"So tell me about her."

"No."

"Just tell me about her."

"No, Charles! I am not going to tell you anything about her cause the moment I do you're gonna scamper off and gossip with the other two. I'm not saying a word. My lips are sealed," Jake mimed zipping up his lips, locking them, and then throwing away the key.

He was regretting telling Charles anything at that moment. All he said was 'I met a girl' but, as he should have known, that was too much. Charles had been harassing him all morning to hear some details and there was no way Jake was giving them up. His friend couldn't keep a secret at all. Not that he wanted to keep Amy a secret, he just wanted to wait until the last possible moment so his friends wouldn't be able to hassle him anymore than necessary. He also didn't want them screwing everything up so soon, because there was an awful good chance that he would manage to do that by himself. And it was all kinds of hot to have a mystery girlfriend that no one knew about.

So that's what led to that moment, with Jake trying to finish some classwork on his computer and Boyle sitting on his bed and pelting him with whatever he could grab. Jake was hoping he would run out of objects that were in his hands reach (especially after the third shoe) but when he turned around Jake saw that he had brought about 2 lbs worth of peanuts.

"Jakey-" Charles whined piteously. "I am your best friend! You have to tell me stuff like this! You've always told me stuff like this! What's so different this time?"

"She's different," Jake responded easily, without even thinking about it. He realized that he actually should have thought about it when he sees his friends raised eyebrows.

"Well, if you don't tell me about her I'm going to 'scamper off' to 'the other two' and sing like a canary how Jake has a secret and aren't they just dying to know." He used air quotations around Jake's choice of words with a huge smile on his face. Charles wasn't diabolical often, but when he set his mind to it, he could pull it off.

"You're the worst best friend in the world," Jake told him earnestly. When he didn't start talking, Boyle got up and began to walk out of the room, calling their roommates names in a sing-song voice.

"Wait!" Jake shouted. Charles ran back in and sat on his bed with an eager smile on his face. Jake knew the walking out thing had been an act, but if he held out any longer, Boyle might just follow through on his threat. Besides, he figured it might actually be nice to tell someone about Amy.

"She's..." he began, trying to find the right words, and knew he never could. "She's amazing. Just everything about her is so great, and she doesn't even realize. And she's brilliant. Probably has an IQ higher than all 4 of us combined. And we can talk, like really talk, and she always makes me forget everything else that's happening. And everything will be going great, until I notice how great it's going and I start worrying about if I'm gonna screw it up, but before I do, she always makes me forget again. She's just- eugh! Why are you making that face at me?" He gave a disgusted look to his friend, who had completely broken his train of thought. He was pretty sure Charles was trying to make a lovey-dovey face, but he was failing hard.

"That was the most romantic thing I've ever heard," Charles cooed.

"Was not. And don't tell anyone I said that," Jake added in for good measure. He didn't think he said anything romantic, but he definitely didn't want Boyle passing it on.

"Oh, I'm going to tell everyone," Charles assured him, not even an ounce of guilt written on his delighted face.

"What? Charles! I trusted you!"

"I know, and you really shouldn't have. One would think you would have learned that by now-" Charles ducked his head out of the door way just in time to dodge a flying shoe.

"You've been demoted! You're not my best friend anymore! You're my worst acquaintance! Because you don't even deserve to be my enemy!" Jake hollered out after him.

Then he sighed and got back to work, thankful at least for the peace and quiet.

Jake:

What's your roommates name again?

Amy:

Kylie

Jake:

Can I meet her?

Amy:

Can I meet your roommates?

Jake:

Sure, but I asked first

Amy:

…

…

Okay

Jake had absolutely no problem with her meeting the guys, but he thought if he waited it out for a bit they would forget that they had been making fun of him and therefore wouldn't tell Amy what he said. He wasn't exactly embarrassed, cause that was an immature thing to be embarrassed about.

Okay, he was a little embarrassed.

But he decided that if someone was going to tell Amy what he said, he wanted it to be him. If he ever got around to telling her, that is.

Amy met him outside her dorm Saturday afternoon more than a little antsy. She was wearing just a T shirt and jeans, but he had a feeling she could manage to make even a paper bag look sexy. She walked him into her dorm and he took her hand to hopefully calm her down.

"You seem nervous. Worried I'll make a bad impression?" Jake asked in a jokey manner.

"There's a nonzero chance that she won't like you," Amy said.

