"What, what the fuck do you know about this?"

Chris and I pulled apart immediately when we heard that voice. We looked up at the top of the incline, near the tracks, and saw Ace Merrill smirking evilly down at us. Chris jumped of the log and stood protectively in front of me as his brother, Eyeball joined Ace at the top of the hill. Teddy and Vern ran to Chris' side in an attempted effort to back him up.

"Son of a bitch! My little brother!" Eyeball cried, outraged as he made his way down the hill towards us with Ace.

"You wasn't planning on taking the body from us, was ya kids?" Ace asked, threatingly.

"You get away, man," Chris replied, looking a little shaken. Nobody had anticipated the Cobra's sudden involvement.

Ace just smirked back at Chris.

"We were the ones who found him. That's not fair!" Chris argued.

"That's not fair!" Eyeball mocked his brother. "Well, not anymore."

"There's four of us, Eyeball. You just make your move." Teddy replied coolly.

"Oh we will, don't you worry," Ace smirked. At the top of the hill appeared Billy Tessio, Charlie Hogan, Vince Desjardins and a few other members of the Cobras. I became frightened. Ace and Eyeball were enough to take us down, but the whole gang seemed even more formidable.

"Vern, you little son of a whore!" Charlie cursed, coming down the incline. "You were under the porch!"

"No, I swear!" Vern cried, palms out in front of him as if to stop them from coming. "It wasn't me!"

"You little peep-hole looking bunghole! I ought to beat the shit out of you!" Billy raged, joining Charlie, Ace and Eyeball at the bottom of the incline. Vince and the rest of the gang followed Billy down, too.

Vern, in a terror, fled into the trees behind us. It was only Chris, Teddy and I left.

Ace extended his arm and clicked at Billy. It was obviously a dominance sign. A warning and an order all in one. Billy stopped and looked at Ace expectantly.

Ace looked back at us. "Now, you have two choices. One: you leave quietly, we take the body," he reasoned menacingly. I looked at Chris as he said this, and saw he was shaking his head slightly, "or two: you stay, we beat the shit out of you, and we take the body."

"Besides, Billy and I found him first," Charlie contributed rather childishly.

"Yeah, Vern told us how you found him," Teddy taunted. "Oh, Billy! I wish we never boosted that car! Oh, Billy! I think I just turned my Fruit Loops into a fudge factory!" he mocked the older boy.

"That's it! Your ass is brass!"

Ace stopped Charlie in the same way he silenced Billy. He looked at Chris with pure loathing. "Okay, Chambers, you little faggot. This is your last chance. What d'you say, kid?"

"Why don't you go home and fuck your mother some more?" was Chris' reply.

Ace glared as Chris as he pulled a pocket knife out of his pants. "You're dead."

I held my breath as Ace slowly moved towards Chris with the knife. Teddy was trying to reason with Chris. "Come on, Chris, man. He's got a knife!"

"They're not taking him," Chris said, his voice thick with the implication that he wasn't going anywhere. Eventually, Teddy ran in pursuit of Vern, clearly terrified by this new development. It was only me and Chris now.

Then, I remembered the .45 that Chris had stolen from his father. I looked down and saw Chris' pack at my feet, and I remembered with sudden relief and elation that it was hidden in his pack. I bent down as I heard Eyeball say "Ace, come on…" I was shocked. I never thought that Eyeball would ever be concerned for his kid brother.

With the gun behind my back, I bent straight. I was prepared to use it at the opportune moment to protect the one I loved. I saw with horror that Ace was too close to Chris. Despite looking extremely nervous and frightened, Chris stood his ground.

"You're gonna have to kill me, Ace."

"No problem."

I pulled the gun from behind my back as Ace grabbed Chris and aimed the knife at his throat. I fired it into the air, filling the gun with a slight smoke and a formidable and intimidating echo. Ace jumped back from Chris.

Glaring at Ace and pointing the gun in his direction, I moved down to stand next to Chris, every bit of loathing that I felt towards Ace and his gang evident in my stance and glare.

"You're not taking him. Nobody's taking him." I announced icily.

"C'mon, kid, give me the gun before you take your foot off," Ace said to me, looking a little shaken. He proceeded to move towards me.

I held the gun tighter and flicked the safety switch off. I aimed it more purposefully at him, which stopped him in his tracks.

"One move, Ace," I all but whispered, "and I'll kill you, I swear to God."

"C'mon Lachance, give me the gun," Ace demanded coolly. "You must have some of your brother's good sense?"

I breathed in heavily to calm myself. "Fuck off, you cheap dime-store hood."

"What are you gonna do? Shoot us all?"

"No Ace. Just you."

Ace looked nervously at his friends. Then, seeming to gather is cool, he composed himself. He looked Chris dead in the eye, held up his knife and said in a low, threatening voice, "We're gonna get you for this."

Chris looked skeptical. "Maybe you will and maybe you won't."

"Oh we will." Ace turned and jerked his head at the boys, and they reluctantly turned and left. He followed suite slowly. At the top of the incline to the tracks, Ace turned back to us and said, "We're not gonna forget this if that's what your thinking. This is big time baby."

Chris rolled his eyes. I kept the gun firmly in front of my body. Once Ace had finally gone, we relaxed at once. Chris looked at me with a worried look in his eyes. He turned to face me, placing both hands on my shoulders.

"Are you okay?" he asked softly.

I nodded slightly, my eyes on the ground. I felt something wet trickle down my cheek. Wiping it away, I realized I had begun to cry again. Chris gently pried the gun out of my hand, flicked the safety switch back on, placed the gun on the log, and then came back to me.

Cradling my cheek in his hands, he guided my face up to look him in the eye. "Are you sure? You don't look it."

I couldn't answer him. I had no words. The only answer I could provide was to throw my arms around his neck and bury my face into his neck, needing comfort. His arms encased my waist and tightened, as if he didn't want to let me go. I felt his face bury into my hair. The moment was perfect. I knew this was where I belonged. I knew my purpose in life: to be with Chris. I pulled my head back and we looked into each other's eyes.

I kissed him lightly on the lips. "I love you," I admitted.

He smiled and kissed me back. "I love you, too. So much." I felt my stomachs perform little flips at his words.

I could hear footsteps approaching, so I released Chris. I knew it had to be Teddy and Vern. As we separated, I could have sworn that I saw a disappointed look come upon Chris' face.

When Vern and Teddy arrived, Vern asked Chris, "Are we gonna take him?"

"No," I answered for Chris.

"But we came all this way. "We were supposed to be heroes…" Teddy said softly.

I turned to face him. "Not this way, Teddy." I picked up a blanket nearby and asked, "Chris, can you give me a hand." Chris stepped forward at once and helped me place the body over Ray Brower.

We headed home, and although many thoughts raced through our minds, we barely spoke. We decided to provide an anonymous phone call to the police, and in the end, Ray's body was found. Neither our gang nor Ace's gang got the credit for it.

However, this was not to be a happily ever after. All of us, Chris and I in particular, could not anticipate what awaited us when we arrived home.