A/N: So, there's a huge time jump in this story. I probably should've warned you in the prologue, but oh well. And I changed the summary cause I didn't really like the old one, but this one isn't much better, lol. Anyway, on with the story!

Chapter 1

Four years earlier

Logan's POV

"I don't get why you don't just ask him out already, Logan."

My eyes bugged and my mouth opened in shock as I whipped my head around. My desk chair followed the motion, spinning me around slightly in time to catch Kendall rolling his eyes at me from his spot sprawled across my bed, a textbook open in front of him.

"What?" I asked, playing dumb.

Kendall sat up on the bed, raising his eyebrow at me. I wasn't fooling him.

"Logan, c'mon. Everyone knows you're in love with James. It's pretty obvious with the way you're always looking at him. You almost remind me of a puppy with the way your eyes get all big and dopey. He likes you, too, but you both don't seem to notice each other's feelings. So do yourself a favor and just ask him out," Kendall said, shrugging his shoulders.

I furrowed my brow, thinking about what Kendall had said. I wanted to protest that there was no way James liked me back. I mean, look at me. I'm the nerdy one, not much to look at. And James is… James. The best looking guy in our school who can make any girl – and me – melt with his gorgeous smile. He's funny, a great friend, and so talented. He's always had big dreams of doing big things and I have no doubt he'll do them. How could he possibly like someone like me? Not to mention the fact that I'm pretty sure he's straight.

I think Kendall could tell I was psyching myself out, which is why he continued speaking.

"Look, you know James. He's a great guy and he's your best friend. If he did something stupid like saying no, I know he'll still be here for you. Nothing will change. The worst thing that could happen is that it'll be awkward for a little while, but you'll be back to normal before you know it."

I sighed. "I don't know, Kendall. What if he does say yes and the date ends badly? Or what if it goes great and we decide to date but then we break up and it ruins our friendship?" I rambled on.

"Logan sometimes you gotta take chances. Otherwise you'll be stuck, always wondering 'what if?' You should know this. Aren't you supposed to be the smart one?" he joked.

I laughed with him. "Hey, I'm allowed to have my moments," I protested lightly before sighing again. "I never really pictured myself being the one to make the first move, though. James is the confident one."

"Yeah, but he doesn't know you like him back and he probably wouldn't believe me if I told him you did. He's not going to ask you out first because James would never set himself up for a possible rejection. That would hurt his pride too much."

Kendall did have a point. "Ok, ok. I'll ask him out."

Kendall grinned at me before he laid back down and pretended to be doing his homework.

"Just make it soon."

James' POV

As I walked down the hall towards my locker, I shot flirting grins at all the girls calling out greetings to me. Same ol' hallway routine. When I got there, I saw Logan waiting for me to walk to the cafeteria with him as we did everyday at lunch.

"Hey, Logan."

I quickly spun my combination and opened the door to see a very handsome dude – better known as James Diamond – reflected in the mirror inside my locker. I pulled out my lucky comb to tame any stray hairs, but not much was out of place. When I was sure I looked perfect, I smiled, switched out my books and slammed my locker shut, lucky comb safely in my pocket once again. That's when I noticed Logan hadn't said anything since I got there and he looked really nervous, like he was scared he had got a B on his test or something.

"Hey, Logan, what's up?" I asked as I steered him to the cafeteria.

"What? Uh, no-nothing's up. Why, does it seem like something's up?" he stuttered out, not fooling me at all.

"Actually, yes. So spill."

We entered the lunch room and found our table. Carlos and Kendall weren't there yet, so I figured they were still in the lunch line. Logan's mom always made his lunch for him and I hated school lunch so I either went off campus or just didn't eat. We left the line to our other hockey-playing buddies. I waited as Logan carefully sat beside me before pulling his lunch from his backpack at a grandma pace. When he had it laid out in front of him just how he wanted it, I thought for sure he would start talking, but he only grabbed one of his apple slices and took a bite.

"Want one?" he offered, obviously avoiding the subject.

"Seriously, c'mon, Logan. Tell me," I begged while taking the offered apple slice.

What, I'm hungry. No point in refusing, even if he was only offering as a distraction.

"Th-there's nothing to tell," he rushed to assure me, but I could tell it was a lie. Logan's a horrible liar.

