Okay, I am sorry to make you guys wait so freakin' long for this chapter( and for getting you're hopes up on that A/N) and I'm going to really try harder not to make you guys wait so long for each chapter. It's just with writers block, a busy schedule, crappy internet, and then putting Christmas on top of it all... ugh.

Oh yeah, if you guys haven't noticed, I've got internet! (Cue the cheering) Yup, turns out I'll have access to the internet until January 6. After that, I'm not sure. But that's plenty of time for me to upload two more chapters, right? Well, that's my goal.

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter :) (Btw, sorry for any misspellings or grammar mistakes in this.. I didn't really go back through it)

Previously...

"There is one thing that I never told you" He says, rubbing the back of his neck, "do you remember that letter you gave me before I left for the airport?"

The room suddenly got smaller and I gulp, my throat dry all of a sudden. I completely forgot about that. "What about it?" I ask him nervously.

"Well, I wanted to tell you that-"

"Jack, there's something I need to tell you before you say anything" I quickly tell him, cutting him off.

"Okay, what is it?" He asks, his face filled with bewilderment. I don't say anything as I bite down on my bottom lip. Now that I think about it... how should I tell him? It's gotta be done in delicately, right?

"I'm dating Jerry now"

"...What?" Real delicate Kim.

"Um... Jack?" I bite down on my lip. He was quiet. Too quiet. And there was this unreadable emotion that kept flashing across his face that I couldn't figure out. He just stood there, his eyes locked on me in this impenetrable gaze. I look everywhere but at him. This silence was getting very uncomfortable. Well, what did you expect Kim? He was probably about to tell you his feelings, and you completely cut him off by saying you were DATING JERRY. I mentally groan. I know what I did, and it slipped out before I knew it. It didn't even process through my brain before it left my mouth!

Ugh, I just have a knack for making situations worse, don't I? Suddenly, Jack starts to speak and the sound scares me out of my thoughts. Actually, it was the lack of emotion in his voice that really scared me.

"When..."

When did this happen? Not too long ago actually. I like Jerry, he likes me, and you weren't around. I CAN'T SAY THAT! I look up at him cautiously, vaguely noting that he had a good foot on me.

"We've been dating for seven months now" I say. Confusion seems to ripple through his brown eyes.

"But I thought you..." He trails off.. again. Yeah, I did, but not anymore.

"Look, I know what I wrote in that letter, but that was then" I tell him, "I don't feel the same way anymore"

He's quiet for the longest time, like it was taking him time to analyze what I just said, but then he starts to mumble something. I couldn't make out even a word.

"What?" I ask, though it came out more as a whisper. After a moment of silence, he shakes his head a little and looks at me with a smile.

"Nothing," He pauses, "I'm happy for you guys"

Did he just grow two heads? "You are?" I ask, downright puzzled. I could've sworn he would've been, I don't know, at least a little heartbroken. I... guess I was wrong. Maybe Jack hadn't liked me all those years.

"Of course, why wouldn't I be?" He asks cheerfully. At the sound, I felt like relief washed over me. But it was like the well ran dry when I finally look into his eyes. I'm surprised I didn't see it earlier. Those once chocolatey-brown pools of his have turned to a solid brown color, blocking me from seeing anything he's feeling right now. "Listen Kim, I've gotta go meet Eddie" He tells me as he glances down at the black watch on his wrist.

"Jack-" I begin softly, but he interrupts me.

"Uh, I'll see you later" He quickly says and makes his way over to the door in record time. He doesn't even glance back as he darts out the door. I stand there, rooted to the spot, not able to tear my eyes away from the door. I wonder how much better that could've gone if I held off on telling him I was dating Jerry. He didn't really give me a choice when he started talking about that letter though.

But what if he was telling you that he didn't feel the same way, Kim? Hm? Maybe, but something tells me that wasn't what he was going to say.

I'm pulled out of my thoughts when the door opens and Mikaela walks in. She closes the door behind her, muttering something but the only words I could catch were "rush" "kill" and "fault". She sees me and gives me a questioning look as she jabs a thumb back at the door, asking, "Is there any reason I was nearly tackled out there by Jack?"

"He, uh, was in a rush to meet Eddie" I deadpan, heading over and sitting on the couch. Her face scrunches up slightly.

"Who's Eddie?"

Oh, right... I haven't quite told her about all of our friends. She's never been around when Eddie came and visited either. "He's an old friend like Jerry and Milton" I explain.

"Oh" She sits down on the chair next to me and is quiet for a moment or two before turning and looking at me, giving me both a interested and worried look.

