Dane

I can't get over how manly I am, really. What do I do when I chicken out in front of a girl? Retreat into the kitchen to go get some pies. It's so manly, I'm just overflowing with it.

No, I'm just joking around because, what kind of guy does that?

Dane Nor, obviously, because kitchen mittens and silver pots are so comforting it makes him feel all fuzzy inside. What am I doing with my life? There are other guys lifting weight and getting all buff when the only thing I'm doing is lifting deserts from the oven!

Once I carefully stacked the pies on top of the oven, I threw the oven mitt across the room and watched it bounce off the stainless steel cabinets and crumple into the trash can.

Great. Now I had to wash it. Good going Dane.

What kind of girl would like me?

I was probably off my rocker when I thought that Jacquelyn liked me back. She told me before that I was a big giant teddy bear that usually hangs on those impossible miniature game booths at those roller coaster parks.

She called me a teddy bear, for crying out loud. That's not manly!

What kind of girl wants a freaking teddy bear for a boyfriend? Not me-if I was a girl of course. Don't freak out, I'm completely straight.

Jacquelyn smiled and took a seat while staring at me from across the counter. "Does it take twenty minutes to get a few pies out of the oven, my Chef Ramsay?"

I blushed and stuck my face in the oven so it would look like it was the heat that made my face red. Why do I always blush at the slightest things? But she called me her Chef Ramsay.

Oh come on Dane, snap out of it.

"Sometimes." I muttered while I stuck my head further into the oven. I couldn't figure out which was hotter, my face or the furnace I poked my head in. I'm pretty sure I turned it off, so it shouldn't be that hot in a few minutes.

She laughed as she walked into the kitchen and crouched down by me. "What are you looking at?" Jacquelyn laughed again, trying to peer into the oven with me.

I blocked her off and placed my ear dangerously close to the right side of the oven so she couldn't see. "Looking for a pie." I stated in a matter-in-fact-with-all-seriousness tone.

Trying her best to not laugh in my face, she clasped her hand over her mouth to contain a fit of giggles. "Is that so?"

"Yeah," I nodded carefully so I wouldn't burn my neck or the top of my head, "Sometime one gets lodged in the back. You've gotta look real hard to spot it sometimes."

"I bet you do." Jacquelyn chuckled. "Would you like me to turn off the oven for you while you go 'look' for this pie?"

I swallowed hard. "That would be nice."

Dang, I didn't know that crouching down this low would kill my legs like this. Maybe this was a sign that I probably had to go to the gym more and work out; I was such a wimp.

"This is ridiculous," Jacquelyn sighed playfully as she wrapped her arms around me and started to pull me out, "get your head out of the oven. If you keep this up, your going to bake your brains and turn into Frankenstein."

Frankenstein, how did she get that? Baking my brains has nothing to do with the Frankenstein story plot. The monster had his brains implanted into his head, and his name was not Frankenstein. 

Holding my hands out the side on the counter to keep my head in the oven, I refused to let Jacquelyn pull me out like this. I was a guy, so I was supposed to be the strongest one. She wasn't going to pull me out of here this easily.

Jacquelyn tugged at me tighter. "What the heck are you doing Dane?" This time, she cracked up even louder and I felt her grip weaken.

I paused and reflected the odd situation that I found myself in.

Currently, I had my head in an oven with Jacquelyn trying to pull me out; however, I was persistent in keeping my head baked.

This was ridiculous. "I don't know what I'm doing." I laughed-my voice echoing off the oven walls and making it sound a whole lot deeper than it actually was. "It's cosy?"

"Don't ask me!" She smirked.

Catching me off guard, she stood up to pull me away from the oven and tugged harder than she did before-flinging us both across the kitchen to where I landed on her with my back. At least it wasn't the other way around.

That would have been really awkward.