It was really starting to bug me that he was hiding something from me. A good friend would probably leave it alone and let Logan tell them when he was ready to. But I must not be a good friend because I needed to know now, and if I had to force him to tell me, I would.

"Really, Logan? You're not going to tell me, your best friend, what's bothering you? Fine, I'll just start telling Carlos everything and Kendall can be your best friend since you were so busy with him yesterday that you couldn't hang out with me. I bet he knows what's wrong," I accused with a pout, still jealous that my best friend – also the guy I've had a crush on since the 7th grade – had picked someone else over me, even if it was just Kendall.

The look on his face was surprised and slightly hurt, making me regret forcing it out of him this way. Maybe I should apologize… After he tells me.

"What? No, James, Kendall and I were just doing homework! You could've hung out with us, but I know you would have been bored the whole time." I started to worry as Logan started to repack his lunch and his voice became angry. "But you're right, Kendall does know what's wrong. He's the one who created the problem, actually. If you want to make a big deal out of it, fine. You wanna know what's wrong? I was going to ask you out, but I didn't know how."

I'm pretty sure he kept talking, but I stopped hearing him after that last sentence. Logan wanted to ask me out? Logan liked me? This was the greatest moment of my existence. I can't believe that he planned on asking me out. Unless I made him so mad that he changed his mind. I hope not. I couldn't stand it if I ruined my chance to be with the only person I have ever had real feelings for because I was being stupid and said something I shouldn't have.

I tuned out of my mind enough to realize that Logan was leaving. I quickly jumped up to follow him just as Carlos and Kendall were sitting down with their lunch trays.

"What's wrong with Logan? He looked mad," Carlos said, but I ignored him, going after Logan instead.

"Logan, wait!" I shouted.

A few heads turned to look, but I kept my attention on Logan's back as he sped up, making his way out of the cafeteria. I sighed. He was really going to make me chase him. I ran after him, ignoring the teacher monitoring the room's shout that there was no running. I looked both ways down the hall, before I saw him making his way towards the courtyard doors. I followed him through them, pausing only to quickly flash my school ID that branded me a senior at the teacher guarding the door before finally catching up and grabbing his arm to stop him.

"Let go of my arm, James," Logan said in a calm voice, but a look at his face showed how upset he was.

How did this get so out of control? I had just wanted to know what was bothering him so I could try to make it better, but all I ended up doing was making it worse and now Logan was mad at me. I let go of his arm and Logan started walking again, this time at a slower pace. Maybe that was a sign that he appreciated me coming after him and he would listen to my apology.

"Logie, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean what I said and I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. I just didn't understand why you wouldn't tell me what was wrong because you usually tell me everything so I decided to be a jerk and say something stupid, which was a bad idea. I was wrong and I should've just left it alone. Just please, Logie, will you forgive me?"

The entire time we hadn't stopped walking the path that led to the side of the school facing the parking lot, but now Logan stopped as we reached the end of the sidewalk and I copied his movements. He stood there watching a few kids who had went out for lunch return through the doors a few feet away before he turned to face me.

"It's alright, James. I can never stay mad at you for very long."

I breathed out in relief before wrapping my arms around him in a hug, smiling widely. He was slow to return it, but once he had I felt much more certain that our friendship was still intact. But me and Logan have been through worse and still stuck together, so why I was so afraid that this would be the thing to end it, I don't know. Oh, right. Maybe it was the whole trying to ask me out thing.

Being reminded of that little issue, I pulled back.

"So… do you still want to ask me out?" I asked, getting right to the point.

Logan's cheeks flamed red. He's so cute when he blushes.

"Oh… umm…" he began, looking away and fiddling with the rope things hanging at the ends of the shoulder straps of his backpack.

I decided to take control because I think if I left it to Logan it'd be a while before he finally said it. I pulled one of his hands away and held it, making him look up at me, a bit surprised.

"Look, Logan, I really like you, and I have for a long time. So if you want to go out with me, we can. I don't know if you meant just a date or… something more, but I'm definitely game for either one," I told him, giving a flirtatious grin.

Logan stared at me for a moment, his heart in his eyes, and for a second I wondered if that was how he had always looked at me and if so, how come I had never noticed before? A smile broke out on his face, cheeks dimpling in the way I loved so much.

