A/N: Okay please accept my deepest apologies for the length of time it took to post this chapter. I had such a bad case of writers block with this chapter but i think it was worth it. Hope you all enjoy!!!

Chapter 8: Dates and Arguments

The next morning, Emma remembered her dance rehearsal with Paul and made her way to the dance hall bright and early. When she got there she couldn't find Paul so she changed into her black, sparkly dress made to match Paul's cat-suit from the previous evening. As she waited for Paul, her thoughts drifted back to the night before and how such a good night was ended so badly. Her parents had liked Aaron. That was lucky, with Janice for a mother she had thought that they may be predisposed to hate him. Her thoughts then moved to Jack. She was worried about him. He always had Paul to tell him what to do; now he was on his own. She was snapped out of it when Paul came up to her and stood for a few minutes until she saw him.

"Oh, hey Paul."

"Very deep in thought, Aaron or something else?"

"A mixture. Aaron, Jack, everything that happened last night."

"Jack sure gave us a show-stopper end to the evening, didn't he?"

"Yeah, yeah he did."

"So are we gonna dance or what? You know the finals are only a week away!"

"You know, I think I've heard you say that a couple of hundred times."

After laughing sarcastically for a few seconds, Paul walked over to the music player and put on their song. As she danced with Paul to 'Up Where We Belong', the song from the movie she and Aaron would be seeing tonight, Emma could only think of Aaron and his gorgeous hazel eyes. After dancing for half an hour, they stopped for a break.

"So how do you think we're doing?" asked Emma.

"Good, we're getting much better at the second lift. You seemed distracted today though. Anything wrong?" he replied.

Before she had a chance to answer, her phone rang. Her heart leapt when she saw that it was Aaron. Before she could answer Paul did it for her;

"Hey Aaron, how are you?" he asked.

"Give me that phone," growled Emma.

"No, Aaron and I are having a lovely little conversation. So what are you planning on doing with my dance partner on this lovely day. I hope your intentions are honourable!"

Before he had any chance to argue, Emma had snatched the phone from Paul's hand;

"Sorry about him," she told Aaron before leaving the room to speak to him without interruptions.

While she was away, Paul tried to distract himself by recounting their dance session so far, but his thoughts were soon pulled back to Jack. He, like Emma, was worried about Jack and how he would handle the whole Ryan situation. As Emma came bounding back into the room, Paul made a mental note to speak to Jack later that evening.

"So what did lover boy say?" he asked Emma.

"He said that he would come and pick me up in thirty minutes and that he couldn't wait to see me," she replied.

"You look happy about that," said Paul stating the obvious.

"Why wouldn't I be, I like him so much Paul, I mean I really like him!" she exclaimed.

"Do you know, I couldn't tell!" he remarked sarcastically. "You know if we're gonna be ready by the time he gets here, we'd better get dancing!"

As they began to dance neither of them could seem to put a foot right, in the literal sense.

"Okay, what's up?" asked Emma.

"What do you mean 'what's up?' You were just as bad as me." he replied.

"Yeah but I'm thinking about Aaron, you know that. And you've been keeping me right when I got distracted."

"Well seeing as neither of us are in any fit state to perform, maybe we should just call it off for today then!" said Paul angrily before storming off to the changing rooms.

Emma stood frozen to the spot. She had known Paul for most her life and she had never seen him act that way before. He had been fine all morning and as soon as she had spoken to Aaron he suddenly changed. Was he jealous that she had someone and he didn't? Did Aaron bring up memories he'd rather forget or was it something else entirely? Before giving it another thought she stormed into the men's changing rooms to find Paul in the showers.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" shrieked Paul.

"Oh, don't give me that, I've seen it all before!" Emma replied.

"That's as maybe," said Paul as he came out of the showers wrapping a towel around him, "But I thought we were done for the day."

"Aaron isn't picking me up for another twenty minutes so we have plenty of time to talk before he gets here." she replied.

