Oliver leaned his forehead against the cool linoleum tiling in his shower, shivering a little as the ice cold water pelted down onto his back. He shut his eyes as images from the day accosted him. Miley, wrapping her pouting lips around a cherry red popsicle, her cheeks indenting from the suction. Miley, parading around in front of him in that godsend of a bikini, nipples poking out at him. Miley, standing underneath the shower at the boardwalk, rivulets of water tracing their way down her tanned skin.

Miley, smiling flirtatiously at him.

Miley, batting her eyelashes.

Miley, eating soft serve ice cream on the cone, tongue delicately licking away at the trails of melted vanilla that wound around her fingers.

Miley, Miley, Miley.

Fuck if he didn't have an erection for a majority of the day.

Speaking of which…

Opening his eyes, Oliver looked down at himself and rolled his eyes in aggravation. "Come on," he muttered to himself. "This shower's about to turn me into an icicle and I'm STILL hard?" Closing his eyes once more, he silently willed his erection to go away.

After a few moments of silent wishing, he cracked one eye open. "You've got to be kidding me."

Shoulders slumped in resignation, he reached down to wrap a hand around himself, and began to pump.

He wasn't surprised that when he came, Miley's name fell from his lips.

000

Miley started as her door flew open, banging against the wall. She looked up from her Meg Cabot book as Lilly tumbled into her bedroom, eyes alight with excitement. The blonde flew across the carpeting and threw herself onto Miley's bed, squealing. "It's WORKING!" she crooned, clapping her hands together. "Oh my God, Miley, it's so working!"

Miley rolled her eyes, folding the corner of the page she was on and throwing the book on her nightstand. "If by 'working' you mean, making Oliver run away every time he sees me, then yeah. It's working famously."

"How are you not seeing this correctly?" Lilly demanded, rising to kneel on the bed, hands planted firmly on her hips. "Miley, every single thing you're doing is making his mind turn to sex. You gave a blow job to a Popsicle. How are you not understanding that the poor boy was probably getting a boner and had to get away so that you didn't see?"

Miley ran a hand through her hair, pushing the brown locks out of her face. "I just…what if this isn't a good idea, Lilly? What if, instead of bringing him to me, I'm pushing him further away?" She felt tears fill her eyes, and ducked her head in embarrassment. "I can't lose his friendship, Lilly. It's not worth it."

She felt a hand on her knee and looked up to see Lilly's face hovering above her. "Miley," she said gently, taking her hand away. "That boy has stuck with you through everything. He didn't leave when he found out you were Hannah, he didn't leave when you went through great detail about your relationship with Jake, he didn't leave when you sabotaged a majority of his relationships. I don't know how I didn't see it before, but Jackson's right. Oliver is crazy about you. And nothing you can possibly do will turn him away."

Miley sniffed, wiping a stray tear away with the back of her hand. "I think…" she whispered, voice breaking. "I think I love him, Lilly."

Lilly grinned, previous excitement restored. "Then we just have to try extra hard to get you two together, don't we?"

000

As luck would have it, Robby Ray's momma had broken her leg earlier in the week. Which wasn't terribly lucky for Miley's grandmother, but lucky for Miley and Jackson in the sense that their home would be theirs alone for the next week and a half; an irritable Robby Ray had begrudgingly left his two children at home by themselves in order to fly to Tennessee and tend to his injured mother.

Miley contorted her face in an attempt to restore her ear drums to her natural state, after Lilly let out an ear piercing shriek and clapped her hands wildly. The blonde flung her body off of Miley's bed, hopping and flailing her arms in excitement. "Oh. My. GOD!" she squealed, hopping from foot to foot. "Miley, do you know what this means?"

Miley raised an eyebrow. "That Grammy's gonna be in a cast for a while?"

"Uh, no," Lilly said emphatically. "It means that the house is going to have no supervision for a week. Your dad stopped asking Roxie to house-sit once Jackson turned twenty, and you've got the house to yourself for two weeks." She raised her eyebrows meaningfully. "Get it?"

"I…can throw a rager?"

