Wow, it took way longer than it needed to for me to finish this chapter. Basically, I write these whole things at night, and since I've been sick recently, I've slept through my work time. But here's the fourth chapter, finally. Thanks for all of your support of this story so far- it helps me a lot. Hope you enjoy this chapter.

Had things gone well? Had he been sociable, and nice, and clever? Had he made the boy laugh, had he made him smile? Had he made him feel happy? Had he been enough?

Dipper couldn't tell.

He couldn't shake the feeling that he had messed up somehow, even though most of his conscience was telling him that it had been perfectly fine. He felt like he had done something wrong, and that William wasn't pleased with him, although the number scribbled in pen on his hand and the bouquet clutched in his other said differently.

As Dipper walked back along the path to the Shack, he played with the leaves and the petals of the flowers absentmindedly, feeling fidgety and restless. His thoughts buzzed around, and he couldn't stop giving himself a hard time over that hidden failure.

"Man, what's going on...? I don't get this at all..."

Sighing, Dipper looked down at the bunch of flowers. They looked like lilies, and they were certainly very beautiful. Looking more closely, Dipper could see veins of shimmering color running along the pearly surfaces of the petals. They were also in surprisingly good condition.

How nice of William, Dipper thought.

For some reason, he couldn't stop thinking about the mysterious boy. When he saw the wind rustling the foliage of the forest, he remembered the way it tossed William's light hair around. When he heard the echoing noises of the nighttime woods, he remembered the unusual sound of William's laughter. When he looked up at the moon, it reminded him of the sparkle in the boy's solitary eye.

It was... Something foreign to Dipper. Sure, he had obsessed over Wendy to the point of kissing a pillow with her face drawn on it, but that had been less... Deep. This felt like something different. He felt more of a connection to the boy he had been on a date with, and a different sort of emotion towards him.

What he was feeling also seemed more poetic and complex. That had been a crush. A disturbingly obsessive one, yes, but still just a crush.

Was this... Love?

Dipper sighed, shaking his head, trying to clear it of such thoughts. He couldn't possibly be in love with another guy, right? Come on, this was Dipper. There was no way. He was obviously just awkward and uncomfortable around William, and the strange teenager was just very striking and memorable.

Yeah. That was definitely it.

And yet...

