Thanks hardyrhodescenafan1 and FreakofMMH for the great reviews!!!

Demetria looked at the necklace in shock. Her jaw actually dropped. She put her hand in front of her mouth to try to stop the sobs that threatened to flow. She looked at the necklace speechless.

"Please Dem, say something." Shannon pleaded, the silence killing him.

"O-oh m-my god S-Shannon," She said stuttering. "I don't know what to say."

"Well 'I love you too' is ideal but you don't have to say it if you don't mean it, I just needed to say it." He said wiping the tears that escaped her eyes.

"Shannon...god of course I love you too." She said in excitement.

Shannon smiled and pulled her into a kiss. When they broke apart for air, Shannon put the necklace on her.

"You have no idea how bad I wanted to hear you say that." He said after he put the necklace on her.

"I think I do." She said kissing him again.

"Hey Dem, can I talk to you?" Shannon asked turning off the music.

"Yeah sure." She said.

He lead her to the couch and sat down.

"What did you want to talk about?" She asked sitting on his lap.

"Dem, I feel like I hardly know you." He said sighing.

"What do you mean?" She asked tilting her head.

"I feel like you're hiding something from me," He said. "Actually I feel like you're hiding a lot of things from me."

"Shannon..." She said about to not answer him.

"No Dem, you know everything about me. You know about my ex-wife Crystal, and what happened with her. You know things from when I was down in the dumps, to where I shined bright," He sighed again. "I feel like you're keeping this wall up between me and the real you, and it keeps getting taller."

"Shannon, you know that's not true, and you know plenty about me." She said.

"Really Demi, do I? I mean all I know is your age, what you like and dislike, you're from Kentucky, you have a horse, and that you have four tattoos. One I can't even ask about unless you get upset. Dem, I just want to know what you're hiding. Please, trust me." He said with pleading eyes.

"Fine." She said sighing.

She got off his lap and sat next to him. They were facing each other and she tooka big breath.

"Ok well, as you knew I grew up in Kentucky. It was a small town, only a few hundred people lived in it. My family had a ranch and I LOVED working on it. I would take care of the horses, clean the stables, collect eggs from the chickens, and just have fun. My favorite thing about the ranch was definitely the horses. Especially my horse, Spot. He was my best friend. I loved riding him, I always took care of him, I made sure he was healthy. I loved him, he was my horse for about 10 years." Demi explained.

"Wow, you must of loved him." Shannon said.

"I did."

"So continue."

She smirked.

"Well I had a pretty normal life, until I turned 13. I don't know if it's karma or whatever, but ever since I turned 13, my life took a turn for the worst," She took another deep breath. "See I wasn't an only child. I had two sisters and one brother. One older sister, one younger, and my brother was my twin-"

"Was?" Shannon asked and interrupted.

Demetria gave him a look that said 'I was getting to that'.

"Sorry." He said.

"So like I said one older sister, one younger, and my brother was my twin. I never knew my older sister. My mom had her when she was 17, and she left as soon as she can. Once she was 18 she left and I never saw her again, I was only five. I don't really dwell on it so I got over it. I grew up with my sister, who is two years younger, and my twin. My brother and I were best friends and really close. When my brother and I turned 13, things started to change with him. He started coming home late, his grades starteddropping, and he started hanging out with the wrong crowd. The void between us just kept getting bigger. It went for about a year. It got much worse after our 14th birthday."

Demi stopped to choke back tears. Shannon just stayed silent.

"So yeah, we celebrated our birthday like a normal family. The night after, his friends decided to celebrate with a party of their own. Of course their idea of celebrating was more getting drunk and high. My parents let him go, but I didn't. I knew it was going to end in disaster. I tried to stop him from going out. I even told him that one of his friends was trying to make a move on me. Which was true. He just yelled that I was jealous cause I wasn't as popular. So I let him go, but before I did, I told him to be careful. I was actually in tears at that point, because he did actually hurt me," She made a bittersweet smile. "He smiled and said 'of course and I'll talk to my friend, that if he doesn't leave his sister alone that he would seriously hurt him'. Then I hugged him and said 'I love you bro' and he hugged back, kissed my hair and said 'I love you too sis' and left."

Tears started escaping her eyes. She quickly brushed them away.

"He never came home that night. I knew something was wrong as soon as he missed curfew. My parents were optimistic though. They gave him one more hour. Still he never came home. Instead, two cops showed up to the door. They just proved my suspicions," She took a breath to stop a sob. "At the party, everyone got completely wasted. There were people of all different grades throughout high school. Towards the end, a drunk senior offered to take my bother home. He was drunk too and said yes. The senior took him and took two other people home. As they were driving, they were going like 50 or 60 miles, they lost control. Somehow, the car flipped off the road. The cops found the car in a ditch. My brother and another person...died instantly," She started to cry. "The senior and other bastard, survived."

She stopped, and broke down completely.

"Oh, I'm so sorry Dem." Shannon said wrapping his arm around her.

"I-it's ok." She said calming down.

"Anyway there's more," She started, Shannon stayed silent. "After he died, I was devastated. I was never the same. Only a week after he died I did something crazy. I got my first tattoo and I was only 14." She said grinning.

"The one on your hip?" Shannon asked, though knowing the answer.

Demetria nodded. She lifted up her shirt and pulled down her pants to expose her hip. There was the tattoo, a rose, under it the name 'Damion', and under that the date 'Octopber 15, 1982-October 16 1996'.

"That's the year he was born and when he died. So I'll never forget."Said looking at the tattoo.

