Okay, this was my first ever fic, so originally I only intended to make it a one-shot. But I didn't know to tell anybody that, because I was a freaking newbie :^). So, to clear up any confusion, I'm going tell you what my current plan is for this story: when I feel like it, or when I am in a sappy enough mood (like today, because I went and saw Dear John finally) I will write another chapter. But other than that, don't count on me doing anything big with this. It's all just a bit of fun, to tell you the truth, and I have no idea where it's going. If anyone has any suggestions, leave me a review and let me know!

Five Months Later:

"Please, baby, listen to me!" Tommy pleaded, clasping his hands together in prayer position.

I pushed him away, scowling at his dirty, lying face. The bastard. "No! I'm so done with you, Tommy!"

I yanked his front door open, storming out into a light drizzle of rain, but not even worrying about my hair. Yes, that was how serious this was. "Why? Because I wasn't afraid to tell you the truth? Because I couldn't keep letting you live that way? Why, Lil, just tell me why!"

I stopped halfway down his front walk, the drizzle starting to become a slightly heavier rain. A sucky day all around, I supposed. "Because…." For a moment, words failed me. I knew that he had a point, and I knew that I was over reacting slightly, but hell if I was going to admit that. I didn't need him lording that one over on me, too. "Because it's not true!"

I wanted to run away, all the way back home to my brother, demanding that he tell me what was going on. But I didn't, I couldn't, and I simply watched Tommy reproachfully as he took a measured step towards me.

"But it is though, honey. It is." Tommy uttered softly, his eyes never straying from my face. I felt tears come up and push out of my eyes, but I made no move to stop them. I doubted he could tell anyways, seeing as the rain was now splattering us both with heavy, fat drops.

"No," I moaned, letting him reach out to me and touch my arm. I almost melted at the relief that effortless gesture gave me. "Phil…Phil wouldn't do something like that."

Tommy took another step forward, more confident this time, and started rubbing my arm soothingly. "I know that it seems like that, but yes, yes he did."

Any softness that he thought he might have gained in the last five minutes had hardened right up. I whipped my hand away from his touch as though he had burned me with his fingertips. "Stop saying that!" I hissed, nearly tripping as I tried to take a hasty step backwards. But the rain was now so thick that I could barely see Tommy's face two feet in front of me, let alone where the sidewalk ended and where Tommy's yard started.

Tommy closed his eyes briefly, running his hands through his soaked hair, before springing them back open. "No!" he declared firmly, his eyes narrowing. "I won't keep trying to protect you from what you HAVE to know is the truth. I can't and I won't lie to you."

Lil couldn't believe what she was hearing. He had to be kidding. Tommy Pickles, the KING of telling the truth, just not the whole truth, was standing there telling me that he WOULDN'T lie to me?! Are you freaking kidding?

"For the last time, Tommy, I know that what you're saying is wrong." I couldn't help but raise my voice to match the level of his, but I was trying to keep the calm he had previously installed into my body.

"But you don't know that! Because he told me himself! Everybody but you and Kimi knew! Phil-"

"MY BROTHER IS NOT A CHEATER!!!"

The words resounded around the air around us, spoken so loudly and so desperately that they seemed to seep into my skin, flowing with my blood, pumping through my heart, and finally reaching my brain. And that when I realized it; my brother was, in fact, a cheater.

The signs had always been there! The way he would say he was going out and then minutes later I would get a text from Kimi asking if I had seen him. They way he blushed furiously and practically bolted whenever that show Cheaters was on while I was flipping through channels. Even how I found TWO cans of Pepsi (one regular and on diet) on Phil's floor after I came home from shopping with Kimi. Phil was cheating on Kimi, and from what Tommy had just said, everyone knew it now, except for Kimi.

I gasped aloud, covering my mouth. The tears that had been loosely flooding down my face now began to pour along with the rain, my sobs like the thunder that was starting to boom in the distance. "Phil…he...he…." I couldn't seem to be able to get the words out. It had been far easier to deny it than to admit it was true.

Tommy nodded sullenly. He hadn't been lying after all. "I'm so sorry, Lil. But honestly, this doesn't affect us."

