"Just you wait, Miss Undersee, you'll fall for me. I bet you don't know it, but you're falling in love with me right now. Right now. Can you feel it?" he jokes.

"You'll have to try a little harder than trying to convince me I'm already in love with you."

"Fair enough," he agrees, twirling a strand of my hair around his finger from behind. "You're as perfect as a thousand emeralds and rubies and sapphires. Let me take you to dinner," he whispers in my ear.

I grin at the ground and grasp his hand in midair to uncurl my blonde lock from his finger. I turn away and skip another rock over the water as he trails close behind me. "Those jewels get their color from the impurities within them." I smirk at his effort to remain stoic, and turn away from the water again to meander down the shore.

He is relentless, and amends quickly, "Okay, then you're as perfect as a pearl."

I answer, rather matter-of-factly, "Pearls are just masses formed inside of clams."

He sighs and keeps trying. "How about a diamond?"

I stop and turn around abruptly, looking at him flatly and completely straight-faced. "You should know better than anybody that diamonds are just compressed coal." I pause before adding, "And they say those are impossible to crack, but that's a sham. And not just for diamonds."

"Oh, yeah? And how do I crack you, Undersee?"

"I've already been cracked."

"By who?"

"What are you doing here, Gale?" I counter, avoiding his prying.

"Making sure you're still falling in love with me," he smiles.

"I came to the lake to be alone. Are we done here?"

He steps closer, his face hovering dangerously close to mine. "Not quite," he says in a low voice, drawing even nearer.

"What are you doing? Why are you doing that? Stop that," I reprimand.

"What?" he asks, alarmed.

"Seriously?" I scoff. "You're going to try to kiss me. Right here. Now. No. Stop that."

"I was just… I thought… but you were…" I cross my arms over my chest expectantly. "You're not flirting with me? I thought all that stuff was you… you're not just playing hard-to-get?"

"I'm getting tired of this. Just come back when you can formulate full sentences. Don't be so surprised that your next target isn't tripping over her own feet to make you like her," I reply, storming away to sit in the grass away from him.

"I'm not sure where I'm supposed to go from here," he ventures a few moments later.

"Just follow the breadcrumb trail. I'm sure you know how to get back home. Just avoid any houses made of candy, Hansel," I quip.

He chuckles. "No, I mean… well what am I supposed to do now?"

I clutch my heart in mockery. "Oh, I suppose you bite back the tears until you can be in private to weep and mend your broken heart. Maybe someday when I come to my wits I'll realize what a charming, handsome lad I'm missing out on and come crawling back to beg for forgiveness."

"Now you're just being mean."

I am quick to counter. "I'm blunt and sarcastic. It's not my fault if your precious little feelings get in the way."

"Come on, Undersee, give me a break."

I stand from my secluded area, and really look at him while saying, "I'm just so tired of people pretending, and saying things they don't mean, and bending the truth so they don't hurt somebody's feelings. I don't sugar-coat things. I am not flirting with you, Gale, and you can bet your last penny that I never will."

"Not even after I told you that you're as perfect as a diamond? That line is foolproof."

"Ah, then who's the fool – you or me?" I half-joke, folding my arms over my chest again.

"I'm not sure yet," he says, running his fingers through his glossy brown hair.

"Look, I know that's a line. I'm not perfect; nobody's supposed to be perfect. When you make a girl out to be larger than life, that's playing her, not flirting or courting or whatever the hell it's called. If you had taken a genuine interest in me, instead of throwing out a line that applies to any girl, I'd reconsider. If you'd put effort to do something for me because you care, I'd reconsider. Unfortunately you don't fall under either category." I explain, waiting for his answer. He pauses and turns away, so I shrug and walk back to the lake's shore.

"You seem to have it all figured out," he calls out minutes later.

"Yes," I answer simply.

"Are you telling me that if I had brought you flowers or done something stupid like that, then you would have kissed me?" he questions, clearly muddled by my crystal-clear explanation.

"No," I answer again, trying not to get angry.

"I don't get it. Why don't flowers work?"

I sigh, but decide to humor him. "Flowers only work if you give them to the girl because you want to do something that will make her happy. If you're doing something just because you think it will win her over, then why do it at all? It should make you happy to make her happy, and if it doesn't, you're doing it wrong."

"Then by that logic, I did good by almost kissing you," he says, dimples settling into his cheeks as he grins mischievously.

"That depends. Why were you going to kiss me?"

"Because I thought you were flirting with me. I thought you wanted to kiss me," he explains, a blush covering his cheeks.

"Then yes, I suppose. But that's based on your perception. You only thought I wanted to kiss you. You didn't know that I wanted to kiss you."

He smiles widely at me. "You wanted to kiss me."

My eyebrows knit together. "I didn't say that."

