To stand by him

it's two am in the morning. i am very tiered but i finally got the chapter done and now i am going to sleep because I'm so tiered i feel like crying.

enjoy :)

Disclaimer: i own nothing but new characters.

ANNA POV

"How the hell do you get up there?" Chris asked standing below my window staring up at it.

"I climb the tree." I answered gesturing to it.

"That tree ain't meant for climbing."

"Think I don't know that?" I walked to the other side and showed him the carved in foot holes.

"How many times have you been caught?" he asked placing a hand on the bark and leaning against it.

"a couple, most when I was younger but my dad has a schedule now so I work around it."

"What time does he get home today?" he asked.

"Uh late." I answered. "So tell me how this town works." I said. He looked at me confused, I didn't blame him it was random question, I just didn't want any awkward silence since I knew he wasn't leaving any time soon.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean you pegged me as a "view" kid right away, is the town split or something?"

he took a deep breath and thought about it for a minute.

"Kind of. The view is where the rich kids live, the rest is the poor kids."

"Okay."

"We don't get along too well with view kids, the girls mostly avoid each other but the guys get into fights quite often."

"Seriously?"
"It's been like this forever."

"Why?"

"Pride I guess. We have to go to the same school, compete in sports with them, compete with grades. The view kids are big braggers so it's up to us to humble them." he leaned closer to me so our faces were only a few inches away.

"Which side are you on?" he whispered then pulled away.

"I live on the view."

"But you sure as hell don't act like you do. Or dress like it."

"Well I guess I'm like you." I said shrugging he smirked.

"Because you want to be with me?"

"No I don't have any other friends." he laughed and pushed off of the tree.

"Well a little warning, you live on the view, if you want to hang with us I suggest that you don't bring up that you live here, to them or to view kids." he said. I raised my eyebrow in question. "Just trust me okay?"

"Alright fine." I sighed shoving my hands into my pockets. He smiled with a broad grin. The kind that made me think that he told me that for some kind of reason and he was happy with my answer.

"Good, then I think I can take you to meet some people then, you know make some more friends."

"No! No more Parties Chris!" I said holding my hands up and backing away.

"It's not a party, its just a fun hangout." I didn't answer just gave him a doubtful look. "I'm serious come on, nothing bad will happen I promise. Besides you should get to know some of the other kids." I sighed.

"Chris I don't really want-" he stepped closer and took both my hands into his holding them firmly.

"Please?" he asked looking deep into my eyes.

"No.' I was shocked by my answer just as much as he was. I thought for sure I was going to say yes.

"You don't like me do you?" he asked letting go of my hands, his voice even but pained.

"No it's not that-i do, I just. . . . I don't know Chris I was beaten last night, and I don't know my dad and everything- I do like you, you're nice and all."

"Good then I'll be here at seven." he said his smile returning.

"What no I never said I would go." I said grabbing his shoulder to stop him from walking away.

"Well I just thought since you like me it'd be like our second date."

"Second date?" I asked.

"yeah this was our first.'

"If today was your idea of a date its no wonder you don't have a girlfriend."

"yet." he smirked at me.

"Why do you insist on pissing me off?" I asked pulling my hand away from him by throwing them in the air in frustration.

"Cause it's funny." he smiled. "Think of it this way, if you come tonight you might meet someone you can spend your time with other then me."

"I dont want to spend time with you! You just somehow trick me into it." this made him smile brighter.

"so then you know that I'm going to trick you into coming tonight too so you might as well say yes." he laughed. I glared at him and shook my head.

'I'm not going." As much as I liked to talk to him when he wasn't such a smartass, he was driving me insane.

"I respect your choice." for a second I thought he was going to leave and just let me be alone but then he continued.

"I'll be here at seven, if you don't come out, I'm gonna serenade you. . . outside your window. . . at 1 in the morning. . . loudly. . . for all the neighborhood to hear." my eyes widened in fear and anger.

"Chris you can't do that my dad will be home by then."
"It'll be great to meet him." he said the smirk still present on his face. I crossed my arms and tried to look intimidating, failing since I was beat up and he was taller and bigger then me.

"You don't have the nerve." I challenged

"I once spent two days following railroad tracks to look for a dead body. I've got nothing but nerve." he replied right back.

"You did what?"

"Long story. . . I'll tell you tonight."

then he turned and left.

What just happened?

I heard the doorbell ringing and I ran down stairs, my hair flying behind me. When I opened to door Chris was standing there with flowers. . . that looked to be dug up from the ground.

"Did you ran sack our garden?" I asked as he handed me the flowers roots covered in dirt and everything.

"No, I stopped by Ricky Qesto's house." he smiled.

