Cause You Were Here

Disclaimer; I do not own Stand By Me, or any Characters related to it or to the original Novella 'The Body' by Stephen King. I'm pretty sure that the master of horror himself owns said properties, and I'm not going to even start to defy that. I do, however, own Audrey - her parents Alan and Georgina and any other random OCs throughout this tale.

Author's Note; This has been re-written to improve not only grammar and style but story line as well. If you are a dedicated reader of this story, you may want to re-read through the story since the relationship with Ace is a tad different and the development of the relationship with Chris has also changed. Also, Audrey's story has been delved into more, and her character has changed in a few ways. I have also rewritten entire chapters that are much better, in my own humble opinion. From now on, the chapters will be entirely different from their original, lesser counterparts.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

Chapter Six

On a Friday a couple of weeks later, Chris jogged to catch up with Audrey after school and jokingly grabbed her hand. She looked over at him as if he were crazy and had already decided in her mind that he was, indeed, clinically insane.

"Chris, are you crazy?" She asked, no hint of joking in her tone.

He smiled, "No. Teddy's the crazy one."

Audrey rolled her eyes at his answer, "Anyway, what did you want?"

"Come with me, Gordy, Vern and Teddy, this weekend," He replied.

She again gave him that 'are you crazy' look, and Chris, being the smartass he always was, smirked in reply. She was growing increasingly skeptical of his intentions. To Audrey, Chris either really wanted to die, or he really wanted her. Nevertheless, he was just asking for an ass-kicking brought to him by Ace or his brother at the very least.

"What are you so afraid of?" He asked, staring at her.

She rolled her eyes, "Ace killing you because you're talking to his girl."

"Oh, come on. He won't do anything, I'm Chris Chambers!"

She rolled her eyes, "So you've said."

"What? Have a little faith in me, will you?"

She smiled, "Why should I? So far all you have proved to me is that you're clinically insane."

Chris looked at her skeptically, a little bit of hurt in his eyes that he tried to hide, "Well, you can't do much worse than Ace."

She glared at him defensively, "Who the hell do you think you are? Judging myself and Ace, you don't even know me and you're assuming that --"

"Slow down, Slow down," Chris calmed her by rubbing her back reassuringly, "All I was trying to say is that Ace is a real jerk, you know?"

Angry blue eyes stared back up at him, "He can be, yes, but you shouldn't just make accusations about us and then --"

"I just think you're too good to be hanging around with him, that's all. I've known Ace my whole life, and trust me, he's just gotten to be more and more of an ass as he's grown up."

The female sighed, "I'm not surprised that he has. It's just that. . ." She paused, taking a moment to look back up at the sixteen year old boy, "there's something about him. Sure, he might not be the very best person for me, but I think in his own way he loves me."

"Sure, I've heard that before too. Ace will promise a girl the world and make her believe he cares, and then do you know what happens?" Chris asked her shortly. She shook her head, and he answered her pointedly, "He'll get them to have sex with him, and then he'll dump them a week later."

"I can imagine," She replied, "But don't worry too much about that Chris."

"And why not?"

"Because..." She paused, and he turned to face her.

"Oh, Oh, that can't be good. You've already done that with him, haven't you?"

She forced a half-smile, "I told you that I'm not too good for him. Trust me, Chambers, you can do much better than me. Just, drop it would you?"

He searched her blue eyes for something, something like a hint of a lie or a trace of being sorry for what she'd done, but he found nothing of the sort. He felt disappointed, but it wasn't the first time. He smiled, "Sorry Audrey, I just can't do that."

She looked shocked, "You stubborn son of a --"

"Hey, keep my mother out of this," He quickly stopped her.

They were silent as they passed the last of the businesses, and then Chris perked up again, "So what do you say?"

"About what?"

"Spend tomorrow with Gordie, Vern, Teddy and I. If Ace cares about you half as much as you think he does, he can spend a day without you."

"HA! You say you've known Ace since birth, and yet you seem to forget the fact that he's the most impatient person I know," Audrey replied.

"Stop dancing around the question, will you come with us or not? I promise we won't hurt you, if we do you can get that big bad boyfriend of yours to 'kill' us."

"Sure, I'll come with you guys - but what will I tell Ace?" She asked, "I can't exactly say that I'm going for a nature walk with Eyeball's little brother and his friends."

"Just tell him your folks want you to stay in tonight, he'll go for that, won't he?'

"No," She blinked at him stupidly, "He'll tell me to sneak out."

"Tell him they're taking you to see your cousin upstate."

"That's so logical. It doesn't sound like you at all, Chris," She joked.

"I'm not half as crazy as you think I am, and I'm not nearly as crazy as my brother," He admitted, coming up to the fork between their two blocks. They paused there, "There's something else you should know. We might not end up being home until the next day."

"Oh, now I have to lie to my folks too?"

Chris stared at her, surprised, "You already lie to them, don't you? I mean, they can't approve of Ace Merrill and even if they did, I would hope they didn't know what you and Ace do."

"You have a point there. So what should I tell my parents?"

"You've met Maggie, haven't you?"

"Maggie Reynolds, right?"

"Yeah, anyway, Gordie talked to her, and she said that it was fine if you pretended to stay at her house for the night. You have to tell them that you'll walk there though, which won't be a problem anyway because she lives two houses down from you."

"Why would she agree to that?"

"Honestly, I think she likes Gordie."

"Alright, where do you want me to meet you?"

"Behind the diner; I might not be there right away but Gordie and Vern will be."

"I'll see you there around six then, I suppose."

"Sounds good," Chris nodded, and they both headed their separate ways.