A/N: Wow heres chapter 8. Enjoy.

Chapter 8

The next day I wend to school and Sunshine promised me that Ray wouldn't hurt me and he and the other guy would make sure of it. I realized that wouldn't help me much in first hour, considering that he sat right behind me.

I walked into first hour and I saw Ray. He was bruised up really bad. I couldn't believe it. I diverted my eyes and looked ahead and sat in front of him. I watched as the teacher wrote equations on the board. I copied them down and paid attention. I felt Ray tap me on the shoulder, so I ignored him. I saw him shove a piece of paper in my face and drop it. It was a note.

I looked at it and slowly unfolded it.

Heather,

Well, sweetie, I don't even know where to begin. I am an idiot. For everything I said and everything I did. I don't know what I would do without you, and I don't ever want to find out. Please accept my apology and take me back. I love you, I swear to you nothing happened between me and Megan. I was going over there, yes, I admit that, but I see how good of friends you and Sunshine are and it made me want to be friends with Megan again.

I never slept with her, we were spending time with each other, I told her from the beginning it would be only friendship, but that wasn't good enough for her, she wanted more and told me if I didn't give it to her she would take you away from me. Make sure that we weren't together anymore. She won. I knew I couldn't tell you that I was spending time with her. I didn't want you to take it the wrong way.

Please, sweetheart forgive me. I'm sorry for hurting you, I know I hurt your shoulder, is it okay? I hope so, I couldn't live with myself if I seriously hurt you. Please, at least respond to this or talk to me after class. That is all I'm asking of you. I still love you, please forgive me for being an idiot!

Love always,
Ray

I read the note twice. If this was true I had thrown away our relationship. I forced the thought out of my head. He admitted it, he yelled and hurt me. I can't be with someone who has a temper like his. I won't put myself and my body through that, I refuse to! No matter how much I love and care about Ray, I can't be with him. And at that second I knew that I would have to tell him that after this class.

The bell rang and I stood up, I lingered in the room so I could talk to him. He walked up to me with a smile. "I'm so sorry sweetheart, I didn't realize I hurt you so much." He was looking at my sling that held up my right shoulder.

"My shoulder was as painful as what you said..."

He looked at me. "I know, about that...I didn't mean it. I was just mad that you hadn't taken my word. Nothing happened."

I looked down. "I wish I could believe that, I've been downt his road before and I will never go down it again. I'm sorry Ray, I can't be with you, it's only been a month and you have already lost your temper twice, I am not going to put up with it."

"I won't lose it anymore, I'll make all this up to you. It won't ever happen again!"

"You told me that you would be perfect, and flawless. This is far from both of those. You can go to hell. I'm done." I walked out.

"HEATHER!" He was running after me. But Gerry was already waiting for me to walk me to my next class. I looked at him.

"Is he bothering you?" Gerry asked me. He looked like he was ready to add a few more bruises to Ray's face.

"No, we were just talking, but we're done now, so lets go to physics." We started to walk away.

"What was that about?" He asked.

We were getting to class. I handed him the note. He read it, "Wow, that is a little too much to take in...what do you think?"

I was quiet. "I know that he is lying, just desperately trying to grab onto something to make sure that we work out. I know that is what he is doing and I won't be a fool for it!"

Gerry smiled. "Good, I think you and Sunshine should get back together." He added in.

I looked at him. "What makes you say that?"

He smiled. "I see the way Sunshine looks at you and how you looked at him the first time you saw him here. I know how you guys felt about each other and how much you guys cared for each other, because you can still see it even now. You're heart still belongs to him and if you look hard enough you will realize that too." He was silent for a minute. "He told me about your guys relationship. And how it was like something out of a fairy tale."

I smiled. "That is how I always explained it. He was my knight in shining armor. He protected me, and kept me safe. We never argued in the beginning until..." I broke off.

"He cheated on you, you know I believe him. I don't know exactly what was said but he told me that you had said something along the lines of you couldn't do it anymore and then you left. And you didn't talk to him for almost a week. I would have thought the same thing."

"Maybe."

"Maybe? Emma got mad at me because of this whole integration thing and hasn't talked to me in almost a month? Don't you think that means we're pretty much over?" I nodded. "I can see why he would think that to be honest with you, and I'm not just saying that."

I looked down. I thought about what he said. I knew that he was right. Gerry walked me to my next hour and then Julius walked me to lunch. They were making sure that Ray didn't have a chance to even get near me. I knew that they were.

The day ended and I walked out to Sunshine's car. I knew that he wouldn't be able to take me home so I started walking home. I heard someone honk a horn behind me. It was Ray. "Please, let me take you home."

"No, I can walk." My shoulder was aching and I wanted so bad to take his ride, but I knew that I couldn't I knew that I had to refuse. "I'm walking so you mine as well speed up and stop slowing down traffic."

I saw him look at me and then he sped up. I could tell he wasn't happy. About thirty minutes later I was finally on Sunshine's block but sitting at the corner was Ray. I knew that I couldn't avoid him anymore.

"Listen, I'm sorry. Please, don't just walk away from us, we have such a good thing going and I don't want to ruin it."

I sighed. "You already have. You ruined it when you yelled at me, left me there crying and when you pulled my shoulder out of socket. I can take any physical pain that is thrown at me, by now, you were right...I am use to it and I'm okay with that to be honest with you. But what you said to me...I couldn't take that. I was hysterical...and I won't do that again, I won't go through that again Ray."

"You won't have to I promise this time I will be perfect."

"No, I'm done. We're over. Just move on now." I knew he was following me. I sped up. I was a few houses away.

