Yay! New story! LOL. This one-shot features joejonasplease, who answered my trivia question correctly. So good for her! Anyway, if you wanna be in one of my stories, answer the trivia questions and voilà! Oh, oh, and go vote on my poll. Pretty please?
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So here's the thing. Nathaniel and I have been best friends for years now. Basically, since we were these cool little babies in our diapers. So all this time, we've been best friends, and for almost as long, I've liked him.
Yes, I like my best friend. Get over it.
As I was saying, I like my best friend. What's the problem with this, you ask? Well, could it maybe, possibly be that he has absolutely no clue? And that while he comes to me to tell me about his crushes and how this girl talked to him in Math today (because he's a cute little nerd and this doesn't happen often), I'm pining away for him, like one of those damsels in distress in those old movies he likes to watch.
Maybe that wasn't what they did. But whatever.
We used to walk to school together every day back in elementary school, when our school was only three blocks away. Then, in middle school, we rode out bikes together, because the school was farther away. Now that we're in high school and he has a car, he drives me every day because the school is way too far to walk or bike there.
"Hey, Caits," he says as he walks into my kitchen and pours himself a cup of coffee.
"Don't you have coffee at your house?" I ask. He usually helps himself to some breakfast, too, which honestly makes me wonder what they feed him next door, if they feed him anything. But Mrs. Black always feeds me yummy things when I go over, so I'm sure they must have something.
"Nope. Mom's on a no-caffeine diet or something," he answers, now retrieving a glazed donut (that I was saving for my dessert tonight) from the cupboard where we keep all the good stuff.
"Is she on a no-donut diet, too?" I glare at him as I ask.
He takes a bite out of it, and just then notices me glaring at him. "You've gotta share, Caits!" he says, smirking at me.
"Dude, that happened eight years ago. Get over it," I say.
"I am not going to get over it. You used your manipulative powers on me to take that candy bar from me," he glares now, still upset over some little incident that happened when we were nine.
"I was a little kid! You were too! It's no big deal," I exclaim.
"Oh, puh-lease. Even back then you had a sick little manipulative mind," he says. "You've gotta share, Nate, sharing is good. Share your candy bar with me, Nate, c'mon, be a good friend!"
I laugh when he tries to imitate what I sounded like at nine. Before I can answer, Nate jumps up from his seat and grabs my bag and books, taking them outside. I think he was saying something about being late, but who knows?
"You know, this would be considered gentlemanly, except I know you're not trying to be like that at all," I tell him as I walk outside.
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When we get to school, Nate and I head to our first block. Somehow, we have all our classes together, except for second block, when I have newspaper and he has debate. I know, him, debating? But he's actually one of the most persuasive and argumentative people ever. You can never win with him.
I wave to Mitchie as we walk into the classroom. Mitchie was new here last year, so I took her in and when she started hanging out with us, she met Shane, Nate's cousin, and now they're all lovey-dovey and stuff. It's repulsive, but hey, at least she's happy. Standing next to Mitchie is, of course, Shane, and sitting on the desk next to hers is Ella. Ella and I have known each other pretty much all our lives, and we used to be play mates when we were kids 'cause our moms were friends, but then she started getting all girly and annoying and started hanging out with Tess Tyler, which meant I didn't really want to talk to her.
"Hey, guys, what's up?" I ask, just as the bell rings and our teacher walks in.
"Mr. Gray," she says. "I see you're visiting again."
Shane smiles at her. "I just can't stay away from you, Ms. Mathias," he says.
"Taking your final exam last year meant I didn't have to see you anymore," she replies. "Now, I'm sure your first block teacher misses you. Why don't you go pester him instead of me?"
"No other class will ever be as good as yours, Ms. Mathias," he answers, grinning cheekily. "But I suppose if you don't want me here, I'll have to oblige."
"Yes, thank you, Mr. Gray. Now leave," she orders. The class laughed at this scene, something we had to see several times a week. Shane was just completely reluctant to leave the classroom because he wanted to be with Mitchie, so he and Ms. Mathias would end up having the same conversation twice, even three times a week.
Mitchie giggles when Shane blows a kiss at her, and I roll my eyes pointedly, so Nate frowns at me. He doesn't like it when I roll my eyes at cutesy stuff. Could be because he's a total fluff-lover. Or something.
After first block is over, Nate and I part ways as I head to journalism and he goes to debate. Actually, we don't really part ways – the debate classroom is behind the journalism one and they're connected by a door. But hey, we parted ways, okay?
