CHAPTER 2: He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not

This is chapter two! Please leave comments and any advice you might have...

"Ok guys, ready?" I asked when the day was done.

"Sure are...it has a been a long day that's for sure!" Michelle sighed. I had noticed she too, had begun to zone out during our lectures. My guess was that she was with me in thinking about the two boys that had suddenly taken interest in us. What were we going to tell them? Michelle voiced what I was thinking out loud.

"What in the world are we going to tell them tommorow? We hardly even know them."

"Michelle we don't know them. Do you think we can wait it out and see if we can take a shot though?"

"I really want too. I think Rylie is totally cute and he's really charming. It's funny the way he flirts," she laughed "he tries so hard!"

"I know me too. And I think that Danny is really sweet and not obnoxious and arrogant like most boys."

"So you guys are going for two guys you don't even know?" questioned Haley.

"Well Haley, we are going to see if we can get to know them." replied Michelle.

"Great. Just great. I get to put up with the love birds for the rest of the week." grumbled Hillary.

"Aaaww Hill. We'll take care of ya. Don't worry." promised Sarah.

"Being single all the time isn't so bad, you know." said Haley

"We are not single, we are romantically challenged." Hillary firmly informed us.

"Oh Hill! You make me giggle." I told her.

We swung are bags over our shoulders and got on our bikes for the ride home. We were all pretty silent for the ride. I guess we just had lots of thoughts and pondering going on. "Ok," I said when we reached their houses. "I'll talk to you guys tommorow I guess. Are we meeting here at the gazebo or just riding by ourselves?"

"How about we meet at the gazebo around eight-thirty. That'll give us plenty of time to get to school by nine."

"Ok. Sounds good chica. See ya tommorow!" I shouted as I rode to my house in the next neighborhood.

~*~

I moaned as my alarm went off and swung my legs over the edge of the bed. One day down, four to go and I was seriously getting tired of getting up so early. I walked slowly into the bathroom and began to get ready. As I ran the straightener through my hair, I thought about what was going to happen today. Either Michelle and I were going to say yes and have our first serious encounter with boyfriends, or, we were going to say no and have an extremely awkward rest of the week. I think I am going to say yes and I think Michelle will too. I pondered this as I threw on a pair of khaki shorts and yellow Buckle tee. We may not know these guys personally, but we seemed to have a lot in common.

~*~

"Hey guys. Is everyone ready for Day 2?" I sighed as I reached the gazebo.

"As ready as I'm goin' to be." responded Michelle.

"I can't believe you guys. You don't even know them! They could be creepers or players or...or...or..." spluttered Haley.

"Guys! Guys! Chillax...things might not even work out. How often are we gonna see them? We could become really close or be polar opposites. We don't know. We are just gonna play it out and see what happens, ok? Don't worry." I pointed out.

"Ok fine. But please don't come crying to us when things don't work out, even though you know that we will listen and be sympathetic." Hillary made clear.

"Alright enough of this talk. Let's go." said Michelle.

~*~

We walked and to the building and were met by Sarah and Caitlin. I surveyed the room to find our table, and saw that Rylie and Danny were already seated. They caught my eye and gave me a nod. I felt a blush creep up my cheeks as I smiled and waved back. Oh no. This couldn't start now. Since when did I blush around guys? I turned my attention back to the others and found them all looking at me with bemused expressions. "What?! Why are you looking at me like that?"

"You're already flirting and you're not even going out yet." Sarah asked with a curious tone.

"No! I was just looking for our table! They just happened to look over at the time I found the table..." I trailed off. I realized it probably looked like I was flirting, but I knew I wasn't and they can think what they want.

"Chica's lay off her. Think about yourself in this position." Michelle defended me. I suddenly felt extremely thankful for her. Their repsonses included that of eye rolling and sighs, and I suddenly was very defensive of our situation. I excused the feeling and went to go sit down as the bell for the beginning of lectures started.

~*~

"Hey guys." Michelle greeted and gave them a sweet smile. They smiled back and turned around to take notes and work on the assignment. I doodled on the side of my paper, making an array of smiley faces and hearts. I looked over at Michelle and found she was doing the same thing. It was fifteen minutes into the day and we were already zoned out. Not that we did't know what was going on, but we weren't exactly paying such rapt attention as some. Just then I felt a light flutter against my foot. I looked down under the table and saw a piece of paper folded in half. My head snapped up and looked directly across from me at Danny. He gave a small smile and with the slight nod of his head, I bent down and quietly picked up the folded paper. I looked up at him while unfolding it and he gave me the sweetest of smiles and a twinkle in his eyes. I looked down at the paper and read. "I really like you, you know. Can we talk?" To my dismay, I felt myself blush, but this time I didn't mind. I wrote back saying "Of course we can talk. I think I could really like you too once we get to know each other." and slid the paper under the table with my foot back to him. I kept my eyes trained on the speaker ahead until I heard the swish of the paper sliding on the tile floor. I leaned down to pick up the paper and Rylie met my eyes. He gave me a wink and took out a piece of paper and instantly began writing. I rolled my eyes and picked up my paper just as he sent his to Michelle. She looked up and gave me a quizzical look as I read my paper and she received hers. This time Danny wrote "You seem different from other girls. A lot nicer and it doesn't seem like you go for the players like most girls do." I wrote back, while hiding the note in my lap, a smile playing on my lips. "Thanks...that's really sweet. I don't like boys that are arrogant. I like quieter, sweeter boys." I sent the note sliding across the floor and looked at Michelle. She was writing quickly with a blush creeping up her cheeks. These boys certainly know how to play their cards right.

