Note: Yes, I'm still alive. Sorry for the long delay, but I'm back. And, my cold is gone! Huzzah! Hopefully this chapter will be better than the last, I wanted to update before Homecoming tonight, because knowing me and the company I hold, there will be plenty of drama that would have probably delayed the story for another two weeks. But, here I go, hopefully drawing out a plot. Hope you enjoy!

Another Note: Just so you know, the first part of the story coming to a close. After this chapter, I will probably have one more, and that will be is for Part One! After this, look out for Part Two, which will probably come close behind. I'll give more details and even maybe a little preview (to help give me an idea of what I'm doing) in the last chapter. Ok, now to the story and enough of the blabbering.

Chapter Seven: Getting Better, Getting Worse A.K.A. The Meaning of Silence

Rejection sucks.

I mean, majorly sucks. I mean, like practically nothing else can compare to it, it sucks that bad. Mostly because you put up all that courage, layed out your feelings like a set of cards in poker, and then your bet lost. Big time. But there is something worse than being rejected:

Not knowing if you were rejected. Being met by silence is just as bad.

Truthfully, I didn't think Anali was the kind of girl who would drag something out like that. If anything, I at least expected a blunt answer. A "What the hell? Why would you ask me out!" probably would have been better than the blank, shocked expression she gave me. She just stood there, holding her flag, frozen, then bit her lip, looking like she was trying to figure out how exactly to answer a question that was extremely painful.

"Ok, guys, let's head back inside!" Frankie called out, and you could almost taste the relief flooding from Anali, who promptly turned away, rushing back to the school. I couldn't decide what hurt more: Being hit on the head with the flag or seeing the relief on Anali's face at not having to answer my question.

Damn.

"Shot down," Genie said cruelly, cackling as she passed by. "And by that geek, no less!"

"Oh, shut up!" I muttered darkly, though, in the back of my mind, I knew sadly that she was right.

--- --- --- --- ---

Anali avoided me for the rest of the day. Every time we would get even close to being near to one another, she would find someone or something on the other side of the room that needed her attention. It may have seemed a little childish on her part, but she did look pretty freaked. Which, y'know, didn't really help my self esteem, anyways.

The rest of the day went by sluggishly, and finally, we were all leaving, Anali running to meet her mom, practically diving in through the window of the car, keeping her eyes down as I passed the car on the way to my own. Stab to the pride.

It didn't help that my brother had decided to stop by again, and that he could see the pain clear on my face, letting out a long whistle.

"Damn, who turned you down? Looks like a real heartbreaker." I glared at him, and he pretended to look taken aback, sucking in a breath. "Ouch, that bad?"

"She didn't even reject me..." I mumbled, trudging to the fridge and grabbing a lemon, which I though was an orange, for some reason, but didn't particularly care about at this point. I cut it in fourths and ate it anyways, relishing the sour taste in my mouth. Almost as bad as the look on Anali's face. "She just...avoided me."

Leo nodded wisely, watching me oddly as I ate my lemon. "Yeah, that does suck..."

"Did a girl ever do that to you?" I asked, hoping for once he could be a good big brother and give me advice.

"Are you kidding? Unlike you, I'm not a total dork and I have never had a girl avoid me when I asked her out."

"Thanks, that makes me feel so much better..." I muttered, biting into a fourth, squinting slightly as the tangy, sour juice spread into my mouth. Leo watched me thoughtful for a moment, then sighed.

"It's that Annie chick, isn't it?"

"Anali," I corrected, then cursed myself for it.

"Knew it. Only a girl that weird would get you this pissy," He said, chuckling a little.

"She's not...that...weird..." I mumbled, and Leo just chuckled again, but his expression changed to a strangely wise, thoughtful one.

"You want to know what I think?"

"Not particularly..."

"I don't think she was rejecting you."

I looked up at him, arching a brow. "How do you figure?"

He shrugged, leaning back in his chair. "I think she's just scared. No offense to her or anything, but she looks like someone who doesn't get asked out very often, if at all. Maybe you...I don't know...surprised her. Maybe she was surprised that you thought of her in that way."

"You make it sound like she's never had someone like her before..." I mumbled, staring down at my lemon. It was becoming more appealing every moment I stared at it. Good lemon. Nice lemon.

Leo then shrugged, looking out the window. "Maybe she hasn't."

Silence. I stared at my sweet little lemon some more, as an unexpected quiet spread over us. I growled, then threw my lemon at the sink, standing up sharply. "Damn..." I said, running up the stairs to my room, slamming the door as I walked in.

--- --- --- --- ---

I spent the better of three hours in my room, banging away at my drum as though creating loud noises would make any of this better. It wasn't until about eight thirty at night I noticed the light on at the house across the street. Anali's house.

Her window.

