Hey everybody. I wrote this little one-shot as a face saver, because it's taking me so long to update my main story, The Great Journey. I'm just letting everyone know that I haven't died or anything and am still working on that, although the whole world is against me. I have college, a remodeling project, building projects; the Yankees actually thought they could beat us (Boston Red Sox) this week so I had to watch that, and a bunch of other crap that's keeping me from writing The Great Journey. By the way, if you haven't checked that story out, you should definitely give it a read. It's a break from the daily grind of Hannah Montana fics that most people would probably enjoy. So please go check that out. I'd also like to thank GodzillaGuy for helping me out with that story a bit, and you should go check out his story, To Repay a Debt, as well.

Disclaimer: I wrote the poem in this story, so I own that, otherwise I own nothing, as I am poor and currently live in a cave. They were out of boxes. : )

It's been five years now, and I still live each day as if it had happened the day before. I know that it's stupid to not be able to move on from something like this after five whole years of pure torture, but I can't help but cling to that tiny grain of hope, lost on an endless beach of despair.

Many things have happened in my life that one might consider unfortunate. I accidentally set fire to the backseat when I was six, my parents divorced when I was eleven, and I even broke my arm my senior year and lost my football scholarship. For all these horrible things that have happened to me, not one of them measure up to her.

We were fourteen and were halfway through our freshmen year. It was almost Valentines Day, and everything was going fine. Life was alright.

Who would have thought that a single instant-message conversation could do so much damage?

It was about eleven-o-clock at night and I had just spent the whole day at Miley's house. I had been working on a project with her that was due the next week. We had to develop some sort of fictional alternate history for what would have happened if the Cold War had escalated into a nuclear war…

Flashback:

"Oliver, why does everything have to blow up?" Miley asked in a frustrated tone as she lowered the paper she was holding.

"Because it's a war." I stated flatly.

Miley looked at me even more frustrated than before. Why don't girls ever understand the obvious?

I raised my gaze to meet hers. She was so pretty right now. She wore a simple outfit, just jeans and a blue tank-top, but it was the way that the clothing clinged to all the right places. The jeans were ripped at the knees and the upper thigh giving me just a glimpse at what I so longed to see more of. They ended at her bare feet in a tattered mess that seemed to make her just that much sexier. Her chocolate-brown hair was down in stunning natural curls that ended just below her perfectly formed chest.

So I was obsessed, can you really blame me? She was gorgeous; almost too gorgeous for my young hormones to take at the moment.

"Oliver, stop drifting. We need to focus if we want to finish this before next week, we barely have anything."

I began trying to focus more on my work and less on the brunette next to me, but it proved useless to resist.

An hour or two had passed and we were sitting on her couch now, rather closely. I had my legs down and was hunched over writing some notes on the coffee table while Miley was sitting indian-style jotting down some notes on the pad of paper in her lap. I had just begun thinking about how President Kennedy would handle a nuclear attack on New York, when Miley shifted in her seat and her toes brushed against the side of my leg, which instantly sent tingles up my spine, and put goose bumps on my skin.

I tilted my head to look at her and she blushed a little bit.

"Sorry." She said timidly.

"It's alright." I assured her with a half smile, as I slowly lowered my gaze back to my paper.

These moments happen every once in a while for us and they're all bittersweet in nature. Obviously sweet because whenever she touches me with her silky smooth skin, it simply feels amazing. Bitter of course, because I'm just too damned scared to do anything about it. But why am I so scared? Is it that I fear happiness, or that I fear depression? Perhaps I would get my answer sooner than I thought.

About an hour later, it was time for me to head home.

"I'm starting to get a little tired; maybe we should call it a night," Miley offered.

"Yeah, we did get a lot done though, so hopefully we'll have this thing finished by Friday," I said as I began gathering my things.

"Will you be online tonight?" She asked.

I looked at her with a slight bit of pessimism. This was kind of a strange question since she had just said that she was tired.

"Yeah, I need to check the score of the Sox game. They were playing the Yankees tonight." I said and waited for a response.

"Oh, yeah. Sorry I made you miss it." Miley said, not really caring.

I nodded and said, "Well, I guess you'll just have to owe me one. So, why are you wondering if I'll be online tonight? I thought you were tired?"

She looked at me kind of seriously and said, "Just be on."

----

I signed on to AOL at about quarter to eleven. I was real curious as to what Miley had to say that she couldn't just say to my face. We could usually tell each other just about anything, so maybe this was something special.

I began recalling the events of the night in my head, and the more I thought about it, the more it seemed like maybe, just maybe, my dreams could actually come true tonight. I mean, she did seem kind of tense around me tonight. Not to mention that blush…

I was suddenly jarred from my thoughts by the sound of an IM appearing on the screen.

SuthernBel04: Hey Oliver

XxSm0kiNxX: hey

SuthernBel04: did the sox win???

XxSm0kiNxX: HELL YES!! 7-6 with 4 homers in a row!! I missed the greatest game ever to do homework with you. You really owe me now.

SuthernBel04: now I feel a little worse for making you miss it. Oh well.

XxSm0kiNxX: Ha! You're evil. So what did you want to talk about?

It was about three whole minutes before I got my answer. Little did I know, that these would be the final carefree minutes of my life. What she said next practically jumped off of the screen and smacked me in the face. If I wasn't awake before, I sure as hell was now.

SuthernBel04: Oliver…. do you like me?

A/N: So I decided to make this a two-shot. Sorry about the little cliffhanger, I hope the suspense isn't too much for you guys.

This story is loosely based on actual events that may or may not have happened to me. You decide.

And for reference, the Red Sox/Yankees game in the story, just happened two nights ago. And they really did hit 4 home runs in a row, which was only the 5th time in MLB history that has ever happened.

Have no fear, The Great Journey is currently being worked on and should have the next chapter added by the end of the week. This story, however should be finished before that.

Please review. It makes me happy.