Disclaimer: I do not own Big Time Rush. But I do think I own Madam Wok's Chinese Restaurant. If you happen to know of a real Madam Wok's, let me know!

Chapter 8: Confusion

James POV

"Leigh, please!" I cried.

"There is no way I'm going to be your fake girlfriend," she replied, arms folded across her chest.

"C'mon, Leigh. I'm in huge trouble!"

It's true. I needed a fake girlfriend, and I needed one fast. There was this guy who worked at the hair salon I go to. For some reason, he has made it his sole mission to make me his boyfriend. I tried to convince him I wasn't gay. But he wouldn't believe me! He said I was too pretty to be straight. But I am straight, dammit. Finally, I had to say I had a girlfriend with whom I'm madly in love. And even that didn't completely convince him. So, now I have to find a fake girlfriend for tonight, since I'm meeting Ty (that's his name) for dinner.

"Surely you know more girls than me? Like Camille?"

"Camille is crazy! Plus, she'd probably make me promise to set her up on a date with Logan or something. And no one else can know about this!" I screeched.

"Look, I'm sorry. But you know I've got plans for tonight."

It was common knowledge amongst the dwellers of 2J that Leigh never ate dinner with us on Friday nights. She never said why, and we all knew better than to ask. The last thing we wanted to do was make her even more guarded than she already is.

"I didn't want it to come down to this, but you owe me."

Yeah, I went there. It had been a week since the concert and as I promised, I didn't tell a single soul about what happened. Ever since that night, Cassandra has become way nicer. I guess having someone save your career can change you. Everyone is baffled, well except me. It's actually kind of fun knowing something Logan doesn't. Too bad I can't gloat about it, though.

Leigh stared at me, her gaze turning icy. "Fine," she said, "But now we're even."

I couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief. "Yeah, of course! Thanks, Leigh."

"This is where we're eating?" Leigh said as we approached the restaurant.

I looked down at the text Ty sent me. "Yeah, Madam Wok's. This is it. Is that a problem?"

I noticed she hesitated before replying, "No, not at all. Come on, let's go scare this guy so he'll leave you alone."

We entered the restaurant, and I immediately saw Ty. He stood up from the table he was sitting at, and walked over to us.

"Hi James!" he said enthusiastically, shooting a dirty look at Leigh. I was about to introduce Ty and Leigh, when a frail Asian woman approached us.

Leigh!" she cried, "Ni hao ma?"

"Wo hen hao, ni ne?" Leigh responded. The old woman replied excitedly and the two women began to converse in rapid Mandarin.

Seeing that they weren't going to stop anytime soon, Ty led me back to the table. "Wow, she knows how to speak Mandarin?" he asked, mystified.

"Yeah, apparently—I mean, oh yes. She speaks it all the time." I replied, trying to cover up the fact that I was completely blindsided by this fact of about Leigh.

Before Ty could say anything else, we saw Leigh walking toward our table. I stood up, and wrapped my arm around her shoulders. "Ty, this is Leigh. Leigh, this is Ty."

Leigh smirked at me as her arm snake around my waist. She then turned to Ty and said, "It's nice to meet you Ty." I could hear the venom in her voice as she spoke. I suppressed a shiver.

"N-nice to meet you, too," he managed to squeak out. I kind of felt bad for Ty. I mean, normal Leigh is intimidating enough to begin with. But Leigh acting like a possessive, psycho girlfriend was bloody scary. And I wasn't even on the receiving end of her wrath.

We got through the dinner without too much trouble. Ty asked a few questions about how we met, first date, etc. I'm not very good at fibbing, but thankfully Leigh was able to lie on her feet well. A little too well, in my opinion, but in this case I was relieved she could.

I was surprised at how easy it was to be with Leigh. Never had I seen her so talkative, so carefree. Every time I made a joke, she'd swat me playfully. We constantly held hands, and from time to time she'd even rest her head against my shoulder. When our meals were served, she even fed me some of her Peking duck. It almost felt natural when I returned the favor and let her sample some of my stir-fry.

I was having such a good time, in fact, that I was almost disappointed when the check came. I wasn't sure where the time had gone. One minute, I was introducing Leigh and Ty, the next thing I know Leigh and I are saying goodbye to him.

