A/N: Hey guys! I'd just like to put in that I'm changing the characters' ages from 14 to 16. I know, doesn't seem like too much of a difference, but trust me. For what comes later, you'll be glad they're 16! Hope you enjoy it, this one goes out to Emma!

Disclaimer: I do not own the plot and characters of Stand By Me and The Body. They belong to the geniuses Rob Reiner, Andrew Schienman, Ray Gideon, Bob Evans, and of course, Stephen King, and Columbia Pictures. But I do own Abbie and this plot. So, it counts for something, right? Right? Oh, and this song is from Avenue Q, and the song that was in chapter 6 is by The Coasters.

"…..but it's not his fault, it's his glands."-Gordie

"Oh, my cousin's like that! Sincerely! She weighs close to three hundred pounds! Supposed to be a hyboid gland or something. I don't know anything about a hyboid gland, but what a blimp, no shit! She looks like a Thanksgiving turkey! And you know this one time-"

"Will you shut up Vern?"-Chris

Chapter 10: Hard to Say Important Things: Act 1

"G-Gordie?"

Gordie Lachance turned his whole body around from where it was sitting on his porch. A small, shy smile came to his face.

"Hey Abbs," Gordie greeted.

Abbie sat down next to him on the porch step and took a deep breath.

"Are you ok?" Gordie asked in a voice that sounded as if he thought Abbie was acting strangely.

"No," Abbie answered, her face now buried in her hands.

"Well, what's up? Anything I can help you with?"

"Gordie…."

Abbie lifted her head out of her hands and put a comforting hand on his arm.

"This is really hard to say, I mean, you've been so good to me. Certainly one of my best friends ever. And," Abbie sighed, "I think we go better as friends, you know? Like, umm, oh I don't know! I think we'll just get along better-"

"Ok," Gordie whispered in a pained voice, "We didn't fight or anything, I don't see why…"

Abbie took both of her hands and brushed back the hair on her head, looking in front of her. Guilt beginning to eat away at her insides, she felt she couldn't look Gordie in the eye. Why did these stupid things have to be so hard?

"Do you want the honest truth?" Abbie questioned finally.

"The truth is supposed to be honest, so yeah, I guess," Gordie returned in his hurt murmur.

"Ok," Abbie sighed, "……..I never really liked you in the way you thought I did. There's…..someone else out there for me, I guess you could say."

Gordie turned to face her, looking quite flustered now. "You mean you've cheated on me?"

"No! I like you too much to cheat on you! In the friend way, I mean," Abbie answered hurriedly.

"So, you just played me, right? If you didn't like me, why the hell did you go out with me for three weeks? And who is the other guy out there for you?" Gordie demanded furiously.

"Gordie, you are taking this the wrong way. I'm breaking up with you to save our friendship. Heck, to save all of our other friendships too. Don't you see?" Abbie replied firmly, "We are just really good friends. I went out with you so your feelings wouldn't get hurt. And I did not play you at all, my friend. As for the other guy….it really doesn't matter who he is."

"It matters to me! I need to know who beat me out in this game!" Gordie yelled, "And you just went out with me to not hurt my feelings? You're hurting my feelings now!"

"Gordie, it's not. a. game!" Abbie exclaimed, "I like someone else, ok? We were friends before, why can't we just go back to the way things were? And the last thing I would ever want to do is to hurt your feelings!"

"Well, you must have done a lot of things you didn't want to do then to get to the last one!"

"You know what? I'm sick of this!" Abbie shouted, "This behavior of yours right now is not what I would have expected from you, Gordon Lachance!"

"IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE DENNY'S BIRTHDAY!" Gordie shouted, "IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE HIS FUCKING 22ND BIRTHDAY TODAY! IT'S FINE, WHATEVER, GO TO WHOEVER YOU LIKE, JUST LEAVE ME THE HELL ALONE RIGHT NOW!"

That was it- remorse had swallowed Abbie up. She was about to say something, but then she snapped her mouth shut. If Gordie wanted her to leave him alone, she would. She respected her friend's wishes. And if anybody was going to talk to Gordie about this, it definitely shouldn't be her. So, Abbie gave him a small wave, and then raced back to school. She needed more advice- and quick.

Abbie found Emma sitting in the auditorium of the school, sitting on a piano bench and playing random notes with her index finger, a bored expression on her face. Abbie sat down next to her without a greeting.

"So……are you locked in the 'Chambers' of his heart? I bet it was 'Chris-topher' than you thought! Haha, me and my stupid, useless puns!" Emma said cheerfully.

Abbie stayed silent.

