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Brushing my teeth, I looked back into the room and saw Leah sitting on the edge of the bed, watching television in her pajamas. It was almost a week into our Christmas break and we've gotten a lot better than what we were a few days ago. I couldn't help but think how lucky I must be to have somebody like her in my life. I don't know what I did right to have her, but I wasn't going to press my luck and risk losing her.

Once I was done, I turned off the light and closed the door before sitting next to her in just my basketball shorts and black wife beater. Leah laid her head on my shoulder and I kissed her head. Watching her play with my hand, I knew that she was thinking about something.

"What's going on in that pretty little head of yours?" I asked with my lips against her hair before she crawled to the rest of the bed and laid down.

Reaching out to me, I laid down next to her. "I was thinking that maybe after New Year's I could start working. The mall has a few stores that are hiring, so I was thinking about applying to some the next ime that we go. It may be for only minmum wage, but it's something that could help towards saving up some money."

"I was actually thinking the same thing." I told her as she laid her head on my chest and wrapped an arm around my waist. I did the same and felt comfort in laying like this with her.

We tried the whole sleeping in seperate bedrooms out of respect for Roman and his parents and so that we can each have some privacy, but we just couldn't. Leah and I would end up going into each other's rooms because we had grown comfortable with sleeping in the same room all the time before Roman allowed us to stay for as long as we needed. Roman had found us on one occasion sleeping in the same room and just ignored it as long as we kept the door open for his parents to not start complaining. Since they weren't home as often because of how much they worked, we closed the door when they weren't home.

"Maybe we can get our own place if we get enough money saved up before the school year's over." I added.

Leah looked up at me. "A place of our own?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I'm already 18 and you'll be 18 in February. If we're able to get jobs between now and then, we can see what we can do before we go to college."

Looking up at me, I saw that Leah had a sparkle in her eye. She climbed up on top of my and laid there on top of me.

"I thought you said that college may not be for you." Leah said.

Thinking for a moment, I placed my hands on her back as if keeping her where she was. "I thought the same thing but ever since meeting you, I have found inspiration and I decided to apply. That time period where we weren't talking, Roman submitted my application for me because he knew that without you here, I would never do it. I didn't take the SAT's when I was supposed to so I registered to take the one that's coming up in about three weeks. I applied to all of the same colleges that you did, so I'm hoping that I've made enough progress to get in to at least one of them."

Leah grinned as she took my face in her hands. "I'm proud of you, Dean. I'm positive that you'll do great on the SATs and that you'll get into college. What are you planning on taking when you do?"

"I was thinking about taking Business since I want to have my own wrestling school or something." I replied. "Maybe Business courses can help me with that side of having a school or gym."

Looking into Leah's blue eyes, I just fell deeper. Tracing her lips with my thumb, I looked back up into her eyes and nudged her nose with mine. A wave of calmness washed over me as I hooked her hair behind her ears and took her face in my hands. Damn, I was falling more in love with this girl with each day that passes and I haven't even asked her to be my girlfriend yet. She dug her hands in my hair and kissed me. I couldn't resist and applied pressure to hers as mine began to move. I was willing to do anything for her and I wanted her more than anything. Pulling back from her lips, I hooked her hair behind her ear and looked into her eyes again.

"Tomorrow we can go check to see what we can apply for." I told her. "Maybe we can spend the whole day together, too. We'll make it a date."

She nodded and smiled. "I'd like that."

I gave her a full kiss and smiled against her lips before pulling back again. Leah dug her face into my neck and placed a hand on my chest. She looked up a few minutes later and kissed my chin.

"Did you mean what you said about moving in together?" She asked.

"Yeah." I replied. "I like this whole living with you thing."

Leah smiled and pecked my lips before fixing herself so that she had her head on my chest again when she cuddled up next to me. We continued to watch television until Roman came in an hour later.

"Leah's already sleeping." He said when he walked in. I kind of noticed with how quiet she had gotten and I didn't mind. "I'm going to lunch tomorrow with Chris. Wanna come?"

"I'm gonna go to the mall with to see if we could apply for some jobs." I told him as I began to play with Leah's hair. "And I wanna spend the day with her."

Roman smiled. "If you don't see me tomorrow for lunch, you know why. Did you get her something for tomorrow? It's Christmas Eve tonight."

"I got a little something but it's not much." I replied. "I'll let you know tomorrow."

He nodded. "I'll see you in the morning. You two can't stay out of each other's rooms can you?"

I chuckled. "I can't help it. I like being in the same room with her."

