Author's Notes: This is my holiday chapter, and I hope you enjoy it :) Merry Christmas to all of you that celebrate it :)

Disclaimer still stands, and I also don't own any of the lyrics used in this chapter. They belong to Through You.


Shakespeare Wrote

Lilly

The last month of school before winter break was a mixture of enjoyment and torture. On the one hand, there was Miley. A lot of Miley. She had told me about her date with Oliver, and how she had had a good time, and how Oliver was a nice guy, blah blah blah. Nothing I didn't already know. But she also informed me that maybe she didn't quite like him that way. She wasn't sure, and was willing to go out with him again, but she didn't want to anytime soon.

While she was telling me this, I realized a giant weight seemed to be lifted off my chest; it got easier to breathe all of a sudden… Of course, I didn't tell Oliver any of this. I was nice and sympathetic when he told me she didn't kiss him or vice versa. It was a huge blow to his ego, apparently.

Miley also wanted to know all about my date with Sarah. My account was very similar to her own: Sarah was nice, I had a good time, etc, but I didn't think we could work as anything other than just friends. To me, she looked a little happy to hear this, and at the time, I just thought I was imaging things. Now I think I was getting my hopes up- never a good thing.

Lunch was a little awkward the first few days after our dates, but we all got back into our old rhythm soon enough. Sarah was ogling some football player, and I still had eyes for Miley alone. Oliver seemed to be the only one still harping on about it all. He appeared determined to have Miley. He asked her out again, but she told him no, maybe some other time. He whined to me about that a lot, and it really started getting old.

Well, as I say, there was a lot of Miley, and that was a good thing. We saw each other every day now, talked every day now. I couldn't have been happier…

But then of course, there was the torture. The pressure of finals and dealing with Miley's… proximity. Finals, obviously enough, involved a lot of studying. And a lot of studying led to study buddies. And study buddies equaled Miley. And while seeing her everyday and being with her every single day was amazing in almost every way possible, there was the fact that I was falling for her. Hard. I caught myself staring at her whenever she was reading something. I liked the way she read. She seemed so focused and concentrated and I liked seeing her like that. Little by little, I also caught myself fantasizing. About her- her lips, her hands, her legs god dammit. It drove me crazy. I thought I would spontaneously combust. It was beyond difficult, sitting there with her, trying to remember formulas for geometry and chemistry when my brain simply refused point blank to corporate with me. I tried my hardest to concentrate on the work, but when she was so close my imagination ran completely wild, weaving amazing dream worlds in my mind's eye where I would ever so casually lean over our homework, and bring my lips to hers, finally being able to taste them…

Ah, you see! There it goes again! And believe me, that isn't even anywhere near the half of it…

---

Miley

School ended nicely enough. On the last day, we had finals for our 3rd and 4th block classes, and got out early. Lilly and I celebrated by going to the skate park. She officially introduced me to Will, the park's owner, and he tried to give me a lesson. Tried being the key word. I still had absolutely no talent what so ever on a skateboard. But Lilly got a kick out of it, and it was always nice to see her happy.

The next day was the day of the Through You concert. And by some amazing, coincidental, utterly unintentional turn of events, Oliver had to back out. His parents surprised him and his brother by telling them they would be going to Disney Land for the holidays. They left right after finals were over. Oliver paid Lilly back for the ticket and apologized profusely.

Honestly, I had been dreading the concert since my date with Oliver. He had been very persistent in his attempts to ask me out again. And being with only him and Lilly would just be awkward. I've noticed lately that Lilly seemed to have little to no patience with Oliver. I haven't mentioned it to her, but I do think it a little odd. I mean, they were as close as brother and sister… Then again, siblings do fight.

Anyway, Oliver wasn't going to the concert, and now I was looking forward to it very much. I wanted to see what it would be like, my first concert.

My first concert with Lilly- Lilly who wasn't going out with Sarah again. I felt like I could've jumped for joy when she told me she wasn't going to ask her out a second time. I couldn't imagine why I got such an enthusiastic response to it all, but I think it had something to do with the unexplainable feeling I got when I thought of Sarah and Lilly together. I didn't think about it much, to tell you the truth. When I did, it was usually in those moments before bed or right after waking, when I was still half asleep. And I never could really form a coherent thought. It was just a jumble of random emotions that I could never pin point whenever I was fully awake.

---

Lilly

Four days before Christmas and I was getting ready for a rock concert. I don't think I had been to a concert so close to Christmas before. My mom didn't usually let me. Christmas was time for family, etc. But this was Miley we were talking about. My mom knew the situation. She understood.

