Now for the next chapter! Thanks for reviewing, detectivezelda (just a warning of the content of Chapter 9 in Roxy's first story).

Well, I did what Roxy and Arnold had suggested. When Curly came over that night, I made it clear that we had to talk before anything.

"I can't do this." I said straight. "It's been a week of...being your girlfriend and I really can't do this. I'm not ready to be with you like this, really." That gave me the rest of the words to wrap up. "I really don't think I'm the right girl for you. I'm secretive and moody and tough. Curly, if you looked at me properly, you'd realize that I'm not really the perfect person you see. Please understand. Can't we just be friends again?"

There was a long pause. I couldn't read Curly's expression, and I wondered what he was staring at. I couldn't see through those lenses...

"Can I see your eyes?"

"Huh?" Curly finally snapped out of whatever he was thinking.

"I can't see your eyes when you're wearing those glasses." I said. "I've never seen them. Can I? Please?"

Curly paused, then he leaned up close to me, and lowered his glasses.

I was pretty surprised by what I saw. His eyes were dark, almost navy, but still just light enough to be called dark blue. But when I looked into them...I could see just about everything: Passion, unpredictability, intelligence...just everything.

I guess I'd been staring for a long time, because I was snapped out of it by Curly planting another kiss on my lips and then sitting back, with that manic smile I'd come to know.

I sighed. "Were you even listening to me?"

"Of course I was!" Curly exclaimed. "I listen to everything you say, my lovely princess, and stop putting yourself down. I never thought you were perfect in the world's perspective, but you're perfect for me. I like you the way you are."

I sighed again. "But I also said that I'm really not ready to be your girlfriend like this. I'm flattered that you like me so much, and I like being your friend, but I can't really be anything more." I was repeating something Mom suggested Lisa say when she was pursued by Springfield retard Ralph Wiggum after Lisa gave him a pity Valentine card (Dad had suggested she say things like she doesn't speak English or that she was married to the sea).

"But Steph," Curly positively whined, "You promised you'd give me two weeks as a chance. You can't just break up with me after one, you can't possibly have had enough time to know whether you want to be with me or not!" His tone was pleading, but I knew what he really meant was that I had to go through another week or be completely humiliated by those photos.

I took a deep breath, and tried thinking myself into the role. That's what actors did, after all. "You are not acting the role of Curly's girlfriend, you are being it." I told myself. "In your role, you are the one and only girl Curly would ever want. You love him back, and would do anything for him. Come on, girl, you can do this."

I pasted my best smile on and said "Of course I'm not breaking up with you now, you adorable nutcase." I knew immediately that I'd said the right thing, and I ploughed on "So what else should we do?"

Curly answered by pinning me down, yet again, and kissing me. "I could kiss you like this for all eternity." he whispered in my ear, then placing another kiss at the space below my earlobe, making me gasp.

"What..." I began.

Curly chuckled at my shock. "I've been flicking through some of the books in my parents' room. My mom was reading this story involving finding out a girl's most-"

I sat up. "Thaddeus Gammelthorpe, you are nine years old!" I exclaimed. "When I was nine, I was having prank wars with Bart and helping Lisa read music, and I certainly didn't think about boys until I was eleven, and you're sneaking stuff that could be considered erotica?"

Curly just laughed, a short burst of manic laughter. "Cool it, beautiful." he said calmly. "We're still young – of course I'm not asking that from you right now. Sure, I would love to see the fair beauty the black covers, my own Snow White," he teased. "But as you say, you're not ready for a step like that, and who am I to force a girl into something in that way?"

"I mean, you're reading that crap now?" I said.

Curly shrugged. "So what? It's no big deal. A little weird, sure, but I've known the basic facts since I was like seven. I just stop reading if I think it's getting too weird for me to read."

Maybe I shouldn't have been surprised. Maybe these kids were more mature than the ones in Springfield because of growing up in a big city. First Helga was writing poetry including the phrase "girlhood tremble", and I also found another poem that must've been written during the school play that read:

All my days have come to this,

My secret heart, spent in one kiss

And though it comes from a pretender

Not me, but Juliet's sender,

May Arnold take my kiss for tender.

At nine years old, I wouldn't have even thought of kissing a guy. Now Curly was admitting to reading explicit stuff and acting like it was nothing out of the ordinary. But then again, these two were the weirdest kids in the city – obsessive and crazy. The only difference was that Helga seemed to be aware that she wasn't exactly average.

But I couldn't think about that while I was trying to play my role. I was aware that as things happened, I was making involuntary responses, and I cursed myself. Was a nine-year-old actually able to do things that made me tingle and twitch in the best way possible?

"I knew you'd enjoy this." he whispered, and I cursed again. The kid was actually trying to get me to like this, and as much as I hated to admit it, it was working.

After Curly left that night, I sighed, hoping Roxanne would have some more ideas.

"This isn't good." Roxanne said. She was staring into space as she spoke. "What he's doing to you is just a more innocent version of what Slappy did to me, and worse, you are falling for it the way I did."

"I suppose," I sighed, "But Roxy, I'm not you. I'm not that weak little girl you were."
"But things are different." Roxanne pointed out, not taking offence (probably because it was true). "You were friends with Curly before all this happened. You helped him get over Rhonda and wanted him to be happy. Therefore, he fell for you, and now, he is trying to make you fall for him, so that you won't dump him at the end of the fortnight. You told me all about how he did that with Rhonda. But Stephanie, you know what you have to do, right?"

"Break his heart. Yes, I know." I muttered. "But Roxy, what if I can't do it? He was really getting to me tonight."

"The best advice I can give is to keep thinking about why this isn't right. Hang on to everything that's wrong about you and him."

I wanted to follow that advice. I decided, that Saturday morning, that I'd have to act while still thinking that way. I got dressed slowly, wondering if it was even possible, as I sang yet another Lily Allen song. "I don't know what's right and what's real any more, and I don't know how I'm meant to feel any more...

When do you think it'll all become clear, cause I'm being taken over by the fear..."

I seem to be using one particular singer's work as inspiration for quite a few stories I write. Emilie Autumn was a huge inspiration for Roxanne and most everything about her. Lily Allen's smart ironic lyrics feel like a good fit for Stephanie's witty blunt character. The lyrics used here were the chorus of her song "The Fear", which was actually the first Lily Allen song I ever heard – it was used at school to illustrate "hyper reality". Please review!