Chapter 2

Paige held her sides with both hands. The constant laughter had her in stitches. The four friends who'd managed to make it into L.A. early sat around her living room telling stories of the last ten years of their lives. She constantly wiped her eyes, tears streaming down her face from the best laughing fit in ages. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d laughed so hard.

After more wine than any of them needed, they were all in gossip mode and the girls we're spilling every little dirty secret they knew.

"And then Kim tells him, `Multiple orgasms are a must, so if you can't deliver, then let me know up front. I would hate to waste the next forty-eight hours of my life if you aren't going to please me'." Amy's face was red by the time she finished trying to imitate her fast-talking, very blunt friend.

The room burst into another round of giggles before Paige said, "Oh, Kim, you didn't?" She stared at the most flamboyant of her friends. Kim was by far the most outrageous person she'd ever met. She was blunt and spoke her mind no matter what the circumstances.

The loudest of the group, she hadn’t changed much from what Paige could tell. Always the comedic relief, nothing that came out of her mouth surprised anyone.

Kim looked much like she did in high school. Her short brown hair looked flirty, just like her. Her five-foot-five frame still thin but there wasn't anything skinny about her. The most voluptuous of them all, Kim used sex like a weapon. Anywhere and anyway is what Kim liked and the men she picked to fill her nights weren't your average Joes.

"What?" Kim said, smiling. "He was cute but come on; I don't have time for casual sex. I'm not getting any younger. If I plan on meeting mister right, I have to weed out the mistakes before I wake up one day and realize the man next to me has very few sexual skills and his penis isn't even that large in the light."

"You know Kim, maybe you need to look into hooking up in a threesome situation until you find your stud. It will cut back on the time you spend hunting Mr. Right," Courtney said without looking up. She scanned their old high school yearbook, idly flipping through the pages. Her voice barely made it over the roar of laughter from the others.

"Oh, now there's a plan," Amy chimed in.

"Or—you can just wait until Saturday and see if Travis is still available," Courtney grinned.

Courtney Logan, the vainest girl Paige had ever met, still preened like a princess. Even in pajamas, Courtney looked ready for a night on the town.

Paige watched her when she turned her head and looked at everyone, grinning before turning the book so the others could see. Her perfectly manicured fingertips tapped loudly on the picture of Travis and she tossed her over-bleached hair back across her shoulder before going back to the book.

"Oh please," Kim sneered. "He stands me up for the Prom for some stupid family gathering and you expect me to just invite him back into my bed? No, thank you."

"Good lord, Kim!" Megan squealed. "His grandmother died. I can't see faulting him on something he had no control over."

"Well, I spent good money for that dress only to have icky Randall fawn all over me like I was Aphrodite herself all evening! Travis Hardy can bite my ass."

"Speaking of icky… guess who I just found?" Courtney said in a sing-song voice, smiling wide before turning to look up at the girls.

"Who?" Amy asked, swallowing the last bit of her wine before motioning to Megan to refill her glass.

"Why, it's Paige's very own, one-man cheering section."

Paige felt her heart lurch in her chest. Her friends all jumped up from their seats and ran to Courtney's side to see the guy no one had seen in ten years. She smiled, looking away briefly, before watching them practically fall in the floor laughing.

"Come on guys," Paige said, shaking her head. "He wasn't that bad."

"Holy shit, I wonder if he'll be at the reunion," Amy asked, "I so want to see him again!"

"I wonder what he did after high school?" Kim asked staring down at the picture. The scrawny, curly brown haired boy staring back at her from the page sent her into another fit of giggles.

"I bet he's some janitor somewhere, still writing that ridiculous poetry and stealing glances at the ladies over those wide-framed dorky glasses," Courtney laughed.

Paige continued to smile before standing and walking to the kitchen to grab another bottle of wine, listening to the others talk about Colin.

It was true he hadn't been the most popular in school. He was the one guy everyone targeted for their punching bag. Not literally, but the punches they threw at him were just as bad.

On any given day, someone would humiliate him. His tall, gangly frame stood out amongst the Californians. His complexion, almost a pasty white color, made him look sickly and his mop of curly brown hair always hung around his ears and over his forehead. He stayed to himself and rarely spoke to anyone… besides her.

In the two years he'd attended Riverdale, he never missed the opportunity to speak to her. She found it cruel how people treated him but at the time, felt powerless to stop it. She stood by and watched so many of her friends taunt him and call him names and even though their actions were childish and immature, she did nothing to stop them.

She hadn't thought of him in years, the last time being when she was feeling rather lonely and in her "poor me" mood. She'd pulled down her memento box and looked through the poems he'd written her. After all these years she didn't have the heart to toss them out. Nerd or not, Colin Gregory held a special place in her heart. He was without a doubt, the sweetest guy Paige had ever met.

