A really big THANK YOU to my beta kissgoodnight!!!!!

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

At exactly three thirty there was a knock on my door. I opened it and Steph greeted me.

"Hey Rory" she said while hugging me. "Ready to go?"

"Sure, I just need to get my purse." I went into my room and picked up my purse, before I went back to Steph I looked one last time into the mirror. As I came into the main room again, Steph was already waiting for.

"Let's go!" I said as we left and I locked the door behind me.

The car, which Steph had hired waited outside my building and we both took the back seats. Apparently the driver knew where to go, because he just started driving.

"So you spent the last night at Logan's?" asked Steph. I really had hoped that she wouldn't chose this topic but after all she still was Steph and she was one of the most curious people I knew.

"Yes" I said shortly. I hoped that she would change the subject soon, if she didn't receive the gossip she loved to hear.

"And?" she asked.

"And what?" I asked annoyed.

"Oh come on Rory!" she said. "Since we've been back from our sailing trip there is even more sexual tension between the two of you than before! Even if you don't want to see it, but you like him and he likes you! I can see how happy you are when he is around and the other way round is the same."

"That's totally weak-minded! Logan and I have known each other since we were sixteen! There never was any sexual tension between the two of us. And of course I'm happy when he is around, he is my best friend!" I said and hoped that this was the end of the conversation.

At the bottom of my heart I knew that Steph was kind of right. I recognised myself how happy I was when he was around or when he hold my hand, or how weak my knees turned every time he touched me, but at this moment I didn't want to confess that to myself. Logan was my best friend! And I never believed that friendship could turn into love. And never ever I could fall in love with Yales biggest playboy.

Logan was a friend, and nothing more, my strange feelings were there just because I hadn't seen him in such a long time. I looked to the side and saw that Steph had watched me the whole time, while I was thinking about Logan and me.

"Alright Gilmore, you keep telling that yourself and inform me when you start to believe it!" said Steph smirking at me.

I preferred to not respond to that and we were quiet for the rest of the drive, until we reached the shopping mall. We spent three hours with shopping, until we finally found everything we needed; gowns, shoes and of course make-up.
We were both tired and decided to drink a cup of coffee before finally heading back to Yale. We sat down in the nearest café and both ordered a large yup of black coffee.

"So, do you already have a date for the gala?" asked Steph, while we drank our coffee.

"A date?" I asked confused.

"Didn't you read the invitation? You need an attendant, if you want to call your date that" she answered.

"That's a joke, right?" This couldn't be true. It wasn't enough that I had to attend this gala, no I needed a male companion, too?! I really hated this events! Who the hell should I take there? I didn't know one guy that was crazy enough to escort me to a boring night like this.

"No it's not a joke. Don't say you don't have a date, yet?" said Steph.

"No, how would I? Dates don't grow on trees, you know." I said. "Do you have one?" I asked.

"Of course!" said Steph, as if it was obvious who would be her escort.
I knew that Steph had just some male flings since two years, but never a real boyfriend, that's why I was serious interested in who her date was.

"Who?" I asked.

"Colin" she said.

"Colin? Your date is Colin?"

"Yeah, we have some kind of arrangement. If we have to go to parties like this one he is my date. That makes everything much more easier and I don't have to date random guys just to find one that is not boring me to death after two hours." She explained, and as weird as it sounded to me in the first moment it became much more logical as longer as I thought about it.

"You really should search for a date soon, Ror. It would be totally embarrassing to attend it alone. Do we want to head back?"

I paid for our coffee and picked up my bags. We went back to our waiting car and drove back to Yale. The whole time I thought about who would go to a gala with me, and about the fact that I was all those years to oblivious to see that Steph and Colin had this arrangement.
I knew the answer to my first question but I didn't want to see it.

Steph talked the whole ride back about her gown and her make up, but I didn't hear one word of what she was saying, because I thought about if I really could risk it to ask him if he wanted to escort me.

In the next couple of days I couldn't think about anything else, than where to find a date for the evening. I wondered a little bit about my grandma, because normally she would try to set me up with some son of one of her friends on an evening like this. That was annoying, normally these guys bored me to death, but I had never to worry about who could escort me, because my grandma took always care of it. But this time she didn't call to inform me who the lucky guy would be. That's why I assumed that it won't be a problem to go there on my own.

Steph's question who my date would be had totally caught me off guard. There were only two days left until the big night and still there was no date near.

It was Wednesday night and I was sitting in Logan's room, drinking coffee. We were waiting for the others because we wanted to go out together. Logan was currently in his bedroom to change, while I took the newspaper from the table to read a little bit. As I picked the paper up, an invitation fell into my hands, that was very familiar to me.

Logan was invited to the gala that made my head hurt the last couple of days, too. Totally lost in my thoughts I looked at the invitation. When he was invited anyway, he could also go with me, right? I couldn't bring myself to just ask him. Why was this so hard for me? He was my best friend and we went out together so many times. Nothing had changed, but why did I have to tell that myself so many times, lately?

I turned to the side, because I could hear that Logan was coming back into the room. I closed my eyes shocked. Why did he just wear a pair of pants, while holding his shirt in his hand? And why did I react that way? I had seen him without a shirt many times before.

"Hey Ace, everything alright?" he asked

"Sure Huntzberger, but could you put on a shirt?" I said while pretending to read the newspaper. The truth was I just tried to distract me from looking at Logan.

"Sure, if you feel better then." He said and I knew that he had his typical smirk in his face.

"You can look at me now" said Logan and I looked up.
He had put his shirt on and sat down next to me on the couch.

"What's that?" he asked.

I had forgotten that I was still holding his invitation in my hand.

"Oh, that fell out of the newspaper!" I said and handed him the invitation.

"Oh boy, I forgot about that" he said "Another one of these evenings where my parents force me to attend." Logan shut his eyes annoyed. "I don't want to be there at all, but I think there is now way of not going!"

"You're not the only one!" I said and looked at him.

"You have to be there, too?" he asked and turned to me.

"Yes, Straub and Francine won't let me get out of it." I answered.

"Why are our families so happy, when we are there?" said Logan and closed his eyes again.
"My mother wants me to go there with one of the daughters from the DAR. All these girls are bimbos without any kind of brains!" said Logan.

I tried not to sound too interested when I asked: "And which one has the pleasure to escort the wonderful Logan Huntzberger this time?"

"You" he said.

I couldn't believe my ears. Did Logan really just said that I should go there with him?

"I mean, just in case you want, because Steph and Colin will be there too and then we are almost complete. It will be fun. If you don't have a date already?" he asked and looked at me.

"No I don't. We can go there together, it won't be too boring this way." I said as casual as possible.

If I hadn't sat already I'm sure I would have sat down, but Logan seemed to not notice it. Why did it bother me that much too make a date with one of my friends? That wasn't normal for me. It is just Logan, I tried to convince myself. We are friends an go to a boring party together. We did this before, so this wasn't anything special.

Before I could think about my strange feelings any longer the others arrived and we started into our night. Finally some distraction from my thoughts!

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

You know what you have to do and I know you wanna do it, so just DO IT! ;-)

THX Katharina