Actually I didn't properly realise the way I ended the last chapter. I never thought of it as a cliff-hanger that would frustrate you, the readers. It's amusing from this end as I'm the only one who knows what will happen all of you are bugged because of it. HA!

I don't want to sound too modest here, but I don't think that this story is as good as you lot are saying. It's nothing compared to truly great stories like Splintered Reflections and Pretend Dates (the 2 best stories, in my opinion, on here).

Disclaimer is still the same (what a surprise).

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Chapter 14: Explain Yourself

The morning sun poked through the curtains and flickered over Angelica's face. She woke up and instinctively looked over at her clock to see what time it was.

"7 in the morning." She sighed. It was the first day of her suspension so she did not need to set the alarm. Then again, she normally took Chuckie to High School, but after last night she wasn't required to take him. Her heart ached due to a lack of love.

....Flashback....

She broke the strong, intense and passionate kiss that she had given him.

"I...love...you. THAT is what is wrong! Just weeks ago I assaulted you and now I can't stop thinking about you!" She told him, still with her arms around him tightly.

"I..." Chuckie didn't know how to respond to this turn of events.

"I want you more than anything in the entire galaxy! I picked on you, insulted you and manipulated you so much you that have become part of me, my life and my soul. I did those things because I was attracted to you! I wanted you attention and I wanted you to notice me! But you wanted to hang around Tommy and the others so I was always left out. I loved your attention and I still do. The thing is, I don't want to stop thinking about you, I love thinking about you. It makes me feel happy in more ways than one!" She had told him. Now that she had kissed him, she found the strength to tell him everything, either that or is just didn't matter whether he knew or not. What happened had happened and nothing would change it.

"I...I need to think about this, Angelica..." He tried to pull away.

Angelica reluctantly let him slip out of her arms. Her heart ached as he moved towards the bedroom door.

"I, uh...I'll find my own way to High School for the time being...I need...to think about this." Chuckie told her as he left.

....End Flashback....

She was left bewildered by his actions. There was more to his side of the story than he had told her and she wondered why he wanted to stay away from her.

"Have I doomed what chance I have of gaining his forgiveness?" She asked herself.

It was times like these when she needed to talk to someone. Someone who would listen, but no-one would listen to her now. She couldn't explain it to Chuckie because he already knew. She needed someone else now.

"Tommy knows, Dil wouldn't understand, Kimi despises me, Phil and Lil would want nothing to do with this..." It seemed hopeless to her. "Susie...That's it! I can speak to Susie! She would listen!" Angelica exclaimed merrily.

The disappointment of last night seemed irrelevant right now, not when she would have someone to speak to about this situation.

....

Chuckie hadn't had much sleep last night. What Angelica did and said to him kept playing on his mind and stopped him from trying to sleep. He was a complete wreck over this. If this had happened a few weeks ago, before she assaulted him, it would have been a different story, one which would have let him sleep soundly at night and not cause this state of paranoia, nervousness and loss of concentration. That is, a loss of concentration on everything except what had happened last night.

He had decided to walk to High School so he had managed to get up earlier (and not oversleep despite last night's complications). He had gone the wrong way a couple of times, going straight on when he should have gone right, going left instead of straight on and so on. He was even too distracted to remember to visit his locker and place unneeded items in there and retrieve items he would need.

He placed his hand on the doorknob to his homeroom (he remembered where it was on the third attempt of going into a room) and walked forwards, forgetting to actually OPEN the door. Subsequently, he smacked into the door and groaned in agony. Now he remembered to open the door before walking into the room. When he did so, everyone looked at him, a few people sniggered.

"Forget the door was there?" Mr. Nicholls asked. This was followed by a few more sniggers.

Chuckie went bright red. This was one of the most embarrassing moments in his life and he wished the ground would swallow him up.

"Uh...I'm just a little...er...what's the word? You know, when you lose all...something. It begins with a "d", I'm sure of that." He replied. He had forgotten what the word was.

"Distracted?"

"That's the one! Yes, I'm...erm...distracted..."

This was followed by taunts and whistles from the class.

Chuckie put his hands over his face to hide the fact that he was as red as a tomato. Unfortunately he forgot to stop walking and he ended falling over a desk which caused the entire class to go into hysterics. Indeed, even Mr. Nicholls found it hard not to laugh at poor Chuckie's misfortune.

"Settle...settle down class. Enough amusement for one day." He commanded.

The waves of laughter slowly died down as Chuckie picked himself up and sat in his seat. He moaned and shook his head. This was going to be one long and painful day.

....

