The next morning, Stacey's phone rang waking her up. She looked at her watch it was almost noon. She usually didn't sleep so late but she had hardly slept as she had lain awake all night thinking of Ann. She looked at the caller ID and saw that it was Kate. She took a deep breath and answered.
-"hey Kate."
-"you sound tired. Been partying all night with your new best friend?" said Kate sardonically.
Stacey sighed.
-"Kate, come on. Don't be like that."
-"well what am I supposed to think, Stace. I hardly see you anymore and last night I see you hanging out with HER!"
-"HER name is Ann!" defended Stacey impulsively.
-"now you're defending her?! what's going on?"
-"look, I'll explain. Just meet me at Morning Blend in half an hour."
-"fine." said Kate and she hung up.
When she got there, Kate was already waiting for her. The coffee shop was empty at this time of day. They got hot chocolates and sat at their usual table by the window overlooking the street.
-"Well?" asked her Kate.
-"Since when has this been going on?"
-"since Eric's party."
-"But you were arguing with her. what? did you kiss and make up afterwards?"
Stacey almost choked when she heard that remark.
-"um, something like that."
-"but Stace how can you hang out with someone like her?"
-"what do you mean by someone like her? you don't even know her."
-"come on, Stace. You've heard the rumours."
-"that's it Kate. You said it yourself, they're just rumours. And you should know first hand how wrong and completely untrue they can be."
-"what do you mean by that?"
-"I'm talking about the time when you went to spend that summer vacation at your cousin Lilly's in Texas."
-"oh." said Kate her face suddenly grim as she remembered.
Her jealous cousin had spread some nasty unfounded rumours about her before she got there, and had made her stay there a living hell.
-"but this is different. We've seen first hand how she acts."
-"because we drove her to it." said Stacey.
Kate gave her a confused look. Stacey took a deep breath and explained everything to Kate. Well, almost everything. She left out the kissing parts. When she finished, Kate sat back in her chair and sighed.
-"well, I noticed we hadn't seen or heard about any of her old antiques during these past few weeks. And I was surprised to see her outfit yesterday at the movies. I almost didn't recognise her."
-"see." said Stacey with a smile.
-"now enough about Ann. What's been going on with you?"
-"what do you mean?"
-"come on Stace. Ever since you came back from your sister's you've been sad and distant. But lately you always have a goofy smile on your face. I've never seen you so happy before. Spill the beans. You've met someone!"
