What had happened last night?

She didn't know what was scarier. The fact that she couldn't remember anything from last night after getting to the club, or the fact that she was naked, in Effron's home, covered in a white powder she assumed was cocaine. How much had she drunken last night? How much had she snorted? Feeling her stomach lurch once again, Raleigh leaned forward, emptying her stomach even more. Good lord, how much could one person throw up?

"Man, that's a lot of puke." Effron said as he leaned against the doorframe.

"Thank you for that brilliant observation." Raleigh got out before more vomit poured from her mouth. When she was satisfied that she was finally done, she resumed her position on the floor.

Going over to the sink, Effron ran and wash cloth under cold water and crouched down beside Raleigh, pressing the cold cloth to the back of her neck as she rested her head on her knees.

"Are you alright?"

"I'm puking like the chick from the exorcist. I'm just fucking peachy." She mumbled out, trying not to flinch at the awful taste of the bile in her throat as she swallowed.

Feeling the trembling of her body, Effron tried to help her up. "You should get in the shower. Might make you feel better. Cleaner anyway."

"Ok." She really wasn't in a position to argue so she allowed him to help her up and into the shower. The hot water felt like heaven as it poured over her body. Not caring that she'd smell like a man, Raleigh washed her hair and body with Effron's soap and shampoo and sat under the hot water until it ran cold. Finally turning the water off, Raleigh stepped out and wrapped herself in the large, soft towel.

Effron must have been listening for the water to turn off because he entered the bathroom just as she stepped out. "Here's a new toothbrush, toothpaste is there, mouthwash, here." He pointed as he spoke. Opening the cabinet, he pulled out a bottle of aspirin and poured two into his large hand. After replacing it in its spot, he handed them to Raleigh. "Take these and when you're all set I'll drive you back to the dorm. You can wear this. I don't think you want to put your outfit from last night back on." He set a pair of his sweat pants and a t-shirt on the sink before smiling at Raleigh.

Looking into his eyes, Raleigh felt a new sense of respect for this man begin to build inside her. "Thank you, Effron. You didn't have to do all this."

"Well, I want to take care of you, Love. Besides, I know what it feels like to be in your place." He winked at her and left her alone to do her business.

When she was done, she noticed Effron had changed the bed sheets and blankets and folded her clothes neatly in a pile, her shoes beside them along with her purse. Maybe he really wasn't such a bad guy after all. Grabbing her things, she went out into the house to find him. He was in the living room, cleaning off the coffee table.

"I really can't remember a thing from last night."

Effron lifted his head and she noticed the surprise clearly written in his eyes.

"You can't remember anything?"

Shaking her head, Raleigh grabbed some paper towels and windex and helped him clean up a bit. "After the fourth round of Jose Cuervo and sixth line of coke, no I can't remember a damn thing."

Effron laughed as he dumped the paper towels into the garbage can. "Well, I guess I can't say I'm really surprised. I haven't seen anyone party that hard in a while."

"I guess I wanted to have a good time, get my mind off things." She said sheepishly, continuing to clean.

Straightening up, Effron closed the distance between he and Raleigh. Putting his hand on top of hers as she cleaned the end table top, he stopped her movements. Meeting his eyes with hers, Raleigh lifted an eyebrow in question.

"So, you don't remember what you said to me before we came back here then, do you?"

Her mind reeling, Raleigh tried desperately to remember anything that she might have said to him, but unfortunately her memory returned nothing of help. "I'm sorry, Effron, but no."

He nodded his head and she watched as something changed in his eyes. He seemed to withdraw from her as he forced a smile her way. "It's alright. I should get you back to the dorm so you can change. You have class in forty minutes."

Merely nodding her head in response, Raleigh threw her rag into the trash and grabbed her things from the bedroom before following Effron out to his car. They sat together in uncomfortable silence as he drove, the sound of the engine being drone out by the sound of Journey's Faithfully.

As he stopped in front of the large building, Raleigh unbuckled her seatbelt and turned to face Effron. "Thank you for taking care of me this morning. I really made a mess."

He reached over and tucked a damp piece of hair behind her ear. "Anytime, Raleigh Jean."

"I'll see you later." Opening the door, Raleigh hopped out and shut it, watching him as he drove off. She didn't know why, but she had to keep herself from smiling when he called her Raleigh Jean. No one, aside from her sister when she was angry with her, ever called her that. She found she rather liked it.

