Disclaimer: Do not own the show or anything revolving around it! I only claim the facts that this fanfic is mine and I came up with the term BASR (Standing for Bradley And Stacy Romance). That's it. ENJOY!!!
Ch. 2
It seems like she slept rather good last night, despite having to face the inevitable the next day. The only child of the Stickler family got up that morning hoping that she could somehow survive school and everything after it. She got dressed, fixed herself up and ate breakfast. If EATING meant picking at the cereal and moving the spoon around most of the time.
"Stacy, you're not playing with your food, again, are you?"
"No, Mom."
Mrs. Stickler finally looked over at her daughter. She sighed. "Well, I HOPE not 'cause we have to leave in 5 minutes!" Stacy got the hint and started to actually eat her food. Before they left they shared a, 'Have a good day' hug and said their goodbyes. Her Mom left first. Before sheleft, Stacy stared at the door, preparing for the start of what she figured was going to be a long day. A VERY, long day...
"Well, maybe I can try to avoid walking with him this morning..."
She opened the door and locked it behind her. Turning around-
"Hey, Stacy!" It was Bradley.
"O-Oh...Hey, Bradley."
"You ready for another day?"
... "Yeeah. I guess..."
"Cool. Let's go!" He extended his hand.
She stared at it. "...Wha...What are you doing?"
"I thought that maybe we could hold hands together."
"Hold...HANDS?!" Stacy knew it was gonna get bad. Wasthere any excuse to get out of it? ...Apparently not. She sighed.
"...Ok." She slipped her hand in his. They started walking. On the way there, Stacy would glance at him a few times and notice he was...uncomfortably happy. Is thishow he's gonna be throughout the rest of the day? She had no idea. He glanced at her for a moment...untill she finally looked up. Her response was the corniest and cheeziest smile that she could produce. He just warmly smiled back. Finally reaching the school and noticing all the kids going inside, Stacy completely stopped in her tracks.
"What?" Bradley looked down at their hands. "Ooooh, I get it!" He let go, finally. "Don't worry, Stace. They won't have to know a THING! I'll see you inside, ok?" Leaving her alone, she was able to start breathing properly. YEAH, 'Seehim inside'! That means seeing him for the rest of the day! Maybe, just maybe...it'll be ok. ...Somehow.
Actually, she had HAD better days! It seemed like in every class they were in, Bradley was using some excuse or another to try to get close to her. One revolved around a folded note getting tossed on her lap when the teacher looked away: it was from him. At least thatwasn't noticeable! At lunchtime, however, Stacy didn't seem really hungry. Bradley noticed this and was egging her on and on about how she should try to eat and how she'll get hungry later if she doesn't-even to the point of doing the Choo-Choo Train technique used for infants to try to FORCE her to eat! Stacy got SO annoyed that she practically slapped the sandwich out of his hand! Others revolved around her tripping in Gym for him to help her up to being at a school assembly and because they're usually SO boring, Bradley fell asleep...except that he decided to rest his head on her shoulder! Stacy managed to nudge him back to his own chair.
At some point, he woke up. Everyone was leaving the assembly.
"Stace?" She was nowhere to be found.
Yeah, she ditched him. Stacy was on her way home: If she had to deal with him at LEAST one more time...! He MENT well, she knew THAT, but it just got to be TOO MUCH! She just passed by their favorite climbing tree. Too bad she didn't bother to look up, first!
"HIYA, STACE!"
A startled Stacy looked back. "Where'd YOU come from?!"
"Duh, Stace! You ALWAYS take this route home! So anyway, what happened back there?! Decided to DITCH me, or something?!"
BUSTED! "...Uhh...OH! I just REALLY wanted to get home, t-that's all! REALLY need to start on this weekend homework, you know?!" Well, at least she didn't accidentally spill some lie about being sick! Bad enough she had to deal with her mother's reaction to something like that! It'll probably be TEN times worse if HE were to know, being how he is, now!
"Oh, ok. Maybe, if you want, I can help! Yeah! We could have a study group, or something! I already got all my books and all, so maybe we could walk over to your place and..."
YEEEAAAH...Bradley's CLEARLY lost his mind! He'd NEVER be this excited (Really excited at all) about getting homework done! Usually he'd be looking for excuses to get OUT of doing it and eventually, having to.
"...And at some point, maybe we can have a sleep over! I can call my mom and dad and say that we were studying so hard that I got too tired to go home! AND, since it's the weekend, we could spend the WHOLE DAY together tomorrow! It'll be SO cool! We could hang out with the guys, maybe go out for some ice cream together! It'd be...it'd actually be kinda like a date! But going to the SAME places OVER and OVER, again can be SOO BOORING!! You know what'd be cool? If we could go out to different towns to do stuff or even, different COUNTRIES! Or even, outside the PLANET! We could check out the stars, the Milkyway Galaxy, even check out the trendiest places on each of the different planets! MAYBE we'll even run into some aliens-"
"Not NOW, Bradley!"