"Whoa, did he say no! That little son of a-"

"No. I just broke up with Gordie though," Abbie informed, "Why do things have to be so fucking hard? He was so angry with me, he'll never be my friend again! Maybe I should just leave things the way they are. And now, I'm going to have to face Chris-"

"Oh, Abbie," Emma tutted, draping an arm around her friend's shoulder, "Let's compare, shall we? Ok, how many weeks have Teddy and I been going out?"

"Three."

"And how many times have we fought and broken up?"

"Three."

"And how many times have we made up?"

"Three," Abbie answered with a devilish smile, "But you've made out with him more than three times."

"Quite true, quite true," Emma agreed with a smirk, "But you see? You will be friends with Gordie again. Don't worry your little head about it. And as for Chris, he will take you."

"But how can you and Teddy…..keep doing this? You both want to murder each other some days, and then you want to be permanently stuck to each other on the others. I mean, how does it work like that?" Abbie questioned.

Emma stared at her with an unreadable expression on her face. The two girls just sat their in silence. Just when Abbie was about to say something, Emma began to play the piano, and sing, to Abbie's surprise.

"The more you love someone
The more you want to kill him
The more you love someone
The more he makes you cry

Though you try
For making peace with him and loving
That's why you love so strong,
You'd like to make him die!

The more you love someone
The more he makes you crazy
The more you love someone,
The more you're wishing him dead!

Sometimes you look at him
And only see fat and lazy
And wanting baseball bats
For hitting him on his head!

Love...
And hate.
Are like two brothers...
Who go on a date?

Where one goes,
The other one follows
You're inviting love,
He also brings sorrows

The more you love someone,
The more you want to kill him
Loving and killing
Fit like hand in glove!

So if there's someone
You are wanting so
To kill him...
You go and find him,
And you get him
And you don't kill him
'Cause chance is good...

He is your love."

Abbie's lips stretched into a grin. She got the message. She stood up and started to jog up to the exit doors from the auditorium but skidded to a stop. Leaning against one of the side walls was non-other than Teddy Duchamp himself. He gave Abbie a wink, and slapped her on the back. Then he started down towards Emma. Emma's brown eyes immediately widened and her face turned a pinkish color. He stopped right in front of her, his eyes dancing and a smirk on his face.

"I swear I am going to kill you," Emma whispered menacingly, her hands now clenching Teddy's t-shirt. He swooped down upon her and gave her a long, passion-filled kiss. When they broke apart, Emma's face held a dreamy expression.

"I love you too," Teddy responded with a both seriousness and taunting in his voice. Abbie immediately left and started trotting away from them and the school. Although it didn't seem possible, that was the weirdest thing she had ever seen and heard.

What Teddy did….that was so…..un-Teddy Duchamp like. She had always secretly thought that Teddy's feelings for Emma were purely physical, but maybe she was wrong. But she did get the message out of Emma's odd song: there are ups and downs to a relationship, in any kind of relationship. There are times when you want to strangle someone, and then times when you want to hug that same person. It was really strange how things worked out that way, but they just did. And you couldn't be afraid: no matter what happens, you have to keep going, do the best with it, and take chances. And Abbie was ready to take that chance the exact moment she saw a certain boy walking way ahead of her.

"Chris!" Abbie shouted to his back.

He turned and flashed her a smile, "Hey Abbie, what's going on?"

"Look," Abbie panted, catching up to him, "I have to tell you something important."

"Go right ahead," he coaxed.

"I….I feel like I can't," she confessed.

"Why?" he asked.

"I don't know. It's just…..it's just really hard to say," Abbie informed him softly.

"If it's important, then you need to tell me. How can it be hard to say if it's so important?" Chris questioned more to himself than to her.

"I really, really don't know, except that it's hard for me to say," Abbie stated.

Chris stopped walking and faced her, "You can tell me anything. Just say it, like a normal thing. Pretend it isn't that important."

"Oh god, I can't do that. It's too important to pretend," Abbie responded.

Chris grabbed her shoulders and replied hesitantly, "If important things are hard to say, then….then how would things get done in the world? What could be so important that it's hard to say?"

"What I'm about to tell you," Abbie answered.

"Then just do it. I won't laugh, I won't joke about it; I won't do anything that you wouldn't want me to do. If it's important…too important to pretend that it's not, then I have to know," Chris said gently.

"Ilikeyou."

"What?" Chris asked flatly, an eyebrow raised.

Abbie took a deep breath and then sighed slowly, "I. like. you."

Chris stared at her for a long time. His mouth was slightly open, so you couldn't see his teeth. His blue-green eyes gazed at her with unreadable feeling, but with an intensity that made Abbie's heart rate quicken, and her body grew tense. He seemed frozen, unsure of how to reply to Abbie's statement. He finally took a long breath and shifted his position.

