Room 311, Tuesday Evening

[its_theclimb]

Miley hadn't had any classes today, and Lilly was at school (dang time difference between Fandom and home!) and therefore untextable, so today had been something of an introspective day. She'd watched some of her old music videos on her iPod and gone through old AIM chat logs that she'd saved of her and Lilly and Oliver goofing off together, back in eighth and ninth grade. Everything had been so easy then. 

And now she was going through a scrapbook. Mamaw had made it for her -- actually, it was one of the few real-grandmotherly things Mamaw ever did, scrapbooking. It was filled with clippings and cutouts of Hannah Montana in magazines and newspapers, photos, old concert tickets. Most of it made her smile, but a few things (like the snapshots of performing for the queen, and Lilly's sixteenth birthday, god what a train wreck) just made her feel a little sad. 

This week? Hadn't been the greatest.

[[Door closed, post is for the Fandom BFF, and it's NFB for secretage.]]

Comments

[its-theclimb.livejournal.com]

"Well, it looks like I'll be giving her concert tickets for life."

Dumb Kenzi.

[puppywithatutu.livejournal.com]

"In exchange for keeping your secret?" Caroline was offended by this due to the problem where she still felt Miley was her friend. "Well, obviously she's no friend. Not that I'd mind getting to go to a concert."

[its-theclimb.livejournal.com]

"You mean you still want to?" Miley asked hopefully, taking a seat next to Caroline on the bed.

Yeah, the defensive thing wasn't working, not when Caroline was her best friend at this school. Admitting how important she was to her felt lame, but it was true.

[puppywithatutu.livejournal.com]

"Um, duh," Caroline eyed Miley carefully, wondering just how lame it was to give in so fast. "Assuming you'd trust some vampire girl hanging around your concert. And don't worry about hurting my feelings, I'm seriously used to not being on the most trusted list."

Play that tiny violin a little more, Caroline.

[its-theclimb.livejournal.com]

"It's not like that, okay?" Miley ran a hand through her bangs, trying to think of how to phrase it. "If everyone knew, I could never have a normal life, and neither could any of my friends. I didn't want to put you through that."

Making it sound a lot less selfish than it actually was, Miley.

[puppywithatutu.livejournal.com]

"Oh please, how is my life normal? I couldn't even spit on normal from here!" Caroline argued, crossing her arms over her chest a little huffily. "But fine, you wanted to be normal. I can't actually blame you for that."

[its-theclimb.livejournal.com]

"Yeah. I -- you're not the first person I've wanted to tell, even." Miley frowned, glancing at her nails. "But -- god, my nails need an extra coat, like, stat."

A moment of staring at her fingers.

"Wait, what was I saying?"

[puppywithatutu.livejournal.com]

"That if you were going to tell someone here about your super secret double life, it would be me!" Caroline supplied. "And not just because I have this really amazing crackle top coat that I would totally loan you."

[its-theclimb.livejournal.com]

"Yes!" Miley exclaimed gratefully. "To both of those! Yes. Exactly." Sometimes having a Disney attention span wasn't the worst thing.

Pause, then sincerely -- "I'm sorry."

[puppywithatutu.livejournal.com]

Caroline nodded, appreciating the sentiment as she opened her arms, a little bit desperate for a hug. "I'm sorry I got all violent with your door."

[its-theclimb.livejournal.com]

"It's okay," Miley said, and no her voice didn't crack there, what are you talking about? She did, however, move to pull Caroline into a tight hug. "Thanks for getting it," she murmured into Caroline's shoulder. "Not everyone would."

Hey, even Lilly hadn't. Then again, she had been twelve at the time.

[puppywithatutu.livejournal.com]

"If I didn't have to pretend to be a real teen girl, I might not," Caroline admitted, taking the comfort of her friend's arms for the moment. "Any other day and my extreme jealousy would've ruined this sappy little moment, too."

