Replies to some wonderful reviews…

DarkestSecrets- Thank you. I hope interesting means good! Lol

liquid-dreams-139- I’m sorry it didn’t work out with you and “Your chris” but fortunately I’m a sucker for happy endings and this story has to have one.

Garnet-earth-Princess- I love how much suspense you’re in!!!

To everyone else, a disclaimer for all! 

Chris is not a bad boyfriend he’s just passionate.

Chloe will handle the issue bravely. (not)

Sarah will not be left out of the loop.

The hot dude Sarah saw will be back in the story.

LOVE YOU GUYS FOR REVIEWING SO MUCH!!!!

Now to the story!

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The Story of a Rock

Chapter 8

Chloe’s hand drifted up to touch her tender, swollen lips. “Oh my god. Oh my god.” Was all she could say.

Chris’s kiss and Chloe’s astonishment that it had occurred at all left her shaky and unintelligent. “You…” She looked over at Chris, who now, due to her backing away in fear, was quite a distance away.

“You…” She stammered out again. “Oh my god.” Her eyes grew accusatory. “You kissed me.” Chloe could see she was not going to receive an argument from Chris. She shook her head and wrinkled her nose in utter confusion.

“Why would you do that?” She asked him like he was stupid.

Chris now looked not dumbfounded but angry. “I don’t know,” pause, “Are you pretending you didn’t want me to? It takes two people to kiss.”

Chloe blushed deeply and frowned. “I didn’t want you to. You are going out with Sarah!”

“You still wanted me to. Not to mention you kissed me back quite hungrily for somebody who didn’t want to.” Chris crossed his arms over his chest.

If possible Chloe’s face grew ten times redder than before. “I was provoked, and you started it Chris.” When she saw that he was about to argue she cut him off. “I don’t even know why we are arguing. Let’s just forget the whole thing ever happened, okay?” Before he could respond she rambled on, “I mean if we just forget about it, things can’t be weird, and it’ll be okay that I botched things up because you and Sarah will still be together, and I won’t feel so guilty, and then I can move on...”

Chris cut Chloe off this time. “Chloe you are rambling.” At that, Chloe was knocked out of her reverie of brainstorming and focused her attention back on Chris. “Stop looking at me like that!” he commanded.

“What?” Chloe asked, confused.

“You look like a deer caught in the headlights.” He commented.

“Well that’s what happens when a guy who’s never paid you any mind your whole life just up and kisses you.” Chloe retaliated dramatically.

“Yeah? Well I could say the same for you. That night that you ignore in which you kissed me, do you remember that Chloe? That happened and I just let it go, and now you are trying to make me feel guilty for something you already did!”

“I did nothing even close to that!”

Chris’s left eyebrow arched. “Oh, so you didn’t kiss me?”

Chloe shook her head, “Not anything like that shit you just pulled!”

“Shit, Chloe? Do I have to remind you how into that “shit” you were 5 minutes ago?” Chris moved towards Chloe in anger. Seeing the safety cushion of distance between them evaporating, Chloe hastened away from Chris.

“You stay over there!” She pointed at Chris.

“Afraid you won’t be able to resist “The shit I pull”?” Chris asked cockily.

“No, I just don’t want to be near you.” She said angrily.

Once she saw Chris wasn’t going to come towards her, she said, “We’re fighting again and we shouldn’t be. You love Sarah, and Sarah is my friend. End of story. I know you didn’t mean anything by the kiss so yeah, that’s all there is to it. We’ll just go on our separate ways…Maybe it would be best if we don’t hang out for a while, and if you stopped coming over here.”

“You’re going to use this as an excuse for avoiding me?” Chris asked angrily.

“No! I just don’t think we should hang out for a while…I mean a person isn’t supposed to kiss their best friend, it throws everything out of control.” Chloe stated slowly.

“You kissed me first! Why do you keep forgetting that?”

“Because I did not stick my tongue down your throat or pull you up against me. My kiss was supposed to be a message to you, not a crazy kiss like yours.” Oh shit, Chloe thought as she realized her mistake.

“A message, what message?” Chris looked to her for an answer.

“I don’t know, but you have to go now. See you later.” Chloe walked over to him and started pushing him towards the door.

Abruptly Chris turned into Chloe and grabbed her wrists. Chloe gulped at the proximity between them. “Don’t avoid this Chloe, just tell me, what message?” He gazed down at her intensely.

“Uh, um.” Chloe chewed her lip, trying to think of something to cover up her blunder.