"Talk about what?" asked Paul angrily.

"Why you're acting this one for one," Emma replied just as angrily.

"The finals are a week away and I'm just a little stressed," he lied.

"Yeah, right! If it was that you would've had me dancing for the rest of the day until we got it one hundred per cent! You wouldn't have stormed off! I think you forget how well I know you!" she replied, rage building up inside her.

"Maybe you don't know me as well as you thought. We are getting older now, Em'," he replied.

"Yeah and we've gotten older together," she said as she locked the door.

"What are you doing now?" sighed Paul.

"Neither of us are getting out of here until you tell me what's wrong," she replied.

"Won't Aaron be waiting for you?" he asked sarcastically.

"Like I said he won't be here for another twenty minutes and besides he can wait. This is more important." said Emma.

"It's nothing. I'm just tired, don't read so much into stuff."

Emma sat beside him on a bench. "Don't lie to me Paul. It's Jack isn't it?"

"What makes you think that?" Paul asked.

"Because you two always get like this when you're worried about each other. I guess no matter how many other guys you two are involved with, you still care about each other," she said, sounding very agony-aunt-ish.

"Ooh get you, very profound! Okay you're right, but its not that he's with someone else, its more what he's getting himself into that I'm worried about," said Paul softly.

"What do you mean?" asked Emma.

"For all him wisdom and experience, Jack's still only sixteen, and I don't know if he's ready for what he's taking on."

"You were only seventeen. And you coped. Jack's got a thick skin. And both of us will be there to look after him. He just doesn't need to know."

"Thank you, Emma," said Paul as Emma left the room to get changed.

"What for?" she asked.

"Being you" he replied smiling.

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As he drove up to the dance hall where he was supposed to meet Emma, Aaron found himself with butterflies in his stomach. This was the first time he had felt this way about any girl before. Emma was one of a kind for him. And he was definitely not going to let her slip through his fingers. When he arrived he realised that he was early so he thought he'd sneak a peek at the dance he had heard so much about.

However when he opened the door the hall was empty. He looked around for any sign of them and when he couldn't find any he wondered if he had the right place. Just as he was about to call Emma and ask, a door opened to the side of him and Paul came out of it.

"Hey, you're early," he said looking at his watch.

"I thought that was supposed to make a good impression." Aaron replied.

"Oh, it does. We finished a little early so Emma's just getting changed. Are you coming to the show next week?" Paul asked.

"I don't know, Emma hasn't invited me yet." said Aaron.

"I'm inviting you," said Paul matter-of-factly.

"Well thanks, I'll talk to Emma about it tonight." he replied.

"So what are you guys gettin' up to this fine day?" Paul asked.

"Umm, we're going to see a movie, her choice this time-"

"Which means 'An Officer and a Gentleman'. She's always been a sucker for chick flicks."

"Yeah, and then I'm taking her out to dinner and then, who knows?" Aaron finished.

"Sounds like the perfect date." said Paul.

The pair stood in silence for a few minutes before either of them spoke.

"So how long have you known Emma?" asked Aaron.

"Twelve years, I think. She moved next door to me when she was five and despite me being so much older than her, we became friends. And we've stayed that way ever since."

"How much older are you?"

"Eleven months and six days. But when you're six that's quite an age gap!"

"So you pretty much know everything there is to know about her?"

"Yep," replied Paul, "but if you're fishin' for info' you ain't getting any."

"I wouldn't dream of it!" said Aaron with a feigned hurt look on his face, "I intend to find out anything I need to for myself!"

"Good, good." replied Paul as Emma walked out of the changing room/ "Ooh speak of the devil!"

"So what are you two talking about then?" asked Emma.

"I'm just telling Aaron all your deepest darkest secrets," replied Paul "Like this one time Emma and I were in Long Island and…"

"So Aaron, should we get going?" asked Emma before Paul could reveal anymore of their mishaps in Long Island.

