AN: Hey guys, welcome to chapter six! The song for this chapter is "Clair de Lune" by Claude Debussy

No. 6: Jake –Clair de Lune

Jake woke from sleep, his hair messy, his eye lids heavy, and saw light coming in through the blind slates of his window. The early morning light illuminated the dust particles gently falling in the air and the image put Jake at ease, peaceful. He had woken up from the nicest dream. He dreamt of the girl at the door. He couldn't quite remember what had happened in the dream, but he remembered the feeling of a piece of paper sliding underneath a door with a message just for him on it. He remembered dreaming of the soft, stifled giggles he heard through the door when he sent her a joke and how it sent shivers up his spine. He also dreamt of Amy. He saw her face the moment right after he kissed her months ago at Mark's party. The image was pristine in his mind: her surprised expression, her pink cheeks, the shine in her eyes and the way they looked at his lips for the briefest of seconds.

Jake took a deep in and let out a pained moan. The dream was supposed to be pleasant, not make him spiral into a pit of confusion. There was definitely a spark between him and the muse, but he was starting to come to terms that he held a small torch for Amy as well. Jake sat up and rubbed his face, banishing the last bits of sleepiness. He sighed and inhaled guilt. What was he going to do? Did he have to choose who to pursue? What if they both liked him? What if neither of them did? Was it messed up just thinking like this? They were human beings, not different kinds of cookies.

As Jake got ready for his class he remembered he had class with Amy and that he was planning on "seeing-but-not-seeing" his muse later that night. His chest tightened at the thought. Getting to spend time with either of them was enough to make him happy, but the future of his predicament freaked him out. He took another inhale and headed to the bathroom to brush his teeth.

Jake sat down in the desk next to Amy, but was surprised when she didn't look up and greet him. Instead, she was looking at her hands and smiling sweetly to herself. It made him smile as well.

"Earth to Amy!" Jake said as he snapped his fingers. She woke from her daydream and whipped her head towards him.

"Oh, hey, I didn't see you come in" she said, flustered.

"Yeah, I know. What are you smiling like an idiot about?" he asked, his teasing grin resurfacing.

"What? I wasn't-"

"You absolutely were"

"Okay, fine. Something good happened last night" she said.

"What? Did you get laid or something?" he asked.

"No! Ugh, you're so vulgar"

"Thanks, now what happened?" he asked, but was cut short when the professor came in and started class.

Jake's eyes glazed over as their professor explained why it was inevitable that the guy in that one play had sex with his mother and then stabbed his eyes out. Even gore and incest couldn't make ancient Greek plays appealing to him. Jake didn't stir from his zombie-like state until the professor made mention of a new group project she was assigning.

"For this assignment you're going to partnering up with someone (your choice) and together you'll work on a Power Point presentation about a translated work. For the last ten minutes of class, pick your partner, then come to me and I'll assign you a play" their professor said, going on to explain the details of the project. When she was finished, the class buzzed with excitement while they searched for partners. Jake immediately looked over at Amy.

"Partners?" he asked.

"Yes, but only if you promise to read the play and actually do some work on it" she said, her gaze serious.

"I will" Jake said, rolling his eyes.

"Good, partners it is," she said, a smug smile creeping on her face, "let's get our play"

They walked to the front and Amy asked for their assignment.

"Santiago and Peralta?" she asked.

"That's us" Jake confirmed and she wrote down their names in a notebook.

"Alright, let's give you…Cyrano De Bergerac by Edmond Rostand. I recommend you find a translation by Brian Hooker. Have fun, that's a good one" she said and they thanked her as they headed out of the class.

"What'd she give us?" Jake asked, annoyed that the title didn't seem to have any words in it.

"Cyrano De Bergerac. It's French? Really famous? Guy with the huge nose?" Amy asked, hoping to ring some bells. Jake snapped his fingers and pointed at her.

"Pinocchio!"

"No! It's the play Roxanne was based on?" she tried. This time a light bulb went on.

"Ooooh, yeah! Cool, we don't even need to read it, we can just watch Roxanne" he said and it earned him an impressive glare from Amy.

"Jake…" she warned.

"I'm kidding, I'm kidding! I'll read it"

"Good, wanna work on it in the library tomorrow?"