Jacquelyn squirmed underneath me and let out a grunt, flinging her hands out on the kitchen floor when she couldn't move. "If you're cosy Dane, take your time. It's not like I'm dying from your weight or anything-"

"Oh shoot," I stammered as I quickly tried to find a way to get up. "I'm sorry."

I heard her sigh beneath me and lightly hit her head against the kitchen floor as a sign of irritation. "No please, take your time." Sarcasm dripped from every syllable that came out of her lips, but I could tell that she found this slightly amusing.

I didn't because this was flat out embarrassing.

Rolling over to the side after many failed attempts of putting my hands beneath me to push myself up, I helped her up and watched as a goofy grin crawl up her face.

I laughed-mostly to shake off the knots in my stomach from the embarrassment. "What are you smiling at?"

With her foot, she closed the oven door and shot another smile at me from behind her back. "At the pies. No, who do you think I'm smiling at? You."

It wouldn't be a surprise if she was smiling at the pies because I had seen her do it before when we were in a pie shop sometime this summer. Honestly, I never seen her look so happy. Even if you placed Logan Lerman- one of her all time favorite actors- in front of her, she would have looked around him and continued to stare at the bakers making their daily quota of pies.

Jacquelyn's wedding would probably be in a pie shop, I can bet everything on it-even my car.

"Why?"

She leaned against the counter and tilted her head to the side- that huge smile still plastered onto her face. "You're acting strange all of a sudden. It's slightly entertaining."

Why could she always see right through me? Around her, I felt like an open and exposed book with blinking lights that was screaming to be read.

Everything I try to hide from her gets discovered the millisecond I think about pushing it away into the darkest corners of my mind.  Sometimes it felt like she was some unnatural telepathic mind reader, no joke.

"Really?" I mused, when really every inch of my bones ached from my nerves hammering against them from the fear that she was going to find out my true feelings for her. But at the same, I wanted her to find out.

This was stupid. Jacquelyn would never like me. Why would she?

Mindlessly picking up the pies on top of the stove so I could attempt to look busy, I reached out to pick them up, but I sharply withdrew my fingers away from them when I realized that they were still burning hot.

Something was wrong with me because I let Jacquelyn get to my head. I had to stop this.

"Nice move," Jacquelyn sneered as she stood next to me,  with her body pressed up against mine, "did you burn yourself?"

Startled by her sudden urge to be close to me, I backed away and stared at her with my mouth doing whatever it was doing. "No. I'm fine." Actually, I wasn't but I could suck it up. It was a minor burn and it could easily be cured with aloe vera or ice.

Jacquelyn nodded and leaned back against the counter, embracing the silence and patiently waiting for something to happen between us or a couple of words to be exchanged.

Usually we would have no problem spouting off of random subjects and keeping the awkward silence at bay. We used to prove that 'girls and boys can never just be friends' stereotype wrong, but it had all flown out the window today.

It never used to get this awkward. By now, we usually would crack up for no reason and start into a laughing fit but it's all gone now.

I liked Jacquelyn-maybe even to go so far that it may have all been more than like-but if we really did go with this and started to date each other, would all the times that we used to have with each other be different? The laughing, the comfortableness, the freedom-would it all be gone because we had to take things more seriously? I don't want to lose what we have now.

I cleared my throat and looked back up at her. I didn't know anything yet and maybe things weren't as awkward as I was making them out to be.

"What were the three words, eight syllables, and eight letters?"

What was I doing? All my organs and guts felt like it was being pushed up to the top of my throat and my brain sinking down to the same point like the central focal point of gravity had been pushed into that one small area.

Right was left, wrong was right, and yes was no. It was the same stupid cycle all over again-I wanted to know what she had to say, but I was afraid what it would really mean.

Jacquelyn stared back at me-the same fear dancing in her eyes. Although there were no words that were to be said, we both seemed to know that if we were going in that certain direction everything will change between us-for the better or the worse.

I hated taking chances.

Breaking our eye contact, she kicked her foot against the floor in boredom and let out a heavy sigh. "Well," she began and taking a few minutes to pause, "what I was going to say was I love....pie."