"Sure," said Aaron with a smirk on his face "I'll get the rest of the story from Paul another time."

And with that they left the dance hall and walked to Aaron's car.

As they walked hand in hand Emma looked at him nervously.

"Don't worry, Paul didn't divulge any of your dirty little secrets." Aaron assured her, "He says he'll tell me the next time I see him…when you are out of earshot!"

And with that they got into the car, a knot forming in Emma's stomach.

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Erica stood outside her brother's room and listened. It was quiet. Too quiet in fact. Jack always had some form of noise coming from his room but today there was nothing. This made Erica very, very worried. Jack was never the quiet type. Not ever. Not even as a child. There has to be something wrong. She knocked on his door tentatively.

"Jack, are you in there?" she asked. "It's me, Erica."

She waited outside the door for a few minutes and just as she was about to walk away the door opened and Jack stood there with a drained look on his face.

"Are you coming in or not?" He asked and Erica walked into the room.

As Erica walked in she noticed how dark it was. Jack's room was always light, curtains and windows always open, but today both were closed and it felt strange. As well as the darkness, Erica noticed that the room was messy. Again this was unusual for Jack who always had everything perfectly tidy. Erica looked at Jack and noticed that it wasn't just Jack's room that was dark and messy, Jack was too. He was wearing the same clothes he had worn the night before and looked like he hadn't slept.

"So… what's up sis?" Jack asked.

"I was about to ask you the same question."

"Well I'm fine, which brings us back to you." he replied.

"Cut the crap Jack. I know you better than anyone and you are far from fine."

"I am fine, why wouldn't I be?" asked Jack as he turned away from Erica.

"That kid really got to you didn't he?" Erica asked softly.

"What kid?" asked Jack, knowing full well what the answer was going to be.

"You know fine well 'what kid'!" said Erica starting to get angry "That Ryan kid, Aaron's brother."

"What about him?" asked Jack, again avoiding looking at his sister.

"Last night you had your tongue down his throat and was determined to find him after he ran off and today you pretend you don't know who I'm talking about and for the first time in our entire lives you look horrific!" she replied angrily.

Jack was now beginning to get angry and turned around to face his sister. "First of all, he kissed me, not the other way around, and secondly, Paul and I officially ended things last night so have you even stopped to consider that maybe that's that reason I'm not in a perfect condition today?"

"You know as well as I do that you and Paul have got nothing to do with this, so don't even try and lay that one on me! This kid has gotten to you in a way no guy ever has before and you don't know what the hell to do about it!"

Jack looked at his sister and realised that she was right. "Okay so maybe you're right but is it any of your business anyway?"

"Yes, it is, because I'm your sister and I care about you and I don't want to see you get hurt."

"Who says I'm gonna get hurt?" he asked turning away from her and picking up some clean clothes from his bed.

"Jack you are only sixteen. Okay so you'll be seventeen in a couple of months but I don't think you're ready to be taking all of this on board."

"Erica, I came to terms with who I am a long time ago. Ryan needs my help and believe me, I am not letting him run away from me again," he said as he stormed out of the room and into the bathroom.

"But you seem to be good at running away from me!" she shouted after him.

Erica sat down on her brother's bed and thought about the conversation they had just had. She had known for a long time about Jack and his sexuality, possibly longer than he himself had. However, something just didn't feel right so she decided to go and speak to the one person she trusted most in the world…

Jack, on the other hand, couldn't bring himself to go over the first real argument he had ever had with his sister. Instead, he listened to her leave the house before getting changed and working out what he was going to do. He decided he needed to find Ryan and if he couldn't then he would speak to Paul. He quickly realised he didn't know where Ryan lived so he decided he would start with the one place most teenagers could be found on a Saturday. The Mall.

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A few hours later, Emma and Aaron left the movie theatre and decided to go for something to eat at the same place they had a meal during their last date.

They sat in silence before Aaron decided to talk.

