"He says he's not letting us out until I can correctly text him the name of who you love… who you're in love with," she said staring blankly at the selves of cleaning supplies to her right.

Danny looked at her, noting that her voice and gaze were distant. He'd guessed that Tucker had texted them both the same thing, but was both mortified and horrified to be proven correct. Not only did Sam know he'd been keeping things from her, she knew he'd forced Tucker to keep things from her as well.

"Yeah," he said, "Same. Except, you know, who you're in love with."

The silence that descended was foreign to them. It wasn't the silence they usually shared, the comfortable, content absence of spoken words that came with years of being friends. No, this silence was awkward, embarrassed, uncomfortable.

Sam walked to the back wall and sat next to Danny. The physical distance between them was slightly larger than normal which increased the awkwardness in the small room by about 70%.

"You told Tucker, but not me," Sam said. It came out far more accusing than she'd meant it to, especially considering she'd done the same thing, but she couldn't help wishing she'd known she really didn't have a chance.

"I didn't just tell him," Danny immediately defended. "He confronted me about it. You know how he is."

Sam acknowledged his statement with a scoff and a nod. "Yeah, I know how he is."

"Why didn't you tell me?" she asked quietly.

Though her face didn't show it, Danny could tell she was hurt; she felt like he didn't trust her. To be fair, being in love with someone was a fairly large secret to keep from your best friend. To be unfair, she'd done the exact same thing.

"I didn't want to ruin our friendship," he said.

Sam considered this. 'He didn't want to ruin our friendship?' she thought incredulously. She already knew who Danny was in love with. The same girl he'd always been in love with: Paulina Sanchez.

But she knew how in love he was with Paulina, so why would he be worried about ruining their friendship. Unless he knew how she felt about him. Sam had a very un-Goth-like moment of panic, before calming herself. Even if she had been obvious about her feelings, which she was sure she hadn't been (though more and more people had been calling them lovebirds lately), Danny was far too clueless to figure it out. And if he'd somehow managed to figure it out, Tucker wouldn't have locked them in the closet.

She was satisfied with her conclusion until she realized that she still hadn't figured out what Danny meant. She returned to trying to work things out.

'There's no way she would ever give him a serious chance,' she thought, 'I mean, we heard her and Dash no more than a half hour ago.' The Goth couldn't help but wonder why her friend was so hung up on the Latina girl. With the constant ghost fights and the genes he'd received from his father, the halfa had gained both muscle and height since their freshman year. There were a lot of other girls who would be happy to date him. Then again, once Danny's muscle mass had increased so had the bagginess of his clothes; and even though he was now far too tall to fit into a locker, he still let Dash push him around. In addition, he'd worked hard to maintain the goofy, clumsy, weak persona he'd established at the beginning of their high school career.

But all of this was his idea so that no one would figure out his alter ego. Jazz had taught them that everything was about perception; if no one thought of him as a strong and fearless, no one would ever connect Danny Fenton with Danny Phantom no matter how similarly they looked or sounded. With as hard as he'd worked there was no way Paulina, Queen of Casper High, would risk her popularity by even talking to him… unless it was to insult him. Did he think she would get on his case about not having a chance with her? Did he think she would fight with him about it?

She hadn't noticed him staring at Paulina for a while but she remembered chastising him for it the last time it happened, warning him that Paulina would never give him the time of day. Maybe he thought she would criticize him for chasing after someone who would make sure they were never caught.

Or maybe he was worried about what would happen if he did catch her. He had to know that she would never approve of their relationship. Sam had hated Paulina since long before their freshman year. In the Goth's opinion, if the Latina were to take liquid form, she would be a puddle: not even deep enough to get a person's feet wet. Was Danny afraid that she would try to mess with their relationship? The thought left Sam feeling vaguely offended. Of course she disliked (despised) Paulina, but if the Prep made Danny happy, Sam would never mess with that.

Or maybe he knew that and was afraid that in her effort to let them be she would isolate herself and they would barely see each other anymore.

Danny watched as Sam sank into thought after his confession. Emotion after emotion flickered across her face and Danny busied himself with analyzing each one as it passed.

Confusion, understanding, panic, understanding, then confusion again. She vacillated between confusion and understanding for awhile before adopting an offended expression only to continue moving between confusion and understanding. He watched her, wondering if she understood what he'd meant by that statement.

"Sam," he said. She didn't respond. "Sam." Her eyes didn't even flicker in his direction. "Sam!"

Sam came back to herself. She turned to look at Danny, took in his concerned expression, and realized he'd probably been calling her for a while. She tried to tamp down her blush, but only partially succeeded.

"Sorry," she said, "I just can't figure it out." She missed Danny's disappointed expression. "How would you being in love with Paulina ruin our friendship? You've been in love with her for years."

Danny stared at her for several moments before a small chuckle escaped his lips. "I'm not in love with Paulina. I was never in love with her; I just thought she was hot. I'm actually a little offended you think I'm still into her," he said pretending to look affronted.

"Oh," Sam said. This time no amount of effort would have been able to stifle the blush burning her cheeks.

Automatically her mind jumped to who she believed to be the next most logical conclusion: Valerie Gray.

Unfortunately she was having the exact same problem: how would a relationship with Valerie ruin their friendship and how could he like her so much in the first place.

Until the unfortunate accident that caused her father his job, Valerie hand never been nice to any of them. It was only after she got rejected by the popular crowd that she gained any interest in Danny. They'd gone out, but she ended their relationship even though she still liked him.