~*~

"Would you go out with me do you think?"

"Idk if I'm allowed...but I think I would like to try it.."

"Why wouldn't you be allowed?"

"Idk if my mom would be ok with it..."

"Well let's just get to know each other for now then."

"Ok...so how many gf's have you had?"

"Not many..like I said, not many girls go out with me."

"Well I've not had any bf's and I don't understand why anyone would turn you down."

"Thanks...your very pretty..."

"Um..thanks...your pretty cute yourself."

Just then, the speaker dismissed us from lunch. He was still reading my last note when I jumped up, grabbed Michelle and headed toward the doors. Once both of us had gathered the others and were safely outside in a deserted courtyard, we were bombarded with questions. "What the heck happened?! When the speaker dismissed us you practically ran out of the auditorium with Michelle and both of you were blushing like it was goin' out of style!" Hillary practically screamed.

"Shh! Keep it down! Let's just say we studied our notes...that didn't exactly pertain to religion." I said.

"What happened?!" all of them said at once. Michelle and I exchanged a glance. I could only imagine what her and Rylie had talked about.

"Well...Danny started passing notes with me." I began to explain. "We got into some personal stuff...like what kind of girls he likes and stuff."

"Then...well...Rylie started passing notes with me. We talked about pretty much the same thing." Michelle responded with giggles.

"OMG!"

"I can't believe it!"

"That is sooo sweet!"

"You guys are gonna be such cute couples!" they all exclaimed at once.

~*~

The week passed by slowly, but was definetly made more fun having a secret romance. Finally, it was the last day of camp and we were all excited. We arrived right on time, and headed to our seats for the first half of lectures. Rylie exhchanged a mischievous glance with Danny when we arrived, but Danny just looked at him coldly. I wondered what could possibly be wrong. I looked at Michelle and she shrugged her shoulders. I thought back to everything that had happened yesterday. We got to camp, began passing notes, flirted, had lunch, done an activity, and then Rylie began passing notes with me too, and then....Oh. Rylie began passing notes with me. Could that honestly be what he's mad about?

"Are you mad at me?"

"No."

"Are we going to pass notes with me today :-)???"

"No."

I'de felt like I'de been slapped. I looked up at him and he looked at me for a split second with what seemed like sadness in his eyes, but by the time I detected it, they turned cold. I kept the note and began writing to Rylie.

"Do you know if Danny is mad at me??"

He looked up from his seat beside me over to Danny across the table and whispered "Danny...Danny! Are you mad at her?" with a jerk of his head he nodded at me.

Way to be discreet.

I looked at my lap, not wanting to see his face all hard and cold. I felt a blush crawling up my face when I heard him hesitate, then looked up and found his beautiful blue eyes piercing mine.

"No." I heard him answer. I looked over at Rylie and his brow was creased in confusion when he looked back. He wrote back after.

"Are you ok?"

"Yes...why?"

"You look...hurt."

Was I really that easy to read? Sadness must have flashed through my eyes because he wrote back saying "It'll be ok. Danny is very...sensitive."

"I realize that. I don't even know what I did wrong."

"Me neither. I thought you were doing a great job flirting with him." That made me smile and giggle a little bit. I bit my lip, realizing my mistake and looked up to see Danny glaring at me and Rylie. I held his gaze, pleading with my eyes to understand; to help me understand. He looked away first and my sadness and confusion turnded to anger and frustration. What did I do wrong? Nothing! If he wasn't gonna help me out and tell me, then I wasn't going to waste my time. No matter how much I wanted too.

~*~

"Ugh! I didn't do anything wrong! Why is he so mad?!" I vented to Michelle at the gazebo. After camp was finally over, I gave everyone the run down on what happened, but now I was letting more out with Michelle.

"I think he's just jealous. You were passing notes and talking to Rylie, and he probably didn't like that." she said gently.

"Well that's no reason to get mad! He knows you and Rylie are going out!" Thanks to Danny's sudden mood swing and speedy exit after camp, we didn't work out. Rylie and Michelle however, did. I was kind of jealous and still pining for Danny.

"Boys are so annoying."

"Tell me about it. What am I supposed to do? Read his mind?" I lowered my voice, "I really cared about him Michelle. I don't think I'm going to get over him that quickly. He's been the first guy that's made that much of an impression on me in a long time."

"You never know what could happen. And now you know a great guy. Maybe things will work out." she said softly.

"I don't think he's gonna change his mind. If he does it's not going to be for me...I can't bear to think who...and I don't wanna know." I responded looking into the distance. How in the world did things go from fabulous to absolutely horrible in such a short time?