisa replied "Oh, all right," Anna said reluctantly, she wasn't into strangers. But hey she thought, how much trouble could a little boy be? "But you owe me." "Thank-you so much, he'll be here in about five minutes." "What about my lesson?" Anna asked "Well, you already missed half of it." Lisa replied with a smile "Okay, so whats he like?" "I thought that you'd met him already." said Lisa, confused. "Not that I know of. Whats his name?" Anna asked "Nick." Lisa replied Anna had a feeling she should know who Lisa was talking about, but she couldn't place him. She shook her head 'no' to Lisa and turned as she heard the door of the studio open. "Nick" Lisa said as she quickly glanced at Anna who just realised Lisa's nephew wasn't some snot nosed little kid, but the same guy who saw her make a total fool of herself yesterday. "Hey Aunt Lisa." Nick said as he gave his Aunt a kiss on the cheek " You nearly ready?" "No, I'm not actually, I can't make it. Late lessons, but Anna here kindly offered to take you instead." Lisa replied with an evil smile. "Isn't that right Anna." she said poking her in the ribs. "Oh...Um...yeah" she said more than a little angry. "Okay, cool." he said "Lets go then." And so Anna was stuck, she followed him towards the door and with an evil look towards Lisa she hissed "You set me up!" Lisa just gave her a goofy smile and shrugged. "So, we meet again" Nick said to break the uncomfortable silence as they walked to Anna's car. "Yeah, except this time you aren't knocking me down." Anna replied sharply, speeding up so she was walking along in front of him. He caught up to her and said "I know, but how many times can I say I'm sorry." with a smile that, to Anna's dismay was infectious. "Hmmm, I think one more time might just do it." she said returning the smile despite her efforts to stay detached. "Well then I apologise profusely." He said with mock seriousness looking into her eyes, Damn he had nice eyes. "And so you should, do you always go around poor defenceless girls?" "Only when I have nothing better to do, and besides, you don't seem that defenceless to me." He said, laughing. "Is this your car?" he asked as she was unlocking the front door. "No," she said sarcastically "It's not my car, but my key fits into it and I'm gonna drive you around in it." "I just mean it's real nice." he said as he got in and she began to drive away. "Oh shucks." she said "It is pretty cool though, I just got it yesterday, a present from a guilty father." "Oh yeah, what did he do?" Nick asked "Oh, you know, just the usual going away on business when it's my birthday. But hey I'm used to it." Anna said through the lump quickly developing in her throat. Why am I telling him this? she thought. So she changed the subject to more trivial matters, just the boring getting-to-know-you chit chat "So where do you live?" she asked regaining her composure. "Oh, I'm from Florida." "How old are you?" "18, what is this, twenty questions" he said trying to imitate her pissed off voice from yesterday. Anna didn't think this was very funny, but she brushed it off. "Hmmm...I have a strangest sense of déjà vu" she said with a cheeky smile. "I wonder why that is." he said She laughed and said "We have to go pick my friend Jess up from my house, is that okay?" "No probs" he replied They drove back to Anna's house, but when they got there Anna's old car was gone and the house the house was locked. Anna unlocked the door and invited Nick in. She threw her keys on the table and looked around for Jess. "Nice house." Nick said "Mmmmm" Anna replied, finally finding a note from Jess on the bathroom door, she was a strange girl.
'Anna banana,
I got bored, so I'm going shopping, I know what you're thinking, all I ever do when I come here is shop, but come on girl, This IS New York. Perhaps you have forgotten the lack of shops in the Mall back home. Any way I'll be back later, we're still on for dinner right? I'll buy something pretty, just for you. I'll be back at 7.
Jessie messie.'