Well, she liked Danny Fenton. She was hell-bent on destroying Danny Phantom. Of course Valerie had no idea Fenton and Phantom was the same person, but it really wasn't that hard to figure out. Tucker's twelve-year-old cousin had visited the summer between their freshman and sophomore years and figured it out in under a week, and Danny had been just as clumsy and uncoordinated around him as he was around everybody else. The people in their town were just abnormally oblivious. Granted, Tucker's cousin spent more time with Danny than the majority of the town, but the people closest to Danny had no excuse.

Especially not Valerie as she actually came into close contact with both Danny's on a regular basis.

Sam understood that Valerie was actually a really nice person. She also understood that anger, misunderstanding, and a thirst for revenge made a dangerous mix, one that could easily harm Danny.

If Danny and Valerie started going out, and Valerie found out that he was Phantom (which, again, really wasn't all that hard to do) she would certainly lash out in betrayal and anger; both Danny and his secret would be put at risk.

Though nothing of the sort had happened, Sam could already feel herself becoming extremely irritated with both Danny and Valerie. How could she not see that Phantom was just as good as Fenton? How could he put himself in danger for a girl who only accepted half of him?

At least she understood why Danny kept it from her. They weren't even together, yet she felt the need to smother them, to be around at all times so that he was covered in case of a ghost attack.

"Sam!" Danny said. She got the feeling he'd been calling her for a while again.

"Sorry," she apologized.

"I think they could hear you thinking in the Ghost Zone," he replied.

The Goth rolled her eyes. "I was thinking about you and Valerie," she said hesitantly.

Danny's eyebrows shot up. Sam looked away, but he just leaned forward to get a better view of her face.

"I'm not in love with Valerie either," he said.

Sam blinked at him. "Then who…"

"Who are you in love with?" Danny interrupted.

After several moments of silence he spoke again. "Am I going to have to guess?" he asked. Sam shrugged.

"Are you going to tell me if I guess right?" he questioned. Sam sighed.

"If you guess correctly," she amended, "Then yes, I'll tell you. And I get to ask you questions in return,"

"Sure," Danny said, unconcerned, "Is he alive?"

Sam gave him a look that clearly showed she was questioning his sanity.

"What?" Danny asked, "We deal with ghosts all the time and you would totally be into that."

Sam thought about that. She did like Danny's lower-than-normal temperature. She did love that he could use his powers to protect people, even though she hated it when he got hurt. Plus, she had to admit, flying was awesome.

"Sam," Danny said. Her amethyst eyes snapped to his.

"Sorry," she said.

"What's up with you?" he asked, "You never space and it's happened, like, five times since we got locked in here."

Sam shook her head. 'Oh, I don't know why I keep spacing out,' she thought sarcastically, 'Maybe it's because Tucker locked me in a closet with you and won't let us out until I tell you how in love with you I am. On top of that, I have to figure out the girl you're in love with and why you decided to keep it from me. Maybe it's that.'

Instead of answering Danny's question, she said, "Yes, he's alive." 'Half-alive, anyway,' she thought to herself.

"Okay. Do I know him?" he asked. He could barely keep the strain from his voice. Imagining Sam in the arms of a faceless boy was killing him, though he knew imagining her in the arms of someone he knew would be so much worse. Nevertheless, he couldn't seem to stifle his masochistic curiosity. Ever since he'd first read Tucker's text, his emotions had been going haywire. For the first time, he was glad he didn't have his powers; going intangible and invisible at random moments definitely would have made the current conversation a little bit harder. On the other hand, if his powers hadn't been neutralized he wouldn't be in his current situation. On the other other hand, he wouldn't put it past Tucker to have a mini ghost shield in one of his bottomless, technology-filled pockets.

Looking at Sam, his thoughts returned to the text once more.

Sam was in love with somebody and he would bet anything that somebody wasn't him. It hurt. It hurt because he knew he would never love anybody the way he loved Sam.

No one would smile the way she could, or flip their hair impatiently the way she did. No one could calm him down or cheer him up as fast as she could. No one could send his heart racing, his blood pumping, his mind spinning as fast as she could. She was beautiful and stubborn and smart and impulsive and funny and sarcastic and caring and sneaky and protective and a little judgmental and more than a little amazing in every way. In his eyes, no one else could or would ever compare.

The thought of someone else holding her the way he wasn't able to, pressing their lips to hers, touching her constantly in ways he couldn't; the thought of her having a special smile for someone that wasn't him; the thought of someone else making her happier than he could; the thought of her loving someone else on a completely different and much deeper level than she loved him; all of it tore him up inside.

He hated feeling jealous whenever another guy so much as looked at her. He hated thinking, 'She's mine!' whenever another boy asked her out. He hated the intense joy he felt whenever she said no, and the acute fear that next time she would say yes. He was her best friend; shouldn't he want her to be happy? Shouldn't her happiness be more important to him than how much he wanted her? Because he did want her. He wanted her every moment of every day for the rest of his life.

Sam's voice broke him out of his thoughts. "I guess… you could say you know him." Immediately Danny started mentally running through every guy he knew who also talked to Sam.

"Danny?" Sam asked. When he didn't respond, she placed a hand on his shoulder. Instantly, his blue eyes snapped to hers.

"Sorry," he said.

"Next question?" she asked giving him an understanding smile.

Danny shook his head; he didn't think he could handle anymore. He was having enough trouble dealing with the fact that it was someone he knew. "I have to think of some more, so I guess it's your turn to ask me questions."

A/N: Yep. I did it. I left you guys with a cliffhanger. Now you have to review to get the next chapter. Thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter; I'm looking for 10 more reviews before I post the last chapter. And you guys please, please, please tell me what your favorite parts of the chapter are. I want to know that I'm doing a good job. Thank you much. Until next time! :)