"Kim, did something happen between you and Jack while I was gone?" She asks me. I give a somewhat frustrated sigh.

"All I did was tell him I'm dating Jerry now" I say, "and then he bolted out the door"

"That explains it" I hear her mumble, "I'm guessing he didn't take it well"

I scoff. "No, he took it just fine. What do you think?"

"Hey, don't snap at me! I wasn't the one who told him to come back to Seaford" She says, defensively.

"I know" I half moan, half sigh, letting my face fall into my hands, "Today's just been a long day"

She nods in understanding and places a hand on my shoulder. "Don't worry, I'm sure tomorrow will be better," She says, probably hoping it would help. It didn't. I saw her glance at the clock out of the corner of my eye. "Hey, I need to get to class, but call me if you need anything, okay?" I nod and listen as she starts to walk away, but then stops.

"Look, Kim, I'm sorry if I just pushed you into fire earlier with Jack. I was just so focused on you two finally pushing things into the past and being friends again that I didn't respect that you two would need time to smooth things over" She apologizes, sincerity thick in her voice. I look up and give her a smile along with a shake of my head.

"Don't worry about. It was going to happen sooner or later" I tell her. I was rather hoping it would be very later though. She smiles and goes to grab her back, but stops midway.

"Oh, and Kim," She says, turning back to me, a worried expression on her face, "get some sleep, you look really tired"

I nod and she leaves. "Don't have to tell me twice" I mumble after she's gone, heading straight to the bathroom. Today has been beyond stressful and I don't know how well tomorrow will be, but I do know that I'm exhausted and once my head hits the pillow, I'm out like a light.

One minute, I'm dreaming about covering a big story for Kick Magazine on Miley Cyrus' divorce, and the next, I'm being pulled to reality by something warm on my lips.

Instinctively, I respond and a low chuckle that I know well echoes in my ear. Slowly, I open my eyes as he pulls away and I blink a couple of times to clear my vision. Jerry. I smile as I prop myself up on my elbow and turn to him, glancing at the clock in the process. 9 a.m.

"What are you doing here so early?" I ask him curiously. Usually I don't see Jerry 'till around lunch time due to our different schedules. He shrugs.

"I figured I would come see my chica," He says with a little smile, "Is that a problem?" I shake my head as my own smile widens.

"Never"

"So, did you have a good dream?" He asks, putting his hands in the pockets of his jeans. I half shrug, only able to move one shoulder.

"I had a dream about covering a big story for-" I was momentarily cut off by an abrupt yawn, "some magazine called Kick"

Something flashes across his face at the mention of 'kick', but it's gone and replaced with an amused look as quickly as it appeared. "Kick?" He asks with a smirk, "Where did that come from?"

"I have absolutely no idea... maybe it has something to do with my love for karate" He nods.

"That makes sense. Well, it's Saturday and neither of us have class so I thought we could go somewhere" He says off-topic, smiling slyly. I sit up in my bed and eye him as he rocks on the balls of his feet.

"What did you have in mind?" I ask him with a light giggle. I know by that look that he's already got something planned, but as to what, that remains a mystery...especially with Jerry. His smile widens.

"Just get dressed and meet me down in the east parking lot when you're done" He tells me before giving me a kiss on the cheek and leaving. Once I hear the front door shut, I jump out of bed and head over to my closet, excitement pulsing through me. It's been a little while since me and Jerry have gone on a date, mostly because we've been really busy with school work.

"Going somewhere?"

I pivot on the balls of my feet at the voice and see Julie standing in the doorway, leaning against the doorframe with a coat on and books in her arms. "Yeah, Jerry's taking me someplace today" I tell her excitedly, turning back to my closet.

"Any idea where?"

"Nope" I say, popping the 'p'. Suddenly, a question strikes me and I turn back to her. "Hey, where were you yesterday?" I ask interestedly. She frowns slightly.

"I had to go to the doctor. I was feeling really dizzy and decided to get checked out," She says, "all they said was that I was probably really dehydrated and I had to spend the day with an I.V in my arm"

"Are you feeling better today?" I stop fiddling around with my clothes and ask her, looking at her in worry. She smiles and nods.

"Yup, a lot better" She says cheerily and then glances at her watch, "I need to get to class, but hey, have fun"

I got dressed rather quickly once she left and was out the door in less than fifteen minutes. I didn't feel like doing anything with my hair so I left it down and I only applied a little makeup. I don't really care what people think of me, but I still like to look somewhat presentable. Eventually I made it out to Jerry's car, which was a slick black Ford Mustang, and got into the red passenger seat. He starts the car and in no time, we're on the road, heading to who-knows-where. Well actually, Jerry knows, but he refuses to tell me or even give me a hint.