Everyone attending Riverdale High knew Colin had a major crush on her. Anytime anyone saw him, he was either staring at her or scribbling in his journal. And everyone knew what he wrote about. Almost daily someone would snatch the journal away from him and read it aloud. Poetry and stories filled the pages. Most of them were about true love and beauty so rare Paige couldn't help but smile.

She knew most of what he wrote was about her and at the time she'd laughed along with the others because it was the cool thing to do. It wasn't until the day she found out her jock boyfriend, Lance, cheated on her that she found a small note tucked into her locker. The words, "He will never be good enough for you," struck her like a bolt of lightening. She took the time to really examine Colin then and what he wrote for only her.

From that moment on, every time she found a new poem, she secretly read the verses until she'd practically memorized them. Reading between the lines, she could see the heartfelt words he wrote just for her and she finally looked at him.

She didn't see the boy everyone thought him to be. She saw the boy he wanted her to see. She saw a kind soul who, even though countless people taunted him daily for his affections toward her, never stopped trying.

The laughs and jokes at his expense didn't stop and even though she'd laughed and gone along with her friends' teasing of him to keep up appearances, a part of her liked the thought of him caring so much for her. And he did. She could see it in his written words and the way he looked at her.

Colin Gregory had been in love with her.

"Hey Paige," Amy yelled from the living room, "Remember when he asked you to the Prom?"

Paige turned her head, smiling back into the other room when their laughter continued and the memory came back to her. She didn't know how many times she wished she could go back and change the events of that day. She could still see the tears in Colin's eyes. The pained expression on his face, when the entire room burst into laughter after someone overheard their conversation, still haunted her.

He was the butt of jokes for weeks after that… all because of her. They laughed and called him names and Paige did nothing to stop them. She never defended him or offered to help and a piece of her died every time someone made his life hell because of her.

She liked Colin. Not as much as he liked her, but she liked him. He wasn't the quintessential jock with good looks and a body to go along with it. He was quiet and shy and, even if she admitted only to herself, had the most amazing blue eyes of anyone she'd ever met. He wasn't terrible to look at either, but at the time, anyone not wearing the latest fashions was considered less than desirable. His geek status alone put him in the no-touch zone. He never should have registered on her radar… but he did.

She never told anyone what she thought of him. Not even Meg. Her friends would have had her committed for even thinking it. Colin was a social leper at the time and even though her personal life was in shambles, she would have given anything to have someone actually hear what she had to say. Having someone around who actually cared about her would have been a Godsend. And she knew Colin would have listened. He would have clung to every word and offered her the world to make it better.

She tried talking to him after school the day he asked her to the prom, but the minute she approached him, he gave her a weak smile and said, "Don't worry, Paige. I know where I stand with you, now. I always thought you were different from them. I guess I was wrong."

He turned and walked away from her then. She stood there alone and watched him leave while she held the poem and rose he'd given her. His words stung and reminded her of the person she didn't want to be. She watched him walk away and knew she had finally broken him.

It was the last time he ever spoke to her.

No longer did she find him staring at her, or find the unsigned poems slipped into her locker. No matter how many attempts she made to talk to him, he walked past her like she didn't exist. Much like she had done to him. It hurt to be treated that way. She knew then the hell they made his life.

She never told a single person she called his house two days before prom, only to have his brother tell her to never call back. Their treatment of Colin was unfair—even hers. No one knew him. They never wanted to. And now, ten years later, they still laughed at the boy who'd worn his heart on his sleeve.

She sighed heavily thinking about it all. She hated treating people like inferior beings but when she heard the laughter coming from the other room she knew some things would never change, especially with her friends.

She turned and walked slowly back into the living room before making her way to the sofa and sitting down. She stared at her friends, their snickers over Colin having died down to an eerie silence. "Okay, what gives?" she asked, sipping her wine.

"Oh, nothing," Courtney said, flashing a completely fake smile.

Paige noticed the sly looks her friends gave her before she lifted one eyebrow and sat up in her seat. "Really? Because it looks like the four of you just found out your boyfriend cheated on you."

Megan smiled, turning her head towards Paige. "It's the King and Queen Prom photo," she said, quietly.

"Oh," Paige said, needing no more explanation. The memory of her and Lance posing for the picture and dancing to their song flashed back in her mind. She hadn't thought of him in years and she liked it that way. It took her a long time to get over him, but she did. Apparently her friends didn't think she had—or thought she shouldn't have.

Leaning back in her seat, she took a big sip of her wine, hoping to clear her mind of memories she'd just soon forget. She would have fun this weekend if it killed her. She needed this more than anything she could think of.

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