"Yeah Vanessa...Friday? I'll see," Rina said into the phone exasperated, trying to catch her breath as she cleaned up her mess in the well-lit kitchen. Her mind was traveling more rapid then her body as she trudded through the kitchen, The muffins were raising strongly against the hellish heat as Rina's hand vigerously flew over the spilled contents on the marble counter. "OK, I better go...Yeah, o f course! Bye." She hung up with a sigh and tossed the phone carelessly onto the counter. It landed with a boisterious clang. It made her jump out of her socks and Cocoa jump out of his sun-bathing nap. He peered up at Rina curiously, slowly slinking from his spot in the livingroom. Rina shook her head with a beaming smile and left a small bowl of batter on the floor for Cocoa's pleasure. Cocoa's eyes bursted with joy as he eagerly lapped the bowl clean of the batter.

"I'm glad someone's around to eat my cooking," Adrienne murmured, her curls loosely tied behind her heavy head. She gathered the eggs, milk and flour in her bulky arms and cautiously rasied them to their proper places in the fridge and cabinet, slight pain pounding through her aching back.

"Don't you ever have time for yourself?" a voice asked from behind her. Startled, the flour dropped from her arm and created a white cloud about her feet. She turned to see Chris standing at the counter grinning with pleasure.

"Must you...do that?" Rina demanded with a laugh, her heart slowing down. She tossed the light bag of flour into the garbage. She flicked the disobedient curls back in their place and cocked her head to Chris. "Don't you have practice?"

"It's not until 4:30," Chris informed her, his eyes immoble from her. She walked around the counter and gave him a hug.

"Oh OK," Rina replied wit a glistening smile. She began to stroll to the couch when she yelled behind her, "we got to talk, anyway."

"Yeah," Chris agreed, nodding his head. Her body twisted to him, her face glazed with a suprised expression.

"You agree?"

"I have to tell you something," Chris admitted, pushing himself away from the counter. Rina's expression of suprise morphed to one of fear as he took her hand tenderly and kneeled in front of her. He grazed his hand over it, his eyes slowly traveling to her brown eyes. "I..." Chris started, but stopped..."I couldn't say this earlier, I was in denial, or whatever...anyway, Adrienne...I love yo..."

"No!" Rina shrieked, pulling her hand away and spilling over the couch onto her knees. "No, you can't love me!"

"Why not?" Chris asked innocently, his mouth hitting the floor. Chris looked at her, but it wasn't Rina he was looking at. It was someone different, someone oblivious and stubborn to his confession.

"This baby..." she started, flabbergasted at Chris's admittance as she raised herself off the ground. "It can't make you love me. Love doesn't grow from babies! Babies tear down weak relationships. I only want to be friends like we used to be. When everything was perfect..." She stopped and peered down at Cocoa. The dog's ears sank back at her foreign gaze, forcing him to back away into her room. Chris was blown away. What was going on? "Who knows, maybe one day you'll just be sick of me and leave me cold and dusty...."

"How can you say that?!" Chris demanded softly, his face taking on the shade of eerie red like a chameleon. He tried desperatley to keep his anger down, but it started to bubble out through his eyes and words. "Me leave you? Like this?!"

"That's what love does," Rina cried desperately, sinking to her knees then raising back up. "It happens with every one! You're friends, then you're lovers, then you're kicked to the curb and someone lays hurt..."

"That's not true! Not with us," Chris told her forcefully, jumping to his feet and briskly walking to her. His body was stiff and rigid at Rina's ignorance. Her eyes diverted to the floor, either confused or embarassed about how she was acting. "How can you think such things?" he asked softly, cradeling her heated face uncomfortably in his beautiful hands. Anger filled her eyes with tears, but she violently blinked them away.

"Don't give me that," she hissed, throwing his hands off her. Backing away from who she saw as a stranger, she continued, "This is going to fuck everything up between you and me. And what about Dream Street? How is that going to play in this, this catastrophe..."

Chris's ears were stung from that word...catastrophe? "This baby may have been a mistake," he yelled across the room to her. He slowly walked over, her body turned away from him. "But it's not a catastrophe...Babies are gifts, rare gifts!"

"Try telling yourself that," Rina whispered slowly, her voice hindering with rage. She was leaning against the windowpane to a world that was forever changing and burnt his eyes with a steamy glare, "when you're throwing up in the morning. When pain...that's all you feel from morning to night. When everyone talking shit they know nothing about..."

Chris's hands meshed with her face as he turned her to him. Her eyes darted any where they could to avoid him. Rina's hands pulled on Chris's arms, but his arm stayed strong like a sturdy bridge. His head bobbed annoyed, trying to cross paths with her eyes. Her face was damp with tears, stricken by confusion. Chris's eyes soften as they met with her amber eyes. He wanted to kiss her, kiss her so deeply that it would relinquish all these negative thoughts. He also wanted to smack her, smack some sense into her foreign head. She was treated him like the scum of the earth and he didn't like it at all. Maybe this is why they never went out again...

'She's crying,' he thought, his hands warm against her cheeks, 'I've never seen her cry.' He looked at Rina, a sobbing beauty, and his thumb gently flicked away a slow-falling tear. His face was tight in a frown. "Tell me," Chris asked soothingly and desperately as Rina's eyes ran to the window. "Why are you doing this? Why are you acting so strange?"

She sniffed...one...twice...three times. Her eyes looked up as him timidly. "Because I don't love you."

Chris was casted in stone at those words. His heart tripped a few beats. His angry face was unwavering as he let her go. He brought his hands through his stiff hair as he walked silently to the door. He threw his hands to his side, his face levatated to the floor. Rina slunked down to the floor, arms blanketing her clammy face, legs cradeling her fall. "Chris," she managed to shout, "Wait." Too late, the slam of the door triggered her heart to fall to the floor and shatter like an egg. She cried...and she cried for Chris, the one person she shouldn't shed tears with.