I claim no ownership of the Naked Brothers Band or its characters.

"…And the sun rose for me…"

Alex paused the movie. The screen froze on a scene showing him and Juanita sitting on a luxurious couch with clouds floating in the background. Juanita looked incredibly girly with her hair down and wearing a dress. It was weird to think of Juanita as girly. At the time it had freaked him out. But through the lens of time, it didn't seem as bad. It was actually…rather cute?

The next part of the scene would show Juanita giving him a kick. She was a lot more enthusiastic about that than she'd been about the other idea-which had been kissing him. Enthusiastic enough to make him wince at the memory, certainly.

"Hey, Alex," he heard suddenly.

"Hi, Nat."

"You're watching that again?"

"Hey, it' sour movie. If I don't watch it over and over again, who will?"

"Are you sure that's the only reason you're watching it?" Nat was smirking.

"What else could it be?" asked Alex. It was a weak bluff, but he could always hope.

"Well, you seem to be paying special attention to that scene. It wouldn't happen to be because of your co-star, would it?"

"I don't know what you mean." Alex tried to bluff again.

"You dork," Nat commented kindly.

Alex blushed heavily and bolted out of the room.

Half an hour later he was on his skateboard, with his protective gear donned. His trick finished, Alex dismounted next to his friend, the aforementioned Juanita. She looked very different from the one he'd seen on his TV screen. Not girly at all-boyish even. Strangely, she looked just as good-in some ways even better, since the skateboarding outfit seemed more true to who she was.

Juanita was happily talking about his trick. Alex enjoyed the moment. While he loved being a rock star, sometimes it was pleasant just to be an anonymous kid doing something active. But when he spotted a pause in Juanita's speech, he decided to do something daring.

"Hey, Juanita?"

"Yeah?"

"Did you want to come to a party we're having this Friday? We'll be celebrating our new song." It took some effort to get the words out without sounding unnecessarily nervous.

"Sure." Juanita didn't seem half as nervous.

The days before the party flew by quickly. He met Juanita several times in-between, but they didn't talk about anything serious again. They just had fun like usual. But it always felt like there was something on hold. And then the day of the party finally arrived.

Juanita's appearance was torturing Alex. There was no other way to describe it. She was once again wearing a dress and had her hair tied with pink and blue ribbons. She did not look at all like the spunky friend he saw just a day ago. Instead she drifted through the room like a beautiful maiden. Alex looked down on the floor, ,knowing that if he dared to look straight at Juanita, he would without a doubt act in a ridiculous manner.

"Hey, Alex!" the universe was determined to torture him.

"Hi," he slowly brought his eyes upwards, letting them torturously travel over her figure. His cheeks exploded into a scarlet blush.

"What is wrong with you?" Juanita demanded.

"No…nothing." It was taking all of Alex's willpower just to resist his natural instinct of crawling underneath the nearest chair and covering his face with his palms in hopes that the whole thing would just disappear. But he really didn't want to have Juanita remember him as the guy who hid under the furniture anymore than she already did.

"It's just…hard to handle. You look so…girly."

"So what do you care?"

"I don't." a blatant lie.

"Yeah you do. Now what's the matter with you?" Juanita wouldn't let the matter go.

"I…you…you look really…pretty." Alex managed to spit out.

He held his breath in horror. It's not that he never said anything like that before. Heck, he once called Juanita his true love. But he could hear his own tone, and it would be very clear to anyone that this wasn't something as simple as that. What would Juanita think?

"You…you look handsome too."

Oh. Apparently she would respond in kind. Alex breathed out again. But he felt too embarrassed to utter another word. So instead he quietly walked outside, leading Juanita behind him.

The night air felt calm and refreshing compared with the craziness already ensuing in the apartment and the darkness hid their embarrassment. Looking at Juanita's obscured form, Alex slowly started to feel comfortable again. In time he even found the confidence to reach out and grasp Juanita's hand.

"This is weird," Juanita said.

"Nice weird though, right?" Alex asked.

"Yeah. I mean, I feel strange, but also happy."

Alex leaned over nervously. When he met no resistance, he allowed their lips to brush lightly. At least that was the plan. But due to the shock of the sensation what was supposed to be a brief kiss lasted for what felt like a long time, though it was probably only several seconds.

"Wow."

"Yeah, wow."

After a minute or so, Alex smiled.

"Do you know, I still feel like skating with you," he informed Juanita.

"Yeah. I still feel like skating with you too."

Alex grinned. It seemed that their friendship hadn't been muddied by the kiss at all. He still had his friend, and now she was something more than that too, and that made him very happy.