Hey everyone! How are you? Thanks for the reviews again. They really help. This one is kind of a filler chapter, but it slightly serves a purpose and you'll understand once you read it. Thanks again and keep it up.

Lauren (manydreams1216)

"So..." Alex says as we go back upstairs to his room.

"So..." I repeat. We saw the movie, which was good. It wasn't horrible, but the only conversation it generated was the amount of time it took for us to drive back to his house.

"What do you want to do?"

"Well I have to be home before seven, but we can do whatever we want until then." The movie at about 2:30. So we have more or less four hours to kill.

He smiles at me. "I know what we can do for four hours."

Now I understand what he's getting to. "Are you sure that you can last for four hours?"

He wraps his arms around me and looks into my eyes in a cocky air, "Well I know someone who says that I can last for four hours and even longer."

"Really?"

"Uh huh," he affirms. He begins kissing my forehead, then he moves to the side of my face. Planting light kisses on all over me except for my mouth, I become impatient. I just want him to kiss me. Really kiss me. I always like that.

"Aren't you going to kiss me?"

Murmuring against my neck he responds, "I am."

Out of breath I respond, "Yes, but you're not really kissing me."

He lifts his lips off of my body and places his hands on both sides of my neck. "You want me to kiss you?"

"Yes."

Alex shakes his head from side to side and stares up at the ceiling. "I believe I can manage that small request."

"Good."

He leans his head down and places his lips upon mine. It's soft, but passionate and refined. Not wasting any time he penetrates his tongue into my mouth. Sometimes I can't get over how he does that. Even if I don't want him to deepen a kiss, he just does it anyway. I can't help, but think that when it comes to Alex all rational thought goes out the window. Think about it. It's been like that since day one. I cheated on my boyfriend to be with Alex, normally that's not something I would do.

I've changed so much in the past four months. I was this shy, innocent, naive girl who had no idea what to expect from life. I had only seen love and all that stuff through my parents and frankly they weren't exactly a good example. There were still these notions of fairy tales in my head. They are still there, but I think that they're a little more realistic.

Maybe my prince is Alex, maybe it's not, but the person that's holding me right now is my prince for the moment.

Slowly, but surely his hands move from my neck to underneath my shirt. Then my shirt is lifted above my head. My dainty, little fingers, that Great-Grandma use to call "the essential part of the debutante hand," begin to travel to his jeans and unbutton the top button.

"Mary, you're tempting me," he says against my mouth, almost breathless.

"Do you want to stop?"

He shakes his head.

I unzip the zipper of his jeans and still connecting his mouth to mine, Alex removes his legs from his pants and throws them off to random part of his room. I was topless and he was bottomless. We still had undergarments on.

Somehow we ended up on his bed and I was on top. Of course, being Alex, he couldn't take that so he flipped me over. And he took control, to say the least. Basically we didn't just make out for four hours. There was a little bit more than that.

After we just laid there. His arms wrapped around me and we just stared at each other, looking into one another eyes. It sounds so cheesy, but it feels so right. He tells that I'm beautiful and perfect and for the time I don't tell him to stop. I may blush, but I don't tell him I don't want to hear it, because I do want to hear it. I want him to tell me I'm beautiful.

"What time is it?" I ask him.

He turns around and checks the clock on his night stand. "6:30."

"I gotta go in fifteen minutes."

"Why can't you stay?"

"Because I promised my mom I would back before dinner time. She's actually been supportive of me seeing you. It may not be direct, but she has not told me not to see you."

"Really? That's interesting. If my dad knew you were my girlfriend, I don't even want to know what he would do," he says.

"Huh, I met your dad yesterday and he seemed nice enough to me. I know we both don't exactly have the best relationships with our parents, but he seemed okay with me being here. He actually said he was glad to meet one of your friends," I explain. It is odd that he would think his dad would be totally against us being together. I know there is this whole feud between the Ryderstans and the Dugreys, but the head of the Ryderstan family seemed okay with me being friends with his son.

Alex sits up, "That doesn't make any sense. Ever since I can remember I have been told to never associate with Dugrey." He pauses. "Did he know your name?" he turns to me.

