Here ya go, new chapter. I've been behind still, I know, but I can't do it all. I've still been sick, and haven't much felt up to writing. This chapter wasn't exactly up to the standards I like to set for myself, but I think it's okay. Don't forget to tell me what you think.

Chapter 8

After their walk on the beach, Shane led Mitchie back to the Hummer. They had stayed silent after Mitchie's confessions, a comfortable silence though. Mitchie felt as if a huge weight had been lifted off her shoulders. She had kept that to herself for so long that it was so nice to finally be able to open up to somebody. Somebody she knew she could trust with anything. She had never told anyone about her brothers before. She had never had anyone to actually tell. Brian wouldn't have cared. And she never trusted him enough to tell him. He probably already knew. No one actually knew who shot Cameron though, considering it was just a random drive-by. But it was probably a good thing Mitchie never knew. It's not like it would change anything. Her little brother would still be dead no matter what.

Mitchie took a deep breath when they made it to Shane's Hummer. She wasn't ready to go back home. Not ready to face the rest of the family. She was still coming down from her emotions that had immersed her when she opened up to Shane.

"Shane, I don't wanna go home yet." She told him, putting her seatbelt on and glancing up at him.

"Okay. Where do you wanna go?" He asked.

"I don't care. Anywhere." She just wanted to be alone with him. It didn't matter where the hell they were.

He thought about it for a moment. "I know just the place." He told her with a smile before starting his car and pulling out onto the road.

Mitchie had no idea where he was going, but didn't ask. She didn't care either way. As long as it wasn't home. She didn't know why she was so against it at the moment, maybe she just wanted to be alone with Shane, which was perfectly reasonable. And she didn't want to have to hide her thing with Shane from Denise, which was obviously what they would be doing if they had to go home. Denise was bound to get suspicious about why she and Shane were spending so much time together, especially considering their age difference. Denise wasn't stupid. If it went on long enough, she might be able to put the pieces together on why Shane broke up with Rachel. Mitchie wasn't looking forward to that happening, because she had no idea how Denise would react.

They weren't driving for very long, but when they finally parked, Mitchie looked at the windshield and her eyes widened. He had driven them to some cliff that overlooked the entire city. Mitchie had never seen anything like it before. It was gorgeous and breathtaking.

"So, what do ya think?" Shane asked, looking at her.

Mitchie smiled and looked back at him. "It's gorgeous. How'd you find this place?"

He shrugged. "My dad took us here one time, and it's kind of been one of my favorite places ever since. I come here sometimes when I need to get away. Which is why I brought you here. I figured you needed to get away for a little while. Even if you are stuck with me." He grinned, teasing.

Mitchie laughed and looked at him. "Maybe I like being stuck with you." She smirked and unbuckled her seatbelt so she could scoot closer to him.

"Oh yeah?" He smirked back, unbuckling his seatbelt as well. "Prove it." He challenged.

Mitchie's smirk broadened and she immediately leaned in closer to him and cupped her hand around the back of Shane's neck so she could pull his lips down to hers. It was soft and sweet at first, but Mitchie quickly got tired of that and immediately pushed her tongue into his mouth. She could feel and hear his moan as she did so. He had his arms wrapped around her in an instant and tugged her as close to him as she could get.

"Mitchie," He moaned as he pulled away and immediately began leaving wet kisses down her jaw line and neck. Mitchie gasped at the contact and ran her hands through his hair, trying to get as close to him as physically possible, but it still didn't seem close enough. She wanted him. She physically ached for him. She had never felt so emotionally close to someone as she had to Shane when she opened up to him about her brothers. Now she wanted to be that close to him physically. She needed him and she wouldn't stop until she had him.

"Shane, backseat." She gasped out, and they somehow managed to find their way into the spacious backseat of the car, Mitchie laying down on the seats and Shane propped on top of her, their lips attacking each others and hands wandering over everything they could touch. It wasn't long before Mitchie was tugging at Shane's t-shirt. He obliged and let her pull the fabric over his head where she tossed it on the floorboard. She wasted no time in letting her hands roam over the skin of his torso, so smooth and so much hard muscle that Mitchie wanted to feel all around her.

