A/N - EEP! CRYSTALBLUU REVIEWED! Holy fucking GOD. I was in my school's library when I checked the reviews in the morning, and I nearly shrieked when I saw that she reviewed. But then again, people were doing homework, and I had to print out some stuff that was due in a couple periods. Thanks for all the reviews!

I would like everyone to remember 9/11. It was a day that changed the nation, but I was too young to understand why all the adults were flipping out that day. But now I know that it was the start of so many things, and the end of many lives.

I'm helping Denise by cooking some homemade mushroom pizza and assisting her with the spaghetti whenever she'd need the help. All she asked me to do for the spaghetti was chop up some olives. No offense to you olive lovers, but I really don't like them on pizza, spaghetti, or anything.

"Oh, thank you so much for helping me," Denise thanks me for the tenth time that night.

"Really, it's no problem," I assure her as I try flattening out the dough.

You know, my cousin Tracy works in the kitchen at Pizza Hut, and she makes a whole ton of pizza each day. I wonder how she does this stuff! I grab a rolling pin and roll it out a bit, grab it in my hands and try flattening it out by doing that rolling motion like I see that old guy doing at this pizza place and push the edges to try and form the crust.

"Wow Jenny, are you experienced with making pizza?" she asks. I quickly shake my head.

"No, no experience whatsoever. I'm just doing what I've seen pizza makers do," I laugh. Were they even called pizza makers?

"Not bad if I may say so myself," she compliments me as she pours the sauce. Cooking with Denise is pretty fun. She's so nice and warm. It's hard to picture as the kind of mom who'd neglected her kids.

"Really? Thanks so much. My cousin works at a Pizza Hut. Is there anything else that I could help with?" I ask her.

"Could you try grating the cheese?" she says as she stirs the spaghetti. I grab the huge hunk of cheese and chop it up into more manageable pieces. I finished grating all of it within ten minutes. Damn, my hands are hurting now. She sprinkles the cheese on the pizza and spreads the chopped mushrooms on it before popping it in the pre-heated oven.

"So, anything else?" I ask her, looking around the huge kitchen to see if there was any other work to be done.

"Nope, you can go have fun with the boys now," she dismisses me. I smile before running up the steps by the garage and head to Shane's room. I feel bad deserting Nate, and Jason was out getting Nicole to come to this dinner.

"Wow, what happened?" Shane asks when I plop down on his bed beside him.

"I was helping your mom a bit around the kitchen, nothing much really," I say before putting my hands behind my head and laying down. I just noticed that I'm pretty tired.

"You look really exhausted," he points out.

"Well, I'm not that tired really. Tonight's strange. Dinner with the family. Nicole being introduced to your parents, and I'm the girl that your dad thinks is dating Nate," I say before giggling a bit.

"Oh yeah, that kid," he repeats one of his quotes from earlier.

"What did you exactly mean by 'kid' since he's already fifteen?" I ask.

"The youngster's a virgin, Jenny. All virgins are considered kids," he says.

"Geez, whores like you make us innocent ones feel bad," I pout, trying to stifle my laughter.

"I am so not a whore!"

"Psh, keep telling yourself that and maybe one person would believe it," I say, putting my hand into the "loser" sign.

"Like I said, I'm not a whore," he protests.

"And exactly how many girls have you slept with, huh?" I question him, purposely sounding arrogant.

"Hmm, those college parties I went to last year got me about fifteen," he says, his eyes drifting off into space.

"Say what?" I ask in my ghetto voice.

"Yeah, those parties were the craziest. I snuck in and a bunch of college chicks were throwing themselves at me. Those were the days," he sighs.

"How'd you go from being suicidal to acting like a manwhore again?" I ask him, seriously amazed. Is he bipolar?

"We need to talk. Seriously talk," he gets serious.

"Yeah, we do. We never finished that conversation we had."

"Uh, how do I start this.. Oh yeah. That kiss. Is Nate a good kisser?" Don't tell me he just asked me that. I thought he was being SERIOUS.

"Uh, I don't know. It was so short, and the circumstances had me focusing on other things," I tilt my head in confusion.

"I bet I'm a better kisser," he says, looking smug.

"I'm pretty sure you are. Whores are supposed to be, right?" Weren't we supposed to be having a serious conversation?

"You know, I'm not proud of being a manwhore."

"You can always change, you know?" I remind him.

"Good point, it's been an entire month since I last got laid," he sighs again.

"Okay.. I don't want to know about that shit, but alrighty then."

"What's it like to be completely innocent?" he asks me.

"Shane, I'm not completely 'innocent' as you say I am. Well, maybe I am, but I'm a girl who's obsessed with South Park and Family Guy. I.. uh.. I read mangas with nude pictures when I was ten. I read the book Go Ask Alice when I was eleven.." I stall, trying to think of petty things to say that wouldn't make me seem so sugar coated.

"Yeah, that still means you're innocent. Just because you like those shows, or read that stuff, you haven't done anything like that. It's weird talking to you. I mean, even Nicole's less innocent than you. You mentioned something about a make-out session at the after party from the game. It's like you're untouchable."

"I'm not untouchable," I disagree with him.

