A/N: Hey guys! So, I'm new writer to this fandom and a new writer overall in fanfiction. So, this is my first piece. I enjoy constructive criticism at best and this is mainly based of the movie. (P.S. I have to buy the book!) Hope you guys enjoy! I'll try and update every few weeks or so depending on how much free time I have!

It had been only a week since Bryce Loski had planted that sycamore tree for her. Yet, for Juli, absolutely nothing had changed in accordance to his sudden act of kindness.

Every morning since the incident, that tree had been a constant reminder to her that, maybe, Bryce had finally turned over a new leaf. That, maybe, there was more to him than those dazzling baby blues, golden locks, and pearly whites of his. And, maybe—just maybe—he had actually cared about her for once in his life. Yet, in a matter of days after they exchanged those sincere smiles and rosy blushes, Bryce Loski once again disappeared right from under her. And she found herself at a standstill.

Was he expecting an apology? A 'thank you'? A kiss? For her to come crawling at his door, begging on her knees for him again?

These thoughts flooded her mind while she was feeding her chickens one afternoon. Something about that boy made her mind jumbled in every way possible. She just didn't get it! Why, out of all people, would Bryce want anything to do with her? After all they've been through, after the humiliation he'd put her family through, did she still want to be his friend, much less his girlfriend? Was she still waiting on him for the promise of a first kiss?

As she was contemplating this, a series of noises shocked her back to reality. She turned her back, seeking the source of the ruckus until she had heard a few pained groans. Immediately, she tensed at the sound of an intruder in her yard. Moving to cover her chickens in a protective stance, she grabbed the nearest weapon to surprise said intruder.

A bucket.

How could she possibly kill someone with a bucket?

Internally groaning at herself for not investing in sharper gardening tools, she stalked closer to her enemy in question on the other side of the wooden fence. That is, until she heard a very prominent 'shit' on the other side of where she stood. She knew that voice. She loved that voice for over half her life. But now, that voice made her stop in her tracks.

"Bryce?"

She paused as she heard a sharp intake of breath.

Waiting for the longest time for a reply, she decided to look over her fence. And there he was. With wide eyes and flushed cheeks in embarrassment, he offered up a shaky smile. He was covered in dirt, chicken poo, and grabbing at his right ankle. With chicken feathers still poking out of his styled blond hair, Juli had to admit he looked awfully adorable. So much so that she couldn't help but to hear her heart beating a mile a minute in her ears.

"Hi, uh, Juli," he stammered. "Funny story, actually! I was just, uh, wondering if we could talk?"

"Ow..."

As he struggled to walk—or to even stand for that matter—she noticed a sizable gash right above his right heel. Obviously, he was nursing his injury, the pain streaking across his face every time he forced a step. Yet, he still held his pride high enough so that he wouldn't have to ask for her help and admit defeat. Typical Bryce.

She sighed and said, "Wait there. I'm coming."

Juli rushed out through her house to the front door and met Bryce at the fence of her backyard. She couldn't help but admire the situation. Here he was, like a damsel in distress, his messy locks glittering like gold in the spring sunlight and cerulean blue irises intently directed at her. And, here she was, standing tall over his crouched figure, needlessly waiting for him to crawl at her feet and beg for her forgiveness. As she was entertaining the notion of Bryce in a dress, he interrupted her train of thoughts as he cleared his throat to refocus her attention to him.

With wide eyes peering up at her (notably like a baby seal as she observed), he sheepishly rubbed the backside of his head and muttered, "Help?"

Blinking a few times, Juli regained her composure and dropped to her knees, crouching at his side. While examining his recent injury, it seemed that as if she could practically feel his stare burning at the side of her face. It was nerve-wracking. She even tried forcing herself to control the number of breathes she was taking and the way her heart beat almost irregularly just by their close proximity to one another.

When she finished her diagnosis, she looked up at him intently and said, "Um...so, yeah. You probably can't walk, huh?"

He shook his head with a small grin, letting out a chuckle at her blatant observation.

"Nah, I don't think I can. Can you help me up?"

As she moved to get his right arm around her shoulders, she still felt the light burn of her cheeks at their rather closeness. It had been the closest they've been for days and she couldn't help but feel the slight flutter in her stomach and a few tingles as his arm wrung around her shoulders. Shut up, she thought as her heart stuttered out of control in his warm presence.

"Excuse me?"

She snapped her head towards him as he interrupted her thoughts yet again.

He look almost surprised at her as he said, "Did you just tell me to shut up?"

Her mouth gaped open like a fish out of water, realizing she had said her thoughts out loud. Now, her face was definitely on fire.

"No, no, no, no, no!" she quickly insisted, waving her hands in front of her face and forcing a nervous chuckle out of her system.

