Chapter Nine

"You want something to eat?"

I was staring out of the window of the Blue Point Diner when Ace elbowed me and nodded at Fran, the waitress. She was poised at the ready with her pen and notebook and I realised everyone had ordered but me.

"Huh?"

"Food? You want any?" Ace's voice hardened and I looked up to see Eyeball's latest chick Carrie giggling my way. Eyeball was smirking too. I looked back at Ace and shook my head.

"No, I'm good."

"Suit your fucking self." Ace nodded dismissively at Fran until she walked off, but not without giving me a sympathetic look. I sighed.

"You got somewhere else you wanna be?" Ace lowered his voice, his ice blue eyes boring into mine before I shook my head. "'Cause you've seemed bored as shit all day."

It wasn't that I was bored. It was Saturday and I had stayed over at Ace's the night before. He'd had the same pissed off attitude since I'd got there yesterday but I guessed I was only noticing this now.

"I just got stuff on my mind," I shrugged. That was the truth. I'd been homeless for less than a week and it still stung every time I thought of my mother telling me to leave.

Eyeball started up talking about a car he wanted to buy while Ace told him he was an idiot who could barely afford to run a bicycle. Carrie watched Eyeball's face excitedly, not even seeming to notice that Ace was blatantly insulting him. Eyeball was used to it, but Carrie was new to our crowd. I guessed she was another Cobra groupie, just happy to be with the gang's first lieutenant.

I guess I was watching the door when Chris came in. He was carrying a backpack and he looked tired. Our eyes locked across the diner and I saw him hesitate in the doorway. The place was crowded it being a Saturday and the only table that was free was two away from ours. After a moment's hesitation, Chris headed for the empty table.

"What are you looking at, faggot?"

It was Ace's voice that was directed at Chris and I glanced up sharply.

Chris' attention went from Ace to me and back to Ace again before he decided he wasn't going to answer. He passed us by and put his backpack down on a chair at the empty table.

"What the hell is your problem?" I snapped at Ace. "What'd he ever do to you?"

"So now you're listening when I talk?" Ace leaned back in his seat, his arm going across the back of the booth and his gaze burning into me. "You wanna side with faggots over me? Hey Eyeball, I think Nina's got a thing for your faggot brother."

Eyeball and Carrie laughed and I straightened up and narrowed my eyes at Ace. I could feel my temper rising and not just over the way he was talking about Chris. He hadn't shown me an ounce of sympathy since my Mom kicked my ass out on the street.

"You're being a fucking bully, Ace, and Gordie's my best friend-"

"Yeah, Lachance, not Chambers. You never had a problem with anything I said to him before."

I could feel a blush rising in my cheeks and as I looked towards Chris' table, I could see he had started unpacking some books from his bag. He'd obviously caught wind of our conversation or maybe just recognised from our body language that something was going on because he had paused, one hand on his pile of books, his eyes in our direction.

Ace was right. I had never defended Chris before. Ace always had a comment for him and when Chris said something back, he was pursued and usually pummelled by a pack of Cobra's. Once they'd even held him over a railway bridge and threatened to throw him off while I had stood by and watched. I felt ridiculously ashamed by the thought and worse yet when I thought of the fact that Gordie had never called me out on it. Which only meant one thing. Chris had never told.

"Well, maybe I'm sick of watching you play God all the time!"

I said it way louder than I needed to. I could feel a dozen eyes on me and suddenly all I wanted was to get away from there.

"Move, I'm leaving." I stood up but Ace's hand clamped down on my arm, yanking me back into my seat.

"You ain't going nowhere."

"Let her go."

I looked up to see Chris standing calmly by Ace's side. I saw Ace's eyes come up slowly, coolly, and settle on Chris' face.

"Get out of here, Chris. This is none of your fucking business," Eyeball said.

Still, Chris stayed where he was.

"Chambers, you got two seconds to get the fuck out of here before I make you wish you were never born."

Ace's threat didn't deter Chris and I felt almost frozen as Ace started to rise.

"Merrill." Fran was suddenly standing between Chris and Ace, her arms folded. "Let her up. Now."

Ace considered this for a second before letting go of my arm. I snatched it away and scrambled over him to get out of the booth. I was almost at the door when I heard Fran yell at Ace to stay in his seat before she called the cops.

The fresh air was a balm to my skin. I walked quickly across the parking lot before breaking into a run, my eyes streaming, my breath ragged. Why couldn't Ace understand I was upset? Why couldn't he see that this week had been horrible for me?

I heard the footsteps behind me but didn't slow down. I didn't even look back until someone caught my arm and tried to pull me to a stop.

"Get off of me!"

"Whoah!" I knew the voice wasn't Ace when the hand released me. I looked up to see Chris looking at me, his brow furrowed in concern. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you."

I wiped my face with my sleeve.

"You didn't."

He looked awkward, ramming his hands into his pockets before he looked at me.

"Er, you uh- didn't have to do that, you know."

"Do what?" I knew what he was referring to but felt as awkward as he looked.

"You know, stick up for me. I'm a big boy, I can take care of myself."

I pulled my sleeves over my cold fingers and looked down at my feet.

"Listen, Chris, about before, you know, all the times that Ace and the Cobra's-" I was gesturing with my hands and stumbling over my words.

"It's okay."

"No, it's not-" I put my hands to my head and he caught my arms gently, prying them away from my face.

