A month into their secret affair they were sitting in the garage alone; they had told their friends that they were busy, so that no one would bother them. Kelsie sat on the couch up with her feet up on the arm, listening to Craig sing the first song he wrote her.

He stopped with the guitar still in his arms, as he gazed into Kelsie’s eyes, smiling. Kelsie’s eyes sparkled back at him.

“I love that song,” kissing his hand, gently biting his index finger.

“I’m glad, so when do your parents get home?” brushing her hair with his fingers.

“They just phoned this afternoon, saying that they have to head to Calgary for a couple of days more. They’ll be home by Thursday.”

“How are you feeling about this?” putting his arm around her shoulders. He knew how much it hurt her, feeling as if they didn’t care. It was eating her away.

“At this point I don’t care; I’m just so tired of fighting with them about it every time I see them. I’m tired of having to take care of everything here, when it’s not my job,” wanting to scream out so bad, but she restrained herself. She didn’t want to be down all the time in front of him.

“Why don’t you let me help you with that?” hating to see what this was doing to her. He wanted so bad to go over there and tell her parents what he thought of them. She was such a great girl, and yet they wouldn’t know because they didn’t really know her.

“It’s not your job,” not wanting him to get involved, knowing that would only make matters worse.

“But I want to help,” he pleaded, rubbing her leg.

“Okay,” she got up, and sat on Craig’s lap, facing him. She started to kiss him; while he rubbed her back as they kissed, she put her hands under his legs.

They heard the handle giggling, and were startled; Kelsie quickly jumped off his lap and sat in another chair, as the door opened. They couldn’t get caught; they weren’t quite ready for others to know.

Jimmy looked at both their faces, to see that they weren’t even keeping eye contact with each other. He knew something was up, but what? “What are you guys up to?”

“Oh we were just fooling around, playing some music,” Kelsie said as she blushed.

“What are you doing here?” Craig asked.

“Oh Ash was doing something with her father tonight, so I had nothing else to do,” he said sitting down on an empty chair.

Craig and Kelsie just stared at each other, wishing that he hadn’t interrupted them.

******

As the months went by it became harder to hide their relationship; they had many close calls. It only made it the affair even more exciting, knowing that any moment they could be found out.

It was May, Kelsie walked out of MI class, Spinner waved at her with a great big smile on his face. He looked a little happier then usually to see her.

“Hey sexy, how are you today?” Spinner asked brushing her shoulder with the back of his hand making her feel a little unconformable, knowing that she already had a boyfriend.

She couldn’t really blame him since he didn’t know. She wanted to tell him not to do that that she had a boyfriend, but she couldn’t. “Fine, how about you?”

“Well I could be better if…” he stopped, wanting to sweep her off somewhere.

“If what?” wondering what he wanted. Hoping that she was wrong about what he was just about to ask. The  last thing she needed was to have him after her.

“If you would go out with me tonight,” grinning at her, hoping that she would take up his offer.

Kelsie was speechless; she didn’t expect this. How would she let him down without giving her away that she had a secret boyfriend? She smiled, “I wish I could, but already have plans with a friend from my Media Immersion class…sorry…maybe another night.”

“Alright, I’m going to hold you to that,” he would defiantly make sure about that. He wanted her to be his; she wasn’t like any other girl at Degrassi. She was different, seemed more mature.

“Bye,” she waved as she walked up the stairs. As she got around the corner she laughed, she couldn’t believe what had just happened. It seemed since she had been going out with Craig, she had been attracting all these guys.

******

Craig was in the band room, strumming on his guitar when Paige strolled through the doors, strutting her stuff, making sure she was noticed. She had a short pleaded jean skirt, with a white shirt, “Hey there.”

Craig looked at her, but then went right back to his guitar. It didn’t really faze him, he just kept playing his guitar; to him no one compared to Kelsie.

Brushing her hair behind her ear, giving him big smile, “What are you up to?”

“What does it look like?” he said, thinking how stupid could she be. Well maybe he shouldn’t have been so rude to her.

