A/N: I'm not sure if people will like this chapter, since I hardly like this chapter. I like the ending, but that's only because it felt right. Please don't hate me for it. Thanks for reading and reviewing guys. Shout out to Izzers! Thanks for sticking it out with me.CHAPTER EIGHT

Don frowned at the small brunette fawning over him. He had never been good at ending relationships and he didn't really have that much practice with them. So he took a deep breath and did the first thing that came to mind. He pushed Melody back from him and shushed her. Then he turned back to his locker and rummaged for his English books, hoping she would get the hint and leave. But Melody wasn't a "Brush off" kind of girl. Instead of realizing that there was no relationship between the two of them, she grabbed his arm and swung him around with surprising force to face her. The rage she was feeling at the hands of his diss had painted her cheeks a deep shade of red and darkened the brown of her eyes to a near black. His own blue eyes widened and he backed away from her.

"If you have something you want to say to me, you do NOT brush me aside like some worthless, pathetic little girl like your friend Josie. She might take your crap, but I am better than that," she hissed, jabbing a manicured fingernail into his chest. "Be a man Don Billingsley."

He rubbed the sore spot she had been jabbing. "Josie is not pathetic."

Melody scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Oh please. Anyone stupid enough to date Brian, obviously has no real opinion of themselves."

"Brian doesn't-wait. What? Josie and Brian aren't…" He trailed off, unwilling to think of the possibility. "She wouldn't. He wouldn't."

"I heard him ask her out this morning. About fifteen minutes ago, on my way over here," she stated.

Don failed to notice the nasty smile spreading across her face. "He doesn't want her to be his girlfriend. He just wants to have sex. I told her that and Josie isn't just going to ignore it."

"She will if she's really mad at you. I'm willing to guess that she knows you better than anyone and she knows that her dating Brian will really bother you," Melody sighed, already losing interest in the conversation. "But if you still want to run off and try and salvage whatever kind of 'relationship' the two of you might have had, be my guest."

He hated the way she said the word relationship. It made him angry. If she had been a guy, he would have punched her in the face right then and there. He knew what she was doing and it made him even angrier. But not nearly the level of anger he felt towards Josie and Brian. Instead of questioning the validity of her information, like he should have done, he believed her. He was too hurt to think rationally. So he slammed his locker shut and headed for the only place he could clear his head without anyone bothering him. Like Melody had said, Josie was the only person who knew him better than anyone in his life and she wasn't about to come looking for him any time soon.

When Don arrived at the tree house, he was stunned to see Josie's back pack leaning against the trunk of the tree. His throat closed up as he struggled to breathe. His safe haven had been ripped away from him, leaving him no where to think. How stupid of him not to think that Josie would retreat to the same place when she needed to disappear. They had found it together all those years ago and it was their own little private sanctuary. But he needed it more than she did. There was nothing she needed to think about, or so he though. She was the one who had decided to choose Brian. As the anger simmered in his stomach, he marched towards the rope ladder. It was the soft, confused coo of her voice when she said his name that made him stop.

"Don? What are you doing here?" she asked.

When he looked up to respond, he saw how puffy her eyes were. "I was just about to ask you the same thing."

"Only you were going to do it with a little more venom," she sighed. "I know the angry blue of your eyes Donnie."

"Oh you think you know everything about me?" he snapped.

She began to climb down the ladder. "You can sit in the tree house Don. I'm not going to stay here and let you yell at me. I let you do enough last night."

He grabbed her arm as she tried to walk by him. "Can we talk Jos? Normally? No yelling."

"Promise?" she asked, biting her lower lip.

"Promise," he replied with a small smile. "There's…there's something I have to say to you."

"If it's about Brian or Melody-" He held up a hand to cut her off.

"It's about last night. I'm sorry I didn't tell you I was taking Melody to the dance. When you asked me who I was taking and I said I hadn't asked her yet, I wasn't lying. The girl I really wanted to take…I hadn't asked her. I was working up the nerve. But then something happened and I lost it. So I blew it by agreeing to take Melody to the dance instead," he explained.

