Chapter Four: One Simple Misunderstanding

Walking to his locker, Ryan thought about one thing and one thing only. The extremely detailed dream he had last night about Lizzie Grayson. Sure she was eighteen years older than he was, but that did not stop his mind from creating the images it did.

"Hey Cameron," Ryan knew who it was and smiled as Stacy came towards him. She was the only one that called him by his last name. "Wanna hang out after school today? I don't have anything better to do and I was hoping that you didn't either."

"Sure." Ryan said, hiding the fact that he was not going to be able to see Lizzie. "What did you want to do?"

"I don't know. Hang at The Dot or something. My mom's being a real 'get out of the house' sergeant right now." Stacy said.

"Yeah. My dad can be like that sometimes." Ryan said. "He always tells J.J and me that we shouldn't let the day go to waste or whatever."

A boy Ryan had in his second period French class named Milan walked by.

"Hey, Liz," Ryan frowned at Stacy's eyes turning to the boy as if he had called her name. "Did I leave my iPod in your room? I couldn't find it this morning and I thought I might have left it there the other night."

Stacy frowned in thought. "I don't think so. I'll check when I get home."

"Thanks." Milan said. "See you in class Ryan."

Ryan watched the other boy walk away. His dreams… His dreams of finding a girl for him… They were shattered. This sort of thing never happened to Justin, no. It only happened to him. He wondered if there was some sort of curse on the older, smarter twin. Bad things always seemed to happen to him.

"Well, I have to get to class. See you later?" Stacy said as if nothing hat happened.

"Sure." Ryan said before walking away.

The only thing Ryan could think about was Lizzie. Her beauty simply made this a lot better. But not for long. He realized that Stacy was as close as an Elizabeth Grayson as he would get in this lifetime.

As he sat in Media Immersion, he ignored everyone, the teacher, the students, even his brother. He was so pissed about the fact that Stacy and Milan had some meeting in her room the other night and she had acted like it was no big deal. It was a huge deal to him. For once in his life, some girl actually liked him instead of Justin, and she has some random guy in her room at night. And just what was he doing there at night anyway?

"Hey," said Ryan's twin, breaking his current thoughts. "You okay? You look like someone just kicked your puppy into traffic."

"I'm fine." Ryan muttered.

"Huh?"

"I said I'm fine." Ryan said in a louder tone. "Can't a guy think in peace?"

"What're you thinking about?" Justin questioned before smiling. "Is it about Stacy or our mom's 'gorgeous' friend that I somehow missed."

"Neither… Both… It doesn't matter." Ryan responded terribly. So much for not giving Justin a reason to pick on him.

"Well," Justin said. "You can hang out with me and the others later on. That is if you're not too busy talking to that 'beautiful' woman."

Ryan stared at his twin for a brief moment. He could ditch his mom for Stacy, ditch Stacy for his brother and his brother's friends, or ditch everyone else for his mom. It was like a never-ending circle of ditching! Sighing, Ryan figured that there was only one logical way to get the thoughts out of his mind.

"I'll think about it." Ryan said.

Justin gave a low scoff. That was Ryan's excuse for not wanting to reject people. When Ryan said 'I'll think about it' it usually meant that he had something else planned and did not either have the heart or care to tell what it is. In other word, Justin would be twin-less at the party later on.

As for Ryan, he was currently thinking about all the reasons Milan would be at Stacy's house at night. There was the possibility that they were related. They could be cousins and he just went to visit her. Or they could have been studying and before it became too late the boy left. The latter hardly made sense since Ryan did not know what classes Stacy and Milan shared. And the fact that Milan had called Stacy "Liz" did not sit well with Ryan either. There were only two types of people that knew embarrassing nicknames, family members and a very close friend. Milan had to be one or the other.

"…" Justin sat in silence, not getting an answer. So, he went for the rude approach. Poking his brother on the head and calling him names. "Hey, dork, are you in there?"

Ryan pulled his head away from Justin's hand.

"What's your problem?" Ryan asked.

"My problem is that every time I ask you something you're on another freaking planet!" Justin said. "Ms. Oh just said that we had to partner up with someone and while everyone moved to partner up, I sat here asking you did you want to be partners. So now we're stuck together."

"Oh…"

It felt so weird that Justin was the one actually paying attention. No. Scratch "felt so," it was weird.

"Get them out of your head and come to the party later on." Justin said.

"Maybe you're right J.J. Just maybe."

At lunch, Justin was surprised to see his brother join him with his friends. Ryan and Justin never really talked during the school day, sans Media Immersion, and many people had already planted it in their heads that Justin did things on his own while Ryan tended to stay near their uncle, Jack.

Something must be wrong.

"Didn't think you'd take the invitation to heart." Justin said to his brother.

"You know," Zoey said. "You two don't look all that much alike."

"What are you talking about? Their identical twins." Brittany said.

"Yeah," Zoey said. "But J.J looks like Ryan's evil twin, you know? Like Wario and Mario."

Ryan glanced at Justin, who gave him a dismissive wave.

"Zo plays too many video games." Justin explained. "You'll get used to her high-fashion statement and need for video games."

"Oh." Ryan's response was barely heard by the others, but his brother heard it loud and clear.

"Hey," Desmond said to Ryan. "Aren't you friends with Stacy?" Ryan nodded. "Think you could hook me up with her?"

"Maybe." Ryan said.

"Good, because that Milan guy seems to be on her too." Desmond said.

Justin sighed. "I keep telling you to leave her alone. She's just lost her appeal to me."

"Why?" Ryan asked.

"Next to her into guys like you, I don't know." Justin responded. "Besides, from what I hear, she and Milan got a bit cozy the other night. I wouldn't want to intrude on that."

