Jenna poked her head into the guestroom where Brianna was staying. "Oh, Annaaaa..." she said, holding out the 'a' sound trying to wake her. Brianna rolled over in the bed and covered her head with the pillow. "It's 11:30 in the morning, dude! Are you going to get up and join us today?"

"What are we doing today?" Brianna asked groggily.

"Andrew and I need to run some errands; we have to go to the mall, the store and pay some bills. I want you to come with us because we're going to lunch with Andrew's niece and I think you two would get along well. So get up and get ready."

"Mph, fine. I have time to take a shower, right?"

"Yep, try to make it quick though." Jenna stated. She shut the door and Brianna climbed out of the bed and began rummaging through her suitcase. Since it had been raining lately, she decided on wearing one of her many pairs of black pants and a blue Sublime tee-shirt. She made her way to the bathroom and took a shower. In nearly thirty minutes, she dressed, brushed her teeth and pulled her hair half up, fastening it with a clip. She hair sprayed the pieces that were coming out of the clip so that they looked spikey. (<~ haha. Thanks, Friend!) She wandered into the living room where Andrew and Jenna were watching some game show on television.

"Are ya ready?" Andrew asked.

"Yeah. I have to put my shoes on, but I can't find them. Have you seen them?"

Andrew shook his head and Jenna answered. "They're by the door."

"Thanks." Brianna said. She meandered her way to the door and slipped on her shoes. She went back into the guestroom and put on her black zip-up sweater and grabbed her glasses. "Alright, now I'm ready." she confirmed, walking into the kitchen and getting herself a Sprite from the fridge.

"So. Where are we going first?" Brianna asked, sliding into the backseat of Andrew's extended cab truck.

"Gotta go get Ember." Andrew informed.

"Ember?!" Brianna questioned.

"It's short for Emberlyn. My sister was in a creative mood when she named her I guess. She's my niece."

"Oh, okay. That's interesting. Anywhoo ... I hate the word anywhoo. So anyway! She's your niece, eh? And how old might she be? Please tell me she's not some annoying eleven or twelve year old."

"No no. She'll be sixteen next month. This is my oldest sister's daughter."

"Holy crap, how old is your sister?" Brianna asked.

"She's, like, thirty eight or something."

"Good lord, how old is your mom?!"

"I'm not sure. I think she's in her late fifties or early sixties; I'd have to ask her. Why are we talking about this?"

"Um, I don't know! Turn on the radio or something, please." Brianna requested, ending their conversation. Andrew flipped the radio to a station and stopped there, turning it up a notch. "Metallica? Ew."

Andrew smirked and turned it up some more, just to annoy Brianna. They listened to it for another maybe five minutes until they pulled in front of a fairly good sized house. Andrew turned down the music and went inside. He returned with a girl who looked to be about Brianna's height with naturally blonde hair that fell about halfway down her back. Andrew opened the mini-passenger door and let the girl climb in the truck. As he walked around the vehicle, Jenna introduced the two.

"Ember, this is my cousin from Maryland I was telling you about, Anna. Anna, that's Ember, Andrew's niece."

The girls smiled at each other, both being a bit shy. After a few minutes of driving, Emberlyn finally spoke up. "Andrew, can you do me a favor and turn this shit off?"

"Geez! First Anna tells me Metallica sucks, and now you're telling me Tool is shit. You girls have no taste in music."

"No, we do. Apparently yours just sucks." Brianna added.

Jenna, who had been laughing at the conversation that had been going on, interrupted. "Hey Ember, we're going to lunch at Rubio's. I hope that's okay with you. Anna's never been there, so I want her to try it."

Emberlyn nodded and looked to Brianna. "You've never been there?!" she asked.

Brianna shook her head. "No. They don't have those in Maryland."

"Oh, you east coast people are missing out! Do you like sea food?"

"No, not really. Just shrimp. Shrimp is great."

