A/N: In real life, a romance like this probably wouldn't happen this fast or at all. Maybe one of these days, I'll write a more realistic love story...but don't hold your breath. Hopefully noone will think of Natalie as a whore or a bitch for the way she acts.

3

Can't Take My Eyes Off of You

"I really don't get you." He had been saying that for the better part of the night. What exactly it was about me that confused him, I still didn't know. I rolled over so that I could look down at him. He was stretched out on a futon in my bedroom.

My brother had pitched a fit about it, but as our equivalent of the mother figure, played by a very large biker dude named Cockroach, pointed out, "If Natalie was gonna boink him, she would have done it somewhere you'd never find. She's like a wild cat. They don't diddle where they sleep."

I wasn't quite sure if I liked his analogy, but it was true and Zack knew it.

"Besides," pointed out Sylvester, a bass guitarist that belonged to one of the four or five loose knit bands that lived in the church, "Where else can he stay?" Alex had volunteered his room. That had pretty much settled the matter.

"What's to get?" I asked, sleepily.

"It's just... You're so normal."

"Not really."

"That's the other thing I don't get about you," Benji said, propping himself up on an elbow, "You're so normal, but at the same time, you're the most extraordinary person I've ever met. It's like you're this prim ice bitch at school, and as soon as the last bell rings, you turn into someone totally different."

I decided to take that as a compliment.

"Hey, how do you know Alex?" I asked.

"I met him at a show in the Card Room three years ago," Benji said, with a shrug, "We moshed and crowd surfed together and just kinda ended up being friends when we got into high school. I didn't know he was your brother, though."

"He isn't," I said, "Not the way you mean. Cockroach found him on our doorstep a year ago on Easter Sunday. He took Alex in, fed him and gave him the only spare bedroom we had and he just never got around to leaving. His parents were glad to get him off their hands, so they made Zack his legal guardian and that was that."

He wanted to ask more. He wanted to ask about what I had said back on the bridge. About my mother. He wanted to ask how I ended up living in a renovated church with a bunch of people, only one of whom I was related to by blood. He wanted to ask about the scar he had glimpsed back at the café.

He wanted to, I knew it, but since I didn't ask why he was sleeping in an alley, he didn't ask.

He slept soundly. I slide my ipod out from under my pillow and turned the volume up.

If the night turned cold and the stars looked down
And you hug yourself on the cold, cold ground.
You wake the morning in a stranger's coat,
No one would you see.
You ask yourself, who'd watch for me?
My only friend, who could it be?
It's hard to say it, I hate to say it, but it's probably me.

When your belly's empty and the hunger's so real
And you're too proud to beg and too dumb to steal,
You search the city for your only friend,
No one would you see.
You ask yourself, who'd watch for me?
A solitary voice to speak out and set me free.
I hate to say it, I hate to say it, but it's probably me.

I fell asleep before the song ended, my mind filled with images of Benji and Alex. It felt like something steel formed inside of me, as I drifted between waking and dreaming. I knew I'd never be able to hide my feelings for Benji. Because of this, Benji and Alex, as Benji's best friend, would be caught in the cross fire of the battle that was about to take place.

Our school wasn't defined by cliques, but there were still some unspoken guidelines that were expected to be kept. At our school, they call people like me Pinks, for obvious reasons. Usually, there's one alpha female. The position had belonged to Carol Bernheart since our Sophomore year. It had been that year, during our Spring Dance that the two of us showed up in the same dress. Carol threw a fit and ordered me to change immediately.

I ripped off the dress, told her where to stick it and spent the rest of the dance in my slip (which these days serves as a decent dress in and of itself).

From that moment, I was on her List. Fine with me, but what I hadn't known is that by mouthing off to Carol like that, I earned myself some kind of Honorary Head Bitch title. I say blame the lingerie gods for giving me a cocktail dress slip, instead of one of those little two piece deals.

Then there was Benji's girlfriend. I had never really dealt with her before, since Benji was my chief antagonizer, outside of Carol. But I had crossed a line with Benji that most girls wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole. As I have said numerous times before, I am NOT a nice person. I would like to add that I always intend to get what I want.

I wanted Benji.

