Disclaimer: I do not own Wizards of Waverly Place.

Author's Note: I love the feedback from the last chapter. It was like Oh he's gonna kiss her, and then it was like Psych! Gotcha! Haha! You guys are awesome! Sorry for the numerous mistakes. To be honest, I actually didn't proofread it. I was in a haste to get it out there because I was so excited to get on with the story. I promise to try harder.

And now, on with the story!

A Familiar Pattern 8

By genielou

Justin kept his legs moving as he pressed the button to cross the street, despite the absence of cars. It was barely 4:30 in the morning, the usual time that he spent to jog. Except for the previous day when he had chosen to escort Harper to her school.

Harper.

There was no escaping it. A mile had come and gone, but she was still plaguing his mind. More specifically, his actions towards her plagued his mind.

I kissed her. Well, not really. It doesn't really count 'cause it was on the cheek, does it? Oh god, I kissed her on the cheek.

The sign for pedestrians started blinking. Justin started to jog across the street. As he was about to step onto the curb, he suddenly ran into a tall counter top cluttered with wizarding potions and gadgets. He grabbed its edges as he winced in pain.

"Why, hello brother."

Justin followed the sound of Max's voice, and found him just as Max was lowering his wand. He was lounged on their father's favorite lazy boy couch in the Wizard's Lair, still in his pajamas.

"Max!" Justin huffed. "What's the deal?"

"Interesting." Max narrowed his eyes at him while he drummed his fingers together. "I was about to ask you that very. Same. Question."

Justin took a step closer to him. "Max," he started slowly. "Talk."

Max cleared his throat. "Well, my dear brother. I was awakened very early in the morning by the surveillance parrot. Julia claimed that she saw something very important the previous night that I really should know about."

Justin was about to urge him further but paused. He thought about what Max had said, and decided to redirect his question to the stranger facts of Max's teasing. "I'm sorry," he said. "Who's Julia?"

Max frowned at him. "I just told you. My surveillance parrot."

Justin frowned. "Surveillance. Parrot?"

"Right," Max reiterated. "Surveillance parrot."

Justin sighed. There was no point in questioning him further concerning that. "Nothing happened last night."

"Oh really?" Max said. "Let's ask Julia, shall we?"

Max clapped his hands twice. A red parrot flew in from the opened door that led into the kitchen. It landed gracefully on Max's shoulder.

"Julia," Max aimed at the bird. "Please tell Justin what you told me."

The parrot gwaucked and turned its head towards Justin. "Justin kissed Harper on the cheek. Justin kissed Harper on the cheek."

Max nodded, satisfied. "Thank you, Julia. That will be all."

The bird flew away. And Justin could've sworn that it glared at him before it did so.

Max stared curiously at Justin. "Please explain."

Justin groaned inwardly. Somehow, he was already expecting this. He just didn't think that it would be so soon. "Max," he started. "It was…. Complicated."

"Alright," Max said. "Explain further please."

"I said something stupid, and Harper got offended and cried a little. I was just trying to make her feel better. The kiss was nothing. It was a friendly kiss."

"Uh-huh."

"Nothing more."

"Don't have to convince me."

Justin eyed him warily. And Max matched him with an equally intense stare. Justin heaved a huge sigh. "Max," he started. "Just say it."

"Okay," Max replied. "It's nothing really. I was just wondering how you got from 'finding something bad about Harper' to 'kissing her goodnight.'" Max grinned slyly. "I have nothing against it. I was just really curious."

Justin blinked. Knowing his little brother, he was most likely being honest. He sighed heavily again, walked to a couch and plopped himself down. "I don't know," he said dejectedly while burying his face in his hands. "It was an impulse, Max. I really have no idea why I did that."

"Hey, no big deal, you know. You said she was crying. I probably would've done the same thing," Max replied, then frowned to himself. "Well, not really. I probably would've patted her on the head and bought her a taco."

Justin shook his head at Max. "I keep trying to think of why I did that, Max. I can't figure it out."

Max grinned even wider. "Fascinating," he said as he tried hard to suppress a chuckle. "Did you at least find something bad about her? Anything that you don't like about her?"

Justin thought hard before answering. "She doesn't eat that much," he said. "It's not something distinct that I'd hate about her, but it is a bit concerning."

