After that one day, things felt different. Duncan comforting her felt... nice. Something so unlike him but once she'd witness him in the role, it suited him perfectly. The goth hadn't closed off her life as much or tried to maintain her motionless persona. Instead, she had been sharing little snippets of it. One step at a time. Baby steps.

The punk never minded exposing himself to her. She was like him; similar style and father issues... so he was comfortable to share some moments.

For some apparent reason, something felt different about their friendship. Not that it was a bad thing but it was peculiar. For goodness sake, it got to the point where they would actually call the other a 'friend'. It only took about a month. A little less but that was more from Gwen's behalf. Duncan had happily counted the grumpy goth as a friend and assumed her annoyed demeanour was just her resting face. Well, it was and also because she didn't typically like him. Now, it changed.

They werefriends.

It was late at night as the two were sitting in the back of the store. Duncan striking up his many poses whilst the goth tried to grasp each detail. For art in college, she was tasked to do a real life depiction of a person. What better than the punk who visits her on a daily basis?

Anyone.

Still, here she was cautiously adding the tiniest and unnoticeable details into the painting.

"Aaaanddone." Gwen stated, plopping the pencil down and admiring the sketch. She was originally planning on painting over it but there was only so much posing the punk could do before he started complaining about when it would finish. The punk went over and examined the sketch. "You think this would be alright?"

"Not bad, babe, you made me look pretty cool." Duncan responded, slightly squinting his eyes to read the little descriptions she had placed in the sketch. "Seriously though, this look crazy cool. I might need to buy this."

Gwen was turning redder by the !? He says it's 'crazy cool' and here you are blushing like the dumbass you are. Pull yourself together!She mentally yelled at herself.

"You're blushing." The punk stated, slowly forming that smirk that Gwen had started finding 'hot'.

The goth halted from her spot, clutching onto the sketch as if it was for dear life. "No, I'm not! It's just hot!"

"It's like 50 degrees."

"Well, I'm not blushing and you better get that through yourteeny, tiny, brain." She retorted, poking the punk's forehead as she said the last three words.

"Easy there, sweetheart. You might cause a concussion right there." He remarked, swatting the goth's hand away. And instead of the leaving the matter alone, he approached her, leaning closer to the stoic goth as she tried to move away. That was until she hit the wall behind her. "Who am I to argue if you say you'renotblushing?" The punk questioned, getting dangerously closer. "Though, your face is totally betraying you right now."

The closeness and proximity between the two had made the goth incredibly uncomfortable. Not that she wasn't secretly enjoying every second of it but she was violently blushing. There was no denying because it seemed as if she no longer had her pale, 'pasty', skin of hers. It was red. Crimson red.

Fuck you, Duncan!

Pressing her back against the wall, the goth placed her hands on Duncan's shoulders and shoved him away. "Shut up!"

"Alright, I won't embarrass you." Duncan chuckled, moving away from the goth and finally giving her space. "You doing anything for Halloween?"

Yes, she was.

There was exactly two weeks until Halloween and Gwen had decided to dress up as her favourite slasher. Yes, a little basic but that was from her favourite movie: Blood Bath II. Her plan for the holiday was to scare as much people as possible. Especially with the giant butcher's knife she had planned on carrying around.

"What's it to you?" She huffed, crossing her arms and scowling at the punk for what he had just done a minute ago. She couldn't believe how he just switched from that... closeness of their faces to Halloween.

"Well, I was hoping to make that our thirddate."

"Third? Duncan, we've gone ononedate," Gwen shot back, raising an eyebrow and giving him a deadpan look. "When exactly was the second one? Because I must've missed thatromanticrendezvous."

"Oh look at you, sweetheart. Using big words, cute. 'Rendezvous'. You trying to impress me or something 'cause a kiss would surely do the trick."

The goth rolled her eyes. Duncan had always joked about this stuff and she had never taken it seriously. There was nothing going on between them except for some witty banter. Except she was curious to know how it felt to actuallykissthe it!"Hilarious. Nice joke."

"Who said I was joking, doll face?" He questioned, placing his hands in his pockets and once again leaning closer to see a reaction.

Then came the red in her face again. The exact reaction he wanted. "Okay, you've got to leave if you're not buying anything." Gwen claimed, bursting the random rule out of nowhere.

The owner of the shop had warned the goth about inviting the punk over but she never really cared. He couldn't fire her since she was the only worker. Plus, she needed the extra company after not uttering a word for a good six hours at college and a social batter at zero. Well, not so much now. Her and Duncan started hanging out during college as well. Not as often as the art shop visits but pretty often. Now, that was all she could think about to forget about the kiss topic.

Why are we even talking about this?

"You're acting as if I don't buy something from here everyday." Duncan answered, staring at the goth with a perplexed look.

He was correct. Every day before he left, he would always snag a little painting the goth had personally painted. He never admitted out loud but he had actually loved her art and even hung some of them up. Not all of them but he would always buy something she'd created and threw in a couple compliments before leaving.

"Ok, well... you need to leave, alright?" She declared, placing her hands on her hips and frowning at the punk in front of her.

Duncan stared at her stern expression for a moment before letting out a snicker. The way she was glaring at him had. just seemed cute to him. It didn't seem intimidating as her bangs was falling onto her eyes and from his point of view, she looked short. Nevertheless, she looked pretty which he had sort of noticed at the moment.

"You're seriously kicking me out? I'm practically the reason why this shop is still running." It wasn't.

"You've stayed long enough, Dunc. Time for you to leave." She insisted pushing him to the door. The goth didn't need him to see her humiliate herself even more due to her little attraction to him.

The punk was about to get pushed out of the door before he turned turned around and faced her. "I thought you loved hanging me around, sweetheart. Like, a mutual thing. Don't you think?"

"You know, I think you're here to just mess with me."

"I'll admit, it is pretty funny pushing your buttons and seeing you get all riled up but hey, it's all part of the charm." He claimed, letting out a quick wink. "You seem to think so too."

"You wish."

"Oh, I do wish." He responded, watching Gwen's face change from anger to shock. "Catch you later, Gwen." He added, leaning in and pecking the goth's cheek before rushing out of the store. He knew if he stayed longer, Gwen would've chased him around with her shoe of something for kissing her cheek.

She didn't go and chase him. The goth stared at the punk running away and placing a hand on the cheek he kissed.