The Don't List

Part X: Can You Feel the Chemistry?

To Jimmy, it was a very big day. The last day. His final day. The one day where he would either prove to Cindy that she should come back to him and stop this nonsense, or it was all over.

He couldn't screw this up, not this time.

And he sat through every class, tense, staring at the clock every few moments and gripping his pencil so hard that his knuckles turned white and the lead started to break.

He could see his friends, Libby and Sheen and Carl, give him worried glances out of the corner of his eye.

When he had two hours to go until Chemistry class, he felt a poke to his shoulder. "Jimmy, you okay?"

It was Carl.

"Yeah, I'm fine," He answered, without even looking behind at his friend.

"…are you sure?" Jimmy sighed quietly.

"Yes, Carl. I'm fine." He turned around, though. Carl was just sitting there, his brows raised.

"Okay, okay. But I think you're trying too hard and you're missing the obvious."

Jimmy blinked at him. "Um, what?"

"You're missing the point, Jimmy! Cindy doesn't want -"

He huffed. "Carl, I don't need any help. Really, I appreciate it, but I'm stressed enough as it is. Just…let me do this on my own?"

Carl shrugged and looked down. "Alright, but remember the last fight you had with Cindy before you two broke up and I tried to help you but you turned me down?"

Jimmy blinked at him, once again. "Carl, what are you trying to say?"

Sheen snorted; he was sitting behind Carl and was listening to the whole conversation. Libby, who sat across from Sheen, rolled her eyes and sighed.

"Never mind, Jimmy. But good luck today."

Jimmy turned back around and ignored the whisperings of his friends behind him. He could do this on his own, couldn't he?

Yes. Oh, he could.

Carl just shook his head. At least he could say he tried helping him, and there wasn't much he could do now.

In fact, all he could was watch when Jimmy screwed up…again.

Before the bell even rang to mark the start of class, Jimmy was in his seat, his books on his desk, looking like a teacher's pet. Which he sometimes was, but not really.

But none of that mattered anymore. He was replaying the scene that would happen in just a few minutes, with Cindy. How would she react when he -

The door opened and the rest of the Chemistry students filled the room, taking their seats, with their incessant chatter buzzing in his ears. Cindy stormed into the room with a look of Death on her face, with an almost nervous looking Libby following her.

She took her seat beside him, scooting all the way over on the opposite of their conjoined table-desk and ignoring him.

Libby gave him a Look as she sat down in front of him at another table-desk and Jimmy took a deep breath and opened his mouth -

"Okay, students! Guess what we'll be doing today?"

There were a few moans and groans as the teacher explained the assignment, which entailed looking at plant and animals cells in a microscope and comparing the two.

"You have thirty second to pick your partners…choose wisely! …Go!"

People scrambled from their seats, chairs scraping against tiled floors. Some yelled across the room, while others stayed in their seat, knowing that they had a partner and they would always have the same partner. That's how Jimmy and Cindy used to be, of course.

Whenever the teacher used to assign projects like this one, Jimmy would look at Cindy, and Cindy would look at Jimmy, and they would both smile, knowing they would be partners. There was no question about it.

But of course, that was then, and this was now.

Jimmy scooted back, feeling like everything around him was going in fast-forward but he was moving in slow-motion. Not a good mix.

He saw Cindy looking around, and he knew that she knew that Libby already had a partner, so that was out of the question.

And out of the corner of his eye, he saw a very eager Mark Dunham striding towards Cindy with a smile on his face. Jimmy swore he saw her cringe in fear.

Standing beside Cindy in just a few moments time, he asked the big question. "Will you be my partner, Cindy?"

"Time's up!"

Of all the bad things that can happen to me, Cindy thought morbidly, glancing back and forth from Mark and Jimmy. Mark was standing maybe three feet away from her, looking devastated and disappointed. Jimmy had that smart and smug hopeful look on his face, and Cindy narrowed her eyes angrily.

"No!" Several people - actually, most of the class, even the teacher - turned and looked towards the duo with curious eyes and eager ears.

Well, she hadn't meant to be that loud.

Cindy looked down, slightly embarrassed. Jimmy ignored everyone else around them, concentrating on Cindy and Cindy alone.

"Are you sure?"

How dense is this boy?

"Yes, I'm sure! I'm…already…Mark's partner!" She jumped up suddenly, leaping towards Mark and grabbing his arm, pulling him towards her. She smirked at Jimmy.

He just glared at Mark. "Hey, Mark, I'm pretty sure Brittany needs a partner, too. She's over there. Why don't you go ask her?"

"Hey, people, I said time's up!" The teacher was a little impatient now, but he was getting ignored, like always.

Mark looked torn, staring at the death-grip on his arm and then to Jimmy's death glare.

Death; it was everywhere for Mark.

But then he looked at Brittany, a safe and secure option.

"Um, alright," Mark pried Cindy's deathly fingers off of his arm, stepping away carefully. "I'll see you around, Cindy." He kept backing away, towards Brittany and the wonderful dream of safety.

Cindy glared at him the whole time.

Jimmy gave a self-satisfied smile and turned back to Cindy after watching Mark retreat across the room. People were still staring, and the teacher was trying to get everyone's attention so he could get the assignment done. It wasn't working so well.

"You…I hate you!" Cindy stomped her foot. Jimmy raised a brow.

"No you don't," He replied easily. "You love me."

She reddened, not liking the social attention and definitely not liking how Jimmy could say something so personal like that so easily, in public, in front of everyone.

Well, Cindy was in a shock - Jimmy could do much better.

"Shut up," She mumbled, trying to divert some of the attention off of her by talking quietly.

And again, it wasn't working.

