A/N: The song mentioned is obviously Demi Lovato's "Catch Me".

This chapter is LONG, but i didn't see the point of an awfully painful cliffhanger, still there's a cliffhanger LOL

I promise to update, at least every week, i hope it makes happy who (i think) is my only reader right now, "L is for Left"; this is specially dedicated to you :D

----

"Don't Catch Me"

Shane opened up his eyes lazily and blinked a few times before he could distinguish clearly the rotating fan above himself. He turned his face to his left side to see the face of a deeply asleep Mitchie; they had lost consciousness over the popcorn bowl, in Mitchie's room's carpet.

He stopped his own hand, reaching out to her face when she gave out a small groan and positioned herself into fetal position; she was cold. He didn't hesitate much to stand up and take a blanket from her bed to cover her. Once again his hand reached to a dangerously short distance from her face and he found himself taking it back to his own side; she was his cousin, what exactly was he playing at?

He held a bitter smile when he took the empty bowl of popcorn and the one that once had chocolate fudge ice cream and left the room.

Minutes later when he was washing the dishes on an empty kitchen, and he got the chance to process it, he realized there was something really not right about the way he was feeling about Mitchie lately; it wasn't just the usual way a cousin would feel about another cousin and it was disturbing… it was just incestuous.

---

(Mitchie's POV)

"Shane?" I mumbled as I rolled around on the carpet; I was aware we had fallen asleep on the carpet of my bedroom, but I couldn't recall when I had gotten my blanket. But once my sight went clearer I realized Shane was no longer beside me and so the bowls of ice cream and popcorn were nowhere around.

I rubbed my eyes, as I pulled my torso up to stand in a sitting position; the blanket fell from my shoulders to my lap and felt a sudden cold breeze coming from the rotating fan I had left turning all night through. There was a bitter smile on my face, I knew Shane had been the one to blame for the blanket on my lap and the disappearance of the dirty plates; there was no way I could keep on lying to him anymore.

I took my cell phone and my wandered from Brown's number to Nate's, not sure who I should call first.

"Hey, Mitchie"

I jumped, being surprised by a sudden whisper from Kara, whose head was coming inside the door.

"You scared the hell out of me" I turned to face her "what is it?"

Kara helped herself into my room and into my blanket, sitting next to me "I saw Shane coming in yesterday"

I sighed "yeah, he got me ice cream… so what?"

"I didn't see him leave" she continued, her eyes gleaming maliciously.

I rolled my eyes "whatever you're thinking, that's just sick… remember he's supposed to be our cousin?"

"I'm just saying… maybe he doesn't think of you as a cousin either" Kara gave me a last meaningful wink, before I sighed again "what?" she asked me, changing her expression to a concerned one.

"I think I should tell him the truth" I responded her with a tired voice "I don't think we should keep up with this lie; we were supposed to finish all this over the weekend…"

Kara rolled her eyes "you're thinking too much, Mitchie" her arm rounded my shoulders "Look, just do what I do and relax; all I know is that I have a famous rockstar living at my place and his gorgeous-looking bandmates come over everyday to check on him…" she shrugged her shoulders happily "honestly, this is paradise"

Once again I rolled my eyes to Kara's lack of priority criteria "you're hopeless…"

"Not as much as you" she responded me, standing up "and sure I'm not as stressed" she gave me a small pity look, before leaving my bedroom.

"Not as much as you" I mocked out her voice "yeah, what do you know? All you do is staring at them like an idiot!"

I heard her muffled laughs through the door, before she crossed her own bedroom's door.

---

"I'm gonna tell Shane the truth" I announced to Nate, hours later, when I called him into the kitchen with me, while Shane and Jason played the twins and Amanda a song about baby ducks (obviously, Jason had written it) that they sang along to.

I saw in his face that horrible smirk that Kara had shown me earlier in my bedroom.

"You spoke to her…" I sighed tiredly, guessing that my evil little sister had something to do with that sinister look.

He nodded, but corrected me "You mean HIM; Shane told me about your evening together…"

"Well, wipe off that smile from your face, I'm telling him off and he'll be back to being a jerk" I announced him and he laughed "and I've got news for you; you are gonna be the one who's taking care of him then" I continued and he ceased laughing.