"Really?! Same here! Okay, you definitely want to get the shrimp burrito. Their so good."

Brianna and Emberlyn began a conversation about food, which led into other topics as well. They seemed to be getting along good, so Andrew decided to let Emberlyn tag along to the places they had to go rather than take her home after lunch, which was the original plan.

They day ended up being pretty fun for Brianna. Her and Emberlyn explored Arrowhead mall together while Andrew and Jenna shopped. They discovered that they a lot of the same interests in clothes, guys and music. Despite Brianna's doubt about Emberlyn, since her blonde hair and blue eyes reminded her so much of Patty at first, she seemed to be pretty cool. Before Emberlyn was dropped off, her and Brianna exchanged phone numbers, addresses and email addresses to keep in contact.

Upon arriving to the apartment that night, Brianna asked Jenna if she could call back home. Jenna agreed, so Brianna dialed the familiar number of Kaylei's house. After a few rings, the phone was picked up.

"Hello?" a male voice asked.

"Hey John, it's Anna. Is Kaylei around?"

"Nope. She's been gone all day. Last time I talked to her, which was ... a long time ago ... she was going to Benji's. I have no clue where she is right now."

"Oh. Damn it, that sucks. I really need to talk to her, too."

"Um, do you want me to have her call you back?"

Brianna laughed slightly. "Are you frickin' stoned, John?! I'm in Arizona. She's not gonna call me back when I'm way the F out here."

"Wow!" John exclaimed, "funny you say that, Anna. I am stoned! Haha! Why are you in Arizona?"

"You're such a screw-up, John, I swear. I'll just call her --"

"Whoa!" John said, interrupting Brianna, "wait, she's here. Kaylei, when did you get here?"

"I've been home for almost an hour. Lay off the drugs, dude. Give me the phone." Brianna heard Kaylei say in the background. "Hello?" she said into the phone.

"Hey, Lei! What's up?"

"Um ... nothing." Kaylei answered, suddenly sounding a tad bit nervous.

"How's everything there?"

"Everything is ... good. Fine. Why? Why do you ask?"

Brianna could tell something was up by the sound of Kaylei's voice, but she didn't know what. Instead of prying for an answer, she let it go. "I was just wondering. Is that okay with you?"

"Oh. Yeah, I guess. Hey listen Anna, I gotta go. I'll talk to you when you get back."

"Okay ..." Brianna said, confused, "talk to you then. Bye."

"Later." Kaylei quickly hung up the phone and sighed. How was she going to tell Brianna what had happened between herself and Joel? When she finally did tell her, what would Brianna's reaction be? How was it going to affect the relationship between the three; her and Joel's friendship? Her and Brianna's friendship? Most of all, Brianna and Joel's relationship? She knew it would change her and Benji's relationship - it already had. She didn't want to be the cause of Joel and Brianna's break up, but she couldn't hide the fact that it had happened from Brianna, that would be too hard to do. They always told each other everything. So many questions with so few answers.

Not having anything else to do, Kaylei went up to her room, layed on her bed and fell asleep, hoping it would bring relief from all the confusion.

*A/N: Dude!! Rubio's, the restaurant mentioned above, is soo ridiculously good!! But, uh, I'm not sure if they have them in Maryland or not, but for the sake of my story, we'll pretend they don't, even if they really do!! :D And, you can thank babynames.com for the name Emberlyn. I could not, for the life of me, settle on a name for that girl! First she was Tori, then she was Keri, then I thought about Kellie and then she was Erin and then I finally found Emberlyn and thought ... 'that would be kinda cool'! And now, I really like it! I think its purdy! Eenywayz! Sorry about the dumb, small talk conversation that goes on in this chapter. It's kinda like a filler chapter, but not at the same time. If I would have just gone straight to the point, this chapter would have been like half a page long! So yeah ... it's like 2:30 in the morning and I have to work tomorrow, so I'm gonna go! Later!!*