“Oh yeah, stupid me,” she laughed slightly. “Well I was thinking since now that Spinner and I are through, that tonight you and I could get together,” grabbing the collar of his shirt.

“I don’t think so,” removing her hands, feeling a little bit awkward about the situation. Maybe he should just come clean about his relationship; at least it would get her off his back.

“Why not, we’re both free?” confident that she would eventually break him. Any guy would die to have a piece of her, but she was choosing him.

“Because I’ve got plans,” frustrated that she couldn’t take no as an answer.

“Why don’t you skip it,” resting her hands on his inner thighs, coming closer to his ear, whispering, “We could have a little fun, if you know what I mean. Here’s a preview.”

Paige jumped up on his lap, and began kissing him rough, tugging his upper lip. He stopped it almost as soon as it started, placing her back on the ground. “Don’t you get the meaning of NO?”

“Oh come on your plans can’t be better than that?” thinking pretty highly of herself.

“I’m not going to date my friend’s ex, only a couple of weeks after their break-up,” knowing that wasn’t the real reason, but he couldn’t tell her that.

“Fine, it’s your loss,” she said tossing her hair back as she walked out of the room. She had never been rejected and she wasn’t pleased.

******

Craig arrived at Kelsie’s house with a single red rose behind his back. He waited at the door, until she answered. As the door opened, his smile became larger.

“Hey,” she said pulling him in the house by his free hand.

“I had quite the interesting afternoon today,” Craig said as he strolled through the living room.

“You too!” remembering her encounter with Spinner today.

“Paige came onto me, and even told me that she wanted to sleep with me.”

Kelsie couldn’t believe her ears, why would she just be so forward with someone she wasn’t even dating. I guess this was a side of Paige she never knew about. She was a little mad that she had gone after Craig, but she couldn’t really blame her when she didn’t know he was taken. “Well Spinner asked me out, and was being all flirty with me. I’ve never seen him act this way with me before. We’re going to have to tell them soon before little Miss Paige tries a little bit more on you.”

“I know but it’s been so much FUN,” kissing her on the nose before handing her the rose.

Changing the subject, “I’ve decided something,” she said sitting down on the couch.

“What would that be?” sitting next to her.

“I’ve decided that it’s time to finally take this ring off,” taking it off her finger, and placing it on the side table.

“You know you don’t have to do that for me. I know how much that means to you.”

“It still does, but I think it’s time. I want you to know that I’m totally committed to you, so I don’t think I’ts right for me to wear it on my hand any longer. I will always love him, but he no longer holds my whole heart anymore.”

“You truly amaze me,” he smiled. He couldn’t believe that he was giving that up for him. It meant a lot to him, more then she would ever know.

“How about we go make dinner now?”

“Sounds good to me, I’m starved! What are we having?”

“Grilled chicken on the BBQ, with corn on the cob.”

“Yummy,” grabbing her hand as they walked towards the kitchen.

When she got out all their supplies for dinner, “Why don’t you start up the BBQ, while I make my special BBQ sauce?”

“Okay, but I’ll need a lighter.”

“There’s one in the drawer by the stove.”

After Kelsie was finished in the kitchen, she brought the food out to Craig, so he could cook it. She then went back into the kitchen to get the plates and silverware to set the table that was on the deck.

*****

Kelsie came behind Craig putting her arms around his waist, and kissed his shoulder, before leaning her chin on it. “I can’t believe it’s been 3 months already, and we actually pulled it off.”

“I know,” putting his hands on top of hers.

Coming up with a great idea, “I say we tell them at the last dance, by showing up in each others arms.”

Craig turns around to face her, “You know I’ve been thinking lately about how you make me feel. I know what I feel about you I’ve never felt with anyone else. I was able to show all of myself to you, to open up. In past relationships you know I was never able to do that.” Moving the hair away from her face, so he could look into her eyes, “This is a feeling I’ve been having since last fall, before your birthday. I’m telling you today that I can truly say to you that I love with you with all I have.”

Tears trickled down her cheeks, she was overjoyed by his words, “Craig, I know that I’m falling head over heals in love with you. I’m glad that I was able to find love once again. When I look into your eyes I know everything will be alright, you make me forget all my worries, the way no one has before.”

