A/N: This is just some random one-shot I had in my mind and though it isn't the best thing I've ever written, I had to get it down on paper. So read and hopefully enjoy. And please also review if you feel like it. Thanks!

You Call it Madness, But I Call it Love

It’s the night of the school carnival and yet, the most popular boy is sitting in the empty coffee shop where she works. She isn’t sure what to make of it – especially when he suddenly starts talking to her and she learns that perhaps there is more to him than what meets the eye.

At eight o’clock, the coffee shop was completely void of any customers and Gemma Ramos couldn’t have been more grateful for that. She had an English exam the next day and though she was supposed to be scheduled to have that evening off of work so she could study, her boss had called her in a panic, begging her to come in and work until closing. Edward Leeds, the owner of Coffee Planet, the small coffee shop and bakery, had always been particularly kind to Gemma, giving the sixteen-year-old girl a job when no one else in town would so she had been almost incapable of telling him no. Her shift had started at five o’clock and she was to stay and close up at ten. The last customer had left about a half hour earlier so Gemma had taken full advantage of the emptiness the shop and remaining dutifully behind the counter just in case someone did come in, she concentrated as best as she could on the English textbook on the counter in front of her.

Hamilton High School was having its annual fall carnival, to both celebrate the beginning of football season and the upcoming Halloween holiday. Almost the entire school was always in attendance as well as most of the community. But Gemma had never gone to one. She did when she was younger and two of her older brothers were in high school and played for the football team but she hadn’t gotten in the past few years. Such events didn’t interest her in the least. She didn’t have many friends, especially close ones, to go with and she didn’t want to go by herself. Gemma was the quintessential shy bookworm. She was a wallflower, never wanting nor desiring to be the center of attention. She preferred to get lost in the crowd and she knew that most of the students that she went to high school with probably didn’t even know she existed. She liked keeping to herself.

Turning the page of the English textbook, Gemma picked it up and cleared her throat.

“Farewell! God knows when we shall meet again. I have a faint cold fear thrills through my veins, That almost freezes up the heat of life: I’ll call them back again to comfort me: Nurse! What should she do here? My dismal scene I needs must act alone. Come, vial. What if this mixture do not work at all? Shall I be married then tomorrow morning? No, no: this shall forbid it: lie thou there,” Gemma read out loud from a passage of Romeo and Juliet, which her test was going to be over. She knew the play quite well, having read almost all of Shakespeare’s works but if it was one thing Gemma liked to be, it was prepared. She was not going to miss a question on the test that she should have known.

“That was good.”

Gemma shrieked with surprise upon hearing the sudden voice behind her and she dropped the book to the floor, spinning around to see who had intruded upon her. She hadn’t even heard the bell above the door jingling to signal someone entering the shop. Instantly, an embarrassed flush rose up on her cheeks upon seeing none other than Ryan Woods, a senior at Hamilton and captain of the football team, standing there, his hands in his pockets, an amused half smile across his lips. Gemma scrambled to pick up her book and then straightened the black apron she wore low on her hips and tucked a few loose strands of her hair behind her ears. She took a deep breath, willing her heart to stop beating so wildly in her chest. He really had frightened her though. His stealth skills apparently were impeccable.

“What can I get you, sir?” She asked politely as she was trained to do with all customers.

She would be lying if she said that his mere presence didn’t unnerve her. Everyone who knew Ryan Woods was and though she had only seen him from a distance, she knew much about him. It was a perk of keeping to oneself. Her observant skills had been honed to near perfection. He was a senior and was the only child born to Tom Woods, one of the greatest football players in Hamilton High’s history. Tom could have had a career as a pro one day but he had been injured during a game in college and his football days were over so to speak. Apparently it was no secret that Tom liked to live his dead dreams through Ryan. He had led Hamilton to three division championships and everyone was depending on him to get them to states that year. Even though it was only September, Ryan had already gotten a full scholarship to play football for Michigan University. Everyone knew he was going to make it to the pros if he wanted. And according to Tom, Ryan wanted that more than anything.