"Aliens from-"
"I SAID NOT-"
"URANUS!"
She slapped her hand against her forehead.
"Look, B-Man I...I just don't know, yet."
He looked at her. "Don't know what?"
"About...all this Luvy-Duvy stuff that you want us to go through."
Wait-a-minute! " 'That I want us to go through'?' Stace, I thought we were in this together! I thought-"
"LOOK, Bradley! ...I...I don't think I want this, yet." She started to walk ahead.
He watched her go. "Stace!" Running to catch up, Bradley cut her off and grabbed her shoulders. "What's WITH you, today? You've been acting weird ALL DAY! I thought that maybe you could've been a little sick from not wanting to eat, but NOW... What HAPPENED?! First it was the love note. I thought that MAYBE you'd write back, but when you didn't, I figured that you just wanted to continue to be the little Straight A student that everyone knows you to be and continued paying attention in class!"
"Bradley, I'm not THAT-"
"-THEN you decide to ditch me during the assembly! Now THIS! Stacy, what's going on with you?! Please, TALK TO ME! Let me know what's up!"
She stared at him. "Bradley, just...just no."
" 'No' what?"
"Just...just NO, alright?" She tried to push him off, but he only held on.
"No way, Man! I'm not letting you go until you REALLY tell me what's bothering you!"
You know what? At this point, he REALLY needs to know!
"You wanna know what's bothering me, Bradley?! It's YOU! YOU'RE the one who's been doing it to me ALL day! The note, lunchtime, GYM CLASS, EVERYTHING! You haven't been acting like yourself for ONE LITTLE BIT today! I'M the one who should be asking YOU what's wrong! It's like this whole thing that happened yesterday just completely CHANGED you! Like your true self was suddenly sucked into a black hole and was replaced by some sort of Bradley ZOMBIE from beyond the stars! What DID happen to you, Bradley?! Why don't you tell ME that!"
"...Stace, I told you everything yesterday-"
"Yeah, I know: The whole-..." She just couldn't take it anymore. "You know what? ...Just...no..."
"What are you talking about? You're not making any sense-"
"I KNOW what I'm talking about! I just...I can't take this, I can't DO this! I..." "Please..." She was pleading to herself. "Please don't make me do this...!" Stacy breathed out a shaky sigh.
"Stacy...please... Just talk to me..."
She looked at him. Crud! WHY does he have to look so innocent, NOW?! Breathing in again...
"B-Man,...I can't."
" 'Can't' what?"
"I can't deal with this."
"With what?! Stace, just TALK to me!"
"With ANY of this! ANY of this stuff we're going through!"
"What are you saying?"
"You KNOW what I'm saying!"
"No, I DON'T!"
"Well, just listen!"
"I AM listening! Please, just let me help you!"
"NO, Bradley!"
"I CARE about you, Stacy! If you would let me in-"
"Bradley, stop it."
"Why are you being so difficult?! All you have to do is let me in! Once THAT happens, everything'll be ok! I just wanna help you-"
"STOP it."
"Come on! Please? Just try. I care about you. I... I love you, Stacy-"
"STOP IT!"
"I can show you! I can show you that you don't have to feel this way. I can show you everything! Anything that you want! I'll even GIVE you everything! I don't know how I'll do it, but I'll try!"
"Bradley, I..."
"I'll give you the WORLD, if I have to! I'll take care of you! Stacy, please. Just trust me and I'll make all your problems go away! I'll take them all away. I'll give you the fairy tale that you've always wanted! I'll be your prince, your knight, ANYTHING! Just tell me what you want and I'll-"
"I DON'T LOVE YOU, BRADLEY!!"
"..."
He slowly and finally let his grasp on her shoulders go.
"Oh. ...O-ok." Bradley looked at his feet. Then to one side. Then to another. Everything looked the same, yet sddenly felt so...different. Like the world's color was slowly melting off the buildings and streets, going to black and white. Is thiswhat heartache was?! If so, then it was a REALLY scary place! Struggling to regain composure, he finally looked up at her. "I-If that's how you feel," Even if all of this was happening, he's still (HAD to be!) the same Bradley. "T-Then I guess it's ok..." RIGHT?
"I...I guess I'll see you at school on Monday." He shoved his fists in his pockets and started to walk away.
"Bradley, wait! I-"
"No-no. It's ok. I heard you. You don't have to say anymore."
"...Please?" She whispered.
"...Yeah, you know what? I think I'll just leave you here to let you think about what you did. Saying that you, "loved" me, then throwing me aside like that!" Bradley looked at her. "Yeah, REAL mature, Stacy." He didn't look back.
Watching him walk away was all she could really do at this point. A thought crossed Stacy Stickler's mind: Did she see something in his eye before he walked away? Her knees hit the ground and she finally let her tears come out.