"Yes you did! You said 'You didn't know that I wanted to kiss you' instead of if! You did want me to kiss you! Damn, I knew it!"

I just roll my eyes at him. "You're immature and you're reading too far into my words. Besides, so what if I wanted to? That doesn't mean I want to date you. It means I want to kiss you."

"You did it again!"

"I know."

"So you admit you want to kiss me?"

I sigh again, flustered, and clearly beaten. "Fine, yes. It still doesn't mean anything." I throw my hands in the air in defeat as I speak, frustrated with his discovery, and what I know he thinks it means.

"Yes it does!" he teases. "It means you want to kiss me, that's what it means!" He grins widely at me, but I just glare at him, roll my eyes, and turn away into the woods to go home. Clearly I'm not going to get any peace and quiet here.

But he stops me, grabs me by the wrist and doesn't let go. His voice is smooth and his Seam grey eyes flare and gleam, melting into my Town blue ones. "Undersee, I didn't just flirt with you and try to kiss you because I wanted to hook up, I did it because I don't know what will make you like me. I want you to like me and I don't know how I'm supposed to do it because you're just different from everybody else. I'll do anything you want me to do, just tell me what you want and I'll do it."

I stare up at him, scared by the weight of his words and pull my wrist away from him. I try to back up but I feel drawn to him. "You've probably said that to a million other girls to get them to go to the slag heap with you, how am I supposed to believe anything you say?" I ask half-heartedly, trying to hold my guard up, but it's a challenge to keep my voice from faltering.

"I know I have that reputation, but hooking up with all those girls is like me trying to find some kind of… I don't know… connection with somebody. Somehow I can't connect to anybody I should; they're all Seam girls, and I bet the whole district would approve if I ended up with any one of them. And I don't want any of them because all I can think about is you." He draws in a deep breath before continuing, "I'm not big on emotions, and look at me spilling out my whole heart to you," he chuckles nervously at himself, running a hand through his hair. What I wouldn't do to run my own hands through that hair. "If you don't believe me, just walk away, Undersee. I'm not going to try to force you to believe me," he states plainly.

Part of me thinks he's a womanizer whose only goal is to hook up without having any feelings attached to his actions. Part of me wants to walk away and never talk to him again. But that part of me loses the battle.

"I believe you," I whisper, my gaze rising from the ground to meet his eyes. Something fills his eyes, something like hope, lighting his whole face. "But what am I supposed to do about that? You said it yourself; you're supposed to be with a Seam girl and I'm supposed to be with a Town boy."

He draws in a breath, the edges of his lips turning up ever so slightly. His eyes flicker from my eyes to my lips, and he comes even closer to me. My body unconsciously reacts, moving backward, and he steps towards me, his hands sliding around my waist as my back presses up against a tree. I gasp quietly, and his face dips slowly closer to mine. "Please tell me to stop. Tell me you don't want this," he begs.

"I can't," I whimper, giving in to myself and to him.

The first kiss is small and chaste, testing the waters. As his lips fall over mine, my hands, which once hung limply by my sides, wander up around his neck. His lips linger for a moment, before he pulls back ever so slightly to look into my eyes. He kisses me again, this time with a passion I always knew existed deep inside of him. His hands trail from my waist up my sides and find their way to my face. His fingers are gentle around my neck as his thumbs graze over my cheeks. He tilts his head to the right a bit more, taking my bottom lip between his. His hands move from my neck to my hair as he takes out the elastic and brushes his fingers through it.

In one moment his lips are soft and gentle against mine, and in the next he becomes a rough and carnal being, taking my hands from his neck and holding them over my head on the tree he has me pinned against. I open my mouth slightly and he deepens the kiss, desperation overcoming us as we search for something we both tried to deny we wanted and finding only each other. I'd be lying if I said I didn't want this to last forever, with only Gale. With his body pressed flush against me and his lips kissing every inch of mine, I can't contain a soft moan of pleasure. He bites my bottom lip ever so gently, and even though I try to resist it again I can't help but moan into his mouth. I can feel him smile against me, pleased at the effect he has on me, and I decide to have to same effect on him. I pull my hands from his above my head, leaving his to lean against the tree, and tangle them in his hair, losing myself in the moment. I surprise myself with my own confidence as I slide my hands under his shirt, grazing over the muscles in his stomach and chest. Instead of leaving my hands there, I move them to his sides and pull his pelvis as close as I can to me. He growls into my mouth, and I smile that I got the same reaction from him, and I forcefully push his body away from me and seal the kiss.

"Wow," he breathes, taking a small step back.

"I know," I reply haughtily, and flip my hair over my shoulder as I walk past him. I do not look back when I walk away, through the forest, under the fence, and back into the district.

Let him figure out what that means, I think to myself with a smile.