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 try and 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.

Chapter Ten

"Come for a walk with me," Chris offered, still standing over her, obstructing the warm rays of the sun.

Audrey opened her eyes to see the attractive young man staring down at her. She saw several bruises on his body at different stages. Some were fresh - purple, dark blue, charcoal - while others were very old, almost skin toned but still holding on to a tinge of sickly yellow. She could tell that he was probably always sore. She stuck out a hand, "Help me up."

He pulled her up easily, and the two escaped from the rest of their friends and started walking down the beach. They strolled in silence for a few minutes before Audrey finally spoke up, "What do you want to tell me, Christopher?"

"Ace isn't good for you."

She sighed, loftily, "Everyone keeps telling me that. My parents, you, Gordie, even Maggie and the other girls tell me that though Ace is quite easy on the eyes, he'll hurt me and blah, blah, blah. I don't care, okay?"

Chris stared back at her, "You don't understand, Audrey. He doesn't care about you. He doesn't love you, and I know that it hurts to hear it, but he doesn't. The only person Ace cares about is himself. You should know that before you get too far in."

"Chris, I already told you I don't care. Ace is who he is; I knew that from the first second I laid eyes on him. I'm not just going to up and change my mind about liking him because you tell me to."

"Just ... hear me out," He said, carefully. He could tell that there was anger building in her veins, and he didn't want to risk her getting agitated and running off on him. She just needed to hear what he was trying to tell her; it was important regardless of whether she wanted to listen to it or not.

"Fine," She replied, swallowing the anger, "Then tell me what happened to you."

"Why do you have to be so damned difficult?"

"I don't know; why do you?"

They stared at each other for a long time before either of them spoke again. The crash of the waves prevented them from hearing Teddy, Vern, and Gordie in the ocean almost a mile away from them. They seemed much farther to Audrey, who was admittedly embarrassed of the way she was acting. The thing was that she was falling for Chris, and she had known she liked him since that first day of school.

"He's cheating on you," Chris replied.

She blinked at him, slowly absorbing the words he had spoken. Her throat felt dry as she managed to croak out a one-word response, "What?"

"The night before last, for the first time in God knows how long, Eyeball comes home. Dad wasn't too happy about that, but then Eyeball starts talking about how he and Ace had picked up these two blonde 'babes' from the Pool Hall last night. I'm not going to go into the details that he did, because you're a lady, but it wasn't pleasant. When I asked if Eyeball was sure it wasn't you, he got pissed off."

"Is that the reason for all the bruises?"

"Not entirely," Chris admitted, "But why should I tell you? You probably think I'm lying to you."

But, Audrey barely got any of that - she could feel the tears building behind the ducts and was trying with every ounce of energy that she possessed to not let them fall. When she couldn't fight them off anymore, and Chris noticed that she was crying, he took her in his arms and let her cry into his chest.

"It'll be okay," He promised and kissed her head. He knew that it wouldn't be okay, but he knew that was what she needed to hear.

----

"I thought Audrey said she was staying with that nice girl from down the street," Allen told his wife at around the same time that Audrey and Chris were waking up that morning.

"She is," Georgina replied, not bothering to look up from the bacon she was frying for her husband.

Allen stood, thinking for a moment, "I swear I thought I saw her and Ace getting something to eat at the diner last night."

His wife looked up, and glanced over at her husband, "Oh?"

".. No, wait, come to think of it, that young lady was a blonde."

"Ace was out with another girl last night?" She replied.

"Apparently so," Allen replied, "They were with another couple, too."

"Do you think Audrey knows?"

"We can only wait and ask her when she gets home. She did tell me that she was going to the movies in Portland this afternoon and might not be back till late."

"I never liked that boy," Allen said, "He reminds me too much of Dean and that whole mess in Phoenix."

Georgina nodded as she pulled the bacon from the skillet and put in the hash browns. She wrapped the plate of bacon in aluminum foil to keep it warm, "I believe that Ace is worse than Dean. At least Dean was courteous to our daughter, Ace disrespects her every chance he gets. But what can we do?"

"I know Audrey doesn't like being told how to make her decisions. Maybe one of her new friends can convince her that he's bad news," He replied, unfolding the newspaper.

"I kind of doubt that, Allen. She's never been one to follow the crowd," She replied, "I suppose she gets that from me."

"Don't blame yourself, love," He stated, "You were the best mother any girl could hope for. Maybe, with the new times, Audrey will finally find a way to fit in."

----

"It won't," She told him, "It won't be okay."

Chris looked down at Audrey, "I know."

"Then why did you say that it would be?"

"Because I knew that it was what you needed to hear then."

She smiled briefly, "You're too good to be my friend, Chambers."

He grinned down at her sadly, "Don't say that."

They turned around and started walking back towards their friends, "Is it going to be hard?"

Audrey looked up at Chris, "Is what going to be hard?"

"Breaking up with Ace."

"I never said I was going to break up with him," She replied.

Chris stared at her, wondering exactly how dumb a girl could get, "He's not worth it."

"No?"

Chris shook his head, wishing he could knock some sense into her and sensing that he couldn't.

"We'll see," She replied and then took off in a sprint, tackling Gordie at the other end of the beach.