For all pertinent information see chapter one.

Eventually, of course, I had to go back to the real world. I did my best to hide the fact that I'd just spent the better part of an hour crying over someone I wasn't even in love with, but Raven saw right through me, as all good friends are supposed to do. All afternoon I watched her shoot concerned looks at me, and finally she tossed me a note, asking what was wrong.

In the interest of honesty, because I was serious about not fucking things up with her, I told her what had happened between Lani and myself in the bathroom. Of course I left out the part where I got myself off thinking about Raven! But obviously, the version I gave Raven was enough to satisfy her, and she seemed genuinely sympathetic. I think that made me feel worse.

It was a strange feeling, to be truly rid of Lani. That's a horrible way to put it, but I mean it in the nicest possible way. When we were together the first time, she was all I thought about, when I wasn't thinking about Raven. And then when we broke up, it wasn't truly like being rid of her, because every time I saw her I felt the pink elephant effect. You know, there's a big old pink elephant in the corner, but no one's talking about it because they think if they ignore it it'll go away? That's the way I felt around Lani in that in between time.

When we were together the SECOND time, I found it hard to focus on Lani because of all the turmoil going on with Raven, and that's when she began to feel like a stone around my neck. She was someone I went to for sex, but then as soon as it was over I wished she didn't exist again. And it's a horrible thing to say, but it's true in a way. I was messed up, and she paid the price, I guess.

And that brings me to the present, when I was almost, tentatively with Raven, and Lani still almost felt like that stone around my neck. Until the incident in the bathroom, all our goodbyes had been like so much bird song – they didn't really MEAN anything. The goodbye in the bathroom had something that all the others had lacked: finality. It was finally over between Lani and I.

But where did that leave me? I'll admit it. I had been hedging my bets. I was really in love with Raven, and I freely admitted it to myself, and to Lani, but I used Lani for sex because I knew I couldn't have Raven in that way. So now that Lani was a thing of the past, I had to content myself with either my fingers or nothing until Raven was ready to go there with me. It was a series of events that was beginning to drive me crazy. I was even considering going on the Internet and trying to find someone, a random anyone, to get off with, except that my new vow of honesty towards Raven would have never let me get away with it. Curse my conscience. Kill the cricket!

It was a Thursday after school when Raven and I were walking home that things began to change. We had been talking about nothing in particular, school and families and stupid things like that, and when we reached her house I made as if to keep walking down the street and around the corner to mine. But she stopped, stood in her doorway and called me back.

It was the strangest thing, standing in her front doorway with her in that moment. I can't describe it. I just knew things were about to change.

"Look, Chelsea… you've been so good to me, my whole life, but especially this last couple of months… I don't know what I would have done without you."

Probably died, I thought to myself and mentally crossed myself. That was a horrible thought and I was ashamed of myself for even having it.

"And this last couple of weeks… you've been so patient with me while I've been figuring my shit out… and I figured it was time I gave you an answer."

In true Flo style, I didn't have a clue what she was talking about. Regarding our tentative relationship, I thought she'd already GIVEN me an answer: yes. I thought I was just waiting for her to come to terms with the physical aspect of the relationship we were embarking on. Turns out I was wrong!

"Chelsea… yes. My answer is yes."

"Yes?"

"Yes, I want to be with you. Yes, I want to kiss you, and do things with you, and be seen with you, and yes, I want to be your girlfriend. Is that okay?"

It was more than okay! It was everything I'd ever hoped for. I leaned in gently but then thought better of it, thinking it would probably be better if she made the first move.

And she did! She closed the distance between us and sealed our lips together. I nearly passed out right then and there… it was everything I remembered it being from that drunken night, but more, more because I knew Raven was doing this of her own accord and not because she was drunk out of her mind. That fact in itself was worth more than all the kisses in the world.

But the kisses were pretty fucking brilliant too.

It was almost an hour later that I finally headed for home, my eyes slightly glazed and my panties slightly wet. I let myself in and went straight up to my room, waving distractedly at my parents. I threw myself on my bed and sighed happily. Everything was coming up Chelsea.

But then a thought struck me, and suddenly I didn't feel so happy. Eddie. It wasn't that long ago that he'd come to me and confided that he had feelings for Raven, and here I'd just spent an hour making out with her.

