"Oh!" I laughed. I turn my cards around, delighted, and presented them to everyone. "Look at that! Full House."

Justin groaned. "There goes my chance of not being last."

"Yeah, yeah. Strip, boy," I told him.

"Aww, come on," he pleaded. "I’m only in my underwear! Chris has at tons of clothes left on."

"Yeah, so? Chris is smart. He dressed in more than jeans, a wife-beater, and underwear. Now off with those underwear!" I laughed evilly.

"I’m really going to get you back."

His partner looked at him, and scooted away, like everyone else was doing. "I’m not going over there, now," Chris remarked. He took off his sock. "There goes mine."

"Who wants to quit?" Justin asked. "I do."" He raised his hand, thought about it for a second, then raised the other one.

"That’s not going to work," I told him. I got my camera out of my bag, and brought it up. "Smile pretty!" I took the picture as Justin’s mouth dropped open. "Boy, I should put that one on the Internet, for the teenyboppers to see. They’d like that one."

JC laughed. "It’s not funny, Jace," Justin snapped. "I’m nude, and she just took a picture of me!"

"Ooooh. Tabloids!" I announced. "I wonder if the National Inquirer would like this photo." Justin flashed me a unfavorable look. "I’m so scared, JuJu."

"JuJu?" he asked. "Where did you get that?"

"Oh, well, I studied a little bit of Armenian last year. JuJu means ‘pussy’ in Armenian." I snickered. "I think it fits you quite nicely."

"You know, Meredith , I wouldn’t go to sleep tonight," Justin told me.

"Oh, he used my full first name. I’m frightened. Really." I smiled sweetly at him. "How do you plan on getting into my room? The door will be locked. Or did you forget that?"

He rolled his eyes. "Just . . . watch it."

"That’s it, Mister. You wanna watch it? I’ll take you on, right here, right now." I stood up. "Whoa! Damn boy. You really don’t stuff, do you?" I blushed, while everyone roared with laughter. I quickly sat back down. "Well, anyway. Get some clothes on, and I’ll kick your ass."

He grabbed his jeans, and underwear, and took off into the next room.

"Nice ass," Laura called after him. Lance looked at her. "What? You know I was joking. Calm down."

"Yea, Lance. Don’t get so jealous," Justin called. "Just cause I’ve got a ‘cute ass’. That’s no reason to be jealous!"

Joey laughed, and slapped Lance on his back. "Get over it."

"Yeah," Lance said.

***

"Did you know that this is my favorite song, JC?" I wondered, leaning over him, to turn the radio up.

"I do now." He sat back, giving me more space to lay down on.

I began to sing along with the lyrics. "Looking back, on the memory of, the dance we shared, beneath the stars above. For a moment, all the world was right. How could I have known that you’d ever say good bye." I sniffed. "This song is so sad. It makes me cry," I told him. "I could have missed the pain, but I’d a have to miss the dance," I finished, whispering.

A tear slipped down my cheek. "In the video, Garth Brooks, he says that he wants this song to be played at his funeral. I want this song to be played at my funeral, when I die." I paused. "It was played at Dana’s . . . " I said, softly.

"Who’s Dana?" JC asked, wiping a tear from my face.

The music cut off. I looked up to see Susie. "Hey," I said sadly.

"You don’t need to be listening to this song. It never helps you any," she told me. I sat up, and stared at the wall. I felt her hand on my shoulder. "It’s not your fault."

"Yes, it is. I killed her." I glanced at JC’s bewildered face. I looked down at my hands. "I need to get out of here." I stood up, and walked back to the back of the bus. I opened the door, and saw Justin, Chris, Joey, and Laura. They all looked up at me. I swirled around, and went back up to the front. I stopped by the bathroom, and knocked on the door.

"I’m in here," came Lance’s voice.

"Hurry up, please," I said, my voice cracking. I placed my hand on my head, and leaned against the wall, with my other hand. JC came up behind me.

