"Men."

"Can't live with 'em. Can't live without 'em."

"I think I could survive quite nicely without one."

"I love my man!"

"Shut up Dawn!"

Dawn frowned and leaned back against the couch with a huff. "Hey I've suffered for two years so don't get mad at me cause you all are suffering for one night."

"I say we toss her out the window and see how big of a splash she makes in the pool below," Shauna suggested. "After everything she just ate despite the fact that she's the only one not angry or depressed, the water should just about reach the third floor."

"Sheesh, I speak the truth and get death threats in return."

"Consider it a science experiment."

"Or maybe it's best if you don't speak at all," Serena said, finally reaching for a drink.

"But I love talking."

"And therein lies the problem." Serena said as she held up her glass to eye level and wondered just what random juices her friend and thrown together with the grenadine. All those cheese puffs had made her thirsty though so she took a tentative sip.

"It's called Evil Princess," Shauna said noticing Serena's smile.

"Evil Princess?" Dawn repeated now picking up a glass and taking a sip. "Mmm not bad. What's in it?"

"Lets see, obviously the grenadine. Then we got some grape juice, some apple juice, a bit of lemon juice."

"Interesting combination," Serena said drinking some more of her Evil Princess.

"I thought it was a fitting drink with a fitting name for our moods. Well, except for Dawn," Shauna said and Dawn smiled sheepishly.

Silence fell upon the group and the three women now turned to look at their new guest who sat on the couch beside Serena sighing in delight as she ate a brownie.

"Mmm my grandfather hasn't let me eat these for ages!" she said taking a huge bite.

"Well then," Shauna said shoving the pan across the table. "By all means take the rest!"

"Oh I couldn't. Well, maybe just one more."

They all laughed and Serena was thankful that the initial drama had quickly faded away into oblivion. Only moments ago had Dawn flung open the apartment door to reveal the tear-stained face of Melody who, upon seeing Dawn, almost ran away but Dawn, with some fast talking, managed to convince Melody to come inside and get the whole truth of earlier that evening.

"You deserve to know why that dope kissed you," were her exact words after telling the pretty singer that she was not Kaiwe's girlfriend.

Seeing that Serena was indeed inside, Melody finally entered and hesitantly sat on the couch. The matchmaker made formal introductions between the other three women and they had sat in silence for a bit, trying to figure out who should start talking first.

It was Melody who had broken the silence by apologizing for barging in and insisting that she wasn't normally this creepy to which Serena looked confused. This led Melody to explain how after she had been kissed by the stranger and ran off, she had wandered around aimlessly for hours, just thinking about everything. Eventually her feet had led her to this area and she had just turned onto a street when she saw Serena and Shauna getting out of a sports car.

Without thinking, she had quickly managed to hide in some bushes by the door and see the building security code Serena had punched in. After that, she had simply snuck in and checked the apartment name listings in the lobby and discovered that Serena Yvonne did indeed live in this building and in apartment 302 to be exact.

But it had taken her quite a while to work up the courage to actually take the elevator up and knock on the door so she had waited in the lobby, feeling quite ridiculous and like a stalker yet at the same time, desperate and alone.

After debating the pros and cons of whether to visit the matchmaker or not and wondering what sort of excuse to give for how she found the apartment, Melody finally let her loneliness win out.

After she told the women how she came to be here, Serena lent her a pair of pajamas insisting she spend the night and encouraging her to join them in her fat fest. Now, after snacking for a little while Shauna began to get impatient. She insisted that someone either start telling their story or she was going to start a food fight.

Knowing the threat was empty but realizing that yes, everything that had happened tonight did need to be discussed, Serena had quickly relayed the revelation of Alvin's true identity to Melody who listened with her eyes growing wider and wider with each word. Dawn, too, was hanging on to every word, shocked that Serena's client had caused such a mess.

Serena finished, although conveniently leaving out the details about Alvin/Ash flirting with her and the fact that she, in fact, had started to fall for the man himself.

