Unsung

Disclaimer: This story is based on characters appearing on the Disney Channel's original series, 'Hannah Montana', created by Michael Poryes, Richard Correll & Barry O'Brien. Characters are copyrighted to 'It's A Laugh productions'. Original characters are copyrighted to the original author (QYM). This series is posted to Girls Loving Girls with full permission of the author. No copyright infringement is intended or implied.

Feedback: Every author in his or her own way makes it a point to ask for feedback when posting a story, well me I don't usually. But there are several reasons as to why a reader should consider taking the time to give it. The simple fact is that giving some form of feedback is truly the most important thing a reader can do after reading and enjoying a story. Hopefully in the process providing that author with at least one viable reason as to what you liked about the story. This small amount of time spent will no doubt inspire the author to write more and possibly at a quicker pace, knowing that they have a fan base who are waiting on their next works. So thanks for the feedback and please keep it comin.

Summary: In the ALL NEW 4th episode of 'Unsung', Miley's complicated life gets a little less so with the help of her ever present best guy friend, Oliver, who encourages her to pursue something new and move past her unfulfilled desires for Lilly. The weeks that follow help Miley realize something about herself that was confusing at the outset of this new journey. Later, Lilly witnesses Miley doing something she never thought she would see and in the end it leaves her feeling like she's missing something.

Original Airdate: Wednesday, February 11, 2009 @ 9:30 p.m.
(following an ALL NEW 'My First Time')

Story Codes: no sex

The concert came and went, as did several weeks of school. The weather was starting to turn cold as Halloween neared, and things were almost back to normal between Lilly and Miley. Miley supposed they would never really be normal again, but at least Lilly was trying.

Miley, for her part, was trying to move on, past her crush on Lilly. She had taken Oliver trolling for girls at the mall – with the implicit instruction that he was not to tell Lilly about it. Things had been smooth with the blonde, but Miley didn’t want things turning for the worse. She was even attempting, with Oliver’s prodding, to ask out a girl that worked at Hollister’s. Oliver had seen her get out of her car, and had pointed out the rainbow sticker on it – the only way Miley knew to be sure she wasn’t barking up the wrong tree. He had asked when she was going to get one, for which he received a prompt punch in the shoulder.

Miley was standing outside the store, taking deep breaths to calm her nerves. When her heart was beating at a near normal pace, she walked into the store, saw the girl, blushed and ran out. “I can’t do it Oliver,” she cried, walking to the bench he had parked himself on and set herself next to him. “I can’t.” She flopped her forehead on his shoulder.

Oliver sighed and shook his head as he watched a couple cute girls walk by, wearing little in the warmer weather of southern California, even this late in the year. “I don’t know what to tell you Miles. This is step one to getting over Lilly. Just channel a little of that Hannah confidence, buckle your chin strap and get in the game.”

“You know,” she said dryly, lifting her head, “that would have been almost inspirational if you hadn’t been staring at that girl’s ass the whole time.” Never mind the fact that she was mimicking his actions. The girl really did have a nice ass.

Oliver shrugged, only turning to face Miley when the object of their attentions turned into a store. “You said you wanted to go mall watching, so you can’t blame me for watching.”

She laughed and punched him lightly on the shoulder. “You’re incorrigible, you know that, right?”

He beamed in response before his attention was dragged away again. “Chin strap. Game. Now,” he said, pointing to the store.

With a sigh of defeat, she climbed to her feet and made towards the store.

Upon entering, she noticed two things – the girl had disappeared, and, at some point while she had been receiving her pep talk from Oliver, Ashley and Amber had arrived.

Groaning, she skirted around the edge of the store, hoping the object of her ‘game’ was still somewhere in the store and that she would somehow be able to avoid the nightmare duo. Considering it had taken a couple of hours for Miley to get her nerve up, it was very possible that the girl was on a break. When Miley had all but given up hope, and was about to trudge back to Oliver in defeat, there was a voice from behind her.

“Can I help you?”

Miley spun around and immediately turned redder than a tomato. “Oh. Um…” she stumbled, searching for inspiration. “Yes! Yes. I… um… need a… present! For… a friend… yeah. That’s it,” she finished lamely.

The other girl smiled strangely and nodded. “Okay. Any idea what your friend would like?”

Miley blinked, staring into the slightly shorter girl’s light green eyes. Her black hair was pulled into a pony tail, and Miley thought that the dusting of freckles across her nose and cheeks just added to the entirely cute package. Miley didn’t realize she was staring until a hand waved in front of her face, interrupting her view.