"Have you spoken to Brown?" Nate cleared his throat.

I shook my head "I've been trying to reach him all morning, but he doesn't answer any of my calls. Of course, I was expecting it; do you have the number to his office at Camp Rock?"

He pulled out his cell phone, but before he reached through the numbers, he asked me "why don't you consider it twice?"

I responded him negatively "it's not right, we're taking advantage of his disease… what about his family?"

Nate considered it for a while, before finally sighing tiredly "Fine, go talk to Shane and I'll try to get Brown on the phone"

"Now?" this time, it was me who hesitated; Nate nodded and I shook right away the shocked look I had on my face, before Nate could mock me about it. I took a deep breath and left the kitchen, followed by Nate, who searched through his cell phone for Camp Rock's number.

Just when we both crossed the door to the living room, Jason's song was in his final chord so it wasn't hard for me to speak up towards Shane "Hey, I need to talk to you…"

The gleefully look he gave me, when he nodded in acceptance to my proposal made my stomach move in a very irregular way, inside my abdominal area. Then I felt the eyes of my sisters and Shane's band mates over both of us and I realized that the crowded living room wasn't the most comfortable place to tell Shane how he had gotten there and how he was a super rock star, not really my cousin (though, it WOULD be safer in case he'd ever try to attack me, maybe Jason and Nate could stop him).

"I need to talk to you, ALONE" I stated, sending the present people a significant look. It didn't take Nate and Amanda long to understand, so they helped me dragging the twins and Jason away from my sight, but their suddenly cut off steps told me they were gathered in the stairs, where they could hear what was going on.

I felt an inch more comfortable as I sat beside Shane in the couch; at least if he started shouting, Nate and Jason would be able to listen to it and run to help me out.

"What is it?" Shane asked me, smiling. His smile slowly faded out when he realized I didn't have a very happy look "What?" he asked again, in a gloomier tone.

"I…" I started out, but his worried look messed with my tongue and my mind "Well, we…"

"What happened?" he asked me once again, and those eyes made me realize I just couldn't tell him the truth, at least not yet.

"I… forgot your birthday" I responded finally, with a heavy sigh.

Along with my sigh, I could hear several relief ones, coming from the stairs.

"Today's my birthday?" Shane asked out shocked.

I nodded in response "I'm sorry, it's just that with your amnesia and those working hours, I just completely forgot it…"

"Today's my birthday…" he stated, as if he wanted to make himself remember it too.

"Happy Birthday!" suddenly Jason stormed into the living room and tackled Shane into a hug "Oh my god! I can't believe we forgot it!"

"Yeah, we're such losers" Nate followed Jason and helped Shane getting rid of him "sorry, man, I guess we were kind of amnesic too" Nate, the twins and Amanda (who waited in line, behind Jason) hugged Shane and greeted him for his faux birthday.

"So, how are we gonna party?" Jason asked out excitedly, and I knew everyone would turn their faces on me.

"Uhm…" I shrugged my shoulders "who wants to go bowling?"

---

"I still got it!" Shane high-fived Nate as he scored yet another strike, making sure they both were kicking mine and Jason's ass. I'm good at bowling, is just that Jason kept forgetting that the holes in the bowling ball were meant for fingers "I guess this little amnesic dude didn't forget to kick ass at bowling!" Shane mocked me, after reading the charts; me and Jason had been reduced to smithereens by him and Nate (though, this last one wasn't so good at bowling).

"At least the carnage finished" I sighed, putting my hands behind my head and throwing my back, back on the chair.

"So, anything else you wish to do for your birthday?" Nate patted Shane in the back; he was happy he had been paired with him and therefore hadn't lost.

Shane threw an unconscious look at me, but before he could even open his mouth to answer Nate's question, the lights of the bowling rink turned suddenly dimmer and a voice in was heard through the speakers as a slow song played in the background "It's nine o' clock already… you know what to do: grab a couple and take the stage…"

Nate elbowed me and I blushed, thinking he might have been asking me to "take the stage" with him, but I realized it was far from being true when I saw his worried look; the song in the background was actually a ballad that had been one of Connect 3's last CD's hit singles.

