He's a rebel and he'll never ever be any good.....

[Dani]

Kylie breathed a huge sigh of relief as the Bloomingdale's sign appeared in full view. She couldn't wait to get a car again. This walking was driving her absolutely insane. She couldn't remember how she'd survived before getting her license. Sure, her parents had been kind enough to drive her around and she'd even walked a few places, but she couldn't remember it being this stressful or tiring. Two more weeks until I get the car....just two more....

After settling down on a nearby bench, she scanned the small crowd of people to see if Miki had arrived yet. While the clothes that she'd planned on buying today and the future new car were important to her, there were other parts of her life that ranked much higher on the list. In fact, there was one newer part that made her smile almost constantly. And today, she was going to share that part of her life with one of her very best friends.....while silently praying that Miki wouldn't hate for it.

[Raebee]

Miki glanced distastefully at the watch around her wrist. She didn't usually wear one, but her phone was in for repair so she needed it. As usual she was running late. She had been on time, but she'd stopped to try on a skirt she saw, and then the top that looked like it would match, and then she saw the hat that would tie it all together and the next thing she knew, she was half an hour late. Without her phone, she could only hope that Kylie would still be there.

Rounding the corner, her face broke into a relieved smile and she waved wildly. Rushing over to her, she collapsed on the bench, an apologetic grin on her face. "Sorry I'm late. There's this shop you just have to see it's amazing. Dan took me there when we first moved here, and I was just there now."

[Dani]

Kylie smiled at Miki, nodding her head sympathetically. "It's totally fine. I like just got here myself." Even if she hadn't just arrived, she wouldn't have minded Miki's tardiness. She could have used the extra time to think of how to break the news about everything. Knowing Miki, she would have to choose her words carefully, very carefully.

"Oh my god, your brother took you shopping? Get out! That is like so awesome." Kylie couldn't imagine any of her brothers doing something that nice for her. She'd be lucky if she could get Jack to give her a ride home today. I wonder if your other brother would take me shopping some time..... Nearly blushing at the thought, she got up from the bench. "So where's this totally amazing shop you're so stoked about?"

[Raebee]

Miki grinned and nodded emphatically. "Yeah, Dan took me. I think he feels extra sorry for me, you know...with Hayden and everything." Feeling suddenly deflated, she looked down at her pants and began tracing the pattern. "It's still weird you know? I keep expecting to get a message or a call from him or something. Or I wake up in the morning and forget where I am and go looking for him for a second."

Shaking her head, she pulled a smile back on her face. "Sorry. Anyway, this shop it has everything. Shoes, clothes, hats, bags..." Her eyes misted over dreamily, a genuine smile now gracing her features. "But it's not tacky like KMart." Blinking, she turned back to Kylie. "Did you wanna go? Or did you wanna get something to eat first?"

[Dani]

Kylie's mostly good mood started to decrease a bit. She had completely forgotten that Miki had lost her other brother in the hurricane. Sure, she had a lot of stuff on her mind, but she felt horrible for not remembering such a tragic event in her best friend's life. "Don't apologize," she said, giving Miki a sympathetic hug. "You so don't need to."

Her sadness quickly vanished at the mention of the store. After the storm had destroyed most of her wardrobe, she had been reduced to occasionally wearing "tacky" clothes. She would have killed to be surrounded by some decent clothes for a change. "Oh I so wanna go. You have like no idea." She tossed her hair over her shoulder. "But I could totally go for like a low fat smoothie or something." As much as she wanted to go shopping, she really wanted to get the secret out first. It was now or never.

[Raebee]

Miki nodded, and stood up from her place on the bench. "Sure, a smoothie sounds great. There's a little kiosk thingy not far from here. I've been here so much since we've moved. Retail therapy really is awesome."

She moved off towards the kiosk, still talking. "So, where have you been lately? I tried calling you the other night but it just went to voicemail so I hung up. I was gonna ask if you wanted to hang out. Other than now I mean. But now my phone is cactus, so I have to wait til it gets fixed. I asked my mum for a new one but she said "I need to learn to be responsible for my belongings." She pulled a face, then giggled. "I didn't tell her it was cause I accidently dropped it into my drink when I wasn't paying attention to what I was doing. I just said it got wet in the rain."

[Dani]

Kylie followed Miki in the direction of the kiosk, trying to hang on to her every word. "Wow, that was so weird. It must have been like a really bad connection or something." Or I probably couldn't hear it because I was on a date at a majorly loud club with your brother.... "That really sucks about your phone. I guess I'll have to like e-mail you or something if you wanna hang. I better tell Jack too. I'm sure he's been going totally postal trying to call you and stuff."

Finally reaching the kiosk, she glanced up at the menu, trying to find the healthiest possible drink. After that crazy night with Brody, she couldn't afford to put any more sugar or carbs in her system. "I think I'll try like the low fat banana one. It doesn't sound too bad, does it?"