“I’m sorry?”

The girl – Katie, her nametag said – smiled in response. “I asked what your friend would like.”

“Oh, um… a… shirt?”

Katie couldn’t hold it back any more and giggled, causing Miley to blush even harder. “Are you asking me?”

Miley was entirely confused by this point, because she was holding a conversation she was mentally incapable of concentrating on. As she opened her mouth to just get it over with and ask her out, a bucket of cold water was thrown in her face.

“Oh, look. Its Stinky Stewart.”

Miley closed her eyes in horror and embarrassment as Ashley’s voice came from over her shoulder.

“I thought something smelled like a backed up sewer,” Amber piped in, causing Miley’s cheeks to burn even more.

“Excuse me.”

Miley whipped around, because Katie’s voice was suddenly coming from behind her, near Ashley and Amber’s.

“Yes?” Amber replied, looking down at the object of Miley’s affection like she was a fly in her soup.

The short girl’s voice was cold as steel. “If you insist on insulting our other customers and causing a scene, I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”

Miley’s heart exploded in joy at the looks on her two classmates’ faces. They wore identical expressions of outrage and shock.

They started spluttering, “I… How dare –”

“Now.” She pointed to the door, chin raised in defiance. The two girls shot Miley a nasty glare before making for the door, telling everyone who would listen that they didn’t want to shop in an establishment that let in trash like that anyway.

Katie turned back to her, concerned. “Are you okay?” she asked stepping back to Miley.

“Yeah… Yes, thanks. I’m sorry, I…”

“Hey, it’s alright. I hate people like that,” she spat, glaring at the door the two girls had exited from.

Miley, hoping that the girl’s defense of her meant the attraction was mutual, took a deep breath and jumped in head first. “Do you want to go to a movie with me?”

Katie whipped back to Miley, her eyes wide in surprise. “You mean like a date?”

Miley refused to look at the other girl as she nodded, knowing that her face was seconds from spontaneously bursting into flame.

“Sure.”

Miley looked up, and the wide smile on the other girl’s face was instantly matched by her own. “Really?”

Katie laughed again and nodded in return. “Really,” she assured as she reached into her back pocket, pulling her cell phone out. “Just give me your number and I’ll call you when I get out of here. Sound good?”

Miley’s smile when she returned to Oliver was so fixed that even the sight of Jake Ryan sitting next to him on the bench couldn’t dampen it. “Hey Ollie. Hey Jake.”

They returned her greeting with identical waves, but didn’t look at her. They were leaning backwards over the edge of the bench, staring down the walkway of the mall. She followed their gazes and laughed at what had their attention. A man, who had to be at least seven feet tall, was walking down the mall holding hands with a woman that couldn’t have been more than five foot. It was fascinating and disturbing all at once.

Just as she was about to comment, her cell phone rang. Pulling it out, she looked at the number in confusion before flipping it open. “Hello?” she asked tentatively.

Her smile instantly returned as the voice on the other end rang out. “Hey Miley, it’s Katie. I’m just making sure you gave me your real number, I’ll call you later!”

Miley’s smile grew as they ended the phone conversation and Miley hurried to put the new number under Katie’s name.

“So, how was the game?” Oliver asked as she was typing in the girl’s name.

Miley blushed. “It was great. We’re going to a movie later.”

“I’m confused.”

Both of them turned to Jake and laughed at his face. He looked like someone kicked his puppy and he couldn’t figure out why.

“Um… well…” Miley started, not really sure how to explain it. “Jake, part of the reason I turned you down was because I’m… well…”

Jake stared at her for a moment, his confusion deepening, before his face brightened and he laughed. “Oh, I know, Oliver already explained that. That’s not what I’m talking about, though.”

Miley turned and glared at Oliver, who had suddenly become very interested in the plant to his right. “Oliver told you, huh?”

“Yeah, but that’s not important.”

She turned back to Jake, utterly confused at this point. “Okay. What is then?”

“How do you think they have sex?”

Oliver broke out laughing, and Miley knew she had to look like a lost kitten, because Jake started laughing too. “The… the… giant and the midget,” he explained, waving his hands in the direction they had gone. “Because, really, she’d always have to be on top, you know?”

Miley shook her head and took the remaining space on the bench between the boys. “I don’t know which one of you is worse,” she sighed, leaning back.