"Yeah, it is, Nina. It's just the way things are right now. My Dad gets to beat the tar out of me, the Cobra's get to give me shit every week, the teachers automatically give me a hard time. That's what life is like right now. But it won't be forever."

"It shouldn't be at all!"

I hated the way he was so accepting of everything. I'd been walking around all week feeling cursed by my turn of bad luck but Chris accepted his shitty hand without resistance. Chris ignored my indignation and instead of responding to it, cocked his head sideways.

"Where you going?"

"I-uh-" I didn't actually know. Gordie was helping his Mom in town today but his Dad was still hanging around the house which left the Lachance place out of the equation.

"Wanna come hang out at the tree house?"

888

Twenty minutes later, I was lying on my stomach with my arms folded underneath my chin. I hadn't been to the tree house in years and now we were bigger, the space was cramped and uncomfortable.

"You know, this isn't exactly what I had in mind…"

Chris looked up from his books.

"You got a better offer? I got studying to do if I wanna pass Maloney's math class. Come to think of it, you're in that class too. Don't you think you better crack a book?"

"What's the point? I'm thinking of dropping out anyhow."

Chris finally tore his eyes away from the page to glare at me.

"That's the stupidest thing I ever heard."

"What's stupid about it? I need to make some money. Might look into getting a job, getting my own place. I ain't got time to study."

"You think I got time to study? I work twenty four hours a week, share a room with four other people and my Dad is drunk and yelling five days out of seven."

"Then why bother?"

"'Cause this-" he pointed patiently at his books "-is my ticket out of here. Mine and yours. And if we gotta be broke and tired for a while to earn that ticket then so be it."

I looked at him doubtfully before he tore some pages out of his notebook and held out a pen. "Here, come on, you got something better to do?"

I didn't. I didn't really get the math but Chris explained it until I did. Once I was settled beside him the two of us worked diligently for a good hour until the sun stretched it's rays through the crooked windows and onto the floor of the old treehouse.

When I finally finished the math homework I stretched out beside Chris and groaned.

"My hand hurts. Enough already."

Chris, who was now reading his history book, grinned at me.

"Alright, alright, let's take a break then, you slacker."

"Maybe you're just a swat," I replied. "A boring uninteresting book nerd."

"Oh yeah?" His blue eyes met mine in a challenge. "Wanna bet on that?"

888

Twenty minutes later we were on the banks of the bubbling McKenzie River and Chris was pulling an old boat out of my overgrown bushes.

"What in the world are you doing?"

"Wanna come for a ride?" Chris pulled off his jacket and tossed it towards the bushes.

My eyes went from the battered old boat to the volatile river and I shook my head.

"You're out of your mind. You know where the river leads, right?"

"Mckenzie Falls. That's the fun part." Chris had the nose of the boat in the river by now and was pulling out some oars from the bottom of the boat. He looked back at me with a wicked and uncharacteristic smile on his face. "You coming?"

I thought about it for just a few seconds before I shrugged off my jacket, tossed it aside and strode over to him.

"Why not?"

I could think of plenty of reasons as to why not once we were in the water. We were tossed and spun endlessly, the water spraying up from all directions as we yelled over the noise of the river.

"You done this before?"

"Once," Chris shouted. "Me, Gordie, Teddy and Vern."

"You persuaded Gordie to do this?" I squealed.

"Sure. He didn't want to pussy out and he was so busy helping Teddy pin Vern in the boat I think he forgot to be scared for himself."

I let out a short laugh at that, before the water tossed us more defiantly than before and Chris struggled with the oar to keep the boat upright.

"Get ready!" He yelled at me. "One, two, three!"

The last word was lost beneath the roar of the water. I felt as though I went deaf as we pitched forward, my stomach squelching from the sheer drop of the fall. I let out an undignified scream before I was tossed from the boat and into the icy cold water.

It felt as though I were trying to break the surface for a long time and when I finally did, my lungs screamed desperately for air. I trod water frantically, scanning the banks for the closest route out of the water and was horrified to see the boat had smashed in two, both it's front and rear end floating troubling in opposite directions.

Chris. Shit.

"Chris?" My voice was shaken as I swam for dry land, all the while hoping to see him in the water. But by the time I had pulled myself clear there was still no sign.

"Chambers? Chris?" I was shaking from the cold but a desperate fear was cloaking me too. What if Chris hadn't surfaced? What if he had't been clear of the boat when it smashed in two?

If anything had happened to him it would be all my fault for accusing him of being dull.

"Chris?" I cupped my hands around my mouth and yelled across the water. My voice echoed back to me, bouncing off of the rocks and trees.

"You called?"

I almost jumped a foot in the air at Chris' voice behind me.

"You-you-"

He was soaking wet and trembling but he wore a big stupid grin.

"Aw, you almost looked worried." He wrung out his t shirt, lifting it above his torso to show a tanned and toned stomach.

"You jerk!" I whacked him with the flat of my hand and he jumped away laughing. I laughed too before breaking into all out cackling. The two of us fell back onto the grass, holding our sides and shaking in our wet clothes.

"So this is what you do for fun, huh Chambers?" I gave him a wry smile and he tried to play it cool for all of three seconds.

"Hell, no. That was probably the least amount of fun I've had since I last tried it. Now let's get out of here before we catch pneumonia."

888