"I don't think you'll ever, truly forget, but it's nice that you're honoring your brother." He said intertwining their fingers.

"Yeah, my mom freaked. I tricked her into thinking she was signing a permission slip, for school. I didn't completely lie," She said giggling. "She was mad at first. She was more mad though that I lied, but the tattoo itself, she was fine."

"Well, I'm glad you trusted me enough to share that with me." Shannon said kissing her deeply.

"But wait, there's more." Demi said when they broke apart.

"Alright, I'm listening." He said.

"Around the time period when Damion died, I was dating someone. His name was Brenden. We were dating for about six months and don't worry, Damion did threaten him if he ever hurt me. So anyway, he wanted to have sex. I thought we were too young to do it, so I said no. He asked after, about, four months into dating. I guess he got fed up, cause after two months I found out he has been cheating on me. Just for sex, I mean how stupid is that. So yeah, I confronted the girl and got into a huge fight when she confirmed the rumors. I got suspended and broke up with Brenden in the same day. My mom wasn't upset, since she knew why we broke up. So yeah, that pretty much sucked." She said with her head down.

"Hey, he's an asshole for doing that." Shannon said picking her head up.

"So yeah, after that, I didn't date for a while. That was until my Junior year. There was this guy, Jose. I've known since middle school, but we really started talking during Junior year of high school. One day, after school, he asked me out. I said yes and the rest is history. We, in my opinion, were in a perfect relationship. He was so sweet and caring. He loved me for me and that's all I can ask for in a guy. Just like you, Shan," She said kissing him lightly. "So, after a year I lost my virginity to him. We were even still together after that too. He was perfect. We winded dating for two years. Unfortunately, we were going to two different colleges, so we had to break up. It was hard but we both moved on pretty well. We are still in close contact actually. He met someone at Chaplin University and they are engaged. They're supposed to marry in June." She said smiling and resting on his shoulder.

"I'm glad you guys are still close," Shannon said kissing her forehead. "And that I don't have to worry about him taking my girl."

She hit him playfully.

"So now onto Ryan." She said sadly.

Shannon shifted uncomfortably.

"I went to Boston University as an English major and joined the dance team. I know big transition, from country to city. I did really well there. The classes were good and my dance team won countless competitions. I loved it, hell I thought I would make a career out of dancing. Obviously, that didn't happen," She said grinning at the memory. "At the beginning of my Junior year of college, I met Ryan. At first we were just friends. Both hoping to make it big in the future. We told each other everything. I thought he was amazing, he even saved my life." She said quietly.

Shannon gave her a confused look.

"Well, at least I think he did. I'm still wondering if he was involved. See, I started seeing this guy for about a month. One night he walked me back to my sister house. I was in a sorority. I thought he left, but I was very wrong. I heard knocking at my door and when I was about to open it, the guy forced his way in. I told him I wasn't going to have sex with him, and I guess we were whether I like it or not. So, he forced his way inside and told me if I screamed, he'd kill me. I did what I was told. He was about to...you know, when Ryan came in. Apparently he saw the whole thing and decided to save me. After that, we became closer, and a week after we started dating. After the first semester, Ryan told me that he loved me and to run away with him. He said that he started a business in NorthCarolina and wanted me to go with him. Me, being the idiot that I am, said yes and left. My parents freaked and told me I was making a huge mistake. I told them to fuck off and let me make my own decisions. After I said that, I haven't seen my parents or my little sister again. So after two years, Ryan and I had sex. We really didn't do it that often. He got fed up, I guess, and cheated on me with my co-worker for two years. So after six so called 'great years' he decided to be an ass and cheat. So, here we are now." She finished.

"Wow, that's a lot." Shannon said taking it all in.

"Yeah, well you wanted to know." Demi said looking down her feet becoming interesting.

"And I'm glad you did," He said picking up her head, cupping her head in his hands. "I don't think of you any less, I just know more about your past and know the answers to a lot of questions. I still love you with all my heart, and I'll be damned if I let that go because of someones past."

"Oh Shannon, I love you too...so much." She said kissing him passionately.

"And we'll make love when you're ready." Shannon said when they broke apart.

"It has been a long time since someone said make love instead of sex to me." She said blushing.

"Because that's what we'll do and I promise to make it as special as possible." Shannon said still holding her face.

"Shannon, you are amazing, you know that." She said looking into his eyes.

"I try." He said grinning.

Demetria laughed and kissed him again.

Sorry for the long wait, school has been killing me.

Now to address another issue. I've been hearing of this strike going on. I honestly feel that it's stupid. I mean I write for me as well as everyone else. Yeah reviews are nice but you know they aren't everything. I write to express myself and my feelings. I don't need reviews to continue writing. I made that mistake once with my first story but I won't do it again, because after I felt guilty and regretted it. Honestly, I write for my own sanity.

Reviews are nice, they are. It's nice that people like and appreciate my writing. I don't thrive on it. I do take every review to heart though. I look a the criticism and use it to make my stories better. So if you have anything to say, say it I will consider it. If you have any ideas to make the story better, tell and I'll try to make it happen. If you already did but I didn't use it, don't take it personally. Please don't, if I hurt you in any way, I'm truly sorry. Don't be afraid to say what's on your mind, I won't go all depressed and like not write anymore. I promise.

So yeah, I think this strike is stupid and there is no way in hell I will take part in it. So I will update as soon as I can!

Luv,
MusicLuver22

P.S. If you want to get to know me better follow me on twitter, you can also talk to me on that too.
My twitter name is: dancingluver (exactly like that, the link wouldn't work, oh well)