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Goodnight and Go - Part Six
Written by: Amalea
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The next afternoon Lilly and Miley sat talking in the Stewart's kitchen.
"I promise he's in love with you."
"I promise you're brain damaged. We're just friends, that's all."
"Friends, right. That's why he constantly talks about you when you aren't around?"
"I don't know. Maybe I'm just a really interesting topic of conversation."
Lilly laughed. "I'm going to get my stuff from your room so we can go." She took off for the stairs, turning back one last time to say "Oliver is in love with you Miley Stewart! L-O-V-E. Love!" Miley groaned and Lilly laughed again, taking off up the stairs.
"Umph!" Lilly said suddenly hitting something quite solid and losing her balance as she slipped backwards.
"Careful," someone said, grabbing her arm.
Lilly's stomach tensed once again and upon regaining her composure she looked up into Jackson's blue eyes. (A/N: let me know if they're not blue, I couldn't really tell in the pictures)
"Sorry about that," she said with a tight smile.
"No problem," Jackson replied, and continued down the stairs, dressed in some cargo shorts and a Rico's shirt.
Lilly quickly went upstairs, grabbed her purse and started back to the kitchen. She was halfway down the stairs when suddenly she heard, "So do you like Lilly or what?" Instantly, her knees gave out and she sank down onto the step she was on.
Sirens blared in her head, "WHAT IS SHE DOING?!"
She heard a choke then coughing from who she assumed was Jackson, "What?"
"Lilly, you know, my blond friend? Do you like her?" Miley's voice carried to where Lilly sat on the steps.
"Um, did someone hit you in the head, Miles?" Jackson responded and Lilly heard the shuffling of papers followed by the jingling of keys.
"That's not answering my question, Jackson." Miley said.
"Stop it Miley," Jackson said in a quiet voice, "I'm going to work."
Lilly waited until she heard the door close, stood back up, and ran down the stairs.
"Oh my God, is there something WRONG with you?!" Lilly snapped in a panic, "Why would you just ASK him like that? While I'm here, too. Oh my God, he probably thinks I made you ask him."
"Lilly, calm down." Miley said.
"Calm down?! You seriously want me to calm down. Jackson was right, someone must've hit you in the head. How was that possibly a good idea in any way at all?"
"Lilly, calm down," Miley repeated, now smiling.
"You're smiling?! Why are you smiling? Do you realize how close you are to death right now?" Lilly said, eyes wide, arms crossed, mind still working at five thousand miles per hour.
"Yes, I'm smiling. My plan worked exactly how I wanted it to," Miley said matter-of-factly.
"Plan? How was that in any way, shape, or form a plan? Don't plans involve some sort of subtlety?" Lilly questioned, trying to take deeper breaths now and calm herself down.
"Well, I found out what we wanted to know, didn't I?" Miley asked, now taking a seat.
"Um, no. As I recall, you didn't find out anything. Jackson just thinks we're both nuts."
"See, that's just what you heard."
Lilly sighed, shook her head, and resigned. She had no idea what her friend was talking about at all, she had no idea why Miley was so calm and collected right now after what she just did, and she had no idea how Miley could have possibly gotten any answer from the responses she had heard.
"So what? Please Miley, enlighten me. I can't even begin to understand what's going on in your head," Lilly said and also took a seat.
"OK Lilly. You were sitting on the stairs, you heard everything that went on, as I suspected you would," Miley began. Picking up a glass of water, she slowly took a sip.
"Miley, don't make me hurt you. Keep talking."
Miley smiled again. "Well, while you were hiding on the stairs, hearing everything, you couldn't actually SEE anything that happened."
Lilly was still completely lost, "Yeah, I couldn't see anything. So? What, was he holding up a sign that said, 'Yes I like Lilly!' or what?"
"Close enough."
"He had a sign?" Lilly said, surprised.
"No, stupid."
"Then what do you mean?"