"What? It's not due for like three weeks"

"Yeah, I know. It's really coming up fast" she said in earnest. Jake groaned.

"God, fine. Meet at five and get dinner afterwards?" he asked.

"Sounds good"

The next day, Jake was able to purchase the play, but didn't accomplish much else. He tried to read the first act, but had no idea what was happening. At five o'clock, Jake met Amy on the second floor of the library.

"Hey" he said as set his bag down.

"Hey! Did you read the play?" she asked excitedly. Jake paused and looked her.

"I…purchased the play. 'Cause, y'know, it's been one day"

"Jake, we only have twenty days left" Amy whined.

"You're crazy"

"You haven't even started it?"

"I started it, but it was super boring so I stopped" Jake said.

"Well, no wonder! It doesn't really get good until act two" she said, looking admirably at her copy.

"I can't get into it" he admitted.

"The first act is just confusing you because it's supposed to be the chaos right before everyone sits down to watch a play"

"Ugh, God, so boring" he said, leaning back in his chair.

"Maybe you should watch the movie first…" Amy said.

"Roxanne?!" he asked, excited.

"No! There was an old black-and-white movie that's supposed to stay really true to the script. Our teacher did say plays are meant to be watched, not read. Maybe if you watch it first it'll be easier to read it"

"Sweet! Screening at my dorm on Friday?" he asked.

"Yeah, I guess we can do that" she said.

"Awesome" he said as he stood up.

"Wait, where are you going?" she asked.

"Back to my dorm. It's not like we can do anything right now"

"Oh, no, no, no. Jake, we have to decide on our slide template!"

"Are you being serious?" he asked and she gave him a stern look. He sat back down.

After over two hours of listening to Amy analyze forty-five different Power Point templates, Jake begged for mercy. She finally agreed to get dinner after she heard Jake's stomach violently growl. After dinner, Jake tried to get through the play, but failed once again. He abandoned Cyrano and decided to head to the music building a little early. Though he loved his chats with the girl on the other side of the door, their correspondence did cut into his practice time. He couldn't complain though. The only had two conversations so far, but they were really, really great conversations. She was funny, and smart, and she gave him really good advice. He was excited to talk to her and he knew that meant something significant. Tonight was no different.

He took a short break from his practicing and saw a note by the door. He smiled and went over to it, his heart skipping beats.

This continued every night that week and each night, Jake found more and more reason to fall for her. He felt himself grow impatient and knew he wanted to meet her face-to-face soon. The prospect made him nervous since he knew it could potentially burst the bubble they found themselves in, but that's exactly why Jake wanted to do this sooner rather than later. If they dug themselves any deeper into each other, and then realized the chemistry didn't exist off the paper…well, it'd be a lot messier. That worried him more than anything.

He made a decision to ask her out on Friday, right after watching Cyrano with Amy. It might make him feel a little confused, but he was determined to do this as soon as possible.

Friday at five o' clock, Jake heard a knock on his dorm room door. He opened it and Amy greeted him with a smile.

"Hey, ready to watch the hell out of this movie?" he asked as he beckoned her to come in.

"You know it. I brought popcorn" she said, putting her purse on the floor and holding out her offering.

"Noice!" Jake said and took the popcorn bag to his microwave.

"Do you have a copy of it?" Amy asked.

"Nope, but it's on YouTube" Jake answered as he pressed start on the microwave. While the popcorn popped, Jake rolled his night stand near the middle of his twin bed that was up against the north wall. He put his lap top on the night stand and pulled up the movie. The timer went off on the microwave and Jake grabbed the popcorn. He sat at the center of his mattress, back leaning against the wall, and patted the bed to invite Amy to sit next to him.

"I got a spot with your name on it" he said, shoving a handful of popcorn in his mouth. She climbed up on his bed next to him and took the bag of popcorn from him.

"Don't eat it all!"

"Sorry, sorry," Jake said, and remembered something from a few days ago, "Hey, Amy, what happened that day you were smiling like a doofus in class?"

"What? I have no idea what you're talking about" she said, unconvincingly. Jake gave her a knowing look.

"You said something good happened the night before" he poked.

"Don't remember" she shrugged.

"Bull! Tell me!"

"Ugh, you're annoying"

"Tell me! Tell me! Tell me! I can do this all day. Tell me! Tell me! Tell-"

"Oh my god, shut up! Jesus, I met a guy, okay?" she said, cutting him off. Jake felt his heart drop.