Ray ran in front of me. "Please...Heather, I am begging you. Forgive me. Give me one final chance. I will not blow it this time, we will be perfect and we will stay like that. Megan will leave us alone, I already talked to her."

"I don't care. Now let go of me and I mean that."

He did. I ran into the house. Colonel was sitting there. I was close to tears again. He stood up and hugged me. "No one said that this was going to be easy kiddo."

I nodded. He let me cry to him and finally Sunshine got home.

He dropped his books and ran over to me. "I'm so sorry, Gerry told me about everything, are you okay?"

I nodded. "It just hurts that he would do this to me, I was told to stay away, I just wanted so desperately to prove everyone wrong, I wanted to show everyone to see that he could be a good person...I guess I just ended up proving everyone right."

Sunshine was quiet. "Ray is who he is, I'm sorry that you got so hurt, but I hope that you will listen to all of us now and stay away. We all care about you, the team that is but especially me, Gerry, Julius and Alan. We saw what he really did to you, how much he hurt you. We all wanted to kill him. We had decided that two had to stay with you. Julius and Alan said they would because Gerry and I had more problems with him."

I looked at him. "I figured. Thank you, you don't know how grateful I am to you guys for what you did for me. All of you, but you most of all."

He smiled. "I never stopped loving you...I wanted to be with you so bad..but I couldn't. I wanted you to get a chance to see what else is out there. I wanted both of us to. I wanted us both to be sure we really wanted to be together."

I looked at him for a minute. "I'm not so sure anymore."

"I am. I am gonna be waiting here for you when you realize it too...well thats if you do." He smiled at me again.

I looked down and grinned. "You always knew what to say to make me feel better."

He smiled the goofiest smile I had ever seen. "It was a gift that was given to me..." He hesitated. "I don't ever want to see you unhappy. I hate seeing it, you deserve all the happiness in this world. I hate seeing those pretty eyes of yours cry."

I smiled at him. "You always were a sweet talker."

He looked at me. "I'm not doing it for the wrong reasons though." I knew that he was right, he was doing it to try and make me feel better, not try and get back with me. After being with each other for so long, we knew what to say to the other to make them feel better. And I knew that was all he was trying to do.

The rest of the night, I spent thinking about everything that had been happening. How me and Sunshine had ended and how Ray had treated me. He treated me like I was a queen. We were perfect, but looking back on it, it was too good to be true. I missed Ray though, as much as I knew that it was wrong of me to miss him, I did.

I walked down the stairs early the next morning and told Colonel I wanted to walk to school, give myself time to clear my mind. He nodded and told me to be careful. I walked out the door and made my way a few blocks. I sat in Ray's car. I wanted to talk to him, make sense of things.

I sat in there for about twenty minutes before he was finally walking out of his house. He looked at me and smiled. He sprinted to his car. 'Heather, I am so happy you are here. I couldn't stop thinking of you and everything that happened."

"Can I get a lift to school, we can talk."

"Of course. Does this mean that you have forgiven me?"

I looked down. "No, it is going to take me a very long time to forgive you. I don't know how long, but it will be a while."

He looked upset. He looked at my sling. "I understand. I know that I hurt you, these last few days, I have felt like I am just like your dad. I hurt you physically, rather I meant to or not, I did. And to be honest with you, I hate myself for it."

"I know, and you aren't like my dad, I know that you would never hit me or do anything like my dad did."

"And the things I said to you, I don't think a million apologies could make up for that."

"They couldn't. Look, I'm going to be honest with you, we aren't getting back together, I want us to be friends though, still talk and be able to be around each other."

He looked down. "I want you back, I want to be with you...but if I need to be your friend for now, I will be. I hope to one day be more again."

"Maybe, maybe not."

"I understand."

We arrived at school and I saw Gerry. "I'll talk to you later." I got out of the car and ran to Gerry. He was looking at me weird.

"Please tell me you didn't take him back..."

I shook my head. "No, I just needed to talk to him so I could work out a few things in my head."

He nodded. We went and met up with Sunshine and the gang. Sunshine walked me to my locker, then to class. "Heather, I wrote this last night please read it." I nodded. "I'll write back or we'll talk after next hour." He never wrote notes, he hated them, so I knew whatever was in this letter was something serious. I went and sat down. I unfolded the note very carefully.

My dearest Heather,

I can't sleep, I know why though, it is because I can't get you out of my head. Everything about you...about us just won't leave my thoughts. I miss you more then anything and just to let you know I would do anything to call you mine again. We use to plan a life together and I still want that life. I know the only question now is do you want that life as well?

I hope you do. Seeing you with Ray this last month has been almost torturous for me. Seeing you, the person I love most with someone who I can't stand was heartbreaking. Everytime I saw the two of you holding hands I just wanted to die. Heather, I hope you believe me when I say that I love you still. I always will love you. You alone hold my heart in the palm of your hand.

You..are perfection and I can only hope to one day be as perfect and great as you are. I don't deserve you anymore, I know that...but if you think I am at least worthy of you, I want to be with you. I love you, and please, please never ever forget that!

Love forever and always and eternity,

Ronnie-bunny

I laughed, he hated that nickname, it just goes to show how much he loves me. I knew that Sunshine was the best for me. I knew that neither of us could do no better, because lets face it there is no better. We were in love and I knew that I could no longer deny it. I had to face it, but above all I had to tell Sunshine, finally that I still cared and loved him.

A/N: Hmm, don't think you ave this figured out quite yet..because

you haven't there is going to be a twist...

I want to try something different then a happy ending

what does everyone think?

READ AND REVIEW!!

Mary