As a cute girl walked by, catching all three of the teenagers’ attention, Jake nudged her. “So, me being the best looking guy you know wasn’t even a drop in the bucket, huh?”

“Not really,” Miley replied, turning to look at him, “but, if it makes you feel better, you might make a pretty good looking girl.”

He laughed, and the three spent another hour on the bench before parting ways.

--

Katie had called that night and Miley officially had her first girlfriend. They only saw each other a couple times a week, but they spoke on the phone constantly. Katie was a year older than her and went to Malibu High School. She had been ‘out’ for only a few months, but her family didn’t know.

Their first kiss came on their second date, and, if Miley hadn’t been sure before, that moment silenced any questions about her sexuality. Kiss was more like kisses, stolen in the darkness of a sparsely populated movie theater, but the feelings they invoked were more than any she had ever felt with Jake, or anyone for that matter.

A few weeks passed, taking with it Halloween and the last of the truly warm weather. Thanksgiving approached, bringing with it the even bigger event of Miley’s 16th birthday.

Lilly was walking through the mall, trying to find something for Miley. With a sigh, she walked into Hollister’s, knowing that Miley liked the store, having seen several bags of their clothes in her bedroom recently. Browsing around, she was shocked when she heard a familiar voice behind her. Startled, she ducked behind a rack of shirts and hid, not wanting Miley to see her shopping for her.

From between the shirts, she watched her best friend approach a short, raven-haired girl who worked there. Before Lilly could tell herself she was being silly and prepared to stand up, she saw Miley give the girl a quick kiss before winking and leaving the store, with a shout of “Call me,” drifting back.

That night, sleep didn’t come easily for Lilly. She tossed and turned for hours. Miley was haunting the back of her eyelids; every time Lilly shut her eyes, there was Miley kissing the other girl. And a few times, she could have sworn it was her kissing Miley.

When her alarm clock went off at six forty-five the next morning, she felt as though she hadn’t slept a wink. She was happy to be doing something other than rolling around her bed, though. She breezed through the shower, not able to concentrate on what she was doing. Halfway through her second shampooing she realized she was just going in circles. She rinsed and hopped out.

Breakfast was no better. She added cereal to a bowl, then milk. And then more cereal, and then more milk. The placemat was flooded before she stopped and thought about what she was doing. After cleaning her little mess up she had time to grab a banana and her backpack before running down the street towards school. It didn’t occur to her to wait for Miley.

During school, she avoided making eye contact with Miley as much as possible. She couldn’t see Miley without thinking about what she had seen. It would just make her feel even lower than she thought possible, because she wasn’t supposed to be bothered by it. For Lilly it felt like the day was oozing by as quickly as peanut butter on a brick wall. It just couldn’t get any slower.

“Lilly, are you okay?” Oliver nudged her shoulder during a passing period. He was concerned for her. He’d never seen her so down before. Usually when something was wrong with Lilly, it was punctuated by Lilly getting angry and huffy. It was hard to remember a time when Lilly was just down.

“I guess.” She crossed her arms across her body, not willing to make eye contact with Oliver either.

“What happened?” He questioned. When he asked Miley earlier, all he got was a clueless shrug.

“I was at the mall yesterday,” Lilly stated, as if that was the problem.

“Don’t you go to the mall a lot?”

“I saw Miley kissing someone,” she continued slowly.

Oliver’s eyes darted away. “Oh.”

“Yeah,” Lilly confirmed. She turned angry eyes on him suddenly. “You knew,” she accused, poking him in the chest.

“Ow,” he whined, stepping away from her dangerous finger. “Yeah, I knew, but Miley made me promise not to tell you. You’re already weird enough around her as it is.”

“I am not!” Lilly whispered harshly. She didn’t want others to overhear.

“You may not see it, but Miley and I both do. You’re acting like…” Oliver fixed her with a mischievous smirk. “Are you sure you don’t like her?”

“What? Of course not. I mean… I don’t know,” she whined. “I think I… I think I might,” she admitted after a moment.

“So this is easy to fix. Tell her the truth, apologize, kiss and make up, whatever it is girls do. Don’t make me get the handcuffs. I even have the key this time,” he patted his pocket and his face fell. “Well, I had the key.”

That cheered her up slightly and she gave him a weak grin. “Thanks for the support, Ollie, but it’s not that easy.”

He nodded. “Of course it is! Just talk to her after school.”

She squared her shoulders. “Right. Just walk right up to her and say Miley-”

“What?” Miley approached, face tilted curiously.