Leigh and I were making our way back to the Palm Woods. It was only 6:45 pm, Ty insisted on having an early dinner since he was working the night shift at Walmart tonight. I felt bad for him, working two jobs to cover his expenses.

Watching the sun as it began to descend toward the horizon, I made a snap decision.

"Hey…Leigh?" I asked.

She looked up at me, her eyebrow raised. Apparently, normal Leigh was back.

"Umm…do you maybe want to…um…watch the sunset?"

Once again, I was met with a blank stare. We had stopped walking by then, which made me all the more apprehensive. I coughed nervously, hoping she'd answer my question soon. I was starting to feel really dumb for asking.

She shrugged. "Sure, why not?"

The conversation stopped after that. Wordlessly, we made our way to a nearby park. We didn't encounter a lot of people when we entered the park. Embarrassed, I couldn't help but notice that the majority of the people we did see were love struck couples. I snuck a peek at Leigh, hoping she didn't notice all the couples around. She seemed unfazed, as usual. We spotted a free bench with a perfect view of the sun setting, and moved toward it. We sat down and were met with silence as we watched the sun move lower and lower, painting the sky in a myriad of orange, yellow, and pink. I had to admit, if there was one good thing about pollution it was the fact it created stunning sunsets.

"So," I started, disturbing the stillness, "since when do you speak Mandarin?"

I heard Leigh let out a hollow laugh. "I was wondering when you'd call me out on that. I grew up around the Chinatown located in Boston. Sort of came with the territory."

"You seemed to know that old woman at Madam Wok's well," I pressed on, wondering how much information I could squeeze out of her before she shut me out.

"Yeah, well that's what happens when you go to the same restaurant once a week for like two months. I owe her a lot."

I nodded, making a mental note to tell the others. We were once again immersed in silence. The sun finished setting and the coolness of the February breeze made itself known. I shuddered, wondering if Leigh felt the chill as well. She didn't make any movement, still as a statue. I looked down at my watch, realizing how late it was becoming.

"We should probably go," I stated.

We left the park and headed back to the Palm Woods in companionable silence. It was relaxing, surprisingly enough. Normally I hated the quiet. It's just so boring. But there was something about walking in the darkness with Leigh that felt…nice.

Before I could reflect upon it further, I realized we had arrived in front of 2K. Leigh got out her keys and unlocked her door.

"Thanks again, Leigh." I said.

"No problem." Then she gave me an evil grin. "He shouldn't be bothering you again."

I chuckled. I looked down at her, and did something that I never thought I'd do.

I kissed her on the cheek. I saw her eyes widen, obviously not expecting me to do that.

I cleared my throat. "Good night, Leigh." I quickly opened the door to 2J and shut it before she could say or do anything.

"Hey James," I heard Kendall's voice call out, "Why are you blushing?"

Looking for the where the sound came from, I discovered Kendall, Carlos, and Logan sitting around the TV, which was currently on mute. Three pairs of eyes gazed at me, mystified.

"Yeah, where have you been anyways? It's nearly eight-thirty," Logan added.

"I umm…I.." I stuttered.

Carlos stood up, pointing his finger at me. "Aha! Blushing, mysteriously disappearing on us…who's the girl?"

I panicked. "No! I mean, what girl? Psssh…there's no girl. You guys are funny, hahaha!"

My best friends eyed me warily. They knew me too damn well. Before they could further interrogate me, I yawned. "Boy, I'm exhausted! I think I'm gonna hit the hay. G'night."

I hurried to my room and slammed the door. I climbed into bed and tried to sleep. But no sleep came. Instead, I spent the majority of the night tossing and turning in my bed, thinking about the way Leigh's head rested perfectly on my shoulder, and the way she acted at dinner. The more I thought about it, the more confused I became.

A/N: Did you like the James/Leigh fluff? I hope so! I'm excited to post the chapter nine, so expect it tomorrow sometime. Thanks for reading! Review if you'd like! Oh, and I looked up the Mandarin on the Internet, so if it's wrong, I'm sorry! It's supposed to say:

"Leigh? How are you?"

"I'm good, how are you?"

Or something to that effect.