RECAP:

"That was…amazing." She managed to choke out.

"Hello, Heather." The voice spat out venomously.

It was then that my heart dropped into my stomach.

…Oh shit.

Shit. Fuck. Shit shit shit FUCK.

This was probably not the time for cursing inside my head. Realistically speaking, I should be doing it out loud. I mean, the guy I almost killed was no less than ten feet away from me.

…And yet, it was still too close.

All I could let out was a weak and confused…

"A-Alejandro?"

"…."

Silence.

Alejandro sat stiffly on the piano bench, hands fisted on his knees. He looked down at the ivory keys that were once making everything a little bit more bearable. But not now. Not with her in the room.

"…How?" She said incredulously. Cody had only told her this afternoon, she wasn't expecting to deal with him so soon after! She wasn't ready, she didn't-

He then slammed both of his fists on the grand piano, a horrible, twisted noise filling the room. Coincidentally, the noise very much resembled the twisting of his insides…and the aching pull of his chest.

He was angry.

Angry at himself, at her… the weak call of his name alone had somehow just made him angrier.

He shoved back the bench, standing up and turning around. His narrowed eyes locked onto her, daring her to say something more. He noticed her eyes widen a bit, staring at the scars on his face and neck. The look on her face suddenly turned guilty. It had almost mad him feel bad.

No. She doesn't deserve forgiveness.

Heather had moved closer, despite the little voice in her head telling her to run, to avoid all of this. But, that in itself was the problem…Heather never runs away.

"Is that...all you can say?" Alejandro questioned, his voice deadly calm. He jumped off the stage, landing with a heavy thud. "Do you even know what I've had to go through?" He continued lowly, taking slow calculating steps towards her. As if he were a lion stalking his prey.

"You… you broke me- no, you almost killed me!" His voice rose sharply on the last part, echoing in the room. He stopped and took a deep shuddering breath, trying to reel in his emotions.

"…And you never called. Never wrote. Never visited. You never even apologized." He finished lowly.

Now, if there was anything scarier, it was when the usually level headed, suave and charming Alejandro lost his cool. Heather had seen something like this in Drumheller, when she had teased him… but this was a whole new side of him. And a darker one at that.

But she was not going to slowly back away and go about her business as she had done before. Her shocked face turned angry in the moment, steel gray narrowing right back at sharp mint.

"It's not like I did it on purpose." She retorted, her tone matching his. "I wanted...to win. If youhad really wanted to win, you wouldn't have pulled that little stunt, or fed me any of your bullshit lies. You were right there and you didn't even-" She stopped her rant when she saw Alejandro start to…

…chuckle? What the hell? This wasn't funny!

"Why the fuck are you laughing?" she questioned angrily.

But he just kept softly chuckling, broken and a bit unsettling. "You…you thought I was lying?"

"Weren't you?"

"Was I?!"

She silently studied him. Her eyes were still narrowed, but now with pure confusion and annoyance.

"I know you were. I was the only one you hadn't completely screwed over on the show. You just wanted to see me go down, to be your little grand finale."

He's sucked in a breath and full on laughed this time, walking towards her once more. He was closing in from no more than five feet away from her. How the hell did that happen! She turned and noticed that the door was further away than before. I don't even remember moving this close…

He stopped right in front of her, his laughing had ceased in exchange for staring her down with as much malice as he could muster.

"Well, I've got a surprise for you, chica." He growled, sneering like a Jaguar who had just cornered his prey. He grabbed her forearms and pulled, closing the gap between them. They were nose to nose, glaring each other down until Alejandro leaned down towards her ear and whispered three little words:

"I. Wasn't. Lying."

His grip tightened with each word.

Heather flinched at his ice cold tone, but her heart raced. She could smell the mint on him, could feel the puffs of breath on her neck and jaw. And he had her, oh he had her so close to him. Her head was beginning to swim, she was starting to think about things she'd regret doing. Heather struggled to pull away, because they were waytoo close, and this was much too familiar, but he still had a firm grip on her forearms. She had only been able to pull back enough to be able to look him in the eyes. Those damned green eyes.

"I…" Heather started. What could she say? She didn't know if this was a ploy, or some kind of sick joke. Her stomach, her mind, her…heart, they were all saying something different. She was at war with herself. All she really could do is stare back helplessly.

A jumble of things were racing through her mind; how close he was, how not himself he'd become. Seeing his neck and face littered with scars had her feeling sick all over again. She wanted to run, she wanted to scream-

She wanted to kiss him...over and over on each scar until...

"I'm sorry!' She blurted out, unable to think of anything else to say. Unable to face the tail end of her thoughts.

