-Chapter 2-

Georgie glanced at Lucas out of the corner of her eye again and quickly averted her eyes when he looked in her direction. With a sigh, she shoved some food around with her fork. A tray appeared in front of her and she glanced up to see Dillon staring down at her. "Is this seat taken?"

"No." She sighed again, this time slightly louder. "This seat is never taken."

"It is now." Dillon smiled as he sank into the hard cafeteria chair. "What is this? And is it my imagination or is it still moving?" He poked the brown meat on his tray and frowned.

"It's not just you."

He shoved the tray away and leaned forward. "Remind me to pack my lunch in the future."

While giving Lucas another sidelong glance she mumbled, "Yeah, sure."

Dillon snapped his fingers inches from her face. "Something on your mind?"

Her head jerked in his direction and she blinked a few times to clear her mind. "Huh?"

"I asked if there was something on your mind."

Georgie leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms. "I was just thinking about prom."

"What about it?"

Tucking a strand of hair behond her ear, she answered. "Well, I really want to go, but I can't. Sophmores aren't allowed unless they're asked by an upper classman."

"So, if say a junior, like me, asked you to go, you could?"

She nodded at him. "Yeah, but it's not going to happen."

"You don't know that."

"Look at him." She nodded in Lucas's direction and Dillon followed her gaze. "He'd never be interested in me. Why can't he see that I'm the girl for him, not Maxie?"

Dillon frowned and looked down at his hands clasped on the table. "So what you're saying is, any junior could ask you, but you only want to go with Lucas?"

"Pretty much. He's the only guy I can picture myself at prom with."

"Then maybe there is something wrong with your picture." Dillon snapped more harshly than he had intended.

She looked up at him, slightly startled. "What's that suppose to mean?"

"Why can't you see what's right in front of you? Lucas doesn't want you, ok? He never has and he never will."

Georgie could feel the tears welling up in her eye and she had to fight to keep them from spilling out over her cheeks. "Why not? Why is so hard to believe that someone could actually like me?" She blinked back the tears. Why did everyone keep saying she could never have Lucas?

"That's not what I meant. I meant that Lucas is too stupid to realize how great you are, he's too hung up on Maxie."

Finally the tears won the battle and began to stream down her face, one after another. Quickly standing, Dillon moved to sit beside her. "What's wrong with me?" She asked between tears. "What's so wrong with me that Lucas doesn't even notice me?"

Gently Dillon took her hands in his and absently stroked them with his thumbs as he waited for her to meet his eyes. "Nothing." He said softly, when she did. "There is absolutly nothing wrong with you. There's something wrong with him."

"No there's not. It's me." She sniffled a little. "I must scare guys off or something."

"You? Scary? I'm not buying it."

A small smile tugged at her face. "Thanks for being my friend Dillon."

"You welcome," He muttered and dropped her hands. "Look, forget about Lucas and move on. He's not worth it. I have to get to class though. I'm trying to make a good first impression and be on time all week."

"Good thinking. That when you don't even bother to show up next week it will even things out."

"Exactly." With one last look at Georgie, he reached for his tray and left. As he emptied his contents into the trash bin he saw Lucas approach Georgie's table from the corner of his eye. With a sigh of his own, he walked out of the cafeteria.

"Hey Georgie." Lucas greeted, his smile fading when she looked up at him with red-rimmed eyes and a tear streaked face. "What did he do to you?" He demanded.

"What?" She asked confused. "Who?"

"Dillon, I saw him talking to you. What did he say to make you cry?"

Georgie smiled a little. "He didn't say anything to make me cry. He actually made it better."

Lucas frowned at the smile on her face. "He's bad news, Georgie."

"You don't even know him." She pointed out.

Lucas shrugged, "I'm just looking out for you."

"That's sweet." Her smile widened. "But you don't have too."

"I want too." He assured her.

She blushed a little and looked down at her tray. "Thanks." Suddenly she felt bold, daring even. "Hey Lucas? Can I ask you something?"

"Yeah, sure." He pulled out a chair and sat across from her.

"You can say no if you want, and maybe I'm being too forward or whatever, but would you be my date for prom? I know I can't technically take you because I'm only a sophmore, but I'd like to go with you."

Lucas didn't say anything for a moment, but then he nodded. "Yeah, why not? It could be fun."

"Really?

"Yeah, really. I'll call you and we'll work out the details."

"Ok, cool." She replied grinning. Things were definitely starting to look up for her.

"We can make it work." Dillon heard as he entered the mansion. Emily's voice followed.

"It's just too hard." It sounded like she had been crying and he felt bad for her. She had been through so much it had made his life look like a picnic in the park. "You should go." She told Zander.

"Fine," He agreed, "But I'll be back. I love you, Em."

"I know." She whispered and the next thing Dillon knew, Zander was brushing past him.

"Hey," He said, poking his head into the living room. "You ok?"

"I'm fine, but thanks for asking."

Dillon shrugged and entered the room. "No problem. That guy is totally in love with you."

Emily wiped a few remaining tears from her eyes. "Love isn't always enough."

"It definitely isn't all it's cracked up to be." He agreed as he eased onto the couch next to his cousin.

"Girl troubles?" She asked knowingly.

Dillon turned only his head to look at her. "You could say that. There's this one girl. She's...well, I really like her. But she only has eyes for someone else."

An image of Nikolas popped into her mind and immediatly she sympathized with her younger cousin. "I know what that's like. I had the biggest crush on Nikolas Cassadine for the longest time. But he never saw me as anything other than a litte girl."

"What happened?"

"I grew out of it. I met Juan and then Zander and now I'm where I am today."

"Do you regret not doing anything about your crush?"

Emily didn't respond at first. "If you like this girl, tell her how you feel. By not saying anything, you're not giving her a chance to make a real decision between you and this other guy."

"What if she still wants him?"

"Then it's her loss."

Dillon stood up and headed towards the door. "Thanks, I needed to tell someone about her."

"You're welcome." She paused before asking. "Are you going to tell her?"

Dillon stopped with his hand on the doorknob. "I don't know." He admitted before leaving.