"I mean he might as well have been holding up a sign, that boy couldn't be any easier to read," Miley said, "See, if Jackson didn't like you, he would've simply denied it. Did he deny it?"
Miley stopped, actually waiting for Lilly's response.
"No?" Lilly said, still not fully understanding her friend's logic.
"Right, but it's not just that he didn't deny it. What you couldn't see while you were hiding on the stairs was how absolutely distressed he got when I asked him. You missed how red his face was with embarrassment, probably at the fact that you could be overhearing anything that was being said... What you didn't see was how flustered he got when he was looking for his keys. What you didn't see was how... totally, absolutely, completely, utterly IN LOVE with you my brother is."
She finished with a satisfied smile.
Lilly just sat there, taking in what Miley had just said, absolutely speechless.
"Thank me?" Miley suggested, now giggling at her friend's silence.
"Oh Miley, are you serious?" Lilly asked, still feeling pretty hesitant about believing anything that had just been said.
"Lilly, he's my brother. I know him. Please just trust me? He likes you," Miley said.
Lilly sighed, "Wow."
"So, what are you going to do now?"
"What am I going to do? Are you serious? I can't do anything. What am I supposed to do?"
"Well, you're going to tell him you like him, right?" Miley asked, as if it was the obvious thing to do.
"Tell him? I can't just tell him."
"Well, you kind of already did. I mean... the note, right? He has to have it."
"Not necessarily?" Lilly said, hopeful.
"Then why don't we find out? He's at work, he won't be home for hours. Let's search his room."
"Why would he have kept it?"
"Well, we decided he likes you. If someone you liked wrote you a note confessing their love to you, wouldn't you keep it?" Miley once again stated this as an obvious fact. Lilly was beginning to feel a little slow.
"Right."
They both walked upstairs to Jackson's room. Miley swung open the door and stepped in, scanning the room for scraps of paper. Lilly hesitated in the doorway.
"Are you sure this isn't an invasion of privacy?" Lilly questioned, sounding nervous.
"Ha. Like he's never snuck around in my room." Miley grabbed Lilly by the arm and pulled her in, "Come on. I'm not going to find it by myself."
"Where are we supposed to look?" Lilly asked, "It could be anywhere."
"Um, let's check under his mattress. That's where most people hide stuff." Miley suggested. So, both Miley and Lilly lifted the mattress.
Spotting a notebook, Miley quickly snatched it up. "Well, look at that. The Jacksonator keeps a diary." A sly smile spread across Miley's face.
"Oh no," Lilly said snatching the notebook from Miley, "I draw the line there. We are not going to read Jackson's private thoughts."
"Oh come onnnn, Lilly," Miley said, pleadingly as she grabbed back the notebook, "If we just look in here we could find out anything and everything you want to know about how Jackson feels."
"No Miley, I don't want to do that. How would you feel if someone read your private thoughts?" Lilly said, squashing down the tiny urge that was growing inside her to read the journal.
Lilly reached to grab the journal back from Miley, but she kept a tight hold on it. After a minute of pulling Miley said, "Fine." and let go.
Lilly lost hold of the book and it fluttered to the ground, a small piece of paper falling out and landing next to it.
A small gasp escaped Lilly's lips.
"Well, there's your answer." Miley said, and looked at her friend expectantly.
Lilly didn't say anything. She bent down to pick up the journal, slipped the note inside the front cover, and tucked it back under the mattress.
She looked at Miley, and couldn't help but smile, "He kept my note."
Miley smiled and even bigger smile, "Told you so."
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A/N: Well, that was longer (longest chapter yet!), so I hope you guys were satisfied. The note holder has been revealed, along with other things. Please review now? Thanks to all the new subscribers, and those 5 or 6 people who always review. I'd love to hear the rest of your thoughts. I'd like to say I won't update until I get at least 10 reviews... but I can't say if that's true. I'd really like to see 10 reviews on this chapter, but it wouldn't be fair for me to stop updating until it happens. Le sigh. haha, just review ok?