I walk into the newspaper room to be greeted by the relaxed ambient we always have. The editor-in-chief was sitting on the couch, calmly munching on popcorn and reading a magazine, the managing editor was sitting in the back table with the entertainment editor, the sports editor, and a couple of other people. The teacher was in the front of the classroom with all the rookies, and the rest of the page editors were scattered around the room. You wouldn't even guess we're in the middle of deadline. I put my stuff down where I always do, on one of the tables, when I notice a girl I'd never seen before at the same table.
"Ooh, new people! I love new people!" I exclaim cheerfully.
The girl doesn't even blink as she answers, "Ooh, an excited person!"
"Nice one. Hey, I'm Caitlyn," I say, taking a seat beside her.
"Katherine. Obviously, I'm new," she tells me.
"I could see that," I reply.
"So what do you do in this class?" she asks. I take a good look at her and decide I like her.
"Well, we put out a paper," I smile as I inform her of this.
She raises her eyebrows, "I'm aware of that."
See, I told you I liked her! For the rest of the class, Katherine and I "bonded", as our teacher called it, so naturally, when the class was over, I asked her what her third block was. Imagine my surprise when she told me it was the same as ours! Mine and Nate's, I mean.
"So where are we going now?" she asks. "You know you're like my guide now, right?"
I nod. "I figured. We have class in the B building now, which is that way," I said, pointing towards, well, the B building. "But we have to wait for Nate."
"Who's Nate?" she asks, and before I can answer, I feel his arms around my waist. Yes, of course it's him – anyone else who did that would end up on the floor, screaming in pain.
"I'm Nate," he answers, smiling at her.
"Hey, Nate, I'm Katherine," she says. We all start walking to third block, and while Nate stops by his locker, Katherine asks me:
"How long have you two been going out?"
Uh…
Before I can even say anything, I hear a painful thud coming from Nate's direction, and I look over to see him moaning in pain after hitting his head against the locker, probably because he heard what Katherine said and was surprised.
"We're not going out," I say hurriedly.
"Yeah, no, we're just friends," he tells her.
Katherine looks at us skeptically. "You're not going out? Oh, please. If you're not going out, then you should start soon, because it's so obvious you two like each other."
I'm honestly speechless, and I look over to Nate, and see he is, too. Not only that, but he's also blushing like crazy.
Wait.
He's blushing?
"Why are you blushing?" I turn to look at him as I ask him.
"I'm not, uh, I'm… um, I, what are you talking about?"
I narrow my eyes at him suspiciously. Next to me, Katherine is smiling, so I turn and glare at her now. "Why are you smiling so much?" I ask her.
"Because… Well, you know, I think it's time I leave you alone now, but you know, keep in mind that blushing usually means something." She smiles cryptically as she walks away, leaving us alone in the quickly-clearing hallway.
"What did she mean by that?" I ask him, puzzled.
"You know how we've been best friends all our lives?" he asks.
"Where are you going with this?" I question him, but he simply ignores me and continues talking.
"And you know how I always tell you about the girls I like?" he says.
Should I even answer?
"Well, the truth is, I've made all of them up."
"You can't have made them up, I know all these girls!" I exclaim. I have this weird feeling all over, as if everything could change in an instant, for better or for worse.
"No, you retard, that's not what I meant." He pauses before continuing. "What I meant is that I never really liked them."
"Then why did you tell me you did?" I'm confused. What is he talking about?
"I told you I did because I didn't want you to know who I really liked."
"Nate, do you like Mitchie? Because it's perfectly understandable to like her, even if Shane's going out with her, but don't do anything, okay? Because you don't wanna ruin their relationship and be responsible for breaking them up and for Mitchie and Shane's misery, do you? I mean-"
Before I can go own, Nate leans forward, putting his forehead against mine. We're standing very, very close right now, and when I look, all I can see are his eyes.
"No, I don't like Mitchie," he says, his voice low.
"Then who-"
"You."
What?! My eyes open wide as I take in what he said. Before I can say or even think anything, though, he kisses me.
Of course, I kiss him back.
And we can hear a loud 'whoopee' from around the corner.
But it doesn't matter.
We're only thinking about kissing right now.
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The end! Yay! LOL. I had SO much fun writing this, even if I had a sort of deadline. But I did it and I like it, so go review now. And vote on my poll. And read my other stories :).