"It was just my chickens," she lied. "You know how loud they can be, right?"

Trying to salvage the rare moment of interaction between them, she let out an internal sigh of relief within herself as he gave her a slight nod in agreement. But, then—as he flashed his dashing smile once more—she couldn't help but face the facts. She was screwed over. All because of a pair of blue eyes.

Leading him into her house proved to be absolutely burdensome. Bryce packed some weight for a boy his age due to his athletic inclinations of playing baseball. And no, she didn't imply him to be fat. He was far from that. To her, he seemed stick thin at times, especially during their years of adolescence. But now, he was developing a toned figure, muscles peeking out where they weren't before due to his recent developments. And because of that, his weight wasn't the only thing that made her trip over her own feet at times as she forced herself to fight the constant blushing she had been dealing with.

When they had finally made it into her kitchen, she set him down on one of the chairs and propped his injured foot on another.

As she pursed her lips and furrowed her eyebrows in thought, she said, "Here, let me get some ice for your foot."

Before he could express his gratitude and flaunt his omnipresent grin, she slipped past him to her fridge in the back. Rummaging through the fridge and cursing as she clumsily collected the ice into a paperbag, he attempted to strike up a conversation between the two of them.

"So, where are your parents?" he questioned.

She momentarily froze up at his question as she wracked her brain for what to say next. She held her tongue for a while, an uncomfortable silence wavering between them for what was seemingly an eternity. If they got to talking, she knew she wouldn't be able to control herself from hitting him with a barrage of questions from his past few days of absence. But—then again—if she didn't, she would regret leaving things between them unsaid. And she would not let herself feel guilty at his expense.

"They're at the town market," she insisted. "They'll probably be back in an hour."

He gave a slight nod while she kneeled down at his footside to administer the ice. He hissed when the paperbag made contact with his foot and his face twisted momentarily in pain. Moving to ease his discomfort by removing the ice, he quickly assured her that the ice was helping.

"It's fine," he responded. "I'm good with the ice."

Trying to keep his mind of his suffering, she asked, "How's Chet doing?"

"He's doing fine," he said, looking up at her ceiling in a daze. "He missed seeing you these past couple of days."

"Really?" Juli replied in surprise.

Of course the old man missed her. She couldn't believe how she let herself get caught up in so much of this drama that she disregarded her relationship with Chet. She immediately made herself a mental note to talk with the grandfather as soon as possible.

"And, how about you, Bryce?" she mentioned.

He broke his gaze from her ceiling to face her and uttered, "Hm?"

"How have you been?" Juli clarified.

She searched his eyes; looking for an answer, an emotion, anything at all from him. She wanted him to break down and tell her how much he missed her. Or get angry and say it was his fault for not maintaining the relationship she thought they had finally established. She even begged for another smile directed towards her, just so she could smile back and they'd talk and laugh like nothing between them was ever a problem to begin with.

Alas, Bryce Loksi gave her a straight face and simply answered, "Fine."

Disappointed, she refocused on keeping the ice at his ankle and bowed her head down towards the floor.

"Juli?" he asked. "Are you okay?"

"I'm just great, Bryce!" she said a little too harshly. "Never been better!"

He cringed at her sudden change of tone and voiced his concern. "Was it something I said?"

"No!" Juli asserted. "It's the opposite, actually. Something you didn't say. The things you just didn't say, Bryce!"

"What?" he asked again. "What do you want me to say, Juli?!"

Say 'I'm sorry'. Say 'I miss you'. Say 'I don't hate you'.

Her anger settled down enough for her to realize she was at fault this time. She knew she overreacted and now, it was costing them a moment to rebuild what was crumbling of their relationship in the past week. Without making another sound, she stood up, put the ice on the table, and moved to walk past him to get wraps for his foot.

"Juli," he uttered softly, "we're not done talking about this."

He reached for her wrist and gently pulled her towards his side. He was so close that she could practically smell the scent of citrus and spring emanating from his body that made her heart just about jump right out of her chest.

He looked her straight in the eye as he said, "I know you're probably mad at me right now, but can you just hold it back for a minute and tell me what's going on with you?"

She bit her lip and looked away until he willed her eyes back towards his.

"Please, talk to me," he pleaded. "You can't run away from your problems, Juli."

She absolutely didn't have the air in her lungs to breathe, so much as to talk to him. She was almost about to cry, looking at him with such genuine care and concern for her in his eyes. She couldn't even move her body, but everything within her screamed for her face to lean in closer to his. She peeked up at him one more before she blinked her eyes to a close and moved as close as she could to his face. She was even sensing the sudden shift in his movements as he too leaned closer to her. The promise of her first kiss with Bryce Loski was in her sights as the tip of their noses bumped for the first time and then—

"Juli, we're home!"