As one of the most popular boys in school, there was no other place that Ryan should have been than the fall carnival but he was there and Gemma had no idea as to why. This was his night. As the captain and star of the team, he would be treated like a god there. And from the way she saw him walking around the halls in school, Ryan loved being worshipped by the student body. He was handsome of course. A boy in his position had to be attractive as almost like a rule of a man. He had the bluest eyes she had ever seen; pools of cobalt that demanded attention. He had light brown short hair that was slightly mussed from his fingers running through it and though he played football, he wasn’t overly built. He had muscles but he was still slim. Even Gemma admitted he wasn’t bad to look at. She had had a small crush on him, and she supposed that she still did, but she was smart enough to know that it was a crush that was silly and childish and the best thing to do was to suppress it.

“Sir?” Ryan questioned, sitting down on one of the swivel red vinyl stools at the counter. Gemma nodded her head, patting her apron, looking for a pen. He couldn’t help but smile and leaning forward, he plucked the pen that she had behind her ear. He held it up in front of her and she blushed, smiling faintly, taking it from him. “My name’s Ryan.”

Gemma almost laughed. “I know who you are,” she said, putting her pen to the ordering pad she had pulled out from her apron. “Can I get you anything?”

Ryan tilted his head slightly to the side, looking at her. He knew she went to Hamilton. She definitely wasn’t a senior though. He was certain he would know her if they were in the same grade. He had seen her a few times when he and his friends came to the coffee shop. She always seemed to be working there when he came and every time he was there, sitting at one of the tables in the back, he would watch her. She was shy – he knew that – but that didn’t mean she wasn’t friendly. She smiled at the customers and he could tell that she didn’t do it because she had to. Her smiles were always warm and genuine. Her name was Gemma Ramos. He had tried to be as casual as possible while asking his friends about her. He wasn’t sure why he wanted to know about her. They had never spoken before except when he placed his order but there was something about her. She didn’t seem to be like anyone else that he knew.

“Can I just get a Coke?” He asked and she nodded, slipping her pad and pen back into the front pocket of her apron and then turned towards the soda fountain behind her. She closed her eyes momentarily, praying that her face was no longer flushed. “Slow night for you, huh?” He spoke again and she nodded, placing a red plastic cup underneath the Coke spout and pressing the button. He watched her. She had dark brown, almost black hair, thick and long, hanging in waves to the small of her back. She had tanned skin, big dark brown eyes and a splashing of freckles across her nose. Even though she was turned away from him, Ryan had been in the coffee shop enough times to know every detail of her face. He would search the hallways at school for her but it was to no avail. He had never seen her at school. If he wanted to see her, he had to come to the coffee shop. So he did though he tried not to come too often in case it was too obvious as to why he seemed to always be there.

Gemma turned back around and slid the red cup in front of him, handing him a straw. She took her English book from off the counter and hugged it to her chest. “Would you like anything else?”

Ryan shook his head, tearing the paper off the straw, and he stared at her as he dunked it into his drink. She chewed on her lower lip and his fingers itched to reach across the counter and touch her face. He didn’t know what it was but there was something about her that he found endlessly fascinating. He wanted to run his thumb over her plump lower lip currently captured between her teeth. He wanted to cup her cheeks in his hands then slide them back so his fingers could tangle in her hair. He wanted to know everything about her – what she liked, disliked, what made her laugh, what made her cry. He wanted to know how she felt and tasted. It wasn’t in Ryan’s nature at all to chase after girls. He was Ryan Woods. Girls came, flocked, to him. And maybe that was why he found himself drawn to her. She didn’t fuss over him or become flustered by being around him.

“It sucks that you have to work the night of the carnival,” Ryan said. He had been there, walking amongst the game and food booths and the rides, surrounded by his friends, but his eyes were continuously searching for the grounds for her. He had been planning that night for weeks. He was going to find Gemma Ramos and then he was going to do something that he had never done before. He was going to pursue her. His goal was to get her to ride the Ferris Wheel with him but he seemed to know that catching her wouldn’t be an easy task. He knew that she would be hard to win over. He knew that she wasn’t like the other girls. He would actually have to make an effort with her. He would actually have to prove himself to her.