I stopped the banging for a moment as I stared at the window from my room, almost falling out of my chair as I saw her walk into her room, tossing something onto her bed. A book, from the looks of it. She sat down on a chair next to her window, probably at a computer or something. She looked calm, peaceful almost, not how I usually see her, and I smiled a little. Then I turned away, staring down at my drum in embarrassment. Great; Now I felt like a sleazy stalker or something.

I sighed, running my hands through my hair. "Damn, this is messed up..." I mumbled, resting my forehead on my drum. I wasn't used to this. Not in any way. I wasn't used to rejection, since I didn't usually put myself in a position when I could be. I wasn't used to liking a girl like this, because the only girls I had ever been really associated with had been the ones in the drumline, nothing else. And I wasn't used to obsessing over anything other than drumline and marching band this much.

Man, did I feel like a pathetic loser.

I sighed, glancing back out the window, when it happened: She looked out at the same time. It was like time froze for the single moment, while we both just stared out of our windows. I thought about waving, smiling, doing something, but just stayed frozen.

And then she broke it by jumping up and letting the curtains in front of her window drop down, covering the window.

Now that's just a major stab to a man's pride.

A little piece of pain I felt should be shared through my drum with the whole household. Which then apparently my mom thought was a good reason to take my drum away for a month, and hide it in the attic. She has a habit of hiding things she takes away from us in the attic, then making sure she is the only person in the house with the key to the attic. One of mom's little quirks.

"You should be glad I took it away, anyways, you were hitting it hard enough to put a hole in it," My mom said after she had hidden the drum, coming back to now give me a lecture. "What's put you in such a bad mood? This isn't like you."

I muttered something about not wanting to talk about it, and she scowled, making me wince. She had that kind of effect.

"He got rejected." I glared as Leo stood outside my door, smirking in at me.

"Is that it?" My mom suddenly stopped looking angry, and almost looked happy, her eyes twinkling a little. "Oh, sweetie! Oh, this must be quite a girl. She rejected you, though? Oh, honey, that's too bad, but if she can't see what a great person you are, then-"

"Mom, please!" I groaned as she hugged me, Leo laughing. "And she didn't reject me!"

"She didn't? Well, then why are you so upset? If she didn't reject you-"

"She didn't say yes, either...She just...didn't say anything..." I mumbled out.

There was silence. My mom watched me thoughtfully, and Leo stood outside, waiting to here her response. "I...see..." She said carefully, then sighed, sitting down on my bed, chuckling a little. "So that's what this is about. I can see why you would be stressed about it."

I let out a breath, and shrugged, not trusting myself to answer. She nodded again, then smiled a little.

"You know, when I was in high school, I asked out a guy I really liked." Oh jeez, one of mom's 'back when I was your age' stories. I wanted to stop it before she had time to finish, but my mouth didn't seem to want to oblige, and she continued. "And when I did, he didn't say yes, he didn't say no, just walked away and didn't answer. He avoided me for a week, taking different routes to classes so we wouldn't have to bump into each other, avoided looking at me at all times, even ate in empty classrooms so we wouldn't see each other in the cafeteria."

I shrugged, looking at a wall. "Yeah? So, what happened?"

She chuckled a little. "Eventually, I realized how ridiculous this was getting, and one day, I finally approached him, and asked him why he was avoiding me, why he wouldn't answer my question. You want to know what happened?"

I rolled my eyes. "No idea. What happened?"

"He told me that he was scared of answering." I glanced up at that. It just seemed too simple, and made little sense.

"Scared? What was he so scared of?" I asked, looking over at her.

She shrugged. "Don't know. Of what other people might think, of committing to a relationship. Truthfully, it doesn't matter. All that matters is, after that, he stopped avoiding me, and we even dated for a while. If I hadn't been the bigger person and just confronted him, he would have kept avoiding me, and I would have kept wondering what was wrong with me. But, I didn't, and things worked out. So, maybe all you have to do is just go up and ask her again. This time, just make her answer. It'll work out." She then smiled, standing up, patting my shoulder. "Don't worry. You'll be ok. You're a good boy. It'll work out."

She then walked out, leaving me alone in my room. "You know, she's kind of right," Leo said, then walked away as well, leaving me completely alone.

It was weird. I usually don't take notice what my mom tells me; Most kids don't, it's nothing new. But what she said-do I dare say it?-kind of made sense. I mean, if I kept sulking, and Anali kept avoiding me, nothing would ever change. It might even escalate, and we might start hating each other, and that just seemed plain dumb. And the more I thought about it, the more approaching her made sense. And the more sense it made, the more convinction I had to actually do it. And I knew exactly when to do it.

Band camp ended tomorrow. We got out early after doing a run through for all the parents who came to see us, and then started going through a normal schedule until school started.

Tomorrow, after the run through, I wasn't going to let Anali leave until she had answered my question. And if she didn't answer tomorrow, I wouldn't rest until she did.

That's chapter seven! Hopefully it was better than the previous chapter. I hope you enjoyed it, for Part One is coming to an end soon! Now please, R&R!