Chapter 2

Anna was perfect. Everything about her screams it. She's beautiful, smart, charismatic, down-to-earth and she had style. Anything looked good on Anna. And the way she could make people laugh… Just everything… and Dean damn well deserved her.

"What do you think about this?" Anna had a bright smile on her face while she held a vintage lamp in front of Dean's face. The two of them were standing so close, their shoulders sliding over each other's.

"This looks like an old lady's lamp," Dean whined, deserving a slap on the arm from his girlfriend. That was when Anna noticed their other friend and lowered her head while worry filled her eyes.

"Cas?"

Castiel realised he was looking down at his shoes for a while now and shot his head up, eyes wide. "Hmm?"

"Are you okay?" Dean eyed him with concern.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Castiel panicked when he couldn't pull a fake smile, "Um… I'll g-go… Uh… I'll leave you two while I go… Sur-survey the shop."

"Survey the shop?" Dean's raised eyebrow made Castiel more nervous than he was before.

"Yeah," Cas stuttered while he turned and walked away, "Grandma Ralphy's coming over soon."

"Okay…" Dean watched as his best friend disappeared into one of the many shelves and turned to Anna who was doing the same.

"Have you noticed he's acting differently?" Dean pulled back a little and tilted his head to look at Anna better.

"Oh, I noticed."

As he took a step towards the direction Castiel had gone, Anna held him back with a tug on his jacket.

"Don't you even think about going there," Anna hissed.

"I need to know what's going on."

"You'll know when he wants to tell you," Anna pulled at his jacket again and this time Dean looked at her, "Remember all those times when you confronted him? It stressed him out and you know how he's like when he's stressed."

Dean sighed. He remembered.

She continued, "He wouldn't talk to anyone, he wouldn't look at anyone. Hell, he wouldn't even talk to you!"

"I know, I know," he nodded to himself, "But somehow… I don't know…"

"Somehow, I don't know what?"

"Sometimes, I just feel so distant from him… I know there's something he's not telling me and it's obviously killing him on the inside. I mean, look at him. The dude's not that good on feelings-"

"So are you," Anna interrupted softly.

"Yeah, Anna, I know."

Anna smiled as she leaned in and planted a kiss on his cheek, hoping that it would make him feel better and Dean let out a deep frustrated sigh.

"I just feel like I'm losing him, you know?"

Of course Anna knew how Dean felt. More often than not, Dean would mention about Castiel's recent changes in behaviour and it was always worrying for Dean, even Anna. It just doesn't seem right when Cas would suddenly walk off whenever Anna was spending time with her boyfriend. Sometimes, Cas was acting as though he didn't like it when Anna was with Dean and it kinda hurt her feelings.

"Hey, of course I know," Anna gently traced her fingertips along his jaw line, "The three of us have been best friends for a long time, Dean. I know… I do too."

"What are we doing here, Dean?"

"What are we doing here," Dean mocked his best friend by mimicking him, "Cas, we're gonna watch Anna practise her cheerleading thing while we're waiting for her."

Dean patted on the seat beside him, encouraging Castiel to sit down. With a sigh, he sat, kicking Dean's shoe on purpose.

"You do that a lot lately."

Castiel tilted his head. "Do what a lot?"

Dean mimicked Castiel's sigh and raised an eyebrow at him. He noticed Castiel looked away, shifting himself uncomfortably beside Dean and he patted a hand on Castiel's shoulder.

"Why aren't we waiting in the library?" Castiel decided to change the topic, "Anna's meeting us in the library anyway."

"Dude, think of this as a study break," Dean retrieved his hand and looked over at Anna, "Besides, Anna's kinda cute in that cheerleader suit."

"Duuude," Castiel whined, arching himself away from him.

"What? You don't think so?"

"She's like a sister to me. Enough already."

"Come to think of it," Dean snapped his fingers, "I think I'm gonna get her a skirt."

"You do know that she has a closet specially built in just for her short skirts."

"Uh huh," Dean nodded like a child, "So?"

