A/N: I know. I suck. I genuinely suck. And when I explain why I haven't updated, it's not an excuse. It's a legit reason, I swear. Well, I think I've said this, but I babysat a kid pretty much all last week and the week before, and we did insane hours. My sister and I would watch him for about 11 hours per day. And then I finally finished that and had a jam-packed weekend (including, a sleepover with a friend I haven't seen in forever, catching up on sleep the day after, babysitting little kids, and going to a PHENOMINAL Jonas Brothers concert). Not to mention I just got braces. But now I'm free. I should be free for the next two weeks, and then my weekend is filled, then a free week, then a week long vacation. Sorry. You probably don't wanna hear all about my hectic schedule, but I'm just saying this now to warn you all: updates will be scattered. I adore this story. I really do. But I've been surprisingly social, and it doesn't seem to be slowing down anytime soon. Before I know it, school will be back again (insert shudders here) and my time might be limited more. Who knows? But anyways, thank you for all of the incredible reviews!! I believe I got sixteen . . . hope that's right, and thanks to all who've reviewed! I love the long ones, as I've said before, and I got plenty of those. Yay! Anyways, I'll stop extending this incredibly long author's note with my rant and let you read the story. Enjoy!

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

After another two days of work, it was my first day off. Not gonna lie, I had been pretty disappointed when I learned that I don't get my paycheck until after two weeks of work, but I quickly got over it. I had just been happy that within less than a week, Oliver and I had moved past the awkward stares and uncomfortable silences and became . . . friends. During work we'd talk to each other and laugh as Oliver tried to teach me the ropes of working at the grocery store. Our lunches were spent sitting at the same table, laughing at stupid jokes or silly high school moments. No, I couldn't talk to him about everything like I could with Miley, but I have a feeling that we're working our way towards that point. Slowly but surely.

Speaking of Miley, where was she? She was supposed to meet me here fifteen minutes ago. She wanted more details on my working experience. Especially if the details consisted of a certain floppy-haired boy. We'd talked on the phone endlessly each day after work, but there's only so much you can say when each of us had older brothers potentially tapping in to our conversation. And with Miley's boy-loathing dad and my mom trying to nudge her way in my life anyway she could, the only place we could ever spill everything to each other was when we were at the beach or the mall. Even the Hannah concerts were off limits due to nosy paparazzi. So here I am now.

So here I am, sitting at the food court by the mall all by myself. And she can't even say that she doesn't know where I am, because we sit at the same table each time. The third one back, only a few feet to the right of the carousel. It's our spot. So where the heck is she?

Almost as if she's read my mind, my phone vibrated in my pocket. Pulling it out, I noticed it was a text message from her.

Sorry, Lilly. Emergency Hannah thing. I'll make it up to you.

I'm pretty sure Miley and I are the only ones who text with proper grammar. Everyone else abbreviates things, yet we still take the time to capitalize and insert things like commas. I know. We're freaks.

But now what am I supposed to do? I specifically didn't make any plans for today so that I could hang out with Miley. Now that Miley isn't coming . . . well, that puts a damper on things. And I can't just get up and leave, either. What if someone's watching me? They'll think I've been stood up. Oh, I know what I'll do. I'll make a whole scene of fumbling for my phone, reading a text, making some dramatic facial expression, then walk out like I had somewhere important to be. Yes, that'll work.

I'll pull out my phone in five, four, three, two . . .

Hey. I c u.

What? I glanced at the phone only to see the words Smokin' Oken flashing across the top of the screen. Of course. But . . . where is he?

Closing my phone and sliding it back in my pocket, I glanced around. For a Saturday afternoon, it was surprisingly empty. And no one had shaggy brown hair like Oliver. So unless he got some new haircut, he isn't here.

Just as I was about to pull out my phone, I heard someone call my name. "Lilly!" I heard it again. I realized it was coming from above me. Glancing up, I saw a hand hanging out over the top level of the carousel. I waited a few seconds until it came around again. Then I saw Oliver's head extending over the safety railing and his hand waving at me. "Hi Lilly!"

I had to wait another couple of seconds before he came around again. "Hi Oliver!" Sure, some people gave us weird looks and a few glares, but I didn't mind. My crush, who also happened to be my newest friend, was calling my name and waving. It would be rude to just ignore him.

Standing up, I walked over to the exit of the ride and stood there for a few minutes until the ride slowed to a stop. I watched as people poured out of the gate, mostly little kids smiling up at nauseous parents, and wondered if I had just imagined Oliver. But after a few more seconds, I saw him walking down the stairs and out the gate.

"Hey Lilly," he greeted, smiling. "Uh, this," he reached behind him and gently pushed a little girl in front of him, "is my little sister Olivia."

Oliver has a sister? Why didn't he mention this at all? "Hi," the girl squeaked out. Her voice was soft and it was obvious she was shy and slightly uncomfortable with meeting a new person.

"Hi Olivia, my name is Lilly. I'm Oliver's friend," I offered a small wave and she smiled.