Chloe and Chris both stared at each other in obvious stalemate. It was obvious that Chris wasn’t going to leave until he figured it out, and it was also obvious that Chloe wasn’t going to tell him. Chris had to figure it out for himself.

And Chloe prayed for him to figure it out when she wasn’t around.

Unfortunately for Chloe, it was another unanswered prayer. “Chloe, you’re in love with me, aren’t you?” His words were met with agonizing silence from Chloe.

“I can’t believe I didn’t see it before. It explains so much that’s been going on lately. And when I just kissed you and pulled away, the look on your face…” Chris’s words trailed off and hung in the air.

Chloe felt like she might as well have taken off all of her clothes, because that was how naked she felt. All of the shields and barriers and padlocks she had put up to keep Chris from knowing her deepest, darkest secret came crashing down. And even worse, they had been infiltrated by her. She had thrown down all of those barriers the day she had kissed him. She had no option now but to face him. There was nothing else she could do.

With all of the insanity and courage she could muster, she dragged her cowardly eyes off of the spot on the ground where she had been staring since Chris got a clue. She dragged them up to his gorgeous self and with a sad smile, “Yes. I am.”

When Chris was left speechless by her confession, she felt the river of her courage burst, as if the dam had finally been broken and she could say to him what she had been longing to say. “So you might understand now, when I am trying to both hide and control my feelings for you, for the sake of myself and more importantly Sarah, it really pisses me off when you constantly are over here either talking about how much you love Sarah or toying with my emotions the way you do. I am sick and tired of fighting off both you and myself. What the hell do you want Chris? Do you want to run me over with a car? Tear out my organs? Because inside, I already feel like you’ve done all of that. I am sorry that I kissed you but then again I’m not. Because now I don’t have to hide any more, and I don’t have to lie about anything. Do I like that you and Sarah are going out? No, it pisses me off. But I love you and Sarah enough to let you have your happiness. I am really so sick of lying that you can ask me anything right now and I will tell you the truth. Seriously ask me anything.”

Chris asked quietly, “how long have you felt this way?”

“For too long.” Chloe replied meanly and then said, “Maybe like a year or so after we met.”

Chris looked dumbfounded for a moment before he asked, “Are we ever going to be able to be friends again?”

“I don’t think so; I mean I’ll put on a front for Sarah, but…” Chloe let her words trail off; Chris would know what she meant.

“Why did this have to happen to us?” he asked, “we used to be so happy together.”

Chris sounded so solemn yet hopeful that she felt her eyes start to water. “I don’t know Chris, I really wish it could be different.” She felt a growing lump in her throat as she spoke.

“So I guess this is goodbye to our friendship?” He looked down sadly at her.

She couldn’t bring herself to say the words, but she nodded. When she looked up at Chris it looked as if he was going to hug her. She shook her head at him vehemently. “Please,” she said with a sob, “Just go!”

She started to cry freely, and when she finally wiped her tears from her eyes, Chris was gone.

As she got ready for bed and was brushing her teeth, she saw in the mirror what she was feeling inside. The numbness and hollowness inside of her had already begun; her face was sullen and her eyes were lifeless.

As she lay down to bed she felt like a wounded, defeated warrior lying down to die. She had had her heart trampled on, and she hadn’t been strong enough to take it any more. She gave up her best friend to protect her heart from further pain. She had chosen loneliness over pain…But weren’t they really the same thing?

Before she finally drifted off she realized something. There just was no protecting a heart from pain and anguish. If a heart never has the chance to soar it is in pain. And if a heart is shot down continuously no matter how high it tries to get, it is pain. Loving to the fullest was painful. Receiving no love was painful.

(Monday Morning)

Chloe woke up to annoying ring of her alarm clock. Was it really another school day? For some reason, she just couldn’t remember.

“Mom, do I have school today?” Chloe called down groggily.

“Yes, dear.” Chloe’s mother said as cheerful as a morning dove.

“Okay.” Chloe slowly went through the process of getting ready.

After looking at the sad end result, Chloe though she might as well try to look as nice as possible. Now that Chris would no longer be a constant reminder of her feelings, maybe she could attract another guy to fall in love with.

Yeah and maybe pigs fly.

But at least, she though, it was worth a shot.

Made up and fashionably dressed Chloe emerged from her house like a free spirit. She felt positive while she walked to her car that she could move on. The shock and numbness and sadness from last night had begun to drip off of her like a pouring rain. The weight of a doomed life lifted off of her shoulders.

Throughout her first hour classes, she felt extremely carefree and she truly believed that now she could move on romantically without ever looking back at Chris. She even had a smile on her face when she sat down to Chris, Chloe, and Sarah’s usual table.