Dean's childish behaviour wasn't new for him. Fact is if Dean wasn't acting that way, there would definitely be something wrong with the guy.

"Anyway, we're not going to the library later," Dean pointed out, his eyes still on Anna down at the field.

"Then where are we going?"

"You'll see."

When Anna's practise was done, she turned to the two boys on the bleachers and waved before dashing towards the school. Dean gave a push at Castiel's shoulder but when he didn't move, Dean shoved him hard and pulled him to his feet. "Go! Go! Go!"

In Dean's car, they waited for Anna to show up. There wasn't much to do for Cas, except loving every minute of being alone with Dean in his car. It had been a while since things changed when Dean hooked up with Anna, well, excluding Tuesday nights, of course.

"It's proven," Dean suddenly throws his hands up high, "It's official. Girls take forever to get out of the shower."

"You take more than half an hour, Dean."

"Bubble baths are different, Cas."

Cas turned to Dean on the driver's side with a curious look. "You're still taking bubble baths?"

"Shut up," Dean waved a hand at him, "If you're riding shotgun, you do not question about my bath time."

"Dean, I'm your best friend and I can definitely question about your bath time," Cas smirked and closed in his distance with Dean a little, "So tell me, are you still playing with your rubber ducky?"

"Cas," Dean warned as he turned to look at him.

"Squeak." That smug face of Cas made Dean narrow his eyes.

"Shut up or I'll 'squeak' you." Dean stared at him with a bored face. With their faces only a few inches apart, Castiel could feel his best friend's heavy breathing. Knowing that Dean was intimidated, it somewhat provided Castiel satisfaction.

"Squeakety squeakety squeak squeak SQUACK!" Cas yelled as Dean swung his arm around his neck, pinning him down and ruffled his hair with all his might. Dean let out a victorious laugh as he continued to torture his best friend while Cas called for help, hands flinging aimlessly as fingers try to find their way into Dean's nostrils.

The back door opened and Castiel expected Dean to let him go, but he didn't.

"Hey, Anna," Dean greeted, his head cocked to the side avoiding Castiel's intruding fingers while he continued messing up his hair.

"Anna, help!" Castiel's muffled voice could be heard, "Help me!"

"Dean, you better drive," Anna giggled, "We're gonna be late."

With that, Dean finally let go and shoved Castiel to his seat, turning to the steering wheel before Castiel launched himself on him with his arm stretched out and did the same thing Dean did to him.

"Oh-ho, reveeeenge!" Dean struggled and jabbed a finger at Castiel's ribs, causing Cas to jerk back but still not letting go.

"Boys, seriously, we're gonna be late."

They responded with grunts and laughter.

"Guys, you can continue being morons later, but now we have to move!"

Castiel didn't know they were going to catch a movie and the weirdest thing was they were doing everything Castiel liked: hanging out at bookstores, computer stores and just everything that he liked. "Books, computers and what's next? I don't care. We're going to a music store after this. I need more tracks," Dean had complained when Castiel wanted to enter another computer store.

During the movie, Dean and Anna made him sit in between, telling him that they wanted him to. It was pretty weird at first… separating the couple but Castiel felt relieved he was sitting beside Dean because he never liked watching horror movies – no, Paranormal Activity 3 wasn't a horror movie, it's just something that was made to scare the living crap of out of the audiences - but having Dean sort of made him feel safer… And Cas wanted it more than ever while bracing himself and trying to survive the movie.

Walking out of the cinema, Dean was laughing hard while he and Anna were both grabbing onto Castiel's wrists, guiding him outside. Castiel's shoulders were tensed, his eyes were wide opened – wide enough for them to fall out of their sockets – and his mouth was shut tight, a thin line which was his lips could only be seen if someone would look closely enough and he absolutely hated when Dean laughed at him because of that.

"Are you seeing his face?" Dean shrieked with laughter, "Throughout the whole movie he had his eyes closed!"

"Did not."