"Night." Roman said with a smile on his face as he chuckled softly.

"Goodnight." I replied as he left. Kissing Leah's head, I watched her sleep after I turned the t.v. off until I felt my eyes beginning to drift.

The next day...

O.O

I woke up with Dean's arm around my waist. Snuggling a little closer to him, I stayed like that a while longer before getting up and heading to the bathroom. I'm proud of Dean for everything that he's accomplished. A guy who said that he didn't think that college was for him, applied and is taking the SATs in a few weeks.

I would have loved him even if he didn't go to college, but the fact that he's trying makes me love him even more. There were moments last night where I thought that it would spill out of my lips, but I held it in. I didn't want to scare him off without even knowing what we were first.

After my shower, I saw Dean beginning to wake up. Putting my towel away, I looked out the window and saw that it was cloudy and felt the cold winter air against the window. Seeing that Dean was still in bed, I slightly jumped in bed and heard him groan.

"Wake up, sleepy head." I said in a sweet voice as I straddled him. Dean opened his eyes and smiled when he saw me but squinted from the light that was coming into the room from the windows.

"You're lucky that I like the way you wake me up." He said quietly. "Just without the jumping into bed part."

I giggled and kissed his nose. "We need to get to go to the mall to look for some jobs. Do you want me to print some resumes for you?"

He nodded with a sleepy smile that showed his dimples. "Let me take a shower."

...

Dean came downstairs after about half an hour and came into the kitchen where I was eating some cereal with a laptop in front of me. Bending down, he gave me a soft kiss on the lips before placing one on my cheek. It gave me butterflies when he did and drove me crazy. I've never had this kind of effect on me before and it's a bit scary for me. Exciting at the same time, but scary.

I smiled as he sat down next to me. His hair was wet from his shower and he was just in his basketball shorts. I bit my lip as my heart skipped a beat. Dean was the only guy since my dad to treat me the way that he does and to take care of me the way that he does.

Dean caught me looking at him, and I instantly felt my cheeks flush. I got up to clean my plate and tried to hide the stupid smile on my face. I felt Dean's arms sname ar oundmy waist when he walked up to me. I couldn't help but lean into him and take in his fresh scent.

"So are we making this a date today?" He asked me in my ear. I bit my lip and nodded as I smiled. After his attempt to tickly me, I was able to get out of his grasp after a fit of laughter.

His lips captured mine as he kept my face in his hands. I melted into the kiss and enjoyed it until we both pulled back. "We should start getting ready to go. Roman's not going to be with us for lunch and we may have to end up walking somewhere."

About 45 minutes later, we met in the hallway and made our way downstairs to put on our coats. Making sure we had everything we needed, Dean followed me out the door and locked it behind him. Grabbing my gloved hand, we intertwined our fingers together and made our way to the mall. It was going to be almost a thirty minute walk and in this winter, it wasn't going to be as easy as it may have sounded.

When we finally got to the mall, we sighed in relief when we felt the warmth of the heat inside the four story building. I opened up my jacket to not get overwhelmed with how warm it was in here and then took off my hat and scarf, fixing my hair. Dean grabbed my hand again as we made our way throughout the mall looking for stores that may have been hiring.

I spotted Vanessa and squeezed Dean's hand when I noticed that her gaze fell upon us. Clearing my throat loud enough for him to hear, he got what I was trying to tell him and saw Vanessa walking towards us.

"How's your Christmas going?" She asked us.

"It's going good." I replied. "How's yours?"

Vanessa smiled but it slightly faded when she saw our hands joined. "It's been going good. Just hanging out with family and friends and not wanting to go back to school."

"I think everybody at some point, doesn't want to go to school." Said Dean. "I've had that moment plenty of times."

"It's like you just need a break." Vanessa said a little too comfortably. When Dean didn't respond to keep the conversation going, she cleared her throat. "So I see you two are a couple now."

Dean and I both looked at each other and saw what she meant when we saw that we were still holding hands. I looked at him, not knowing what to say but Dean gave me a smile instead.

"Yeah, we are." He said as he looked at me with a smile still on his face. "I'm making a commitment to her. I realized that I can't be without her and I want to be that one guy that she can call hers. No matter what."

My heart fluttered and soared when I heard those words come out of his mouth. I wanted Dean to make me his, I just wasn't expecting it to be now and it had put a big smile on my face.

Vanessa's face dropped when I looked back at her. "Does anybody have a problem with me being his girlfriend or do they have more shit to say about him?"