"I barely passed statistics. Is that a good thing? Or is it just your way of being nice?" He still had a smile on his face, but her being on edge was starting to put him on edge.

"I'm totally, completely, absolutely, positively sure that she'll probably like you," she rushed through the last few words.

"Good," he sighed, then realized what she had tried to skip over. "Hey-"

"And here's my room," Amy pointed to a door a couple feet away and lead him in.

"Sweet digs," Jake told her when they walked in. "Much bigger than the ones they have on TV." And it totally was. He didn't know what kind of dorm room had it's own kitchen, and branched off into several separate rooms, but apparently this was one of those. He realized that Amy's parents must be loaded. Which he probably should have realized the moment he found out she went to Georgetown. This place was practically an apartment.

"Is that him?" A girl called in an innocent voice from the other room, that sounded like the fakest thing Jake had ever heard. Said girl came bounding to the front door with a friendly smile on her face, but a look of complete distrust buried just underneath it.

"This is Jake, my..." Amy trailed off unable to finish the sentence, so he finished it for her.

"Boyfriend. Jake. Jake boyfriend. Boyfriend Jake. Like James Bond, but not. It is not in anyway like James Bond. So you must be Kylie!" He ended enthusiastically while he held out his hand. Kylie shook it disdainfully, and Amy glared at her.

"And be forewarned, my main goal here is to impress you so you won't be upset Amy's dating me, and I have a tendency to embellish. So know that if I say that I am a civil engineer pirate who's only taking a short break from plundering villages and taking oh so much gold, it is a slight exaggeration. I don't really have that much gold," Jake said as suavely as he could. He was pretty good with social situations, but this was a whole new ball game. He's had to deal with parents before, but that wasn't too much of a problem. If a family member didn't like him, it was never too big of a deal because when you're young, you don't care what your family thinks is best for you. He'd had girls date him specifically to spite their parents. But a best friend was different. People actually listen to their friends and value their input, so he was going all out in this.

"That's a shame. A civil engineer pirate would have been awfully impressive," Kylie said shaking her head mournfully.

"I knew I shouldn't have led off with that," he smiled. And Kylie smiled back.

"Well don't just stand there all day! Why don't you come in?" Kylie asked, turning her back and walking further into the dorm.

Jake looked back at Amy.

"Going well?" he whispered hopefully.

Amy gave him 2 thumbs up.

Jake and Kylie actually got along well, which wasn't surprising once he figured out they were both pretty outgoing people. In a different situation they probably could have been friends, but he had a feeling that she considered him her arch nemesis. Which wasn't too bad, because it was obvious that she was very protective of Amy, which was definitely a good thing. She was definitely someone who needed protecting, so he wasn't too upset about it. Jake figured he would just have to slowly shimmy his way into her good graces.

Maybe 15 minutes into their conversation, Amy went from looking pleased as punch to somewhat uncertain, her hands playing with the hem of her shirt. He wanted to ask her what was wrong, but didn't know if he should do that in front of her friend.

"Crap. It's already 4," Kylie said when she looked at the clock. "I didn't think you'd stay this long." She took a long look at Jake, then at the clock, then back to Jake, and lastly at Amy. "Okay, I'm leaving to see a movie with Sam, but I don't want you trying anything," She said, the last part directed solely at Jake who she shook a finger at. She rushed around the place picking up several mismatched shoes until she found a correct pair, slipped them on, and then rushed out the door.

"Seriously, Jake. Don't you dare take advantage of her, because I will hunt you down!" Kylie yelled as she closed the door behind her.

The moment the door was shut, Jake let out a sigh of relief as he collapsed back into the chair he was sitting in.

"Thank god that's over with," he said, not at all trying to hide his relief that they were out of that situation.

"Don't you like talking to people?" She asked with a raised eyebrow. She was standing with her hand on her hip, and god, her doubtful look was hot.

"Not when I could be talking to you. Which is pretty much 90% of my days now, so talking has been a little trying lately," he told her, and a blush spread across his face. It was all true, he always wanted to be talking with her, but half of him did say that sentence solely cause he knew it would make her blush.

"Now, you have to show me your room," Jake declared, as if it was some rule or schedule he was reading out of a handbook.

"Uh... let's not do that. Like something else. Something decidedly not that," Amy stumbled, which made his curiosity increase by at least 200%. He couldn't imagine what she didn't want him to see. Was she a secret punk kid that had posters lining her red walls? Or like 50 pictures of her childhood pets? A wrestle mania altar?