Anna smiled when she saw the nick names the had used as kids, Jess would never change, she had the attention span of a goldfish. Anna looked at her watch and saw it was only 6 o'clock, damn she thought, an hour of making conversation with Nick. She knew that when Jess met Nick she would take over the talking, Jess was better with people than Anna these days. "Hey," said Nick looking over her shoulder at the note. "Watcha readin" "Oh a letter from Jess, shes gone out and won't be back for an hour, you don't mind waiting do you?" she replied as she looked over her shoulder at him then quickly turned away and screwed the note up. "Nope, thats cool." he replied "You wanna drink or anything?" she said as she walked into the kitchen to grab herself a coke. "No, I'm okay" he called from the living room "So, what do you want to do now?" she asked. She walked into the living room and saw him looking at the family photos on the bookshelf, her face dropped. "Is this your Mom?" he asked absentmindedly holding a picture of Anna and her Mom. "Yeah" she said just barely holding it together. "Oh, well where is she?" he asked. Her eyes dropped and she looked at her hands she was unconsciously wringing. "Um...she...well, she died about 2 yrs ago." she choked out. Her legs gave way and she flopped down onto the sofa. "Oh, man, I'm really sorry." he said putting the picture down and he went over to try and comfort Anna. But she was mad again, she snatched her arm away when he tried to touch it. She'd never talked about the accident to anyone except Jess, and she didn't want to start with him. "That's okay," she said taking a deep breath and turning away so he couldn't see the tears brimming in her eyes. "You wanna listen to some music or something?" "Sure." Nick said, a little confused, as he sat down on the sofa. He couldn't figure Anna out, one minute she's on the verge of tears, and the next she was acting as if nothing had happened. She got up and turned the radio on. She heard the first few bars of 'As Long As You Love Me' and groaned. "Oh, this has got to be the most overplayed song of the year." "Hey, it's not that bad." He said defensively, too defensively. "I never said it was bad, just overplayed." she said, sitting back down on the couch. "So you like it then?" he asked delicately. "I don't really have an opinion, maybe I would if I hadn't heard it so many times." "Not as many times as me." he said quietly. "Oh yeah, you wanna bet?" she asked "Sure do," he replied walking over to the radio and turning it down a bit. Then he began to sing along. "People say I'm crazy and that I am blind..." He sang, stopped short by Anna's mystified look. "Wow..." she said amazed that such a beautiful voice could come out of a person. "That was great, you sounded just like him." "Hmmmm.." he said with mock thoughtfulness, "Maybe thats because I am him." With this Anna burst out laughing. "Oh, yeah," she said, still laughing "And I'm Mariah Carey" "Hey," he said hurt that she found it such a huge joke. "it's not that funny." "Are you serious?" she asked trying to control her laughter. "Yeah." he replied. "Oh, I'm sorry," she said, sarcastically "I guess you must be feeling kinda weird since I'm not screaming or crying, or asking for your autograph or something teenybopper like that." "Hey." he said defensively "Not Funny. I can't help it if our music mostly appeals to younger girls." "Oh sure you can't" she said laughing again. "Come one, I've seen that video, your target audience is 12 year olds and you know it." He didn't know what to say, so he just sat and sulked. "So, we have a celebrity in our midst, you should have told me so I could roll out the red carpet for you." Then the phone rang, breaking the silence. "Saved by the bell, you're lucky." she walked out of the room smiling, and he just sat there and sulked. "Baby!" she called him before she picked up the phone. When she walked back into the room, he was still sitting on he couch, "That was Jess" she said. "I'm not talking to you." He announced trying to suppress a cheeky smile. "Okay then, keep on being a Baby…" "Hey," he interrupted "I'm not a baby!" "Oh no, of course you're not" she replied sarcastically "Any way, as I was saying before I was rudely interrupted, that was Jess to say she'd be longer than an hour, so we should just go without her." "Who says I want to go with someone who calls me a baby and only twelve year olds like my music!" he said jokingly. "I do, so hurry up." She replied "I'm just getting a jacket" she called half way up the stairs. When she came down he was holding the door open for her, she grabbed her keys and went to the door. "After you Madame" He said in a poor imitation of an English accent as