"So you're saying you'd want to be my boyfriend?" he asked in awe.

I smiled again, lightly poking the dimple in his left cheek. "Yeah… that is if you want me to be," I added, hoping he'd say yes.

His smile grew as his gaze fell to our hands before he laced our fingers together. He looked back up at me and I honestly think that this is the happiest I've ever seen him look.

"Definitely. I've never wanted to be with anyone as much as I want to be with you," he confessed and my heart melted.

I took half a step forward, bringing us closer before intertwining our free hands together as well.

"So… It's official. You're my boyfriend," I stated more than asked.

Logan nodded anyway, that beautiful smile still on his face.

"Yep. And you're my boyfriend." Logan shook his head in disbelief. "This is crazy. I never believed that you could ever want me," he said softly.

I frowned slightly, but it quickly smoothed away. As much as that sounded like Logan was putting himself down, I've always felt exactly the same way. It's the most amazing thing knowing he likes me just as much as I like him. And it's a dream come true knowing that I can finally call him mine.

"Well believe it," I commanded gently, raising a hand up to cup his cheek. It's great to be able to touch him like this without it seeming weird. "You're the only one I want, and I'm so glad that I finally have you."

The look in Logan's eyes had my chest tingling with all these deep feelings, and I couldn't help but to drop my gaze to stare at his perfect, pink lips, dying to kiss him. But I had heard somewhere – maybe from my mom or someone – that you shouldn't kiss someone when you first start dating, that you're supposed to wait a few days. I've kissed a lot of girls, but I never dated any of them so I've never really had to follow this rule before. Now, with the temptation to kiss the lips I've been waiting years to taste pressing down on me, I thought that maybe that was a really stupid rule. Whoever came up with it had obviously never had lips as tempting as Logan's in their lame love life.

Just when I had decided to go ahead and kiss him anyway, the bell signaling the end of lunch rang, making us aware of our surroundings again and Logan stepped back. Damn.

"We should get to class. Walk with me?" Logan requested with a smile.

"Of course. Don't I always?" I pointed out.

Logan laughed lightly, turning to the parking lot doors which entered into the language hall, loosening his hold on my hand as if he was about to let go, but I quickly tightened my grip, making sure he didn't. He looked at me briefly before leading me through the doors to begin our long walk to our classes, which were literally on the other side of the school. I kinda wish this was an odd day because then we would both be going to our shared Government class and then we could… I guess do the same thing we always do in that class, except more romantically. Instead I'm going to my Drama class while he has Team Sports with Kendall. At our school, our schedules are split so that we had periods 1, 3, 5, and 7 one day and periods 2, 4, 6, and 8 the next day. I thought it was dumb at first since that means our classes are longer, but then I realized we get an extra day to do homework since we only have each class every other day.

People stared and whispered as me and Logan walked down the main hallway hand in hand, but I didn't care. Let them talk. Let the haters hate, see all the fucks I give. I could tell that it made Logan kind of nervous since he wasn't the most popular guy anyway, so I squeezed his hand to show him I would stay strong for the both of us. I wasn't ashamed. I wanted everyone to know that Logan was off the market and that he was mine.

We passed Carlos who was heading the way we came from to his Spanish class, which he thought would be an easy A, but his D said otherwise.

"Whoa, holding hands. Oh my gosh, you guys are finally together!" Carlos shouted excitedly, drawing more stares.

"Yeah." No need to say more.

"Wow. Well try not to rape each other in the showers after hockey practice tonight," he threw over his shoulder, laughing as he walked away.

That's nice. Logan's face turned red and I heard him mutter "I gotta get new friends" under his breath. He's pretty cute when he's embarrassed. Logan avoided looking at anyone directly the entire time it took us to walk the rest of the way down main hall, turn down the hall across from the front office and then stop at the T-intersection in front of the library where we parted ways. The gym was straight ahead while the drama class room was down the fine arts hall to our right. This was my chance to take a second shot at our first kiss. I started to lean in but Logan only wrapped his arms around me for a hug that he didn't even give me time to return before he let go.

"See you later, Jamie."

And then he was walking away, smiling back at me over his shoulder.

"Bye, Logan."

I sighed, watching him walk a few more feet before turning down the hall and heading to class.

Please review and tell me what you think! And thanks for reading (: