AN: Ok Here's another chapter. Thanks for the reviews!!!!!!!

The next day, Chris and Alex didn't speak a word with eachother. They didn't even make eye contact. Alex was pleased that Chris wasn't paying any attention to her but she felt a little bit guilty about what she did. Alex didn't take any yesterday and she was clean from then on. It's like Ace had given her something new to be addicted to. Ace was her new drug. He had this charm and the sweet pleasure of heroin. When she was with Ace, she could be sure that she wasn't going to touch heroin again. But when she wasn't with Ace, she felt sick.

It was almost the end of school and Alex was walking along the corridor in deep thoughts. Gordie, Chris's best friend, came rushing along the corridor catching up to Alex.

"Hey yo Alex. Wait up!" he called.

"Huh? What? Oh, hi Gordie," Alex replied, not interested.

"Hey. Long time no see."

"Yeah."

"So what's up?" Gordie asked, obviously wanting to get to a certain topic.

"Uh nothin, nothin," Alex said.

"Well, I heard about your thing..." he started but just couldn't say the rest. Alex started to panic.

"What thing?" she asked suspiciously, eyeing him.

"Ya know... Everyone knows about it. I mean, Chris was the one who told me but, the others saw you!"

"Chris!?! He told you?!?! Who saw me?!?!????"

"Well, yeah. I'm his best friend ya know. He seemed real fucked up about it though," Gordie said sounding concerned.

"What do you mean?" asked Alex, also concerned.

"I mean he's real sad."

"He is? Well, I..." she just didn't know what to say then.

"Yeah and I gotta tell you something about this."

"Yeah? What?"

"You better be real careful. I mean what you're doing is real dangerous. Real dangerous Alex. My friend's big sister was just like you. And then after it was all over, she was real fucked up."

"Well, I'm neither dead, nor fucked up," Alex said with little sarcasm and little furiosity at the fact that Gordie knew about her heroin, and the fact that he was giving her advice about it. "And anyway, I'm not doing it anymore. I think."

"You'd better not. You'd better not! That "ace" is real fucked up. I'm tellin ya!"

Alex grinned at his remark.

"Heh. Is that like a new slang for heroin I don't know about? Ace?"

"A new slang for what?!" Gordie said feeling somewhat surprised and confused.

Then it hit her. Ace!! Gordie was talking about Ace Merrill. When she realised this she burst out laughing at Gordie's face. Gordie just stood there looking at Alex and he started to smile at the sight of her.

"Oh my God Gordie!! That was so good. Hahahahaha!!!"

"What?" Gordie said still smiling a confusing smile. But he was amused with Alex.

"Haha! God! Never mind. Anyway thanks for warning me about "ace". Hahahaha! God, I'm real smart!!" she managed to say in between laughs.

"Did you say heroin by the way?"

"Haha! That was something else. Don't worry about it. And tell Chris not to fucking say anything to anyone anymore! Thinks he's a real wise guy, eh? FUCK him!"

"Umm ok? You really ok by the way?"

"Haha yeah yeah. Cya around Gordo!" Alex said and started walking to her last class of the day, still laughing as she stumbled into some lockers. She wasn't walking straight as she was laughing so hard.

In class she thought about how in the morning Ace and her had made a plan to meet at the boys bathroom downstairs. She knew Chris wouldn't be there because they couldn't be alone with the drugs. It was too dangerous. But something inside her wished that he would show up. She wished that he would show up and see her with Ace. But he probably wouldn't show because, after all, they had to look out for eachother. Thinking of this she smiled to herself and remembered all the good times she had with Chris. They were by far the greatest times of her life. And to think that she threw it all away for Ace. The baddest person in Castle Rock. But she loved it. She loved being with Ace for what it was worth. Just the thought of being with him would make her go crazy. In a good way of course. He was bad, he was dangerous, he was a drug.

After class Chris was walking along the corridor to his locker. Gordie spotted him and ran next to him and leaned on the locker.