The first time he saw Gemma, he wanted her and she didn’t even know it. His best friend, Austin, had brought him to the coffee shop one day after school to meet up with a couple of girls Austin had set them up with but Ryan didn’t pay attention to the girls. He saw Gemma behind the counter, laughing at something a customer was saying to her and it was as if the rest of the world disappeared. He had never experienced that before and it wasn’t even the fact that she was beautiful that kept his attention on her. It was her smile. She had the kind of smile that lit her entire face up and made his stomach clench tightly. Her smile was what made her absolutely gorgeous. And it was because of that smile that he kept coming back to Planet Coffee – in hopes of seeing her smile again and again.

Ryan knew that if he just came out and told her this though, she probably wouldn’t believe it. Why would she? She didn’t know anything about him. If Ryan was her, he wouldn’t believe him either. He had to go about this carefully. He had to be smart. He couldn’t just come out and tell her that he came to the coffee shop just to see her or that he had left the carnival in hopes of finding her here or that he always looked for her at school but he could never find her. Though almost any girl would love to hear him say such things to them, Ryan knew that Gemma wasn’t like those other girls.

“I wasn’t going to go anyway,” Gemma told him, still hugging the book to her chest as if it was a protective shield, guarding herself from him. “I have an English test tomorrow.”

“Romeo and Juliet,” he said with a knowingly nod of his head. “Sounds like you have it down pat. At least Juliet’s part.” He smiled as she gave him a quizzical look. “I was a junior last year. I remember having to read that play. That and… my mom teaches Shakespeare classes at the college. I kind of grew up with the guy.” His stomach tightened when that made her smile softly. Mission accomplished. He had made her smile. Too bad he had come to ask her out. But he figured that getting her to smile was the first step he needed to gain any sort of ground with her. He couldn’t believe that his palms were sweating – all from just talking to a girl. He wiped them as casually as he could on the thighs of his jeans as he continued looking at her. “It’s cool if you don’t believe me. Now many people would believe that Ryan Woods knows Shakespeare.”

“I believe you,” she said softly though she didn’t know why he would care whether or not she did. This whole evening had just taken a severe turn towards bizarre.

Ryan wasn’t sure what possessed him. Perhaps he just wanted to impress her. But he said something next that no one, albeit his mother, had heard from him. He had no idea how his friends would react if they heard him spouting Shakespeare as easily as any other sentence. “Well, in that hit you miss: she'll not be hit With Cupid's arrow; she hath Dian's wit; And, in strong proof of chastity well armed, From love's weak childish bow she lives unharmed. She will not stay the siege of loving terms, Nor bide the encounter of assailing eyes, Nor open her lap to saint-seducing gold: O, she is rich in beauty, only poor, That when she dies with beauty dies her store.”

Gemma blinked at him, unsure what to do for a moment. Ryan Woods was sitting in front of her on the night of the carnival that practically honored him as hometown hero and he was reciting Shakespeare to her. This had to be a joke. Why else would he be there? He and his friends were probably just bored and decided to have fun with the coffee shop girl. That was the only explanation. He was trying to humiliate her somehow but Gemma was not about to put herself in a position to find out.

“1.75 for the drink,” she informed him. “Would you like anything else?”

Ryan shook his head, his eyes never leaving hers as he pulled the money from his pocket and slid a five dollar bill across the counter. “What time do you get off work tonight?” She seemed to ignore him as she went to the cash register to get his change. “Keep it,” he said in regards to the money, leaning forward slightly, his arms resting on the counter. “Do you have to close up tonight?” He cleared his throat. Jesus, he was nervous. He took a long sip from his Coke. He could do this. He could ask her out. People, please. He was Ryan Woods. If he knew how to do anything, it was asking girls out. He took a deep breath. The moment had come. He had danced around it long enough. He always got what he wanted and he wanted Gemma Ramos. His father said that he could have whatever he wanted. Ryan nearly grimaced. His father was the last person he wanted to be thinking about right then. He took another deep breath. “I was wondering if you wanted to go to the carnival with me once you got done working here tonight.”

The coffee shop fell completely silent. The clock ticked on the wall, counting the passing seconds, the soda fountain hummed, the coffee makers dripped, and outside, two cars honked at one another. Gemma stared at Ryan and he stared right back at her. Damn, she could unnerve him with just a look from those brown eyes of hers. He shifted slightly on the stool, opening his mouth to say something else but she beat him to it.

