I'm actually really surprised at the reactions I got from you guys in regards to Liam and his relationship with Cindy. So much so that I've decided to come out of hiding (at least for now). Thank you for the feedback and I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Jimmy's POV

Not much has changed since Cindy and Libby's departure to Aspen. The world rang in a new year, millions of children around the world received a dozen or so new distractions for Christmas, and perhaps most importantly, I am still in love with Cindy.

Immediately after she left my room the last time we were together, I questioned myself if that was really that right word to express how I feel about her. And all I've done since then is further confirm that it indeed the correct term.

Perhaps I'll never know exactly how it happened. I'm sure it's not a scientific answer. If it were, I certainly would have been able to figure it out by now. Assuming it occurred in those short months before she left, I won't be able to pinpoint exactly when. Was it during one of our earlier days, when we would touch somewhat hesitantly but kiss like we wanted to do it with no one else but each other? Was it when we realized we had become friends, and the possibility of us having a non-toxic, peaceful relationship actually seemed accessible? Or was it, as seems most probable, when we had sex for the first time, and I got a feeling I had never felt before and knew that I likely never would again?

I guess it doesn't really matter how it came to be. What's important is that it's prevalent. To me at least.

I've never been one to keep secrets of my own. Then again, I've never really been one to have secrets. But me being in love with Cindy qualifies as a big one that I am in no way ready of sharing with anyone. It's not because I'm embarrassed of it. Absolutely not. But I've always felt that anything between Cindy and I seems to have a high level of privacy inaccessible to most and I would prefer to keep it that way.

Which is why I've decided to tell her.

Cindy and I haven't spoken at all since she left my bedroom and, in a way, I'm grateful for that. If I were to speak to her, I doubt I'd get nervous and stumble over my words like I haven't got a clue what to say. But that doesn't mean I'm prepared to tell her. At all. In fact, with every passing day since my realization of my feelings for her, I'm aware that it's going to get more and more difficult. But it has to be done, because as with many parts of our friends with benefits relationship, it will be impossible to proceed peacefully with proper communication.

And even then, when I do tell her and she knows how I feel about her, I have no idea what to expect afterwards.

Will she get mad? Yell? Hit me? Surely not, that doesn't even seem rational. I suppose, out of all viable outcomes, she'll be speechless. Shocked even. She wouldn't really know what to do or say since I doubt that's what she's expecting to hear. Her reaction primarily depends on how I tell her.

If I were to just blurt it out, whether it be in the middle of a conversation or just to interrupt an uncomfortable silence, she wouldn't say anything for a few seconds, trying to process it. In that time, I could think of something to excuse the blunder I had produced and hopefully it would be smart enough that she thinks she misunderstood me and leaves us both with nothing to worry about. If I say it as the conclusion to a long, serious oration about my feelings for her, there is the possibility, and because it's Cindy, the likely one, that she'll scoff, laugh, and completely disregard it. Either way, no one ends up happy.

Of course, there's always the chance, admittingly the very slim one, that she'll say it back.

That's a thought that I should keep in the back of my head though. There's no proof, at least not anything obvious, that she could have feelings for me that are remotely similar of mine towards her. Sure, there's really only one way of finding out, but to just come on out and ask her will very likely give her even more of a reason to get dumbstruck.

One thing's for sure though. Regardless of how she reacts when I tell her, our relationship, our friends with benefits one, will undoubtedly be over. There's no way in hell this will be able to continue once she knows how I feel about her. To keep it going would only be uncomfortable and disastrous to say the very least. And even without the emotional part of it, there is still the reason of us having broken all three of our rules.

In retrospect, making up those rules was both a great and a stupid idea. In one sense, it kept us in line. It set limits, in a way, although we ended up ignoring those at the end. For that same reason, they were bad. Who knows in what direction our relationship could have gone had we not had any rules to abide by? Very likely, I wouldn't be here wondering about what could have been.

Still, she has to know. She has a right to and I am certain that I won't be able to go much longer keeping this information only to myself.

But how ever I tell her, if I still do choose to go along with it, I better decide quickly, because she's coming back today.

We haven't made plans to meet up, as I'm sure seeing her parents would come first. So while I don't know when I'll be seeing her again, I have to be prepared, just in case.

Composing myself turned out to be a good thing since she texted me asking if I would be home within the next hour because she wanted to see me. I quickly replied back with a yes and now found myself waiting for her down in the lab, trying my hardest not to let my impatience get the best of me.

To kill time prior to her arrival, I set myself to working on some enhancements to the rocket. This would also prevent me from looking like I was doing nothing but sitting there waiting for her when she arrived which even I can admit seems extremely pathetic.

