Pop. His eyebrows twitch as I purposely pop my bubble gum for the seventh time in a row. His shocking green eyes catch my dark brown ones to give me a murderous glare. However, I merely smirk as I continue to pop my gum. Of course, it seems completely obnoxious, but I mean no harm; he knows I’m just playing with him. As I pop my gum, I can see irritation paint across his face and a smile tugs at my lips. Pop.

“Will you stop?!” he growls.

He runs his hand though his black hair and swears while a stream of laughter escape my mouth.

“What the hell is wrong with you?!” he scowls.

“Calm down.” I reply

He starts to say something, but he pauses. I smirk as he resumes to staring out the window and trying to ignore me. I pop my gum a couple times enjoying how he twitches in annoyance until our pre-calc teacher walks in the room and begins to teach.

XoxoxoxoxoxoX

“Quinton why do you still walk with me,?” I reply as pop another piece of gum. “In case you forgot, I do live around here,” he frowns. “Well, maybe if I make up a good enough excuse, I can move,”

“Good luck making up that excuse. I really…don’t care, just as long as you don’t hook with me. ”

Quinton stares but I pick up my pace and he slows down. We don’t have any association whatsoever and finally, after fifteen minutes of silence, we reached my place. As I walk into the small house, I glance at Quinton, expecting him to speed up and hurry along home. However, he doesn’t pick up his pace or even walk for that manor; he just stands these, staring at my door. I look at him from outside my window, trying to see what he’s doing. After standing on the sidewalk for a couple minutes, Quinton looks at my door and slowly walks up toward it. My heart pounds against my chest and I slump against the door onto the floor, hoping he doesn’t see me and praying that he won’t knock. He doesn’t knock. If I wasn’t by the door, I wouldn’t have known he stopped by. Slowly, I rise from the floor and look out the window. Small droplets of water fall outside and onto Quinton as he stares at the door. His hand is in mid air as if it was about to fall upon the door a couple times, but thankfully he doesn’t knock. Instead, he shakes his head and begins the long walk home. I should have known something like this was going to happen though. He lives me near me, that's true…but there’s a short-cut to his place. He’s taking the long way home. Quinton, he still wants me…

XoxoxoxoxoxoX

Things just don’t work our between us. Why? It’s pretty simple actually. We have absolutely nothing in common and our differences just drive me crazy. I guess you can say I was the one who broke it off between us…wait, wait! Nothing was ever going on between us. All I did was distance myself from him. I shake my head and try to type up a lab for physics. Later on, I take a quick break and check to see who was on AIM in hopes to talk to my friend Keilly. However, instead of seeing Keilly’s screen name, I see QnCa112, Quinton’s screen name. Qn, his initials, Ca, my initials, and then November 2, the day our relationship, no…our friendship increased. One hand flies to my cheek that used to have that painful blue mark he graciously gave me but, my other hand flies to the mouse and I’m tempted to click on his name. I growl to myself and sign out; it’s too late to talk…but…I can just see him sitting by the computer, bored and lonely. He stares at my own screen name, CaQn112, (got to change that), and wishes we can just talk, like we used to. However, I shake the images from my head and I growl again; this boy just won’t leave me alone. I don’t know what I have to do to make him see that it’s over. Darn it! Thinking like this makes it seem like this was an actually relationship, it’s not. We were just close friends and now we’re not, simple as that. Yeah, we would hang out a lot, but that’s what friends do, hang out. Quinton and I, don’t have anything in common…well, there is one thing. We like the sky. He took me to the park one night and he and I just plopped down upon the soft green grass and stared at the stars. What started out as naming different constellations turned into confessions and revealing secrets. He hates his family something I can never understand. His dad…well, I can understand why he would hate his dad. Whenever anything goes wrong, his dad would take his anger out on his son or mother, though it’s mostly his son. He’s been beating him since he was little. It’s gotten better, he told me, but his dad still threw punches every now and then.

“I would run away,” he told me on that night we went star gazing. “But I as much as I want to, I feel like I can’t leave my mom, though she’s just a b-”

“Don’t say that,” I warned.

“…I’ll never hurt you…”

I looked at him; his eyes were true and serious. His gently loving hands finds mine and holds mine tightly. I close my eyes and curl into him, just listening to him speak.

“I hate the way my dad treats my mom and I will not be like him. I won’t be like him. I’ll never hurt you, I promise.”

He broke his promise. I hated him that for two nights, then thought about him the third. By the fifth night, I couldn’t stop thinking about him, for some reason. During that time, I completely ignored him when I went to school. I didn’t speak to him or do anything that involved him. That didn’t last for too long. When he saw me at school a couple days after the night he broke that promise, he was on his hands and knees asking for forgiveness. I walked away. Unfortunately, I could only ignore him for so long. It wasn’t long before I finally accepted his apology and now we’re friends and only friends. No touching, hugging or any physical contact; it’s ridiculous what a simple touch can do to us. It’s late and I can’t be doing this to myself. I shake my head to rid the thoughts of that boy and go back to working on my lab, but I can’t concentrate; Quinton rare smile keeps popping up in my head.

