A knock on the door brought Raleigh form her thoughts. "Go away." She called behind her. She did not want to speak to anyone at the moment. Everyone seemed to hate she and Josh's friendship.

Hearing the door open, Raleigh became extremely annoyed. "What, do you not understand the concept of go away?" She said, turning around to see Bobbie standing there.

"Not when it comes to my baby sister."

"By six minutes." She said, crossing her arms, pouting. He always rubbed it in her face that he was the oldest of the two. It was only by a few minutes, but that didn't matter to him. He was the older twin.

Bobbie's grin faded as he got a look a Raleigh's saddened face. "Look, Ray. I know you think I'm with Mom and Dad and Janie, Nick, and Al. But I'm not. I know Josh is a good guy and I know he feels about you just as much as you do him. Nothing can ever change that. I mean, yeah, if he breaks your heart again I'll break his face, but he realized his mistake. I can see it every time he looks at you." Raleigh raised a questioning look at her brother and laughed. "I've seen you two together a lot more than you think these past few weeks. The sadness is there along with tons of regret, and most of all, love. I think the main reason he wrote that letter was because he was scared."

"Scared of what?"

"You and he have been together since you were kids. Neither of you knew what it was like to date other people. He probably wanted to find out if you were the best thing that could have happened to him. Which he think he realized. Plus too he was afraid you'd grow even further apart when you go to California at the end of the summer."

"So, you don't think I should just tell him to fuck off like everyone else?"

Laughing, Bobbie shook his head. He always found it funny when Raleigh swore, it was so rare to hear. "No. I think you two are best for each other. Together you're unstoppable."

Smiling, Raleigh wrapped her arms around her brother. "Thank you, Bobbie."

"Hey, what are big brothers for?" He said, letting go of her and giving her a little nudge.

"Ugh! Six minutes! You're my big brother by six friggin' minutes!" She said, chasing him down the hallway.

~*~

Walking down the road, Josh was in his own little world talking to Justin on his cell phone. "She's a friggin' beast, dude...No she just came up out of nowhere spoiling the moment Ray and I had going on and just grabbed her arm and pulled her way. She even compared me to her Memphis guy. I don't even remember the fucker's name. But can you believe that? If Ray ever got pregnant I would have never left her. I'd be there forever. Not like that prick who fled the fuckin' state claiming Janie cheated on him." The line was silent for a second and Josh though Justin had hung up. "You there, Justin?...Oh you were really quiet....Oh, dude, can I call you back? Yeah I just see someone I wanna talk to...Alright, talk to you later man. Bye."

Hanging up his phone, Josh put it back in his pocket and crossed the dead street. Quietly going behind the woman, Josh quickly and lightly poked her sides. She jumped and screamed and turned around really fast.

Josh had a huge grin on his face as he saw her. "Hey, Mandy."

"Josh! Dammit, you know better than to do that to me!" She said, clutching at her chest. "You scared the hell out of me."

"I'm sorry, but I saw you over here and I had to do it."

"Jerk." She smiled at him. "Chris told me you were back in town. Were you ever planning on coming to see me?"

"Of course I was. You know I couldn't come back home and not get some of your home cooking."

"Oh is that all I'm good for?"

"No, you're good for a lot. But your cooking is definitely one of them."

"So how've you been, Josh? You been happy?"

"I'm getting there."

"Yeah?" Mandy got a shit eating grin on her face and Josh knew she'd heard something. "I heard you and our young Raleigh had a midnight rendezvous the other night."

Laughing a little bit. "Yeah, I guess you could say that. We're trying to be friends again."

"I think we all know how that'll turn out." She said seriously and Josh wondered what she meant by that. Shrugging it off, Josh looked back at her.

"So, how have you been, mommy-to-be?"

"Oh man, I love hearing that." Mandy laughed whole-heartedly. "I'm doing really great. Poor Chris has to put with my mood changes, but he loves me so it's worth it."

"I bet. Well, I should get going. It was great seeing you. and congratulations."

"Thanks Josh. And make sure you come over for dinner before you leave to go back to school."

"I will, don't worry."

"Good." He started walking away and Mandy called after him. "Oh, Josh? If you're looking for Raleigh, she's visiting Carly at the music shop."

"Alright, thanks. I'll see you later, Mandy."

"Bye, Josh."

~*~

"All the times you've been with Josh since he's been home, have you told him?"

Looking up at Carly from her large order of French fries smothered in ketchup, Raleigh looked confused. "Told him what?"

"You know. What happened after he left."

"Oh. No. I don't think I'm going to either."

"Ray,"

"Carly." She said, sitting up fully. She was beginning to get annoyed. "It was my decision. Besides, if he found out now it'd kill him. I can't do that to him."

"The whole town knows, Ray. He's gonna find out eventually. I just think it's better coming from you."

"I know. I just can't hurt him like that, no matter how badly he hurt me. Nobody deserves that."

"And you did?" Raleigh was at a loss for words at that. Sure what she had done was extremely hard on her, but Josh would just break down. It would kill him, and Raleigh could never bring herself to be the one to do that to him. He still meant way too much to her.

"Maybe I'll tell him someday, but not anytime soon." Just then, the two girls heard the door open and in walked the man of the summer.

"Speak of the devil." Carly smirked.

"Sh, not one word of this." Raleigh whispered to her as she stood up. "Hey Josh."

"Hey girlies, what's up?" Josh said, slinging his arm around Raleigh's neck. It seemed so simple to do, something he did often. Even though he hadn't done it in six months.

Carly gave Raleigh a look before meeting Josh's gaze again. "Nuttin, just talking about some stuff. Although I'm not sure I have time to chit chat anymore, since you know, it's so busy in here."

"Well, you do have one customer." Josh pointed to the girl in the corner looking at some cd's.

