Ginger didn't see or hear from Darren for two weeks. It was as if he had vanished into thin air. She wasn't sure how she should feel. To be honest, Ginger still loved Darren very deeply. But he was with someone else and she understood that. She did miss his friendship and it felt good to have Darren's friendship back. Ginger guessed that Darren felt that they couldn't be friends because of the kiss, she accepted it for the two weeks and went back to her normal activities.

Halloween night, Ginger's mom and step dad were working a double and her brother Carl was out doing what he did best, no good. Ginger stayed home and passed out candy to the kids that came to the door. It was unusually warm, so all she had on was a high school hoodie. She sat on her porch with a cup of warm tea and her radio playing music. As Ginger was handing out candy to a group of kids, Darren walked up, she didn't even see him.

"Happy Halloween." Ginger yelled as the kids walked away. She sat back and closed her eyes, still not noticing Darren.

Darren walked up closer to her. "Ginger?"

She jumped, opening her eyes. "Darren! You scared me!"

He looked rather shy. "Sorry..."

Ginger thought a moment. "Where have you been?"

"Oh...um...around...been spending some time with Simone over at the college..."

"That's cool...wanna sit and help me pass out candy?"

"Sure..."

Darren and Ginger sat there rather quiet for at least an hour. Casual conversation about weather and school was all that was spoken of. You could cut the tension with a knife. It made Ginger uncomfortable, but she knew bringing it up would make Darren run off. If she had any chance of getting a word out of Darren, she had to play by his rules...she hated that.

"Well..." Ginger sat up. "It's 8 so trick or treating is over...I don't think we'll get anymore kids."

"Except the ones that egg houses." Darren commented as he stood up.

Ginger laughed. "If anyone will do it, it'll be Carl." She paused for a minute. "You wanna come in for something to drink?"

Darren sighed. "Well...I don't want things to turn out like they did last time..."

Ginger rolled her eyes. "Are you blaming me?"

"No!" Darren said quickly. "No, I blame myself. I just don't want to tempted things..."

"Then how can we be friends?" Ginger started to walk inside when she stopped, turned around, and looked Darren directly in the eye. "Didn't you break up with me because you had feelings for Simone and didn't want to hurt me by cheating on me? What are you doing to Simone now?"

"Ginger I never stopped having feelings for you...Simone and I don't spend much time together anymore. Yes I just want to be friends, I don't want to hurt Simone because I do still deeply care for her. But I care for you too."

Ginger sighed. "Look, as long as that whole kissing thing doesn't happen again, I don't see why we can't be friends. So come on in and have something to drink ok?"

Another month went by with Ginger and Darren talking again. This time she called him as well as him calling her. On the dot at 9 every night, they were on the phone with each other. Ginger couldn't help, but slowly start to fall for Darren again. He made her laugh and was someone he could tell everything to. She told him all about her worries of her and her friends and of school and college. She felt safe with him.

It was late November, just after Thanksgiving break. Ginger was sitting outside, tuning her guitar and waiting for Dodie to get done with practice, they were going to read each others research papers and give each other advice. Ginger looked up and Dodie was heading towards her with a group of the other cheerleaders, one of them to Ginger's surprise was Simone.

"Hey Ginger!" Dodie said as they walked up.

"Hey guys..." Ginger said a little unsteady as she stood up. "What's going on?"

"Simone was just filling us in on college and everything with her and Darren."

"Oh...how are you guys?"

Simone smiled, almost an evil smirk. "Things are great...really great..." Simone looked at everyone and they all giggled. Ginger knew she had been left out of something. Simone's smirk turned more to a relax smile as she turned to Dodie. "I think you're ready...I was at your age." She raised her eyebrows, still smiling calmly. "We'll let you two go off now, see ya later."

Ginger and Dodie started walking towards Ginger's house. She wanted to know what her and Simone were talking about. She couldn't tell if she wanted to know because she still had feelings for Darren or was it because she was just curious.

Dodie was the first to speak. "Do you think I'm ready?"

Ginger was confused. "Ready for what?"

"Well...you know...take things to the next level with Chet?"

Ginger was still confused. "What level are you on?"

Dodie sighed. "You know Ginger...the old when a boy and a girl love each other very much..."

Ginger stopped dead in her tracks. "You mean to have sex with him?"

"Well duh!" Dodie was sounding more and more like Simone every day, it annoyed Ginger.

"What about waiting till marriage? That's what we all said we would do."

Dodie laughed. "Oh Ginger no one waits till marriage anymore...Darren and Simone didn't..."

"What?"

Dodie stopped. "Oh I'm sorry, I wasn't suppose to tell you, but yeah...well...you aren't with him anymore you can't be upset."

Ginger felt like Darren had lied to her. She never directly asked him about Simone, he willing told her things about Simone. But he never mentioned that they had had sex and it hurt...It hurt Ginger very badly.