I literally can't hold back updates on this thing. As soon as I write them I can't even hold them for a day, I HAVE TO SHARE THEM IMMEDIATELY. I hope that's ok. Enjoy!

"Hey Darrion?" Ryan walked up to her, a shy smile on his face.

"Ryan!" she greeted him, "What's up?"

He traced patterns on the floor with the toe of his shoe.

"Um. I was wondering…" he asked, not really able to make eye contact, "If it wasn't much trouble. If…"

He heart was beating like crazy. Just ask her! She's your friend!

"If you wanted to go out with me sometime?" he heard the words come out of his mouth and couldn't believe he'd said it. It was like he was outside of his body, watching him ask Darrion Stahley out on a date.

She smiled her sweet smile and her eyes lit up. "Sure!" she exclaimed, "I'd love to!"

"Great!" Ryan's face lit up too, "I'll pick you up tonight and we can go grab dinner in town?"

"Sounds good to me."

"Because she's not available! Not even slightly! Now leave me alone!"

What?

Ryan was not impressed that he was woken up so abruptly by someone shouting the last words of his dream downstairs. His dream was, up until then… really great actually. It really made him think. Did he have a big crush on Darrion? It was just a dream, he told himself, but he couldn't help but notice that his heart beat a little faster now he was awake, not to mention the fact that he felt slightly disappointed that it was just a dream.

The next day when Mark opened his eyes, he felt like only a small portion of the weight he had on this shoulders from the day before had been lifted. He felt better, but he still had a heavy heart. He got up and had a shower, trying to wash what was left of his bad mood away and did all he could to forget about those little feelings that were just niggling away at him.

He went downstairs to the kitchen to have breakfast and found only his cousin was up.

"Morning." He grunted.

"Morning." John replied, eyeing him with a mouthful of breakfast cereal.

"What?" Mark asked as he poured himself a bowl.

"So?" John pressed.

"What?" Mark repeated, obviously irritated

"Are you ready to tell me what your problem was yesterday?" John enquired.

"No." Mark replied, "I mean I didn't have a problem."

"You can't lie to me, Mark." John said putting his empty bowl in the sink and rinsing it, "I know you too well. And I could tell you were acting weird. Judd and Vicki thought so too."

"Oh did they?" Mark said, annoyed.

"Yep." John said. "I went to their place after the party. Vicki brought up an interesting point."

Mark internally groaned at the mention of her name, "Did she now?"

"I don't know if that's the reason…" John said, "it was just a suggestion really, but I thought it made a bit of sense."

"What did she suggest?" Mark said, clearly on the defensive.

"She suggested that maybe it's because, you are… caught up on… someone." John said carefully.

Mark's heart started pounding, terrified that somehow, despite it being impossible, she'd figured it out.

"Who exactly?" he managed

"Mark, do you like Shelly?" John asked matter-of-factly.

Mark breathed a sigh of relief.

"What? No!" Mark exclaimed, "Not Shelly."

He immediately kicked himself for the way he phrased that sentence and prayed that John wouldn't pick up on it.

"Not Shelly?" John repeated. "Then someone else?"

Mark groaned, knowing he'd been caught out.

"No, no one else." He defended.

"Mark," John sighed, "I know when you're lying. Again, I know you too well."

"Just drop it, John!"

"I'm not going to drop it." John persisted, "It's clear that something is bothering you, and if you talk about it, you'll probably feel better with it off your chest."

"John, nothing is going to make me feel better about it!" Mark said, as loudly as he could without shouting and waking up his sleeping housemates.

"If you can't talk to me about it, who can you?"

"I don't want to talk to anyone about it!" Mark argued.

"Mark, if you have girl dramas going on, I'm sure they'll work out, you've never had any problems in the past." Said John

Pre-rapture, Mark had been quite the catch in high-school. He was always confident and smart, and usually got plenty of attention from girls.

"John." Mark said, annoyed at his cousins persistence. "This is so not going to work out!"

Mark knew that if he did talk to someone about his issues, he'd feel better, but who could he talk to about the fact that he was caught up on one of his friend's wives'?

"Why not?"

Mark finally lost it.

"Because," he shouted, without thinking, "She's not available! Not even slightly! Now leave me alone!"

And with that he stormed out, back upstairs and John heard his bedroom door slam.

John shook his head. He wished his cousin would just come out with it. He honestly wanted to help him with whatever was bugging him. He hated to see him so worked up and if he would just opened up to him…

All of a sudden, a light bulb went on in John's head… and it freaked him out.

Mark was caught up on a girl. He'd made that obvious.

She wasn't available.

She wasn't Shelly.

John didn't like where his train of thought was going.

He thought about what he'd been told about the fighting that went on between him and another Young Trib Force member.

He knew that Mark wasn't very good at handling emotions, and had a tendency to lash out at people when he was feeling certain emotions… like jealousy.

The pieces where falling into place in his mind, and it worried him, but he was sure it had to be. It couldn't be anyone else.

Vicki.

Uh oh. Mark's lost it. John's figured out his secret. WHAT'S HE GON DO? But Ryan has a little crush happening! Oooooooooooooooooooooooooh. R&R

Love you all

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