"Yeah, that's Tully. She's been in here for the past twenty minutes."

"Dude, that's Tully? She got hot." Josh had to say.

"I gave her a make over." Raleigh said watching the shy girl. "She needed some confidence. She's a real pretty girl once she gets cleaned up."

"You did a good job, Ray."

"I know." She smiled triumphantly.

"So." Josh said, changing the subject. "What you girls got planned for the carnival in two weeks. Got dates?"

"James." Raleigh immediately said, holding up her hand.

"Well, I figured that. How about you, Car?" Josh did a pretty good job at hiding the fact that he was jealous as hell that she was going with James, but what could he do about it? Nothing that's what. After all, they were just friends, right? Carly saw right through his act.

"I'm going with someone."

"Oh, anyone we know?"

"Maybe." She said, busying herself with some return cd's.

"Come on, Car. You can't leave me hanging like that. Do you know who it is?" Josh said, looking down at Raleigh.

"I can't say." She said, smiling.

"Come on! Is it a new guy in your life? A boyfriend? Just a friend? What, you're killing me here."

"Well, it's nothing official yet, but we've been seeing each other casually for a little while now."

Staring down Carly's facial expressions and movements, something popped into his head. When he asked Justin that question, he did the exact same thing. Was it possible they had finally hooked up? Something they had all been waiting for to happen for God knows how long? "It's Justin."

With that, Carly's head shot up and looked at him. She had a look of shock written on her face. He was obviously on pin-point. "Why do you say that?"

"He's told me the same thing and you both had a the same reaction when asked about the carnival. It's not that hard to figure out."

"Don't tell anybody, Josh. Please." Carly pleaded with him. The last thing she needed was the entire nosey-ass town butting into her private life now. She wasn't what the town called ‘Justin's type.' She had short black hair that went down to the middle of her neck and had highlights. She wore far from girly clothes, unless they were skirts and shoes form Hot Topic at the mall about an hour away in Memphis. Although once in a while Raleigh would get her to wear a pretty dress or something when they went out to bars. Like today she had the ends of her hair curled outward and had on a pair of black pants with a green T-shirt that had the three monkeys on it. See no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil. It was one of her cuter days. She didn't have them very often.

"I won't, Don't worry."

"So, boy wonder, are we going stag to the carnival this year?" Carly asked, settling back into her chair behind the counter.

"Looks that way. I mean I didn't really plan on being home this year."

"What about Tully?" Raleigh suggested, looking at the poor girl.

"You think she'll even go?"

"Josh, she's had a crush on you for the longest time. And she's never even gone. Show her some things she's never seen before."

They could tell he was thinking about it. Should he or shouldn't he, that was the question. "Alright." Letting go of Raleigh, he walked over to where Tully was standing, seemingly finding the cd she had been looking for all this time. "Hey, Tully." Josh said, standing next to her."

Looking up to the tall man beside her, Tully was a little surprised to see him there. "Hey Josh. I heard you were back for the summer." She still had that cute little voice.

"Yeah. Just hanging out, catching up with old friends."

"Yeah." Still the same old shy Tully they all knew.

"Um, so, how've you been? You changed a little bit."

"Yeah, your girlfriend helped me out."

"Oh, she's not...we're not..."

"I know." She smiled at him and turned towards the front counter to check out.

"Uh, Tully, I was just wondering, you going to the carnival at all?"

"Nope. Never have, why should I go this year?"

"I was wondering if you wanted to go with me." That made her stop dead in her tacks. Turning on her heel, Josh could tell a million questions were running through her mind at the moment. Most of them probably along the lines of, ‘what the fuck are you on?'

"What?" Was the only comprehendible thing he could make out of the jumbled mess coming from her mouth.

"Well, I figure you've never gone because you never had a date. So, do you want to go with me?"

"You have got to be kidding me."

"Why? I think we'd honestly have a good time together."

Getting close to him, Tully crossed her arms and stared him in the eye, neither moving for at least forty-five seconds. "You serious? Or is this just some kind of sick joke? Something like as soon as we get there everyone throws eggs at me or something?"

"Have people actually done that to you?" Josh whispered to her. She just looked away from him and set down her cd, running out of the store. Josh of course had to run out after her. For some reason he wanted to get inside her head, find out everything she'd had to endure over the years. All the hell they put her through. "Tully, will you stop please?"

"Why? So you can be so mean to me like the rest of them?"

"No, so I can find out what's going on with you." Stopping short, Tully turned abruptly and looked him square in the eye.

"Why now? We've known each other for fifteen years. Why now all of a sudden do you want to talk to me? Why now would you even think about asking me to the carnival where you know everyone who hates me and I hate just as badly will be? Do you really want to add to my humiliation?"

"I'm sorry, Tully. I guess I never stopped to think about how everything affected you."

"Of course not. You were too busy playing suck face with Raleigh to notice people in this town actually have bad lives."

"I know that, and I'm sorry. I'm just trying to make it right." Tully just looked away and shook her head, a few tears escaping her chocolate eyes. "Tully, can't I have a second chance to be your friend?"

"I guess everybody deserves a second chance." Then looking back at Josh, she straightened. "But I swear to God that if this is some sick joke I will put you in the hospital."

"It's not, Tully. Promise." Josh smiled at her.

"Fine."

"Alright, pick you up at seven Wednesday night."

"Ok." Then she turned and walked away. As much as she hated to admit it, Tully had a feeling this was going to be the best summer ever for her. She actually had a date. Normally she skipped any social gathering, she hadn't even gone to their prom. Maybe things were finally looking up for her.

"So? How'd it go?" Raleigh asked as Josh came back into the shop.

"Well, for the first time in our history, Tully O'Brien will be making a public appearance."

"Its about time." Carly said, smiling with them all.