Hey fanfictioners peoples!

I was completely wifi-less for, like, a whole week! Plus we had no cable! I'm not sure how I was even able survive for that long!

But now I'm back with another chapter of HCD. Hope y'all enjoy! :)

Disclaimer: I don't own GLC. I only own Juliette. Ashley belongs to Fiolet4eva.

Gabe's POV

Shopping with Juliette is possibly the biggest mistake I have ever made in my entire life.

And that includes the time I super glued Mrs. Dabney to her chair when Mom invited her over for dinner. It was freakin' hilarious, or at least it was, up until the point when she actually stood up. I expected the chair to go up with her but it didn't... and neither did her skirt.

...Never again...

Anyways, I've been shopping with girls before (I have an older sister and a mother to force me into that kind of stuff, as well as Charlie who almost always gets her way) so I was fully prepared for the torture that came with accepting Juliette's invitation. And by prepared, I mean I had my phone fully charged and in my pocket.

Unfortunately, there aren't enough apps in the world to prepare me for this kind of torture.

"What do you think of these dresses, Gabe?" Juliette asks, lifting up two dresses that look exactly the same.

"...Great." That's a definite lie. It looks like one of those over-the-top kind of dresses Teddy's friend, Ivy, would wear, and that's not a compliment.

"I know they're great!" Juliette snaps, "I meant, which one is better?"

Like I said before, they look exactly the same. Even Toby's smart enough to know that and he's only one.

"The first one?"

"Are you crazy!? The first one hardly brings out my eyes!"

O-kay? "Well if you knew which one you were going to pick then why did you ask?"

Juliette tucks a strand of her long hair behind her ear and sighs. "Because you're my boyfriend. You're pathetic opinion matters."

"Pathetic opinion?! You're the one who asked!"

Juliette's eyes narrow. "Don't yell at me! It's not my fault that you never know the right thing to say!"

This again? No way am I sitting through another one of those "you're a bad boyfriend" speeches. Like the first one wasn't bad enough.

I stand up and kiss her on the forehead. "Sorry." Juliette shrugs me off.

I sigh. "Look, I'm going to go grab us something to eat. What do you want, like a burger or something?"

"Ew, burgers are so American. Try something exotic, like sushi."

Sushi? "You are American," I say dumbly.

"Whatever. Just go."

So I do. Anything to get away from Juliette long enough for me to actually breathe real air that isn't being choked by her lavender scented perfume.

Jo's POV

"I officially hate shopping!" I declare, entering a store with a very French sounding name.

"Join the club," Ashley grins.

The two of us managed to ditch Maddi, Stella, and Lucille, claiming that we saw a cute purple dress that I just had to buy. Now I just have to find some cute purple dress, which will be pretty easy considering that I don't care what I wear to the dance at this point. I could go naked for all I care.

...Actually, take that back. That's just weird.

"How about this dress? It's purple."Ashley lifts up a purple off-the-shoulder one with way too much glitter.

I check the price tag. "Yeah, and also meant for billionaires. I can't afford any of this crud."

"Then let's go to a cheaper store-"

"Like the flea market? I saw a hobo sack screaming your name when I went to drop off my trash yesterday."

I spin around. Of course Juliette's standing there holding a shopping bag with a dress probably twice the price of the one Ashley pointed out to me. I swear this girl is, like, stalking me or something.

"No, actually I was meaning to buy something somewhere else in the mall," I say as calmly as I can, "I don't do flea markets." I leave out that the flea market is where I got this adorable yellow hoodie for obvious reasons.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to offend you like that."

I'm about to ask why she's suddenly being nice but then remember that I'm with Ashley.

"Yeah. Whatever." I grumble bitterly. What I need right now is anything that will get me out of breathing the same air as this little freak.

Cue the awkward silence.

"Oh," Juliette pretends to notice Ashley for the first time, "Hi. I didn't notice you there Shelly-"

"It's Ashley-"

"Whatever."