I couldn't believe this was the first time he'd occurred to me, in the two or three weeks she and I had been tip toeing around things, but it was, and now I didn't know what to do. Someone was going to end up pissed off, or hurt. If I told Eddie about Raven and me, he'd be hurt and angry, feel betrayed by me, who was supposed to be his friend. But if I told Raven about him having feelings for her, I risked ruining their friendship. And if I did nothing, that made me a liar, and that was not something Chelsea Daniels aspired to be.

After long moments deliberating (okay, I made a snap decision, sue me) I picked up the phone and called Raven.

"Raven, we need to talk."

"Didn't we do that already?" she asked, confused.

"What? Oh. No, we talked about us. We need to talk about Eddie."

"What about Eddie? He'll be sweet, he's not homophobic or anything like that."

"No, Raven… Eddie has feelings for you," I blurted, feeling sick. She didn't respond for a long moment, and I thought she'd hung up. "Raven? Raven!"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm here," she said, distractedly. "Eddie? Likes me? Since when?"

"Since a couple of weeks ago," I admitted, feeling sicker. Was I going to get busted for not telling her?

"Oh, shit."

Neither of us spoke, now. I guess we were both lost in our own thoughts. Mine were along the lines of how I'd just been given the most brilliant gift in the world, Raven's love, and I was going to lose it over Eddie…

"Raven, if you want to reconsider this… us… I'll understand. After all, your life would probably be easier if you were dating him, rather than me," I said, hating every word. But Raven laughed! "What's so funny?"

"Me and Eddie?" she giggled. "Girl, please. I love Eddie, but he's not my type, okay? It'd be about as appealing as sleeping with Cory. Eddie's one of my best friends and it's going to stay that way. Just because he had feelings for me, doesn't mean I have to return them."

My whole body had slumped back on the bed with relief. I guess this meant I was in the clear, right? "He's not your type? What exactly is your type, Raven?"

"I like red heads with yummy little butts and breasts I can't keep my eyes off," she laughed. "And in case you're wondering, you're the only person I know that fits that description!"

Wow. I didn't know what had happened to make Raven so confident, but I liked it. I really liked it. And now, the only problem was…

"Eddie," I sighed. "What are we going to do about Eddie? We can't keep this, us, from him. It would kill him to find out by walking in on us or something, or even worse, to find out through the grapevine. And you know it doesn't matter how careful we are, it's bound to happen sooner or later. We have to tell him ourselves, before this goes any further, to avoid him getting hurt, Rae."

"I think he's going to get hurt either way," Rae mused. "But you're right, of course. We should cool it for a while, at least until we tell him."

"Does that mean we can't kiss?" I asked, feeling a little panicky.

"Yeah, I guess it does."

"Let's tell him now," I suggested hurriedly, earning another peal of laughter from Raven.

"No, you idiot!" she laughed. "Tomorrow morning is soon enough. But what are we going to tell him, exactly?"

"We'll think of something," she decided. "Hey, Chelsea? What are you doing tonight?"

"Nothing much, why?"

"Well, it's just… my parents are in New York for dad's work, and Cory's at a friend's place for the night… I'm home alone, and I feel kind of weird about it. Can you come over?"

"Yeah, no problem," I replied, jumping off my bed and starting to throw a few things into an overnight bag. "Did you wanna study or something? Cos I could bring some books if you wanted, you know, because we've got school in the morning and all…"

"Chelsea, I highly doubt we'll be doing any study tonight," Raven said, almost seductively, in my ear. I almost dropped the phone.

"I'll be right over," I squeaked, hanging up the phone and running.

When I got to Raven's house, I don't know what I expected. Candles and Barry White possibly. But of course, she hadn't done anything of the sort. She greeted me at the door with a bright and perfectly normal smile, and gave me a hug. She took my bag from me and we went into the living room and sat down on the sofa.

"So," I began, not knowing what to say, how to sit, where to put my hands. I'd never felt so uncomfortable and unsure around Raven, and I gotta tell you, I wasn't loving it. But she came to my rescue with a sweet kiss dropped on my lips out of the blue. I smiled, and leaned in for another.

I could have quite cheerfully traded kisses with her all night. Our sweet, short kisses had graduated into the long, wet, intimate kind, and I was mentally thanking God for everything I had. Then Raven pulled away.

"Are we going to do this all night?" she teased, and when I snuck a look at the clock I saw more than an hour had passed. We were really going to have to work on our time management!

"Do you, uh, not want to do this all night?" I asked, unsure again.

