A/N: A small one-shot for Valentine's Day. I hope you enjoy it :)
Spinelli sighed while waiting for her friends in front of her locker. The group was in their last year of middle school and would soon go to high school. The black haired girl wasn't too worried about changing schools, as long as she had her friends by her side she was sure it would be alright. Despite that she didn't like changes she knew some were good, but the one she was going through right now wasn't. For the first time in her life she found herself wanting a valentine gift and that not from anyone but from her best friend, TJ Detweiler.
If she was honest with herself she had a crush on TJ ever since their first kiss together, but now that they were slowly become more mature she realized that it may be more. It was too early to talk about love, but she was sure that what she felt for her best friend was close enough to it. So maybe the change wasn't as new as she had thought, but the wish to get something from him on Valentine's Day was.
When she was younger she never care for this day, but now it somehow mattered. Spinelli was sure TJ wouldn't give her anything. Sure they were best friends and spend a lot of time together, even without any of their friends around, but he didn't felt the same way. Now that she thought about it there had been moments when she thought his hand lingered a little longer on hers after giving her something or he was looking at her with such a soft look that her heart raced, but that was surely just wishful thinking on her part.
"Hey, Spinelli." Gretchen suddenly pulled her out of her thoughts.
"Hey, so excited about spending the day with Vince?"
Gretchen and Vince had been the first to start dating in their group. To most of the other students the couple had been a surprise, but their group of friends had known that it was a long time coming. They were together for half a year now and still very much in love. Spinelli knew that it was Gretchen and Vince's first Valentine's Day as a couple so she was sure Gretchen was nervous and the blush on her friend's cheeks only confirmed her guess.
"Well I made him a second Galileo you know a sports version of it, so he has all the results of games at all times. Do you think he will like it?"
"I'm sure he will love it." Spinelli smiled at her. The gift was thoughtful and still sounded so much like Gretchen.
"What about you? Any gifts from admirers yet?"
"Nah, they would have to get to know Madam Fist first and most wouldn't like that too much. I wouldn't accept a gift from these guys anyway." It was partly true, she didn't want gifts from guys she barely knew, she wanted a meaningful gift from a certain someone.
"And what if a special guy who you know for quite a while gives you something?"
"Yeah, I wouldn't punch Gus or Mikey for being good friends and giving me a gift."
"Nice try. You know who I mean."
Spinelli sighed for what felt like the thousand time today. Gretchen wasn't only book smart she knew her very well and had found out about her feeling for TJ a few months ago. Every time they talked about it, even when she constantly denied that she had feelings beyond friendship for TJ, Gretchen always smiled knowingly at her.
"Alright maybe I wouldn't say no to a gift from him." That was as far as she was willing to share at the moment and thankfully she was saved from Gretchen's interrogation when they heard the rest of the group approach.
"Hello my dear friends isn't it a great day to celebrate love." Mikey happily greeted them and smiled brightly.
"Happy Valentine's Day." Vince walked over to Gretchen and kissed her softly.
Spinelli averted her eyes, not that she wasn't happy for them but seeing them made her wish she had that too. Before her eyes met the ground she caught a glance of TJ. It surprised her that she saw the same longing in his eyes that she was feeling right now.
"Let's go to class, I want to be there a little earlier." Gus spoke up. Spinelli knew the reason for that was because he wanted to see cornchip girl.
Spinelli was about to follow the group when a hand on her arm stopped her. Turing around she came face to face with a nervous looking TJ. It was strange to see him like that because normally he was wearing a goofy grin or bright smile. Spinelli was looking at his hand, which was now holding on of hers, and then at his shy expression before TJ finally seemed to be ready to say something.
"Spin there is something I want to tell you...well wanting to tell for a while now. You're my best friend..." Spinelli's heart sank at these words and she was about to pull her hand away from his, when he squeezed it and continued. "...but that's not all I'm feeling for you, there is so much more. It's definitely more than a crush. Love is a big word, we both know that, and we're still young so I don't know if it's right to use it, but it feels like it's exactly what I'm feeling for you."
"Since when?" Was the first thing that left her lips and a second later she could have slapped herself for it. TJ had made this wonderful speech and here she was ruining it with her stupid question, but he only smiled softly at her not seeming to mind.
"Always since our first kiss I had a crush on you, but these strong feelings for you have been there for almost a year now, maybe longer."
"For me too." She finally admitted and mirrored his smile. "I'm feeling what you described as well."
"You don't know how much that means to me. I got you something for Valentine's Day. So I thought roses were too cliche for you and a dinner date behind the dumpster, you know because there we kissed for the first time, sounded romantic in my head but probably wouldn't be in reality..." He seemed to realized that he was rambling and nervously pulled out something out of his bag and gave it to her. "Well here I hope you like it."
Letting go of his hand for the first time since he took it she opened the gift. What she saw when she unwrapped it surprised her but she should have known that he knew her better than anyone. Laying in a small box were the expensive colored pencils she had eyed when they all were at the mall last week. Only her group of friends knew that she still liked to paint from time to time and it seemed TJ had been very aware of how much she had wanted to have these.
"Thank you TJ." She smiled at him and without caring who watched gave him a small kiss on the lips. It was only their second kiss, but now that they knew that they felt the same surely more would follow.
Looking down again at the gift in her hands her smile got even wider. It was a very thoughtful gift and she really loved it all the more because TJ was the one who gave her her first valentine gift.
A/N: Happy Valentine's Day everyone :)