More awkward silence.

Ashley nudges me. "We should probably go. Lucille must be wondering where we are by now."

"You girls can't leave now! We have so much to catch up on!"

"I don't know you."

"And I don't like you."

Juliette scowls and drags us out of the store and to a nearby bench. "So, are you excited about the dance? I am! So is Gabe, my boyfriend," Juliette give me one of those "in your face" side glances. I roll my eyes in response.

Juliette continues. "Do you girls have dates yet?"

I groan. Juliette knows that I don't have a date yet. Must she remind me every chance I get? Who am I kidding? She's Juliette. Of course she does.

"Yeah, actually we do. All of us do." Ashley smirks proudly.

Wait, what?

Apparently I'm not the only one surprised by this new bit of information. Juliette raises her eyebrow in shock. "Really? Who?"

"You'll have to wait and see," Ashley stands up, "Come on, Jo. We have some shopping to do."

The two of us walk off calmly. It's not until we're completely out of sight that I flip.

"Are you crazy? What do you mean we have dates? No we don't!"

"Chill, Jo. You're the only one who really needs to find a date."

That's true. Lucille finally got Jeremy to ask her out (which I still think her whole crush on him is messed up considering she's one of the prettiest girls at school and could have basically any guy she wants) and Maddi is going with one of the Ryans (don't know or care which one). Stella has a bunch of nerdy guy friends fawning over her so she could easily go with any of the snot picking weirdos. So basically it is only me.

"What about you?"

"That girl doesn't care about me. She doesn't even know my name. Besides, I've met people. Chance has a lot of cool friends."

I stare at Ashley. As much as I admire the fact that she lied to save my butt I still think she's crazy. No guy in their right mind would ever go out with me. The ones that don't already hate me/are scared to death by me probably all have dates by now.

"It'll be fine, Jo! You're pretty. And if it doesn't work out I'll be happy to kick brunette butt."

I smirk. "There's no point in trying to convince me, Ashley. You already told Crazy over there that I had a date."

"Her facial expression was hilarious!"

"Yeah, yeah. But if I end up being the talk of the century once again, I'm taking my anger out on you!"

Ashley cocks her head slightly. "Again? What happened the first time?"

I think back to the day I fell off the fake balcony at school. Then...that happened.

"...Stuff. Let's go. I still need to buy a purple dress before we can look for the rest of the gang."

Then I need to find a boy stupid enough to go to the dance with me.

Gabe's POV

I meet Juliette out in the parking lot. She has twelve shopping bags with her, which is funny because she told me that she was only going to buy a dress, shoes, and those stupid costume masks since those were now "required".

"Where's your brother?" she asks me.

I shrug. PJ said he'll pick us up in an hour but he's late. Not like I expected him to actually be on time or anything. I'm not even sure if he knows how long an hour is.

Juliette glances at me, as if expecting me to say something, but I don't really feel like talking to her right now.

It's weird. At first she was all I could think about but now all I can think about is getting away from her. I mean, I still like her. I'm pretty sure of that. I just... need my space?

I dunno. A few days ago I asked Hot Heather if I could keep my textbooks in her locker because Jake totally trashed mine, and Juliette freaked. Heather and I have a locker agreement because of an incident that happened at the beginning of the year (one that I'd rather not go into details about). Juliette, of course, didn't know that since she's new and accused me of cheating on her. Heather just kind of stood there, staring at Juliette like she was crazy or something. It was really messed up.

"Did you hear that Jo Keener has a date to the dance?"

Huh? Jo... what?

"No, where did you hear that?"

"Her new friend Ashanti told me."

"You mean Ashley?"

"Whatever," she continues,"Wouldn't tell me who though. Treated it like some big secret or something."

I'm not sure why hearing about Jo's date bugged me, but it did. A lot. I don't care what she does. According to her, we're no longer friends. Not that we ever really were to begin with.

"I saw them at the mall," Juliette adds.

"What? When?"