"You might as well show me now, cause I am not leaving without seeing it," he taunted, making his determination clear. She gave him a long hard look, but she sighed and motioned with her hand to follow once she was sure he wasn't going to back down. So he followed her into a room that was immediately obvious why she didn't want him to see it.

"How long have you been living here?" He asked.

"About a year."

"And when do you plan on moving out?"

"Not anytime soon."

It looked like a hotel room. Like a really shitty hotel room that didn't even spring for the paintings at the dollar store. There was a bed, a nightstand (with a light and alarm clock on it), a desk with a computer, and bookcases lined with books. But that was it. Nothing remotely personal in it. No clutter, no notes or pictures tacked on the walls, no bits and bobbles on the desk, nothing that would signify it was even occupied.

"If I check that nightstand, am I gonna find a bible?" Jake inquired, and she rolled her eyes.

"No!" He gasped. "Tell me you don't make your bed every morning. You do, don't you? With these grandma sheets?" He pounced on her bed and turned around to grin at her. "Wanna mess em up?" He waggled his eyebrows.

She didn't take him up on his offer, or even really smile at the joke.

"What went wrong?" He asked, completely serious for once.

"Huh?"

"Back there. What went wrong? I thought it was going pretty well until you started looking upset. So what happened? Did I say something?" When she didn't respond, he added in an "I'm sorry."

"No, you didn't do anything. It went great," Amy sighed. Jake twirled his hand in a circle to signal her to keep talking.

"I'm not good with people. Or guys. And Kylie is. I don't know. I guess I was half afraid you would want to start dating her instead of me," she confessed.

Jake had absolutely no idea how she could think of herself like that. It was astounding that she couldn't see how amazing and wonderful and beautiful she was. He didn't know how he could convince her of that, be he decided then and there that it would be his life goal. Help Amy really see herself.

"Now that is some straight up crazy talk," he declared, then waved her over with his hand. "Come here."

She was hesitant at first, but eventually she sat down in front of him with her back to him. She leaned against his chest and he wrapped his arms around her, content to breathe her in. He tried not to get caught up her hair that smelled like strawberry shampoo, or the warmth of every part of her, and just how intoxicating it was being so close to her- because he needed to tell her something important.

"One day, you're gonna see how fantastic you are. And you're gonna be hella pissed that you didn't wait for someone better, cause I'm not gonna let you go." He whispered into her ear, and heard her hum in agreement when he kissed her on the cheek.

"You think so?" She obliged him.

"I know so."

"If someone murdered you, they would have no idea how to build a profile of the killer based on you," Jake told her as he motioned around her room. It was unreal how impersonal it was, not to mention the orderliness. If he had to guess what type of person Amy was based on her room, he wouldn't even be able to give a guess, since it was basically a catalogue. But it was nice sitting on her bed with her head against his chest, wrapped in his arms. One of his hands fiddled with the ends of her hair, twisting back and forth again, and he knew he would never be content to let her go again. He had never seen Amy so relaxed as she was in that moment, and he was definitely proud to witness, and even play a part in it.

"Seriously, book case after book case," he waved his hands across her walls, "Filled with text books- analytics, trigonometry, sociology, and- Oh my god! Is that a copy of mein kampf? Are you a secret Nazi?" Jake shouted as he pointed to a corner.

"What? Where?" Amy shot up from her relaxed position. It wasn't until she looked where he was pointing (a blank wall) and he started laughing that she realized it was all a joke.

"I don't know why I believed you. I've never even read it," she settled back into him with a huff while his chest was still reverberating with laughter.

"You were one of those kids who checked the ceiling for gullible, weren't you?" He chuckled as he tightened his grip around her in case she tried to move away again from his teasing.

"You were one of those kids who told people gullible was written on the ceiling, weren't you?" She quipped.

"Oh, definitely. Even the teachers fell for this angel face."

And Amy laughed. He realized he would do anything to make her laugh again. And that realization didn't bother him at all.

AN: Sorry this is much shorter than the other chapters, since I kinda rushed it out (I hope there weren't any mistakes). I didn't plan on making any of the chapters of this from Jake's perspective, but it was requested so I did. Let me know if you guys liked it and if I should do more from his perspective. I also didn't plan on making Amy especially rich, but I kinda boxed myself in when I described her dorm room in the previous chapter. Was it easy to tell that I have never set foot in one?