Riley's POV:

"Do you want anything to drink? Water, iced tea..." I offer as Dixie awkwardly sits herself down on a stool in the kitchen.

"I'm alright, thanks." She neatly states, crossing her legs over. When she used to come over she would slouch around and eat shit loads of food, but things are different now.

"Ok." I reply, pulling up a stool beside her. I watch as her body shifts awkwardly and I sigh.

"So I guess you're going to explain yourself now..." She gives me an awkward half smile, and I nod.

"I guess... so umm I don't really know how to say this but uh," I stammer nervously as she nods for me to keep going, "I have been raped twice, humiliated lots of times and my boyfriend is a monster." I blurt out, and her eyes go wide.

"What do you mean you've been raped twice?!" She nearly shrieks, hands banging against the table.

"The first time was Nick, and the second time was Seth Chambers. You know, the one who took those pictures of me?" I explain, and she shakes her head.

"That can't be true... and you posed for those pictures because you wanted attention! You weren't raped..." She tries to shield herself from the truth. I can't say I blame her, the story is pretty outrageous.

"Why would I make something so horrible up? And I know you know what Nick did to me, don't even deny that." I scold her, and immediately her eyes soften.

"Why did you do it?" She asked, and I shook my head stunned.

"Do what? I'm telling you I didn't make it up--"

"I believe you, you didn't make it up. What I'm asking if why did you try to kill yourself? Was your life really that bad?" She asks, tugging at the sleeves of her sweater.

"Dixie, everything in my life turned to shit after Seth posted those pictures of me, and the reasoning for that can be talked about some other time." I sigh sadly. "I had no friends left aside from Harry, Zayn and Perrie and you weren't helping the situation either if I'm being honest." I admit.

The look on her face was something I haven't seen in the longest time. Pure sadness, innocence and guilt were radiating off of her now slumped over shoulders and her eyes were filled with tears.

"I hate myself for being so mean to you... Absolutely hate my fucking self." She sniffles, wiping her eyes.

"I just don't understand why you would do that to me, you know? After all we've been through I just thought that our friendship would be more important than your popularity. You took the opportunity to be the 'it' girl and pushed me down to the bottom of the barrel, leaving me to drown."

"In my defense, you were changing too a bit." She cries out, placing her hands on her face. "You started going to parties with Harry's friends, changing lunch tables, hell you even got a new girl best friend! You didn't need me!"

"I didn't need you?!" I stand up, baffled at what she was saying. "I needed you more than I needed oxygen at one point! Just because I was making new friends and finally doing something outside of the shit norm doesn't mean I was becoming a different person.

"Fuck, I don't know what you want me to say!" She sobs, rolling up her sleeves to wipe her eyes. As she did so, I noticed little red cuts across her wrists, something I never thought I'd see on any of my friends.

"What are those?" I ask, and she immediately rolls her sleeves down.

"These bracelets? They're Alex and Ani." She deflects my question, so I decide to take matters into my own hands. I roll up her sleeve and glance down at her battered wrists.

"Seriously Dixie? Why did you do this to yourself and don't try and tell me you didn't!" I demand for her to start talking. She rips her arm away from me and her crying get's harder.

"I just," she sobs between each word, "I-felt-so-bad-for-you-and-it's-all-my-fault." She continues to cry, and all of the sudden I feel a wave of guilt wash over me... but only for a moment. I quickly remind myself that I did nothing to Dixie, she did all the bad to me.

"Don't do this again, alright? It wasn't all your fault, but you were wrong is so many ways." I tell her, and she nods.

"I--know." She sniffles. "Can we be friends again?" She asks, looking up at me with her blood shot eyes.

Do I even want to be friends with Dixie? She's been here talking with me for almost an hour and I haven't gotten a single 'I'm sorry' once. She only added fuel to the Seth situation by turning the school against me...

But then the Seth situation comes back to mind. Harry made him that way, Harry created the monster who is trying to ruin me from the very core. Dixie can be my way out of this dark hole, but do I really want to be who I used to be?

"Ri? Can we? I just want things to go back to normal and.... I'm sorry." She explains, and I immediately fall under the spell.

"We can be friends again... but I'm not changing, ok? If you don't want to be friends with who I am now, then I don't want to be friends at all." I warn her, and she nods.

"I've missed you." She cries harder again, dropping herself into my arms and holding on so tight. I've got to admit, I've missed having her around to talk to, to shop with and to dance with.

"I've missed you also." I sigh, wrapping my arms around her and pulling back just as tight. There' a lot of love, a lot of fear and a lot of memories in this hug. This was the visit that is changing everything for me, and I'm praying it is for the better.

"So what now?" Dixie giggles, wiping under her eyes for the thousandth time in the past hour.

"I don't know... I'm kinda tired, I had a long day." I groan as I pull away from her embrace.

"Yeah, I heard about that fight between Harry and that bastard Seth," she rolls her eyes at the entire situation, "but did you guys work everything out?" She asks and I sigh.

"I think it's better if Harry and I are apart... Wanna sleep over and I'll tell you the whole story? It's pretty crazy." I laugh, and she nods.

"Yes! If you want you can invite that other girl too, you know Zayn's girlfriend?" She suggests, and I can't help but smile. This is my Dixie.

"I'll invite Perrie. This will be fun!" I smile, sending a quick text to Perrie.

I knew texting Dixie would be a good idea, I just hope the others will understand why I did this. I know that they hate her and maybe I shouldn't trust her again so soon, but I'm hurting right now and I need someone.

Notes

I'm sorry I haven't updated in awhile, I've had a lot going on with school, SAT work, dancing and midterms are next week!!

I thought you guys would want to hear Dixie and Riley's conversation instead of just a passing chapter of it already happening hahaha

please comment & vote! x