A/N: Thanks to my reviewers once again. To XxXCocoaPuffXxX and Puppy Dog for their reviews over chapter nine. Now, here is the next chapter.

Chapter 10

After a week of dating, whispers seemed to fill the school hallways like a thick fog. Nowhere could Chuckie and Marina go without one person not knowing about the sexual side of their relationship. Chuckie always turned red with embarrassment when he caught the glances or part of a whisper, but Marina always held tighter onto his arm; that always made him feel better and more at ease.

Chuckie let a breath he'd been holding out as he and Marina stepped into the history classroom. The two of them sat in the back together, even though Chuckie felt bad about abandoning his friends. He also didn't strive to get extra assignments since he'd been dating Marina. In his mind, he saw no need for them. All he felt he wanted was Marina's attention, so he didn't need to fill the emptiness in his soul with school work or excessive reading.

Kimi had held her tongue about her brother's relationship with Marina after the fight she'd had with Chuckie about staying out of her privacy. He'd basically agreed to leave her alone if she would leave his personal affairs alone. So, she'd stopped butting into Chuckie's life, and it was eating away at her. She knew that the rumors spreading around about Chuckie sleeping with Marina were true, and that made her have to bite her tongue even more. She couldn't let Chuckie know that she disapproved of his lifestyle, especially when most of the closest friends--Tommy and Lil--had boyfriends and girlfriends and were sleeping with them. Kimi didn't know about Phil, and she was afraid to pursue the matter since she didn't want to know if Phil had ever had sex with some girl from the school or a hang out spot.

At the thought of Phil, Kimi glanced over at him and saw him half-asleep. She nudged his arm, she was sitting across from him, and he jerked awake. He stared at her bewildered as he brought himself back into reality. He gave her a weak grin and picked his pencil up and wrote the notes that the teacher was giving.

Kimi glanced up at Phil as she wrote her notes, and her heart was pounding. 'God, I really wish I knew if he was a virgin or not,' she thought. 'Knowing for sure couldn't possibly do as much damage to me as fretting about it does.' She glanced longer at Phil. 'Could it even be possible that some girl hasn't had sex with him yet? He's so amazing and sexy, so I don't see why a girl wouldn't have all ready done him.'

"Miss Finster," the teacher said with a hint of agitation in her voice.

Kimi was jerked out of her thoughts, which had left her face red when attention was called upon her. "Could you repeat--" she stared to say.

"I want to know why you weren't paying attention."

Kimi took a deep breath and glanced over at Phil, whose eyes were as wide as they could go. 'I can't tell what I was really thinking about.'

Phil held up his notes and pointed to where they were. Kimi read that they were talking about the 1920s when children used to sneak into the theaters. So, Kimi devised a quick thought-provoking question. "I was just mulling over what it would have been like to have been in that time period and been able to use one ticket to see several shows--illegally, of course--and it makes me wonder how different was that really from today? I mean, people are now taping movies in the theaters to download on the internet. Isn't that like sneaking into a theater to watch a movie that you didn't pay to see?"

Seeing the approval on the teacher's face, Kimi let out a relieved sigh and smiled at Phil. 'Thank you,' she thought. 'Thank you so damn much for saving my ass.' Phil winked at her and gave her a thumbs up.

"Very interesting view, Miss Finster." The teacher replied. "Can anyone give an answer to that question?"

Lunch was right after history, so Kimi ran up and pulled Phil's shirt, a black shirt from Hot Topic that said 'What If the Hokey Pokey Is What It's All About?' Besides finding the shirt amusing, Kimi wanted to thank Phil for saving her during class. "Thanks in there for keeping my ass out of the principal's office."

Phil grinned at her. "What are you gonna do for me for it," he asked in a sexual-harassment-sort of way.

Kimi caught on and bit her tongue to keep from saying she'd do anything he wanted from her. Kimi shoved Phil's arm and rolled her eyes. "Shut up," she laughed.

"You're turning red." Phil teased as he walked backwards.

Kimi grabbed him by the shirt and turned him around to see where he was going as he walked. She walked by his side and replied to him, "You embarrass me," she lied.

"Liar," he told her. He leaned over and whispered in her ear, "You want me."

