Heheheyy! Guess who's going to central America in a week? I'll give you a clue : she's a sixteen-year-old girl who writes fanfiction for a Disney show -_-

My life is sad.

So now I'm making Kim's life sad!

Mwahahahahaha!

But don't worry, it's not for long, she'll be back to her usual perky self in no time!

But for the time being :

The third week of October kinda went by in a blur for me, and Halloween was fast approaching. I still hadn't gotten to have a real conversation; only an occasional 'Hi' - if I was lucky - and maybe a passing glance in class or walking down the halls. He didn't even eat with me anymore; when I went over at lunch to sit with the guys in an attempt to maybe spark a group conversation, I was told that he had decided to eat at home from then on, saying that the walking would do him good.

Of course I knew that that was utter bullshit, since Jack couldn't possibly have been in better physical condition. And trust me, I had stared at him enough to know.

I was feeling so frustrated, so lost, so...abandoned, like a piece of me was missing and...it hurt. It hurt so bad that Jack would just cut me off like that. I know that I had only known him for six weeks, but he had somehow already found a way to karate-chop his way into my heart, making me feel so alive whenever I was with him, whenever he called me Kimmy, or played with my hair...

When I had lost my mom, it had felt like a part of me had just withered away and died with her. And I was just beginning to move on; to bring back the old Kim, the one who loved karate more than anything in the world, who was always having fun, always getting into trouble and never looking back.

But now I was loosing my best friend, too. And it seemed that he was taking that Kim with him, leaving only an empty shell of what I was when I was around him. Pathetic, I know, to let a boy affect me so much. But I couldn't explain it. I felt like we were...connected somehow, and that honestly scared the shit out of me, because if in the end, he really did leave me, I knew that it would destroy me.

He was the first person to ever steal my heart the way he did, and now he was breaking it.

Cue river of tears.

But enough with the waterworks, I had some serious business to get to.

The whole school was abuzz with excitement for the upcoming Halloween party. It was going to be my first big event at Seaford High, and from what I had been told by the girls, every year was better than the last. There was always a ton of spooky food, fun attractions and even a costume competition. And Grace had said that there was even going to be a haunted chariot tour of the campus. Of course, the school had needed a little extra funding for the chariots, but Jack's family had been happy to oblige.

I remembered Jack telling me once that Halloween was his favorite holiday; when I had asked him why, he had cryptically told me that it was the one day of the year when everyone was allowed to be themselves without being judged for their differences. Of course, being the curious cat that I was, I asked him if he was referring to himself, but he just told me something about a really ugly cousin, so I dropped the subject.

Thinking of Jack, I had decided to give him one last chance to explain to me what he was up to before I pulled out the big - albeit stupid - guns and went to Jerry.

Having gotten unfortunately used to him avoiding me at that point, I had decided that some initiative needed to be taken; and so the Monday after my little chat with the girls about my situation I waited for the first break bell to ring and rushed out of class as quickly as possible, making a beeline towards the guys' toilets, where I knew that Jack had been hiding for the past week.

I hid in one of the stalls, making sure that absolutely no part of my anatomy came into direct contact with the actual toilet. I really didn't want to contract a deadly STD.

I waited for a few minutes, making sure to hold my breath when one guy came in an decided to let one rip, and as soon as I spotted Jack's usual worn, red Chuck Taylors from under the flimsy stall door, I almost jumped out of the stinky cubicle, taking my friend - and all the other guys in the restroom for that matter - off guard. Before he could even get a word out, I grabbed Jack by the sleeve of his striped V-neck sweater and dragged him back into the cubicle with me, shooting the remaining stunned males a defiant glare, making it clear that we were not to be disturbed. Moments later, I heard most of them leave, grumbling their disapproval as some of them zipped their pants up and others didn't even bother to wash their hands.

Savages.

