Saturday night and she was stuck at home; her sisters long since went out with some friends to the bowling alley. Well, being stuck wasn't particularly anyone's fault but her own, she denied the offer to join them not feeling in the mood to enjoy herself. Not when she was coming to terms with what happened earlier that week and the end of a long awaited relationship. But most of all, the end of a very long friendship. She didn't know how he'd ever trust her again and that hurt the most.

So here she sat on the steps of the porch on this warm spring night. Even though it wasn't that late she was already in her grey pajama pants, dark blue t-shirt, and hair down just slightly damp from having showered. Her head was leaned back against the railing and eyes closed as she thought about everything that had transpired.

That day she had talked with Alvin she had deceived him when he asked her why she would kiss him back. The more time she had to run through that occurrence in the tree house the more she realized that it hadn't exactly been a complete mistake and when she came to terms with that the more she cursed the girl she promised she'd never become.

The truth had been that she was vulnerable that day. Prone to her feelings because she had been in a constant state of quarreling with the boy she loved. Last summer, when Simon and her begun their relationship nothing else in the world seemed to matter and they seemed made for each other. Then, the past couple months, the flame had been extinguished and every moment that they used to enjoy together was replaced with a complicated situation. Some days they savored the moment together but more often they ended up bickering about some miniscule thing that was said or done.

That day, they had been joking and soaking in the moment as they walked down the mostly empty hallways readying themselves to head home. She was up in the clouds until an innocent comment she had made brought her back down to Earth and the moment turned sour. Another dumb disagreement that ended with him in a bitter mood and her feeling insecure.

When she wandered into their backyard she wasn't looking to bring their fights out into the light as they insured to hide them from family, but she had a suspicion that Alvin had figured out what was going on. Though he never was straight forward with it he always dropped very subtle hints that anyone else would have missed. His constant comments asking her how she could put up with his dry sarcasm or wondering if they ever fought. It was his roundabout way of trying to get her to confess they weren't in as perfect of a relationship as the entire world thought.

But she never spilled.

She secretly wanted them to be jealous, just as she was jealous of Alvin's supposed devotion to Brittany. They fought because of Brittany's temper after he gloated in jest with her, but she knew Alvin loved getting a reaction out of Brittany as a way of flirting. No matter how many times her sister seemed to break his heart he was always there to take her back; except this last time it seemed almost as if something may have drastically changed between the two. While she was certain she'd never get the full answer, she wasn't sure she wanted to be that reason why his love began to stray.

Her heart broke further with the thought of love beginning to stray. Was that where she was? She felt like it at times lately when they were together and she had to walk on eggshells. The constant rollercoaster had been troubling to her emotions and she found herself having to put on a fake smile as she spoke about their time together to her sisters. But it was that time together that was the problem because anytime they were apart it was almost like they couldn't stand it.

She found herself almost laughing at the irony as she began to choke up. She would just have to learn to live with missing him.

"Why are you all alone tonight?" She didn't open her eyes afraid of what may come of it.

His spirits were oddly high tonight considering how the rest of the week had played out. He almost felt like skipping down the stairs as he grabbed his keys and exited the front door towards his car. He was on his way to the mall to hang out with his brothers; even though they had fought this week they had mostly made up, and no matter what he acted like or how hard he tried he could never hold a grudge with either of them, no matter what the crime had been.

And then he spotted her sitting on the stairs to the front porch of her home. She looked at peace and he, for a second, thought she may have fell asleep, but he knew her better. He knew she was lost in thought, no doubt probably about that week.

Feeling his spirits lower he pulled the keys out of the lock and pocketed them. At this moment he slightly wished that glancing next door hadn't become a habit after all these years but he was glad that she was there and alone. He had to talk to her, he had done a good job of ignoring her all week and things would never be fully settled if he kept it up.

As he approached her he couldn't help but feel nervous. Doubt filled his mind and he mentally kicked himself for the way he had been treating her lately as he studied her face and noticed how troubled she looked. He had been a lousy boyfriend to her. Not just the past week, but the past months and he couldn't fault her if she felt unloved.

