I tried to avoid the band for the next week. I faked sick, telling them that being out in the freezing rain for so long had given me a cold. I called off of work giving the same excuse. I didn't want to see anyone. I didn't want to talk to anyone. But this was proving to be more than difficult because Mae wouldn't leave me alone.

"What happened that night?" she asked for the millionth time when she caught me as I walked out of the bathroom. I groaned.

"Nothing! Nothing happened! I don't know why you're so hung up about this! I just needed some time off. I need to catch up with school work and everything. Finals are next week and I need to concentrate," I explained, not looking her in the eyes. I knew she knew that I was lying. But I didn't want to talk about what happened with Ian. I wasn't ready to deal with it just yet. And I wasn't lying completely. It was the first week of December. Next week my finals would begin. I really did need to study.

"Ness, I've known you for almost 10 years now. You know you can't lie to me," Mae told me. I looked up at her.

"I don't want to talk about it right now," I said somberly. Then I moved past her and locked myself in my room again. I sat on my bed, my finance textbook open in front of me, and became lost in thought again.

I couldn't stop thinking about the kiss. It was so random, so out of the blue. It was completely unexpected. One minute we were arguing and the next we were making out on Caleb's bed. I thought he hated me. I thought I hated him. Then why did I kiss him back? I groaned and laid down on my bed. I had to talk to him. What did it mean?

                                                                         ~~~~~~~~~~

"Well, you've been MIA," Caleb said as he opened the door to his house. I stepped inside.

"Yeah, I had finals. They're done now," I said.

"I thought you said you were sick?" he asked. I gulped.

"I was! At first. Then I got better and had finals week. I needed to concentrate," I said.

"We called you like a million time and left you like a thousand texts," Caleb told me.

"I know..." I mumbled.

"Did you read any of them?" he asked.

"No...I didn't get a chance to," I said. I wasn't lying. I didn't read them. But it wasn't because I didn't have a chance. It was because I knew they were wondering where I was and if I was all right.

"Well that's too bad. There was some good news in those texts," he said, turning and walking downstairs to the basement.

"What? Good news? What are you talking about?" I asked. We went to the studio room. No one else was here yet. I had come early so I could talk a bit with Caleb.

"The band. We got some good news," he told me.

"Well spit it out! What happened?!" I asked.

"On one condition," he began, turning to face me. "You'll tell me the real reason you've been avoiding us," he said, his blue eyes knowing. I closed my own eyes and sighed. He already knew me too well.

"Fine," I said, knowing full well I wasn't going to tell him about the kiss.

"Ok, so the good news is..." he said, pausing for dramatic effect.

"Caleb! Just tell me!" I cried.

"We got a record deal!" he said. I let out a squeal. He handed me a letter from Alltime Records. I read over it, beaming. It felt good to get some happy news.

"No way!!! They said yes?!" I exclaimed. He nodded vigorously, obviously excited. We called you a hundred times to let you know so we could celebrate, but you were ignoring us," he said. "Which brings us to you. Something happened between you and Ian that night I forced you two to talk," he said. "I want to know what's up. Ian's been acting really weird lately, too," he continued.

"We talked, like you told us to. It was a little too much talking for our liking, I guess. We agreed that we both needed some space. And that's what we're doing. Giving each other some space to figure things out," I said. This wasn't completely a lie. Ian had said he wanted space. Albeit, that was before he kissed me.

"Oh. That's all? Why have you guys been so shady about it?" he asked, shaking his head. I shrugged.

"We were trying to make it seem normal. I guess we're bad at acting," I lied.

"You guys are weird. Are you hungry? The boys won't be here for another hour," he said. I nodded. We went back upstairs. "You want to eat here or go out somewhere?" he asked me.

"I don't really care. What do you have to eat here?" I asked.

"Uhhh, I don't know. I can make us some sandwiches or something," he suggested. I smiled at him.

"Pass. I've had your cooking before and, well, let's just say I don't want to go down that road again," I said, laughing, and patting his shoulder.

"Hahaha, very funny," he said sarcastically. We walked outside to his car. He opened the door for me and then got in himself.  "Where to, then?" he asked. I shrugged.

"Let's get Panera," I said.

"Good choice," he agreed. It wasn't too far from his house. We got there and ordered and then brought our food to a table.

"This looks a lot better than anything you could make," I said.

"You really are the nicest person I've met, Vanessa," he told me, sarcastically again.

"So, how have you been the past two weeks?" I asked him.

"Good, I guess," he replied, not meeting my eyes.

"What's wrong?" I asked. He didn't answer. "Did you talk to Emma recently?" I questioned, biting into my tomato-basil and mozzarella panini.

"Yeah," he mumbled.

"Is she coming back for Christmas?" I asked him, already knowing what the answer was.

"We broke up," he told me, looking me straight in the eye. My eyes widened. Ok, not what I expected.

"Woah, why? When?" I asked.

"Three days ago. We were Skyping and talking about her coming home. She said she wanted to stay in France for the holidays. I guess that sort of pushed it for me. We've been talking less and less for the past few months. She wasn't even that excited when I told her about the record label signing us. So I told her that maybe we should end it and she agreed. It was mutual and..." he hesitated.

