"I am not holding your hand," I said strongly. His hands were on my shoulders, and as much as I wanted to peel every single one of his fingers off in some painful way, the want of his thoughts leaving my head was more desirable.

He glared at the back of my head. I couldn't see it. But I just knew. "Yes you are!"

I tilted my head. "No, actually, I don't think so."

"Why not?"

"Well, other than the fact that you have a girlfriend, gee, I don't know." Fortunately, the sarcasm was helping quite a bit.

He rolled his eyes. "I have a plan."

Shane Gray takes "idiot" to an entirely new level. What kind of girl wouldn't care about her boyfriend holding someone else's hand? He's stupid, that much is solid. And a plan?

"You're an idiot," I said with conviction in my eyes.

He grabbed my wrist, dragging me over to the trunk of his car. Using his right hand, he opened it up, rummaging around for something. "You have got to stop calling me that."

"What are you doing?" I asked impatiently.

He doesn't respond, instead he slams it shut, putting a hat and glasses on. "There we go."

I rolled my eyes. "Nice disguise."

He's so thick headed that he takes it as a compliment. "Thanks and now…"

Something cold touched my wrist and I looked down to see what it was. I glared before reaching up with my left hand to smack him. "You idiot!"

He rubbed his arm tenderly, before replying, "You've really got to stop calling me that." He walked away, me following, involuntarily I should add, behind.

I yanked as hard as I could on his wrist. "Handcuffs, seriously? You're a moron!"

He leaned down to whisper, "How else were we supposed to explain what happened to her? Like you said, we can't tell the truth. At least this way, it won't be so suspicious."

I think the only thing I hated more than him, was him when he was right. "Fine, but that doesn't mean I have to like it."

"I didn't say you had to."

"Well good."

It wasn't until we reached the front of the theater that it occured to me to ask, "Why the hell do you have handcuffs in the trunk of your car?"

I wasn't sure if I should've been scared that he didn't answer.

"Okay." He scanned the crowd for what I could only assume was his girlfriend. "There she is."

I sighed. Meeting his girlfriend was not something I had on my to-do list. He stopped and I stumbled into him. "Watch it idiot!"

"Shane?"

I closed my eyes. Yelling was about to ensue…I just knew it.

"Hey Caitlyn."

"Why," - I opened my eyes, blushing like crazy - "are you handcuffed to…I'm sorry, who are you?"

I sheepishly opened my mouth to speak, but Shane casually answered for me, "Oh her? This is Mitchie."

I smacked his head without thinking about it. "I can answer for myself, you idiot."

Caitlyn laughed, "Well…it's nice to meet you Mitchie, I'm Caitlyn," she eyed the handcuffs curiously, finishing with, "Shane's girlfriend."

I blurted out, "It's not what it looks like!"

Once again, she laughed. "I kind of figured that. I doubt Shane would've showed up, if there was something going on between the two of you." She leaned in closer. "There isn't anything going on between the two of you, right?"

"Of course not!" we screamed in unison.

"Haha, okay, okay, calm down children." She kissed Shane's cheek, and I vaguely wondered why she was dating him.

I looked to Shane, only to find him smirking back at me. I rolled my eyes. So he was actually dating a pretty down-to-earth girl, so what?

"There's just one thing I'm wondering," Caitlyn spoke. Shane and I turned to her expectantly. "How did this happen in the first place?"

I froze. Uh…

Shane recovered with, "Well…Jason was trying to teach us a magic trick, but apparently he lost the key. So, until he can go get a replacement, we're stuck like this." He lifted our wrists for extra emphasis.

To our relief, she laughed. "Typical Jason. Wait, how do you know the guys?"

The question was for me, obviously. "Oh, well, um…" I nudged Shane, trying to give him the reins on the question.

"She's Ella's friend."

Who the hell was Ella?

Caitlyn nodded, accepting our excuse. "Okay! Well then, the three of us will have to get together sometime then!"

Shane grimaced, as did I. "Yeah…you'll have to do that sometime…"

Being in his head for as little as I had, I knew exactly what he was thinking: Hell no.

"Well, let's go see this movie then, shall we?" I said, breaking the awkward silence.

Shane laced his fingers with Caitlyn's, and I knew far too well how stupid we looked. I tried to hide my face with my hair, but it was to no avail. People stared, first at me and then at Caitlyn and Shane.

Shane walked up to the ticket counter, me following helplessly, and Caitlyn following voluntarily, the weirdo. "Three for…Sisterhood Of The Traveling Pants?" he asked Caitlyn. At her nod, he turned back to the vendor.

"That'll be twenty-three fifty," she said in a bored tone.

He nodded, pulling out two crisp twenties. To my surprise, both Caitlyn and I protested, at the same time, "You don't have to pay for me!" we said in unison.

I blushed. This looked bad. He turned to Caitlyn and genuinely said, "You're my girlfriend, besides it's in the boyfriend code."

She smiled sweetly. "Aww, you suck-up." As sickening as it was, I almost wanted to 'aww' too. It truly was sweet.

He rolled his eyes, before turning to me. "And…you're Ella's friend, so don't worry about it."

The vendor sighed, "I don't have all day sir."

Shane smirked. "Whatever, here." He handed her the bills, and we took our tickets, shuffling out of the line quickly.

"Anyone want popcorn?" Caitlyn offered.

As if on cue, my stomach growled. "Uh…"

Caitlyn smiled with kind eyes. "Don't worry, it's on me."

Why did Shane have a nice girlfriend? He was such a jerk…and she was such a nice person. The whole thing was confusing.

"You don't have to pay, really. I can-

Shane cut me off. "How about I settle the argument and pay for both of you?"

Why was he being nice to me all of a sudden?

Through clenched teeth, I growled, "No, its okay."

He chuckled. The guy was not just a singer, he was an actor. His annoyance was barely showing. "I insist. Now," we got to the front of the line I didn't realize we were standing in, "what does everyone want?"

"Dr. Pepper for me," Caitlyn spoke up. As an afterthought, she added, "medium."

I looked to the guy behind the counter and then my eyes widened. It was Ben! I tried to hide as best as I could, but it wasn't helping. "Mitchie?" he asked.

I nervously smiled, while Caitlyn and Shane looked to me curiously. "Err, hi Ben." I gave some idiotic wave as he smiled back.

"How's your summer been going?" He leaned against the counter, looking genuinely interested in me of all people.

By some miracle, I was able to answer, "Pretty good so far, you?"

He smiled a bit wider and said, "Well…if you would go out with me tomorrow, it'd be great." He glanced briefly to Shane, and for a second I thought he was sizing him up. Ben didn't know who Shane Gray was. To him, he was just another 'douche' wearing tight pants.

My breathing stopped and I had to lean against the counter for support. "Well, I think that can be arranged," I took out a pen, and wrote my number on his hand.

A few minutes, three medium drinks, and the biggest tub of popcorn the theater offered, later, we were walking to theater ten.

As we did, Shane muttered, "Can you believe that guy?"

Caitlyn shrugged. "I don't know, I thought he was sweet!" She smiled at me, and I offered a tiny smile back.

"Well I thought he was full of crap."

Caitlyn smacked him. "Just goes to show that you know nothing about romance."

I laughed as we approached the appropriate door. "Caitlyn, you and I, are going to get along just fine."

"With Shane around, there's so much to bond over," she added.

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean!?"

She smiled innocently, "Oh nothing…"