A/N: I'm finally updating this! Lol I'm pretty much all better. I just hurt to walk still, but that's cause a blister on the back of my knee popped. But I'm peeling like mad, so I know that's a good sign. I've even been shopping two days in a row! Of course I'm paying for it now in pain, but that's okay. I had fun. Plus I got to see Jessy's wedding dress. It's absolutely BEAUTIFUL! I'm tryin to talk her into going to a Def Leppard concert in August, cause they're coming up here. lol It's weird to be 19 years old and so in love with 80's shit. I guess I have my sisters to thank for that. Anyways, here's the next chapter.

**************

Chris hung up their jackets in the coat closet when they entered the empty and dark house. He gripped her waist and moved her into the kitchen where she sat on a bar stool while he got them both something to drink. She leaned on the bar and watched him move around the kitchen, some of his wavy blonde hair had fallen out of his ponytail and bounced around his smooth face as he moved.

"Here ya go," he smiled at her placing a glass of lemonade in front of her. She smiled up at him and took a sip. "Are you okay?" He placed his hand on her's and softly rubbed it.

"Yeah, I'm alright," she sighed. "You look really good without all that damn prickly stuff on your face." She brought her hand up to his face and brought it down smoothly across his cheek and chin. He caught her hand and brought it up to his lips, kissing it sweetly. She couldn't help but giggle as memories of the two them came into her mind. All the nites they spent talking on the phone together until the sun came up. All of the afternoons when they'd walk hand in hand along the beach. All the times they watched movies together. All the, no, now she was confusing her memories of her and Chris with memories of her and Shane. Without realizing it, tears were slipping down her cheeks.

"Cinder, what's the matter?" Chris asked breaking through her hazy mind.

"Chris, I did nothing wrong!" she exclaimed quickly wiping the tears away. She was bound and determined to not let him see her upset.

"I know you didn't. C, just forget about it. Don't think about it, we won't talk about it, it'll just be you and me tonite. Okay?" Chris smiled at her, warming her heart up, making her wish she was in his arms all those times instead of Shane's.

"Well, now that you mention it just being you and me, where the hell are your parents? You said they'd be home."

"And they will be. My Dad's leaving for training tomorrow afternoon. So he and Mom are out with some friends having dinner. They shouldn't be gone much longer. So that wasn't just some line to get you in my house tonite," he laughed.

"Wow, he's leaving so soon?" she asked as they moved into the living room. Flopping down on the couch, she rested her legs on his lap.

"Yep, his last season with the Rangers. Who knows, maybe next year he'll be able to come watch my hockey games and cheer me on."

"Well, you'll always have me in your cheering section," Cinder smiled as the front door opened.

"Chris? Are you home?" his father called.

"Yeah, we're in here Dad!" Chris replied.

"We?" His mother's long wavy blonde hair was pulled back in a tight bun and her blue eyes were enormous with the help of some mascara. Her long dark purple skirt swayed as she moved into the room. Chris's father followed her closely. He was a very handsome man, she knew right where Chris got his good looks from. He had the most beautiful gray blue eyes she'd ever seen. His face was smooth and flawless, very lightly tanned. Blonde hair gelled into place and never moved, as it should have, when he walked. Despite being a hockey player, his smile showed nothing but fully intact pearly white teeth. He could have easily been a male model in his early 20's instead of the 30 something year old man he truly was. "Cinder! What a great surprise. How are you honey?" Chris's mom asked as she bent down to hug Cinder.

"I'm good, Mrs. Irvine," Cinder smile politely.

"What's with that Mrs. Irvine stuff?! It makes me sound as if I'm like 50 years old. Are you trying to age me?!"

"No, not at all. Sorry, Jen."

"That's better. Now, what are you doing here with my son? Don't you have a relationship going with a Shane Helms?" she asked.

"Um, not anymore," Cinder replied sadly, her smile fading.

"Mom, could you possibly make us some pop corn?" Chris interrupted. Jen looked down at her son and frowned.

"Yes, Jen, I think that'd be a great idea," Chris's father agreed pushing his wife into the kitchen, but turning back to Cinder. "I'm sorry dear."

"That's okay, Mr. Irvine."

"You know that you can call me Aaron. This Mr. and Mrs. stuff is just too formal." He disappeared into the kitchen with those words leaving Chris and Cinder to stare at each other.

"Ya know, Chris, I don't understand you sometimes," Cinder laughed as they continued to sit on the couch, many hours after his parents had both gone to bed.