"Anything else?" Max asked.

It took a moment for Justin to answer again. He took a deep breath and replied with a firm shake of his head.

"Right," Max continued. "So. There's nothing about her that you don't like, and you kissed her on the cheek." He raised his brows at him. "Sounds like you're crushing on her, man. Are you sure this isn't a crush, Justin?"

"Yes, I'm very sure." No, I'm definitely not.

The rest of the day was spent without event, but there was one absolute lack that Justin couldn't help but notice. Harper was nowhere to be found. He had knocked on her door as soon as the day started but there was no answer. He tried again right before his shift at the Substation started at noon, and still there was nothing. He had even tried his sister's room during his lunch break. Alex was not there, which was not a complete surprise seeing as it was a Friday and she was usually out and about whenever she had it off. After trying to call Harper's cellphone during another short break and getting her voicemail, he finally gave up and just tried to keep himself busy for the rest of the day.

He really wanted to talk to her, to hopefully clear things up before anything reaches Zeke. After much deliberation with Max (and the surveillance parrot who Max thought could as the control factor in their argument), Justin concluded that the kiss was nothing more than a guy instinct to try to make a girl in tears feel better. It was a concrete conclusion. Believable at best.

Believable to who, exactly?

Justin had told Max everything that had transpired the previous night, except for a small, tiny detail; that he took her away to his favorite spot at the college campus. He knew that Max would come to a different conclusion if he had known about it. And how would Justin know that? Because he, himself, drew that same conclusion when he thought about it beforehand. It was too much of a cheesy-girl-flick move. A girl cries, you want to make her feel better so you take her to a place that holds a personal meaning to yourself and no one else. The only thing that was missing was the sentimental kiss afterwards.

Which happened anyway, just not the right kind of kiss.

He wiped a table vigorously in frustration.

"It was just a friendly kiss, nothing more. Friendly kiss, nothing more," he kept murmuring to himself.

Unbeknownst to the rest of the household, loud chattering could be heard distinctly from within a miniaturized model of Captain Jim Bob Sherwood's hometown, built carefully by hand and was now residing on a table inside of Justin's room. Upon a closer look, it was evident that the voices came from none other than the two girls that Justin had been hunting for all day.

"I'm a genius, aren't I?" Alex said. "He'll never find us here." She bent down to pick up a spray can from the ground next to her. Along with herself and Harper, she had also shrunken her spray paint set with her. She was keeping herself busy by creating a mural on a wall of one of the plastic buildings. She stopped when Harper's ring tone of a dog barking blasted at full volume for the third time in a row. "Tell me again why you're hiding from him?

"Because," Harper answered while pacing. "I'm not ready to see him yet."

"And why is that?"

"Because. I- - I embarrassed myself."

"Oh whatever!" Alex exclaimed. "Harper. It was just a kiss. On the cheek. That's nothing to go crazy about. I mean, compared to what you and Zeke have doin- - "

"Shh! Just- - shh!" Harper shushed. "No voicing out the naughty acts!" Harper sighed. "I know I'm being weird, okay? But, oh come on, Alex. Of all people, you should understand why I'm being all- - why I'm being all me."

Alex sighed heavily. She withdrew from her spraying and turned to face her. "Harper," she said slowly. "As far as I see, the plan worked, right? He thinks you're totally hot now. And last night was a confirmation of that. Now is the time to move on to the next part of the plan. To totally reject him."

Harper bit her lips and fidgeted with her hands. She looked warily at Alex.

Alex frowned at her. "Wait." Alex drew closer. "Wait a minute, Harper. Don't tell me- - don't tell me you…"

Alex didn't finish herself. Her frown merely deepened and she stomped a foot down.

"No, Harper. No! Not again." Now it was her turn to pace back and forth. "You've got to be kidding me! Harper, learn your lesson. Remember what happened the last time? Remember the reason why we started this in the first place?"

"I know, Alex," Harper said dejectedly. "But yesterday, it just- - I don't know. Yesterday felt so different. It felt so comfortable to be that close to him. And then- - and then when he kissed me," she drew a hand up to her cheek. "I don't know, Alex."

Alex stared at her. She wanted what was best for Harper. She wanted what was right for her best friend. "Just remember, Harper. If he does like you now, it's only because we wanted him to like you." She drew a breath before continuing. "What he likes might not be you. What he likes is what we created to be you." She hated doing this. "Just remember that before you get too ahead of yourself."