"You met somebody?" he asked.

"Yes, Jake. That's what I said" she said, crossing her arms.

"Like, a guy?" he asked.

"Yes, Jake. A guy, okay? I met a guy and he's really great and I like him, okay?" she asked, her patience wearing thin.

"Oh" he said, the weight of her words were heavier on his heart than he anticipated.

"Alright, now that the secret's out, can you please stop needling me so we can watch the movie?" she asked.

"Sure, pass the popcorn"

The movie started and Jake mentally groaned at how boringly black-and-white it was. The movie seemed to drag on and on…until suddenly it didn't. After Cyrano beat a hundred men in one night with his mad sword fighting skillz (yes, skillz with a 'z'), Jake was hooked. He got so enraptured, in fact, that he may have teared up once or twice. Cyrano's love for Roxanne was just so pure!

The movie ended, the final scene hanging in the air and Jake looked on in silence. His eyes were wide, his mouth agape, and he might have had some tears threatening to spill out.

"Pretty great, huh?" Amy asked looking over at Jake and realizing his state.

"What? Pfft, no that was super…boring. So much dumb romance garbage" he said, his voice entering higher registers. Amy smirked at him.

"Uh huh. So the water coming out of your eyes is completely unrelated to the movie?" she asked and Jake quickly wiped the traitorous tears from his cheeks.

"Allergies"

"Right"

"Shut up"

"So, ideas for the project?" she asked, a smug smirk still on her face.

"Well, we should definitely play up how much of a badass Cyrano was: poet, swordsman, awesome friend. He actually reminds me a lot of myself" Jake said, recovering from his previous emotional state. Amy scoffed at him.

"The only thing you have in common with Cyrano is his profile" Amy said and Jake's floor hit the ground. Amy looked at him, trying to contain a huge smile from forming on her face, but failing miserably as Jake stood in shocked awe of her sick burn. His face was too much and she burst out laughing, unable to stop.

"Amy. Santiago. That was mean" Jake said, but laughing despite himself. He playfully slapped her shoulders and as she continued to be overwhelmed with laughter, she grabbed his hands and pushed them away from her, resulting in a playful tussle.

"I'm sorry…I'm so…sorry…you just walked right into it and I couldn't…stop myself…It was so funny…" she said in between fits of laughter. Jake thought it was one of the most pleasant things he'd ever heard, but also vaguely familiar.

"You know what's also funny?" he asked and didn't wait for a response before he started tickling her.

"NO! No, no, stop!" she pleaded, still laughing. She grabbed his wrists and pushed them back with such force that she lost her balance and fell into his chest. She immediately pushed herself back up, using his arms as leverage and looked up at him, their eyes locking. Amy's laughter died in her chest as they realized how close they were to each other. Jake looked into her eyes, hypnotized and unable to move. Amy didn't move either, so he assumed she was as well. His eyes finally unlocked from her eyes to look down at her pretty lips. He felt his heart hammering against his chest and forced himself to look back at her eyes, only to see she was looking at his lips now.

Her eyes found their way back up to his and Jake felt an astronomical pull towards her. He commanded himself to stay put, but he felt like the north pole of a magnet begging to collide with the south pole. It took considerable effort to keep himself back and he swore he saw the same struggle in Amy's expression.

Then, very suddenly, she turned away from him and leapt off the bed. Jake let out a breath he realized he had been holding.

"Great, we did a lot of great work today and um, I'll see you in class Monday, and we can go from there" She said, gathering her belongings.

"Yup yup yup yup sounds good cool cool cool" he said, panicking.

"Yeah, see you soon!" she said, fleeing the room. Once the door was shut, Jake let out a long groan and sunk his head in his hands.

As Jake walked to the music building, he continued to replay the Cyrano incident in his head. What in the world was that? And what did it mean for them? Jake sighed and shook his head. What did it matter? Amy already had someone she liked and sure, there was…chemistry between them, but Jake was certain that the other guy was the thing that made Amy turn away from him. Jake was pretty sure that if they had stared at each other for any longer than they did…well, he might have had to cancel his piano practice.

Jake felt another pang of guilt. This entire thing felt like he was cheating. He hadn't made anyone promises or broken any sort of trust, but a part of him felt dirty. This situation got more and more complicated with every passing day.

