A/N: Last appearance of character: Melissa Reyes

“Claudia is getting released today” Leo said as he sat at a table in Starbucks with Cristina, Thomas, Manuel, and Carly. He had called them all earlier to meet him here.

“Ok so Claudia is getting released” Cristina said. “What does that do with us?”

Leo didn't know if she was joking or not. “When Claudia gets out of the hospital, I think that you should stay away from her. She doesn't want payback, but she don't want to see you either.”

“I was supposed to be kicking it with my girl today” Thomas said. This was really the reason why Leo had wanted to meet with them?

“I know that you all got other shit to do” Leo said. “And I do too. But Cristina wouldn't listen if we weren't down with each other on this.”

“We're here cause you were too much of a punk to talk to her by yourself?” Thomas asked. He didn't mean to call Leo a punk, but he wanted to visit his girlfriend.

“That's unlike you Leo. Claudia is your friend.” Carly said. “You should have had the balls to tell Cristina to stay away from her without us all having to be here”

“It wasn't only about that. It was cause I wanted to chill with you all.” Leo said. “I thought that we were all cool”

“We are cool” Thomas said. “But you know that I got to go and kick it with my girl on the weekends.”

“Why don't you just move out there with her instead of doing the back and forth man?” Manuel asked.

“Cause it's not that simple. My life is out here, and I don't want to live where she lives at just yet. We ain't married or anything.” Thomas said. “But I care about her a lot. And she knows that she's safe with me and she love me too.”

“That is just so romantic” Cristina said. Carly nodded in agreement. “Too bad Claudia will never care about a guy the way your girlfriend cares about you”

Leo was walking down the street after convincing Cristina to stay away from Claudia. He defended Claudia to her and didn't leave until he was sure that Cristina would leave him alone. Elizabeth noticed Leo crossing the street and waved at him, he walked over to her.

“Hi Leo” Elizabeth said.

“Hey” Leo said. “What's up?”

“Not much, you want to go to my house and hang out?” She asked.

“Why not? I got nothing better to do right now” Leo said before they started walking down the street together to her house. He told Elizabeth everything that happened at Starbucks.

************************************************************

“You are aware that Sam's trying to set us up together right?” Claudia asked. Michael and Claudia were sitting on Michael's front porch.

“I didn't know” Michael said. “But you and me...”

“It is most likely impossible” She said. “I mean we're too different”

“Yeah, what the hell was going through Sam's head?” Michael asked. He picked her up from the hospital and was going to take her home, but Claudia suggested they go to his place instead.

“She probably wants to get me with another guy so that i'm away from her boyfriend” She said knowing Sam pretty well.

“Damn, she doesn't trust you?. I thought that you and Sam were good friends.” He said after hearing how Claudia talked about Sam to him before he graduated. “Guess you making that mistake caused it all to come crashing down huh?”

Claudia sighed. She had apologized to Sam and thought that she had forgiven her. “I don't think that things are going to be the way they used to in me and Sam's friendship. Her, Kenny, and Leo didn't judge me by the rumors”

“Yeah, but maybe shit has changed. At least between you, Sam, and Leo. Kenny hasn't ever turned his back on you. Leo believed his girl over you. And Sam's pissed cause her boyfriend cheated on her with you.”

“It wasn't supposed to be like this. And I don't think that Sam and Leo have turned their backs on me. After that incident at the movie theater, Leo would've still been my friend. I kept pushing him away.”

Claudia walked out of Michael's house after having a long talk with him about where her friendships were going. Just as she was about to get into her car, she felt a tap on her shoulder. Emma. She turned around to face the girl.

“Emma, what do you want?” Claudia asked. “I'm not in the mood”

“What's wrong with you? Look I just wanted to tell you that Antonio was being a jerk and you shouldn't worry about what he said.” Emma said.

“I'm not worried about what Antonio said” She said. “I have been called worse. Is that all that you wanted to tell me?”

“No, I wanted to see if you were ok. I mean you did just get out of the hospital today.” Emma said.

“You're right Emma, I did just get out of the hospital. But why would you want to fake concern for me? You don't care, you're probably glad that Cristina pushed me down those stairs.”

“That's not true. I wouldn't wish that kind of harm on anybody. Cristina was out of line.” She said.

“Yeah well i'm done with Cristina. I'm done with this stupid feud. It's over.” Claudia said.

******************************************************

“Hi Juan” Sam said after he opened the door. She walked into his living room and sat on the couch.

