same summary, same cast, same deal

author's notes at the end


"Hey."

John looked up from his position standing outside of the car he was being chauffered around in the day to see Susan trotting across her lawn toward him.

"Took you long enough," he told her, moving to get into the car. "You ready to get this show on the road?"

"That's what I came to tell you," she answered, a little frown creasing her face. "I can't hang out today."

"What? Why not?"

She sighed and rolled her eyes dramatically. "By royal decree of my parents, I must stay at home, do chores, and study. It's Saturday, for crying out loud! I can do that stuff tomorrow."

"I thought Sunday was the day of rest," John teased, trying to lighten her mood a little.

"Not in the Lewis family."

"So what do we do now?"

"Looks like it's just going to be you and Abby today."

John was silent for a few seconds. "I've never spent time alone with her before."

Susan raised an eyebrow and looked at him questioningly. "You have two classes with her every day."

"Yeah, but that's not exactly alone time, now is it? Considering there's about 30 other people around us, not to mention a teacher who, for whatever reason, demands our full attention, it's not exactly the best time to get to know someone."

"We've spent time with her every day for the past how many months? How could you possibly feel uncomfortable around her?" She paused, a gleam coming to her eyes. "Unless..."

That look worried him a bit. "Unless what?"

"You like her!"

"You're unhinged. You think everyone likes each other."

"Maybe, but in this case, I'm right. You have a crush on Abby."

"How can I have a crush on her? I don't know her that well. Besides, I think just about every guy in school has a crush on her."

Susan couldn't help but be impressed. "Really?"

"Well, I don't know if they all do, but a lot of them. Haven't you noticed the way they look at her in the halls? And I've heard quite a few things about her in the locker room."

She inadvertently felt her hackles raise, preparing to defend her friend. "What kind of things?"

"Relax...nothing bad. Just that they think she's..." He paused and shifted uncomfortably before continuing. "Pretty and funny and smart, but just can't quite get up the guts to ask her out."

"Aww, our little Abby's Miss Popularity."

"A lot of it's probably that whole fresh meat concept."

Susan stared at him, a little baffled. "Fresh meat?"

"Yeah. Someone new, someone that people don't know a lot about. I guess it's a guy thing, but there's something about a woman and mystery that sends guys into a frenzy."

"I guess. Girls generally tend to go for the bad boy types. Our equivalent, I suppose." She shook her head. "Don't do that."

"Do what?"

"Distract me. We were talking about your crush on Abby."

"No, you were talking about my crush on Abby."

"Ah ha!" Susan yelped. "You just admitted it! You DO like her!"

John sighed and hung his head. There was no winning with this girl. "Fine, Susan, think what you want."

"Uh-uh, you're not getting away that easy. Not after this kind of breakthrough." She lowered her voice and looked him in the eyes, the wide grin fading from her face. "Seriously. You can talk to me, you know. We've been talking to each other for years. If you do like her...well, it's not like I'm going to run off and tell her. I'll keep it quiet."

He kept his eyes on the tips of his sneakers, mentally debating what to say. But, in the end, he realized that it was Susan, and how could he not tell her the truth? He sighed and forced himself to look up and meet her gaze.

"Yes. I like her. I don't know what it is, but I really like her. I'm crazy about her, all right? There's something about her that I'm just...drawn to. I can't help it, I can't control it, and I can't stop it. Are you happy? You've dragged it out of me."

Susan reached out and touched John's arm lightly. "Hey. I think it's great that you like Abby. She's a wonderful person. You could do a whole hell of a lot worse than a girl like her."

John gave her a pained look. "But now do you see why spending the day alone with her is freaking me out? If I thought of her the way I think of you, no offense, there wouldn't be any problem. But every time I look at her, I have this mental image of some bad, 70s TV movie with two teenagers running toward each other in slow motion across a meadow."

Susan cringed. "Okay, that's just wrong."

"Well, maybe I'm exaggerating a little bit. But at the very least, I keep picturing stupid things like...holding her hand while walking down the halls at school."

With that thought, Susan just melted. "Awww. That's so sweet. You should definitely ask her out."

"Yeah, okay."

"Why not?"

"Because I enjoy her company. And if I ask her out and she says no, then things will get weird and awkward between us and then the three of us won't be able to hang out like we usually do. I'd rather have her has a friend then not have her at all."

"Wow. That's one of the nicest things I've ever heard. Most guys our age would just try to nail her and move on."

John's nostrils flared a little at the thought of some guy doing that to Abby. "I don't want to 'nail' her, Susan. I want to be her boyfriend."

Susan's eyes widened in surprise. "Your feelings on the subject run much deeper than I would've imagined. Now I definitely think you should ask her out."

"And here we are again."

"Fine. But will you at least think about it? I know you're afraid she'll say no, but what if she says yes?"

"She wouldn't say yes."

"You're not giving yourself enough credit, John. You're a great guy and you deserve to be happy. And it seems that Abby makes you happy."

"Would you knock it off, please?"

Susan threw up her hands in surrender. "All right. I'll let it go. For now. But you know this isn't over, right?"

"Yeah, I kinda figured that."

She opened her mouth to continue, but at that moment, they heard someone call out, "Hey!" Simultaneously, they looked up and saw Abby half walking, half running towards them.