Giving herself a mental shake, Raleigh headed up the stairs and into the building, wasting no time to go up to her dorm and change. After brushing her hair hastily, she didn't bother to do anything with her naturally wavy hair and threw it up into a messy ponytail, her bangs falling in front of her eyes. Grabbing her notebook, Raleigh stopped in front of the mirror hanging on the wall long enough to noticed she looked like absolute hell, but she could care less. She had no one to impress.

Leaving the room, Raleigh shut the door behind her and headed to her first class of the day. The one she dreaded most of all. She once had always looked forward to going to Mr. Cooper's class, but that was before. Before he had ended them.

Before he ripped out the heart she didn't know had begun to belong to him.

Stopping dead about five feet from the classroom door, Raleigh scrunched her brow in concentration and confusion. Where had that thought come from? But what worried her most was, when had she begun to fall for the man who no longer wanted to be a part of her life?

Sliding into her chair, Raleigh set down her notebook and rested her head on the desk. A few minutes later, Autumn sat beside her, looking about as great as Raleigh did. Hair up in a messy ponytail, wearing sweats, no make up on her face at all. They may have been the life of the party the prior night, but now they were paying for it.

"If you ever get the great idea to go out partying when we have an early class the next day, I'm gonna smack you." She grumbled, lying her head on her own desk. "I've never puked so much in my life."

"Trust me, I don't think I have either. Can you at least remember some things about last night? 'Cause I sure as hell can't."

"Nope."

"Alright, everyone settle down, take your seats." Dan, or Mr. Cooper, as she now had to refer to him as once again, came into the classroom and Raleigh immediately sat up. She didn't want him to know just how much he had truly affected her. But as soon as his gorgeous green eyes met with hers, she knew he saw right through her little façade. He seemed to hold her gaze for hours but it was only mere seconds before she found the courage to look away. She had seen something in his eyes, but what? Pain? Longing? Affection?

No, she was imagining things. If he had felt anything like that towards her, he wouldn't have ended whatever it was they had between them.

How could he do that to her? Couldn't he see just how much she really needed him? How could he just walk away from her? From what they had started? It had only been not even twenty four hours yet, but she already missed him. At least before she knew he was there whenever she needed to talk, or just be held. Sure she could call up Josh or Carly, but they weren't there. They couldn't console her when she was upset the same way. They couldn't rub her back or take her in their arms, letting her cry on their shoulder. With Dan she had felt so comfortable. He had seen through everything she had put forth and saw right down to who she truly was. What was she going to do without him?

When the lesson was over, Raleigh wasted no time in closing her notebook and practically running out the door, completely unaware of the look Dan had been casting her way.

Over the span of the next week or so, Raleigh found herself back to being the person she had been before Dan had called her out. She began losing herself in the drugs, alcohol and meaningless sex she never thought she'd ever be a part of. Sure she had come to find that Effron really was a nice guy, but she just didn't feel anything for him. There was no...spark for lack of a better word. He would remain a friend to her. Nothing more, nothing less.

She wasn't a complete idiot. She knew he wanted more, but he just had to realize and accept the fact that she had nothing to give anymore.

"I need another line, Ember."

"Shit girl, what you need is sleep."

Smiling, Raleigh tried to stand up, only to feel herself fall back onto the couch, on top of Autumn. "Ember, please just put out another line."

Autumn put an arm around Raleigh and tried to hold her still. "Ray, honey you really don't need anymore."

Ripping away from Autumn, Raleigh stood on her unsteady feet. "Don't tell me what to do! I'm sick of everyone telling me what to do! First my mother, then my sister, now you? Today is my grandmother's birthday, did you know that? No, of course you didn't. Because you don't know shit about me!" Raleigh's voice had started becoming louder and louder with each sentence until she was screaming, tears streaming down her face.

"Raleigh..." Autumn's voice was much softer this time when she spoke which only infuriated Raleigh more. Where had this outburts come from? She had been sitting there, chilling with she and Ember, having a good time. What went wrong?

"Don't touch me!" Backing up, Raleigh headed towards the front door, forgetting her purse.

"Where are you going?"

"For a walk. You're not invited."

"Raleigh, it's the middle of the night! You're not going out there alone."

