Chapter Twenty

A while later, Allie and Greg decided they would take a walk along the woods. Greg's hair was badly disheveled, but it suited him very well. Allie was fine, as if nothing had happened. But it had. This was it, they were on each other's wavelength again. Allie took a hold of Greg's hand and smiled to herself. He sidled a tad closer to her. Whatever amount of sucking up he needed to do, he'd gladly do it for Allie. He sighed, feeling massively cheerier than before. It was a brilliant evening. Thank God for Archie. Allie yawned, continuing to maintain a slower speed than she was used to."So..." Greg started, trailing off. He didn't actually know where he was going with it. He just wanted to make sure Allie wasn't in shock or anything.

"Mm?" She said, her voice getting deeper by the hour. Tiredness tended to do that to her. Greg knew they should be turning back soon, but he didn't really have the heart to tell her.

"You cold? Tired? Need a hug?"

Allie laughed, briefly. "No...I'm great, Greg. Just thinkin'."

Greg cocked his head to the side, glancing around quickly. "Oh, yeah? About what?"

"You, actually." Simple enough, right? Not actually. Allie was trying to remember her first thoughts about Greg. She was pretty sure it was loathe at first sight but...it was as if her first bad thoughts were now overruled by the great ones. Greg grinned to himself, feeling a little bit proud.

"All good things, right? About how...uh, amazing I am. My eyes twinkle and my smile is always lopsidedly cute." He stopped, hoping Allie wouldn't kill him for snooping. Then again...his reading the book was all her fault. It was a new book, not the old, fat red one she kept under the bed, refusing to let him see, nevermind read. Besides, he was a curious boy...curiosities need to be explored.

Allie stopped. Hold on...how did he know? Unless... "You've been reading the book, haven't you?"

Greg grinned. "You left it on my side of the bed. I didn't know it was 'the book'." Allie widened her, now very awake and alert, eyes. Great, now he probably thought she was a stalker.

"Oh, my God, Greg...oh, see now I'm dumped." She shook her head.

Greg laughed. "No way, man. You think I'm cute!" A definite rarity when he was in high school. It wasn't his fault, as he looked pretty much the same then as he did now, albeit he was probably more mature now. However, he was a major nerd, according to his best friends.

Allie giggled, disbelievingly. She couldn't believe he read the book. It was like a big journal of her thoughts. Her thoughts about Greg. With occasional mentions of the other people in her life. Oh, no! Now he'd know about the fluttering...the shivering...the very, very unhealthy thoughts in the break room. She groaned. "How much did you read?"

"Two pages." He shrugged, then came the cheesy, teasing grin. "But then...maybe I read the whole thing."

Allie shrieked. She wasn't mad, but she was embarrassed. "Gregory Sanders! I can't believe you...y-you - that's a secret! You were never supposed to read that! Seriously...it's a diary! A private one...Greg..." She was quite hysterical by this stage.

"Relax!" Greg placed his hand on her arm. "Jeez, I only read three pages-" Which was true. Plus, he enjoyed it. Allie was good with her words. She put a lot of feeling into them. It was in diary format, with great descriptions. Nobody spoke, however, but it was still great.

"How do I know you're not lying? You told me it was two a minute ago." She folded her arms.

Greg put an arm around her. "I didn't want to invade your privacy. I only read when I was in hospital. Purple, I was."

Allie smiled. "You were purple."

"Is it a shrine?" He fought back another grin.

"No! I mean...it is a diary. I just...put in whatever thoughts I happened to be thinking about a particular situation. In that case, I was devastated. And, no...it isn't always about you. Just...sometimes." She shrugged, and they had already continued walking.

Greg cleared his throat. "I lost my twinkle, huh?"

Allie blushed, furiously. "Ye-well, you do have one, you know."

"And I smile...'lopsidedly'?" He asked, looking curious. Allie nodded.

"Yeah, your mouth kinda goes off to the one...hold up, why did I get roped into explaining my thoughts and observations to you? You're the one who snooped." Allie looked away, purely to grin. "Besides...I might like a description of myself. Greg-style."

Greg laughed, putting his head back a little. How on earth would he be able to describe Allie? The girl was purely gorgeous. Out of this world pretty. She looked up at him, with a stare that meant business. "Oh, you're serious?" An affirmative nod. He groaned. "Allie, I can't..."

"Yes, you can. I did. Just...pluck some words out of your head." Allie waved her hand to the side, elaborately. Greg widened his eyes, immediately wracking his brain for words.

"Uh...okay...you're tall...great smile...cool scar...um..." Not sufficient, Greg. Start again. "You've got an expressive face...which I find kinda cute. Especially when you're shocked. I love your eyes...and your hair..." Too cheesy. "Should I mention the chest?" He smirked, mischievously. How emasculating his whole situation was! Allie laughed.

"If you want..." Not that she would complain or anything...

"Buxom...heaving...isn't that what you gals like to hear?" Greg glanced down at said chest. He knew exactly what she would say about them.

"Well, I wouldn't call these 'heaving', but..." Yeah, he had it down to a T.

"Nonsense! They're fine." Better than fine, he thought to himself. "Uh, curvy - but not fat! - and incredibly nice in a dress." He stopped, purely to examine her. Her head was getting a bit big, and any time soon she'd have to come back down to earth. "Your legs...ohh!" Greg smiled, letting his eyes roam up to the sky, almost in awe. Allie giggled. That boy was nuts. "Amazing." He winked, pointing at her slightly. "You're adorable."