"View kid?" he nodded. I rolled my eyes and tossed the flowers in a bush beside the porch.
"Ready to go?"

"Chris I'm not going."
"You agreed-'

"No I didn't!" I snapped at him.

"You didn't say yes?"
"Yes."

"Oh so you did?" he asked. I paused and tried to process the question.

"What?"

"Come on lets go." he took my wrist in his hand and pulled me out of my house.

"Chris let go." I growled as he pulled me to the truck.

"Come on Anna, just admit that you want to go."

"No!"

"So you do want to go, you just don't want to admit it." he turned smiling at me but continued to pull me.

"Do you ever listen?" I demanded pulling free from his grip.

"Not really." I glared at him.

"Come on Anna, I promise nothing is going to happen." I sighed and nodded. Then got in the truck.

I wasn't giving in to Chris I was tiered and getting into another argument was the last thing I wanted. I would go, get lost in the crowd and leave.

I was actually surprised that the place we were going wasn't In town, it was about a minute drive into the forest.

"where are we?" I asked.

"The 'take out.' its the only place you can get take out food but its a big hangout place.' he said and parked the truck.

I couldn't help but take notice that on the left side where we parked, was a bunch of beat up looking cars and on the other were nicer looking ones.

Chris and I got out of the truck and walked up the "the takeout." it looked a bit like a cottage and when we got in I saw that there were quite a bit of people in there, all teenagers, some looking rough others looking prissy. There were multiple pool tables, a stools at a counter. Only two small tabled were in the corners, and there were some video games set up.

"Chambers!" someone yelled Chris took my wrist and pulled me to the sound of the voice.

"Russet!" he yelled back and gave the boy a clap on the back.

"You skip out today?" the boy asked. He had black hair that was heavily greased so it was parted into strands. He had dark eyes and was wearing a large leather Jacket and ripped jeans.

"Yeah, had someone that just can't stay away." he said nodding to me. I rolled my eyes and smacked him on the shoulder.

"Well now who do we have here?" the boy asked seeing me of the first time.

"This is Anna Winston, Anna this is Brady Russet." Chris introduced.

Brady took my hand and shook it giving me a bright smile. He had turned tooth to the side right in the middle of his smile, other then that it would have been perfect.

"Brady is the biggest vandal in town." Chris said.

"Oh Chris how you flatter me." he joked. I looked down at my hand and saw that I had a bit of chard off blue paint, I whipped my hand on my pants to get rid of it.

"So you're a tagger?" I asked. Brady smiled even bigger.

"That's my official title. You seen my work around town?"

"Did you spray paint the side of the pub?"

'That was me, you like it?" he asked. I actually did.

"I'm surprised that you painted that." I said. The painting was of a man putting a love letter into a mail box. It was amazingly done he had real talent.

"Yeah. You should see the one on the water tower."

"You mean "Brady" written across it." chris started laughing.

"yeah thats how he got caught."

"I was Drunk." Brady explained to me I nodded. "So you Chris' girlfriend?"

"No!" I said.

"She's new made the mistake of meeting me." Chris laughed.

"Well it's nice to meet you, he Layla, Dawson, Mark come on over here!" Brady called.

Soon a girl with bright red hair and ruby red lips was standing beside him, Brady wrapped his arm around her and and wrapped hers around his waist, she was in a short black skirt and tight pink top that covered barely anything, her breasts were practically popping out of it. She was pretty, she had Freckles over her entire body like Brady had but she possessed bright green eyes and full lips, she wore a lot of makeup but it kind of suited her.

"Whose this?" she asked, her voice was high, but not high pitched just perky.

"This is Anna Winston." Brady said.

"Hi!" She smiled.

"Hey, you Brady's girlfriend?" I asked. She started laughing along with Brady and Chris.

"No, she's my sister." Brady said.

"Oh I'm so sorry."

"Nah its cool, a lot of people make that mistake." She smiled.

"You don't look alike at all." I said.

"yeah we do, when she takes that mask of makeup off." Brady joked.

"Bet we'd look alike if you weren't covered in a fine layer of paint all the time." she snapped at him. And stepped out of his grip. Now I was starting to see the brother sister relationship.

"Layla died her hair, and they're fraternal twins." Chris whispered to me.

Okay that made more sense. The two boys came up to us.

"Oh this is Mark and Dawson." Chris said gesturing to them. Mark was tan kid with long black hair that covered his eyes, I would have suspected him to be a quiet person until he spoke.

"Hey hows it going you Anna?!" his voice was one that just carried through the air even in a deafening room.

"How'd you know?' I asked.