"What about arguing with me, Cindy?" Jimmy teased, smiling now. She glared at him harder. "I'm done, this is the very last thing, and I have to say…I'm kind of disappointed. I thought this was supposed to be more exciting."

Cindy was really shocked, now. And she had a feeling it was only going to get worse. And she really had no idea what to say to that.

"Cindy…," His voice was softer now, "Are you going to tell me why you broke up with me? And what the whole deal with the list thing was?"

Now confused, she raised a brow, "What are you talking about, the List? It's not that hard to figure out."

"What are you talking about?" Now they were both confused.

Cindy sighed. "I wrote that List, because there are certain things I didn't want you to do. So I wrote them down and gave them to you," she shrugged. "Why is that so hard? I still can't believe you did the opposite of what I put down."

Jimmy blinked. He blinked twice. And his mouth dropped open, slowly. "What?"

Looking around nervously, Cindy again noticed all the other students looking at them most of them with confused looks on their faces. The teacher had given up, watching them also.

"What…?"

"So you didn't give me the List, saying you didn't want me to do those things, even though you really wanted me to do those things and didn't want to say it?"

Cindy blinked this time. "What? No! Why would I do that?"

Jimmy coughed violently.

Sheen started laughing, quite loudly and disturbingly. "I told you! I knew it! Carl knew it! Libby knew it! We all knew it! Except Jimmy."

A few other people around him started laughing, even though no one else knew what was going on. Jimmy looked thoroughly embarrassed and also angry, glaring at Sheen. "Shut up, Sheen!"

Sheen did shut up.

Jimmy took action then, walking forward and grabbing Cindy's arm and pulling her across the room, to the door, and out into the hallway, both of them ignoring the protests of the teacher.

"You are so impossible," Cindy muttered as Jimmy just kept pulling on her arm. They were heading down the hallway, out an exit, and into the bright, glaring sun. She looked at him smugly as he stopped pulling. "We're going to be in trouble, you know."

"I know, and I don't really care."

She gaped at his audacity. "W-what?"

"You heard me. But that doesn't matter now."

"Really? Then what does?"

"Us."

Cindy looked away, strategically tugging on her shirt and then tucking some hair behind her ear. "What about us?" She asked quietly.

"For one thing, that dumb List."

She sighed wearily. "Jimmy, you totally over-analyzed the whole thing -"

"I know that. But there's something else, too."

"And what is that?"

"Why did you break up with me? Why did you write that List, if not to get back together with me? Why didn't I get a little bit of warning?" His voice was bordering on desperate.

Cindy wasn't sure what to say, now. "Well…okay. I'll tell you."

"Good, I'd really love to know."

Her eyes shot up and she glared at him heatedly. "I'm the one who's sarcastic here, okay?"

He nodded and shrugged. "Well…?"

"Well…alright," Cindy walked over to the curb and sat down, spreading her legs out and making herself comfortable, though the nervous expression on her face made her seem unbalanced. "I broke up with you because I was afraid."

Jimmy sat down next to her. Close, but not close enough. "Afraid? Of what?"

"You. Of us. Of what we were becoming, pretty much." Cindy was very surprised at how easily the words came out. "I didn't want us to become too close."

"But…why?"

She looked at him sadly. "Our relationship won't last, Jimmy. No matter how much we try…we're still young, you know? Eventually we'll graduate high school. Then we'll have to go to college and realize that we can't stay together, because we want different things in life, because we want to date other people, or whatever. Or maybe we will get married and then end up an unhappy, constantly-fighting couple who hate each other."

She looked away, a breeze picking up and moving her hair around. "And you say that I over-analyze things?" Jimmy asked, incredulous.

She looked at him sharply. "Well? You know I'm right, Jimmy. There's no point -"

"Don't start, Cindy," He interrupted, a little bit of amusement in his voice. "I get what you're saying. And yes, maybe you're right. Maybe our relationship is doomed. But…what about living in the moment? What about enjoying the present, and not even worrying about the future?"

Cindy Vortex was shocked, for the eleventh (or maybe it was more, she couldn't even count) time this week. "But you're the genius. I thought you cared about this stuff."

"I might be a genius, but I am a teenage male, Cindy."

She blushed slightly, looking away again. "So what are you saying, then?"

"I say that you forget about all your silly -"

"Silly?!"

"- girly worries and go out with me again."

Cindy blinked. "Is that a question or a demand?"

"Which one do you want?"

She laughed. And Jimmy smiled, the first real one in weeks. He scooted closer to her, his side pressing up to hers. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and she leaned against him immediately. "I missed you," He sighed.

She looked up at him. "I know. I missed you, too. I mean…I guess. Now that I know you're completely dependent on me…" She rolled her eyes, still smiling.

Jimmy faked a dramatic gasp. "Why, of course! I could never live without you!" Cindy laughed again. He laughed along, his voice returning to normal. "Don't even deny that you missed me, Cindy. And you shouldn't deny that you have completely fallen in love with me, also." His tone wasn't serious, but his words and eyes were.

"I have," She abruptly. And of course, she seemed embarrassed right afterwards, ducking her head a little.

"Thought so," He teased lightly. "And that's good, because I'm in love with you, too."

She smiled slyly. "Really now? I had no idea; I mean, even though you did ten crazy and wild things that practically screamed your love for me, I was still clueless."

Jimmy just laughed, too happy to think of a good comeback. "You can make up for that later," He said lowly.

Cindy gave him a big smile, leaning in to kiss him on the lips. "Only on one more condition," She said, and he groaned.

"Alright; what is it?"

She smirked, leaning even closer to him. "Buy me more Peppermint Bark," and before he could reply, she sealed the deal by closing the distance between their lips.

I kind of don't like this last chapter, but I believe it will do, right?

It's long-ish.

ALERT:

I'm looking for a beta.

Review. =)