"Mere, what’s wrong?" he asked me.

"Nothing," I replied.

"It isn’t nothing. I know it isn’t."

"Don’t worry about it," I told him. I coughed. "Nothing matters." Lance opened the door, and I rushed in, and slammed it behind me.

"Meredith!" JC called. "Please!"

"Go away!" I yelled. "Can’t you just leave me alone? I just want to be left alone!" I put my head in my hands, and started to cry.

"What’s wrong?" I heard Lance ask.

"I don’t know!" JC’s tense voice said. "She won’t tell me anything." He sighed. "She just shuts herself off from me."

I got up, and opened the door. "I shut myself off . . . because you don’t want to know what I used to be like. If you did . . . you wouldn’t want to know me anymore." I looked down. Teardrops fell, and I pushed past them. "I’m going to go to sleep. Maybe I’ll forget that my past ever happened."

***

JC sat Susie down in the back room. Everyone watched her, except for Laura, who stared out a window. She knew what was coming. Susie nervously played with her watch, as she thought of the words to say.

"Susie, will you please tell us what’s wrong?" JC asked her.

"I really don’t know if I should. I know I should, but I don’t know. I mean, if anyone’s going to tell you, it should be Meredith, not me." She hesitated. "But I guess I will. There’s a lot of things that you don’t know about her. The day that we met you guys, Meredith’s best friend dumped her. As a friend, I mean. Mere was in a really bad mood, and Faith, her friend, had ben complaining about a lot of stupid things.

Anyway, Mere told her to shut up, or something like that. I don’t know exactly, but Faith sent her an email saying that she shouldn’t be like that. She’s all, ‘God, My friend just died, and you’re yelling at me?’." Susie paused to take a breath. "Well, the girl, that had died, that was Dana."

"Yea, and? Why is it, that Mere thinks she killed Dana?" JC asked. "She didn’t, did she?"

Susie shook her head no. "Of course not. But her senior year, Meredith was going through a lot of problems, with her family, and she took it out on other people. She used people to get her way, and one of those people happened to be Dana. While Mere used Dana, Faith became friends with her. Faith didn’t like the way Mere was being, but she never said anything to her about it. I don’t know why.

"But finally, toward the end of the year - the last two weeks, actually - Meredith drove Dana over the edge, and Dana killed herself. She left this note, saying that it was all Meredith’s fault, and if she had left her alone, maybe she’d still be alive." Susie looked down at her hands. "After that happened, Meredith realized that she needed to stop using people. In fact, when you got her that belly button ring, JC, she went all ballistic, because she was afraid that she was using you."

"Oh, no. If I didn’t want to get it for her, trust me, I wouldn’t have," he said.

"Yeah. that’s what I told her. But she’s really sensitive about it. They played ‘The Dance’ at Dana’s funeral. That’s one thing that gets her down. There’s a lot of things."

"She has bad dreams, too, huh?" Chris asked. "Like on the plane."

Susie nodded. "Exactly. She normally dreams, that Dana is back, to kill her, or something. I’m not completely sure. But it never helps any."

***

I opened my eyes. I couldn’t remember where I was, and looked around. "Oh," I said. "Tour bus." I got out of the bunk, and stretched. "Where is everyone?"

I walked to the front, and saw several of the bodyguards. "Hey," I yawned. "Where is everyone?" I repeated. He pointed to the back. "Thanks," I mumbled, and turned around. I opened the back door, and heard Susie say, "It’s just been . . . hard on her."

"Excuse me?" I asked, not believing what I had just heard. "What the hell? Are you guys discussing my problems?" Everyone looked up at me, guiltily. "I can’t believe you," I hissed. "If I wanted them to know, Susan Marie Hall, I would fucking tell them myself!" My eyes blazing, I slammed the door shut. "Stop the bus!" I screamed, marching up to the front. James, the bus driver, stopped the bus, at a convenient store, and I opened the door, and ran outside.