"Heh Chris," he smirked. "I just had a real weird talk with Alex," he said.

"Yeah? What about?" Chris said interested.

"Just Ace. And something about heroin," he laughed as he said the last part because the thought of Alex laughing popped in his mind.

"Heroin?!?! What?!?" Chris said, not laughing.

"Yeah, I know. Weird isn't it?"

"What..what did she say?"

"Something about a slang word or something. Real weird Chris," Gordie laughed again.

"Uh yeah. Weird."

"Anyway, I warned her about Ace. Then she said "Fuck him" about you."

"Oh," Chris said disappointed. "Well, fuck her then. That bitch!"

"What is up with you guys?"

"Ah I don't know man. She's in some sort of personality crisis."

"I know! Maybe time will fix her up," Gordie said thoughtfully.

"I hope so. Least I know she won't die."

"What do you mean?"

"Never mind."

"Well, I'll tell you one thing. If she hangs around with Ace, yeah, she'll die."

"Heh, ironic isn't it?" Chris let out a small laugh.

"Umm, I guess?" Gordie didn't understand but, he really didn't wanna know either.

Alex walked casually to the boys bathroom after class and started to wait for Ace. She looked around the bathroom and looked toward the stalls. She hadn't cleared her mind yet about all the times her and Chris were in there. Right now, she wanted to just run. Run out of the bathroom and find Chris and just do a couple of hits with him. And then she wanted to hug him and hold him forever. But she couldn't. She really started to go when she spotted a bag in one of the stalls. It was their bag. The bag their life depended on. But she thought that this wasn't a way to live. It certainly wasn't what her life depended on. Just the opposite, that bag would be the end of her life. Nothing else. Although she knew it was the wrong thing to do, she still thought about taking a hit. She just couldn't help it. All those years she and Chris had done heroin without anyone ever finding out. Maybe that was what it was. The thrill of taking it. The thrill of being with Ace was almost the same as doing heroin. And Ace gave him almost the same pleasure. "Almost the same," Alex thought. A couple of seconds later Ace came in with a big grin on his face and locked the main door. He turned towards Alex who was looking at one of the stalls. Then Alex snapped back and she couldn't smile when she looked back at Ace. Ace didn't see a problem with her and just walked towards her and quickly started kissing her neck. Then he stopped and Ace started to stroke Alex's back. Yes, Alex was enjoying it a lot. But the thought of Chris never left her mind. They started kissing again and Ace moved his hands down. By this time Alex had unzipped Ace's pants and she pulled her own pants down as well. Alex jumped on Ace and wrapped her legs around him. They started to move together swiftly and Ace walked around till Alex was up against a wall.

Then they heard a bang on the door.

"Hey! Who's in there. Open up!"

"It's Chris!" Alex whispered as she got down and started to get dressed. She was obviousy happy that he came along. But Ace wasn't.

"Fuck off you worthless junkie! Not your territory anymore!" Ace shouted zipping up.

"Is Alex in there with you? I'll kill you. Come on man, open this goddamn door!" Chris shouted back.

"Yeah she's with me," said Ace as he opened the door.

Chris looked around and saw Alex standing in the corner. He rushed up to her but was held back by Ace who just put one finger on Chris's chest. Chris looked down at the finger and held it firmly and pushed it away.

"Oh no you don't," Ace said this time putting his whole hand on Chris.

Alex couldn't help it, but she laughed. She loved how Ace protected her and at that moment she hated Chris just as much as Ace did. She couldn't understand her change of feelings. It all happened so suddenly but while she was under the influence of Ace, Chris didn't matter. She felt that Ace was hers now. She didn't wanna hear anymore of Chris. She just didn't care. She walked towards Chris and Ace still giggling.

"You didn't take anythi....?" Chris started.

"No Chris." Alex replied and stroked Chris's shoulder. "Stop following me around. It's getting old. Just stay the fuck out of my life."