Lilly groaned and chucked a throw pillow at the brunette's head. "Miley is your brain even on right now? Think about it: we're trying to get you and Oliver to sex each other silly, I haven't had any alone time with Jackson recently, and your father's out of town for like, two weeks. Are you getting it now?"

"Oh," Miley said, mulling it over in her brain. "Oh! OH! Ohhh…" A slow grin spread across her face. She wagged a finger at Lilly, "I get it now."

"Well thank God for that," Lilly teased, settling herself on the bed. "So, here's what we're going to do…"

000

Oliver grabbed for his vibrating cell phone, flipping it open effortlessly with one hand while he stirred his chocolate milk with the other. "Smokin' Oken, how may I be of service?"

"Hey, it's Miley."

Oliver froze, grip tightening on the metal spoon in his hand. "Miley," he croaked out, wincing at the crack in his voice. "Miley. Hey, what's going on?"

"Oh, um, nothing. What's up with you?"

He chuckled, and raised his now mixed chocolate milk to his mouth. "Just…hanging out, y'know?"

"Cool, cool. So I've got something I wanted to ask you…"

He swallowed the gulp of milk in his mouth, and muttered for her to go ahead. If he had known what was going to come next, he would have forgone another sip of milk.

"Well, Robby Ray's going out of town for the next week and I was wondering if you wanted to come over Friday and stay for a while…"

Chocolate milk spewed out of Oliver's mouth and splattered against the kitchen flooring. He heaved and choked, grasping at his convulsing throat as he struggled for air. She couldn't POSSIBLY have just said what he thought she did.

"Fucking hell, Miles," he croaked, rubbing his chest. "What did you just say?"

"Are you okay?" she queried, and he could almost feel the waves of concern coming through the phone lines. Clearly his surprise had not gone unheard.

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine. What did you just say?"

"Well…I mean, my Grammy went and broke her leg so my dad's off to Tennessee and Lilly's staying the weekend with Jackson, and I was just wondering if, you know…you wanted to spend some time with me?"

"Yeah," he stammered, brushing nervously at his t-shirt. "I mean I can come over Friday and we can catch a movie or something."

There were a few moments of silence before Miley cleared her throat. "That's…not exactly what I had in mind. I was thinking more of a, um…like a sleepover?"

He took a few moments to recover from his heart attack. "L-like…with you, me, Lilly-"

"No, no…just…just you and me. You know. Alone…together."

Oliver's phone clattered against the milk spattered floor, sending noise rocketing through Miley's eardrums. "Ow, what the f….Oliver, are you okay?"

He stared in dumb amazement at the now sticky phone on the floor, noting distantly that Miley was still yelling for him. "Yeah," he said, dazed. "I would like that."

"WHAT?!" she yelled from the ground.

"I said, I WOULD LIKE THAT!"

"Oh…good. See you Friday at-"

And then his phone promptly died.

000

"-seven?"

Miley bit her lip as silence met her ear. She glanced at Lilly nervously, and the blonde gave her an overly enthusiastic thumbs up. Miley responded with a shaky smile. After a few long seconds of quiet, she spoke again. "Um…Oliver?"

Nothing.

"Hello?"

Nada. Zip. Zilcho.

She frowned and pulled the phone away from her ear only to be greeted with the home screen of her iPhone. "Oh, God damn it, the bastard hung up on me!"

"I doubt he hung up on you, Miley," Lilly reasoned, crossing her arms. "Maybe his phone died. Or, you know, he did. You just kinda dived right into it, didn't you?"

The brunette raised an eyebrow. "I didn't know subtle was our tactic of choice. Here I was thinking it was 'in-your-face-let's-get-it-on.' Or am I just completely misreading your previous actions?"

"Shut up."

"Oh please, like you could ever be a master in the art of subtlety," Miley snorted, fingers tapping out a text to Oliver already.

"Um, I'm sorry," Lilly retorted, holding up a hand. "Have you met your brother? Do you think I would be able to bag him now without a neon sign held up above my head that says 'I LIKE YOU; LET'S SEX?'" She shook her head. "No. As much as I love Jackson, and I really, really do, if I tried to be subtle with him he probably still wouldn't know I exist."