"Yeah, I told him I was Mary Dugrey." I rub his arm. "Don't read too much into."

"He's up to something, Mare. I just can't let him get away with whatever he's coming up with. He would never be okay with this whole you and me thing. Why do you think we've kept this quiet? It was one of the reasons why I was okay with us fooling around behind everyone's back for so long."

I get up. "What?"

"I just got so impatient and I wanted it to be totally exclusive between us. I still do."

"Are you saying we still need to hide this from everyone?"

"Of course. Do you actually your father would be okay with us dating?"

I think about it for a second. "No," I admit reluctantly.

"Exactly."

God, this is going to sound terrible. "I don't really want for us to keep this hidden. I like being able to hold your hand in public and stuff."

He smiles and kisses me lightly. "We can't do it though. Unfortunately that was a one time thing. I wish we could do it too, but we can't."

"Then how long are we going to be able to last? What do you want from us?" These questions had been lurking in the back of my mind. I hadn't really addressed them yet and I figure this is a better time than ever.

He doesn't say anything for a moment. I think he's trying to come up with the right answer. Really, I just want an honest one. "Believe me more than anything, is that I want us to be together. I don't want us to hide it, but in order for us to be together right now we have to." He holds my hand.

"Alex, I hate to break it to you, but you're always going to be a Ryderstan and I'm always going to be a Dugrey. There's no way around that. As much as I wish it wasn't true, it is. We can't change the past Alex."

He kisses my forehead, "I know. I know."

I slide out from underneath the covers and start putting on my clothes. "I'll see you tomorrow at school okay?"

"Yeah."

Within a minute, I'm dressed. Without saying a word, I leave his room.

I descend down the stairs and I am about to reach the front door, when I hear, "Miss Dugrey is that you?"

I gasp, then slowly I turn around and see Mr. Ryderstan, "Yes. I didn't know you would be here, Mr. Ryderstan, Alex said the house was empty."

"Please call me Ken. I took an early flight from Prague."

"Oh," is all I can manage to say.

"If you can, I would really like to have you over for dinner one night this week. You and Alex seem close and I want to get know some of his friends. How's Wednesday night for you?"

"I'm not sure."

"What about Thursday?" he insists.

I look down at the floor and fiddle with my hands nervously. "My great-grandmother just died and I don't know when all of the services and what not will be taking place, but I'm sure another time can be arranged."

"I'm sorry for your lost, Miss Dugrey. I trust everything is all right?"

"Yes, we're handling it as well as it can be."

"That's good to hear. I hope you have a nice night Miss Dugrey. Good night."

"You too." I left the house. The whole conversation kind of strikes me as odd. Dugreys and Ryderstans are suppose to hate each other. At social events in Hartford, Dugreys and Ryderstans reside on opposite sides of a particular room or party. It's like they are in their corners ready for a boxing match or something.

One time, there was this big winter party at some family's house, I don't know who, and I went over to this long table to get some finger foods. Me, being stupid, didn't know that this one appetizer table was on the Ryderstan side of the party, or at least their corner for the night. I guess I scream "I'm a Dugrey" and someone noticed me and hastily I was brought back to the "correct" side of the party.

I was only five when this happened. I didn't understand what was going on. Now, I look back on it and realize that it was just so petty. It all seems so dumb, I guess. Does anyone even know what our families are fighting about? Maybe it goes back two hundred years, since the Revolution and all that stuff, but frankly get over it. Part of me thinks that this whole thing is just a way for both families to maintain a sense of aristocracy about them.

Supposedly, the United States is free of all aristocrats, but America has its own breed of royalty that consists of the rich, elite. And Hartford has its own royalty. The right last name can get you places. No matter who you are. If I had a different last name, I could be with Alex with no hesitation. Sometimes I just want to be a Smith or James or something. Something that has nothing to do with Hartford's infamous elite. You'd be surprise about how people react to your last name. It's a bizarre thing. They hear "Dugrey" and suddenly their opinion of you is raised ten points or down ten points, depending on who you are talking to. It's definitely interesting. It's like telling someone you're a "Bush." You're going to get a reaction, whether it be good or bad, but there still is this unfound respect you receive. It's undeserved. At least, that's what I think.

