Kill Me With Words

When Beth woke up the next morning, she could barely open her eyes. They had been swollen shut from all the crying she had done the previous night over Andy. To cry over Andy the way she did sounded pathetic, and Beth knew it sounded pathetic. Andy was never going to love her the way she loved him and she needed to accept that fact. But she couldn't.

Emily was already awake when Beth had woken up. She missed Beth's crying session because she had been with Marcus late last night but she knew the real reason behind why her eyes were so red and swollen.

"Beth, what's going on with you? You look awful. What happened last night?" Emily went over to her and sat down next to her on the bed. Lucky for them, Heidi had spent the night in someone else's room, no doubt Andy or Ashley's.

"Nothing, Emily. I'm fine." Beth turned her face away from her friend.

Emily reached over and placed her hand on top of Beth's. "Look at me, please?" Beth looked over at Emily but could barely keep her eyes open from the swelling in her eyelids. Three hours of crying does that to you. "Is this because of Andy?"

Beth nodded slightly and felt more tears begin to form behind her eyes but swallowed them down. She couldn't afford to cry any more than she already had.

"Come on." Emily stood up and pulled Beth up with her. "Let's fix that face of yours and get you back out there. Why don't we grab Spencer and Marcus and go out somewhere before our set later this afternoon?"

Beth agreed but no amount of makeup could cover up the mess that was her face. She couldn't wear her contacts because her eyes were bloodshot and the makeup on her face looked clownish because of her puffy eyelids.

"Let's go. You look great." Emily encouraged and they stepped out of the safety of their room and into the vulnerability of the hallway. Beth never liked wearing her glasses and now that she had people looking at her with them on, she felt even more awful than she already felt.

"Beth!" Spencer hadn't seen her since yesterday and only just talked to her last night. When Beth turned around and he saw her, his attitude changed. He wasn't happy to see her anymore. He was worried about her. Last night she said she was fine. Right now, she didn't look fine. "Oh my god, what happened? Are you okay?" He rushed over to her side, slinging one arm around her shoulders.

"Y-Yeah, I'm fine. My mom called last night and said my grandma is in the hospital. But it's okay. She's doing alright, I think." Beth had to lie to Spencer. As much as she hated lying to anyone, she had to lie to him. She couldn't let him know she was crying about Andy. It would completely crush him. He would be the one crying next, but over her.

"Oh god, I'm so sorry." Spencer hugged her tightly.

"What's going on?" Andy entered the party in the hallway. "Beth, are you alright?"

"She's fine." Spencer answered for her. He became extremely protective over Beth whenever Andy was around and especially when Andy tried to show compassion and care towards her.

During this whole sympathy party, Heidi managed to sneak out of Ashley's room and join the others, making it look as though she had just come upstairs from the lobby. Heidi had a thing for Ashley and she liked him a lot more than she liked Andy. Andy wasn't easy like Ashley. And Ashley was more like her than Andy was.

"Andy," Heidi whined. "Can we please go have fun today?" She had him wrapped around her finger.

Andy pulled away from Heidi. "But I want to make sure Beth--"

"Beth is fine." Heidi interrupted. "She's a big girl and has other people to take care of her. Please, can we go?"

Andy wanted to stay and make sure Beth was alright but Heidi was pulling him away mentally and physically. He didn't even know what had happened to her but he knew something was wrong. He hated to see her crying and he hated to know she had been crying. He was afraid that there was more to Beth underneath the surface that wasn't all happy-go-lucky as she came off to be.