"Yeah, I know. Oliver always talks about you to his friends. He never thinks I'm listening, but I am." Did she just say what I think she just said? I think I'm gonna like this girl, and that's not even including the cute factor.

Oliver awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah, well, we work together and have fun. Of course I'm gonna tell people our wacky stories and jokes." There was a part of me that felt like it wasn't the truth. And there was another part of me that saddened that that's all he told to his friends.

I chuckled a bit to ease to uncomfortable atmosphere. "Yeah, well I'd probably be sharing stories with Miley if she were here. I was supposed to meet up with her about twenty minutes ago, but she had some kind of family emergency." I shrugged to let him know it wasn't anything serious. A family emergency is always a good excuse for an absence, because people never dig deeper. They just hear it and accept it.

"Oh, that bites," he said, making a face to show he didn't like the situation. But after a few seconds of silence, he shrugged and changed the topic. See, I told you. No one ever digs deeper, therefore making it the perfect excuse. "Hey, did you want something from the food court?"

I couldn't tell if he was talking to me or Olivia, but when I noticed his gaze flickered between mine and Olivia's, I shrugged. "I could go for some nachos right now."

"Oliver! I don't want nachos!" Olivia stomped her foot on the ground like any other frustrated little kid.

"Deal with it," he said in the nicest tone possible, still letting her know that she couldn't have her way.

"I bet Mom and Dad would let me get something else," she complained. And almost on cue, she spotted them on the other side of the food court, about to order some smoothies. "I'm going with them! Bye!"

Within seconds she was gone and I stifled a laugh. "You didn't tell me you had a little sister, or that she was so adorable."

"Ha, adorable is one word for her. Sure, she's my sister and I'd kill for her, but then she acts like what she is: an annoying eight year old," he groaned, pulling out a few dollar bills from his pocket and walking to the food stand.

"I can pay, you know." I started digging around in my pocket for money but Oliver held his hand up.

"Don't fret, Lil. I got this." He just called me Lil! I have a nickname!

Instead of pushing it, I remembered what all teen magazines had said. If he offers to pay, you can do the same. When he refuses to have you pay anything, let him do what he wants. No problems there.

I stopped ransacking my pockets and smiled. "Thanks."

Soon we had our two orders of nachos sitting in front of us at some random table. We ate in silence for a while, both feeling slightly awkward at seeing each other outside of work or school. Finally I couldn't stand the silence anymore and I looked around for some kind of conversation starter. It was then that I noticed the shirt he was wearing.

"Hey, is that The Maine on your shirt?"

He looked down at what he was wearing and smiled. "Yeah, they're one of my favorite bands. I was actually going to see them in concert last year, I even had the cash ready, but then my parents surprised me with a family reunion, so I had to miss it. You a fan?"

"Yes! They're music is amazing and John O'Callaghan is so . . ." I trailed off, looking at Oliver's face. His eyebrow was cocked, and a smirk was playing on his lips. "So . . . good at singing?" I finished, blushing at Oliver's chuckle.

Wait. I have an idea.

"So . . . you said you're a big fan, right?"

"Yeah, I love them."

"So you wouldn't mind going to one of their concerts?" Oliver stared at me, open mouthed. "I mean, I have tickets to one of their concerts. I'm in the process of paying my mom back for what she paid, but I've got the tickets. My mom doesn't wanna go, and Miley has clearly showed me that she'd rather be somewhere else, and you're a fan, so I wondering . . . did you want to come with me to the concert?"

Oliver was stuttering and tripping over his words. "Are you kidding me?" I shook my head, a small smile forming on my face at his reaction. "I'd love to! That'd be fantastic! Thank you so much, Lilly!"

What he did next surprised me. He actually stood up, walked over to my side of the table, bent down, and hugged me. Best four seconds of my life.

How do Miley's plans always seem to work?

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

After a long weekend, including getting hugged by Oliver and later blabbing all about it to Miley over the phone (not to mention my brother making fun of me later, when I found out he'd been listening on the other line and I promptly gave him a hard punch to the shoulder), I was back at work, feeling better than ever, though slightly nervous at the same time.

Miley told me that, now that I had accomplished a friendship with Oliver, I had to start dropping hints so he would see me as more girlfriend material than a good friend. But I'm Lilly. Have you ever seen me try to flirt? It usually includes me fumbling over my words, stuttering like crazy, tripping over objects, my face turning the color of a radish, and accidentally saying something either insulting or embarrassing. Usually both. So how am I supposed to go about doing this without making a complete fool of myself?

I was so uneasy, it was like my hands were wrestling. I tend to wring them when I'm nervous. Usually people either ask to smell my hands or borrow some lotion, which I don't have. Whatever.

But when I walked through the sliding doors into the store, my workplace, that morning, I was greeted by a different scene than usual. Instead of seeing workers moping around and slowly making their way to their proper stations, I saw people, mostly teens, running around and laughing.

What?

Picking up my pace, I power walked closer to the sight in front of my eyes. It looked as if it was girls against guys. Instead of using water balloons or water guns like usual, they were all using the spray bottles used for cleaning the conveyor belts. And I'm not gonna lie, it looked like fun. A lot of fun.