Lilly completely deflated. “I need to talk to you.”

Oliver wrapped his arms around the shoulders of his friends and started walking them towards the last class of the day. Lilly glared at him, as if he was ruining the moment on purpose.

“As much as I know you two need to talk, I don’t want to be late.”

Lilly spent the entire period with her eyes glued to the clock. Every minute that passed was one minute closer to fixing things with Miley. She could vaguely hear the teacher droning on, but mostly all she heard was the thumping of her heart. It was so loud to her that it filled her ears. The clock seemed to tick in time with every few thuds of her heart.

The bell rang and Lilly jumped from her chair. She wiped her palms along her shorts, trying to get the clammy sweat off them with little success. Breathing hard, she sought Miley out.

“Can we talk now?” Lilly gripped Miley’s arm, ignoring that she now could feel tingles wherever her flesh touched Miley’s.

“Why don’t we talk at my house? I have to get ready for the concert tonight.”

Lilly blinked in surprise, but tilted her head in acceptance. She had forgotten Miley had another concert tonight, with everything else that had been running through her mind. The walk to Miley’s house was tense and quiet. Oliver had decided to give them some alone time, for which Lilly was grateful. When they reached the Stewart residence they found Jackson crashed on the couch, eyes fixed on the television. Without speaking, they headed upstairs to Miley’s room, shutting the door behind them.

“What’s up, Lil? You’ve been acting so distant today.” Miley sat down at her desk, swiveling slightly on the roller chair.

“What? There’s nothing wrong...” Miley folded her arms and raised an eyebrow in disbelief. “Okay, okay! So there’s something wrong. Yesterday I was at the mall, and… well… I saw you kissing another girl.”

Miley’s face dropped. Her shoulders slumped and her hands quivered. “That’s what this is all about?” she asked, sounding a little angry. “You saw me kissing Katie?”

“Yeah…” Lilly trailed off, hating herself for putting Miley through this. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me. It shouldn’t bother me, I know that.”

“Ya think?” Miley’s voice raised in volume ever so slightly. She was trying to avoid yelling. “You told me you were okay! That we were okay!”

“I thought I was! But it’s one thing to talk about it, and another to see you… I’m just… We’re supposed to be honest with each other, and you didn’t even tell me you had a girlfriend,” Lilly argued, a little exasperated.

“Because I didn’t want you to go all weird on me again.” Miley shook her head, trying her best to remain calm. “I can’t hug you or push you or look at you without you flinching, and you were just starting to be comfortable around me again.”

“I don’t flinch,” Lilly murmured, eyes downcast. She wished Miley understood.

“Yes, you do! I see it every day!”

“I can’t help it!” Lilly yelled, rising from the bed and pacing around the room. “It’s great that you’re getting comfortable about yourself and all that. And you’re the same person as always, I get that. But you drop this bomb on me two months ago, and then we talk about it for fifteen minutes on the beach, and then nothing. No mention, no twitch, and now I’m all confused because…”

Miley stared at her pacing friend. “Because…” she led after a prolonged silence.

“Because... because… because I don’t know how I feel anymore,” she sighed, flopping back onto Miley’s bed.

That shook Miley a little. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing… Can we drop it for now? I promise to talk to you when I’m ready… but I’m not right now. I don’t hate you, and I’m trying, but I still need to figure my own head out.” Lilly begged.

Miley considered the plea and nodded reluctantly. “I just feel like I’m losing you, Lil.”

“I’m sorry. I… You know what, onto more pleasant topics, please!” Lilly smiled, trying to force away the tense atmosphere that had built up through their argument. Anything to get away from that subject. At least, she thought with a tiny smile, Miley didn’t hate her. “We should start getting ready for your concert. What Lola should I go as? I’m really liking the white wig.”

“Lola LaRhonda it is.” Miley agreed, “And that wig will go great with the black skirt and boots you borrowed that you seem to think I’ve forgotten about.”

Lilly grinned sheepishly, but enthusiastically agreed, glad Miley had let her off so easily. “I’m going to look so great tonight. I’m practically a celebrity, you know.”

Miley fixed her with a ‘best-friend-say-what?’ stare. “And I am?”

“Practically the best friend of practically a celebrity,” Lilly joked.

Miley smiled at her slightly goofy best friend. She knew something was changing between them, but she couldn’t help wondering whether it was for better or worse. All she knew was that losing Lilly would be the equivalent of having each of her toenails ripped off one by one.