"You know, Paul wasn't going to tell me anything about Long Island or any of your other secrets, he said he wouldn't tell me anything."

Emma looked at him for a moment before speaking.

"So you wanted to know all of my secrets then, did you?" she said accusingly.

"No! I didn't mean it like that… we were just talking…"

"I'm only teasing! There's nothing too shocking that Paul could tell you. Long Island was probably the worst," she replied.

They sat in silence for a few seconds before Aaron asked, "So what did you do in Long Island?"

Emma laughed before answering, "It was Paul's fault more than it was mine but we…um…got arrested."

Aaron choked on the juice he had been drinking and stared at Emma with a shocked look on his face.

"You got arrested?!"

"Yeah. We were at my Granddad's birthday party, and all of us had been sneaking alcohol away when the adults weren't looking, and we got a little bit drunk and in our drunken state, Paul and I decided to go for a walk."

"So you were arrested for underage drinking?" Aaron asked.

"Partly…while we were walking, we came across a park which was all locked up. There was this bandstand in the middle and Paul said that he wanted to go and dance on it. I told him that we couldn't get in because it was locked."

"You broke into a park?!"

"No not technically, but I did climb over the wall and dance on the bandstand. And then some local was out walking his dog and saw us dancing and called the cops. But because we were young, from the city and first time offenders, we just got a warning."

Aaron was practically falling out of his chair with laughter.

"Stop it!" said Emma trying not to laugh. "It was horrible when my dad started to yell. My head was sore enough at the time without that!"

"What about Paul?" asked Aaron now starting to clam down.

"He, for the first time in his life took full responsibility for what happened but his parents grounded him for two months. Jack had to climb in his window to see him!" she replied giggling.

"That would have been a sight!" said Aaron.

"Oh, it was hilarious, but other than that, I don't think there are any huge skeletons in my closet. Now you."

"Now me, what?" he asked.

"I've told you my deepest darkest secret. Now you tell me yours."

"The only real secret I have is my nose, but you already know about that don't you?" he replied.

"That's your only secret?" she asked disbelievingly.

"Yeah, I'm a good boy" he said coyly.

"Too good by the sounds of things." she replied.

As they left the café and walked towards the exit, Aaron caught sight of Jack who was looking a lot worse than he had the previous night.

"Hey, isn't that Jack?" he asked Emma.

"Yeah, it is." she replied "Jack!"

Jack quickly turned around to see who was calling him. As he saw Emma and Aaron walking towards him he felt relief for the first time today, as Aaron was the key to finding Ryan.

"Hey, how was your date?" he asked trying to appear his usual self.

"It was good," Emma replied tentatively, "Jack, honey, are you feeling alright, you don't look so good?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," he lied. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"'Cos you look as bad as Ryan did this morning," said Aaron.

"What do you mean?" asked Jack eagerly.

"He didn't sleep at all last night, going over what happened. He looked ill when I saw him this morning."

"I came here to look for him. To try to talk to him. I didn't mean to scare him last night. I really didn't." replied Jack.

"Why did you come here if you wanted to talk to him?" asked Emma.

"Because I didn't know where else to look. I don't know where he lives, I don't really know much about him. So I thought I'd start here." said Jack.

"42 Welburn Avenue" said Aaron. "That's where we live, 42 Welburn Avenue. I think you both need to talk."

At this new information, Jack's face lit up. "Thank you. Thank you so much. Emma you have the best boyfriend in the world." And with that Jack ran in the direction of the exit, eager to see Ryan as quickly as possible.

"Do you think Ryan will talk to him?" asked Emma.

"I don't know. He can be pretty stubborn, especially when he scared." he replied.

Emma smiled at him, "Jack can be very forceful. I'm sure they'll work something out. So where to now?"

"What do you mean?" asked Aaron

"Well there's still most of the day left. So, where to now?"

Aaron put his arm around her shoulder "Where would you like to go?"

Emma put her arm around his waist smiling, "The park."