"When you went to get our lunch. She was searching for a purple dress for Crush Day."

I try to imagine Jo in a purple dress. I can only remember ever seen her in a dress twice. Once when I was forced into going to that cotillion with her and the other time when we were in a stupid school play.

A nearby car honks really loudly.

"Gabe!"

It's Teddy. I'm guessing PJ's been busy doing whatever it is that people like PJ do.

Juliette and I cross the parking lot and hop into the back seat.

"Sorry I took so long. I was with Spencer when PJ called. Apparently he's "not in a good enough condition to drive". Don't ask what he means by that because I have no idea. Anyways, how are you two lovebirds doing?"

"Great! Look at the dress I bought for the dance!" Juliette hands Teddy bag number four.

"It's very... sparkly," Teddy replies, peeking inside.

I groan. "Could you please just drive us home?"

"Okay, okay! Sheesh, what's your problem today?" Teddy adjusts the rear view mirror.

"Nothing. I'm just tired."

"Oh look! There's your friend Jo," Teddy says, completely ignoring me, "Maybe we should give her a ride-"

"No!" Juliette and I glance at each other. Between the two of us it's hard to tell whose scream was louder.

"...Jinx."

Juliette clamps her mouth shut, crosses her arms, and leans back in her seat.

"There's no need to give Jo a ride home. Really. Juliette met up with her today. Her mom's picking her up, right Jules?"

Juliette nods like crazy, her dark hair slapping her cheeks.

Teddy blinks at us for a moment. "Okay, I'm not really sure what's going on between the three of you but if it's going to stop me from doing a good deed then I'm going to ignore it." She honks the horn again, "Jo! Do you need a ride?"

Jo looks up from her cell phone. "No! I'm walking!"

"Don't be silly! Get in!" Teddy yells.

"I'm not supposed to hop into cars with strangers!" Jo yells back.

"Come on, Jo!"

Jo sighs and walks over to our car. She sits in the passenger seat. Her facial expression practically screams annoyance.

"So Jo," Teddy says, finally pulling out from the parking lot, "Who were you at the mall with?"

"My friends. They all got rides home."

"Did you get a dress for Crush Day yet?"

Jo eyes Teddy suspiciously. Not that I blame her. "Yeah."

"Cool. So, do you have a date yet?"

"...Yeah. I do."

So it's true. Jo really does have a date. It's not just one of those annoying tests Juliette sometimes does to make sure that I don't care about any girl that isn't her. It's legit. If it bugged me hearing the words coming out of Juliette's mouth than hearing Jo admit it herself flat out ticked me off.

Jo turns to look and me and Juliette. "What's up with your girlfriend? She's being uncharacteristically quiet right now."

"Oh, Jules has been-uh," What was I even talking about?

"Gabe jinxed her," Teddy cuts in, giving me a side glance.

"Oh."

The rest of the car ride is pretty silent. Teddy politely asks Jo questions about school and stuff, which Jo surprisingly answers. Teddy doesn't really have much to say to Juliette or me because she sees us often. Jo doesn't have anything to say to me or Juliette either, which isn't surprising since the relationship between the three of us has been pretty rocky since day one. Juliette doesn't say anything because she's jinxed. Not that I expect her to have much to say either.

As for me, I'm silent as well. I'm just trying to figure out what the heck is going on with me.

I felt like we weren't getting enough Gabe/Juliette interaction. I mean, we know that the two of them are together, but how is there relationship turning out? Is it as perfect as it seems? etc. So I came up with this chapter. Not much, but good enough to satisfy my many questions that I probably shouldn't be asking considering I'm the one writing the story in the first place. XD

I didn't mean to jump POVs like that. I'm not sure how but it just turned out that way. Interesting attempt at writing from a dude perspective, though. I have no comment as to how I did.

I hope Ashley was sorta in character. If not than I really tried my best!

So, yeah. That's basically it. Thx for being patient with me and my oh so slow updates.

Bye for now,

~Beta :D