XoxoxoxoxoxoX

Another long day of school and I’m feeling really tired. Teachers have no mercy for us juniors. Obviously, they don’t care about the fact that we have SATs and ACTs to study for considering the fact that they pile us with snow mounds of homework and regents?! That word is foreign to these teachers; New York is just a cruel place. As I head toward the end of the hall, I see Quinton heading in my direction. I swear and fish through my bag for gum. I finally find that piece of pink Extra gum and pop it into my mouth. I quickly blow a bubble and pop it, loving the fact that it bothers him so much; Quinton approaches me, giving me his infamous irritated look. I raised an eyebrow and as he stops in front of me and crosses his arms.

“You’re quite annoying,” he scowls.

“Then stay away from me.” I retort as I push a piece of dark brown hair behind my ear. “…things…would be better if you do…”

He swears before he grabs my shoulders and pushes me against the wall. I’m pretty sure he was more surprised at the fact that I didn’t scream out or fight him than I was. Instead of struggling to get out of his grip, I look at him, staring into his green eyes, eyes that are filled with regret and pain. I look away and wait for him to let me go.

“Chicky…”

My eyes widen. I’m not particularly happy about being named “Chicky” but since I’m the youngest and my parents were pretty sure that they weren’t have anymore children, they decided to call me “little one.” I have two younger sisters. However, when Quinton says my name…I want to hear it again. I’d never admit it to him, but I love the way it rolls off his tongue. It’s something about the way he says it, it makes me love my name and when that happens, I wonder if he feels the same way when I say his.

“Chicky…I’m sorry…”

I don’t say anything; instead I unconsciously lift my hand and touch my cheek. Quinton lets out a sigh and touches my cheek as well. He slowly removes my hand and stares at my cheek.

“…it’s almost gone…I can barely see the bruise,” he whispers as he takes my chin.

He lifts it and leans close, looking at my other cheek then my eyes, then my lips. I pull away from his gently grip and look away. Quinton shakes his head and lets out and weary sigh.

“I won’t hurt you anymore, Chicky,” he whispers so gently that I’m drawn to his face.

“You can’t promise that,” I mutter.

“Yes I can.”

“You have a bad temper. When you’re angry…you get out of control. I can’t deal with that.”

“But what about when I’m not angry. What about now?”

“…you’re gentle, and I love it-”

That was not supposed to be said out loud!

“I…listen, things will be better if we…don’t see each other from now on.” I continue. “I don’t want…trouble”

“Chicky, I want you! I want to be with you! That night…I…it’s no excuse, I know and I don’t know why I did it…it just…”

“Happened? Heh, you sound so desperate and pathetic.”

He smirks then leans closer to me. I turn away, only to feel his lips gently touch my cheek.

“Whatever,” he whispers as he continues to kiss my cheek.

“I don’t understand why you keep bothering me,” I scowl.

However, I could only be resentful for so long. His lips feel so good against my skin and I can’t help but want more.

“I love you…Chicky,” he continues to kiss my face and occasionally, I kiss him back. “I’m in love with you.”

Those five words mean so much. Everyone says they love each other, but only a couple add the “in.” Slowly, my eyes close against my will and I can see Quinton in front of me, both of us chilling in his room; it’s the night he broke his promise. One arm is wrapped around my shoulders and his other fingers are pressed against my lips. I look up at him and he smiles a true smile as our eyes meet. He pulls me closer and I close my eyes as he confesses his feelings for me. Just as his soft lips brush against mine, the door to his room flies open, and his dad stares at us. His icy piercing blue eyes stab right at me as obscenities fly out of his mouth and into me. Quinton lets go of me then heads right over to his dad. The room is filled with shouts and cries and all I could really do is stare. It wasn’t long before I just felt horrible and I couldn’t stay there anymore so, I ran. A couple hours passed before I was able to find Quinton sitting down on the sidewalk by our special park, angry lashes from a belt covered his arms which were trembling. I said a couple things, trying to see what happened and how I could possibly help. Sometime then, I said the wrong thing and stumbled home with a busted lip, puffy cheeks and red eyes…

I pull away from Quinton and push him off me. My eyes water up and turn away from him and head down the hall. What I really want to do is turn around, run into his arms, and kiss him to the point he has to pull away to get some air. I want him as much as he wants me, but we have nothing in common and things just won’t work out. He’s a gentle lamb when calm, but a vicious lion when furious. I know I should give him another chance…but he hurt me, he really hurt me. I bit my lip and close my eyes to prevent the warm salty water escaping from my eyes. I open them in time to open the door instead of running into it. I hear footsteps after me and I ran outside into the cold rain. Rain mixes with my tears and it instantly becomes impossible to differentiate tears from raindrops. I don’t want to go home, so I walk around until I see the park. I slowly chew my gum and sit down on the sidewalk, not really pay attention to the fact that this was the exact same place Quinton sat after his father beat him. I stare mindlessly at the trees, wondering if he’d show up and bathe me with the kisses and love that I desire. I chew my gum faster, flatten it against the top of my mouth, stick my tongue in the middle and blew. Pop.

A/N: Hello!! Well, I hope you enjoyed it XD.