[Raebee]

Miki glanced at the menu, wrinkling her nose. "I hate banana. I think I might get strawberry and mango." Turning back to Kylie, she grinned. "So what have you been doing then? Cause you haven't called me. Have you been hanging out with Reese or something?" Miki tried to mask the jealousy in her voice, passing it off as a random question.

"Yeah, I couldn't let Jack know about my phone before so thanks. Tell him he can just stop by whenever he feels like it." Miki coloured slightly at the memory of the last time she'd hung out with Jack, picturing his body pressed warmly against her own.

[Dani]

Despite Miki's objections, Kylie decided to go with her original choice of a banana smoothie. She wasn't sure what had come over her. Usually if her friends disagreed with her choice of food or clothes, she'd change it immediately, choosing the option that they preferred instead. "No, I like hardly ever talk to Reese. She's super busy hanging out at the college with her boyfriend." While she missed Reese terribly, she understood completely why she rarely had time to hang out. If her frequent daydream of being Brody's girlfriend ever came true, she probably would have spent very little hanging out with her friends as well.

"There's something going on though, but I'll tell you as soon as we get our smoothies and commit to a seating location." She ordered her drink and moved towards the cash register to wait for it. "I'll let Jack know. I'm sure he probably would have swung by anyways if he couldn't get in touch with you. He's probably going all psycho crazy because he thinks something happened to you."

[Raebee]

Miki watched her friend curiously, usually Kylie couldn't wait to blurt out everything she knew about any gossip. This quieter, more patient Kylie was definintely intriguing. "Ok, sure. Is it good or bad?" She moved off to wait for her own smoothie, bouncing on her toes impatiently. "I uh.. I wanna tell you something. After your thing whatever that is."

Kylie was her best friend, she was sure she'd be excited for her about what had happened with Jack, even with the fact that Jack was her brother. She hadn't told anyone, Jade had been busy with school, Brody was always at work and besides he probably already knew from Jack, and Danian would have shot her.

[Dani]

"Well, that like totally depends on what you consider good and bad," Kylie said, as she picked up her smoothie and headed in the direction of a nearby table. Truthfully, she thought it was mostly bad. Considering how much Miki hated Brody, she was pretty sure that the idea of her best friend dating him wouldn't be classified as being good. In fact, she was almost positive that she would probably no longer have Miki as a best friend as soon as she found out the news. On the other hand, Miki was going to be an aunt in a few months. She wasn't sure how Miki felt about babies in general, but the birth of a baby could certainly fall under the category of good news.

She nodded her head at Miki's upcoming news. "Yeah, definitely, you know you can like tell me anything, right?" Ordinarily she would have let Miki talk first, but she just had to get the truth out. Finally arriving at the table, she sat down and asked, "So ummmm, remember when I told you about my totally random past crush on your brother?"

[Raebee]

Miki seated herself across from Kylie at the table and drank deeply. Once she'd swallowed, she wrinkled her nose in distaste. "Yeah I remember. I still don't understand what would possess you to think he was cute. He's awful."

She frowned lightly as she sipped her drink once more. "So tell me already, stop talking about Brody for goodness sake. I wanna know the gossip, whatever it is."

[Dani]

Kylie sighed and sipped her smoothie. It was a quick way to stop herself from saying the things that she wanted to say about Brody. Sure he had done some things recently that she wasn't too thrilled with and she was still adjusting to the fact that he liked her, but it was still difficult to hear anyone talk badly about him, even her own best friend.

She wanted to tell Miki that Brody wasn't an awful person. She wanted to tell her that he was trying to change. She wanted to tell her that he was a great dancer. She even wanted to tell her how good he was at kissing. However, she couldn't explain any of those things without telling Miki the entire story. So she began the only way that she knew how: at the beginning. "Well, see, he's kinda part of it, so I have to talk about him. Anyways, remember how I had to like audition to sing in that Christmas thingy?"

[Raebee]

Miki's eyes narrowed, but she refrained from comment as Kylie explained that her story had something to do with Brody. Ever since the horrific sleepover, she knew she'd been cold to him, and when he had his accident it was proof to her that he didn't care about anyone but himself and what he wanted. The fact that he featured in this story at all bugged her to no end.

She nodded, her face relaxing as Kylie mentioned her performance back in MABTown. "Yeah I remember. Were there many other girls there trying out, or was it a sure thing?"

[Dani]

Recalling the day in the question, Kylie nodded her head. "Yeah, there were like all these other girls that tried out. I seriously thought that I'd get rejected or something. I was like majorly worried after I tried out." A tiny smile came to her face as she remembered how Brody had made her forget all of her worries that day. She wished he could do that now, but sadly he was the cause of most of them.

She took a few more sips of her smoothie and continued. "Okay, so before I continue this story. I need you to promise me one major thing. Please don't hate me after I finish it. You're like the only best friend that I can see all the time and stuff. I really need you around, you know?" Losing Brody would be painful enough, she didn't want to lose her best friend and future sister in law as well.