Harper's chest heaved. What Alex said wasn't completely false, but it still hit her in the right spots. Her mind quickly wandered back to Zeke. He had liked her even before her transformation. He had come to her when she was still the old Harper. If Justin really did like her now, did he like the real Harper or the Harper that she created just for him?

When Harper looked up again, she finally realized what Alex had been painting. She quickly ran to her and snatched the spray can out of her hand. Alex chuckled at her.

"Nice, huh?" she said. "How long do you think it'll take for him to notice it?"

"Alex," Harper said sternly. "It's his face with a monkey's body. He'll notice it fairly soon."

Alex and Harper stayed inside the miniaturized village until the end of the day when Justin finally retired in his room. They hid behind bushes at first, hissing at each other; Harper wanted to leave but Alex wanted to stay and play a prank. But of course, she changed her mind when she saw that her brother had started undressing. She flashed herself out of there so fast that she forgot to take Harper with her. Harper muttered curse words under her breath, of which many were so colorful that one would believe it very uncharacteristic of her. When Justin started working on the button of his pants, Harper ran behind a plastic bush and covered her eyes. Once she heard a door shut, she lowered her hands with a sigh.

"Alex, you are so dead!" she hissed at the air.

She stepped out of the bush and looked around. Justin was no longer in the room.

"Must be taking a shower," she said to herself. She looked back at the wall that Alex painted on. Frowning, she decided to try to cover it before it drew attention from Justin. She trudged back to the bush that she hid behind of, grabbed hold of it, and pulled until she was able to pluck it out of the ground. She carried it back and placed it against the wall. She kept doing this with the other bushes nearby until at least part of the wall was covered.

When she heard the doorknob jiggle, she panicked and started running around, looking for a bush to hide behind. Realizing that most of the bushes were piled against the wall, she ran as fast as she could towards a pair of miniature characters (of who, she had no idea). She tried to hide behind them, but they couldn't cover her body entirely. When the door slowly opened, she opted to standing still and posing like the characters that she stood next to.

Justin walked in with a towel around his waist and droplets of water glistening across his bare chest. Harper squealed silently. He opened his dresser drawer, rummaged through it, and took out what looked like a pair of boxers patterned with the fish from Finding Nemo. His hand moved down to his towel.

"Ohmigod, ohmigod, ohmigod," Harper muttered. She squeezed her eyes shut. When she opened them again, Justin had already replaced his towel for the boxer shorts. He plopped himself down on his bed with his cellphone in his hand. Harper watched as he busied himself with it, and then held it up to his ear.

Suddenly, the barking of a dog invaded the air.

Harper bit her lip and winced. To her, the ringtone was loud and nerve-wrecking. But to Justin, it was very faint and barely deferrable. He merely thought the barking was coming from outside of the building.

When the barking stopped, only then did Justin lowered his phone. He shut it close in frustration and tossed it next to him. He bent down and buried his face in his hands, a gesture that has become frequent to him since coming home only a few weeks ago.

"Argh!" he let out. He suddenly stood and walked to his window. He stared out into the night sky. "What the hell is wrong with me?"

Harper frowned as she watched him, confused. She watched him pace back and forth in his room, sitting down on his bed, and then getting up to pace again. She stiffened when he detoured his steps and started towards her position. He stopped right above her and stared down at the miniature village. For a slight moment, Harper thought that Justin was looking right at her. She held her breath in an attempt to stay still. When he finally walked away, she released her breath as a sigh in relief.

She saw him pick up a picture from his bedside table. He stared at it, then frowned.

"I am such a moron," she heard him say.

He settled the picture frame back onto his bedside table, and lay down on the bed. Harper waited a few minutes until the rise and fall of his chest became rhythmic and calm. She moved towards the edge of the village and stared out onto the picture that he was looking at. She was in it. It was of her and Alex grinning foolishly.

"Well, that settles it," she whispered, a hint of sadness in her voice. "He regrets kissing me."

With a flash of light, she disappeared and reappeared in her room. Alex sat on her bed with a wand in her hand, and as soon she saw the look on Harper's face, she quickly ran to her best friend and hugged her.