"Oh come on, I don't like surprises!" I say with a slight whine as I look over at him. He glances at me out of the corner of his eyes and smirks.

"Don't worry, we'll be there in no time mamacita" He tells me. I stick my bottom lip out in a pout and sit back in my seat, crossing my arms with a small huff. He laughs as he says, "Yo, that's not going to make me tell you"

"I know" I moan, letting my hands fall into my lap as my arms go limp. The car goes into a comfortable silence, leaving me to my thoughts. I look out the window and watch as the streets of Seaford go by. It was amazing how many good memories I had here. I remember one day when me and Jack had gone to the skate park early in the morning and just talked until we had to go to school. I smile as I think about it. I had been having a pretty lousy week and that talk did more than lift my mood, it gave me a smile that lasted for a couple of days.

The funny thing is, we didn't talk about anything in particular. We kept switching topics and surprisingly, we never ran out of things to say.

"Thinking?" Jerry's curious voice brings me out of my reminiscing and I turn to him with a half smile.

"Yeah" I quietly say and he squeezes my hand. The rest of the car ride was silent and I had to force back the memories of Jack that kept wanting to flood my mind. Geez, why did I have to have so many with him? To occupy my thoughts, I focused on trying to figure out where Jerry was taking me. But with Jerry, I wasn't really sure where to start.

Finally, after driving in what seemed like circles for twenty minutes, we finally parked and I took a look out the window. The park. I got out of the car just as Jerry was coming around to my side and I glance at him.

"What are we doing here?" I ask quizzically. He reaches out and grabs my hand in his before leading me onto one of the sidewalks that went through the park.

"I wanted to spend some time with you and since it's nice out, I thought, yo, why not take a walk?" He says. I smile and snuggle up to his arm. A simple walk sounded like bliss. And he wasn't lying, today was really nice. It was still on the chilly side, as expected of late October, but it was a lot warmer than it has been lately because the sun finally decided to shine down on Seaford.

"Hey, you remember that contest we entered a couple of weeks ago?" I look up at Jerry, meeting his excited eyes. I nod. A couple of weeks ago, me and Jerry entered a poem writing contest that a dance studio was holding. The prize was tickets to see an upcoming concert for Bruno Mars so that pretty much drew us in more than anything, albeit it was easy to come up with something since Jerry loves dancing and music and he came up with the ideas while I put it all together into a poem. A grins stretches across Jerry's face as he announces, almost bouncing up and down like a kid, "We won!"

It takes a moment for it to process in my brain. We won. WE WON! I squeal and wrap my arms around his neck, bouncing on the balls of my feet as I do so. I can't believe we actually won. "I can't believe it! When are we getting the tickets?" I ask eagerly. He reaches into his jacket pocket and pulls out the tickets. I squeal again and take them in my hands to look them over.

"I love you, you know that?" I say with a smirk, looking back up at him.

"What's not to love, chica?" He asks, popping his collar confidently. I roll my eyes, but kiss him anyway. Once I pull away, I grin down at the tickets.

One, two, th..ree...four?

"Wait, there are four tickets here" I say, spreading them all out as I glance at Jerry with confusion.

"Oh yeah, he asked me how many I wanted and I told him two, but then he came back out with the four and said take 'em all" He explains and then shrugs, "I wasn't about to say no, yo. I thought we could bring some friends along"

I pout. "But I thought this was going to be a date!"

"It will be, we'll lose them in the crowd within a minute" He says with a wink. I smile.

"Okay. So, who do you think we should invite?"

"I don't know. Milton and Julie would rather eat their own fingers off then go to a concert. Last time I saw Eddie, he was whisked away by Stacey, and- hey wait. What about Mikaela?"

I grin. "Oh, she's going to love me when I give her a ticket" I say with a chuckle, but a thought strikes me and I frown, "wait, she won't want to go to a concert alone"

"She'll find someone to go with, just give her the other ticket. It's not like we're going to use it" He tells me.

"Yeah, you're right"

We continued for a couple more minutes in silence once the excitement died down a little, and I was just soaking it up. I wish this moment would never end. It was nice to forget about everything that happened in the last couple of days. I sigh contently, closing my eyes as I lean my head on Jerry's shoulder. He starts talking about the new guidance counselor that arrived last week and I felt like I could have drifted off into some deep sleep just by listening to his voice. In fact, I think I nearly did... twice.