He was frozen with fear where he stood and he made multiple attempts to say something but nothing came out. Part of him was hoping she'd open her eyes and talk to him first, but it didn't happen.

Figuring he was going to have to initiate the conversation eventually he spoke what was on his mind first with slightly shaky speech, "why are you all alone tonight?"

At first he didn't think she would respond, but then she answered with a sighful, "thinking," opening her eyes to finally look at him, "what are you doing here? I thought you had no use for me now."

He sat down next to her on the stairs feeling a little defeated, "I don't detest you, Jeanette."

"Funny, I didn't know airing out our dirty laundry for everyone to know meant you didn't," she stared at him with a mixture of hurt and anger and he didn't fault her. Her sisters were everything to her and the fact he maliciously made them angry with her over something that shouldn't have been their business was his fault.

"Could you blame me for being angry?" He stared back at her.

"No, I guess not," her expression softened and after a few seconds turned to one of distress, "I'm sorry, I've really screwed us up."

"If you really did anything it was showing me just how mortal we are," he wanted nothing more to do at this moment than grab her up in a hug and tell her she hadn't been the only one at fault. He had been pushing her away afraid of how serious they were getting in their relationship and all he had accomplished was inadvertently hurting them both.

"You know you don't have to stick around. I'm the one that messed up, I should be finding you and apologizing," he was pulled from his thoughts as she spoke up.

"Please don't," he deadpanned. He didn't want apologies, it had been a frustrating week as it was and he just wanted to move beyond it.

But moving beyond was in their hands now and he wasn't exactly sure how he was going to make that possible, but he was going to try. Even if it meant sitting in uncomfortable silence all night with her.

After staring out at the road for centuries without a thought he finally heard a frustrated sigh from her, "why are you really here, Simon?"

Why was he really here if he wasn't already making amends? He had decided a couple days ago that he didn't care and that he just wanted to forget anything had happened. He had fallen for her and any fears he was having about their relationship were just foolish because he didn't want to lose her.

But why hadn't he told her that yet?

Choosing his words carefully before he spoke he knew this was the moment, "I know what happened and I don't know why but I'm not really in a mood to care," and his words were true, he didn't want to hear any more excuses and he was finished with ignoring each other. He wanted her back and he hesitantly reached a hand out to grab hers, "all I care about is the day I told you I love you, I meant it and nothing will change that."

"You really shouldn't do this," he almost protested when she pulled her hand out of his grasp and turned her face from him in shame.

"I really should," his attempts to look her in the eyes again was futile and he sighed in defeat, "if we broke up after this then I fear we never were truly in love to begin with." Maybe he finally said something right because she finally turned towards him with surprise and doubt.

"I thought we were broken up?"

"No."

"Why?"

"Because I love you," then he noticed her looking at him odd, "what?"

"You're never this illogical," she pointed out, "what's going on?"

He groaned in frustration. He didn't need an exact answer this time, not when matters of the heart were at play, for love really didn't make sense.

"Why do you not believe me?"

She didn't answer him, at least not right away as she fiddled with the hem of her shirt unsure of herself like she always was.

"Why are we so broken? I thought we'd be perfect together," he knew she was talking about everything wrong between them and when she finally turned to look at him with tearful eyes he could feel his heart ache at her final three shaky words, "but we're not."

They sat staring at each other and as a tear escaped her eye he leaned in, raising a hand to her face to brush it away. Today he would do it right and be there for her as she cried if that was what she needed. His eyes were locked on hers as he stroked her cheek with his thumb feeling his heartbeat race within his chest as he leaned into her and pressed his lips to hers.

Finally breaking apart from each other the words from one play ran through his head, "the course of true love never did run smooth."

THE END! Ok, there are so many sequel options that could be done on this because quite a few things are left open, but I'm not doing it! XD Ugh! Or a prequel even could be done. The little side stories within this aren't answered because they weren't really the focus of the story. Which, BTW, this ending is so lovey dovey it makes ME sick and I'm a romance novel junky lol. But, I hope you enjoyed it. Apparently it has more readers than I thought, there's over 500 views already. I think my next highest story has just over 100.

Copyright Ross B and Janice K

The quote Simon says at the end is from "a midsummer nights dream"

~Sharky