She had Benji.

If that made me a bitch, fine. If that made me a slut, whatever. I could live with that. I was selfish and wanted him all to myself. A fair trade, considering he had me. We were just then falling in love. That night, I would have done anything for him.

The morning came too quickly for me. I rolled over to avoid the sunlight. I knew Benji was gone. I could feel the distinct lack of his presence in my attic room. The feeling that came with this revelation disturbed me. I pushed it from my mind and got up. While I was dressing, I discovered that the scratch on my leg had healed. I didn't bother rewrapping it, despite the fact that the long red welt was clearly visible.

I worse pants for that and another reason that had nothing to do with vanity. I was going to need the mobility and didn't have time for worrying about skirt length. The pants weren't as low as some of the girls liked to wear, but they were fairly snug and made my hips and ass look good. I topped it off with a shirt that showed off a good six inches of midriff. This effect, of course, was ruined by Benji's hooded sweater. It had been on top of the already made futon when I got up, folded.

That had been the only thing of Benji left in the room and, I suspected, the house.

I pulled on a spare coat over that. The sweater's material was thin from long use and I would probably need the extra coat on the walk home, but for this morning, it was a precaution. It was up to Benji how we were going to play this little game we had unwittingly set into motion. And I did notice that my black coat (the one that got us into this mess) was gone.

I made Zack drove me and Alex to school. Alex kept glancing nervously at me. Normally, he took the bus. He seemed to think that being spotted in the same car as me would somehow affect my standing in the school. It would, but not in anyway that I cared. We pulled up in front of the school and, in plain view of a slew of Pinks and punks, got out together and, travesty of travesties, walked up the sidewalk together.

"There's gonna be hell to pay," muttered Alex. After living with me for a year, he had become privy to the innermost workings of Pink culture. Not all of them, mind you, but most.

"Good," I said, "It was time I made my position clear anyways."

"Well, well, Natalie," cooed Carol, coming up to me with the ususal flock, "What have we here? Don't tell me you're doing charity work, honey."

"Don't be an idiot, Carol," I said, cooly, "Alex is living with us. As far as I'm concerned, he's family. Get it?" There was a challenge there, plain as day. No Pink messed with another Pink's family member unless that Pink was in on it. Simple, straight forward and the reason behind most fights between our kind.

"Got it," said Carol, flouncing off. Most of the girls followed her, but two girls stayed behind. Marissa and Lexi.

"That wasn't smart, Natalie," said Marissa, frowning. Marissa would have been a good candidate for Alpha Pink if she wasn't a Freshman. I was told that it was also because she resembled me too much, but I wasn't so sure. Marissa seemed way too ladylike for that. "She'll be after him now," she said, with a nod to Alex, "There's going to be trouble."

Lexi didn't say anything, but looked at Alex and frown, worried. Lexi was a sweet little Freshman who was way too nice to be a proper Pink and often followed Marissa around like a baby duck. Lexi was shy and on top of that had a huge crush on Alex, which he was naturally oblivious to. She nodded in agreement.

"Honey," I said with a grin, "You don't know the half of it." I unzipped my coat. Lexi went pale and Marissa's frown deepened.

"Please tell me you aren't wearing Benji White's sweater," Marissa said, quietly.

"The one and only."

Marissa sighed, "I'll see what we can do, but I'm not making any promises. My little brother's coming here next year and I've got his welfare to consider. He wants to go out for football, you know." With that, she walked off, Lexi trailing after her. Alex shot me a look.

"What's she gonna do?"

"Start the rumor mill whirring," I said, slipping off my jacket and stuffing it into my bag.

Alex frowned, "About what?"

"About this," I said, pointing at the sweater, "About me. About Benji."

Alex gave me a blank look. "Huh?"

I looked over at him out of the corner of my eye. "I don't know about him, but after what went down last night, I don't know if I'll be able to keep my hands off of him. If there are going to be rumors, I would prefer to have a more positive spin on them."

"Wait... You just started a rumor...about YOURSELF?!"

"Yep."

"Isn't that kind of strange?"

"Yep."

"And you did it to PROTECT Benji?!"