I open my eyes. If I kept them closed, it wouldn't help keep me any more awake than lying in bed in a dark room. I take a brief moment to glance around, seeing as the park was busier than normal. A family having a picnic under one of the many big trees, a couple sitting on a bench, Jack walking toward us, an old man f- Wait, WHAT? I did an instant doubt-take and to my horror, there's Jack, and what's worse, HE'S COMING THIS WAY!

I look over at Jerry and relief fills me when I see he hasn't noticed Jack, but the relief only lasts for a fleeting second and then it's replaced with panic. Think, Kim, think! Now was not the time for Jerry to find out about Jack... or any other time... Crap, what am I going to do? I mentally thanked God that Jack was also distracted by his phone.

I look around franticly, the distance between him and us was depleting and the only thing I saw was a hedge maze and- wow, that was convenient. "Hey Jerry, let's go through that" I say with a quick finger point at the maze, and before he even answers, I'm already dashing toward it. He follows along a couple moments later, giving me this quizzical look when we get to it. I don't say anything, I just look behind him, searching for Jack. I sigh in relief when I don't see him. That was close.

I know Jerry's gotta find out about Jack eventually, I mean, they go to the same college so their bound to run into each other some time, but he was not finding out that way.

"Well, do you want to go in?" I turn around and see Jerry already at the entrance, looking back at me with a smirk. I'd rather be safe than sorry I guess, and we're already here so why not. I quickly catch up with him and we go into the maze.

"Do you remember when they put this here?" Jerry asks curiously.

"I didn't even know it was here" I say, taking a glance behind us. Jerry seems to notice.

"Are you okay, Kim?" He asks shooting me a worried look before looking back where I was to see what I was looking at. I look back at him and try to conceal the nervousness in my voice.

"Hey Jerry, can I ask you a hypothetical question?" He nods and I piece together my question, "So, hypothetically, if a certain person who you haven't seen in some years, and you're very mad at, suddenly comes back, what would you do?"

He thinks about it for a second, "Easy, I'd forgive 'em and be friends again"

"That's good to know" I say somewhat flatly. Would he say the same if I said it was Jack?

"What's with a question like that anyway?" Uh... well, the truth is...

"I just felt like asking a hypothetical question like that" I say with an awkward laugh, and once he looks away, I roll my eyes at my answer. Really, Kim, really?

"So," Jerry stretches out after a brief silence, glancing sideways at me, "who is this 'certain person'?"

"Mmmm, nobody in particular" I reply, keeping my voice in check so that it doesn't go high, like it did sometimes when I was lying. Just then, we come to the exit of the maze. Wow, I forgot we were going through one too. I take a quick glance out. We should be safe now.

"Yo, I know you're-" Jerry goes silent so abruptly that I stop in mid-step to look up at him in confusion. His eyes are set intently on something in front of us. I follow his gaze, but I just see a family walking.

"Is something wrong Jerry?" I ask, glancing back at him. He stays quiet for another second or two before he shakes his head.

"Nah, I thought I saw something" He mumbles.

Next Day...

"Dada dada ladidida da da.." I hummed a random tune that was stuck in my head as I enter my dorm room. Tossing my purse onto the couch, I plopped down on the chair and pulled my laptop onto my lap to check my Facebook. I sometimes wonder what the world would do if they shut Facebook down out of the blue. Go back to MySpace probably.

"I AM DONE!" Ah, it seems Mikaela back from class. She walks past me and falls onto the couch, letting her body sprawl itself over the cushions.

"What are you done with?" I ask her curiously, taking a brief second to glance over at her from my computer screen. She muffled something into the couch, as if I could really understand what she was saying. "I have no idea what that means"

She pushes herself up and sits properly on the couch before turning to me, saying, "I said; I had this ridiculously long paper to write and it took me forever, BUT, I just now turned it in!"

My eyebrows rose and I gave her a thumbs up. "Congratulations" She rolls her eyes and gets up, probably taking my tone as a sarcastic one.

"Well, I thought it was an accomplishment" She says, taking her coat off and throwing her stuff in her room. I slide my laptop onto the coffee table and reach into my purse.

"That reminds me, I have something for you" I tell her, taking out the ticket and handing it to her with a grin on my face. She grabs it and looks it over in confusion before her entire face lights up and her mouth stretches into a cheshire grin.

"For real?" She asks, as if she didn't want to get her hopes up in case it was some kind of joke. I nod and she erupts into squeals, bouncing up and down like a little kid too. She pulls me into a hug, though it was awkward because she was still bouncing up and down, and said, "Oh my gosh, I love you so much!"