“Sam Hey” Juan said following behind her into the living room. He sat on the couch as well. “Thanks for giving me another chance. I'm not going to cheat on you again.”

“I'll hold you to that. But if this is going to work, then you and I can't just live in the past. I can't tell you who you can hang out with, so if you want to be friends with Claudia... then I can't stop you”

“Don't trip Sam, I'll try to steer clear of Claudia. I know that it'll make you uncomfortable if you catch us together.” Juan said.

“Are you sure that you want to do that? Cause you don't have to”

“Sam, I love you. And I never meant to hurt you like I did. It's just that there was something about Claudia that made me kiss her. It's good that you not ending your friendship with her cause of what I did. It was my fault, not hers. I want you to believe in me again and trust me.”

“I love you too. We've never told each other that before. But I have felt that way for a while now, and i'm glad that you do too. I want us to be together, I don't want anything to tear us apart.”

“Don't worry nothing will” Juan said to assure her.

“I don't know Juan, there are lots of possibilities. But I'm going to believe in our love, I know that we aren't married or anything. And the fact is we're both too young for what. We got years to decide that. You trust in me and i'll trust in you. That's all we can do.” She then leaned over and kissed Juan. He grabbed her wrist when her hands went down to the hem of his shirt.

“Are you sure?” Juan asked not wanting her to rush her into something she wasn't ready for. “We don't have to do this if you don't want to”

Sam did want to. She didn't want to sleep with him just to keep him around. But she wanted him and this happen. “I'm sure” She nodded her head. They started to kiss again, but Juan pulled back. He led her upstairs into his room. He closed the room door after they entered.

Sam drove to Melissa's house a few hours later. Melissa answered the door after Sam's first knock.

“Hey girl” Melissa said and she and Sam walked into the living room. “What's got you glowing?”

“Juan and I made love” Sam said. “It was better than I thought it would be. I mean he took good care of me and...”

“Oh girl, i'm so happy for you. I thought that you and Juan were never going to sleep together. If Claudia was dating him it would've...”

“Can you not ruin my moment by badmouthing Claudia? Geez. My relationship with Juan grew stronger today. “

“Well that's a good thing. You guys aren't letting anything stand in your way.”

****************************************************

Claudia drove over to Kenny's house. She walked up the stairs to his room and opened the door. “hey sweetness”

“Hey angel eyes” Kenny said. He took his ipod out of his ears. “I was just about to come and see if they had discharged you. Looks like they did.”

“Yeah, they did. I've got something that I want to tell you.” Claudia said sitting in a chair. “I'm leaving town to visit my grandparents next week”

“What? How long are you going to be gone? Do Sam and Leo know yet? Cause I know that without you around, they'd go crazy. Even if they won't admit it.”

“Sam and Leo are not going to miss me that much. Psycho Claudia will be out of town will be out of town for a few days, they'll probably like having a holiday from me.” She said knowing that it was probably the sad truth.

“That's not true. Even though you got differences, Sam and Leo still consider you a friend.” Kenny said. “They know that you didn't mean to go after Sam's man or hurt Autumn. And Autumn was asking for the hurt.”

“I had a talk with Michael earlier and it really opened up some perspective on where my friendships with Sam and Leo are at right now”

“What the hell did Michael put into your head? Sam and Leo are still close friends with you” Kenny said reminding that that him, her, Leo, and Sam made a pact of friendship two years ago. “They don't care about what other people say about you. People say stuff about them and me, but we don't care.”

“I don't care either but you're my close friend. Not Sam and Leo. At least not right now anyways.”

“How do you figure? You've known them both longer than me” Kenny said.

“I know, but before you came along I wasn't that friendly with the two of them. In fact, we barely talked to each other. But I think that you are the reason that we all came together as friends.” Claudia said not sure if that was true. But it felt like it sometimes.

“I'm not the reason that you, Sam, and Leo are friends. I don't have the power to bring people together.” Kenny said thinking about his parent's divorce. He was only about two when they split up.

“Oh sweetness, i'm sorry about the divorce. I know that you still think about it and you wished that there was something that you could've done to prevent it. But you couldn't.” She said not having to go through the same thing herself. Claudia's parents were still happily married.

“We weren't talking about that. We were on a whole nother page. Now back to what I was saying before, Sam and Leo aren't your friends cause of me. They're your friends cause they want to be your friends.” Kenny said. “Get that angel eyes?”

“Yeah I get it. I mean I know that people make their own choices. But I also realize that what Michael was saying wasn't all that foolish.” Claudia asked. “Why weren't you and Sam ever friends with him?”