The tension ended with a sickening shatter, and I felt broken. Jacquelyn's response was unexpected, and it was the answer that I didn't prepare myself for. Was that it, or was she hiding it from me?

Although I was not in the mood I laughed just for the heck of not making myself look like a fool.

"Of course you do." I smiled.

The tension seemed to lift up from us, and Jacquelyn weakly smiled back. "Yeah. So... are you going to give me the pie or what?"

I rolled my eyes and smirked while I took a knife and cut out a piece of pie for her. That was so typical of her to do-be sarcastic and demeaning out of thin air.

"Happy?"

Taking out a fork from one of the drawers like it was her own home-the kitchen practically was since she comes into this place way too often for food- and pulling up a slice of pie into her mouth, she let out a happy sigh.

"Indeed." Jacquelyn relished as she closed her eyes-making the whole scene ridiculously dramatic.

She put down the plate and picked up her phone, staring at it for a couple of seconds but slid it back down in her jacket pocket.

"I've got to go."

There was nothing much that I could say to that. I didn't want her to leave, but it wasn't like I could stop her from carrying on with her life.

Silently looking at the door because it would have been awkward if I looked back at Jacquelyn, I nodded. "Oh." I replied quietly.

Jacquelyn pursed her lips as if she wanted to say something, but shook her head and gave me a hug from the side. "Thanks for the pie. I'm not done yet, so can I keep the plate and give it to you some other time?"

"Of course."

She could keep it if she wanted because anything of mine was hers. Although we never really talked it over, the rule sort of materialized into existence when Jacquelyn kept one of my favorite jackets and never returned it and soon after my new pair of earphones. I didn't mind sense she used both of them often and seemed to really enjoy them.

Whatever makes her happy makes me happy, so she could keep them for as long as she wants.

Once more, she let out another sigh and zipped up her jacket. "I guess this goodbye then, for now."

I looked down at her and found her baby blue eyes staring up back at me. It wasn't a surprise since she looks up at me all the time after we hug, but this time it was different.

A course of a thousand emotions flashed past her eyes but the two that stood out the most was the hope for something better and the fear of the hope just being a silly little dream. The fear was what I could see the most and it acted as a barrier for whatever she was keeping from me, but soon it started to melt.

The sentimentality of last year's Homecoming flitted on and off in my memory, making me want to lean down and kiss her but I couldn't make the same mistake.

I was about to pull away, but that was until Jacquelyn stood up on her toes, held my face in her hands, and kissed me.

There were so many things that I was feeling at the moment, but I could only think of two words. Apple pie.

Pulling away too soon, Jacq smiled at me and strode out the door with a cheerful step, her long blonde hair swaying behind her back from side to side and bouncing off her shoulders in a happy rhythmic beat. She walked away like nothing ever happened.

By the time she was out the door and in her car, I still stared at the door like she was still there, standing and waiting for me to usher out the words I wanted to come out of my mouth.

"I love you." I stammered while looking into the empty space where Jacquelyn once was, only now coming to the realization that she wasn't there anymore.

The world seemed to be lifted off my chest, but when I was finally able to unleash the secret that I had chained down deep inside me for as long as I could remember, the person I wanted to hear it was gone.

I didn't care anymore and from now on I wasn't going to hide it.

I love my best friend, Jacquelyn Bargers.

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A/N: Annnd that's a wrap for this chapter! It's shorter than the other chapters, but I hope you still liked it :)

VOTE if you liked this chapter ;) COMMENT to show your love to these wonderful characters ;) SPREAD THE LOVE so we can get this book up and going, eh :D

QUESTION: Should Dane go ahead and confront his love to Jacquelyn and risk changing things or play safe? 

And also, did I make this cute enough haha? xD

I tried to make this a semi cute scene and all, but you know with me I am good at making everything dark and depressing haha. Well love you lovelies xD Thanks for reading <3 xoxoxo

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