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breathed in a haggard sounding breath, running his hand through his already-messy hair.  She could tell that he didn’t know how to reply, and it took him several moments to compose his response.  “I needed to get away.” 
    “So you chose Ravenside , of all places?”  she crossed her arms over her chest so that she would be less tempted to pull him into another embrace.  The instinct was just so natural .  Having him here, right in front of her, brought it all back.  
    “It’s quiet here.”
    “You hated it here.” 
    “That’s not true.”  But they both knew it was.  He’d hated it so much that he hadn’t even waited until graduation to take off across the country.  “I liked being here with you.”
    “Oh, is that why you kept in touch so well?”  Penny couldn’t help the sarcastic tone in her voice. 
    “I kept in touch.” 
    “A few random phone calls scattered over the first few months you were gone don’t really count as ‘keeping in touch’, Tommy.”  She thought back to that first year Tommy had been gone.  She hadn’t thought it would be so difficult, not having him around.  It wasn’t as if they had been in love with each other or anything like that—but they had been friends.  They had relied on each other. 
    Except that, when Tommy left, it felt like he’d taken a piece of her with him.  She had looked forward to hearing from him—to know how he was doing, what he was up to. 
    He hadn’t called until a few weeks after he’d arrived in Los Angeles.  She had spent the first month worrying about him, having no idea where he was or what had happened.  He’d told her he would call as soon as he arrived. 
    After the first phone call, another month or so passed by before the next.   And then two months before the next.   And that was pretty much the last time she’d spoken to Tommy Davidison . 
    She couldn’t forget the pain she’d felt at his abandonment.  No matter how hard she had tried over the years, the wound never healed. 
    And now, having him stand right here in front of her—she felt as though it had been freshly torn open.
    “Can’t we just…let the past be the past?  I just want my friend back.”  It almost sounded like a line from one of his movies.  She looked up to find him staring down at her with those intense blue eyes she’d never been able to forget. 
    The bubble of laughter that escaped from her was biting.  “Our past made our present, Tommy.  Don’t you see?  Whatever we had then—that’s where it ended.  You and I aren’t friends anymore.  And we’ll never be friends again.  Too much time has gone by.  We’ve changed too much.”
    “You haven’t even given me a chance.”
    “That’s right, and I don’t intend to.”  At that, Penny stepped around him to begin the walk back to Amy’s. 
    “That’s not fair,”   he was right on her heels. 
    “Fair or not—it’s life.”  She thought about her cheating husband.  Had that been fair?   And what about Tommy leaving her behind without so much as a second thought?   Had that been fair? 
    “I know all about how unfair life can be.”  His words brought her to a stop.  He was right, of course. 
    Life had taken his mother from him before he’d even had the chance to know her.  Life had forced him to live with a man who never seemed to think his own son was good enough. 
    “I just—I need a friend.  I need my Penny Lane.”  If she would have turned around, she would have seen the loneliness in his eyes. 
    “I’m sorry, but that song ended a long time ago.”  And with that, she resumed her walk. 
    A few moments later, she heard footsteps echoing behind her—but she didn’t turn back.
    She didn’t have to. 
    For the first time in what seemed like a very long time, a small smile—a genuine smile—touched her lips. 
    Because even though she’d known Tommy before he’d become Thomson, she couldn’t deny being just the slightest bit