"I'm not saying this isn't fun… because this is great, Chelsea… I'm just saying, it's not the only thing we could be doing…"

Shit! Did she mean sex? I didn't know if I could handle having sex with Raven, the day she tells me she's finally ready for kissing! This was too fast… this was betraying Eddie… this was Chelsea beginning to hyperventilate…

"Chelsea! Breathe! I just meant we could watch a DVD and snuggle, or talk, or something."

Oh. "Oh." Cool. "Cool."

She had Pirates of the Caribbean, and even though it's an old movie and we've both seen it about a hundred times, neither of us ever gets sick of it. We curled up together under a blanket Raven produced out of nowhere (so maybe she HAD been planning something!) and watched it. For about twenty minutes. Then, surprisingly, it was she who made a move. I thought it would have been me! But no, it was Raven turning to me and guiding my lips down to hers.

"Chelsea," she murmured when we parted.

"Yeah," I breathed.

"God, it feels like someone's turned a light on," she whispered. "Don't get me wrong, it's hardly like I've never been kissed… But I finally get it. Before you, I always thought of kissing as something to pass the time before we had the sex. But with you, it's like… even just kissing you is more rewarding than all the times I had sex with… him. Does that make sense?"

"Yeah," I repeated. "I know what you mean. With Lani, kissing was just a means to an end, right? Whereas I could kiss you until the cows come home, and then when they came home, I'd be like, 'What are you doing, you stupid bovines? Can't you see I'm kissing Raven?'"

She giggled. "So, um," she began, then trailed off.

"Um…" I prompted.

"I just wanted to kiss you some more," she laughed. I grinned.

"Then shut up and do it!"

The movie was swiftly forgotten as we lost ourselves in sensation. We kissed, once, twice, a hundred times, I don't know. And I don't know how it happened, but I was lying on top of her, with her head resting on the arm of the sofa. And she didn't show any signs of stopping, which meant I had to. And I really, really didn't want to. But I did.

"I don't want to have sex with you," I blurted. Raven went white – well, as white as her beautiful caramel colored skin can go. I realized what I'd said and hastened to backtrack.

"I mean, I DO want to have sex with you… I just think it would be a really bad idea if we do it RIGHT NOW. Cos, like, we'd be rushing it, and…" I trailed off. Flo had my brain in her evil grip again.

"Chelsea, I don't want to have sex with you either, right now!" Raven said, the color returning to her cheeks. "I just wanted to do a little more than kiss. Just a little."

Oh. Oh! "What did you have in mind?" I asked, deliberately lowering my voice seductively. She grinned.

"Close your eyes."

She pushed me back on the other arm of the sofa and climbed on top of me, but didn't do anything else. I kept my eyes closed, reasoning that if she HADN'T lost her nerve, opening my eyes now would probably do it for her. Then I felt something wet on my neck… she was dragging her tongue from my collarbone to my ear, and I couldn't help but let out a long, low moan.

Raven giggled, which almost spoiled the mood, until she moved back down to my collarbone and kissed it… a kiss which turned into out and out sucking. And then there was a hint of teeth, just enough to make me cry out… This had to stop before I lost what little control I had left. I opened my eyes and pulled away from her wonderful mouth, applying my own lips and tongue to her ear lobe. A little variation couldn't hurt, right?

Raven was letting out a series of delectable little whimpers that were doing nothing to calm me down. I moved my attention from her ear to her neck, licking down to where she'd done up all but the top two buttons on her blouse. Daringly, I undid another button, and traced a path with my tongue to the small patch of skin I had uncovered. I kissed her there, then brought my mouth back to hers. She kissed back hungrily.

"I think maybe we should stop," I panted when we separated, both breathing heavily. "Cos as fucking fantastic as this is, we're kind of going too fast…"

"Yeah," she gasped. As our breathing returned to normal we slumped in each others arms, just holding each other. And as intense as our making out had been before, this was, in its way, just as nice. It was very nice.

The problem looming on the horizon was telling Eddie about us, and then having to deal with the feelings of betrayal he was probably going to feel. Especially towards me, seeing as I was the one he confided his feelings for Raven in, and then I turned around and made out with her.

But all this paled in comparison with how right it felt to hold Raven and to fall asleep with her in my arms. It was a feeling I wasn't prepared to give up easily.

It took me longer than normal to fall asleep, due to the fact that my brain was frantically scripting out any number of encounters with Eddie. That's the problem with interactions with other people, you can script yourself until you're blue in the face but there's just no predicting exactly how the other person will react. These are the times I almost wish I had Raven's visions.

Finally, I convinced myself to let whatever happened, happen, andslipped into a somewhat turbulent sleep.