"But Oliver isn't anything like Jackson," Miley argued, looking up from the glow of her phone. "He's…"

"He's a boy, Miles," Lilly smirked. "Boys are notoriously thickheaded. I mean, would we really have had to make you give fellatio to a frozen treat if he could pick up on subtlety? No. We would be schooling you in the art of flirting properly, not…not trying to overload the poor guy's brain with your smutty behavior."

"Smutty?"

Miley's phone buzzed before Lilly could respond. Fingers shaking, she picked up her phone as Lilly scrambled behind her to see Oliver's response.

Hey, sorry, my phone died. I think the battery knocked out of place when I dropped it…see you Friday at seven :)

Lilly squealed from her place over Miley's shoulder. "Oh, it is so on!"

000

By the time Friday rolled around, Miley felt less prepared than she actually was.

She had completely gutted her room of all things she and Lilly deemed too girly. She had bought lavender scented candles and scattered them decoratively around her room. She had created a playlist on her ipod of slow, romantic songs that she wanted to play while she and Oliver were alone. She and Lilly had gone to Victoria's secret and bought a red lace push up bra with matching boyshorts for her to wear underneath a filmy, thigh length nightgown. She had taken her BC pill, and she had a whole slew of condoms in a simple, silver tin on her nightstand.

She was ready.

Ready to shit her pants.

Resisting the temptation to run her hands through her hair lest Lilly flip over her perfectly styled coif being ruined, Miley settled for rubbing her hands up and down her thighs.

"For the love of God, Miles, calm down."

Jackson's voice startled her, and she looked to her bedroom door to see him lounging against the frame. Grateful she was wearing her bathrobe, she stood to talk to him. "I can't help but be nervous, Jerkson. What if-"

"If you say, 'What if he doesn't want me?' , I reserve the right to kick your ass," he said, rolling his eyes. "Miles, that boy is absolutely crazy about you. And," he sighed, shutting his eyes for a second before meeting her gaze directly. "He'd be crazy if he weren't. You're beautiful, Miley. And I'm not just saying that because I'm your big brother. Everyone knows you're gorgeous. You just need to accept it, and stop worrying." Stepping forward, he kissed her on the forehead and squeezed her to him. "I know we don't always get along…and it's not something I like to think about, my little sister getting it on with her best friend. But if it will make you happy, then…I'm all for it." He hugged her a little tighter, and she felt tears in her eyes as she wrapped her arms around him in return. "Love you, Miles."

She buried her smile in his shoulder. "Love you, too, Jackson."

"Miley, I swear to God, if you cry and ruin your makeup I am gonna kick your ass," Lilly threatened from behind Jackson. The siblings separated, embarrassed, and Lilly shooed Jackson out of the room. Facing Miley, she asked, "So, you feeling ready?"

Miley let out a shaky breath. "Yeah, I guess. Why?"

And from outside, she heard the unmistakable crunch of tires on gravel, signaling Oliver's arrival.

Lilly smirked, gesturing over her shoulder with her thumb. "That's why." Backing slowly out of the room, she gave Miley a tiny wave. "See you later. Have fun."

And with a wink, she was gone.

Miley took a deep breath, picking up her phone and tapping out a text.

Hey Olly. Door's open…just come up to my room. Lock front door behind you?

A few seconds later, there was a buzzing.

Can do. See you in t-minus ten seconds.

It was now or never. Nervously, she stood in front of her bedroom door, heart thumping in time with Oliver's heavy footsteps on the stairs. Her door creaked open and his shaggy head peered around the corner. Stepping fully into the room, his face flushed and his eyes bugged as he took in her bathrobe. He tripped backwards, slamming the door shut behind him. "Hey…Miley…What are you-?"

She gripped the belt of her robe in her shaking hands, and pulled. The light blue fabric pooled at her feet, baring her lingerie to his eyes. Biting her lip to keep it from trembling, Miley raised her gaze to him. "Oliver…"

Before she could even finish the sentence she didn't know how to end, he was across the room and burying his hand in her curls, smashing her lips to his.