"You mean-"

"Yes."

He gave a deep sigh and ran a hand through his dirty blonde hair.

"I….I thought….Gordie…"

"No," Abbie answered, "I don't like him in that way. He makes a wonderful friend. But….it's you that I like. It's you that I want."

"Why did you wait all this time to tell me?" he asked, sounding a little frustrated.

Abbie looked up at him. She didn't realize before that he was much taller than her, making her feel intimidated and meek.

"I didn't realize it until recently. I never….I never thought that I would have…umm…romantic feelings for any of you boys. But you….you just amaze me every day with your whole… compassionate personality," Abbie answered, her voice quivering over agonizing nerves.

Chris stared at her. He suddenly pulled her into him so she fell into his chest, her eyes closed, and a smile on her face. He wrapped his arms around the middle of her back and squeezed her tight, his face mixing with her thick, light brown hair.

"Do you know how long I've been waiting for you to say something like that?" Chris asked, but said it as a statement.

"You….You like me too?" Abbie gasped.

"You couldn't tell? God, I thought I was going to have to throw myself at you!" Chris replied exasperated.

"I feel so…."

"Stupid?" Chris interjected.

"Yeah, that's the word I was looking for," Abbie agreed and then the two laughed.

"But honestly, I wanted you to come to me, even though it's the other way around," Chris told her after a few moments of silence, "You said it was important. I'm glad you think that. But why was it so hard to say?"

"Because," Abbie sighed, "I was scared. Really scared. I didn't know how you would react to something like that."

"You can tell me anything, because, I told you before, I will always be here for you. And I should have known you were scared to say it….I should have just let you be," Chris responded.

"No," Abbie said sharply, "I'm more than happy that you got me to say it. It would be stuck inside me forever….and with you too."

"Yeah," Chris agreed, "…..You know what?"

"No telling," Abbie answered.

"I like…..I like you so much….that…that maybe I'd have killed myself if I had never gotten to say that to you," Chris replied.

Abbie smiled into his chest.

"And you know what?" Chris asked.

"No telling," Abbie repeated.

"I hope you'll be…. my one and only girl," Chris answered.

Abbie's smile widened about a mile.

"And you know what else?" Chris questioned.

"No telling," Abbie said once more.

"I….I….I really want to kiss you."

Abbie looked up at him with a smirk. They stared into each other's eyes, but then soon closed the small space between their lips in one swift movement. She could feel him smiling through the kiss, which was a different but better reaction than Gordie's blushing face. His lips were smooth and even, with no rough ridges anywhere. They tasted sweet and the flavor soared from her lips to exploding in her mouth, and it just made her crazy. And she thought Gordie's lips were satisfying! The mood they both kept with their kissing was perfect: gentle, yet passionate. Abbie didn't want any "rough-housing" with this, and that's why she kept her lips closed off when Chris softly pushed his tongue against them. He didn't seem to be upset by it at all, but continued to kiss her. But the most important and obvious thing was that when Chris had laid his lips upon hers, she felt something. Her heart seemed to grow in large amounts, and the butterflies in her stomach soared. It was a feeling that made her be on top of the world, a feeling that would make sure she was safe. It was a feeling that made her feel better than she had ever felt before. It was a feeling similar to one that someone would feel if they found gold. It was a feeling of purity. A feeling that made her whole. How could everything be this perfect? Soon they both broke apart in unison and gazed at each other, taking deep breaths.

"God….that was just a tiny plus for why you'll be a great girlfriend," Chris said breathlessly, and then ran his tongue over his lips with a smile.

"A tiny plus? What I gave you? God, your standards are high!" Abbie exclaimed.

"No, the biggest plus is your personality," Chris corrected, and then saw her mouth drop, "No, c'mon, you know I judge by personality rather than looks and….physical stuff."

"Well, I do too. It just so happened that the guy with the best personality had good looks," Abbie replied with a smirk.

"Same goes for me," Chris agreed and then draped his arm around one of Abbie's shoulders, "And besides, there aren't any downsides for being with you."

"You know……..I hope that me being your girlfriend will make you….will make you a "better" person to all the people in town so you won't have to worry about what everyone says about you," Abbie stated her thoughts, "Maybe they'll think having a girlfriend will do good for you." She looked up at him. Now he wasn't gazing at her with a heavenly look. He was staring out in front of him, out into the world. He seemed lost in heavy thoughts, his face nothing more than a vacant expression. She waited patiently for him to come out of his thoughts, and he soon turned to her.

"Oh Abbie…." Chris trailed off in an odd, plaintive tone. He pulled her into a hug, her face pushed into his chest, her eyes closed. But he kept his eyes open, again staring out into the world, wondering how this could change his life.