"Uhm, Shane!" I shouted out rapidly, before the guy realized that that melodic voice was actually his own "I… I have a present for you, come with me to the van!"

He nodded right away and helped me through the crown of couples that were already dancing slowly to the song.

"What is it?" he asked me happily, when we reached the van, we could still hear on the distance, the slow song playing inside the bowling rink, but his voice was tons less recognizable at that safe distance.

I obviously had nothing for him, so I ordered him to cover his eyes and wait as I searched through the van, looking for anything that could help me out of that situation.

"Mitchie?" Shane asked me once again; I was aware I was taking centuries looking for "that present", but I couldn't fin anything useful in that old and rusty van "can I open my eyes?"

Out of the panic I was into, I grabbed out my iPod and responded him with a sigh "yeah, you can open your eyes now"

"You bought me an iPod?" he asked me five seconds later, when he realized the only thing I held in my hands was my old Nano "well, thanks… but I have one already, with a better capacity"

"It's not the iPod… it's a song" I responded him, trying for my voice to be as firm as it could.

"A song?" he lightened up suddenly "you wrote me a song?"

I wasn't aware of how ridiculous this thing was until I heard him asking me out loud "yeah, I wrote you a song… don't you dare tell Nate about it; he'll make sure I never forget it..." I searched through the playlist, looking for one of my tunes, before I could find the one I looked for, a song called: Catch Me.

I didn't know why exactly I was making him listen to that specific song, but I wanted him to; he plugged the earphones on and I bit my sleep as I waited for him to finish listening.

At the five seconds of listening to it, he gave me a confused look, probably because from the first line, the song was a love confession. He looked down, concentrating on the song and I saw him smile, though his confused look lingered.

It seemed like years long, before he took off the earplugs and retrieved my iPod. I even suspected he would've repeated it.

"Was it really for me?" he asked me, shyly, breaking the awkward silence that we got squeezed into.

I didn't know what to respond, I just shrugged my shoulders. The reason why I wanted him to listen to that song was obvious; I liked him and those lyrics I had originally written for no one, were the perfect description I could give to the way I felt when Shane was around me.

"But, we're cousins…" he stated, to me and to himself.

"We're not" I finally said it out loud and his confused look came back to his face, except this time there was no smile.

"What do you mean?"

"I…" Once again I hesitated; no matter what I had said all this time about lying to him and how it wasn't right, I couldn't tell him the truth and let him hate me once again, not now that my feelings for him had changed; I wanted a chance to be with him "I'm adopted" I lied once again "that's why you hated me; you didn't like it when my parents adopted me"

"So… we're not blood relatives?" he asked me, one last time and approached me slowly.

I shook my head and a second later, I wish I hadn't, because Shane coming closer to me made me dizzy.

"So, then it's ok if we… you know, like each other a little bit?"

I nodded, but then it hit me "You like me?"

He nodded and leaned his head down to level with mine "a lot"

Our lips were inches from touching and I could feel the temperature of my whole body rising up, when he placed his hand on my cheek.

"Hey! Are we going yet? Why are you taking so long?"

Shane and I quickly pulled apart, when we heard Nate's voice and his footsteps walking by, alongside with Jason.

"Uhm" I responded him, avoiding Shane's look, deeply ashamed "yeah, it's kind of late… we should get going"

I cannot recall how exactly I got to drive to Nate and Jason's hotel and back home; my hands still shook like crazy, just as my feet and I thanked it was night time, so Nate and Jason couldn't notice I was blushing deep red all over my face.

"Well, good night" Shane told me, when I finally parked in front of the house

"Yeah, good night" I responded him, before he got down the van and I watched him disappear inside the house, before I hit my head in the van's hand wheel with frustration. I couldn't believe I had actually committed that huge mistake of telling Shane I had some affection for him, IN A SONG! Still, he had admitted he felt just as affective about me… that unfinished kiss was probably the biggest source of frustration; I just hated Nate so much for bumping in at the worst moment.

---

So, will that kiss ever happen?

Don't forget to revew!