It wasn't until I heard the door sliding open that I realized that I don't necessarily have to tell her right away. I have plenty of time and since nobody else knows, there's no pressure to do so. She just got back so surely she'll want to tell me all about her trip and I would be more than willing to listen. With that, I also wouldn't want to go and ruin everything by telling her that I love her. I'm sure that's not the way she imagined the end of her visit playing out.

As she approached the part of the lab where I was working, I rolled myself away from under the rocket, got up, and grabbed the nearest rag to wipe my hands. As soon as I faced her, I knew that seeing that she had returned safe and sound was the best part of my day and so far, my year.

I can't believe that I actually survived ten days without seeing her because looking at her now, I can't imagine ever losing her again.

She looks the same, because how much can your physical appearance change in ten days? Yet somehow, she looks completely different. There's something fresh about her, rejuvenated almost. It's likely that all that time on snowy mountains with a high altitude and touristic vibe caused it. However, I suspect that this being the first time I see her since realizing I am in love with her plays a big part in it.

Whatever the reason, she looks stunning and I could not be any happier that she's back.

"Hey." I approached her but wasn't exactly sure how to go about doing a physical greeting, if one at all. She didn't do anything other than walk closer and give a friendly smile, so I just stayed put. "It's good to see you. How was your trip?" I asked instead.

"Great! It was amazing!" The accompanying grin came quickly after. "I'm glad I got to go. It was...really really good."

"Glad to hear it." And I really was genuinely happy to hear that.. "Things were pretty boring around here. Except for this one day, but I'll tell you about that later." Seeing as I hadn't gotten a chance to tell Cindy about the awards banquet at all, it was definitely one of the things I wanted to bring up now that she was back. But for now, I really wanted to give her return and the inevitable recount of her vacation priority. "I stayed out of trouble, like you asked."

"Oh, cool." She said somewhat absentmindedly, almost if she was focusing on something else.

"Everything okay?" I asked, wondering what was wrong.

"I have to talk to you about something." She said with no hesitation.

"Okay. Shoot." I turned my back to continue working while still having every intention to listen to her.

"Could you not? This is actually really important."

"Cindy, seriously is everything okay?" I worried more now that Cindy didn't want me to be distracted and turned back to face her.

She gave a little light, non-mocking laugh, like she was relieving pressure, when I turned to her. "Yeah, yeah it is. Sorry, I'm making a much bigger deal out of it than it needs to be. Everything's fine."

"Alright so what is it?" I wiped my hand on the rag I had been using before and moved to sit down. "I'm listening."

With a small smile that only seemed to be getting bigger, she spoke. "Do you remember rule number two?"

"Of...?" I was confused as to what she meant by that.

"Of this- us-" She gestured between the two of us. "Our friends with benefits thing."

"Oh, that. Yeah, what about it?"

"Well," She cleared her throat. "it's happened."

A silence loomed over us. And I had no idea what to do or say to break it. The only thing going through my head at that moment was: what does that even mean?

I can recall from memory, though I will be asking Goddard for confirmation later, that the second rule in our agreement is the no strings attached one. This means that our arrangement is non-binding and we are free to go be with someone else if and when the opportunity rises. What's even worse is that I'm pretty sure that's the rule I made up. But that can't be what Cindy is referring to.

Is it?

The thought process only took a few seconds but because of the circumstances under which I was thinking about this, it felt like a few hours. Cindy was waiting for a response, but I honestly didn't know what to say.

"Wha- what do you mean?" I asked like I really had no clue.

"I met someone, Jimmy. In Aspen. I know I haven't actually been there very long, but I like him. A lot. And he likes me. And now we're sort of...seeing each other." She turned her face away probably so that I wouldn't see how red she was getting. But it wasn't enough.

"Oh." Because how the hell else am I supposed to answer that? "That's great, Cindy. Cool."

"Yeah." She smiled once more. "So I just wanted to tell you since you know, we agreed to stop if..."

"Yeah, I understand." I nodded. "So how did you meet him?" I asked, trying to be the curious and supportive friend while also realizing that I could potentially learn something about him based on this information.

"He was our ski instructor, actually. Libby and I met him the day after we arrived."

"Fun." I said dryly, not really caring if she heard my tone of voice or not.

"Yeah. We got to see him every day. And then on New Year's Eve, he invited me to the party at the lodge but Libby and I had already planned to go any way. And that's when he told me he liked me and- well, I'm not going to give you all the details."

"I would hope as much." I spoke while getting up and walking towards the rocket.

"Is there a problem?" She asked, probably beginning to suspect that there was.

"No, not at all." I shrugged nonchalantly. She gave me a look that I'd seen many times. One that said she had me all figured out. Or least she thought she did, some of the time.

"I knew you'd be upset."

"I'm not upset." I replied even though I knew she could not have any idea how I felt.

"You are."

"No, I'm not!" I insisted.