Her parents, as much as she loved them, were a bit overwhelming at times.

Not often did they have a miscue in piles of wisdom and care for her. But, at the time of their interruption of her almost first kiss with Bryce Loski, she was all but certain that they did so to spite her in her pursuit of a viable love life.

As her parents barged themselves into the kitchen, Juli leaped in the air and moved at a distance from Bryce, both having mortified expressions on their faces. Her mother, upon entering the room, looked on at the red-faced teens with a surprised smile and an arched eyebrow. Juli's father, however, shifted his gaze back and forth between his daughter and the boy she was with.

"Juli!" her mother said. "You didn't tell us Bryce was coming over!"

"I didn't," Juli quickly replied. "He hurt his ankle near our house and I thought it would be easier to move him in here and patch him up."

Her father gave her a knowing a smile as he remarked, "Well, isn't that nice of you, Julianna. Isn't it, dear?"

"Absolutely," her mother assured. "Do you need some bandages, Bryce?"

"Um, actually, I think I might just head out," he replied. "I don't want to be too much of a burden on you guys anyway."

"No!"

Juli might've said that a little too loudly and forcibly as everyone in the room looked towards her in amazement. She immediately tilted her head down as her face turned cherry red.

"I mean, you should get that wrapped up first," she uttered. "You wouldn't want to risk an infection or anything, right?"

He stared at her for the longest time before slowly nodding in assurance.

"Mom, can you help me find the bandages?" she insisted.

"No problem, Juli," her mother said as they left the kitchen in haste, leaving Bryce and Mr. Baker alone.

Of course, it didn't take them long to find the bandages, as they were right where Juli left them—her desk.

"Juli," her mother asked as they were leaving the room. "Did something happen between you and Bryce?"

She stopped in her tracks and held in her breath. She turned her body towards her mother in the small hallway on the way to the kitchen and forced a smile.

"Nothing, Mom," Juli lied awkwardly. "Just some small talk with a neighbor."

She hated lying to her parents. But, she knew she couldn't tell them that she almost kissed him. They would flip! What if they never let her see Bryce again? What if they locked her in her room for eternity? There was just too much to lose if she told them.

"That's very nice of you, honey," her mother said in approval and they continued walking back to the kitchen without another mention of the subject.

When they returned, the atmosphere between Bryce and Mr. Baker was a lofty one. She sensed something had changed, and it necessarily wasn't a good change. Looking at Bryce the moment she walked in, Juli found that he wasn't willing to make eye contact towards her and staring hard at the floor, his brows furrowed in thought. Her father was looking at Bryce with a neutral, undecipherable expression in his eyes. Though, Mr. Baker flashed his stare to them when they entered.

"Bryce?" Juli questioned. "Do you want me to wrap the bandages around your—"

"Actually!" he suddenly interrupted. "I was just leaving, Juli, so no need!"

With that, he boosted himself off the chair and planted his good foot on the ground. While he almost tripped on his injured foot with the remnants of the melted ice on the floor, he managed to limp past Juli and her mother to the front door, grunting in pain as he went.

Initially too shocked to move, Juli quickly broke out of her trance and ran out to aid Bryce. He was halfway to his house and in the middle of the road when she grabbed his wrist, pulling him to the sidewalk to avoid oncoming traffic.

"Bryce?!" she exclaimed in disbelief. "What the hell are you doing? Are you trying to get yourself killed?"

He gritted his teeth and said forcibly, "Get out of here, Juli. Don't try to help me."

Her blood boiled and her brain fizzled in confusion at his change of heart.

"What's the matter with you!" she spat at him. "First, you try to kiss me. Now, you don't even want to see me!"

"Juli, if you know what's good for you, you'd stay away from me," he insisted. "Just leave me alone."

"No!" Juli argued. "You just can't do that to me. Not like the last time. Just leave me whenever you feel like it. That isn't fair!"

"Juli," he stammered, "you know how hard—

Bryce suddenly shifted his attention to the driveway of his house. Mr. Loski had clumsily pulled in and angrily rushed into the house. His arrival was put in emphasis by the slam of the front door, to which shouting could be heard throughout the house.

Bryce glared hard at the front door before saying, "I need to go. Now."

Juli, with a gentler tone, replied, "Bryce—

"No," he said. "Get away from me Juli. You can't fix this."

"At least let me help you!" Juli pleaded angrily. "Stop being such a coward!"

As he stalked back into his house, he didn't say one word to her after that. Didn't even turn back to look at her or look her in the eye after her declaration of his cowardliness.

And as she lay in her bed that night, replaying the day's events in her mind, her words rang truer than ever about Bryce Loski. And absolutely nothing had changed.