*Graces POV*
I had found out that Chris was dating Lucy Kandin three days after they began dating. Not that I'm jealous or anything, but Lucy Kandin?????? Seriously? She's so trashy. He could do so much better, like, me for god sakes! Lucy is class rep, but she also has a rep. All of the girls know about it. Lucy is already 15, and she was going steady with a 23 year old! She had bragged to her friends that they had sex. Her friends told all the other girls and now she's labeled as trashy. Most of the boys don't know about it, but some do. Apparently Chris was unfortunate enough to stumble into her without knowing about it. I don't like calling girls trashy or anything because what they do is their business, but I'm just passing along the message. I was talking to Mark about them going out after I had found out. "He's going out with fucking Lucy Kandin! What the fuck! He can do so much better!" I was saying. "Why? She's nice." "She's not only 'nice' how did they even come across each other anyway? And Chris never mentioned that he liked her. What the hell?" "Babe, calm down. I set them up. You seem jealous... Are you jealous that they're dating?" Mark asked. "You set them up?! What the hell Mark?" "Grace, look at me. Are you jealous?" I immediately calmed down, "What? No, I am not jealous. I have you." I said smiling. "Okay so why are you all juiced up about them going out together?" "I'm not. What are you talking about? I'm not juiced up." He gave me a weird look and dropped the subject. We were taking a walk through the woods because it was a very nice day. Mark tried joking about the whole debacle, "And babe, nice mouth." He said chuckling. I felt my cheeks get hot, I didn't realize I had swore and I was mortified. "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry. I didn't even realize it I'm so so sorry." He just laughed, "After meeting your friends I kind of figured out that you weren't as innocent as you claimed to be. But don't worry, I still like you." I blushed and smiled, "Well thank you very much, I guess I like you too." I said jokingly. "Well good, otherwise this would've been awkward." "What would've been awkwa..." Then he pulled me in for a kiss. Gordie kissed me by surprise and quite frankly that had been my only experience with the subject, but Mark and I had never kissed so I was really surprised. "I really hope that wasn't too soon." He said to me after we broke apart just a few moments after. I smiled, "It was perfect." He smiled shyly and we walked in silence for a few minutes. "So tell me about you and Chris." He said. "What's to tell?" He gave me a 'you have to be kidding' look. "I won't be mad, just give me the history." I sighed, here goes nothin. I told him everything starting from the very beginning. "And now we're here." I smiled awkwardly. "Do you still love him?" He asked with an angry set look. "That doesn't matter, I'm with you aren't I?" He grabbed my left upper arm with great force. He spoke angrily between clenched teeth. "Answer the question. Now." "No! No, no, I don't even like him anymore." He let go of me and threw me back a little when he did. He said he wouldn't get mad, but he got very mad. After that he was perfectly fine and normal again, while I was really uncomfortable. I figured it was just a one time thing, typical boyfriend jealousy, and let go of it. "I have to go, I'll see you tomorrow." I said kissing him on the cheek when we came out of the woods. "Goodbye love." He said kissing me on the head and we went our separate ways. I was walking as fast as I could without running to get to the tree house just so I could be alone and figure out what had just happened, with the whole grabbing me thing. No matter what I thought it was, I didn't like it and I didn't want it to happen again. I wondered how Chris and Lucy were, and how it was going between them. I scrambled into the tree house. I was shaking and raking my fingers through my hair, taking deep breaths. I was leaning out of the window trying to get fresh air into my lungs. As I turned around I saw Teddy and immediately regretted coming here. He had his feet crossed up on the table, cigarette hanging from his mouth, with some cards in hand. "So, I take it not all sugar and kisses in boyfriend land today?" I was so freaked out it took everything I had not to break down in tears over the whole mess. I laughed, weakly and fake. "What? No. Everything's fine. Perfect even. Why would you think that?" "Well," he said flicking his wrist out in front of him looking at his nonexistent watch, "because it's 2:00 pm and the last person you were with was Mark, but you're back really early and from the looks of it, just about to bust out in tears." I couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic or if that's just his inflection always. "Uhm, no yeah, I was with Mark. Then I left... And I saw something that really freaked me out. Yeah." I said. "Like what?" "A dead body." "Bullshit." Fuck. He was with me the first time I saw a dead body and our reactions were all the same, 'oh, poor kid.' "No really." "Y'know, I'm not gonna push you to tell me. But I don't appreciate you lying to me." I was surprised at that weird outburst of emotion. He started chuckling lightly, "Nah I'm just fuckin with you, I don't care." And went back to examining the cards in his hand. "So where is everyone?" I asked. "Take a guess." He said giving me a blank look. I got the point and sat down. "Food?" I asked hopefully. "Why not?" And so we walked down to Blue Point. We sat at a booth and ordered burgers and shakes as usual. "So, Teddy. What about you and the whole dating scene?" I asked to make conversation. "Not my thing really. I'd have to find someone compatible, like you." He said smirking. "Right." I said rolling my eyes and laughing. "Have you talked to Chris at all?" I said to him as the waitress came with our food. "Today actually. He came around earlier to hang out. He's doing okay." "Good. Yeah, that's real good. Good for him." I said trying to hide my dismay. "I'm going to try and get around to seeing him soon. Let's all do something together." I then said, changing the subject. "Yeah we've all kind of drifted. Weird." Then he started in on his food, and so did I. It amazes me how many things can change in a few weeks.