Miley and I had agreed to exchange Christmas gifts after the concert at my house. She told me I didn't need to get her anything other than the concert tickets, but I wasn't having any of that. I had bought her a necklace. It had a silver key dangling from it. When I saw it at the mall a few weeks ago, it just randomly reminded me of her. Don't ask me why. It just did.

---

Miley

"Be careful. And don't drink. And don't take anything from strangers. And if ya do drink, don't leave your drink alone, people can put-"

"Dad. I'll be fine." I shook my head. He was so overprotective.

My dad frowned, his arms crossed. "Alright bud… Well, got your ticket? Money? Lilly's gift?"

I nodded. "Yes daddy, I've got it. Thanks." I hugged him.

He smiled. "Alright Miles. Have fun. And be careful."

Rolling my eyes, I waved and went out the door.

---

Lilly

There she goes again. I swear, that tendency of hers to wear skirts would be the death of me. And this time, it was a black, leather skirt. Jesus Christ help me... "Hey Miles. You look great."

She smiled and hugged me as her greeting (oh yea, she did that now. A lot. All this hugging was going to be a big contributing factor of my death by spontaneous combustion). "Hey Lills. We're leaving our gifts here right?" She held up a package. The wrapping was blue with little snowmen on it.

I nodded. "Yea. Here, I'll put it under the tree." While I saw to that, my mom came over to Miley.

"Hey Miley! Nice to see you again." This was her being sarcastic. My mother saw Miley almost as much as I did now a days.

Miley laughed. "Hey Miss. Truscott. Thanks again for taking me."

"It's my pleasure, dear."

I joined them by the door. "Alrighty then. We all set?"

"Yep. Let's get going." My mom went off through the garage to get the car, and I hung back to lock the front door.

---

Miley

Ms. Truscott dropped us off and Lilly led the way to the entrance. Apparently she'd been here for the majority of the concerts she'd attended.

There was a fair amount of people, not overly crowded, but just crowded enough. I was happy to see that I had seemed to dress appropriately. There were a lot of black leather skirts and black tank tops around.

At the entrance we presented our tickets and received a wrist band because we had floor seats. Also on our way inside, we were given a condom each. When the lady gave it to me, I knew my face had gone red, and I stuttered an uncertain thank you. Lilly laughed. "They do this all the time. And they usually have a wheel somewhere where you can win a bunch of these. They just want us to be protected." She grinned at me. "Not that some of us need it, really."

I chuckled in a vague sort of way.

---

Lilly

Miley and I looked around for a little before going to the actual stage. There were the usual vendors selling band shirts, sweatbands, studded belts, etc (and just as I said, the Trojan condom wheel was there too). Then there were the food stands. Miley confessed that she was hungry, and after a small scuffle, I ended up paying for her pizza and coke. She went slightly pink as I did. I figured she was embarrassed by the fact that I was paying for everything. Personally, I liked paying for things. It made me feel very gentlemanly… Not that I considered this a date or anything.

At eight o' clock, Miley and I made our way to the stage. We stood around and talked a little before the opening bands came on. I was curious to see what she thought about this so far.

"It's cool. I like the atmosphere," was the answer I got. Well, I couldn't really expect more. The music hadn't started yet.

---

Miley

The opening band started amid lots of screaming and shrieking from the audience. Several people flung their hands in the air and made the devil horn sign with their fingers. I looked at Lilly, who was looking at me, grinning from ear to ear. "Welcome to my element, Miles." She said, then she grabbed my hand and yanked it in the air enthusiastically, whopping and cheering the band on.

I found it a little hard to loosen up to this kind of music at first. Heavy bass, loud drums, shrieking guitars, lyrics screamed into the microphone... it was really different from what I was used to.

Lilly seemed lost in the music, bobbing her head to the beat. I contented myself with just looking at her for a while. Seeing her, as she said, in her element was really something. It was invigorating. I would even go as far as saying that it was… intoxicating. It was certainly contagious. I was soon paying attention to the beat and the lyrics and… well, everything there was to the music. I could understand why Lilly liked it so much. It was powerful.

As soon as I started bobbing my head to the music, Lilly glanced at me and smiled. Then she leaned in close and said in my ear, "You like it?"

I shivered. That was quite involuntary… "Yea... I do."

---

Lilly

Through You came on after two other bands whose names I didn't catch. They were both relatively good. Just a little too screamo for me, but it wasn't bad.

Miley seemed really into it. After the first band, she was clapping excitedly and screaming just as loud as anyone in the room.