Since I had all but attacked him, Jack hadn't uttered a word, hadn't even looked at me; he was just staring distantly into the grimy toilet bowl, watching as miscellaneous waste floated about at the surface.

It was really making me nervous, so before I lost my nerve, I curled my hand into a fist and delivered a not-so-playful punch to his right arm.

"Hey!" Well at least it had shaken him from his stupor.

"What was that for?" he whined, rubbing his arm where a bruise would likely form.

What was that for? Was he actually serious? I raised an eyebrow and crossed my arms, giving him my most pissed expression.

"Are you for real right now?" I hissed. "You ignore me for weeks - no phone call, no text, not even a 'hello' - and you have the gall to ask me what this -" I punched him again to demonstrate my point, "is for?! You fucking asshole!" God, I had no idea how pissed I was until I actually let it out. I just felt so betrayed, I guess I just spent too much time moping about it to actually realize how furious it made me.

Jack's eyes widened, as if realizing just exactly what was going on, and who he was with. He turned his head away from me then, choosing to stare instead at the stall door; a blank, empty look invading his features. I was suddenly faced with someone else entirely. Someone distant, unresponsive and void of emotion. This was not my best friend. This was not the boy who had stolen my heart.

Frustrated, I stomped my feet on the stained marble floor, letting out a childlike cry of anger that made me seem like a complete immature brat. But of course, at that moment I had slightly more important things on my mind than my image.

"Why can't you just speak to me?" I saw him wince slightly at my raised voice as I had abandoned all notion of discreetness. If anyone decided to walk in at that moment, they wouldn't want to stay long.

He sighed, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his jeans. He rocked back and forth on his feet for a while, seeming torn. I just stood there watching him, hoping that he would say something, anything, that would give me some insight as to what he was thinking. Because I didn't have a fucking clue.

"Kim, just…just go, okay? This is the guys' bathroom; you shouldn't be in here."

Any spark of hope inside me fizzled out at that moment, and I was left with a horrible sick feeling in the pit of my stomach as Jack stretched out his arm and pushed open the cubicle door.

I took that as my cue, and with one last glance towards my friend, I left the bathroom more determined than ever to find out what was going on inside Jack Brewer's incredible thick skull.

…

"Jerry! Hey Jerry, hold up! I need to speak to you about something!" It was lunchtime, and I was currently chasing an evasive Jerry Martinez down the halls of Seaford High, trying desperately to get his attention. Although I was beginning to think that he was purposely avoiding me, as every time I called his name he seemed to pick up the pace, moving further and further out of my reach.

Finally, after getting fed up of zigzagging relentlessly down the halls, I decided to take a little shortcut, passing through the cafeteria to come out the other end of the school, right at the entrance of the library. I was almost certain that his plan was to hide away in the astrology section, the place where dust was born, which is where he always goes when he's trying to avoid a crazy ex-girlfriend, or a jealous boyfriend.

I rushed to the back of the library, settling myself amongst the big books about stars and the solar system.

I only had to wait a few moments, as I was just catching my breath when I saw Jerry run frantically towards where I was standing, only to stop straight in his tracks like a deer caught in headlights, suddenly realising that he was cornered.

"Jer, wait. Please, just hear me out. We're friends, right? So why are you avoiding me?"

"I'm not avoiding you," he was quick to correct me. A look of resignation appeared on his face and he let out a weary sigh, rubbing his face with a tanned hand.

"Listen Kim, you know…you know that you're our number one mamacita, you're part of the family now, but there are just some things that you don't understand yet."

"Then help me understand, explain it to me!" I pleaded. "If I'm so in the dark about everything, then please, enlighten me! What is going on with Jack and why are you acting so weird? And what's all this shit with that guy Brody and his little posse? Everything started going to shit when he showed up. Goddamnit, everything's so confusing!"

Jerry sighed, probably pitying the girl having a mental breakdown.

"Kim, I-"

"Please," I begged, my plea barely audible. I didn't want to lose Jack. I couldn't.

