AUTHORS NOTE: Due to the fact that you all had to wait so long for an update, I'll be brining you two chapters this time instead of just one. However, I should make you wait. That was chapter was the PERFECT cliff hanger. I hope I scared you. : )

Chapter 10: Just Call Me, Cupid.

Fall 2 cont.

I felt like I could cry right then. I knew that there was no way I could ever have Jack now. Not if it meant hurting Karen. I couldn't do that to her, she was my best friend. Besides, if it actually did come down to me and her, I knew that she would be the better catch and a better wife then I could ever hope to be. Jack was as kind and gentle as they came, but he was still strong and brave as well. He stood up for those he cared about and what he believe in. I was a fool to think that I was the only one who saw it, that I would be the only one to love him.

Karen continued to talk.

"I knew that you were to shy to say anything and I didn't want to be the first to act so I was silent, but I can't any longer. The truth has to be said, you know that right?"

"Yes." I said, admitting my defeat "I suppose I do."

"Right. So then I'll say it." There was a strange pause that made me focus all attention on her. Karen's eyes had dropped and some point, but they finally raised back up at me. "Mary? I love you too."

"WHAT!"

My body attempted to jump to my feet, but my legs ended up getting tangled in each other and I fell to the floor, landing on my behind. I couldn't believe what Karen just said! She said she loved me! But I was another girl! That didn't work!

"Karen! I-I mean. That-you-I didn't-I-"

A snort came from Karen's mouth and I saw her lips held so tightly together that they were just a fine line across her face. Then, just as it had the day she made me wear her clothes, laugher came over her and she was acutely rolling over on the bed, her arms clutching her stomach, tears pouring down her face. By some magic, she managed to speak in between the laughter.

"You-you should have s-seen you're face!"

She laughed harder.

"You looked like you were ready to die!"

I stood up and dust myself off. I planted my hands on my hips firmly. It was one of her jokes. She had been setting me up the entire time I fell for it hook, line, and sinker. I was upset for actually thinking that Karen was……oh she can be so mean sometimes.

"That wasn't funny, Karen! I thought you were serious!" I said

Karen managed to calm down at this point and was sitting up wiping her eyes with her bare arm.

"I-I know. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, but it was just that you looked like you were a step away from jumping up and running out into the rain storm when you were trying to talk. I had to do something so you would stay."

"So you say you love me?" I asked, still trying to sound mad, knowing that I wasn't because I didn't feel that way.

"It worked, didn't it?"

I couldn't hold it in, I stated to laugh too and I had to take off my glasses and rub my eyes.

"That's besides the point." I spoke when I managed to calm down. I sat down next to her again. I gave her a light shove on the shoulder and she hugged me slightly and quickly, as the last of the giggles died out.

"Okay," Karen said, serious now. "Really, who is the someone? And how do you care about them?"

"It's hard to talk about, Karen."

"I bet. But you have my word that whatever you say will never leave this room."

"Promise?"

"Cross my heart."

"Hope you die?" I asked.

"Stick a needle in my eye. Now come on. Talk."

"Well, It's………It's that I've fallen in love with someone. And it's not you, Karen."

"Oh get over it. Now let me guess who this person is? I'm psychic like that. Now let me see, is this person tall? With brown hair? He's a farmer? He wears a blue and yellow hat all the time? His name is Jack?"

I smiled at her. "And to think you stay here while there are so many un-solved crimes in the world."

Maybe I should have been more surprised at her knowing, or upset that she made a game out of it, but as she said, Karen knew my way of thinking and she could read my body language. I think I would have been more surprised if she didn't know.

" So what's the problem, Mary? Tell him."

"I can't." I sighed deeply, ashamed at myself.

"You better."

"I can't!"

" Do it or I will."

"No!"

"You know I will."

"Karen!"

She hugged me again, but this time, she kept one arm around my shoulders.

"Alright, alright. I won't. But you need to say something. You don't have forever."

"I'm afraid. I don't know what to say, or when to say it, or………anything else for that matter."

"What you need is atmosphere."

"How do you mean?" I asked.

"You know, you need to be someplace romantic, alone with Jack. Then you could tell him easily. He will be so caught up in the magic of the night that he'll have to say he loves you too."

"But what If I'm wrong, Karen? What if he doesn't love me? What if……"

"What if, what if, what if! Mary, listen to me good: If you don't tell him you love him, you're going to regret it! Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of you're life!"

There was another pause here before I spoke up.

"How long have you been waiting to use that line?"

"Shut up and hear my plan. Now the 13th of this month is the Moon Festival, right?"

She didn't wait for me to answer before she continued.

"So here's what you do. You go up to Mother's Hill a little before six. And I'll make sure that Jack goes up there as well. That way you two just 'happen' to meet up there, you suggest to enjoy the night's Festival together, and then under the moonlight, you tell him you love him. And there you go, you get your own happily ever after."

"But- what if someone else is already up there when I go?"

"Oh, don't worry about that, Mary. You leave all the details to me."

"That's a long wait, Karen."

I was thinking that I might chicken out before then, she saw this.

"It'll come sooner then you think. This will give you time to prepare, this way, you'll be totally ready! I promise that this will be the most romantic night ever!"

"Karen?"

"Yes?"

"You're the best."

"I know. Now get home and get ready for tomorrow. We have a festival to play in."

"Right. Goodbye."

And with that I left. Jeff asked my out in the store what all the laughing was about and I told him it was a girl-girl secret. Jeff just smiled and nodded, knowing he wouldn't get anything out of me. I took my umbrella where I left it by the front door, opened it with no problems and steeped back out in the rain.

That's about all there is to tell for today. As I said I came home, dried off, changed, and now here I am in the library, writing and listening to the sounds of the storm. Actually, I think it's letting up from the sound of it. This may be a sign, there just could be looking up for me.

-Mary-

TO BE CONTINUED

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AUTHER'S NOTE: ……………………GOTCHA: )