he did a little bow for her. "Such the Gentleman" she said laughing as she walked out the door. Once they were in the car, he said "So, where are we going?" "To this little Italian restaurant downtown" she replied "And what if I don't like Italian?" he asked "Well thats just to damn bad, coz it's my favourite." She said light-heartedly. "Well, you're just lucky I like pizza." He said with a smile. "No, I think you're lucky you like pizza." She retorted with a laugh. "So what are you doing in New York?" she asked changing the subject "I just needed a break. Things get a pretty hectic these days, and I haven't seen Aunt Lisa for ages, so I thought I'd come up for a visit, you know, just to get away from it all." "So you're saying that being a huge super star and being adored by thousands of teenage girls all around the world isn't what it's cracked up to be." She said with a smile. "Well, not quite, it's great, but it's no picnic either." Dinner took them about two hours to eat because they talked the whole way through. When they had finished their meals they were the only ones left in the restaurant. The waiters began putting away the chairs and clearing off the tables, but Nick and Anna didn't even notice. "Anna" Nick said slowing looking up and into her eyes. "Yeah" she said, returning his gaze. "Ummm… if you don't mind me asking, I was wondering what happened to your Mom." He said carefully. "It was a car crash." She said, looking down at her now empty plate, tears falling uncontrollably down her cheeks. "The driver of the other car, he was drunk and he lived, but my Mom and my Brother both died, they didn't do anything wrong, and they died. How is that fair?" she asked looking up at him and swallowing hard. "I don't know," He said, softly wiping the tears from her cheeks with his thumb and then he leaned forward and held both her hands in his on the table. "I just don't know." She looked into his eyes for a moment as if she actually thought that he might have the answer, then slipped her hands out from under his, sat back in her chair and ran her fingers slowly through her hair. "Oh god, I'm so sorry." She said taking a deep breath "Hey, thats okay." He replied. "If you want to talk about it, I'm here to listen." "Thanks," she said smiling "But not right now, okay. Maybe I'll take a rain check on that though." "Sure" he said, returning her smile "We better get going" she said getting from her seat "Jess will be wondering where the hell I got to." "Thanks for taking me out" he said as they pulled up to Lisa's apartment building. "I had a really good time." "No probs" she said looking into his eyes "To make up for being such a bitch yesterday." "Well, maybe I could take you out some time to make up for knocking you over." he said with a smile. "Yeah," she replied "I'd like that." She gave him her phone number and they said their goodbyes. Anna drove home and quietly reflected on the evening. She didn't want to like him, but his smile was so infectious and he was so funny and sweet, she couldn't help it. "Hey Jess." She called as she walked into the living room and saw her friend sitting up watching T.V. "And what time do you call this Young Lady?" Jess said in that familiar way that only old friends talk to each other. "I call it way past your bedtime." "I'm sorry." Anna replied. "It's to late for sorry's Girl, you're grounded!" Jess said, laughing "So how did your date go." "It wasn't a date." Anna said defensively as she sat down on the sofa next to Jess. "Oh yeah, sure it wasn't" Jess said sarcastically. "It wasn't!" Anna said hitting Jess lightly on the arm. "Ow! So anyway how was it?" "Good" Anna said, her smile betraying her. "Come on, I want details, details." Jess said, grabbing both Anna's arms and shaking her. "Hey, Quit it, I'll tell you." Anna said brushing Jess off. "So who is this Nick guy anyway?" Jess asked. "He's my piano tutors nephew." "How'd ya meet him?" "Well, we kinda just bumped into each other yesterday." Anna said, smiling when she remembered. "What's he like?" Jess asked, trying to suppress giggles when she saw her friends goofy smile. "Oh, he's really nice and funny, and so sexy." "Hmmm Maybe I should have come after all." Jess said "Yeah, it was really great." Anna said with the same goofy smile. "Ooooh, I think Anna's got a crush." Jess said laughing "I do not, he's just really nice is all." Anna said trying to cover up for what her face revealed. "So, are you gonna see him again?" Jess asked "I dunno, he got my number." "Oh, how sweet." Jess said, mockingly. "Shut up, I'm going to bed." "Fine, go and sulk." "Fine. I will." Anna replied, getting up and walking towards the door. "You coming?" "Nah, I'll go later." "kay, night."