Brittany smirked. "Wow. You used 'intrude' properly."

"Aw man," Ryan said standing up. "I forgot to check in with Jack about something. I'll be right back."

While the others found that very unimportant, Justin could only watch his brother walk away in curiosity. Ryan did not forget much and he surely did not forget to check in with anyone about anything. Besides, if it was that important, Jack would have found Ryan instead. So that meant that Ryan walked away for the topic of the conversation, Stacy Chambers.

Ryan sat in the bleachers the overlooked the empty football field, his eyes focused on one imaginary object. How and why did this happen to him? If Justin would have had a crush on her and vice versa, his brother would be everything but married to Stacy now.

Sometimes he focused on the girl so much that he actually thought he heard her, giggling. No, it was more like that snicker she does when she sees him tripping in the hallways. Yeah, that's what it sounds like. In fact…

"Cameron, what are you doing out here by yourself?" Stacy asked.

Ryan turned to see her and Milan, both with amused grins on their faces.

"I came out here to think." Ryan said turning away from her.

Stacy frowned at his reaction. He was in a bad mood.

"I'll talk to you later." Milan said giving Stacy a hug and walking away.

Stacy moved and sat directly beside Ryan.

"Are you going to tell me?" Stacy asked.

"Tell you what?"

"Tell me what's wrong with you."

"Nothing is wrong with me."

Stacy sighed. He was being strangely stubborn like his brother.

"You know, I asked you out on a date." Bingo. He turned to look at her with shocked eyes behind glasses. If there was one thing she learned was that no guy could ignore a good flirt. "That is, if you wanted to go. With me, that is."

"Why wouldn't I want to go with you?" Ryan asked.

"Uh, hello. Earth to Cameron, you're giving me the cold shoulder!" Stacy said with a smile. "Come on. What's wrong with you?"

Ryan was now stuck between a rock and a hard place. Did he just up and tell her that he knew about her and Milan or did he keep it to himself and risk her hating him in return? No easy answer to that one and his time to think was running thin.

"Is it Milan?"

The question threw Ryan for a couple of loops. How did she know? Did she have some sort of mind reading ability like the mutants in one of his uncle's treasured comic books? Impossible; that was fiction. But, Ryan nodded anyway and got the surprise of a life time.

She laughed.

And not just an ordinary laugh. She was practically crying.

Something was funny.

"What?" Ryan asked confused.

"God, you all are so stupid!" Stacy laughed. "Milan and I haven't slept in the same room since we were four!" This caused Ryan to frown harder than he thought was possible. His hairline was practically sitting where his eyebrows should have. "We're stepsiblings!"

Wow. That was all he could think about now. Milan was her stepbrother. That explained a lot: the nickname, the iPod, the bond. Now Ryan felt stupid.

And embarrassed.

Stacy finally calmed down, wiping a few tears that had came down her cheeks, her face redder than Ryan's. After taking a few deep breaths to stop her laughter, Stacy leaned on Ryan's shoulder.

"He's my big bro, Cameron. Why else would I allow him to call me by my middle name?" Stacy asked.

"Your middle name is Liz?" Ryan questioned.

"Elizabeth." Stacy said. "Now tell me yours. It's only fair."

Ryan grinned. "It's Mark. My mom's best friend was some sort of fashion freak so I was the Mark to my brother's Jacob."

Stacy thought for a moment before laughing.

"Marc Jacobs? Really?" Ryan nodded. "That's really funny."

"Did you mean what you said?" Ryan asked.

Stacy sat up. "My mom and Milan's dad got married when I was like two. I don't remember much about it obviously. From what our parents say, we were always close. Wherever he went, I went. He is eight months older than I am on the dot. He was born September third and I was born May third."

"No. Well, yeah about that too, but about the date thing." Ryan said.

"Oh… That…" Stacy said quietly. Ryan turned to see her actually blushing. "Well, I did. I mean, if you wanted to go."

"I do. Seriously." Ryan said. "I just feel so stupid about Milan and you… Man I'm so dumb."

"No you're not. You're one of the smartest people I know." Stacy said. "Besides myself, of course."

Ryan shared a brief laugh with Stacy. The laughter was cut short as they realized how close they were with one another. He could see every detail about her face, every beautiful feature there was. Her eyes seemed to be glowing and her chest moving at a high rate. The small blow of wind blew a strand of her golden blonde hair in her face, and Ryan subconsciously moved it, his hand skimming over her cheek. And she leaned in towards him.

That moment was the scariest moment in his life. He had never even kissed a girl before! Would he kiss too hard? Were his lips dry? Would she try to French him? All these thoughts ran through his mind, but his body acted on pure instincts and his lips pressed against hers. And again. And pretty soon, Ryan's brain had successfully registered how to kiss Stacy.

When they pulled away, Ryan subconsciously licked his lips.

Apples.

"Apples." Ryan said, repeating his thoughts out loud.

"My lip gloss?" Stacy asked. Ryan blinked in confusion, not realizing that he had voiced his thoughts. "My lip gloss is apple."

"So, um, about today," Ryan said. "We can go tonight. I have to do something for my mom and you know that J.J is probably going to bail so I'll be doing it alone."

"I'll come." Stacy said. "You can get it done twice as fast and we'll have that much longer to be out."

"…Yeah…"

Ryan felt a bit uncomfortable with Stacy meeting his mother, let alone the Lizzie, if she was going to be there. He hoped she would. Having Lizzie and Stacy at the same place at the same time was a blessing and a half.

"…to class!" Stacy called. "The bell rang!"

"Oh. Oh yeah." Ryan said rising from his seat. "Let's go."

"Sure." Stacy said.

A/N: Short chapter, I know. Please forgive me for the length and the wait. I will try to make them a bit longer and update faster. Till next time.