A/N: This chapter is pretty fluffy-ish, until the end, where there's some swearing. Please, review, and then go read the next chapter.

"So... that's how you... you feel. That's it. That's... feel." I was babbling. Not just normal babbling. The kind of babbling that makes no sense, even when you try to decode it after it's said.

"You can say something else," Paige said. But my throat might have closed up, because I had to resort to gesturing at her, then the door, then myself. I don't even know what I was trying to say.

"Ellie?" Paige said nervously. I sat down quickly on the edge of her bed. That kiss... It was just a kiss, but it was more, and it was me and Paige, and I needed to do it again. I swallowed, and tried my hand at this whole 'speaking' thing again.

"Can I kiss you again?" I asked. Paige never gave me that chance to kiss her. She leaned forward and closed the distance herself, taking one of my hands in hers. Our hands were exactly the same size, and she held our hands up so they stayed pressed together. And there was a knock on the door.

Paige yanked away from me, and I jumped to my feet. The heels of my boots almost got tangled in the edge of her blanket, which was hanging on the floor, but I didn't have time to free it before the door opened. The same blonde guy who'd been in the front hall stepped in.

"Hey Paige. And... Paige's friend," the guy said.

"Ellie, this is my brother Dylan. Dylan, this is my... Ellie," Paige said. She hadn't meant to say that, but she called me hers. I was, and I wanted to be, but she hadn't meant to say it. It made me wonder what I really am.

"Your Ellie? Ah. Nice to meet you, Paige's Ellie," said Dylan, shaking my hand. He was nice and all, but I wanted him to leave.

"Shut up, Dylan. And leave," Paige said. Dylan made this big show of leaving, taking his time shutting the door, like he thought he'd interrupted something big. Which he had. Paige locked the door after him.

"Come here," she said. It took me a second to realize that she'd moved away from the door and returned to her bed. She was lying down. Oh my—

"Come here," she repeated, moving over so there was room next to her. Oh. I lay down carefully next to her, like if I moved too quickly, she'd break. Or maybe I would.

"I've wanted to kiss you for a while now," she said quietly. I looked over at her. She was blushing, and was avoiding my eyes.

"How long?" I asked. I almost felt smug. No one's ever wanted any part of my before. Thank God Paige did.

"What about you? I mean, you have wanted to, right? It's not... It's not just me?" Paige asked hesitantly. I shook my head quickly.

"No, of course not. I mean, no it's not just you. I wanted to kiss you. I mean I still do. I have. For a long time," I said.

"We met yesterday," Paige said, smiling. She had taken my hand again, and was tracing the rings I had on my fingers.

"And it hasn't slowed you down either," I said. My voice was almost teasing. I never tease. I placed my other hand over Paige's, so there was a pile of hands in between us. It was slightly heavy, so I lowered my hand without thinking onto Paige's stomach.

This was what I would like to call a Very Bad Idea. You see, Paige's shirt had ridden up an inch or so, exposing some of her stomach. Enough to see her belly button ring. And my fingers were on her skin, and the pressure of her hand, and mine was weighing my bottom hand down, flat against her stomach, right next to the belly button ring. Paige stopped breathing almost, and I pulled my hand away. And it turned out to be a Very Good Idea, because Paige grabbed my arm and wouldn't let me. She turned sideways so that my hand was resting on her hip.

"Before I knew your name, I called you Pretty Girl," I said. Oh God. I hadn't said that out loud. I couldn't have. I didn't—

"You called me what?" Paige said. She was grinning at me. Her hair was curly today, and falling into her eyes. I pushed it back, just to give myself something to do, a way to avoid answering. When I couldn't ignore her any longer, I returned one hand to her hip and the other to both of her hands.

"It was just for a little while. It wasn't like some big stalker deal. I just didn't know your name, and my mind wouldn't register 'Hey you! With the clothes!', so it stuck on Pretty Girl. Only until the end of Kwan's class, when you gave me the note with your phone number," I said. Paige was smiling now, more to herself than me.

"I called you Ellie," she said.

"I never told you my name until I called," I said, surprised.

"I know," Paige said. She didn't elaborate. After a minute or so, she looked up, with almost puppy-dog like eyes. She sighed. "Promise not to laugh?" she said.

"No. But I'll try really hard," I said. Paige glared at me.

"You have to promise or I won't tell you, and you'll spend forever in suspense," she said. The odds of me not laughing were slim, but I wanted her to tell me. I hate not knowing things.

"I promise," I said. She sighed again.

"I kidnapped Marco after English and told him if he didn't tell me your name, I'd tell everyone about the time when he accidentally glued his hand to the wall when we were in preschool and cried because the teacher had to use hot water to get it off," she said in one breath. "We were both late to our next class," she added.

"You're kidding," I said. She shook her head no. I laughed. Laughed so hard I nearly fell off the bed, and Paige had to wrap an arm around me to save me from imminent death. When I finally managed to stop laughing, she didn't remove her arm.

Paige is nothing like me. At all. The only thing we have in common is the whole 'pierced belly button' thing, and us. I forgot everything I said right after I said it, but I managed to stay there for three hours on her bed, talking. I vaguely remember telling her all about Deanna, and my old school, and how much I hated it there. I think I told her about my dad being in the Army and having to go places a lot, and my mom's drinking problem. She told me about her friends and the school, and her family, and how her older brother Dylan, the one I'd met, was actually gay. But after a while, I knew my parents would probably noticed I was gone by now, and I had homework I had to do, if I didn't want to fail everything on my second day. Paige walked me to the front door, made sure Dylan was in another room, and kissed me again.

"I'll meet you tomorrow on the steps before school, okay?" she whispered.

"Okay," I said. She kissed me again, and I left. When I got home, I did all my homework and ate dinner, and had nothing to do and four hours before I should go to bed. I called Deanna again.

"Hello?" she said.

"It's Ellie," I said.

"Ellie? Hi. How are you?" Deanna asked.

"I'm fine. Actually I was wondering if you could give me some advice," I asked. I might have heard something in the background, but Deanna didn't mention it.

"Okay. What about?" she asked.

"Well, I met this person. They're really nice and I like them and all. And we kissed," I said.

"You kissed? Oh my god, El, that's so cool!" Deanna said. This was not Deanna. Deanna didn't squeal like that or say... unless there were other people there.

"Dee, are you alone?" I asked. There was a short pause.

"Yeeeeah, El. What, you think I have you on speakerphone at a party or something?" Deanna snorted. Okay, Ellie, stop being paranoid.

"Sorry. Anyway, so I really like them and all, but I'm not sure it can work. Because I called them and they hung up because there were other people there, and they blew me off when I tried to meet up with them. They're like, popular. And I'm not," I said.

"I don't know what you should do. But anyway, tell me about this guy. What's his name?" Deanna asked. I tapped my binder with a pen.

"It's not a guy, Dee. It's a girl, and her name is Paige," I said. I heard Deanna suck in a deep breath, and I heard laughing. I counted the voices. One... two... three... four. Four voices. Oh my God.

"Who else is there, Deanna?" I said.

"Um, you know Lexi, Shawna, and Carly, right? They were on the cheerleading squad?" Deanna giggled. Oh shit.

"Fuck you, Deanna," I said, and slammed the phone back in the cradle. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God.