Then came the main event, Through You. I was looking forward to this. I wondered how good they'd be. The lead singer was a very good looking guy, and if I had been into guys, I would have probably been foaming at the mouth. As I looked around, I figured he was the reason most of the girls here had come.

They started with an upbeat song that I instantly fell in love with:

They say, "truth cuts like a knife"
and, "the tongue is a double edged sword"
Tell me, which blade is bigger
Which blade will win the fight
Plug in to your source, but of course
Curiosity's forcing your hand, just as planned
you're buying in to your source, but of course
Curiosity's forcing your hand, just as planned
you're buying in…

So far so good…

Throughout their performance, the lead singer did some crazy stunts that had the girls in the crowd shrieking with delight. He climbed on top of the sets, jumped off the speakers, etc. It was very entertaining.

Also throughout their performance, I stole quick glances at Miley. She seemed mesmerized by it all. Every time I set eyes on her, I couldn't help but think how gorgeous she was. But then Mr. Lead Singer would pull some act, and my eyes would drift over to him and the music would control my attention again.

Finally, after an hour and a half of Through You, the lead singer announced they would be finishing with a slower number. It started out on a slightly melancholy note. But the lyrics were beautiful… As a matter of fact, this was turning out to be my favorite song of the lot… It reminded me of her… I looked next to me. She was looking back. We didn't take our eyes off each other throughout the entire song:

Love, what a kind word
a word so full of life
It often brings tears of joy
to those who try and fly by
those who never seem
to embrace the joy
that one word can bring
yet, should every day feel like spring?

Is love so sweet without the bitterness
of a soul's broken, lonely heart?
for how can one fully enjoy the highs of love
when they haven't been to the depths of sorrow?

Love, what a kind word
a word so full of life
placing worth upon a soul
to those worthless otherwise
those who never seem to be hurting
are usually the ones that need us most
yet, should we ever lose hope? No!

Is love so sweet without the bitterness
of a soul's broken, lonely heart?
for how can one fully enjoy the highs of love
when they haven't been to the depths of sorrow?


And although the pain brings tears of discomfort
hope still lingers
love is strong, love is deep, love is pure, love will keep
you afloat in a sea of unhope
so "find thy love," Shakespeare wrote!
and follow that dream to keep you afloat!

Oh, is love so sweet without the bitterness
of a soul's broken, lonely heart?
for how can one fully enjoy the highs of love
when they haven't been to the depths of sorrow?

Is love so sweet without the bitterness?

As it ended, our faces were mere inches apart. Her hand had somehow found it's why into mine… The last note faded, the crowd cheered and clapped. The band took a bow.

I bit my bottom lip, looked down, and pulled away. Then I turned my attention to the band, clapping for them.

I wouldn't kiss her. I had an iron will, dammit… I gritted my teeth as pain lashed across my chest.

Heartache. I knew I was in trouble when that started…

---

Miley

I wasn't sure what happened. All I was aware of was her eyes, then the softness of her hand. Then she was so close, close enough for… For what, I don't even know. But she had pulled away as soon as I had realized the electricity between us. Something was there… What exactly, I didn't know. But there was something.

---

Lilly

I acted as normal as I possibly could while trying to control a raging heart. "So Miles, what did you think?" We were walking back to the parking lot where my mom would be waiting for us.

She smiled. "It was amazing. At first I felt a little out of place, but I really got into it by the end. I was wondering if you could let me borrow some of your CDs?"

"Sure, anytime."

I spotted my mom in a line of cars. I motioned for Miley to follow as I led the way over to the car.

---

Miley

We got back to Lilly's in twenty minutes. Soon, we were both sitting on her couch, a cup of her mom's hot coca in our hands, and each other's gifts in our laps.

We started opening each other's presents at the same time. Mine was a necklace with a silver key at the end. It was beautiful, and I loved it instantly. I smiled at her. "Wow Lilly. Thank you."

She grinned a little, shrugging. "You're very welcome." Then she opened mine. It was a gold friendship bracelet with her name engraved on it. She stared at it wordlessly, then looked up at me.

I smiled, understanding her speechlessness. "You're welcome."

She laughed a little, then leaned in to hug me, which I supposed was the only way she could express her gratitude.

The second our bodies touched, I felt it again. That same electricity. I suppressed a shudder. Instead, I just tightened my arms around her, and buried my face in her neck, enjoying this far more than I usually did.

"Merry Christmas, Miley." She whispered. That time, I really did shudder.

"M-merry Christmas… Lilly."


Let me know what you think :)

And again, Merry Christmas, all :)