Jerry looked at me differently then, as if realizing just how distraught this whole situation was making me. He looked sympathetic, sad, almost…

When he said nothing, I continued. "If I could just…get him to talk to me, really talk to me…that's all I want. And I need your help, Jerry. Don't you want Jack to be happy? Because although I may not have known him as long as you have, but I know him well enough to see that he isn't. He's miserable, and just need him to understand that he doesn't have to be. As long as I'm here, he can always count on me to be there for him. He needs to see that."

…He did. He really did. Whatever that idiot was going through, he should have known that he could trust me with his problems. All of them.

I knew the moment that Jerry looked down to the floor that he was going to help me. He cared about Jack just as much as I did, and I knew that he would want to help him in any way possible.

He spent a few moments like that, in silence, probably going through some sort of internal debate. After a while, he slowly raised his head to look at me, and what I saw on his face was the most serious expression I had ever seen on Jerry Martinez, my goofy, easy-going friend.

"Tell me what you have in mind."

"Why?! Why did I let you rope me into wearing this..this…abomination!?" I couldn't believe it. She had gotten me again.

Earlier on that day, I had agreed to let the girls choose my Halloween costume, simply because I had absolutely no ideas as to what I could wear. But if I had, this particular one would not have been one of them.

"Because it's sexy," Kelsey stated in a 'duh' kind of way, as if I should already know the answer.

I didn't feel sexy, though. I felt ridiculous. She and Grace – Mika was sick, bless her poor, foreign soul – had managed to somehow trick me into wearing something that I'd probably find in Isabelle's wardrobe. It was a little fairy costume consisting of a sparkly pink cropped tube top with a matching mini-skirt, accessorized with a little tiara, fairy wand and ridiculous pink stilettos.

I honestly had no idea what I had been thinking.

But alas, there I was, dressed as a slutty fairy at the school's Halloween party in the freezing cold night air. My evening was going so well.

"It's fucking freezing, is what it is!" I almost yelled back at her. Kelsey simply shrugged it off.

"Pish. You'll get used to the cold. Besides, it's your secret weapon."

I raised an eyebrow, skeptical. "How so?"

My two female friends shared a conspiratory glance, before Grace answered me.

"Think of it this way : if Jack tries to run away, all you've got to do is bend over and he'll be at your feet." At that, both girls burst into a fit of giggles, making me blush slightly and look down at my boobs.

I was showing a lot of cleavage, but then again was that such a bad thing? Maybe the girls were right; I needed to use all of my assets to my advantage.

After all, all's fair in love and war.

"Oh my God, you two are incorrigible." I feigned annoyance and rolled my eyes, but inside I was laughing along with them. Besides, it's not as if they looked any better than me, themselves; Grace had come as a rather racy pirate who seemed to be missing a few rather important pieces from her garb, and Kelsey was rocking the zombie cheerleader look, which was essentially a torn up cheerleading outfit and a lot of body paint. Everywhere.

When my phone showed me that it was eleven-thirty some time later, I excused myself from a rather interesting conversation about athlete's foot and made my way over to the bar –non alcoholic, of course – to wait for Jerry.

Our plan was simple. At a quarter to midnight, Jer was to take me over to the woods at the far end of the field to wait for Jack.

Jerry had miraculously convinced him to come, apparently using a lot of puppy-eyes and guilt to do so.

The haunted chariot ride that was the main event each year passed through the small woods that surrounded the sports field. The chariots were supplied by the Brewer family, and were relatively large with nice leather seats and a little plastic, waterproof hood, and the vehicle itself was able to move thanks to a pedalling system used by the passengers.

The woods it passed through were what everyone came for, though; there were toy skeletons, people in scary costumes and ominous music playing through large speakers.

I was supposed to wait there while Jack goes on the ride with Milton, and ambush him when he gets to the halfway point, swapping places with our scaredy friend and forcing Jack to finally speak to me.