[its-theclimb.livejournal.com]

"Psh, you don't want to be jealous," Miley scoffed when they separated. "I mean, sure, it makes shopping in costume a lot more interesting, and there's really nothing like being onstage in front of an audience, but..."

Waaait, that sounded good.

"...my publicist can get really bossy sometimes."

Nice, Miley. Nice.

[puppywithatutu.livejournal.com]

Caroline nearly smiled at the publicist comment. "Hey you get to live a rock star fantasy whenever you want, people are gonna be jealous."

Too bad Caroline was too busy being cranky to try today.

[its-theclimb.livejournal.com]

"Well... yeah." Miley had to blush and grin at that.

"Tell you what. No one back home knows we're friends. Next time I go back for a concert or something, you should come! We'll, like, go to an afterparty or something." Without alcohol. Sorry, Caroline. "Sound good?"

[puppywithatutu.livejournal.com]

"So I'd get to be a friend of Hannah?" Caroline smirked, amused by the idea. "I think I could live with that. Your trips home are sounding way better than mine. I mean, Tyler invited me to come help him with his special monthly time. There's really no comparing that with a concert."

[its-theclimb.livejournal.com]

"His special -- OH, the werewolf thing." Yeah, Miley had looked very confused for a minute there. "Well, hey, I don't know, Tyler seems nice. I talked to him a little at the brunch. Totally wouldn't mind spending a weekend with him."

Mmmmmm.

[puppywithatutu.livejournal.com]

Caroline lifted an eyebrow at that statement. "Oh? Is someone hot for my werewolf pal?" She tried not to look too displeased, but excuse her if she was a little preoccupied with her own romance-related werewolf issues.

[its-theclimb.livejournal.com]

"What? Psh, no, I've got enough eye candy around here," Miley laughed. "But -- oh! He mentioned drama with Jake's friend. Is everything okay?"

Sorry it had taken her so long to get there, Caroline. Side effect of being appallingly self-absorbed.

[puppywithatutu.livejournal.com]

"Sure you're not interested." Like Caroline believed that for a second.

Did Miley really want to know of Caroline's drama slash trauma? "Kind of the opposite. The short version is that Sam broke up with me for Jake and made it so Jake can't actually talk to me or touch me or move in my general direction. Sounds fun, yeah?" Despite the easy way she described it, Caroline was actually pretty miserable about the whole thing. And about how she'd been avoiding her boyfriend all day. Sigh.

[its-theclimb.livejournal.com]

And that would be Miley gaping at her.

"Pretty half of the school's It Couple say what?"

Oh, now, Miley, that wasn't true. Jake was also pretty.

[puppywithatutu.livejournal.com]

Caroline groaned and collapsed back on Miley's bed. "It's awful. And now I'm avoiding him because it sucks, which you know is just going to piss him off, but I can't help it." It hurt too much to see him like that.

And to remember how she totally compelled him to hug her, oops.

[its-theclimb.livejournal.com]

"Oh my gosh, Caroline, I'm so sorry," Miley said, eyes wide. "Is it -- is it, like, a magic thing? So he can't physically...?"

God. It was horrible just to picture happening to her, and in reality she knew it had to be even worse.

[puppywithatutu.livejournal.com]

"Something like that," Caroline waved her hand vaguely, like the alpha orders were the least of her problem. "Basically Sam's the only one who can fix it, only Sam's a jerk and hates me just because I'm a vampire. How is that even fair? I mean, okay so I killed some people before, but it was a long time ago and if I could go back and fix it, I would! There are remorseless vampires all over, maybe he could focus his hate better." She sighed, having waited a couple days for this rant. "Oh and did I mention it's my fault? Because I'm the idiot who invited him after Jake told me to let it go."

So, so stupid.

[its-theclimb.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Miley was hung up on the "killed people" part. But only for a second!

"Okay, so we have to figure out how to fix it," she said, sitting up straight and focusing on the task at hand. "Can we, like, bribe him? Is there something he really wants? Or if it's just a say-the-magic-word thing, would it work if someone got him to say it out of context?"

Those strategies always worked at home!