Craig put his finger on Kelsie’s lip to stop her from talking anymore, so he could kiss her. She stopped the kiss for a second; making Craig think something was wrong. She jumped up on the railing to sit on it. She grabbed Craig’s hands, bringing him closer to her again. He then leaned back to the kiss her nice soft lips; he put his hands on her butt so she wouldn’t fall backwards.

******

Spinner and Paige both arrived at Kelsie’s house at the same time, getting out of their vehicles. Both had a surprised look on their face, when they saw each other, unsure why the other one would be at Kelsie’s house right now.

“What are you doing here Spin?” knowing that Kelsie wasn’t close friends with him.

“Well I could ask you the same thing,” he ranted, even though he knew she was probably there for girl talk or something.

“Well she is my best friend. I wanted to see what she was up to,” she lied.

“Well I’m here to see who she was seeing.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I asked her out, and she said other plans, so I figured it had to be a date.”

“Maybe that Brennan guy is in town. She told me a while back that she had a thing for him, and then he came to see her around Easter time,” she said as they climbed the stairs.

They knocked on the door, but no one came, that’s when they heard giggling coming from the backyard. “Let’s see what that is,” Paige suggested. She was curious to know if it was Brennan.

“I’m behind you.”

They walked towards the backyard, opening the gate. Kelsie and Craig didn’t even hear the squeaking of the gate, they were too busy having their own fun.

Paige and Spinner came around the corner, to discover Kelsie making out with someone, who looked familiar, but they didn’t figure it out right away.

“Hun, you should check on the food before it burns,” Kelsie said, remembering that they were in the middle of making dinner.

Craig turned around, stunning both Paige and Spinner. Paige was a little disappointed; she had really begun to actually like him. Now she comes to think of it, it totally made sense. How did she not figure out sooner? Were they really too caught up in their own lives?

“So what do we have here?” Spinner asked, as he walked up the deck stairs with Paige.

The sound of another freaked Kelsie out, she wasn’t expecting it, “Oh my goodness, you scared me. What are you guys doing here?”

“Well I wanted to see what was so special you couldn’t break your plans for me,” Spinner answered.

“And I wanted to talk to you about how to get Craig, but I can see that’s out of the question now.”

“Well I guess you guys found us out,” Craig said, somewhat glad that they wouldn’t have to sneak around. He wanted the whole world to know how much he loved her.

“How long have you been going out?” Paige asked.

“Since the day Spin and Jimmy found us kissing.”

“I thought you thought of him as only a brother,” putting her hands on her hip.

“Well I had to give some reason why I wouldn’t date him, and that was the first thing that came to my mind. See I wanted to have something in my life that people wouldn’t make a big deal about; I had too much commotion going on in my life. I’m sorry I lied to you,” giving her a hug. She hoped that Paige wasn’t mad.

“I understand, you do deserve to be happy,” she smiled, knowing how much she had been through this last year.

“Dude, I guess you finally got what you’ve been wishing for,” Spinner said patting him on the back, as Craig took the food off the grill.

“Yes, and she makes me the happiest man in the world, words can’t even describe the feeling,” he said as he watched her talk away with Paige in the corner.

“Sweetie, our food’s ready,” he called out.

“Alright.”

“I guess we’ll leave you two to yourselves,” Paige said grabbing Spinner by the arm as if he was a child, just as she had done when they went out.

“Bye,” they both said as they headed down the path.

“So what do you want to do tonight?” Craig asked as they sat down outside to eat.

“Well we could take a dip in the pool. This spring seems to be a hot one…” raising her eyebrow.

You could say that again, he thought, because that meant she was in much less clothes, not that she didn’t look good in anything she wore, it’s just he loved it when she showed off her great long legs.

“…if this is an indication what summer’s going to be like than we’re in trouble.”

“Well it can have its advantages,” he sad raising a brow.

Kelsie rolled her eyes, “You are so bad,” lightly slapping him on the arm.

“You know it.”