"I played you once, you cleaned me out but I respected the game sorry I didn't get to meet ya formally sore loser right here." in a way he reminded me of Teddy he had an over confidence and just made you feel like smiling.

"Mark has a bit of a gambling problem." Chris whispered into my ear again.

"But not a hearing problem you wet end!" Mark said hitting him over the head. "Yeah I see a deck of cards or some dice, I can't control myself." he smiled. "But at least I'm not a car thief.' he said looking at Dawson. Dawson had golden hair like Chris did, but his was longer and gelled back out of his face to expose the most piercing blue eyes I had ever seen. They were like ice and chilled me to the bone, he was chewing gum and had a jean jacket with no sleeves on it.

"Lost your sleeves?" I asked trying to make a joke but he just looked at me with the same stare. "Sorry." I said quickly shutting up.
"No I cut them off." he answered. "they get in the way."

"Yeh this guy had so much grease on those sleeves they looked like black leather rather than jean." Brady laughed.

"He's the best mechanic this town has ever seen." Layla said.

"Too bad he'll never prove it." Mark said.

"They think I'll steal the cars if I work in a garage which is fine with me cause they don't deserve my talent anyways." Dawson said. "Nice to meet you Anna I heard a lot." he stuck out his hand and I shook it expecting cold hands but they were rather warm and inviting. I noticed that his white beater had car grease smudges on it making it look almost gray.

"LAYLA!" a voice called.

"Oh no hide me!" Layla screeched and ran behind Dawson.

"that guy still after you?" Mark laughed.

"it's not funny you idiot!" she yelled at him. Then a boy with sandy blonde hair came up to us, he was good looking in weird way, he wasn't strikingly handsome like Brady was, or beautiful like Chris, it was the way he carried himself.

He walked over here like he owned the place.

"That's Tyler." Chris said. "He's had more girls than anyone in town."

"Really?" I asked.

"yeah, he was with Layla for like two minutes and then she dumped him, he's been bugging her ever since."

I watched as Tyler came over and pushed Dawson out of the way.

"Layla baby how are you?" he asked her. His voice was deep and seductive, it came out so smoothly like he had years of practice with it.

"Fine." Layla responded. The three boys moved from standing in front of us to beside us and watched the encounter which resulted in Layla being taken away with Tyler a pleading look on her face. The boys just laughed.

"shouldn't we help her?" I asked.

"Nah, it's her own fault we told her not to go out with him but she didn't listen." Mark said.

"Besides he won't do anything, just simply flirting, the only reason he wants her so bad is so he can break up with her." Brady smiled.

"why?"
"He's got a record, as many broken hearts as girls dated, Layla is the only one that ruined it so to make it even he needs to break up with her." Dawson responded from beside me.

"then why doesn't she just let him?"
"Layla is stubborn." Brady shrugged.

Soon the group had broken up and Chris took me over to the counter to get something to drink.

"Those your friends?" I asked.

"Yes and no, I hang with them sometimes but thats about it, just thought you might like to meet some hoodlums and get used to them. We're all pretty tight we fight sometiems but we all have each others back."
"So I see some view kids." I said.

"yeah its a mutual hangout."

"why am I here?" I asked, Chris ignored me and ordered some drinks. "Chris answer me."
"I asked you here-"

"You dragged me here."

"because I don't want you to be awkward in this town you know, meet some people, have fun."

"Chris I dont-"

"AH you gotta be kidding me!" someone yelled.

"Hey Chris we're gonna need your help." someone I didn't know said to him.

"Whats going on?"
"It's Ricky and them." Chris huffed in annoyance and started to walk towards the front. He walked out of the takeout and stood on the porch with multiple guys including Dawson, Brady and Mark. The view guys that I had seen before were now down the steps in the same formation standing before the boys.

I moved in a space between two guys to look out at them too.

I felt a hand on my shoulder.

"Anna go back inside." Chris' voice said.

"No whats going on?"

"Nothing." he responded quickly.

"Better beat it out of here Qesto!" someone yelled.

"Its a free country I can go where ever I want!" a tall blonde boy in a letterman jacket shot back.

"Yeah as long as it ain't here!"

"Wanna make me leave?"

"With pleasure!" the boy yelled at him and started to move but the boys held him back.

"Oh now whose that?" the boy who I remember to be Ricky from when Chris showed up at my house asked. I turned from the scene and looked at him. He was staring right at me. I looked back to see if he meant Chris or someone behind me but Chris was the only one there and was shooting daggers at him. "Whats your name sweetheart?"I went to answer but someone was faster then me.

"Well it ain't slut so you can forget about trying to get with her." that person was Teddy. I didn't even know he was here.

"Shut up DuChamp!" one of Ricky's friends said.