"What? And what?" I asked.

"She looked so happy when I ended it," he finished. I frowned.

"Caleb!! Poor thing!" I cried. He fought back a smile.

"You have the worst reactions!" he said.

"Well what else am I supposed to say?" I asked. He shook his head.

"Nothing. To tell you the truth, I'm not that bummed about it either. I think since we've been away from each other for so long, those feelings I had for her sort of disappeared," he told me.

"Do you think..." I paused, letting my sentence linger for a bit. "Do you think she found someone in France?" I asked quietly. He turned his gaze away from me. "Caleb?" I prodded.

"Yeah; she did," he sighed. I bit my lip.

"She was cheating on you?" I asked. He nodded. "How'd you find out?" I asked.

"Well, this random French looking guy came up from behind her and put his arms around her when we were talking. The whole time she was acting really sketch. This happened right after we called it off. I didn't even say good-bye. I just signed off," he said. We sat in silence.

"Well, it's her loss," I said after a bit. "She can run off with some random hairy French man. She's missing out on a really great guy," I told him. He smiled at me.

"That," he paused, "was the right thing to say," he said. When he said that, I immediately felt guilty for not telling him the complete truth about Ian and I. I made a mental note to talk to him after I sorted things out with Ian.

                                                                            ~~~~~~~~~~~

"Well finally! You came out of hiding. We thought you bailed on us and fled the country," Liam said when we all met that evening. I laughed half-heartedly.

"I was just busy with school," I said, glancing at Ian. He wouldn't make eye contact with me.

"So you're done now?" Camron asked. I nodded.

"For about a month," I said.

"Sweet. Well, we called the record label and they said they want to meet us this Thursday at 12," Caleb told me. I smiled.

"Wow, I can't believe this is actually happening!" I exclaimed giddily. I shot another awkward glance at Ian. "So what's the plan?" I asked.

"Well, they want to hear how we sound live and in the studio. So we're going to spend these next three days working our butts off to perfect our songs. After that, if they like us, they'll start talking to us about making an album and getting local places booked for us to perform," Caleb explained.

"Nice. Just local?" I asked.

"Well, local and around the California area. We need to start branching out from just Beverly Hills," Liam replied. I nodded, understanding.

"All right! So let's get to work, eh?" Camron suggested. We all agreed.

So we spent the next 3 hours rehearsing our 4 songs. We didn't know which of the four the label would pick for us to perform, so we had to make sure we got all of them down perfectly. We were going into this fully prepared.

                                                                          ~~~~~~~~~~

"All right, so we'll meet tomorrow evening at 5," Caleb said after we had finished. We all nodded, tired. I followed the boys upstairs. Caleb stayed down to clean up the studio. When Camron and Liam walked out the door, I grabbed Ian's arm.

"We need to talk," I whispered. He looked at my hand on his arm and then at my face. I pulled my hand back.

"There's nothing to talk about," he replied, his voice low.

"Yes, there is. Meet me at the corner of the subdivision," I said. With that, I moved past him and went to my car. Camron and Liam were already gone. I drove slowly to the end of Caleb's subdivision and waited. After what seemed like ages, Ian pulled up, too. He got out of his car and came up to me.

"What?" he asked.

"Seriously? You're going to stand there and ask what?" I asked him back. He sighed and rolled his eyes. "We have to talk about what happened that night," I said.

"Nothing happened, Vanessa!" he exclaimed in a hushed voice. "The kiss? That was a mistake! I shouldn't have done it. I don't know what I was thinking. But that's all it was, a mistake," he told me. I felt like I had been punched in the stomach.

"A mistake?" I hissed. "You're telling me that you didn't feel anything when you kissed me?"

"Did you?"

"I asked you first!"

He looked at me, his face contemplative. "No, I didn't feel anything," he responded after a moment.

"Liar!" I whisper-shouted.

"I'm not lying! I didn't feel anything. I told you, it was a mistake. I was being stupid and I was curious. But I felt nothing. So just..." he trailed off. "Just drop it, Vanessa," he said. I narrowed my eyes at him.

"You can't just go around kissing girls and then tell them that it was a mistake, Ian!" I cried. Because the truth was, I did feel something. And as weird as it was, I liked that something. So it hurt when he said he didn't feel anything. And I knew he was lying.

"I know. I'm sorry," he apologized. I took a step back. He was apologizing? What happened to not being the apology kind of person?

"If you didn't feel anything, then why have you been acting so weird?" I asked in a quiet voice.

"Because I didn't know if you told anyone and if you did, what exactly you did tell them," he replied. I let out a frustrated sigh.

"Fine. Let's just stick to the original plan, then. Ignoring each other," I said. He looked up at me and I knew he could see the hurt expression on my face. "I'm going home, Ian. Good night," I said, getting back into my car.

I drove away, a horrible, sinking feeling in my stomach. I knew that I was going to go home and tell Mae everything. She would know what to say. Well, probably not. But she would be there for me. She always was.

______________________________________________________________________________

A/N: And just like that...he ruined it! =) Goooood one, Ian. He's a bit of a roller coaster ride, isn't he? And Caleb's a sweetie. He's my favorite. =)

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XOXO