Kimi playfully shoved Phil away and laughed as she shook her head. It was more of a nervous laugh as she tried to keep from spilling her feelings out to Phil then and there. School was no place to share sexual feelings and desires because of the eyes and ears that are always there. "You are not as charming as you think you are, Phil." Kimi told him.

Phil scooted closer and leaned against Kimi. "Maybe not, but that's not what you really think, is it?"

Kimi stared Phil right in his beautiful blue eyes and couldn't seem to speak. She took a breath but lost her train of thought. 'If I could just kiss him,' she thought. 'Then everything would be better.'

Kimi was about to reply to Phil when Lil came rushing for them. "Yo, listen up," she said.

"What is it, Lil?" Phil asked through clenched teeth; his sister had been the one to interrupt his moment with Kimi. 'Siblings are no good for anything some days,' he thought.

"Tommy's gotten Chuckie to come sit by us, and we're all gonna have a rap session with him. So whatever you've got to discuss with him, bring it up here and now."

Marina had sat down with her friends until Chuckie would be finished talking with his friends. He had walked over to their table and sat down. Tommy, Lil, Phil, Kimi, and even Dil were sitting at the table on the side so they could all be facing Chuckie. "So, what's up?" Chuckie asked.

"We have talk about your behavior lately." Tommy stated.

Chuckie knew what was coming and started to get up. "Hell no, I don't need this," he told them.

"Sit, Finster." Phil told him. "This is serious, and shouldn't you try to work problems out with us--your friends?"

"Not if you're going to cut my girlfriend to shreds in the conversation." Chuckie replied.

"We just want to let our thoughts be out in the open." Lil explained.

Chuckie glanced over to his sister for support, but she glanced down at the table. "I don't believe this. Don't any of you want me to be happy?"

"It isn't that Chuck," Dil replied. "We don't want to keep things bottled up anymore."

"Chuckie, you either sit down and we all talk out how we feel or go back over there to Marina and turn your back on us. But know that if you leave, you won't be welcome back if things go awry with her." Tommy warned.

Chuckie stared at each and every one of his friends' faces. He'd known them his whole life, and he didn't want to lose them just because he loved Marina. So, he sat down and waited for the verbal abuse to begin. "Okay, shoot," he told them.

"First off," Tommy told Chuckie, "You haven't been giving all your effort in your studies anymore."

"I did that because I had no life outside of school; you all know that. Now, I have Marina, and I don't have to bury myself in books or school work. And, my grades are fine, so that isn't a problem."

"Well, you tend to ignore us in the hallways and classes." Lil added.

"I'm with Marina--"

"So, that gives you the right to push us to the backburner?" Dil shot back.

Chuckie sighed; there was a lot of stress soaking in. "No, but none of you will give her a chance. So, why bring her around you?"

"You've never even tried to bring her around to see if we could all get along." Phil said. "So, how do you know it wouldn't?"

Chuckie stared straight at Kimi as he replied, "Because I know there are hostile feelings about Marina. She doesn't need to be around people who won't accept her."

Phil got a little huffy about Chuckie aiming that comment at Kimi, even if Kimi had made her feelings about Marina well-known. Kimi was still just looking for her brother's best interest. "I'm sure we could all set aside feelings just to see if things could work out." Phil replied crossing his arms.

Chuckie half-way ignored Phil's reply. He was staring at Kimi. "So, Kim, what do you have to add," he asked in a harsh tone.

Kimi just stared at her brother then looked away with tears on the verge of spilling from her eyes. She never really gotten such a tone from Chuckie, even when they fought. He was always calm and never raised his voice. "You don't have to yell," she told him.

"Really? It seems you have to yell whenever you speak up on your problems with Marina. You can yell, but I can't?"

Phil saw tears spill down her cheeks, and he'd had enough. "Go on and sit with your new friends, Chuckie. If Marina means more to you than the feelings of your friends and sister, then go on!"

Chuckie was a little bewildered by Phil's outburst, and so were the rest at the table. But Kimi silently thanked Phil again for saving her. She put her hands to her face and ran out of the room. She didn't need the whole lunchroom seeing her cry.

Phil wanted to run after her, but Lil was all ready on it. He kept his eyes locked on Chuckie, who stared over at him. Chuckie finally rose up and left the table where his friends sat. He didn't look back once after he left.