I'm scared.

Last period. Five minutes left in class. Chris kept watching the clock, wishing that time could go backwards just this once. He didn't want to go home. He was scared.

You would think that after a lifetime of what his dad put him through every night, Chris would get used to it. He would stop being scared. He would accept it. It wouldn't stop hurting, but he would stop being scared.

Scribbling down that night's assignment, he closed his books with a shaky hand and stuffed it in his backpack.

English class was one where he didn't really have any friends in it with him. So he sat in his desk quietly while everyone milled around him, talking about their plans for after school and stuff like that that Chris wish he had someone to talk to about.

The last bell of the day rang, and his heart started to pound uncontrollably, fluttering in his chest like a frantic seagull. The dread that the end of the day always struck in him always made him panic. The panic was so bad he felt like it was a sign that he was dying or something.

Going through the motions, he slung his backpack over his shoulder and made his way up the aisle, trying to lose himself in the crowd waiting to go out the door into the hallway.

Someone bumped into him, and he staggered backwards, confused for a moment.

"You seem to be running into people a lot today, hey, Chambers?" Ren said, sounding almost good-natured.

"Sorry," he muttered. He wasn't quite feeling up to making conversation with Ren. She confused him, and he always needed to have the last word when he talked to her.

"Why are you saying sorry to me?" she laughed.

"I don't know. Sorry."

"Are you alright?" she asked when they got into the hall. "You seem weird."

"I seem weird?" He smiled, but it was a reserved smile. "You don't know what's normal for me, so you don't know what's weird either."

"Well, I know normal human behavior, and you're acting inhumanly."

"Ohh." He actually chuckled. "I never knew you were such an expert."

"Well, now you do." She peered over at him, and tried again. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," he said, but he sounded unconvincing and defensive.

"I think you're lying," she teased.

"Yes. As you know, people from my side of the tracks are all liars."

Ren blushed. "Don't start giving me the poor boy-rich girl lecture again, Chris."

"Why are you walking with me?" he asked. "People aren't blind, you know. They can see you walking with me."

"I can walk wherever I want to in these hallways," she shot back irritably. "Wanna talk about what's wrong?"

"Not with you!" he said, surprised that she was imposing herself on him like she was an old friend.

"What's wrong with me?" she asked innocently.

"You're Ren Rasmussen. I'm Chris Chambers. We're from two totally different planets and we can't be friends."

"Why not?"

He was getting impatient. "Because." When he got to the front doors and shoved them open, she followed like a faithful puppy.

"That's vague."

"Why are you doing this?" he demanded, suddenly angry. "What is in it for you? Am I some kind of special experiment or something to you? Are you going to dress me up all nice so I can be pretty for prom? What the hell, Ren?"

"What, I'm not allowed to talk to you?"

"Not according to your friends, you're not."

"They're not my friends!" she cried exasperatedly. "I would like very much to see them get run over by buses and then eaten by angry geese. They're mean to everyone, they don't care about me, and they make me feel like I can never be good enough, and I don't want to be friends with them anymore."

"Doesn't work that way, sweetie."

"Hey, I rule the world, remember?" she teased, smiling up at him.

"Why me?" he asked. "Why do I have to be your victim? And why now?"

"You're not my victim."

"Well, that's funny, because you make me feel like running."

"I know I've never talked to you or shown an interest in you, but I know what you're like. And I know that you wouldn't try to hurt me."

"I know what you're like too," he snapped. "And I know that you would let me get hurt."

"That's not true," she said defensively. "I've never bullied anyone like my friends do."

"You've never stuck up for anyone either. You just stand and watch it all happen. That's just as bad, because you know exactly what's happening and why it's so wrong, and you have the ability to make it stop, but you don't. You just let it go on."

Ren raked her dark hair back out of her face. "You know what, Chris, you're right. I'm one of them, but I'm not really like them. At least I know the difference between right and wrong."

"Ren," he sighed. "You're not going to convince me until I start to see it with my own eyes. Actions speak louder than words, you know."

"You're going the wrong way," she said suddenly.

"What?"

"You live back that way," she said, not because she stalked him and followed him home to see where he lived, but because Castle Rock was a small town and everyone knew where everyone lived.

"Oh…I'm just…taking the long way," he stammered.

"You don't want to go home," Ren said confidently. "That's why you were looking so sick back in class because you're just scared about going home. I noticed in English that you've got a cut on the back of your head that wasn't there yesterday and your wrist is all mottled."

"I just fell--"

"Yeah, bull," she interrupted. "I know about your dad, he's been beating you up since grade school, probably longer."

"Gee, it must be easy seeing everyone else's problems up on your little pedastal, Ren," he snapped bitterly.

"Bite me," she growled, sick of him putting her down. "I was going to say you could come home with me and hide out for awhile, but if you're going to keep talking to me like this, you can just go home to that old bastard and--"

"Your family wouldn't want me around."

"My family doesn't want me around." She looked up at him. "Are you going to come with me?"