"Well if you didn't want to go with Melody, who did you want to ask?" she inquired.

He chuckled. "Are you seriously going to make me say it?"

"You say that as if I already know who it is. C'mon Don. Spill the beans. If you want me to listen and forgive you, you gotta tell me everything," she stated.

"Forgive me? For what? I already apologized for lying about…" he trailed off at the pointed look she was giving him. "Oh. You mean the…OTHER thing."

"That thing where you called me a backstabbing whore? That would be the thing I really want an apology for," she teased. "So, why don't you just finish with the story. Who did you want to take to the dance?"

He groaned and rubbed the back of his neck. "You," he mumbled, staring at his shoes.

Josie blinked, not sure she heard him right. "What?"

"I wanted to ask you, Josie. But I chickened out when I kissed you and saw you working out a nice way of rejection," he replied.

"That's why you bit my head off that night? Donnie, I wasn't trying to reject you."

"Then why did you go to the dance with Brian, instead of Mike?"

"Because I was mad at you! You kissed me, and stirred up all these feelings that I'd been trying to snuff out for a year, then you knocked me down by telling me that you were going to take my worst enemy to the dance. Don't you get it? I thought…I was so excited when you wanted me to teach you how to dance. I thought that was when it would happen," she stated.

"When what would happen?" he asked, clearly puzzled.

She shook her head. "Sometimes you really do act like a brainless football player."

"Hey! How about instead of insulting me, you tell me what you thought was going to happen," he snapped.

"Forget it. I was obviously wrong," she shot back, reaching for her bag.

"Jos. I'm sorry. Please tell me," he whispered.

When she looked back up at him, her eyes were filled with tears. "I thought that you'd tell me that you felt the fire between us, the same way I did. I thought you would say that and we would be together forever, because that's how right it felt to be dancing in your arms. And when you kissed me, any doubt I had just fell away. When I looked up at you, I wanted to see if you meant it. Then you tore it all away and went to the dance with Melody and said I was a backstabbing whore."

Don felt tears of his own on his cheeks as he watched his best friend pour her heart out while she sobbed. Without a word, he pulled her into his arms trying to calm her down. Instead, he felt her lips on his. He could taste the salt of her tears in the kiss. She grabbed his shirt in her hands, trying to pull him closer to her body. His arms circled her waist and his hands pressed against the small of her back. Josie pushed him back against the trunk of the tree. Their argument and everything leading up to it, was forgotten in the heat of the moment they were sharing. Their hands explored a territory they had only dreamed of feeling. Josie broke their kiss only for a moment to pull Don's shirt over his head, but it was a pause long enough to let Don's thoughts catch up with him.

"Josie, stop," he breathed, taking his shirt from her hand. "Not like this. You're emotional and it's not fair."

She wiped her eyes with the palm of her hand. "Not fair to your new girlfriend, you mean?"

"No, that's not what I mean. I…I'm in love with you and I don't want you to remember your first time happening up against a tree while you're crying your eyes out," he blurted.

"You're in love with me?" she whispered. "If that were true, this wouldn't be a problem for you."

"I refuse to take advantage of my best friend. Why are you trying to make me the bad guy Jo-Jo?" he inquired, putting his shirt back on.

"I'm pouring my heart out to you and you make fun of me and tell me you love me? Bad form, Don. Bad form," she spat.

"Bad fo-Josie! You're being ridiculous right now. Do you hear yourself? You need to go home, calm down and call me tonight so we can continue this conversation without all the crazy," he snapped, stalking off towards the road.

"If you walk away from me Don Billingsley, I will never speak to you again!" she shouted.

He whirled around but didn't walk back to her. "From where I'm standing, there doesn't seem to be anything left for us to say!"

With those words, Don turned around and left Josie standing under the tree. It was the last thing either would say to the other for their next year at Permian High School together.