She walked towards Ace.

"I'm with Ace now and he's helping me. I've been clean for 2 days almost. But with you, all you did was drag me down. I don't wanna die with you Chris. You can do that yourself. Let's get outta here Ace," said Alex and taking Ace's hand, they both left.

Alex felt good. She really did. She didn't need Chris anymore. She was really happy. Without the drugs. With Ace.

That night at home she was lying in her bed thinking about Ace and how wonderful he was towards her. Then she fell asleep.

Later she bolted upright from her sleep. Beads of sweat were rolling off of her trembling body. She noticed her blankets, crumpled and twisted in a defeated pile on the floor. Painfully, it came back to her, like a thousand-pound weight on her chest. She remembered the nightmare. The screaming, the pain. It was the pain of life. Right then and there she made a healthy decision to go back on heroin. It was too painful just "living". She couldn't be with Ace all the time. She started to cry at the thought of what she had said to Chris in the bathroom.

"I'm so stupid!!!! I can't imagine a life without Chris and heroin," she thought.

She looked at her clock hoping that it would be time to get up. The glowing red digits informed her that she still had half an hour to sleep. Half an hour. That was too long. Half an hour was enough time to dream. Half an hour could stretch into eternity if she slept. She didn't want to think of all those horrifying things and see those images again so, still shaking, she got up and got dressed and went out.

"Don't think about it," Alex told herself as she was walking.

"Don't think about what?" a voice said behind her.

"Chris." Alex said, without turning around. "I am so sorry. I wasn't thinking. I'm so sorry."

"Look Alex. I couldn't bear to see you and Ace together. Why did you do this? What came over you?"

"I thought I loved him. But just 10 minutes ago I realized that I didn't love him. I was just using him as a drug. He made me feel so good. When I was away from him all I could think of was you, and the good times we had. I really miss it. I really miss you." She started to walk towards Chris and held his face in her hands.

"I miss it Chris. I really fucking miss it. I know you miss it too. Let's just go back to the way we were. Come on. It'll be fun again," she said smiling.

"Yeah, but let's just have a little talk about this," Chris commanded.

"What? About what?"

"About the things you said to me..."

"Oh, no no no. Let's not talk about that."

"Let's talk about it," he repeated.

"Fuck Chris, I don't wanna talk about it."

"Alex, let's talk about it," he repeated persistently. He had persistence.

"I know what I said Chris. I was there remember? Were you there? Yes, you fucking were!"

"What I want to know is why? Why the hell did it all happen that way? I could have helped you if you asked."

"What is this? Judgement Day? It's too late for those questions, dammit! I want the answers too, I really do... but you know..."

"Why don't we look at your life, and start from the beginning of all this mess?"

"Fuck you! YOU look at my life! Make sure you notice all the times I begged for help. Look at all the times I depended on you and you let me down. I don't wanna hear any bullshit on my mistakes. You left me alone, Chris. I hate you for that." Alex finished and just couldn't look at Chris anymore. She wanted to forget what she had just said, because they were all lies. Chris was always there. Alex just pushed him away constantly everytime he would come near her to try to help her. If he didn't have a needle in his hand, Chris was invisible.

"Look, I didn't ask to be born, you didn't either. But we somehow found eachother and became good friends. Of course we had some fucked up moments, but come on, look at us now. We grew up together, we depend on eachother. I love you for that," Chris replied.

"How poetic," Alex responded sarcastically. "How mother-fucking poetic!"

Chris just stood there and didn't say anything after that remark. His mouth hanged open. He had just told Alex that he loved her and Alex didn't even care. They just stood there silently for a couple of minutes.

Then Chris said, "You need a hit."

Alex turned around directly and just gave Chris one of those "thank God you said that" smiles.

"By the way, is Ace just gonna let go of this. He absolutely fucking won't," Chris said.

"I'll sort him out," Alex said as they started to walk to their secret place to get the hit that would get them through this long hard day.