"Look," She began calmly and likely trying to avoid an argument. "I figured this would be difficult for you. Believe it or not, it is for me too. It was very abrupt. And the more I think about it, all this did happen very very quickly. But what do you want me to say Jimmy? It just happened and we both knew it would to one of us eventually." In the time it took her to say all that, I had tried to calm down and hopefully my face showed that I had.

Once it was quiet and the tension in the room was lessened, Cindy continued.

"I hope you don't think I'm just going to forget about everything that occured with us, because I won't. All of that...it was good, you know? It was..." she paused to think of the right word to say. "special. I'm glad that it was with you, honestly. We were each other's first and that's a big deal-."

"Not for me."

I must have surprised her because she didn't say anything after that.

I didn't mean to say it. I really didn't. There were a very limited amount of things I could say to both stop her and reply to what she was saying, and 'I love you' certainly wasn't going to be one of them. What I said instead did come spewing out of my mouth without a thought and although I didn't mean it, it worked for what I both wanted and needed at the moment.

It took her a moment for her to continue.

"I'll just leave then." And that's exactly what I hoped she would do.

To confirm that she was more than welcome to leave and more importantly, to ensure her that I didn't care if she did, I spoke.

"Fine."

"I'll see you in school." She said, as if she were expecting me to answer.

"Okay." And that was all she would get out of me.

Finally realizing that that was the end of our conversation, she turned in the direction which she came from and exited the lab.

It wasn't until the I heard the second door slide close that I angrily threw the wrench I had in my hand halfway across the room. The sound woke Goddard up, which I was happy about since I was going to wake him up anyway.

"Goddard," I spoke as I walked over to where he was laying down. He lifted his head to show that he had heard me. "Show me the Neutron-Vortex Rules for a Mutually Beneficial Friendship." His chest immediately opened up to reveal a screen and the words referring to my command appeared on it.

I took to reading them aloud as they were displayed.

"'Number one: keep it a secret.' Well, that's one strike." As I mumbled the last part to myself, new words came onto the screen. "'Number two: if either one becomes romantically involved with someone else, then the arrangement is discontinued.' That's obviously strike two." I said, finally having a confirmation about it.

I waited for the third rule to pop up and I knew that Goddard was purposely taking longer to post it.

"'Number three.'" I spoke as it began appearing. "'Do NOT fall in love.'" I didn't fail to notice the capitalized word.

Goddard kept up his screen and I kept staring at the words as if doing so would make me fall out of love with Cindy.

I don't know how much time passed before I said anything else.

"Strike three and I'm out."

To think that having any sort of relationship with Cindy can be easily avoided is silly. I'm a genius, I should know better. Even if either one of us weren't close to Retroville High's favorite couple, all the times we are forced to be in the same room because of classes results in us having to communicate in some way. I'm not thrilled about it, but I can't say I dislike it either.

I'm not just going to simply fall out of love with her just because she's in a relationship. It doesn't work that way. So while I can't do anything about either circumstances, seeing her, and even speaking to her whenever I get a chance to is both a blessing and a curse.

It's been nearly three weeks since Cindy delivered the news and, unsurprisingly, we haven't seen each other outside of class once. Even as a group, with Libby, Sheen, and Carl, we haven't hung out. As we do, we eventually got back to civil speaking terms and it was as if that whole scene down in the lab after she got back hadn't occurred. Everything was, for lack of a better word, sane. But we weren't exactly friends, even without the benefits. Not really.

At least not enough for me to tell her I got into Caltech.

It is a big deal. I know it is. And while a small (practically microscopic) part of me thought I wasn't going to get in, I wasn't jumping at the chance to tell her. A few people know. My parents obviously, along with Carl and Sheen. While I haven't told them to keep it a secret, they must know that I don't want it going around since I haven't heard anything about it from others. But I suspect that's how Cindy will eventually find out though. Through the grapevine.

It's the weekend, which always appears to be a relief regardless of what your week consisted of. Today we all, by which I mean, Libby and Sheen, thought it would be a good idea for us to meet at the Candy Bar. I wasn't opposed to it and still wouldn't be even if I knew if Cindy would be present or not.

We were supposed to meet right after school and I, as always, was the only one to arrive on time. After checking my phone and seeing that I had messages from all of them saying they were running a late, I decided to go inside and grab us a table.

Just as I was looking around to see if I could spot a four -or maybe five- seater, I heard my name being called from the counter by a familiar voice.

"Jimmy!" I turned and saw Cindy who also had half her hand raised and waving, trying to get my attention as if she didn't already have it. She was standing very close to a guy I had never seen before. He was slightly taller than Cindy and looked like he could be around our age.

It wasn't until my eyes trailed down to where I saw their interwoven hands that I realized who he was.

The only reason I didn't turn away and leave at that moment was because they were both already walking in my direction.

You have got to be kidding me.

Prepare yourselves for the next chapter. That's all I'm going to say about that.

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