It may seem a little extreme, ganging up on him like that, but at that point it was my only option.

Jerry arrived to meet me a few minutes later, a half-empty cup of something bubbly in his hand.

Once he noticed me standing there awkwardly, he actually did a double take, letting out a low whistle when he had taken in my outfit.

"Woah. I wasn't expecting that. You must be really serious about this." He quickly looked me over again.

Boys.

"Well, one thing's for sure; you're definitely going to have his undivided attention."

I laughed at that, and let him lead the way.

The woods were really well decorated. There were fake cobwebs everywhere, and people dressed as zombies and serial killers were hidden behind every tree.

The music was what really creeped me out, though. All slow and eerie, I felt like I was in some B-rated horror movie. But I guessed that that was the whole point.

"Alright, mamacita," Jerry announced when we arrived at a small tree with a blue ribbon tied around it. It was the marker for the halfway point, where the chariots could stop for a minute for couples to make out.

Of course, the faculty was not informed of this little detail.

"This is where I leave you. I need to head back and make sure that Jack actually gets on the ride.

I nodded. "That's fine with me. I'll just wait for them to arrive." I really hoped that it would be soon, though. I didn't particularly want to say in those woods for longer than I needed to.

My Latino friend then gave me a soft smile, placing a supportive hand on my shoulder.

"Good luck, Kim." He said. "I hope you can get through to him."

I nodded my appreciation, not really knowing what to say, and soon I was all alone.

I waited about five minutes and two carriages before I heard familiar voices from around the corner.

"Milton, why did you stop pedaling? You're not planning on making out with me, are you?"

My heart squeezed at the sound of the playfulness in Jack's voice, one that I had missed so much over the past couple of weeks.

I slowly approached the spot where the chariot had come to a halt.

"I'm sorry to have to do this to you Jack, but trust me when I say that it's for your own good."

"Oh no. You are going to make out with me, aren't you? God, I should have seen this coming—Hey! What are you doing, Milton? Why are you getting out? What's wrong?"

I took my chance when Milton came running towards me to rush over to the chariot and jump in, starting to pedal away while Jack was still processing what was going on.

He glanced at my costume, and then again, his eyes seemingly transfixed to my chest.

"Milton? Kim? Whaaa?"

Hmm. I guess the costume really did work; he was practically babbling. Although, he didn't look so bad himself. Similar to my own, his costume didn't seem to offer up much warmth, as he was dressed in a plain white dress shirt that he had covered in fake blood and a pair of black pants. Going by the slicked back hair and fake fangs, I was going to go out on a limb and assume that he was supposed to be a vampire.

I urged myself to stop checking him out and get back to the subject at hand.

"Jack, don't be mad at Milton, I'm the one who asked him to help me. If you're gonna be mad, I'm the one you should yell at." I braced myself for his anger, expecting him to be annoyed that I had cornered him again.

"Angry? I…what's going on here?"

Oh my. He really did look confused. I stopped pedaling for a moment and turned to face him.

"Jack, I convinced the boys to help me with my scheme of ambushing you and forcing you to talk to me. I know you don't want to see me right now – although I don't know why – and I get that you're probably angry, but if it means getting any kind of emotional reaction from you then I'll gladly take your anger." Anything was better than numb Jack. He was the worst.

Suddenly he didn't look so confused anymore. He looked almost…despaired. He sighed and rubbed his face, and for a split second I thought that he might just jump out of the chariot and run away, but instead he surprised me by looking me dead in the eyes.

"Kim, I could never shout at you. I'm not sure that I could even be angry with you…You're just so hard to be around."

Ouch. That stung.

"So is that why you've been avoiding me? Because I'm hard to be around?" I could feel the beginning of tears start to swell up in my eyes, but I ignored them. I'd cry later, when everything was out in the open.

"Am I that annoying? That hard to put up with that you'd just…run away from me?"