"You don't understand me sometimes? Why? I don't think I'm that hard to understand."

"Well, you just have like 2 different personalities. One when it's just you and me and one when you're around everyone else."

"I don't know what you mean."

"Chris when you're with me, you're this sweet lovable guy. But when you're around other people you turn into this egotistical asshole."

"What can I say, you bring the best out in me," he smiled smugly.

"Seriously though, why do you do that? Half the kids at school, our friends included, don't like you most of the time. Why don't you show them the side that I know?"

"I don't know. I just don't." Cinder shook her head at him as he let loose a large yawn. "What do you say we end the nite and go to bed?"

"Yeah, I guess maybe we should." Cinder stretched as she stood and followed Chris upstairs. Changing into a pair of his sweatpants and a t- shirt, she crawled into his king sized water bed with him and snuggled up against his chest. His hand rested in her hair as he fell asleep combing through it.

***************

"Cinder, are you okay?" Lizzie pounded on her bedroom door only getting the sounds of her cousin's Unloco cd. Cinder had locked herself in her room for all of Saturday since she got home from Chris's and Sunday. It was now 9 at nite and Lizzie was getting a little mad that she hadn't been able to talk to Cinder all weekend to get the dirt on what happened Friday nite with Shane and the hotel room. "Cinder! Come on!! I wanna talk to you!" She continued to pound on the door never getting anything more but louder music.

"Is she still in there?" Adam asked walking up the stairs, just getting home from work.

"Yeah, I'm getting worried about her Adam. She's been in there for 2 days," Lizzie said following him into his bed room.

"I heard a rumor about Cinder, Charlie, and Shane today from Alanah," he said quietly shutting the door.

"What? You think she's gonna over hear you?" Lizzie laughed.

"Haha. Do you wanna hear the rumor or not?"

"Yeah, of course."

"Alanah told me that Shane went into the bathroom during the dance and while he was gone, Charlie asked Cinder for a dance and she said yes. Shane came back while they were still dancing and once the song ended, Charlie kissed her cheek. She slapped him but it was too late. The damage was already done. Shane stormed out of the school with Cinder on his ass. She tried to explain what happened but he wouldn't hear any of it. And so he broke up with her," Adam explained.

"Oh that's a bunch of crap! They got a hotel room Friday nite!" Lizzie exclaimed without realizing what she had said before it was too late.

"What?!" Adam roared.

"I mean Shannon and I got a hotel room Friday nite and Cinder went to Trish's. Sorry, just got mixed up," Lizzie tried to cover as she followed a steaming Adam across the hall to Cinder's room.

He burst into her room roaring, "What the hell is this I hear about you and Shane sharing a fuckin hotel room?!" Cinder turned her curled up body around and faced him, showing that she wasn't alone. In fact Jeff was in there with her, tear stains on his t-shirt from all the crying she had been doing on his shoulder. Adam stopped dead in his tracks, causing Lizzie to run right into him. Lizzie looked around Adam and saw Jeff's arms wrapped around Cinder as she frantically wiped her eyes. "Cinder?" Lizzie ran over to the stereo and turned it off then ran back to Adam's side. "Jeff, what are you doing here?"

"Cinder called me. So I rode my dirt bike over here and climbed in the window," Jeff explained releasing his arms around Cinder.

"So THAT'S what that noise was!" Lizzie exclaimed nodding her head.

"Cinder, what's wrong?" Adam asked softly climbing onto the bed next to her and pulling her into him. "Are the rumors true?"

"What rumors?" Cinder cried.

"About you, Charlie, and Shane," Lizzie answered.

"Very true!" Cinder buried her head in her brother's chest as Jeff stood and walked over to Lizzie.

"Ya know, I've been trying to leave for like 2 hours, but she wouldn't let me go out the front door and the ladder fell. And no matter what she says, that's a hell of a long way down without anyone to do an emergency catch if needed. Plus I didn't really wanna leave her side," Jeff whispered to Lizzie.

"I've never seen her cry. All the times that I've seen her get injured, she's never cried," Lizzie spoke softly as Adam rubbed the back of Cinder's head. "I think Adam's taking care of her now. Maybe we should leave them alone."

"Yeah, I need to get home too. It's already dark out. That's gonna be a pain in the ass on my bike," Jeff sighed.

"I can drive you home," Lizzie offered walking out of the bedroom.