"Okay, to the park." he replied as they walked out of the mall.

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It took Jack less than twenty minutes to walk to Welburn Avenue. It should have taken him forty. He stood outside number 42 absorbed in thought about what he was going to do next. All of his thoughts had been focused on finding Ryan and it had not crossed his mind what he would do or say when he eventually did find him. After standing outside for five minutes, he decided to just bite the bullet and he knocked on the door.

He had expected to see Ryan or one of his siblings who, like Aaron, would see the need for them to talk. But it was not Ryan or Natalie or even Jamie that opened the door. It was Janice. He had not expected this and didn't know what to say.

"Hey, Jack, right?" she asked "What are you doing here?"

"Umm… I'm here to see Ryan. We arranged it last night." he lied.

"Oh, okay well he's upstairs in his room, second on the left if you just wanna head up. I'm going out to work in the next few minutes anyway." she replied.

"Thank you ma'am." Jack said as he entered the house and started to climb the stairs to Ryan's bedroom.

He stood outside Ryan's room for a few minutes, unsure what to do. Should he make light of it? Should he appear angry and forceful and demand answers? In the end he decided if he could bluff his way past Janice, he could make it up with Ryan as he went along. With that thought in mind he knocked gently on Ryan's door and a few second later he answered it.

"What the hell are you doing here?" he asked angrily.

"I came to see you." Jack replied, "We have a lot to talk about."

"My Mom is right downstairs." said Ryan quietly.

"I know, who do you think opened the door. Fairies? Sorry bad choice of words. And if you don't want her to hear, then I'd let me in if I were you."

Ryan grudgingly opened his door to let Jack in before closing it and locking it.

"How did you get this address?" he asked.

"Aaron gave it to me. I met him and Emma at the mall." replied Jack.

"Why are you here?" asked Ryan for the second time.

"I told you-- we need to talk, and Aaron seemed to agree with me."

"What the hell do we have to talk about?" asked Ryan getting angrier by the second.

"How about we start with last night?" said Jack.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, lets look at this from my point of view; one minute I'm on the receiving end of a very good kiss and then the next minute the guy who kissed me has run away and I'm left standing in a room in front of all of my friends and family who are asking me what I did to you! So how about we start with an explanation?" said Jack.

"So what exactly am I supposed to be explaining?" asked Ryan who by this point was feeling very confused.

"Why you kissed me." said Jack as he sat on the edge of Ryan's bed.

Ryan thought about this for a few moments before sitting next to Jack.

"I don't know why I kissed you. It was a heat of the moment thing" he said.

"'Heat of the moment'?" Jack repeated "Well I suppose it was pretty hot."

"Was it?" asked Ryan without thinking.

Jack laughed to himself before replying, "Red hot. Now question two: Why did you run away?"

"Isn't that obvious? I freaked out. I have never, never done that with a guy before, but I kissed you so I must have been attracted to you and that…that scared me."

"So you decided to just run off and leave me to face everyone?" asked Jack angrily.

"I didn't decide anything." said Ryan now making eye contact with Jack for the first time since he had arrived "I just let my flight defence mechanism kick in too early."

"Oooh am I getting déjà vu?" he asked sarcastically.

"I wouldn't know." Ryan replied shortly.

"Look, in all seriousness, everything you're feeling now, I felt. A million times over. It's all normal." said Jack.

"Still makes me gay though doesn't it?" asked Ryan.

"Yeah, yeah it does," replied Jack noting that Ryan had finally said that he was gay. "But is that so bad?"

"I dunno. I've always been told that a guy's place in life is to have a good job, get married and have a family. Being gay…nothing fits into place."

"I was always told that it was a guy's place to be happy. If you do all those things, you'd be lying to your wife, your kids, your employers and yourself. And that would be what makes you unhappy." replied Jack.

"I suppose that kinda makes sense." said Ryan.

"See, always listen to Uncle Jack" he said trying not to make the conversation too heavy.

