Hello, loves. The italics are the flashbacks, so the chapter goes like so: flashback, current day, flashback. Enjoy :)

Special thanks to Liz, who not only beta-ed, but also encouraged.


"You know, walking around half dressed can get you into trouble."

I giggled as I walked around in underwear and Ponyboy's shirt. "In trouble with whom, may I ask?"

"Well, I'm not quite sure there, Angel, but I might have a slight idea…" I squealed as he picked me up, throwing me over his shoulder, and walking down the hallway

"Ponyboy! I swear, if you drop me-"

"Drop you? Well, if you really want me to…" He tossed me down onto the bed, looking at me for only second before climbing onto the bed, with me beneath him.

"May I ask what you think you're doing there, Mr. Curtis?"

"Well, you see," he began, while kissing my collarbone lightly, "I have this rather gorgeous girl lying under me, and its really very hard to not do anything, considering her current location."

"Oh, I'm so sorry then, I'll move right away to make it all very easy for you."

I giggled when he took my hands and pinned them above my head; he picked his head up from my neck, and looked at me, smiling.

"You're very presumptuous, Mr. Curtis."

"I try." I laughed lightly, watching his eyes. I loved when he look at me that way. "I love you, Angel."

"I know. I love you, too." He kissed me again, and we spent another August afternoon making love in his empty house.


"Something happened, Angel, something you're not telling me." He wouldn't take his eyes off me. "You need to tell me."

"There's nothing to tell."

"You're a good liar. But not good enough."

I could feel myself about to tell him, to let it all hang out. I had to leave before he found out, before those eyes forced me into revealing everything I shouldn't.

"I have to go." I sat up, ready to leave and never come back.

He grabbed my wrist, and pulled me back down. I was laying flat on my back, looking at the ceiling; I refused to look him in the eyes. He was laying on his side, leaning over me, and I knew if my eyes met his, it'd be the end of me.

His eyes always controlled me. From that first night at the playground when he looked at me, and told me without words that I would be his forever; to the first night we had been together when he looked at me, and said without a sound that he would always protect me; to every single time his eyes told me how much he loved me, how he would never leave me, how he would hold me in his arms forever and never let a living soul harm me in any way; to the afternoon when I told him that we couldn't do this anymore, when his eyes mourned for me.

It took every ounce of will power that I had not to look at those eyes.

"Angel…" He whispered, and that was all it took, I couldn't help but look at him.

Those eyes, those godforsaken eyes that I could never be stronger than. Those eyes that melted me into a little girl who was scared of the world but had one person who would always look out for her. Those eyes that begged for an answer, an explanation, a reason.

A reason that I couldn't give.

I had to lie. I had to make up something, if he knew the truth…it'd be over for him. I had to hurt him, hurt him enough so that he'd never try to come near me again.

"Ponyboy, this wasn't anything. It was sex, nothing more. What would be the point of continuing this any longer? Its already starting to get boring, so lets end it on a high note. Its over, Ponyboy…it never really started."

I didn't look at him again, I couldn't. I got dressed; I needed to get out as soon as possible. I could feel him watching me, he didn't take his eyes off me. I stopped in the doorway, with my back to him.

"Goodbye, Ponyboy."


"Tell me something, Angel."

"Hm?"

"You still gonna love me ten years from now?"

"That's the plan."

"How about twenty years?"

"Pretty sure about that."

"I'm gonna love you, too."

"I know."

"We're gonna be happy, aren't we?"

"Yeah, we are. Promise me something, Ponyboy?"

"Anything."

"Promise you'll never leave me?"

"I promise."

"Promise we'll be together forever?"

"Forever."

"I love you."

"I love you, too."