Her shirt was the next thing to come off, and before either of them knew it, all clothes were shed and Mitchie felt Shane moving inside of her and touching her in ways that made her eyes roll to the back of her head. He felt incredible, his body was perfect and he had the perfect muscles. He had great hands and he knew exactly how to use them. He was so intoxicating, and it felt so perfect.

It was nearly an hour later when they were finally done. Mitchie gasped as Shane collapsed on top of her, resting his head on her chest. Her chest heaved, still coming down from the high that Shane had put her on. She had had sex before, obviously, mainly with Brian, but it had never been as amazing as sex with Shane.

She had her arms wrapped tightly around him, not wanting to let him go. They were both sweating and the air in the Hummer was ridiculously humid, but Mitchie didn't care. She just wanted to feel Shane for as long as possible. Neither of them said anything, just trying to get their breathing back under control and trying to make sense of what had just happened between them.

She ran a hand through his hair that was damp with sweat, and he left soft kisses against her skin.

After awhile they were both able to calm down, but neither of them moved. It got cooler but they didn't care. They still didn't talk, just held each other not wanting to ruin the comfortable silence that immersed them.

A few moments later, Shane was the first one to speak. "You have so many scars." He pointed out, his voice rough and hoarse from not using it for awhile. To accompany his words, his fingers gently ran across some of the scars that marred her chest and stomach. "Is there a story behind them?"

Mitchie let out a short, dry chuckle. "Probably. But there's a chance that I can remember hardly any of them."

"Are they from you getting shot?" His voice caught in his throat as he asked this, as if he didn't want to hear the answe. Was too afraid to hear about how many times she had been hurt when she was in Baltimore. But he was curious.

"Most of them probably. The others might be from getting knifed." Shane's breath caught again as she said that.

"When you were shot in the drive-by, right before you came here. Was it just your shoulder that got shot?" He asked.

Mitchie sighed. "No. I was shot in my chest, and another one in my stomach that caught my lung."

Shane's head shot up so he could look at her. When she made eye contact, she could see that he was shocked and terrified at this new information. "It was that bad?" He asked breathlessly, not standing being able to hardly stand the thought of her getting shot that bad. "I mean, getting shot like that, you could have..."

"Died?" Shane flinched at the word, and the thought of it happening to her. "I thought I was dead. When I hit the ground I thought it was over. You know what the bad part was though?" Shane shook his head, urging her to continue, although not sure if he wanted the answer or not. "The bad part was that I hoped it would end. Easy way out."

Shane shook his head at that. Couldn't believe that she hated her life so much that she hoped she would die. It was heartbreaking. "Mitchie," He sighed, almost feeling tears well up in his eyes. He couldn't stand that she had been through all that. That she had seen so much of the bad things that the world had to offer. That she had to grow up in the middle of all of that. No one deserved that. No one. Especially Mitchie. Shane sighed and gently pressed his lips on top of hers.

Before anything else could happen or be said, Shane's phone went off. He sighed and reluctantly pulled away from Mitchie so he could search for his phone that was somewhere on the floorboard of his car. When he did, he cursed silently and answered.

Mitchie didn't pay any attention to what he was saying to the other person. She was just focusing on him. And how it was so easy to open up to him and tell him about what had gone on in her life. She knew it scared him to know what she had been through, she could see it in his eyes that he hated everything that had happened to her. But it just told her that he cared enough to be scared for her. That's all she had ever wanted was for someone to care about her, and now she finally had that. She didn't want to let it go. Didn't want to let Shane go.

Shane hung up the phone and sighed. "That was my mom. Says when need to get back to the house. It's getting late."

Mitchie scowled, making Shane grin and lean down to kiss her again. "Don't worry, this won't be our last time coming out here." He laughed softly and kissed her one more time.

Mitchie would most definitely make sure that it wasn't their last time.