"You don't like serious chats do you Jack?" asked Ryan.

"No, I don't suppose I do." he replied honestly.

"Me neither." Ryan replied now looking at Jack with a smile on his face. "They take all the fun out of life."

"Exactly. You know, I'm pretty sure Aaron and your other siblings know about the gay thing." said Jack.

"They do. They've all been in today to tell me that it's okay if I'm gay." replied Ryan.

"See it's not too bad. And your Mom probably knows too."

"What makes you think that?" asked Ryan.

"Mothers just know." replied Jack.

"Okay, fair enough. So what do I do now?" he asked.

"Whatever you want." replied Jack.

"What if I don't know what I want?" asked Ryan.

"How about you just have a gay friend? Then you can get a glimpse of the lifestyle," suggested Jack.

"That sounds like a good idea. Who though?" replied Ryan.

"Who what?" asked Jack.

"Who do I get to be my gay friend?" asked Ryan again.

"He's lookin at ya" replied Jack.

"Okay, I suppose I can handle that. Do you want something to drink? I think my Mom's gone out." said Ryan.

"A drink would be nice," said Jack with a smile on his face as he followed Ryan downstairs to the kitchen.

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"He is being totally unreasonable." exclaimed Erica, "I mean all I did was try to show concern for my dear brother when he needed help and all I get is a mouthful of abuse!"

Erica, completely unaware of the conversation which had just gone on between Ryan and Jack was currently recounting her argument with Logan as she had done for the last three hours.

"Have you thought that maybe, for one of the first times in Jack's life he doesn't know what to do and that's why he's being unreasonable?" asked Logan.

"That's as maybe but I was only trying to help." said Erica.

"I know you were. But maybe he just has to figure this one out himself." replied Logan.

"I suppose you're right. As usual." replied Erica.

"What does everyone else think about the situation?" asked Logan.

"I don't know. You saw our parents' reactions last night. I haven't seen Ben or Claire, and Emma was dancing with Paul this morning and going out with Aaron this afternoon." she replied.

"So is this their second date then?" asked Logan.

"Yeah, they're going to a movie as far as I know." replied Erica, not realising that Logan was purposefully moving her away from the subject of Jack.

"Don't you think it's weird that they were born on the same day and that both their parents knew each other from way back and they just meet up on some random occasion." said Logan.

"It is pretty weird. I suppose it must be fate." she replied.

"I suppose. She really seems to like him doesn't she?"

"Yeah, she does. Hey you never know, we might be going to their wedding in a few years," she said sarcastically.

"Didn't Aunt Rachel say that Janice introduced Aaron as her future son-in-law?"

"Yeah, she did. God wouldn't that be freaky. Janice with telepathic abilities."

"I suppose. But do you think your father or Uncle Ross or Uncle Joey could handle having Janice in the family forever? They seemed scared out of their minds when you and Jack said she was coming to dinner." he said with an evil smile on his face.

"How funny would that be?" asked Erica. "Speaking of weddings, it shouldn't be too long till Ben and Claire tie the knot."

"When's the date?" asked Logan.

"I don't know but they wanna do it before the baby's born and Claire's nearly five months gone." she replied.

"You're gonna be a bridesmaid right?" he asked.

"Yep, me, Emma and one of Claire's friends. Although Gilda's gonna be a flower girl."

"Oh my god! Are they out of their minds?" he said.

"They'd be dumber if they didn't ask her. Could you imagine the tantrum she would throw if she wasn't doing anything?"

"What's Austin doing?" inquired Logan.

"Page boy I believe. You're gonna be one of Ben's groomsmen right?"

"Yeah, and I have to wear a suit. I can't remember the last time I wore a suit."

"I'm sure you'll look very dashing. Have you got Emma's birthday present yet?" she asked.

"No, when's her birthday?"

"Next week. On the day of the dance competition. Hey and that means it'll be Aaron's birthday too." realised Erica, with a smile on her face.