Krissy: Oh my god!!!! Was it like, J14 or Twist or something? They like TOTALLY dissed him and his CD and crap like that!!! I was like, "fuck y'all" when I read it! Lol! But really, I was pissed that whole rest of the night!!!! Grrr... And it's ok! Random is good! Dude, I'm like totally random all the time!! lol!! So glad my update made you smile! Here's another, hoping to do the same! ;) I know... How could he!?!?! Wait! I wrote it!!! Ack!! What've I done/!??!?!? I'll just have to make Jerry get his ass kicked for it, 'eh? Maybe... Read!!!! Ooooh!!! Sugar highs are AWESOME, dude!!!!!!!!!!! Yeah, I think I'm on one too... that's it. No more Dove Chocolate during American Idol... it makes me crazy! Lol!!

ChrissyD: Well... that all depends on whether Johnny even knows! Lol!! Ah! You could not be more wrong, my friend:) You'll just have to read and see though cause i"m not giving away now secrets! tapes mouth shut :x Awe! You'll be sad when my story ends!??! I'm flattered! ;p But really, thanks! And don't worry, there's still my other story (On the Edge of Sanity) and I'm working on a Summerland fic called Driving Free so I'm by no means going away anytime soon! Hope you like the new ch:)

oNly hizzZ times INFINITY: Thank you! Hope you like this ch too!!!!! And I hope the update was soon enough for ya this time! ;)

Chapter XXII

That's From Your Past

"So Babe... last night you said something to me..." Bradin ventured cautiously, "I was wondering if you could explain that a little better?"

"What was it?" Teresa asked, not realizing what he must mean.

The two teens were sitting n Bradin's room on his bed. They had just gotten away from his aunt and her questions and Bradin was in bad pain... he wanted noting more than to be able to go to sleep and not wake up until he was entirely better. But of course, that's not how things work...

"Uh... You said that you couldn't do it... or not yet at least... I just wondered what you meant..." Bradin said softly.

"Oh, that." Teresa had been smiling but it fell from her face and she stared down at the floor.

Bradin got worried by this and moved closer to his girlfriend pulling her into a hug, "Hey, it's okay... if you don't wanna talk about it that's fine... I understand."

"No, I... I think I better tell you... I mean, if we're gonna keep going out than you deserve to know, Baby..." Teresa knew there was no backing out now that she'd said that, and maybe that was a good thing, after all, he did deserve to know if they were gonna stay a couple.

"Okay..." Bradin said gently and then waited a minute for her to say something but she didn't. "Baby, I swear you can tell me anything!"

"No, I can't. You'll hate me after I tell you this and you'll probably leave me!" Teresa let tears fall down her cheeks. To Bradin it sounded over dramatic but to Teresa she felt like he really would hate her and leave her.

"I could never hate you, Reese! And I promise you I won't leave you over it." Bradin had no clue what she could be hiding that would make her think he'd leave her over it... Pregnancy never crossed his mind once.

Taking a deep breath Teresa said, "You swear to me that you won't freak out when I tell you? Cause I know a lot of guys who would!"

"I won't freak out. I swear! I promise, cross my heart. I-"

"Alright, I believe you... but I don't know if you'll still think that after you hear..."

"Just tell me, Babe, I'm not gonna freak." Bradin assured her.

"Alright... Brae..." she stopped and breathed deeply, "When I was 14 I had a boyfriend and we... well, we made love..." she stopped and looked at Bradin. His expression hadn't changed though so she kept going. "Well, after that I found out I was..."

"I think I get it," Bradin said emotionlessly, "I mean, if you don't wanna say it or something..."

"What do you get?"

"That you were pregnant?"

"Yeah," Teresa spoke so softly Bradin barely heard her.

"So... what did you do with it?" Bradin's voice still didn't show any emotion.

"I- I had... I had an abortion... Carl said he'd be there for me through the whole thing and when it was over too... but he- he wasn't! He moved away the day after I had the abortion and he didn't tell me and he never got in touch with me after that... he'd known he was moving for a week! A whole damn week and yet he let me think he was gonna be there! He told me to trust him!!" Before Teresa knew it, or could stop it, the whole story was spilling out of her along with quite a few tears. Bradin listened patiently to her and held her when she was done talking, letting her cry into his chest.

After her tears subsided he finally spoke, "Baby, I'm not gonna hate you or leave you! Not over that! Not over anything!"

"Oh, Bradin!" Teresa started crying again and Bradin just held her in silence.

"Shh..." he finally said after a few more minutes of her crying, "Babe, don't cry... please? Hey, hey, listen to me. I want you to do something for me okay?"

Sniffling, Teresa asked, "What?"