Jack's eyes widened with panic, and his hands were waving all over the place.

"No, no, no, that's not it!" He rushed to contradict me. I waited for him to explain further, and he took a long, deep breath before continuing.

"It's hard to be around you because…every time I see you I just want to take you in my arms and never let you go. I want to make you laugh and smile and I want to call you Kimmy because it always makes you blush, and you're adorable when you blush."

Cue uncontrollable blushing.

"You just…you make me want to make you happy," he finished.

"Ha." After what seemed like an eternity of silence, my laugh was a dry one.

"That must be an awful feeling," I shot sarcastically.

Jack flinched slightly. "It is. It is when I know that I can't do all those things, not anymore."

No, no, not with the mystery again! "Why?!" I all but screamed. "Why can't you do all those things?! Is there some sort of law stopping you? Do you have Ebola? What is it?! Because I sure as hell don't understand!"

Jack looked distraught. "I can't tell you, Kim. I'm sorry, but I can't tell you. Maybe someday –"

"Why not now? Why can't you tell me now!?"

When he didn't answer, I tried a different approach. "You know what? It doesn't matter. None of it matters, because whatever you're going through, I'm here for you. You don't need to tell me what's going on in that fucked-up head of yours, just let me be here for you. As your friend. As someone who will always be there for you, and will support you no matter what. Just let me in. Because this whole avoiding me thing? It's killing me inside."

Jack looked physically ill at that comment.

"But I'm not gonna let you continue. Not a chance. So you might as well cooperate," I smiled. "Because otherwise I'm gonna have to start stalking you. And I already know where you live."

Jack actually laughed at that, and the sound alone brought a beaming smile to my lips.

"You're really not gonna leave me alone, are you?"

The words kind of hurt, but I gave him a smile. "You can bet your sorry ass, I'm not."

Suddenly I felt my hand being taken between his own, and as he looked me in the eye, his words were barely audible.

"Even if it's for your own good? Even if it's safer that way?"

The tone of his voice made me worried, and I couldn't help but wonder what kind of trouble he'd gotten himself into.

I made sure not to break eye contact, and to show him just how much I meant my next words.

"Jack, listen to me carefully because I'm only going to say this once : There is no possible way that being without you could be anything but detrimental to me. So if you really care about me, then you'll stop being a fool and snap out of whatever's been driving you loco. I want you to call me Kimmy, I want you to make me laugh and I most definitely want you to hold me and never let go. Because you're my best friend and I need you to start acting like it, okay?" I tried to use my best stern voice, but somehow that only seemed to make us both laugh.

Finally, he let go of my hands and wrapped his arm around my shoulders instead, pulling me closer to him. "You got it Kimmy-bear. No more stupidity. I've realized the error of my ways."

I learnt my head on his broad shoulder, basking in his warmth even in the freezing cold.

"From now on I'm never letting you go."

There was a peaceful silence between the two of us for a while, until we heard someone shout from behind us :

"Hey! Finish making out, already, you're blocking the path!"

We couldn't stop laughing after that, even as we were pedalling back to the party.

And that night, when I finally let myself cry, they were tears of joy. And Jack was there with me, holding my hand.

Ooooooh, it's so cuuuutttteeeee!

They really are adorable together. And for those of you who read my one-shots, I'm working on a new one to post in between the Dubai ones, because everyone needs a little variety to spice up their lives once in a while!

Speaking of variety, if you'd like to read something of mine other that fanfiction, I also post stories on Wattpad . com, where I have the same username. I know I've probably already mentioned this before, but I'm just so proud of my other work and I want more people to read it!

Gaaahhh! I need love, goddamnit!

But in the meantime, don't forget to REVIEW PLEASE BECAUSE IF YOU LIKE CHOCOLATE THEN YOU'RE A SEXY GORILLA!

...It's way past my bedtime. I need sleep.

Go away.

-CCC