"Mom, I'll be home at 3," Adrienne informed her, hopping out of her room and tying her white puma sneaker at the same time. She looked to a empty table. "Dad's working?" Adrienne sighed, picking up her black pocketbook loosely in her left hand.

"He had an early court date this morning, Honey," Cindy replied, dissapointment tinting her voice. "Don't you want any of these eggs I'm making?"

"Nope, I'm running late," Rina admitted, swiping an apple from a decorative fruit basket on the countertop. She left a kiss on her mother's cheek and headed out the door to her precious baby, a red and black 1995 Mitsubishi Eclipse Turbo GS, her dad's hand-me-down.

At the same moment, Danny was heading out for a little morning basketball with his friends. They closed their doors simultaneously, looked at each other and smiled.

"16 years and we're still doing that," Adrienne laughed, strolling to Danny and giving him a hug.

"That's what friends do," Danny replied. "Listen...I need to clear something up about Friday..."

"What?" Adrienne asked as she fished through her pocketbook for a solitare piece of Winterfresh.

"This may sound kind of weird coming from me," Danny stammared, scratching a mosquito bite on his neck and glancing around the bland hallway nervously, "but do you know what you and Chris did?"

"Oh, that was such a blast!" Adrienne informed him, finally discovering her gum at the bottom of her bag. She popped it in her mouth as she continued, "I wish we could do it more often."

"But, Adrienne," Danny interrupted, putting his hand on her shoulder. She looked over with concern then back at him. "You and Chris had sex Friday night."

That hit her like a fist to the stomach. She almost dropped her bag. "We what?!" she asked, her eyes dialating in disbelief as she clenched her fallen bag in her arms.

"I saw Chris go into a bedroom to, like, rest or something then you went in there a few mninuetes later. When you guys came out, Chris was buttoning his pants, his shirt was on backwards, your shirt wasn't on right and you were buttoning your jeans, too..." Adrienne peered at him like a deer sinking in headlights. "You don't remember any of this?" Danny asked, trying to find a glimmer of truth in her eyes as he buried his hand in his short blond locks.

"Well..." Adrienne replied, trying to travel back to Friday night. "I remember...going into the room...and, I think I saw Chris, or maybe it was Erik, either way, the person had spikes and...I can't remember anything else."

Adrienne gaze was fixaded on the teal carpeting on the floor as she tried to put the pieces of this massive puzzle together. "Are you going to be ok?" Danny asked, cocking his head to the side and waving his hand in front of her face.

"Umm yeah," Adrienne replied doubtfully, her stone posture unchanging. She achingly glanced up to Danny. "Please, don't tell Devon or anyone, OK?" she asked mechanicially.

"You know you can trust me, Ri," Danny assured her, a hopeful smile forced on his face.

She said nothing else as she glided toward the elevator. A thousand thoughts were racing through her mind, making her body fatigued. She pressed the red 'down' button ajacent to the elevator with a fidgeting fist. Adrienne's legs started to quiver, so she supported herself on the wall. She gave her hands permission to slide down the wall as the elevator went *ding*.

~*Tuesday*~

"Adrienne," her father John bellowed from the living room, "it's Chris." Cocoa was shocked out of his sleep with a slight yip. He huddled in fear in the corner of Adrienne's room.

"OK," she replied, a little hesitant to reach for the phone. She called Cocoa over to her and Cocoa scampered over with growning delight. Rina tickled his stomach as he sank back to into slumber. She pushed her binder and Chemistry textbook aside and picked up the black cordless. "Hello," she said into it, but she could barely hear Chris's voice as it was drowning with...a shower?

"Rina," Chris yelled over the noise. "Babe, what's up?"

"What's that noise?" Adrienne asked, turning on her stereo with a remote control.

"I told my mom I was in the shower so I could sneak on the phone," Chris informed her. Adrienne got up from her bed and walked to her window, a set of spikes and a waving hand coming into view across the stretch of road. Yeah, Chris is her neighbor and has been for 11 years.

"How sneaky," Adrienne laughed, tossing him a wave back. "How much trouble did you sink in to?"

"Two weeks no parties, no phone, no internet, TV, no friends," Chris listed, counting the items on his fingers, "basically school and Dream Street are my only escapes from this prison."

"So I guess we won't be seeing each other for a while..." Adrienne's voice trailing off, the memory of what they did that ill-fated night surfacing to her brain..."Cuz I have to inform you of..."

"You've always said you wanted to meet the guys and stuff, right?" Chris interrupted, an idea poping into his cranium. "Whenever you're off from Baker's, you could come with me to practice. It's a few hours and pretty boring, but..."

"I'd love to!" she interruped, "Sounds like fun. I have off next Wednesday."

"OK," Chris continued. "Now my mom won't have to drive me there like I'm still a kid," he joked. "I better go...she's gonna get suspicious that I'm in here so long..."

"Just tell her you're grooming," Adrienne suggested with a smirk, tossing the remote to the edge of her bed.

Chris laughed, a laugh he and Adrienne always shared since they were young. "OK I better go...have sweet dreams of...me!"

Adrienne giggled inside and said bye. She hung up the phone, her stomach transforming into a cage for the butterflies floating around. She never had this feeling before...maybe indigestion?