It still felt like there was so much more.

~~~TIME SKIP~~~

When Dipper got back to the Mystery Shack, it was past ten. Okay, that wasn't really that late in the scheme of things, but still. It was later than anyone had anticipated.

After he walked through the gift shop and got a slight grunt of acknowledgement from Stan, who was tallying the day's profits, Dipper prayed silently that his sister wasn't waiting just outside it to pounce on him and attack him with questions.

Being Mabel, she was.

Mabel jumped on Dipper and nearly tackled him to the ground as soon as he entered the living room. She was screaming incomprehensible things at him that were punctuated with random squeaky noises of excitement.

"DIPPER, OH MY GOD, YOU HAVE TO TELL ME EVERYTHING! How did it go? How was William? Did you like him? He's really cool, right? Aaaaaaah, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell meeeee..."

"Okay, okay, chill!" Dipper shoved Mabel off of him. She took a step back and stared at him expectantly, her eyes wide and her grin wider.

"It was really fun. I think we both had a good time. William's pretty cool, I've got to admit. He knows about all the crazy stuff that goes on in this town, and he's smart. Oh, and not to mention he's got a great- albeit strange- sense of humor."

"Soooooo... In other words, you two hit it off?"

"What? No! I just think he's cool, okay? I don't LIKE him... At least, not like that. I think we can be good friends, but I totally don't want to be in a relationship with him."

Mabel made her fingers into circle shapes and put them around her eyes, squinting at Dipper, who watched her with interest.

"What are you doing?"

"Skept-acles. C'mon, you've seen them before. I know it."

Dipper rolled his eyes. "Whatever. I'm just gonna go upstairs. Drop it, would you? I don't want to hear about this tomorrow morning." He spun on his heel and marched away from his twin, who remained standing there with her fingers around her eyes.

"Skept-acles... Don't try to hide it, Dipper; that just makes it more painfully obvious."

"Stupid Mabel," Dipper muttered to himself as he started up the stairs. "I don't like William. No way. He's just super unique. Yeah."

Just keep telling yourself that... You'll be fine.

Dipper felt himself blush a little bit as he remembered some of the conversation he and his date had shared.

"So, I'm guessing you've seen some pretty crazy stuff in Gravity Falls, right?"

"Hehehe, yeah, I guess you could say that. Over the past two years, I've gotten to see the world nearly end, seen and studied hundreds of magical creatures, and had some pretty crazy adventures. This town is nuts, William."

"Don't I know it... Hey, did you know that there's this secret passage thing out by the cliffs? I think it's a portal to another dimension, or maybe a rip in the space-time continuum. I've looked through it and thrown some stuff into it. It's pretty awesome."

"Maybe I'll check it out sometime... If I get around to it."

"Haha, yep. You must be pretty busy, right, Dip? I saw the headline in the paper last sunday. Looks like a certain someone's got his hands full. 'Oh yeah, you know me: save the town, capture the monster, get thanked by the police, get put on the front page. All in a day's work.'"

Dipper sighed, smiling a little at the thought of the boy. He hoped they'd meet again...

The attic door swung open with a creak. Dipper quickly crossed the large room, then flopped down on his bed and looked up at the ceiling. The low rafters seemed far away as he stared up into them, lying on his back, trying to center his racing thoughts and draw them away from William.

His progress was immediately lost when his eyes fell upon the marks of pen on his wrist. Dipper quickly sat up and blinked at the numbers, as if he didn't quite believe they were real.

He felt his heart start pounding, and the blush return to his face.

"Oh yeah..."

What was he supposed to do now?

Dipper cast a forlorn look at his cell phone, which was lying on his bedside table. He started to reach for it, but his hand retracted and he launched into an argument with himself.

"Should I call him tonight? No, that might make me seem desperate. Should I just wait until tomorrow? That might make me seem like I don't care. If I wait too long, he'll start to think I'm not interested, but if I call too soon, he'll think I'm obsessed. Oh my God, what am I doing? AH, NO, I'VE TURNED INTO MABEL!"

With a groan of anguish, Dipper smacked his phone off the table and threw himself back down onto the bed, covering his eyes with one hand.

"Argh... Why is being a teenager so dumb and confusing...?"

After several minutes of wallowing in self-pity, Dipper got up and retrieved his phone from the floor, holding it out in front of him. He pressed the power button, typed in the password, and pulled up the keypad. His gaze shifted to William's writing on his hand again.

"Just a few simple numbers... I can do this... Plus, it's not like I haven't ever talked to the guy before. This'll be easy..."

But despite what he told himself, Dipper just couldn't do it. Before he knew what was happening, he was scribbling down notes on a long scroll titled "William Plan."

Not too long after, Mabel came into the room, Waddles in tow. "YO, Dipper! How's it going? Hm?"

Her eyes landed on the paper in Dipper's hands, and she walked over to him. "Whatcha doing?"

"Mm," her brother grunted, not looking up. He continued to mutter to himself, his pen working away furiously.

Mabel scanned the scroll. She rolled her eyes when she saw the title.

"Really, Dipper? Again? Have you learned nothing?"

"I never learn," Dipper huffed quietly, squinting at what he was writing.

"Yeah, you can say that again. What happened to 'talk to them like a normal person' and all those things I taught you to do?"

"This is the more logical way to do things."

"Logic? Logic? Dip, let me tell you something. Logic and love don't work together. Love is crazy and wild and whatever your heart wants it to be. It's not what your head thinks it should be. Got that?" Mabel poked her brother in the chest and the forehead as she talked to illustrate her point, then watched him expectantly. He just scoffed at her and continued to write.

Mabel sighed, shaking her head. "You're really bad at this, bro. Just saying."

"Who cares?"

The female twin crossed her arms and went to her own bed, plopping down onto it and turning to face the wall. Waddles oinked and jumped up, snuggling up beside her.

"Step 10... Compliment... Yeah, yeah, that's good. Okay. Next... Eleven... Hm..."

Eventually, it became too much for Mabel. She shot to her feet, stomped over to Dipper, and looked him over a couple times. She noticed the phone number written on her brother's wrist and smiled smugly.

"Dip, can I borrow your phone?"

"Sure, whatever. On the nightstand."

"Thanks." Mabel grabbed the phone off the table and stood beside Dipper, copying the phone number. She pressed the call button and waited as it rung. Then it clicked, and a voice came through, loud and clear.

"Hello?"

Dipper dropped the pen and paper he was holding, his head snapping sideways to look at his sister, who was grinning at him. She wiggled her eyebrows.

"MABEL! What did you do? Why-"

She just burst out laughing and dropped the phone into his lap, running from the room and slamming the door shut as she left.

"Hello? Hellooooo? Someone called?"

"Oh, no... Great, just great..." Dipper picked up his phone, cleared his throat, and held it up to his ear. "Hello? William? Uh, it's Dipper..."

"DIPPER! Oh, oh, it is GREAT to hear from ya again! What's the word?"

"Er... I dunno... I just thought I'd call..." He braced himself for William to either hang up or get angry at him for calling so late, or so soon after their date.

"Well, I appreciate it."

"Really? You're not mad?"

"Nah, 'course not. It's not that late, really. I'm up this late every night, so no worries there. And you're not acting obsessive, if that's what you're thinking."

"Wha- how did you know...?"

William chuckled, his weird laugh sending chills down Dipper's spine.

"I'm just good at guessing what people are thinking. Call it a natural talent. I can sense it in your tone."

"That's pretty cool."

"Yeah, and useful to! So what are you up to, Dip?"

Dipper felt himself flush even more at the use of the nickname. He was used to Mabel calling him that, but it was totally different when it was William.

"Not much. I was just..."

"Debating whether or not to call and trying to figure out what to do?"

"Yeah, actually. Wow, you are really good at that."

"Thanks. I know."

Their banter continued for quite some time, and Dipper got more comfortable talking to William again as time wore on. Soon he was back to acting like he had in the later hours of their date.

Little did Dipper know that Mabel was crouched outside the attic, listening to the whole thing with a huge smile on her face.

"We've finally found the one," she whispered, feeling her heart swell upon hearing Dipper's laughter.

At last, she had succeeded.

Please comment and let me know what you thought. Thanks.

~ Three