The day had been long for Angelica. She didn't have much of an idea of what to do so she spent most of the day in her room, doing anything possible to stop herself from being bored. She had washed her car (Note: Angelica normally pays to have her car washed, but as she was so bored it was a good excuse to kill time and it got her out of the house for a while) and even cleaned her room. Yet, all of these things didn't provide enough of a distraction to her boredom. Sure, they distracted her for a while but there was no enthusiasm there to keep her going.

She had read books, the newspaper, watched TV, listened to music and so on. In the end, she had spent a couple of hours just thinking and waiting for time to tick away. Even now she lay on her bed watching the clock tick...each second seeming to take an aeon before moving on.

'I should be able to contact Susie now.' Angelica thought as she reached over and grabbed the phone and dialled Susie's number. It rang for a few seconds before it was answered.

"Hello?" Susie's voice asked.

"Hey Susie." Angelica replied.

"Angelica? What do you need?" Susie asked.

"Advice."

"YOU want advice from ME? Since when did this happen?" Susie joked.

"Very amusing, Carmichael. I've got a large problem and I'd like you to tell me what to do." Angelica told her.

"What's wrong?" She asked.

"Well, you know about that...incident...I had with Chuckie?"

"Yeah..."

"Well, I'm not one to mince words so I'll just tell you straight. I...love...him."

"What? Did I hear that correctly?" Susie was confused.

"Yes. I love him. I want him so badly! I need him!" She exclaimed desperately.

"Hold on there! Are you sure that this is love and not an infatuation with him?"

"Of course it's love! Have you ever stopped and wondered why I picked on him so much? I did it because I loved him! Although I was only 3 at the time I still held an attraction to him and that attraction has multiplied considerably over the years! He was become part of my very essence...my very being. I love him." Angelica explained.

"Wow...that's deep. You really care about him don't you?"

"Of course! I...last night, he asked me why I couldn't tell him what was wrong with me. I couldn't tell him I was in love with him so I showed him instead."

"You did what?"

"I practically held him prisoner in my room and professed my love for him to him! I gave him the most loving, caring and passionate kiss that I could muster." Angelica said. There was a hint of sadness in her voice.

There was no reply from Susie. Obviously she was shocked by all of this and she needed to wrap her head around it all.

"I never told you why I assaulted him did I?" Angelica asked.

"No. You said that is was some stupid reason but I still don't know why."

Angelica sighed. "I'll tell you. Basically I'm an idiot who has an over-inflated ego and thinks that popularity at High School is more important than friends. I assaulted him because he was a threat to my popularity and I didn't want anyone knowing that I knew him. But someone found out and I heard so I assaulted him fro something that wasn't really his fault. I...I hate myself for all of this. I wish it would never have happened, but it has and I have to live with it." Angelica explained sadly.

"I don't believe it. You..." Susie was cut off.

"I know. I'm a fucking bitch. I got the same response from Tommy."

"I never thought that you could sink so low! What the hell were you thinking?"

"That's the point. I wasn't. My ego got in the way and now I've practically wrecked everyone's life in our group because of it! None more so than Chuckie's." Angelica said. "Maybe I shouldn't have told him how I felt about him. I'll probably end up hurting more people."

The phone went onto the dialling tone as Susie had put her phone down. Angelica did the same and sighed.

'What have I done?' She thought. Now she regretted telling Chuckie that she loved him.

....

The day had been long and indeed painful for Chuckie. He had successfully gone to the wrong room for 5 of his lessons, tripped over 8 chairs, smacked into 16 doors, gone into the girl's bathroom my accident (luckily for him there was no-one around to see his blunder) and stabbed his arm with his fork during lunch. It all added up to be a lousy day for Chuckie, but he was glad it was finally over. Now he lay on his bed as he continually thought of Angelica and what she had said to him last night. Despite what she had done to him, he was happy that she cared so much about him. It felt as if they belonged together but he knew he couldn't submit to these feelings yet. He loved her and he wasn't afraid to admit that to himself.

He had fallen for her over the summer, when she had been uncharacteristically nice to him, and now that he knew the love was being returned, he could think more on when he should forgive her. He was tempted to forgive her right now so they could get together and start working on their relationship, but that would be wrong. No-one would approve of Chuckie going out with the girl who viciously attacked him, least of all Kimi.

"I guess, time will tell. Sooner or later, time will tell." He said to himself.

To Be Continued...

....

Now I think it's time I hit the fast forward button. I think the next chapter will be set a month or 2 later with more or less the same situation they are in now.

Please R&R, like you always do!