"You're Going out With a Bang, Toots."

December 4th, 2005.

"Jess," I gushed as I painted her toenails a bright orange. "I think... I think I love him." I looked up at her through my blonde bangs, and her face fell.

"Serenity..." She started, a weird tone to her voice. "He doesn't take that kind of thing seriously." I screwed my face up in confusion.

"What do you mean?" I asked, screwing the cap on the nail polish.

"Serenity, you know I'm just telling you this because I don't want you to get hurt, right?" She said.

"Yeah, of course Jess, we're best friends. You'd never hurt me."

"The Joker ... He, he tells people things he doesn't mean to make them stay loyal to him. It's all a big joke to him, that he goes and laughs at with his goons later." I wasn't understanding. Was she hinting at something?

"What?" I asked.

"He likes to mess with peoples emotions. He loves to hurt people, physically and emotionally." She grimaced as she continued, as if it pained her to break it to me. "If he ever says anything; you shouldn't believe him. That's what he wants." She put her hand on my shoulder, and enveloped me in a hug. "You're better then him, and can do better then a physco maniac. He lies a lot; and I wouldn't want to see you telling him something, as much as you mean it, only to have it backfire in your face." She pulled away and I stared at her.

"Okay." I told her. "You're the best friend I've ever had, Jess. Thank you so much for warning me." And with that I unscrewed the cap off of a bottle of blue nail polish, handed it to Sam, and she started my toenails with a smile on her face. But soon, we were interrupted when the door swung open to reveal Ron.

"Yes?" Sam asked him.

"The boss wants to see Serenity in ten minutes." He said, and slammed the door. Serenity looked at me with a smile.

"Remember what I said, kay?" I smiled and nodded.

I left ten minutes later; my toenails freshly painted a bright blue, Jess' word's clouding my mind.