Cheers to New Beginnings

Chapter 2: Getting to know...

Chapter 2: Getting to Know...

Lilibeth Edwards:

I fell back onto the table I'd been leaning on when Cadience was dragged up by Leslie. I knew I looked like a fish out of water opening and closing my mouth repeatedly, but I couldn't figure out what to say to that. The girl I'd called my best friend for years was dead, had been dead for months, and I didn't even know about it. I never thought about what might be going on in their lives. All I'd focused on was keeping away from the drugs and alcohol and my own renewal. I never thought to keep in touch with them to show them that change was better.

My eyes never left Cadience's, and I could see my pain mirrored in his eyes.

"Was it on purpose?" I whispered. My new friends were watching us like a freak show, but I didn't care at the moment.

"What?" Cadience asked stepping forward to hold my shoulders steady. I swallowed hard and tried again.

"Was it on purpose?" He shook his head quickly.

"No. It was an accident. She was trying a new amount. We couldn't talk her out of it." I unconsciously grabbed his hand.

"You were with her?" I saw him swallow, and he removed his gaze from mine in regret and guilt.

"Yeah, I was, and all I have to show for it is a head stone and some lame excuses." He tried to pull away, but I grabbed his shoulder with force, making him look me in the eye. The world around us seemed to fade away, and all I saw was his blue-grey eyes. His dyed brown hair was hanging down his forehead almost hypnotising me as it had when I was sixteen.

"Don't do that. I wasn't there, and I don't know what happened, but I know you well enough to know that there was nothing you could have done. She probably had her boyfriend there. We both know if you'd tried to stop her, you would have ended up paralyzed at best. Heather knew what she was doing. It's no one's fault but her own." He stared for a minute before nodding. I let him step back, and he smirked.

"You know what, Lil?" He asked.

"What?" I asked becoming aware of Brent's pissed off face, Leslie's furious one, and Amber and Ken's wide eyes. The pulse of the music beat around us while people danced in the middle of the open area.

"I kind of miss your twisted logic and forceful truths." I chuckled slightly remembering a time when he'd said 'I kind of think your twisted logic and brutal truths is hot.'

"Okay," Amber muttered intruding. "Now that the weird psycho drama is over, do you guys want to tell us how you know one another?" My eyes snapped back and forth from them to Cadience reminding myself why we weren't friends any more when we left.

"I'm the ex-best friend and the ex-boyfriend," Cadience said with a smirk.

"Thank God," I replied sarcastically. "It's been a peaceful year and a half without you to bug me."

"I guess we're back to the I-hate-you bit?"

"Hey you started it," I snapped. He'd been the one to decide we were no longer friends after we broke up.

"And I've tried to fix it!"

"Too late." I turned to my friends with a smile. "Sorry about that guys. This is Cadience if you didn't catch that," I teased. Amber's green eyes met mine, but I couldn't understand what she was trying to say.

I sighed as I sat down on the floor of Logan's basement. He and his friends had found Cadience and announced that they were stealing boos and heading over to his game room basement. And since Leslie was shamelessly flirting with Cadience, and he was flirting back just to annoy me, we all had to come to protect Leslie. We'd started out playing pool for a couple hours and dancing. I'd kicked butt at pool and would have much rather been playing more pool then settling down to play "Never Have I Ever." It had been a drunk Chloe's idea, and since Logan had spent much of his night sucking face with her, he'd wrangled the rest of us into it. This game would be my one and only beer for the night, and I dreaded telling my secrets. I couldn't lie though. Cadience would with out a doubt call me on it, and he knew just about everything about me.