By the time they got home, it was nearly nine-thirty in the evening, and everyone was still up. They greeted Shane and Mitchie with smiles when they walked in the house. Except for Nate, who greeted them with a curious glance that had Mitchie looking elsewhere trying to act as if it had just been an innocent outing with Shane. She didn't any one of the Gray's figuring out what was going on between her and Shane. None of them were idiots, and it would take some doing to make sure that no one suspected anything.

So without saying a word to anybody, she made her way upstairs and to her room where she shut the door behind her and collapsed on her bed.

She was already getting extremely attached to Shane, and she wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing yet. She hoped it was a good thing, because she trusted him, and she had told him basically her life story, a story which she had never told anybody before. And she didn't plan on telling anyone else anytime soon. Shane was the only person who needed to know, and for the moment he was only person who would know. She had never felt so intensely about someone before. Someone she had an instant connection with, it had just never happened to her. The only person she had ever really been with was Brian, so it's not like she had a lot of experience with it. But she didn't care what the hell it was about Shane, she was just glad she had him now. And that was something that she obviously didn't say very often about anybody. But she felt that way about all the Gray's. If she ever needed anyone to protect her, the Gray's would, no questions asked. And she felt safer knowing that than she ever had about Brian's gang. She wasn't sure what to think of that either.

A soft knock on the door broke her from her thoughts and she lifted her head when she heard the door open and Nate step inside, smiling softly at her.

"Hey," Was all he said in greeting as he shut the door behind him and came into her room. "So, what were you and Shane doing?"

Mitchie narrowed her eyes. She knew he was suspicious, the look he gave them gave it away. Now she was going to have to get him away from that. She could do that. She could very easily do that.

"We just went out and got food."

Nate's eyebrows scrunched. "But you two were gone for the whole afternoon." He pointed out.

"So?" She asked indifferently, praying that he would just give up on it.

"That's kind of a long time to just eat."

"What's your point?"

"What else were you doing?"

"Does it matter?"

"Well, no. But I'm just curious."

"No need to be." She told him, crossing her arms over her chest as she continued to lay on her bed. She wanted him to get off the subject. There was no way in hell she was going to admit that there was something going on between her and Shane, because if she told somebody, it would go back to his parents, and she did not want to see their reactions if they found out about what her and Shane were doing. Obviously they couldn't hide it forever, but Mitchie was going to hide it for as long as she possibly could, that was for sure. She was going to keep seeing Shane no matter what anybody said, but it's easier just to avoid the drama altogether.

"Alright. Whatever." Nate finally said, but Mitchie could still hear the curiosity in his voice. That much was obvious, but at least he wasn't going to push about it anymore. That was the last thing she needed. And she didn't like being irritated at Nate. He was really sweet, but he was just too curious for his own good and she wasn't thrilled at that.

"Now, do you mind? I kinda wanna be alone for a little while." Nate blushed and nodded his head before leaving, making Mitchie sigh in relief. It was gonna be hard hiding her and Shane, but she just couldn't stand the thought of his mom banning them from being together. That would just piss Mitchie off and she really didn't want to be pissed off at the Gray's. They were too nice.

She chose not to worry about it at the moment. That if someone did ever find out about it, they'd worry about it then. No use in freaking about it now.

With a sigh, she reached for her phone, realizing she had forgotten it when she went out with Shane, and her stomach dropped when she saw that she had several missed calls from the same person. Brian.

"Shit." She cursed, knowing that it wasn't good when she missed a call from Brian. Especially when there were several of them. He must be pissed now. But at least it might get her point across that she really didn't want to go back to Baltimore. Maybe he'd get the hint. She sure as hell wasn't going to call him back. That would just lead to an unnecessary confrontation between her and him. And she didn't want Brian to be pissed at her. Which he probably already was, but she didn't want to hear about it. She deleted all the missed calls and tried to forget about it. Which was hard to do, but there was no need in worrying about it. There was no way Brian was going to be able to find her. His connections weren't that good. There was just absolutely no way.