Later on by the pool, Kelsie came walking down the path, doing a little fashion show, showing off her little blue flower bikini. After she was finished, Craig picked her up and jumped in the pool with her in his arms.

She tore out of his arms, and began to splash him in the face to get him back.

“You’re going to regret that,” Craig hollered.

“Oh am I,” starring at him over her shoulder.

“Yep.” He dived deeper into the water. Kelsie couldn’t see where he had gone, all of a sudden, he came up underneath her, and she ended up on his shoulders.

“What are you doing?” she shrieked, almost falling backwards.

Craig then flung her into the water, making her go flying. He started to giggle. This was a lot of fun, he thought.

“Oh you think that’s funny.”

“Yeah,” she started to move farther away from him. He decided to swim after her.

“You can try to catch me all you want, but you won’t be able to.”

He actually caught up with her, bringing her into his arms. Holding her in his arms, “You were saying,” he bragged he had just proved her wrong.

“Okay,” she turned around allowing him to kiss her. She allowed this for a little bit, but then she pushed him away, climbing out of the pool before running for the house; Craig wasn’t too far behind her.

As she approached the house, Craig almost caught her, but the door slammed in his face. He quickly opened it, running after her into the living room. He ended up tackling her onto the couch, tickling her. He had her laughing so hard that she felt like she was going to pee her pants.

“Stop, stop, stop,” she squealed, moving uncontrollably.

“Do you surrender, no more running,” looking into her eyes.

Putting her hand on her chest, “I promise.”

“Good!”

He leaned down, and began to nibble on her ear gently, slowly shifting his lips to the middle of her neck. His very touch made tingles travel down her back. Craig moved his hand down her side as the other one was keeping him steady, her back began to arch.  He loved the way her body was reacting to his every touch.

Kelsie touched his jaw, guiding his face back to her lips, and kissed him hard, pulling on his lower lips with her teeth.

“I need you, right now,” she moaned.

“Are you sure you’re ready for this step?” Craig asked, not wanting her to do anything she may not be ready to do.  He didn’t want to make her feel pressure because he would wait forever.

“Yes.”

He pulled her up off the couch, and he held her hand as they walked up the stairs to her room; they were both smiling. They stopped a couple of times on the way to share a little kiss.

When they entered her room, they began kissing, slowly walking towards the bed. As they approached the bed, Kelsie slowly pushed Craig on it.

******

Kelsie woke-up the next morning with her head on Craig’s bare chest. She smiled just thinking of last night; it had been filled with magic, a feeling that she couldn’t describe. Last night had been the first real night that she hadn’t wished that she couldn’t go back and change the past. She was finally going to let herself truly love another, and move on.

Craig woke-up, wrapping his arms around her, kissing her on the top of her head, “Morning,” he smiled.

“Morning, how did you sleep?”

“Wonderful.” Anytime he was with her was wonderful. She filled his life with so much joy.

“How about we go have some breakfast, than get dressed? We have practice in like 3 hours, so we need to be ready.”

“Okay.” He wished that they could stay like this forever though.

Kelsie darted out of bed, and down the stairs, as Craig chased after her again. Boy he loved this girl, he thought. He didn’t feel that life could be anymore perfect then this.

Kelsie and Craig walked into school Monday morning, beaming. They had a great weekend together. The first thing they saw was Jimmy and Ashley standing by Mr. Simpson’s classroom, talking amongst themselves closely.

“Hey,” Kelsie said, as they passed them, waiting for them to ask questions about her and Craig; she was a little eager to tell the world about it.

“Hey you two,” Jimmy said.

“How was your date the other night Kels?” Ash asked, wondering if Craig knew about it. Knowing that he still was in love with Kelsie, but she didn’t seem to feel the same way for him. She kind of felt bad for him though, the boys tried to set him up a couple of times but it never seemed to work.

“It was great,” she said glancing over at Craig, giving him a big smile.

“Well that’s good,” delighted to see that her friend was finally finding happiness again. She only hoped that Craig would finally find it too. She knew it couldn’t be easy for him to hear that, she knew that he loved Kelsie by the way he lit up when she was around.