"Aw, Cas," Anna giggled and nudged the side of his head with hers. Castiel's stunned expression didn't budge.

"Yes, you did! You're so scared you could've pissed yourself."

"Shut up, Dean."

"Oh," Dean made a face, "Guess someone's not sleeping tonight."

Castiel shoved his wrists away and walked off, leaving Dean laughing even harder. "Oh, now he's mad."

At home, Castiel dragged his feet lazily up to his bedroom and plunged onto his bed, staring at the ceiling. It'd been an awesome day… long, but awesome. It felt as if he was hanging out with Dean and Anna like old times… before everything changed… before they started dating… before his new feelings towards Dean… It felt kinda nice, like he was relieving one of his memories spending time with the two of them. Then he thought about the way Dean was okay with Castiel hiding his face with his shoulder during the movie. That felt nice too. He did it with Anna as well but it didn't feel the same way – it was comfortable, but not as good.

His phone rang and he picked up.

"How's my boy doing?" Dean's cheerful voice rang in his ears and Cas cringed away from the phone.

"Dean, you're paying for my blasted eardrum."

"It's kinda late, how about I talk you to sleep?"

"God, you're seriously gonna bore me to death?"

"Shut up, I'm interesting and I can bet you a dollar that you'll find my voice so soothing, you're gonna forget all about the movie," Dean whined when Castiel gave a scoff, "Hey, not even Anna was offered to fall asleep to the sound of my beautiful voice so you should consider yourself lucky."

Castiel let out a laugh. Then he asked, "Speaking of the movie, what's the deal with today?"

"Huh?"

"You know, sitting between the two of you lovebirds during the movie? Where did that come from?"

"Okay," Dean's voice immediately lowered into a whisper, "Don't tell Anna I told you this or there will be consequences. Like really bad consequences."

Castiel waited until Dean let out a sigh.

"It was a bonding thing," Dean began, "She told me she found an article from a magazine and it was something about recreating friendship bonds when your best friend starts dating somebody else or something, I don't know. Anyway, she wanted to try it out and thought it might work and it did so I guess she wasn't as wrong as I thought her to be. Also, I didn't actually agree to it at first, but she dragged me into this and I personally think she's also trying to get to my non-existing feminine side. Also, the other day she asked me to accompany her to shop for her clothes and, man, it was horrible. I mean, waiting for her to pick some clothes is one thing but to-"

"What do you mean it worked?"

"What, that's all you heard? I'm telling you Anna's trying to turn me into a chick here and that's all you heard?"

"Just tell me, Dean."

There was a long pause.

"You seem happy today," Castiel could hear Dean's relief and frowned, "And that's the point of this whole plan."

"Why would I not be happy?"

"Well, Anna thinks you've been acting different lately and uh… I do too. I mean, come on, Cas. It's so damn obvious."

Hearing no response from Cas, Dean decided to continue. He was starting to doubt this closure thing Anna told him to do was even working.

"Is… I mean, is it because now that I'm dating Anna, I'm spending less time with you and you don't like it? God, I know it's a stupid question and I feel like a girl saying all this but Anna suspects so and no offense, but I kinda do as well. Or is it something that I did before? Okay, I know mixing strawberries into your coffee didn't really make your morning the other day and that time when I dropped your Ipod into the pool. It was an accident, I swear! But I mean is it something that I did?"

There was only silence and Dean could sense something had to be wron. God, Anna, I can't believe you talked me into this… I'm gonna lose my best friend. Dean felt like hitting his head with the phone right now.

"Cas, come on, man. Talk to me."

"I'm tired, Dean."

"No, Cas, don't-"

"I'm really tired. Goodnight."

Castiel sounded tired but Dean couldn't shake the feeling whether Cas was actually tired… or was more of being tired of him. There was just something different about the guy and it frustrated Dean that he didn't know what. His shoulders slumped down as he dropped his phone to his side.

Well, since the chick thing didn't work, Dean thought, I'm gonna stick to the dude thing. Which was forget about it and move on...