"I want you to forget about that bastard. He should never have left you! He got your sex and then left when it got to be too much trouble to be with you. That's just crap! That is not right." Bradin had a disgusted look on his face, "So I want you to forget about him and never get mad or upset with yourself for having an abortion. You were only 14! You can't get upset about it now... so I want you to forget it all. Can you do that? Can you do it for me?"

I want you to do this now?"

"I'll try, Baby... I think I can... but... but only if you help me, okay?" Teresa said, still looking like she was about to cry.

"Okay. I'll be here for you. And when I say I'm gonna be there... I'm gonna be there." Bradin assured her and kissed her on the forehead. "Now, one more thing?"

"What?"

"I want you to smile." Bradin smiled lovingly at his girlfriend.

"Okay," Teresa didn't have to force the smile that was now on her face. She smiled just from Bradin smiling. God, she loved him!

"Good! See, you look so much better when you smile, Baby!" Bradin laughed.

Teresa laughed back, "Thank!" she joked, "I know I do!"

They both burst out laughing at the way she'd said that. What they didn't know was that Ava and Johnny were at Bradin's door the whole time and heard the whole conversation.

Ava looked at Johnny and they both slipped into Ava's room to talk.

"Okay, so we know that Teresa was once pregnant and that Bradin didn't know that till just now... and we know that... well... do we know he was telling the truth about not having ever had sex?" Ava asked Johnny as she sat down on her bed.

"Well.. from that conversation we just heard? No. No, we don't know if he's telling the truth about that or not..." Johnny said then added, "But we don't know that he's lying either..."

"So, how are we supposed to figure out whether he or Jerry is telling the truth?" Ava asked, she was really starting to get frustrated.

"Um... I..." Johnny looked at his house mate/ex girlfriend and realized just how pretty she was... "don't know..." he finished, his eyes still on her.

By this time Ava had looked up at Johnny and as their eyes met a silence fell over the room. "W- well, shouldn't we..."

Johnny moved closer to Ava as she spoke and took her hand making her stand up. Before either of them could say anything else they were in a deep kiss and Johnny had moved his right hand under her shirt and up her back sending shivers down Ava's spine. Ava moved her hands to around Johnny's neck and one into his hair pulling him closer to deepen the, already passionate, kiss. Johnny moaned slightly with pleasure and put his left hand around Ava's waist pulling her body closer to his. Finally the need for air was too great and the pair pulled apart. Johnny looked down into Ava's beautiful brown eyes and she stared back into his. After a minute Ava looked away... Johnny grabbed her hand with his right and hooked his index finger on his left hand under her chin making her look up at him. He moved close and, again, their lips met. Johnny pulled Ava to her bed and down on it with him. He was in the process of pulling off her shirt when a knock at her door startled them both. Ava shot up, pulling her half off shirt back down, and jumped off the bed as Johnny did the same. Ava tried to calm her pounding heart as she quickly walked over to her door and opened it a crack. She was surprised to see Bradin standing there with Teresa.

"Aunt Ava, we wanted to know if you would mind if we went out to see a movie," Bradin asked his shaken aunt. He didn't seem to notice how startled she was and Teresa was too busy texting on her cell phone to notice.

"Oh, um... I uh... yeah, I mean, sure... just be back for dinner ok? And Teresa," Ava said making the teenage girl look up from her phone, "would you be able to stay to dinner?"

"Yes, Ma'am, I don't see why not!" Teresa smiled, "But I'll call my mom to make sure."

Teresa walked away a few feet to call her mother and Bradin noticed his aunt's rattled composer. "Hey, um.. Aunt Ava, are you... are you alright?" Bradin just then realized Johnny was in the room with her, she had opened the door just a little too much for Bradin to not be able to see into her room. Realizing he must have "interrupted" something he said, before she could answer whether she was okay or not, "I'll tell Susannah whether Teresa can stay or not, alright? Bye!" With that he turned and ran down the hall to the stairs grabbing Teresa's hand and dragging her with him on his way.

Ava looked after him until he was downstairs and out of sight, then she shut the door and turned back to Johnny. "We should probably uh..."

"Yeah..." Johnny looked down.

Ava opened her door and headed downstairs followed by Johnny.

Teresa came and stayed for dinner then hung around watching a movie with Bradin and Nikki till about 9:00pm. Around then Bradin walked her home and came back and went to bed on orders from his aunt. She also sent Nikki and Derrick to bed on account of them all having school the next day.

After all the kids had gone to bed Ava climbed the stairs and slipped into her room, slowly shutting the door behind her she turned her back to it and was surprised to find Johnny sitting on her bed. Seeing in his eyes that he hadn't lost any of the passion from early that day she flipped off the light and quietly slid her hand behind her back and locked the door as he came up to her and they again engaged in a passionate kiss.

Hope y'all likey me updatey!!! (Yep, sugar high! lol!) Review please!! Or... I'll be sad... :( Luv y'all!!!

Anna Christie AKA SecondStarToTheRight15