"Maybe I shouldn't ask her out tonight" Jake thought as he entered the music building. If he thought about it logically, it would be a much smarter move to pursue muse girl. There was an undeniable spark between them and she was single, but she was also a wild card. With Amy, it was "what you see is what you get" and there was undoubtedly a spark there as well, but she had someone else she liked. Jake groaned. He couldn't wait to sit at the piano and clear his head. It felt like it might explode if he didn't do some maintenance.

He walked up the stairs, his mind still running in circles, and turned down the hallway. As soon as he turned down the corner, he saw a figure sitting in front of the piano practice room. Jake hid behind the stairway wall, moving faster than he ever had in his life.

"She's here. Why is she here? It's too early. Why is she here?" Jake thought, panicking. As he hid behind the wall, the muse out of sight, he let the initial image he saw sink. Something was familiar about her figure. He only got a quick look at her, but he immediately recognized something. He thought about the figure and I tried to match it to something somehow, but had no luck.

Before reason or thought could interfere, Jake's instincts took the reins and he peeked his head out from the corner of the wall.

Jake felt like someone had just punched him in the gut, as he processed that the girl on the other side of the door, his muse, his guardian angel, was none other than Amy Santiago. Jake held his breath as he took another furtive look at her. She was writing something down on a piece of paper and then laying it in front of the door, but then picked it up and crumpled it. She had just removed all doubt from Jake's mind that they were the same person and it all suddenly made perfect sense.

Jake felt his knees give as the force of the realization pushed him to the grown. Jake couldn't think. The only thing going through his mind was the name "Amy" playing over and over again. He tried rational thought, tried to understand the explosion happening in his chest, but all he could think was "Amy".

It was as if the feelings he had for both girls had collided together violently, leaving his heart in car-crash ruin. His innards were full of carnage, dismay, and confusion. For a minute he thought he might actually vomit. He took in deep breaths.

Finally, his brain got off its "Amy" track and began thinking millions of things at once.

"It's her. It's Amy. It's always been Amy. She's Amy. Why is she early? Was she trying to meet me? Why would she break our deal? Should I meet her? What if she hates that I'm me and we never speak to each other again? Will I disappoint her? Or was the other guy she was talking about earlier actually me this whole time and she likes me?! Should I talk to her? What do I say? What do I do?" he thought, working himself into a panic. He was almost to the point of hyperventilating when he decided it was time to book it the hell out of there.

Jake ran down the stairs and out the building, only deciding to walk when he was five hundred feet away from the mind continued to race, refusing to give him a moment of peace. As he walked, his breath started to go back to normal and his heart beat went back down to a non-dangerous speed.

The dust and debris started to clear from his mind and he did his best to evaluate the situation.

"It was good I left…" he thought. If he stayed and revealed himself to her, he could have ruined everything, especially with how much it shocked him. He was definitely not in the right state-of-mind to handle such a delicate situation. Jake knew, from here on, he had to continue with caution. It was far too easy to imagine Amy realizing who he was and then bolting. The thought of her rejecting him hit him harder than if a meteorite were to land on him. It was devastating just to imagine, let alone live through.

Jake took in a shaky breath and acknowledged how high the stakes were for him now. He had to plan carefully.

Because there was no way in hell he was going to let the girl of his actual dreams get away.

AN: Guys, I'm so glad this chapter is out. I think this one of my very favorite things I've written, so I really hope you guys like it too! I'm really having a lot of fun with this fic, I can't wait to get the whole thing out!

"Clair de Lune" translates to "Moonlight" in French.

So I am actual Cyrano De Bergerac trash. It's one of my absolute favorite plays and it's amazing. For context, there is an actual YouTube video of the entire 1950 José Ferrer movie in HD. Search it! I seriously recommend watching. José Ferrer is amazing. He won best actor for his performance, making him the first Hispanic Academy Award winner. Do yourself a favor and watch this movie.

There's Motion City Soundtrack reference hidden in there somewhere.

Thank you guys so much for reading and commenting. The responses I got from the last chapter literally made me cry they were so kind. I really appreciate your kindness and it really makes me want to get chapters out to you asap! I promise I'm going to do everything I can to finish this before I head to camp. Love you guys 3