"I just don't get it. How come he has to be so cruel? If he really loves me as his son....he's at least try to act like it."

Those were Prince's exact words to me that sparked our very first conversation about true love. That night we sat in the dimly lit dressing room as I listened to him pour his very soul out to me about his father and why he felt so unloved by him.

"Prince I think he loves you. He just....has a funny way of showing it." I said to him taking a hand in mine.

"Yeah but it don't feel that way." He said sadly with a sigh.

"Look. You can't spend the rest of your life worrying about who loves you and who doesn't. Your main goal is what you want that makes you happy. I'd rather have you worry about that than worry about your father. I'm sure he does love you but is so stoned face about it that he's not ready to show it to you again like he used to. Your dad has a heart it's just......hidden."

That was the best that I could give him without reminding myself that he made me feel like shit earlier. However it wasn't about me and my feelings. It was about Prince and his. Standing up from the couch I went back to the door and stepped out into the hallway letting out a much needed deep breath. I hope I talked him into finding his own happiness without showing on the outside that I didn't really want to and I preferred to punch him in his face. Either way someone had to talk to him and I knew that none of the guys were going to do it right since they only think with the brain in their pants and not the one in their skulls.

"Geez Regan get yourself together." I huffed as I leaned against the wall hoping that I can find it in myself to leave the building but something inside was telling me to stay.

I couldn't place it but my soul was telling me to go back and talk to him some more since I left Prince so abruptly. Just as I had made up my mind the door swung open and out stepped a nervous looking Prince. He didn't notice me standing to the left to him as he looked at the backstage entrance.

"Looking for me?" I said as a joke to get his attention.

Prince's head turned quickly as he found me still leaning up against the wall with a big cheesy grin on my face.

"I thought you'd be gone by now. Aren't you still mad at me?"

Well that was a shocker. I thought that he didn't even care that I was mad.

"I'm over it. Are you ready to go home or are you still pining over your daddy issues?" I asked him snidely.

"I know I owe you an apology about calling you jealous. Do you.....really like me? I mean like me like one day becoming your boyfriend or something?"

The shyness in Prince's voice meant that he was being serious with his asking and he really wanted to know what the answer was going to be. I was a little scared. Maybe a lot of scared! I can tell my heart was ready to drop from my chest to my feet as his eyes scanned me slowly. My mouth hung wide open as I tried my very best to get my brain that the rest of my body to be in sync with one another. I was babbling like a mute who was trying to speak for the first time. It was the most embarrassing sight I'm sure he's ever seen and I bet we wanted to laugh his ass off at how stupid I looked in his presence.

"Mouse? You ok?" he asked as he giggled a little bit.

I couldn't get a sound out of my throat and it was way more frustrating that trying to tell him that I like him. I finally had just enough brain function to get my legs to take a few steps toward him and then stop with wide eyes looking him up and down nervously.

"Regan you're freaking me out. What's going on with you?" Prince asked as he touched my shoulder.

The second his fingers grazed against my upper arm I froze up instantly. This is the strangest thing that has ever happened to me and I really wish that it would stop. This is my best friend and I'm falling way too hard for him at the moment. I don't even think I fell this hard for Wilson and I've only known him since the eighth grade. The sounds around me were muffled voices and clouded images of the room around us weren't as clear as Prince was and he was just standing right in front of me. He was as clear as a blue summer sky. His light brown eyes pierced into my soul in such a way that it made my heart stop beating every few seconds. I could hardly breathe as I looked back at him and it was killing me inside. The way he said my name was like the sound of church bells ringing in the distance.

"Regan?" I heard him call while I was so spaced out.

"Huh?" was the only thing I could say as I stood there looking like an idiot.

"Can we go home now?" he asked.

"I cant feel my anything."

"You.....what???" he laughed

"I can't feel....."

"I can help you out to the car if you want."

"Kiss me."

I honestly didn't mean to let my inner thoughts slip out of my lips but they did. The look on Prince's face was very confused but he seems delighted that I had asked him.

"Mouse you don't mean that." He said to me as a had dropped from my shoulder.

"Yes I do. Please Skipper kiss me." I replied.

We leaned in for the kiss and I suddenly snapped out of it out of nowhere. I pushed him away from me and ran out into the main area of the club and to the exit door. I was so embarrassed that I had almost kissed Prince that it freaked me out to the point of a sheer panic. I bolted out of the club and passed the car not thinking that I could just get in and tell Andre to drive and leave Prince behind but I was so anxious to get home that I didn't even care. I could hear Morris calling me from behind as I kept running.

"HEY! WHAT HAPPENED?" he shouted.

I couldn't even turn around to answer. I just kept my focus on running home as fast as I could. Home was a good thirty blocks away but I didn't care how far I was as long as I was far enough to not see Prince for the rest of the night. Maybe after what I just did I shouldn't see him at all. Prince is really going to begin to think that I'm trying to take him away from Denise and I don't want to add more fuel to that fire. I need to forget Prince all together so I can stop feeling the way I feel about him. There's one person that I know that can help me with that. That person is Rachel.