Kicking a rock along as he walked home from Gordie's, Chris let his mind wander. It was dark and kind of cold and he was glad he had brought his jacket along.

He tried to think of anything else, but with every step he took, his thoughts turned to Ren.

No matter how hard he tried he knew that he wouldn't be able to tell himself not to like her. It was more than "like," he guessed. He cared about her. He wanted to look after her and make sure nothing bad ever came her way.

Which is why he couldn't say anything to her. When she had told him that she liked him, he had wanted so bad to say it back. He had wanted her to give him his first kiss. And yeah, maybe he could be happy for once but he didn't know if causing her to get hurt was worth it. He also didn't enjoy getting the crap beaten out of him for associating with her either.

Suddenly he saw her turn the corner, her perfect dark hair in incredible disarray. She was walking fast, her head down.

"Ren!" he called.

She looked up, startled.

He jogged over to her. "Ren, you okay?"

"Yeah," she said, keeping her head lowered.

"Liar. Did something happen?"

When she glanced up at him, he saw a flurry of tears streaming down her rosy cheeks and the sight made him nervous because he'd never seen her cry. "Well, Chris, apparently you're the only one who doesn't think I'm a slut."

"Pardon?"

"I went out with Zeke tonight," she muttered.

"What did he do?" Chris demanded, his voice low and grating.

"Nothing. But he tried." Chris could tell she was trying to stop crying, but she was trembling like a leaf and her voice kept hitching with tears. "I mean, he apologized, but I guess he was under the popular illusion that I'll do it on the first date."

Chris gently tucked her hair behind her ear. "God, if he touched you--did he hurt you?"

She shrugged, looking away as if she wished existence would end. "His friends told him that someone like me will do just about anything. So after dinner, we were walking around Asher Park in a little grove of trees and he started to get a little--forceful, and I'm like 'what are you doin buddy?'" She stopped to scrub furtively at her eyes with the back of her hand. "Anyway, he quit it. And he was sorry. He told me about telling his friends about meeting me and everything and they told him to ask me out because girls like me just never quit. It's like I don't have any pride! Why did he think he could do that to me?"

"I think I'm going to kill him," Chris decided.

"Don't," she said. "He just didn't understand."

"Didn't understand?" he cried. "What, he didn't understand that some girls actually have some self-respect?"

"This never would have happened before," she said quietly. "People all these assumptions set for me, but they never cared enough to watch to see if they were true. No one cared about me but at least they left me alone and didn't try to hurt me. And now I'm in the middle of all these people watching me, and trying to be myself. But they all think I'm some rich, easy snob who dropped out of a fucking Members-Only heaven, walking among them and I'm free for them to use."

"So you wish things had never changed," Chris said.

"No, I couldn't live like that anymore!" He could barely understand what she was saying; she was sobbing so hard. "But I don't know how to live like this anymore, I just can't stop hating myself and I don't know what to do!"

"Don't ever hate yourself, Ren," he said. "Sometimes I can see the real you, and it's such a beautiful thing to see."

"Chris," she murmured. "Don't say things like that when I'm already crying."

"I'm sorry, Ren, he told her. "I hope you stop being so sad." He slipped off his jacket and laid it across her cold, shaking shoulders.

"Thank you," she said.

"You don't think you can be as good as you were before," Chris all of a sudden said. "You think you've lost what made you shine, but I can still see it, I can see it better now."

She laughed hoarsely and painfully, her tears slowing. "Stop that."

"No," he laughed back. "I'm going to keep saying stuff like that no matter how much it makes you cry because I'm going to make you see that you're so…high above everything now."

"Go ahead and try. I know I'll never be the girl I want to be."

"I know," he said. "But you're the only girl I know that wants me to be who I am."

Ren looked up at him curiously. Her eyes were rimmed with pink and her face was flushed and wet with lingering tears. She looked vulnerable, true and the best Chris had ever seen her.

She told him, "That's because who you are is everything I'm trying to be."

Placing a hand on her shoulder and startling her in the process, Chris leaned over, somewhat awkwardly, and kissed her.

When he pulled away, she began to giggle.

He laughed too. "I didn't think it was that bad."

"It wasn't," she insisted. "I'm giggling because now I'm kinda giddy."

"Oh, yes, I have that affect on many women," he laughed. "So, um, are you my girlfriend?"

"If you say please," she teased. "People aren't going to like this, Chris. What if something bad happens?"

Chris shook his head. "Maybe you should kiss me again. I'm pretty sure nothing bad could happen if we were kissing."

Ren broke out into a huge smile. "Sounds logical to me."

That was Ren knew for sure that she was in love. She was scared for a second, scared that she had fallen in love and wouldn't be able to find her way back to the surface. But with Chris' hands in her hair and his sweet inexperience lingering on her lips, she really didn't care.

[AN: I hope you liked that because I stayed up to 3:12 in the morning writing it. I also hope you didn't think it was too sappy, but I'm in sappy-mode lately hehehehehe :)]