Allie blinked. Jeez, she could nearly cry with happiness. "Not as adorable as you." God, what a ham! "Anyway, back to the, uh, normal stuff...we should head off back to the car."

Greg nodded, still checking Allie out. There was obviously still a ton of stuff he had to learn about her. In time, of course. "Probably." He stopped her, put his hand on her back and turned her around, facing to the way of the car. "Go forth."

"You know what? I kinda missed Nick living with us the other day. When we were fighting, you know? It was too quiet in the house."

Greg nodded. "You were unnatural."

"Touche." Allie retorted. He was noisier than her. "Anyway, I've decided we'll get a cat. I'll side with him, and vice versa."

Greg smiled. "Fine. I'll get a snake."

Allie shrugged. "I have no problems with snakes. Some of them are quite cute." In a venomous, evil sort of way that Allie wasn't fond of. "Naked mole rats!"

Greg furrowed his brows. Where did that come from? "What?"

"Have you ever seen them? They're cute. Kinda like a mini-walrus. Big teeth, short, downy fluff? Very adorable, Greg." Allie had always wanted one, just for fun, really. However, not a practical idea for a pet.

"No, but I have seen the star-nosed ones." Also, very adorable. Kind of like mice, with fingers on the end of their noses, if that makes any sense. "Anyway, my snake could kick your rat's ass."

"Mole rat." Allie countered, pondering whether she should have mentioned the naked part. Although, seeing as it was Greg, it would probably open up a whole other can of beans. A while later - with even more random conversations than the mole-rat/snake one - they arrived at the car. Greg opened the door for her and kissed her on the cheek. She giggled to herself and sat in, turning the radio on. Greg had dutifully returned the Foo Fighters to the CD player. He had a severe problem with people messing with his and Allie's CD collection. She checked herself over in the mirror. She wanted something... she stared at Greg. He turned round from fidgeting with his door and jumped back slightly. He furrowed his brows. He knew that look. She sighed, eyeing him up as if she desperately wanted something she couldn't have. "Gregory...I think you know what I need."

Greg arched an eyebrow, trying to ignore the charmingly flirtatious tone of Allie's voice. "What's wrong with this CD?"

Allie shrugged. Really there wasn't...she just needed the other one. "Nothing. Look, I'll go and get it if you want...but...a girl, shuffling around in her boyfriend's boot...at night...dark, dark night...in the woods..." Greg groaned and opened the door. She knew it was probably wrong to exploit Greg like that, but secretly he didn't mind much. She turned over a few songs. 'Generator'. Possibly one of the best songs ever. She adored the funky, weird music at the beginning of it. And the vocals! Oh! She watched as Greg came back into the car and shook his head, grinning wildly at her. Suddenly, she had a weird feeling. Like a massive flutter, but her hand started shaking. Her eye twitched a little, too. She cleared her throat, wondering why she felt so odd and shivery. She was probably just cold. "Thanks, Greg."

He tutted, teasingly. "The things I do for you..." Out came the Foo Fighters and in went Fall Out Boy, 'From Under the Cork Tree'. Unbeknownst to himself, Greg had learned it all by heart. Considering the amount of times Allie had it on in the lab, it really wasn't surprising. "Happy now?" He sighed and looked back at her.

Allie grinned. "Undeniably."

Greg shook his head, unable to wipe the stupid grin off his face. This girl was seriously playing tricks with his macho-ego. Not that he ever really had one, but he liked to think he did. They remained in a comfortable silence for a few moments until track number two came on. Allie took it upon herself to turn it up to twenty, and start singing really loudly. Greg rolled his eyes, although he had often thought Allie was a waste of a great singer.

'You only hold me up like this, cause you don't know who I really am-"

"Sing it, Sanders!" She really wasn't best fond of singing by herself. It made her feel, well, stupid, really. Besides, Greg's voice wasn't that bad.

"Sometimes I just want to know what it's like to be you...We're making out inside crashed cars, slipping through all the memories... I used to waste my time dreaming of being alive, now I only waste it dreaming of you...Turn off the lights, and turn off the shyness, cause all of the moves make up for the silence and oh- the way your make up stains my pillow case, like I'll never be the same..."

Allie took a breath and smiled. "You know, this is definitely the best song ever." The best to sing to, anyway.

Greg rolled his eyes. "You say that about every song. One second it's Relient K, then it's The Click Five."

"Yeah, so?" She smiled, eyes sparkling with amusement. Greg swallowed and turned off onto another dirt road. It wasn't the way home, but Allie never protested. One of Greg's favourite things about Allie was the fact that she was so canorous. Musically intelligent, she called herself. Although, she had a tendency to brand some completely awful songs, 'fantastic'.

"Ah, nevermind." And that's when it happened. They chatted for another few minutes about possible new CD investments, when, as Greg stopped the car for a few seconds, another car came out of nowhere and crashed right into them, sending them scooting off into a new set of woods, tumbling over onto it's roof a few times and then back onto it's wheels. A window smashed, a door swung off it's hinges and the other dented badly, bones broken, cuts and gashes and then there was Allie and Greg, lying unconscious in a heap of blood and pain.

And neither of them noticed the other car.

A/N: Aloha!

Wow! I thoroughly enjoyed this chapter...even with the shockingly-bad fluff at the start. Awful! Anyway, thanks to all my reviewers, you guys are fantastical! Oh, poor Grallie. I actually feel awful for crashing them. I suppose ya'll know who the other car was...but I may have to warn you...character death is possible...and it will not be Ashley... :O

Thanks for the reviews, I can't stress it enough - they MAKE my life!

Have a great rest of the day,

JauntyChick

XOX