I chuckle as I lightly push her off of me. "We ended up getting two extra tickets so you can invite someone along if you want. Got anyone in mind?" I ask curiously once she died down to simply grinning at her ticket. She shrugs.

"I don't know. I guess I'll invite the first person I see" She says. Just then there's a knock on the door. "I'll get it"

Mikaela opens the door to reveal a nervous looking Jack. Goodie. I wonder why he's here...

"What's up Jack?" She asks. I find it amazing how she knows it's him without even looking away from that piece of paper.

"I just wanted to talk to Kim" He says more to me than her, his eyes locked onto mine. Mikaela clears a path for him in and closes the door behind him with a smirk.

"No problemo, she's right there" She says, pointing in my general direction. Is she obsessed with staring at that ticket or what? My eyebrows shot up when she just leans against the chair.

"Uh, Mikaela, don't you have to talk with Julie or something?" I ask her, my tone fully implying that I want her to leave. If that wasn't enough, I usher her to the door. She finally looks up and glances between me and Jack before realization dawns on her and she nods.

"Right, right. I'll see ya guys later" With that, she grabs her coat and heads out the door. Once she leaves, silence falls on the room and I turn back to Jack with an inquisitive look.

"Kim, there's been something I've been meaning to tell you for a long time now," He begins and I gesture for him to continue. His mouth opens and closes like a fish a couple of time before he finally sighs. "Kim, I love you"

...What? I know I was expecting him to say the same thing yesterday, which was why I cut him off, but to actually hear him say it. To hear him say those three little words, it's almost... bittersweet feeling. Before he left, those were the only words that I ever wanted to hear from him the most and hearing them now, I feel a surge of happiness, but it lasts just a few measly seconds. I don't feel the same way anymore, and even if I did, I wouldn't break up with Jerry. I love him too.

"Jack, I already told you. I'm with Jerry now, and I don't feel the same way about you anymore" I tell him, trying to remind him of the conversation we had yesterday in case he got some kind of amnesia. He nods.

"I know, and I respect that," He says, "but not telling how I feel was eating at me, and even if you don't feel the same way, I just needed to tell you"

I nod in understanding and after a brief, slightly awkward, silence, I take a deep breath. I was getting tired of all the awkwardness lately. "Look Jack," I say with a sigh, "can we just be friends again and put this awkwardness behind us?" I ask. He smiles.

"I'd really like that" He says, almost beaming at me. I smile back at him, feeling like a ton of bricks were lifted off my shoulders. But there was still something that kept me from truly feeling relieved and better. The comfortable silence is broken when the door opens and Jenny walks in. She sees us and freezes.

"Am I interrupting something?" She asks, uncomfortably. I laugh and shake my head, grabbing my coat and proceeding to put it on. What she said isn't really funny, it's just that Jenny has a bad habit of coming in at the worst times. Like one time, Milton and Julie were in the dorm room experimenting with neck kissing and Jenny bursted in, planning on scaring whoever happened to be in the living room at the time. They laugh about it now, but at that time, it was really awkward.

"Don't worry Jen, you're not interrupting anything" I reassure her, collecting some textbooks and putting them in my bag along with my laptop, "we were just leaving" She looked doubtful, but seems to shrug it off since she nodded and said bye before going back to her bedroom.

"So, where are we leaving to exactly?" Jack asks once we're out the door. I shrug.

"I don't know about you, but I have class in ten minutes with Mr. Boring" I'm not saying that because he always talks in monotone, his last name really is Boring.

"Math.. that's in Gaylord Hall, isn't it?" I nod. "My dorm building is right by there. Mind if I walk with you?"

"Be my guest"

I could've left it in a cliff-hanger, but I did that the last chapter and I plan on doing another soon so I decided to just leave it there. Some of this was mainly filler, but it's so that the next chapter can be super awesome ;D Plus, if you look hard, you'll see a hint as to what happens next in this chapter.

Like I said in the A/N, as a treat, I'm planning on getting ch 4 up really soon so keep watch (I'm going to start on it after I upload this) and again, please check out my poll on my profile! :D I need 50 votes on one of the stories by the time I finish this so I know what to write next (30 votes for a one-shot and I'll upload it first, then the highest voted afterwards)

To be honest, I wasn't really expecting any reviews for that A/N, but after reading them, I just want to thank you guys for being so patient with me! :D And to those who didn't review, but are still looking forward to my updates. :)

P.S. I've also got one or two one-shots in mind that I might be posting soon so keep a look out for those too :D

You+Review= INSPIRATION for me :D

Well? What are you waiting for?

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