"What I'm trying to say is simple. Guys like me are totally fine with fucking other whores, but when it comes to even befriending one of those innocent types, it's hard to deal with."

"I still don't get why it'd be hard to deal with."

"Jenny, you scare me. You really do. I've never been so serious about any girl before, but the fact that you're untouched scares me, okay? I'm afraid to even be near you," he says.

"Please, don't be afraid of that. It's nothing big," I assure him.

"Yes, it is. I sometimes think that Nate would be better for you since he's not a whore."

"No, don't ever think like that!" I angrily yell at him. "That shouldn't affect our feelings for each other. If I'm willing to leave that bit aside, so should you."

"It's not that easy to leave all that behind!" he gets up and screams. "I've destroyed my morals, so I thought that I'd might as well just kill myself. To get rid of all the pain of not being loved, and to forget about you."

Shane wanted to forget about me? I thought that we were close, I thought we had something. Why would he want to forget something like that? "Don't be like that," I beg him.

"Please, don't leave me hanging anymore. Don't leave me guessing who you're going to pick to end up with. Don't give me false hope."

He starts pacing across his room, his mind obviously thinking up something. After about a minute, he finally halts in his tracks and gets a dumbfound expression on his face. He turns to me with a huge grin.

"I just got an awesome idea!" he exclaims. "Okay, how about you go on a date with Nate, then a date with me, and then you get to crush his heart?!"

"Uh, excuse me? This isn't some love game show on VH1 or MTV. This is reality," I remind him.

"You have conflicted feelings. Both me and Nate are totally head over heels for you, so you should experience both of us before choosing," he says, still grinning. What is he, bipolar?

"Head over heels?" I ask.

"No, not even. Heels over head!"

"Ooh, I love that song! Still, this isn't some show like Rock of Love, Flavor of Love, I Love New York, the Bachelor, or A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila," I point out. "And besides, those shows end up in tragedy."

"What are you trying to say?" he sounds offended.

"We should just let this take its natural course, okay?" I suggest.

"Can we be friends with benefits then?" he asks. I smack his arm.

"What the fuck?! NO!" I yell.

"Gosh, I was just kidding. Don't you have a sense of humor?"

XoLAGOHxO

"Wow, this pizza's really good," Nicole says after taking a bite. She came right when Shane and I had our little argument.

"Yum, and I grated the cheese!" I playfully say.

"Yes, Jenny. You are the greatest cheese grater in the entire universe," Nicole jokes before grabbing another bite. We just had our dinner, and I guess the pizza was extra. Everybody's still a little bit hungry. The spaghetti was awesome, but I still didn't like the olives. I feel her put some cheese on my face.

"Dude, what the heck?! You don't just put melted cheese on my face!" I yell before running to the kitchen to wash my face. I wince when I touch my left cheek. It still hurts, but not as much. Oh wait, I just washed off the make-up! And I left the foundation in Jason's car. Great, what do I do now? Put flour on my face? Wait, no, that's too messy. I see Shane walk in the kitchen and immediately turn myself facing opposite from him. He really doesn't need to see the bruise.

"Hey, is everything okay?" he asks.

"Yeah, it is. Just go back to the guys," I tell him.

"Aren't you gonna come along?" I can hear him walking up to me.

"Nah, I'll just look at.. The appliances!" I say, pretending to look at their electric stove.

"Yeah, nice try. Come on, it's nearly eight. Shouldn't you be heading home?"

"Jason! Can you drive me home?!" I yell from my position. I hear footsteps running towards where I was standing. One look at my face and he goes into his hectic mode.

"Shane, you can go upstairs now, I'll just drive her home," Jason says, dragging me towards the living room, hiding my face.

"Okay guys, what's going on?" Shane asks us.

"Nothing, I'm just gonna head home," I say. With my luck, I trip and fall down flat on my ass on the cold tile floor. I look up to see Shane standing over me, horror evident in his eyes.

"Who did this to you?"

"Shane, you should just let her get home," Jason tries restraining Shane. Shane shrugs him off before leaning down to my level.

"Who hurt you?"

"Nobody did, okay? I just ran into a door," I use my old lie.

"No, it's obvious that somebody punched you. I'm gonna kill them," he threatens.

"It was me," Nate says, appearing out of nowhere. Why would he just admit to it?

"What are you talking about?" Shane asks him.

"You know how I feel about her, and you're still trying to get with her. And out of blind anger, I accidentally hurt her," Nate explains. I've already forgiven him, of course, but hearing all of that again still scares me.

"That's not a fucking accident!" Shane yells. "You don't hit a girl like that and just call it an accident!"

"Well you slapped Angela! And it was on purpose, too," Nate tries arguing. Those were two different situations!

"No, I hate Angela, and after what she put me through all these years, she deserved it. You on the other hand had no right! You say that you really like her, that she's extremely special to you. You don't do that to oyur special girl!" Shane continues raising his voice.

But before Nate could reply, Shane walked up to him and punched him square in the jaw. Nate falls back, blood already dripping from his mouth. I see Shane about to kick him, and I dash in, protecting Nate from the kick. Next thing I know, I feel a sharp pain at the back of my head. And within seconds, I'm having my suicide nightmares all over again.

A/N - Damn, a cliffy. Review and I'll update sooner!