I slowly and deliberately lowered my hands from my face, sure that it was red and blotchy but not caring whatsoever. Excuse me? Doesn't affect us? Um, his best friend, aka my BROTHER, had just cheated on my best friend...and he knew about it the ENTIRE TIME!!! Somehow, that just wasn't settling well in my stomach.

"Oh, wow, Tommy. You would say that, too." For some reason, probably because I was a moody bitch today, I was suddenly ticked off at anybody who had anything to do with this entire thing. That included Kimi, who was such an idiot for not seeing it, Tommy, who never even said anything to me, and especially Phil, who is as big of an asshole as they get. At least, he was being one right now.

Tommy flinched at the intended sharpness of my words. I knew that he understood completely, but he still made the feeble attempt to be indignant. "What was that supposed to mean?" he asked half-heartedly.

"That means that it takes a cheater to know a cheater, and isn't that right, Tommy?" His features instantly flitted with pain, and I felt my stomach sink. What the hell was the matter with me? How was I being such a bitch to Tommy, the boy I loved?

Tommy sighed, leaning his head backwards. "I'm never going to be able to live that one down, am I?" I felt so immeasurably bad it wasn't even funny. I mean, Tommy had never done it to me, but there was one time, after a huge fight with his ex-girlfriend Nicole, that he had gone to some party that he wasn't even supposed to be at, and one thing led to another and BAM! Good ole Tommy Pickles had cheated on his girlfriend. Not that she ever found out. They officially broke up the next day, and Tommy never had the chance (or felt the need) to tell her about the bar-slut.

"No," I answered, figuring I might as well be honest with him. As angry as I was, I had begun to cool down a bit. I guess it was Tommy's presence; he just had a certain effect on me. "But it's all right." I smiled up at him shyly, afraid that he might still be mad at me.

"No, it's actually not." He looked down, and when I reached out to put a comforting hand on his shoulder, he shrugged it away.

"Hey." I said firmly, placing both hands more solidly on his forearms, holding him in place so that he couldn't turn away. "It doesn't matter to me. I know that you're not that person, and everybody has their mess-up moments."

Tommy bit his lip. "Yeah?"

"Yeah." I reached my hands up from his arms, instead placing them on either side of his face. "And you know what?"

He released his lip from between his teeth, looking down at me with a mischievous smile. "No, I don't know what."

I returned his grin, and continued, "I forgive you for being the one who had to tell me this."

"Hmmm," he hummed in mock thoughtfulness, "I don't remember exactly apologizing for that."

I shrugged. "You must have a selective memory."

He snorted. "You must have selective hearing. As in, you hear whatever you want to hear."

"Oh, you know you're jealous," I teased, glad that all the previous tension had seemingly evaporated.

He nodded, but more of a 'is that right?' nod than a 'sure, okay' nod. So it was alright. "You wanna know something?" He snaked his hands down around my waist, pulling up slightly so that he made me stand on my tippy toes, so that our lips were closer together than before.

"Always." I whispered, because the moment seemed right for whispering.

That was when he said It. For the first time ever, too. "I love you, Lillian Deville." It gave me the chills, and it just felt so right!

It took all of my strength to keep my grin from over-stretching my entire face. "I love you too, Thomas Pickles." And then he kissed me.

His lips lightly pecked mine, as he did to start off every kiss, and then I wrapped my arms around his neck and he enfolded his around my waist tightly, embracing me so hard that I could hardly breathe. Not that I wanted to, anyways. Breathing would make this kiss end all too soon.

In one swift movement, he picked me up off the ground, our lips still locked together, and I bound my legs around his hips. And we stayed there for quite some time, me, floating in the air, him, holding us both up. Just kissing, kissing in the rain. And I remember thinking, if not for the first time, that even though things were pretty bad in the real world, right now, they weren't. Right now, I was here with Tommy. And right now, I was happy.

Okay, that's probably going to be it for a little while, unless I suddenly decide to call in sick for a week and read the entire works of Nicholas Sparks, which, let me just say, is NOT probable. Thanks so much for reading, and remember to REVIEW!!!!