Now, Heather never says sorry. Ever. She usually blames the person for being dumb enough to fall for her tricks. Hell, she rarely apologizes to her parents, let alone anyone else. So you can understand why they were both surprised into a tense silence.

The look of contempt on his face remained, but he loosened his grip on her arms, stepping out of her personal bubble. Thank god.

"What?" he asked, dumbfounded and highly skeptical. Since when did Heather, of all people, start apologizing? Is the world about to implode? Is Chris going to show up with a camera crew in a few seconds?

She broke their gaze and looked downward. "Don't...make me say it again." She grunted, her voice cracking a bit. Well, here's one for the books Alejandro thought. Heather, belly up and apologizing.

It made Alejandro a bit uneasy. He wasn't used to such a thing when it came from her. It also made his heart jump a bit, causing him to stare her down even harder.

Heather then looked back up at him, meeting Alejandro's criticizing stare before turning her gaze downward once more. She just couldn't look at him.

"I never meant for...any of what happened, to happen. It really was an accident." She started quietly, blinking back tears. "I may be called 'Queen Bee' or 'Bitch' of whatever, but I'm not completely heartless!" she snapped at the ending, glaring back up at him.

Oh. Now there's a look he was used to seeing. He'd forgotten that look, that smoldering fire in her eyes. A fire he only saw when she would challenge him. A fire he knew was only for him. His heart thudded uncontrollably.

And it pissed him off.

Alejandro's glare came back once more.

"So…and correct me if I'm wrong…" He advanced and she took a step back in turn,

"I'm supposed to believe that you kicking me in the groin," Another step.

"And pushing me down a volcano on a gigantic ice cube…" Another step.

"Sending me to my certain demise was anything but completely heartless?" He snarled, becoming exasperated and angry at the memories.

A sharp noise echoed throughout the room.

He stumbled back a bit, hand cupping his face. He noticed that the tears she had been blinking back were starting to fall.

"NO!" She yelled, hands clenched into fists at her side, "You getting hurt was the accident!" Her strained voice echoed throughout the room as she whirled around and stalked towards the exit. As she put her hand on the door she turned her head and said in a broken tone,

"But...you know what? You fucking deserved it."

And then she was gone, without looking back. Alejandro made no move to stop her.

-—-

"Heather, where have you been? I've been waiting for like, fifteen min- wait, are you…crying?" Camille asked, looking up at her cousin with a worried look on her face.

"Just...come on Cam, you mom is waiting for me to drop you off." Heather turned away from her and wiped at her eyes, silently glad that she wore waterproof mascara.

"Okay, but why are you-"

"It's none of your business!" she snapped, grabbing the attention of several people, not that she cared.

"Oh…kay…" Camille said quietly.

They walked to Heather's Camaro in silence. After they both got in, Heather turned on the engine, and had the pleasure of hearing this come out of her speakers:

You know that I love you boy,

Hot like Mexico, rejoice!

At this point I gotta choose,

Nothin' to lose…

Really? Seriously? Does the universe like to mess with her for laughs?

Don't call my na- Heather turned the radio to a different station before the rest of the chorus played.

"Hey!" Camille whined from the back seat. "I like that song!"

"Don't care." Heather replied stiffly.

" Fine, I'll just sing it! Don't call my name, Don't call-"

"I swear if you keep singing that, you will be walking." Heather grimaced, fuming. She actually liked Lady GaGa, she would like her more if it wasn't for that song. And she wasn't afraid to smack a child, as long as no one said,

"What, Alejandro?"

Ugh!

"You know," She continued, pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose, "Just because you have love problems doesn't mean you have to hate on Lady Gaga." She complained, crossing her arms in the rearview mirror.

"Keep talking, you are this close to being left behind." Heather left a tiny space between her index finger and thumb to show her how patient she was feeling.

Silence was her only answer.

"That's what I thought." Heather said with a smirk. Cam knows she's not playing around. It's happened twice before.

They finally pull out of the parking lot when Heather feels the need to say,

"I don't have love problems."

She wasn't sure if she was trying to convince Camille or herself.

He doesn't even love me anyways.

"Sure you don't. You just keep thinking that." Her little cousin commented before putting her earbuds on and turning on her own music.

"...And you just keep thinking that you're not crushing on Ryan." Heather mumbled.

The smaller girl pulled out her headphones, "What did you say?"

"Hm? Nothing."

"...Right. Weirdo."

"Brat."

Heather turned up the radio to avoid more questioning, and drove along to the soft music playing.

Here comes the feeling you'd thought you'd forgotten…