“Well we have to go to our lockers, see you later,” Kelsie said, hating lying to her friend. She wanted to show the world that she was falling for Craig.

“Bye.”

Once around the corner, “I’m surprised that they didn’t know we were dating, I was sure that Paige would have opened up her big mouth about it by now,” Craig whispered, as Kelsie placing her arms around his arm.

“I know, but maybe she got the idea that we wanted to be the ones to tell others about our relationship,” as they climbed the stairs to their lockers.

“Maybe,” knowing how much Paige liked to gossip.

Manny and JT were strolling their way, holding hands; still looking like they did when they started the relationship, unable to keep their eyes off each other. No one would have guessed they would've lasted one date, let alone a year. Noticing Craig and Kelsie rather cozy, “Oh, so you’ve finally landed your lady,” Manny said to Craig.

“Yeah, I’m lucky that she finally would have me,” looking over at Kelsie with a twinkle in his eye, and a big smile.

“Well I hope you are as happy as we are,” JT stated, glancing at Manny.

“We are!” Kelsie said squeezing Craig’s hand slightly. Guess everyone would know soon, she knew that Manny would tell Emma, and JT, Toby, so it would be a matter of time before everyone knew.

******

Kelsie sat in the library doing a Family Management project, writing down some notes. Spinner and Jimmy were supposed to be helping her but they were too busy goofing off, as per usual. She was getting a little annoyed because it was worth 20% of their final mark, and she sure didn’t want to fail because of these two boneheads.

“Guys can you please help me?” she said harshly, as she had finely had it with the two of them. She was already stressed out from other things going on in her life.

Spinner changed the subject right away, “So what did you and Craig do after we left the other night?” nudging her arm a little.

“What?” Jimmy said surprised, looking at Kelsie, “What is he talking about?

“They’re going out,” Spinner blurted out before Kelsie got a chance to answer.

“Since when?” feeling out of the loop.

“Well we’ve been together since after the movies, that day you and Spin found me and Craig kissing. We’ve been keeping it a secret; only Spin and Paige caught us the other night, and it would have been too hard to make up another believable story.”

“Oh man! I can’t believe Craig was able to keep it a secret. He couldn’t even keep it to himself about having two girls last year,” Jimmy acknowledged. Well Craig did say he would get her, he guess that he actually kept that promise.

“I know what you mean,” putting his arm around Kelsie, smiling, “but this girl is extra special to him,” Spinner said making Kelsie feel good. He wanted her to know that she was different then the other girls that Craig had dated.

“Why thanks!” she blushed.

******

Craig and Kelsie strolled into her house, to the usual silence, only to find her mother sitting in the living room, with a fuming look on her face. Craig and Kelsie glanced at each other, wondering what was wrong with her.

Surprised by her presence, “Mom when did you get home?” Kelsie asked.

“Funny thing, I’m in the Seattle when I got a phone call from Joey today,” her mother spoke, she glimpsed over at Craig and him at her. Wondering how Joey even got her number in the first place.

“Oh, what about?” she asked even though she already knew the answer to that.

“He wanted to know if Craig had been staying here since he sure hadn’t been staying at any of his guy friends’ houses. So of course, I don’t know what he’s talking about,” pacing back and forth. “So has he, because I haven’t been home so I wouldn’t really know,” she yelled, coming closer to Kelsie, with a look that could kill. Craig wasn’t sure he wanted to be here for her wrath, but knew he didn’t want to leave Kelsie to face it on her own.

 She couldn’t lie to her, what was the point, “If you want to know the truth…yes, but…”

“How long has this been going on…behind our backs?” she yelled, furious that Kelsie had the nerve to pull something like this. She had no right to allow her little boyfriend to stay in her house, who knows what they had been up to half the time.

“Since February.”

Grabbing on to Craig’s arm tightly, reminding of how his father use to grab him, “I want you out of my house, and I don’t want to see you near my daughter again,” she roared. She wouldn’t allow someone to take advantage of her daughter to get what they wanted.

“NO!!!!” Kelsie cried. There was no way she was going to let that happen. She wouldn’t let her mother do this to her.