You're probably wondering what this whole Dugrey-Ryderstan feud is about. I hardly even know. The backgrounds of both families is a big part of it. We've both been here since Thomas Hooker, the founder of Connecticut. Not only that, but both of our families are big in the area of law and business. During the Industrial Age of America, both families' sole concentration in law expanded into the business arena, making not only the legal field competitive, but also the business field of both family ventures. It was either you belonged to the Dugrey corporation or the Ryderstan corporation, you didn't belong to both and if you didn't belong to neither then you weren't important enough.

Maybe it's just business deals they're fighting about, but I can't help but think that's it more than that. Who knows, maybe it is nothing more.

Two weeks ago was when I discovered the whole feud. When I was five and there was the party incident, I was not aware of it. Now after this one little thing, that was when I discovered it.

It happened during school. Alex decided that he wanted to bring our little affair to the school, which I wasn't necessarily to keen on, but I went along with it. I was merely walking down the hall by myself to fourth period, when someone grabbed my arm and pulled me into a storage room or something.

"Who is this?" The whole room was dark and I had no idea who would be behind something like that.

In a husky voice, Alex responded, "It's me, Alex."

Learning it was him, I hit him. "How dare you! Don't you think people will see? You are so stupid sometimes."

"Mary," he whispered in my ear, "Calm down."

"No I will not calm down, you almost exposed us to the whole entire Chilton student body!"

"There could be worse things." He started kissing my neck.

"Like what? Get off of me."

Alex continued what he was doing for a moment, completely disregarding my protest, then said, "If our parents found out about this, that would be even worse."

"What are you talking about?"

He placed his hands on my shoulders, "Don't you know anything?"

"What?"

"The Dugreys and Ryderstans don't get along, to say the least."

"So them finding out would be worse than the entire Chilton population?" I ask.

"Yes," he states firmly.

"Why?"

He looked at me with disbelief. "You've never heard of the feud our families have?"

"No."

"Wow you really are innocent and naive," he commented.

Annoyed, I replied, "Hey, I resent that."

"It's not a bad thing. That's what I like about you." He kissed me on the lips for a moment. He would do that to shut me up. I always thought it was a very effective tactic. "Mary, our families hate each other. I'm not allowed to even talk to you. When my father found out that you were going to Chilton, he told that I had to stay away from you. However once you became junior class president, he realized that I had to associate with you in a school-related capacity and he had to be okay with that. Other than that, I am not suppose to have any contact with you."
I couldn't help but laugh. "You have got to be kidding."

"I'm not," he replied seriously, "Mary, I think your father would feel the same way."

"I don't believe you."

"Well you have too."

"Let me ask Hannah. She has lived in Hartford longer than me and she has to know of something about this."

He smirked. "Fine. Do what you must."

"I will. Goodbye, Alex I have to go to math," I started to leave.

He grabbed my wrist, "Wait." Then he kissed me forcibly. I hate to say it, but I like it when he takes control of me. For some reason with him, he makes me feel safe and comfortable, but excited at the same time. I've needed someone like that for a long time and he's filled that.

I went to my math class and I passed a note to Hannah. Hannah, I know this is random and something I should probably know about, but what is this whole Dugrey-Ryderstan feud? -Mary.

Mary, you're right, this is something you should know about. Anyway, in Hartford the Dugreys and Ryderstans do not associate with each other. The only time they do is when they are at the same parties together and they completely avoid each other at all costs. Everyone in Hartford is either with the Dugreys or the Ryderstans. This is going to sound weird, but do you notice how some people don't talk to you? Well, that's because they are with the Ryderstans. My family is with the Dugreys, that's one of the reasons why we're such good friends. I love you beyond that, but doesn't it kind of make sense now? -Hannah

I guess. I don't know. But now I understand what you're talking about. Thanks for the info. -Mary

Hannah told me everything I pretty much needed to know. Nothing more, nothing less, just enough to understand what Alex was talking about.