"Running a bit late, are we?"

"Sorry about that," John answered.

Abby shrugged. "Don't worry about it."

"I just came out here to tell you guys that I can't make it today. My parents told me I have to stay home and do some work. You know how it goes. But you two have fun. And stop by later on–I'll probably be able to sneak out for a few minutes to say hi. Maybe by that point, I'll have been given a reprieve or something. Later!" Susan gave them a smile and trotted off to her house.

John and Abby stood in silence for a few moments, each searching for something to say. Abby felt her heart racing at the thought of spending a day alone with John. She didn't know if she could handle it.

"Where are my manners?" John asked suddenly, reaching out and opening the door. "Ladies first."

"Well then by all means, get in the car," Abby answered, smirking.

"Oh, goody. I'm not even going to notice the absence of Susan, am I?"

"Probably not," Abby told him, sliding into the backseat of the car.

Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all.

Many hours later, after putzing around in Barnes & Noble and the mall, the pair were standing on Susan's doorstep, waiting for her to emerge from her room.

"Hey guys," Susan greeted them, stumbling downstairs to the open front door. "Back so soon?"

"Soon? We've been gone for five hours," John said.

"Wow. Has it been that long? I kinda nodded off for a while."

"Slacker," Abby mumbled, nudging her friend good-naturedly.

Susan noticed then that Abby was carrying a small, house-shaped box. "Whatcha got there?"

"Oh!" She put her back to Susan, pulled an object out of the box, then turned around with a little brown bear dressed in a suit. "I got a Build-A-Bear!"

Susan chuckled. "Build-A-Bear? Really?"

"Hey, come on. I've never been to one before. I'd only heard about them back in Minnesota. And then we ran into one that had just opened up downtown, so John gave into my whining and let me go in."

"Yeah, I'm weak," John added. "I can only listen to a girl bitch and moan for so long before I have to cave."

"Right. So, what's the bear's name?"

Abby grinned. "Carter."

Susan just blinked. "You named your bear Carter?"

"Well, John did buy him for me."

Susan blinked again. "You bought her a bear?"

John shrugged. "Why not? If something so small is going to bring someone that much joy, then what the hell?"

Abby just grinned wider and hugged the bear closer to her chest. "And it does bring me a lot of joy."

Susan rolled her eyes. "And now we know what Abby was like at age five."

Abby stuck her tongue out. "Hey, I like my bear, and I'm not ashamed to admit it. There's something very special about a personalized teddy bear."

"Just don't forget–I have visitation rights," John reminded her.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah."

Just when Susan thought her eyebrows couldn't go any higher watching this little exchange, she proved herself wrong. "Visitation rights?"

"Yeah. I have full custody, but John opted for visitation rights. You know, to make sure the bear's being taken care of properly and all that."

"Huh?

John shrugged. "I kind of like the little guy myself, so I told Abby that she could have soul custody as long I was allowed to see him from time to time."

Susan scratched her head in confusion. "I'm going to go back upstairs and wake up again, because I'm pretty sure this is a very twisted dream I'm having."

"Good grief, Susan, we're only joking around. It's her bear–she can do whatever she wants with it."

"I've got to get going," Abby said suddenly, putting Carter back in his box. "Otherwise, my mom'll freak out because I've been gone so long. Give me a call tomorrow, if you guys want to do anything." And at that, she hurried down the street toward her house.

Susan turned to look at John, who was watching Abby. "So, you bought her a teddy bear, huh? How sweet."

"Shut up."

"How'd you manage to actually buy it for her?"

"She wanted one but couldn't convince herself that it was something she needed to spend money on, so I bought it. It's not that big of a deal."

"Uh huh."

"It's not!"

"Of course not."

"Why do I get the feeling that you don't believe me?"

"Probably because I don't."

"Yeah, I'm gonna go. I don't need this kind of interrogation right now."

"Okay, you go home and dream about your day with Abby."

"Eat me."

"No, thanks. I'm not hungry."

"Why do I bother with you?"

"Because no one else will put up with you. See ya later, John." With that, Susan waved and stepped back into her house, closing the door behind her.

John got into the car and smiled to himself as he watched the familiar scenery fly by. He'd managed to spend the day alone with Abby and not make a complete ass of himself. What's more, she seemed to actually have a good time with him. Maybe there was hope after all.


Author's Notes: First of all, I'm sorry this took so damn long for me to get out. Writer's block. And work. Since the last time I updated this, I stopped working days and have gone to working only nights, so it's messing with my system and as a result...no writing. I hope to update more frequently in the future, but I make no promises...this is why I could never really write, though. Deadlines mean nothing to me. But keep the reviews coming. They mean so much to me. Thank you to everyone who's reviewed–you're awesome. And the people who have reviewed more than once–you're getting a cookie. And the ones who haven't reviewed (but like to bitch at me to update through IM), you know who you are...bite me ;) Reviews might make me write, but don't hold me to that. But I don't need a certain number of reviews to post another chapter. I'm not going to be one of those people (who are writing for the wrong reasons, but I won't go there). Nor am I going to do that whole review response thing at the bottom of each chapter that seems to be, unfortunately, catching on with a lot of writers. Anyway, I just want to thank C-Dawg for NOT pressuring me to write. Thank you SO MUCH for not begging.