I could feel my tough demeanor coming out again.

"He's right it's not Slut." I said.

"What are you doing?" Chris whispered to me his hand still on my shoulder. I shook it off and continued.

"It's Anna." I said.

"Anna?" Ricky repeated.

"yeah it means not interested in assholes. Ricky must mean asshole." I said. The guys oohed and laughed but Ricky's friends and him just glared at us.

"Back off Ricky she's not into ya." someone said when Ricky started to walk towards us.

"Who the hell would the little whore be into?" Ricky demanded.

"Fuck off!" Chris yelled at him.

"Oh Chambers interesting seeing you here." Ricky smirked at him.

"Get lost Ricky and leave her alone!" Mark yelled at him.

"I wasn't doing anything. . . yet." he smiled a disturbing smile. I felt Chris grab my arm and pull me behind him.

"Do I need to escort you out again?" he growled at him.

"Oh I get it, Chambers. You've got yourself a girlfriend she know about your drunk daddy yet? How you're following him too? Or how about all the whores you've got at your house-"

"Shut up Qesto, you really want a repeat of last time?" Dawson asked stepping out farther to meet with Ricky in the middle.

"I'd like to see you try."
"What you gonna hide behind your boyfriends?" He asked. Those two were in such an intense stare down I could almost see the holes they were burning into each other.

"I don't need them to take you on." Ricky said.

"That a fact?"

"Just like I don't need anything but my smile to get your girl or Chris'." Ricky replied, I saw Dawson clench his fists, something obviously happened, but I of course had no idea what. I pushed my way from behind Chris.

"Don't talk about me like I'm some prize to be won!" I yelled at them. Ricky looked at me and then smirked.

"Oh wow, I guess Chris is farther gone then I thought." he said.

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

"I'm talking about the bruises and cuts on that pretty face of yours. Guess the bottle of rum really doesn't fall far from the drunken hand eh?" I glared at him at the realization of what he meant.

"Chris didn't beat me you prick, he actually saved me from being beaten by eyeball." I snapped.

"So his lowlife brother helped beat you. Just a matter of time." he said. I felt like snapping him in half. How dare he. Chris was a sweetheart, sure he was annoying as hell but he was still one of the nicest guys I had ever met. . . god damn it.

Before I could Blink Chris had jumped from the porch and stomped up to him.

"You got something to say, say it to my face." he snapped. Without missing a beat he responded.

"You're pathetic, an idiot and you're gonna turn out just like your dad. A drunken abusive loser. And your girl is gonna realize it, and when she does I'm gonna take her. All of her. Into my room. Where I will fuc-" he didn't get to finish Chris punched him straight in the jaw. Soon they were rolling on the ground fighting. I was shocked at how good a fighter he was for someone that liked peace.

Chris was shoving Ricky's face in the ground when teddy and Mark pulled him off.

'"Chris man as awesome as that is you gotta stop." Teddy said to him. Chris calmed down right away. I was surprised that Ricky's friends did nothing.

"You're gonna regret that Chambers!" Ricky said spitting dirt on the ground from his mouth.

"Well let him go again if you don't get the hell out of here." teddy snarled at him. Reluctantly the boys got in their cars and drove away. Soon all the people went back into the takeout. I walked over to Chris and put my hands to the sides.

"What was that about?" I asked him. He ran a hand through his hair.

"I thought you didn't like violence."
"I know, I just. . . I didn't know what to do. He was talking about you in that way and I just snapped."

"Me? I thought him talking about your family would make you angry." I said.

"It did but when he mentioned you. . . I just. . . he can't talk about you that way."

"Chris it's fine-"

"No its not!" he snapped at me.

"Why are you getting so angry?" I demanded.

"I'm not!" he yelled back at me.

"Chris seriously what the hell is wrong."

"He just sickens me okay? He was talking about you like an item." he said. "I care about you okay? And him talking like that was dispicable."

"You met me two days ago Chris, why the hell do you care so much?"
"I don't know." he replied running his hands through his hair again. "From the moment I saw you when you first arrived I wanted to talk to you, I kept thinking about the prefect way to talk to you, then once I did I just wanted to be near you. I snapped when I saw your vulnerability towards eyeball. I wanted to protect you, I wanted to make sure I was always with you so that nothing like that would happen again. It's insane how I feel. Its completely ridiculous! I feel like an idiot for feeling like this. I met you two days ago!" he said.

"Chris look maybe you just need calm down, get something to drink, sleep, just relax and then-" I didn't get to finish.

Chris stopped my words with his lips.

there it is hope you liked it, please R&R. have a great day. I'm going to sleep and not waking up until next week. :) bye.