The next day at school as she was getting ready to meet Nate and leave, Mitchie was approached by that stupid jock, Jordan, who had tried to hit on her during math on her first day. She was standing at her locker, scowling as she shoved books into her backpack. She really didn't like having a locker, but at least she didn't have to carry around her heavy ass books all fucking day. When she shut her locker, she came face to face with Jordan, who was leaning his shoulder against the locker next to hers with that damn smirk on his face.

"What?" She demanded, sick of seeing his face. He just smirked wider, and Mitchie wondered what the hell his problem was. She made it very known that she hated his guts, and would happily beat the living shit out of him. He was just a douche, and she wanted nothing to do with him.

"I was just wondering what you're doing tomorrow night." Tomorrow night was Friday, and she planned to spend it with Shane, and not some creep who couldn't take a hint.

"What business is that of yours?"

He was unfazed. "I just wanted to see if you wanted to hang out or something. Maybe catch a movie."

Mitchie rolled her eyes. "I could probably catch a movie," His smirk widened. "But it sure as hell won't be with you." She finished with a smirk when he frowned.

She began walking away from him, but he regained his composure and continued to follow her. "Come on, why don't you wanna go on a date with me?"

She rolled her eyes again. "Because you irritate the hell out of me."

"But you hardly know me."

"And I really want it to stay that way." She snapped, stepping outside of the school and immediately began searching for Nate who promised to meet her outside. She kept walking as she searched, trying to get away from Jordan.

"Come on, what harm can one date do?"

"You're quickly going to find out what harm I can do to you if you don't get the hell away from me." She snapped and tried to walk faster, but was stopped when Jordan abruptly pulled on her arm and tugged her back to him.

"Damn it, just go on one date with me."

"If you don't get your damn hand off of me, I swear to God I'll-"

"Hey!" Mitchie was cut off when she heard a voice come from closely next to them, and when she turned her head, she was surprised to see Shane making his way over to them, a glare set on Jordan's hand which was still gripping her arm. "What the hell do you think your doing?" He demanded, glaring hard at Jordan, who finally released his grip on Mitchie's arm and backed off when he saw the look that Shane was nailing him with.

"I'm just trying to talk Mitchie here into going out on a date with me. No big deal." He stuck his hands in his pockets, trying to act nonchalant, even when Shane's glare grew deadly.

"She's not interested." He hissed, making Jordan raise his eyebrows.

"I don't think that's for you to decide, man." Jordan shot back, and Shane took a step dangerously close to Jordan. Shane was taller than Jordan, and it had Jordan backing off just a step, intimidated by Shane who looked like he was ready to kill.

"Listen to me. Stay the hell away from Mitchie." He snapped. Jordan finally seemed to get the hint. He backed off.

"Fine. Whatever, dude. She's not worth this anyway." Shane took another step, looking like he wanted to beat the living crap out of Jordan. For whatever reason, Mitchie grabbed his arm and stopped him from advancing any further.

When Jordan finally turned and stalked off, Mitchie laughed, and Shane shot an incredulous look at Mitchie. "What's so funny?"

"Jealous much, Shane?" His eyes narrowed at her, but her laughter had him softening and eventually laughing along with her.

"I can't help it. If you saw the way that guy was looking at you, you'd be pissed too."

"If? Shane if you hadn't interrupted me, I would have kicked that losers ass." She smirked, and Shane laughed again. "What are you doing here anyways?"

"Thought I'd pick you up and we can hang out a little bit. I already ran into Nate and told him to go home. So he's gone, so you have pretty much no other choice but to ride with me."

"Ya know, I could always walk home."

"Are you going to?"

"No, but I'm just saying it's an option."

Shane laughed and shook his head, wrapping his arm around her and leaning down to kiss her. "Let's go, I hate being at this school."

"At least you don't have to spend your whole fucking day here anymore."

"Good point." He grinned and began leading her to his car.

"By the way, you should get jealous more often. It was really kind of hot." Shane just responded by laughing and shaking hs head, placing another kiss on the side of her head making warmth spread throughout Mitchie's body. All she could think about was how good her life was at the moment. She just hoped it would stay that way.

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