Melody opened her mouth to ask questions when Shauna interrupted saying that perhaps Dawn should first tell her story and then Melody could tell hers so that they could then analyze the convoluted situations that were tangled with one another.

They agreed and once both women finished, everyone looked to Shauna expectantly.

"What?"

"We've all shared and now it's your turn before we discuss."

"Oh. But, my story has no connection with yours if you think about it," she said to Serena .

"Bad date?" Melody guessed.

"Ugh don't remind me," Shauna said and despite her protest, she then launched into her night with Gary, finishing with, "See? You all have interesting stories with people that are all connected. Serena knew Ash from before but set Alvin up with Melody who was kissed by kaiwe but was pretending to go out with Dawn who is in love with Lucas who saw kaiwe and Melody kiss and got mad and punched kaiwe which made Melody think there was something fishy going on making her run away and come here to Serena's who is upset with Ash for lying to both her and Melody. No Serena. No Gary."

Serena raised an eyebrow. "So does this mean you're feeling left out of the drama?"

"Quite the contrary," Shauna said "You all are in some deep craziness and I'm glad to be out of it. I beat up my date and that's the end of that."

"Technically, you're still not out of the loop," Dawn pointed out. "Gary is Ash's best friend and you're Serena's best friend. Meaning you went out with the best friend of a liar."

"But – "

"And it's your cousin who kissed Melody."

"One does the kissing, the other rejects it," Melody observed.

Shauna laughed. "Okay okay, so I'm in the loop through association. Anyways, none of this has anything to do with the real soap opera drama."

"True," Serena said.

"What I want to know is, why did he lie? Alvin or rather, Ash," Melody said.

"What would possess him to create the facade and then continue it so seriously?" Serena pondered aloud, stretching her legs on the couch.

"Maybe he's just a liar." Shauna spoke out.

Which made Everyone stared at her and she looked up.

"What? I had a guy come in once telling me I should date him."

"Wow. You really do get the weirdos," Duplica commented. "Sucks to be you."

"Dude, he came back the next day insisting he was Bieber and tried to serenade me!"

Serena shook her head at the conversation but managed a grin. Then she focused her thoughts to what she had said. Even though so many years had passed, Serena knew for a fact that there was no way Ash Ketchum was suddenly a liar. No. There was something more. Something she must have been missing. She voiced her thoughts.

"Or maybe he just wanted to prank you," Dawn said.

"Ooh he did say he thought it was a harmless joke or some other nonsense of the sort!" Shauna exclaimed sitting straight in her chair.

"What sort of grown man takes a joke this far?" Melody said with a shake of her head.

"That's what I've been trying to ask myself since I found out," Serena said frowning. "I mean, when we were kids, fine. But now?"

"Maybe it was his twisted way of showing his feelings for you," Dawn said. "You know how boys will tease the girl they like? Well maybe because he only knew you as a kid, seeing you as a grownup confused him and he didn't know how else to behave except how he used to mess with you back then."

The girls contemplated this logic for a moment. Shauna pointed out that if that was the case, then he was pretty immature to tease Serena and like her while leading Melody on. Melody and Serena just shared an awkward glance, feeling like they were caught in a love triangle they didn't need to be in.

Dawn continued that men worked in weird ways so it wasn't like they were ever going to figure him out.

"They think we're the conundrums but really, it's them," she said. "Women are so transparent! They have it easy."

Everyone stared at Dawn and Shauna said, "Says the woman who created an elaborate charade of a fake boyfriend."

"Whatever."

"How articulate."

"Listen point is, just talking about Ash's lying prank isn't getting us anywhere," Dawn insisted.

"True," Melody agreed.

"I have an idea," Shauna said propping her legs on the coffee table. "Lets watch an action movie!"

"Why action?

Shauna shrugged. "If you want to be reminded of what we don't have in the love department, sure."

Serena stood up and grabbed her keys. "There's a 24-hour movie down the street. Are we going for guns and violence action or blood and gore action?"

"Guns and violence!"

"Blood and gore!"

"Two action movies comin' right up."