"Lilly! Help!" I turned my head slightly to the left and saw Kelly, a high school graduate using this job to pay for college, being attacked with squirt bottles by two other guys, while hers was empty. Happy to join in, I reached underneath the nearest check-out station and grabbed a squirt bottle.

"Kelly! Throw yours to me!" She did as I said, nearly whacking some guy in the nose with the bottle. Once I caught that, I gave her a quick heads up, and then threw the filled squirt bottle to her. I then sprinted to the nearest bathroom and filled the bottle with water. Just as I was about to run back and help the girls fight, Oliver blocked my path.

"Hey, Oliver. What are you . . ." I was cut off when he pulled out a clear squirt bottle from behind his back. With that stupid, cute smirk playing on his lips, I should have seen this coming. I slowly stepped back, but then darted down some random aisle of the store.

He was close on my tail, and every few seconds, I could feel a light douse of water on my back, knowing that, at this pace, it would be soaked in a matter of minutes. I finally decided to stop running. Turning around, I saw that his bottle was practically empty, whereas mine was completely full. He gave me a wide-eyed look, and then bolted in the opposite direction. I sprinted after him.

I caught up to him quickly and sprayed him non-stop, soaking his shirt all the way through and covering most of his back. "Ha, take that, Oken!" Thank god for skateboarding. Without it, I wouldn't have good leg muscles, meaning that I wouldn't have been able to catch up with him. Ha! Even better for me, he had accidentally run down a dead-end aisle. I've got him now.

And then it was just like any other chick flick or story where the girl is trying to get the guy. I, being an idiot, didn't double knot my shoes today like my mom always taught me. Therefore making the laces come undone. And you can guess what happened next. Yeah, I tripped. And you know who caught me?

Oliver.

I gotta say, he should try out for track. I wasn't even that close to him. But once he saw me going down, he ran over and caught me in his arms before I did a major face plant on the hard tile floor. And what, does he go to the gym every day or something? Because that's the first thing I noticed. He was strong enough to catch me and pull me up seemingly effortlessly. And trust me, when you're a teenage girl holding on to a teenage guy's arms to make sure you don't fall, you tend to notice things like their muscles. And how strong they are. Stupid hormones, stop making me go all crazy!

Once he pulled me up, he let go, much to my dismay. I looked down at all the dust that had clung to my wet shirt and tried to swipe it off. Once I was pretty sure that I had gotten it all off, I looked up. It was then that I realized how close we were standing. I'm guessing we were only six inches apart, but it felt even closer. He was looking straight into my eyes, and I was positively swooning.

"Lilly are you alright? You nearly broke your wrist falling down! Did you get hurt anywhere?" He looked so concerned that I couldn't help but smile. "Sorry," he blushed, "I usually babysit for my little sister and have to go through this whole routine of asking her if anything hurts. It just kind of blurted out."

I smiled even more. "No, it's alright. I'm fine. My shoes just tried to kill me, but whatever." I shrugged, slightly laughing at how ridiculous I must have looked. Sure, I had just insult4ed my shoes, but I was secretly praising them. Without their help, I wouldn't have gotten Oliver to help me.

He was smiling. I was smiling. We were standing only a few inches apart, and I was reminded of all the movies. This is where they both slowly lean in and kiss. They feel all the fireworks, pull apart, and decide that they love each other. I was playing this possible scenario in my head over and over again, when I finally noticed that we actually were slowly leaning in. We were still smiling, and both of us had started to close our eyes and the gap between us shrank.

Holy crap, I'm about to kiss Oliver!

We were less than an inch apart now, and the butterflies in my stomach were almost going to explode from excitement. Our eyes were completely closed, we were both standing there, our arms had reached up to hold on to each other, and the space between us was near extinction when . . .

"Truscott! Oken! Stop flirting and get back to work!" Have I ever mentioned how much I truly hate that manager?

We snapped apart, both flushing and blushing like there was no tomorrow. "Well, I, uhm, uh, we should, uh . . ." Oliver was the color of a fire truck and he was rubbing the back of his neck with the palm of his hand. I was the same shade of crimson and rubbing my arm rather roughly, one of my own nervous habits.

"Yeah, we should, uh, get back to work . . ." With that, we both gave each other a half smile, a awkwardly brief stare, and turned around, heading back towards our proper work stations. All I have to say is . . .

Best. Day. Ever.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

I know it doesn't make up for my unnecessarily long absence, but this chapter is an extra thousand words longer than most! And it was adorable! We had an almost-kiss! Plus, Oliver showed his sweet side and you got to meet his sister! Woo! Because of my lack of the ability to update on time, I tried not to make this a filler chapter, like the last few have been. I sincerely hope you enjoyed it! And although I don't really deserve them, please leave a review! It'll make my day and I SWEAR I'll respond! Pinky promise! So, please click that little button down there and drop a review! And if you have any funny stories or ideas, feel free to share! Remember, the longer, the better! Haha, anyways, I hope you liked this chapter! I'll work on the next one whenever I can! Thanks!

xoxo,
parakeet17