This is my first submitted entry onto this site! It's also the first time that I've used first person in any writing, so there might be a she/her in there that I didn't find. Please tell me what you think of my writing style, and what I could do to make it better. Thanks for reading!

"Why is it taking you so long to find my script?" Chad asked with a scowl on his face. It seemed to be imprinted there, considering how often he did it.

"I didn't even lose it! Niko and Grady were the ones who hid it, not me," I replied, my patience wearing thin. God, he could be so infuriating!

Chad smirked at me, that ever annoying smirk of his. "Did they, Sonny? Did they really?"

I finally snapped and turned on him, and I'm sure that my brown eyes were ablaze with anger by that point. He seemed unfazed by the change. "You know what, Chad? That line gets old, fast. You're just a jerk! Here I am, trying to help you, and you just complain the whole time! Listen up, Chad, help me find your script, or I'm leaving right now!" I shouted at him. How the hell could he be so annoying? It was like he was a master at it.

He just rolled his eyes. "All right, moody girl. I thought everyone at chuckle city was supposed to be happy or something. Your sense of humor must have finally made you depressed," he said, laughing.

"At least we have humor," I said, crossing my arms and glaring at him.

Chad was about to reply, when a sudden tremor rocked through the ground. Caught slightly off balance, he stumbled backwards, and I fell forwards into him. His arms reached around me automatically. Then he realized who he was holding, and promptly moved away from me. It felt slightly empty where he had been, and for a flitting second, it was like I actually missed him holding me. "Did you feel that?" he asked, his eyebrows pinched together.

I returned back to the moment on hand. "Yeah. Do you think it was an earthquake?" I was concerned, and I looked around me with a little bit of fright.

Then another earthquake hit, but this one was fiercer and rougher. The objects in the hallway started to fall around us, blocking the way out. A few cracks appeared in the ceiling, and plaster rained on our heads. A piece of the ceiling fell right next to me. I fell onto the wall, my arms over my head to protect me. "Come on!" Chad yelled at me, grabbing my hand and pulling me along the hallway. One of the large, metal shelves fell right where I had been. He pulled me through the basement door and slammed it behind him, then pushed me to the ground and protected me with his body over me.

The basement was mostly empty, so nothing could really fall on us and hurt us. Some of the ceiling cracked here as well, and more plaster rained down on us. After three minutes or so, the tremors finally stopped. There were a few, small aftershocks, but Chad finally got up off of me. Yet again, I felt that emptiness as soon as he left. "Are you all right?" he asked, true concern in his voice as he looked me over.

"I am," I smiled at him.

He tried to open the door, but it wouldn't open no matter how hard he pulled. I went over to try and help with him, but yet again, it wouldn't open. Turning to him, I said, "Thanks for saving me back there." I gave him a small smile, showing that I really was grateful.

"Don't flatter yourself. If you had died in that hallway, I would have been blamed." Chad leaned against the wall and smirked at me. "It was purely in my own self interest."

"You are such an egotistical jerk! Do you care for anyone but yourself?"

"I care for my character. Does that count?" He smirked again. Jeesh, didn't he have any other kind of smile?

"No, it doesn't. Can't you just take my thanks and be nice about it for once?" I asked, glaring at him. The way the light caught his hair, it seemed to shine, just like his gorgeous blue eyes. But I wasn't noticing that, I was just making sure he wasn't hurt. But that voice in the back of my head told me differently.

Chad stared at me curiously. "Why do you care so much whether I'm nice or not?"

"Because I know that you can be nice, even if you act like an arrogant jerk," I said truthfully.

"You believe that even after everything that I've done to you?" he asked. Was that a slight look of regret on his face, or was I just imagining it?

I sighed. "You only did that because you love competition and love to drive people away. You're just afraid of liking someone, because that would mean that you would have to like someone besides yourself."

He seemed truly shocked. "You got all of that out of the few months that I've known you?"

"It's not hard," I said, smiling sadly at him.

"Sonny Monroe, you are the most annoying, immature, and beautiful person I know," he suddenly blurted out, then looked as if he wished he could have held it in.

"What?" I asked brilliantly.

"Nothing," he muttered, looking down at his shoes.

"No, no, you said something like I'm beautiful. That's the nicest thing that you've said to me, you know that?" I grinned at him.

Chad slowly smiled back, despite his obvious trying to hold it back. "I try."

"You don't," I scoffed.

"Do I, Sonny? Do I really?" he smirked, then lost it and looked at me meaningfully. "I meant what I said."

My heart started to race, pounding in my chest, and it was a wonder that he couldn't hear it. "I think that you're gorgeous and amazing and talented," I blurted out. Horrified, I said, "I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to say that…" A blush started to spread over my cheeks, embarrassing me further.

The distance between us suddenly closed as he strode forward to me. I couldn't take my eyes off of his, at the intensity in them. He looked like a fallen angel at that moment, and I didn't want to stop staring. "I think you did," he said, looking down at me yet, somehow, not touching anywhere, even though we were so close. There was an electric tension between us. I brought my hand up to brush against his cheek, and he gasped at the contact. His hand delicately traced my jaw bone, so light it was as if he was touching a glass thread, but he was afraid that it would break under his touch.

As if an invisible force was pulling us together, we slowly started to lean into each other. He brought his lips down onto mine, tenderly, gently, giving me a chance to pull away. Even though every part of me screamed to do so, I couldn't. I just couldn't. I closed my eyes and pressed myself into him. His arms closed around my waist, pulling me closer, and my arms wrapped around his neck as if it was the most natural thing in the world for me to do. Our bodies fit together perfectly as our lips molded against each other, kissing fiercely, feverishly, as if the world was going to disappear tomorrow. The burning desire that I had been feeling for so long exploded within me.

Finally, we each pulled away for breath, staring at each other as we panted. "Did we…?"

"I think so," Chad said breathlessly.

"Good." I smiled up at him, and he smiled back.

A few hours later, Chad and I were cuddling in a corner, perfectly content to stay that way for now. Someone had to find us eventually. Finally, the door was being rattled, and we both jumped apart guiltily. Zora popped in, saw our disheveled appearances, and grinned at us as if she knew exactly what had gone on. "You're free!" she said, laughing. The double meaning behind it was clear: we were free from the basement, and we were free from holding back our feelings from each other. Thank God.

See that button down there? Right below this? It's lonely, so why don't you click on it?