But then she started to notice a few things that really threw off her happy persona.

Chris looked like he wasn’t going to be able to put on a front in front of Sarah.

Sarah’s hot guy (the one she was staring at recently) was with them.

Sarah and hot guy were blatantly flirting with each other as if,

Maybe Sarah and Chris weren’t going out any more.

Chloe rubbed her forehead for a moment and then looked down at her plate of food. Dear god. Please have mercy on me.

Chloe after praying to god relentlessly, sat through an awkward first half of the lunch hour in which she learned many things. That Chris and Sarah were not still going out. And also that the hot guy’s name was Jack. And also that She was probably very much in trouble.

After cutting ties with Chris last night, if she and Chris had broken up, that means that he has no reason to hang out with them any more. No reason at all.

As Chloe realized this, she looked up at Chris. He was looking back. He must have realized that he had no reason to be with them any more, for he rapidly stood up and left.

The pain Chloe was feeling must have shown up on her face because Sarah said to Chloe, “What was that all about?”

Chloe immediately masked her emotions and said, “Well. Let’s see. It could have something to do with you dumping him. Ever think of that?” I asked her slowly as if she was stupid. “And then bringing your new boyfriend with you.” She looked to Jack, “No offense, Jack.”

Jack looked at Chloe with a joyful smile, “None taken.”

“How did this,” she pointed to both of them, “happen anyways?”

“Love at first sight, I guess.” They both said at the same time.

Chloe’s eyes widened in fear, “You guys, that was a little too weird for my liking.”

Sarah looked to Chloe. “Plus, it looked to me as though the intense looks were traveling from Chris to you. Not Chris to me.”

“Are you seriously saying you think he’s upset because of me?”

“I don’t know. Am I?” She asked with a solemn yet wistful expression.

Chloe narrowed her eyes at Sarah. “What are you up to?” she asked. “First you dump Chris, and now you’ve just gone completely insane.”

“Am I on another planet?” Chloe asked out loud.

Sarah smirked at Chloe. “Chloe I didn’t dump Chris.”

“What?!”

“We both agreed to break up.” Sarah explained to a shocked Chloe.

“But I thought you guys were like true love or something.” Chloe said when she finally regained the ability to speak.

“Nah! I think it was just kind of a puppy love thing.”

“Well what did he say for his reasons for wanting to break up with you?” Chloe asked point blank.

“Why don’t you go ask him yourself?” Sarah asked knowingly.

Chloe blushed immediately. When had Sarah realized…Chris must have said something to Sarah about when they kissed. When she looked up to Sarah, she could see it in her friend’s eyes that Sarah knew. Chris must have told you everything.

“I am so sorry, Sarah! I should never have done that. I hope that’s not why you broke up with him! I feel so horrible, I just want to die. It was my entire fault really, so if you broke up with him to punish him, you can just go make up with him. I pushed him into it, I was being really selfish and I should have never betrayed your trust like that.” Chloe continued to ramble on and on guiltily.

Sarah silenced Chloe with the simple words, “Chris doesn’t seem to think it was your fault. He says it was fifty-fifty.” Sarah said with a smile.

“Sarah, please, this is Chris we are talking about. He would only willingly kiss one person. You.” Chloe said.

“Why are you even talking to me after what I’ve done to you?” Chloe asked.

“Because, it was I , who betrayed you Chloe.” Chloe looked stunned by Sarah’s confession.

“I had an inkling when I met the two of you that you had feelings for Chris. I went for him anyways, even when I knew that you loved him, when I only thought I did.” Sarah admitted shamefacedly.

“You knew?” Chloe asked incredulously.

“Please, Chloe, everybody knows, everybody has known. It’s a common knowledge thing in this town even.” She paused and Chloe started to look around the cafeteria at all of the people surrounding her. They all knew? “The only person you were fooling Chloe was Chris…and well, when he comes to you, he’s just plain stupid.”

“Oh my god.” Chloe began to repeat, in shock after all of the things Sarah had just said. “I thought you and Chris were in love. How did everything go backwards all of the sudden?” Chloe asked.

Sarah looked at Jack and smiled. “Maybe it isn’t backwards, maybe it’s perfect.”

Oh wow, Chloe thought, if possible Sarah sounds crazier then when she was with Chris.

After lunch, the rest of the day went by in a phenomenally surreal blur. Nothing seemed real to Chloe.

It felt even more surreal, when later that night, when Chloe was leaving the library to head home, Chris was leaning against her car. Waiting for her…

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A/N: Please tell me what you think! It was a longie…for me anyways.

Love you guys!