"Bulls-eye, bro," I said, making the gun signal with my hand and firing, "Keep it under your hat."

"But...I'm not wearing a hat," protested Alex. He get's a little...let's say off-balanced when he's confused.

"Not a soul is to know about this," I rephrased, darkly, "Not even Benji. Got it?"

"Y-yeah."

"Hey, Alex!" called a voice to our left. The punk side of the school's courtyard. A girl with multicolored hair and multiple facial percings came up. She shot me a dark glare, "Yo man, what's up? This chick giving you problems?"

Ah-ha, once again, my reputation precedes me.

"Huh? Oh, no! This is Natalie."

The girl rolled her eyes, "I know who she is. I wanna know if she's giving you problems."

Alex shot me a confused look. I sighed, exasperated, "Oh for...Bothering you I am, to know wants she, yes?"

Understanding lite up his face. "Oh! No, it's cool! I live with Natalie, ya know!"

Swear to God, sometimes the only thing that boy can understand is Yoda speak.

"See ya, Alex," I said, with a nod to the girl, "I got a war to ignite."

" 'kay, have fun," he said, kissing me on the cheek.

As I walked off, I heard the girl ask, "Isn't that Benji's sweater?"

"You'll have to ask my hat."

I chuckled softly, going into the school. He's definitely worth all the problems he's caused me. But was Benji worth it? "That's the trick question, isn't it?" I said to myself, opening my locker.

"Talking to yourself again?" It was weird to hear warmth in the voice that had only the day before been so cold to me. His arms slid around me from behind, wrapping themselves around my waist. I recognized the black sleeves of my coat.

"I had a feeling you were gonna wear that," I said with a laugh. He laughed and kissed the side of my neck. He must have had a neck fetish or something, he had kissed my neck more times than my lips. Not that I'm complaining. "You're being awfully friendly."

"Yeah, I know," he said, softly, all the joking gone, "It feels weird." We stood there for awhile, leaning against each other, his arms wrapped around me. "So, how ya wanna do this?"

"Well," I said slowly, "I already got a rumor about us started."

"Huh?"

"That's what Alex said."

I could feel the tension through his body. Keep in mind, we've only been on friendly terms for about 15 hours or so. There was still a lot we were going to have to learn about the way the two of us worked. "What sort of rumor?"

"Don't sound so mistrusting," I said, exasperated, turning in his arms, "I got a couple of friends of mine to spread a VERY vague rumor that Natalie Hill is wearing Benji White's sweater and was seen acting friendly with Alex Knight."

"And that's supposed to help us how exactly?"

I sighed, "Well, it could go both ways. Like, since I broke up with Max last week, people may say I'm on the rebound and you horned in to get some ass." It was actually kind of funny how his eyes got big. "Or, if Carol Bernheart get's hold of it, it may come about that I'm a slut who's sleeping around with a shit load of punks. The ideal is that we're dating, which will cause problems in and of itself."

If his eyes got any bigger, they would have popped out of his skull. "So...ARE we dating?"

"I don't know," I said, with a shrug, "But considering what happened last night, I figured we'd have a hard time acting like nothing's changed."

"That might be easier than having a rumor going around that you're a slut," pointed out Benji. He looked so cute, looking all serious like that, I couldn't help but kiss him lightly.

"Not gonna happen," I mumbled against his lips, "I like touching you way too much." Benji pressed me up against the lockers.

"Yeah," he growled, his tongue flicking out across my lips, "I like you touching me, too." I'm sure you're all clamoring to know things like what A) Benji's kisses tasted like, B) what his did with his tongue and C) wether it was soft and sweet, or hard and hot.

A) Benji tasted like Benji. B) I'm not sure, but whatever he did, I LIKED it! C) I'll take hard and hot for a thousand.

"God, Benji, I didn't know you were into sluts like her."

Fuck.

We came apart to look over. Ah, it was the little dog. Benji's girlfriend. She stood there, glaring at us. Specifically, ME. You know, I never get why the girlfriend always gets mad at the Other Girl when THEIR guy is the one with HIS tongue down her throat. Well, I guess that it was mostly my fault this time. "Shit," murmured Benji.

Truer words were never spoken.