"Cinder, Lizzie's gonna take me home. I'll see you tomorrow at school," Jeff said walking back towards the bed. Cinder looked up at him, her blue eyes all red and puffy. Her face showing nothing but sadness and despair. He leaned down and placed a soft kiss on her forehead.

"Thanks Jeff," Adam said as Cinder put her head back on Adam's chest. Jeff nodded at him and left. "C, what happened?" Cinder brought her head back up and shook it.

"I don't wanna talk about it anymore," she cried.

"Alright, I understand," Adam said as they slumped down in the bed together.

******************

The seat next to her in geometry no longer was filled by the one she wanted in a bad way. Instead a girl she had never been too close with sat there trying to tell her about some new news about Stephanie McMahon and Paul Levesque. She looked over by the window and saw him sitting at a seat next to Melissa, one of the girls he always had a thing for. She hated seeing him over there and not next to her where he should be. That whole class was a blur for her. She had even managed to block out the gossip girl within a short amount of time. When the bell had rung, she slung her messenger bag over her shoulder and stood, placing her hands in the front pocket of her hooded sweatshirt. She dragged herself towards the door only to run into him.

"Sorry," she said softly not looking up at him.

"I'm sure you are. But sorry means shit to me coming from you now a days," he replied harshly moving past her and out the door. She shuffled her feet and slowly moved out of the room and walked down the hall.

"Cin, how was geometry? Are you okay?" Amy asked running to catch up with her. Matt wasn't far behind.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Cinder answered trying to smile at her worried friends. Matt wrapped an arm around Amy and Cinder just felt like collapsing right in the middle of the hall. She missed him so much, everything about him. Hell, she didn't even have him for a friend anymore and that hurt more than anything.

"My brother said you weren't doing too well last nite," Matt said softly.

"Once a slut always a slut!" Lisa Marie yelled as she and her cronies walked by them.

"I hate my life," Cinder groaned walking down the hall.

"You don't mean that. Cinder, don't listen to anything she says. She's just a bitch," Matt said.

"Everything would be fine if I had just said no to Charlie!" Cinder snapped.

"Everything would find if Shane was half normal. You didn't nothing wrong," Amy said.

"If I was a good girlfriend I would have never danced with him," Cinder exclaimed taking off down the hall and out of the school right as snow started to lightly fall.

"She really loved him didn't she?" Matt asked taking Amy's hand.

"Yeah, I think she did," Amy nodded.

*************

"Cin, do you wanna watch some movies with Shannon and I?" Lizzie asked watching Cinder move around the kitchen still dressed like she was ready for bed.

"Nah, thanks though. I'm gonna go work on an art project in my room," Cinder replied with a small smile as she grabbed a juice box out of the fridge.

"Well, the offer still stands. If you want to come down and watch with us, you're more than welcome too," Lizzie offered.

"Thanks, I'll keep that in mind."

"You'll never believe who I saw at wrestling practice today when I went with Shane!" Shannon exclaimed bursting into the kitchen.

"Hello to you too Shan," Lizzie and Cinder said crossing their arms, completely in sync with each other.

"Yeah, um, hi," he said kissing each girl on the cheek. "Anyways, Charlie Haas was there."

"Charlie?" Cinder asked.

"Yeah, Charlie," Shannon replied.

"Wow, I thought he had told Kurt no at one point," Cinder said softly walking towards the stairs.

"Is she alright?" Shannon asked as he and Lizzie watched her go.

"I really couldn't tell ya." Lizzie shrugged and pulled Shannon into the living room.

"So Charlie's gonna be wrestling this year. Why? He said he wasn't going to. Oh shit! He knows how much I love to watch it. He's trying to get me back! Well that sure as hell aint happening!" Cinder exclaimed punching the air as she walked into the room, squeezing the juice box so all the juice splattered all over her. "DAMN!"

***********

A/N2: This had to have been like the hardest chapter to write. And I still don't really like it. I'm so close to just leaving this house. My fuckin Dad blew up at me for no reason and then my mom through a shit fit about not being able to find some place. The funny thing is that I could get my self to where she wanted to go. So I don't know why she has no fuckin clue how to get there. And then my "friend" Matt is being a complete asshole. If he keeps it up, he'll have no friends here. He fuckin jumped all over me for no reason and basically told me that all his friends up here mean nothing to him. He made me cry. UGH! These past 2 weeks have just been sheer hell. I gotta get out of this state. Lol Oh, I completely and totally love Sean O' Haire's entrance music. It so kicks ass.