Removing Mrs. Fitzgerald hand, he didn’t want her to have the wrong impression of him, “Let me explain, it’s not what you think!!!”

“I don’t want to hear anything that comes out of your mouth, you good for nothing punk.”

Getting into her mothers face, “I will not have you speak about him like that, you don’t even know him. You don’t know anything!” she shouted. Having a hard time remembering the last conversations she had with her mother.

“I don’t care; you wouldn’t have done this if you hadn’t met him,” believing that was true.

“Mom, how would you know what I would have done?” feeling like she didn’t really know much about her since they got that big job at the firm.

“What are you talking about?” confused by all of this, by the way her daughter was acting, of course she knew.

“Did you know that Chris stayed at our house most nights when you and dad went away on business, or that sometimes I stayed at his house? And when he died how all of a sudden, I was like a completely different person, that I treated my friends horribly, trying to pretend that nothing happened. I was stuck in a hole that only Craig was able get me out of.”

She looked at her daughter with dismay, “What?”

Craig grabbed a hold of her hand, and squeezed it, letting her know that he was there to support her. “See…you don’t play attention to anything, if you did you would have seen something was up. You never listened to my cries for you and dad to stay home; you acted as if my opinion didn’t count, like I wasn’t a part of your life anymore,” she leaned her head on Craig’s shoulder, trying not to let the tears run down her face. This was so hard on her, almost too much for her to handle, but it all had to be said.

“Mrs. Fitzgerald did you know, that some nights when I’ve stayed here, I heard your daughter cry herself to sleep, when she thought that I was sleeping. There’s a part of her that struggles to fully open up to anyone,” he was glad he was finally able to get off his chest what he thought about this whole situation.

Mrs. Fitzgerald was astonished about how much she really didn’t know about her own daughter. She couldn’t even think about the last time they had sat down and just talked, or even had a family night. Had she and her husband been that busy to notice how much she was hurting inside? In a much subtle voice, “Craig I think maybe you should leave, my daughter and I really should talk by ourselves.”

He glanced at Kelsie, looking into her eyes to make sure she was okay with that, he didn’t want to leave her if it was going to make her upset. “It’s okay; I’ll talk to you later.”

“Okay, love you,” he said leaning in for a quick kiss, before heading out the front door.

******

Craig came home to find no signs of Joey, so he thought he was home free; well at least a little while, he wasn’t in the mood to fight with him too right now. He walked through his room door to find Joey sitting on his bed. He dropped his head, and whispered, “Damn.”

“So you’ve been lying to me about your whereabouts…why?” wanting know the truth, he hated to be lied to. Craig needed to treat him with respect, even if he wasn’t his real dad.

“Kelsie’s parents seem to go away a lot, and she hated being alone in such a big house, I stayed there so that she wouldn’t be.”

“That’s not an excuse for lying to me,” he said with disappointment, he thought that Craig knew better. He thought he and Craig had a better relationship then that.

“What was I supposed yo do, tell you I was staying at my girlfriends? Like that would really blow over well,” he said looking straight at Joey without blinking.

“I thought you really had grown up after what happened with Ashley and Manny,” standing up.

“This is what it always comes back to with you, I’m sorry we can’t all be PERFECT like you,” as he went to leave his room, “Oh that’s right you were in the same position around my age,” walking out, leaving Joey to think of what he had said.

“How dare you?” he yelled.

Turns around, “What, you can bring stuff up, but I can’t?”

“We’re talking about you, not me. I’m not the one who’s been sneaking around, am I?” he sneered.

Rolling his eyes, “No. You know what Joey, I had my chance to cheat on Kelsie, but I never did, because she means more to me than life itself.”

“That’s not all I was talking about Craig. I’m talking about the chance that she may get pregnant. That’s the last thing you need right now; I want more for your life. I don’t want anything to hold you back from things you want to do in life. Kids are work; you don’t always get to do the things you want once they come along.”

Craig couldn’t believe that Joey thought about those things for him. Yeah he was his stepson, but it’s not the same as if he was his own. Had he been wrong about the way Joey felt all these years?