"I do it all the time." With that she slammed the door closed behind her, not caring what Ember and Autumn thought. She had to get out, had to get away from them, away from anyone. She needed to cry. But she really didn't want to be alone. She wanted to be with someone, but that someone didn't want to be with her. She longed to feel his arms around her, consoling her as she cried, which she knew he'd do if she went there right now and told him it had been her dead Grandmother's birthday for three full hours now. God, she missed her Grammy. She had been the only one to truly understand her situation when she'd been pregnant and aborted it. She was the one who had even taken her to the clinic. No, she didn't condone that type of behavior, but she had understood how she'd felt.

Grammy always understood her youngest granddaughter, no matter what it was. But now she was gone.

She had nobody left.

As Raleigh stumbled down the street, she began to recognize where she was. How long had she been wandering around? An hour? A few minutes? She didn't know, but she headed straight to the familiar porch and rang the doorbell over and over. When he didn't immediately open the door she began pounding on it. She could feel the tears streaming down her face, but she didn't care. She had to see him. She had to know why he had just ended it like that.

She had to feel him against her, his arms wrapped tightly around her body.

Suddenly the door swung open and a sleepy, angry looking Daniel Cooper stood there, glaring at her. God, he was gorgeous with his mussed hair and angry face. "Raleigh, what the hell? It's three-seventeen. What are you doing here?"

Wrapping her arms around herself trying to calm her sobs, Raleigh just said one thing. "Why?"

Taking in Raleigh's appearance, it was clearly obvious that she had been up all night throwing back shot after shot and probably putting even more drugs into her system. But it wasn't the glazed looks in her eyes or the unsteady balance that kept her up. It was the way she held herself in the middle of the porch, it was even more so the tears than streaked down her red puffy face.

Suddenly the anger faded away and he only felt concern for her. Why was she here in the middle of the night? Crying no less. It couldn't all be because of him telling her what he thought would be best.

When he failed to answer her, she repeated herself. "Why, Dan? Why did you do it?"

"Do what?"

"You know what!" She practically yelled and if he didn't want to have the cops called on him this early, or late, he had to take her inside.

"Raleigh, why don't you come inside so we can talk." As she glared at him, she didn't say anything, she just walked past him and into the house. As soon as he shut the door behind himself, Raleigh slapped him in the face. And not lightly. He was too stunned that she had actually hit him to do anything but look at her. When she raised her hand to strike him again, his reflexes kicked in and he grabbed her wrist, stopped her mid swing. Almost instantly she raised her other hand to hit him, but he caught that one just as quickly. For what seemed like eternity, they just stared into one another's eyes, neither daring to look away.

Finally, Dan gave up and let go of her wrists. "Raleigh, what are you doing here?"

"I just want to know why you ended it."

"Raleigh, I told you why."

"No you didn't!" Raleigh knew her voice was whiney and needy, but she didn't care. She was upset and she needed to know. "I just..." She felt the tingling in the back of her throat and knew a fresh bout of tears was just seconds away. In a strangled, whispering voice, she got out, "Couldn't you see how much I needed you?"

Standing there, watching the normally calm and collected Raleigh break down into sobs, Dan wanted to hit himself. This past week had been hell for him and obviously just as bad for Raleigh. How could he have ever doubted her feelings for him? All he wanted to do was take her in his arms, tell her everything was going to alright. But he didn't know that it would be.

"I don't have anyone left. Josh is in New York, my friends are all back home. And you left me. I don't know what to do anymore. I feel like I'm slowly losing who I used to be." As she spoke more and more tears pooled in her eyes, begging to fall as she tried desperately to hold them back.

As he watched her lip quiver, Dan did what he had wanted to do all week and stepped closer, putting his arms around her shaking body. At first she fought him, harder than she thought she could, but he refused to let go. Eventually she gave into his embrace and broke down into terrible, loud sobs. She couldn't stand anymore, she could feel her legs give out and she sank to the floor, Dan with her all the way, holding her, cradling her fragile body in his lap.

How could he have done this to her? Why couldn't he have seen how much she really did need him? With all the late night visits that had stopped leading to sex, but were just as satisfying because he was able to hold her as she slept? All the glances she'd sneak his way during class, every slight brush of her hand. It was never meant to be seducing, although it was. But she had just wanted him, mind and soul. Now he knew that. And he wasn't letting go.

He respected Josh, but he had to think of himself once in a while.