She shook her head. "No, I think it's fine. Just don't prove anyone wrong. Stand by his side if you want."

"Don't worry about what I do." Dean told her. "Enjoy the rest of your Christmas."

O.O

Leah was in the shower, about an hour after got back home and I decided to put her present in the middle of her bed. With the television on in the living room, I heard a news break saying that there was a storm coming our way adding up to three feet or more to the few inches that we already got today. Luckily, we got a few extra things to take back with us in case we weren't able to go back out.

Leah hadn't asked about what I told Vanessa earlier today at the mall about us being a couple but I know that she will eventually. I felt complete with Leah by my side and now that I've gotten to know her and feel the way that I do about her, I don't want to go back to being without her in my life.

I heard the shower stop running and knew that she was about to come out. I went back downstairs and saw Roman coming in through the door with bags in his hands. Helping him out after greeting him, I saw that he had bought some extra water bottles, batteries and flashlights along with some food.

"The news mentioned this morning that there was a storm coming but that it wouldn't be here until later on tonight." He said, coming into the kitchen. "But it's starting to snow a lot more than it was earlier in the day. Did you and Leah get to find any jobs?"

"We applied to some of the stores at the mall." I replied as I helped him put some of the things away. "We saw Vanessa there and she saw that we were holding hands."

"Did she say something about it?" Roman asked. "Lately she seems to have quite a bit to say about you."

I thought for a moment and shrugged. "Vanessa just asked if we were a couple now and I said yes without asking Leah if she wanted it."

"Dude, I'm sure Leah wants to be." Roman said. "Leah's not the kind of girl to do the whole friends with benefits thing so I'm sure she would have stopped it if she thought it was just that."

I sighed and ruffled my hair a bit and heard her coming down a few minutes later. Leah ran into my arms and catching her, I picked her up and let her wrap her legs around me.

"I love it." Leah said as she gave me a big grin. She showed me her wrist, indicating that she was talking about the bracelet that I had figured out how to make after finding a few things to make it. She was in her tank top and pajama pants with her hair in a long braid. Leah smelled like lavender and wouldn't let go of me.

I chuckled and kept her in my arms. The bracelet was red which is one of her favorite colors and I was able to find a silver platelet and I was able to get Leah's name imprinted on it. I found a friend who did it for free, saving me from a lot of money being spent. "Really? I didn't know what else to get you so I decided to make that for you. Merry Christmas, Leah."

We shared a kiss until we heard Roman clear his throat. We had completely forgotten that he was still in the kitchen. Leah got down and stood up straight before going to hug Roman.

"His present is better than mine." Leah said to Roman. "I just got this book and put a lot of pictures of me and him in it as well as us with some of our friends. I didn't have enough pictures though so there's still a few pages that are empty."

"Hey, I like what you got me." I said to her, pulling Leah into my arms. "You know I'm not much of a picture person and you somehow manage to get me to take pictures. And we'll fill up the rest of the book little by little."

We talked for a few more minutes until Roman went upstairs to his room. I stayed in the kitchen with Leah and held her hands.

"Did you mean it what you said to Vanessa today at the mall?" She asked softly.

I nodded. "Every word of it. I know people think that I'll never make a commitment and that I'll never do the whole relationship thing, but I'm gonng show you that I can. I'm ready and willing to do this, Leah and I want it to be with you. I like what we have and I want it to keep going. To hell with what they think and say. It's going to ruin us if I continue to care about what they say and think and I can't lose you. I almost lost you once and I couldn't take it. Almost went all lunatic on some people at times. So with that being said...would you be my girlfriend? Officially?"

Leah smiled sweetly and nodded. "I'd love to be your girlfriend."

"Love, huh?" I asked with a smile on my face. Leah grinned and scrunched her nose. Taking her in my arms, I gave her a full kiss. She leaned into me and I deepened the kiss a little more before pulling back. "I promise I'll be good to you and I promise to be the best guy you've ever had."

"I know." Leah whispered against my lips. "I promise to be good to you too and I promise to make you happy."

"You already make me happy." I told her before kissing her again. Feeling her wrap her arms around my neck, mine went around her waist and kept her close to me.

A/N: What do you think about Dean and Leah officially becoming a couple? What did you think of Vanessa's reaction to when she saw them holding hands in the mall? Can she be trusted by Leah like she thought she could or should Leah be worried about the girl she thinks is her friend? And Dean wanting to maybe get a place with Leah when they have enough money saved up? What about those little moments between Leah and Dean?