“So, what exactly was the plan?” She asked, hoping her voice wasn’t shaking. She wasn’t sure why but she had always thought that Ryan was different. Though he seemed to always enjoy his god-like status at school, Gemma would take note of a constant hint of sadness in those blue eyes of his. There was more to him than what he showed everyone. She thought that perhaps he wasn’t like who everyone thought he was. Apparently though she was wrong. And finding out that he was just like his friends – the guys who walked around the school, flirting with girls only to break their hearts, acting as if they were gifts to all women – Gemma couldn’t explain it but she felt hurt. Almost betrayed. She felt stupid for trying to see him as someone different. “I fall down at your feet like any other girl, swooning and squealing because Ryan Woods asked me out and then when I do go to the carnival with you, what happens? What form of humiliation were you and your friends going to use?”

Ryan frowned, staring at her. Her words hurt but he knew he shouldn’t have been surprised by her defensiveness. He knew she wasn’t going to jump for joy like other girls. He knew that getting Gemma to go out with him was going to be a challenge and though that was just a fraction of her appeal to him, the challenge, he wanted her because of how different she was. Everything he learned about her, it made him only want to know more. Clearly, she thought lowly of him if she thought that he would purposely set out to hurt her or embarrass her. That was what hurt – the fact that she thought he would do that her.

He sighed, running his hand through his hair like he did when he was nervous. He hoped that soon, she would come to learn all of his mannerisms. “Look, Gemma…”

“So you do know my name,” she interrupted. “I was going to ask if you did.”

He blinked at her. “Of course I know your name. I know a lot about you,” he informed her, standing up and she scoffed, suppressing an eye roll as she bent down to return her textbook to her messenger bag sitting on the floor behind the counter. “You want me to prove it? Fine. Your name is Gemma Ramos – your dad is Spanish and your mom is Italian. Since your last name shows your father’s heritage, your parents wanted your first name to show your mom’s. You have two older brothers, twins. Dominic and Anthony. They played football at Hamilton too but when they went to college, they stopped. You’re the youngest and the only daughter so they were always protective of you and brought you almost everywhere. I remember one time, when I was a freshman and they were seniors, the team was playing just a quick game of tag football in the park during Christmas break and Dominic and Anthony had brought you. You sat on the bench the entire time, reading a book. I watched you. You were wearing this purple scarf and you would dip your chin down to hide behind it when it got too cold. I wanted to go talk to you… but not with your brothers there. They would kick my ass. So I watched you. I knew you were in eighth grade so when the new school year started, and you were a freshman, I looked for you. I never saw you though.”

Gemma’s heart was pounding in her chest as she listened to his words. He wasn’t looking at her anymore, instead choosing to look at anything but her. She couldn’t look away from him though.

“You’re always reading,” Ryan continued. “And not In Style or Cosmo but actual books. Every time I come in here, you have a new book. Last week, I was sitting there,” he pointed to a table in front of the large floor to ceiling front window. “And there weren’t many customers so you had pulled this book out and… it made you cry. I saw the tears rolling down your face and you looked so beautiful to me.”

“Anna Karenina,” Gemma whispered, remembering. She had been embarrassed – having not even realized she had been crying until a customer came up to the counter to order something and had asked if she was alright. She didn’t even remember Ryan being there.

“You love musicals and you love to sing the songs, especially the ones by…” Ryan trailed off for a moment. “Two names,” he said, trying to think of who they were.

“Rodgers and Hammerstein,” she informed him softly, still staring at him. How did he know all of this? It was slightly disturbing and yet it was completely sweet at the same time. How long had he been watching her? How long did it take him for him to find all of this out about her?

“Yeah,” he said, nodding his head. “You always watch them. You love Oklahoma but I think you really love Gordon MacRae, that one actor in it. I looked him up on the internet so I knew who in the hell he was. You listen to his singing the most. But you also love other musicals like Newsies and Nightmare before Christmas.”

“I love Tim Burton’s movies,” she whispered.

“I know,” Ryan said with a nod of his head. “You love musicals, Tim Burton, and older movies like Roman Holiday. I’ve never even heard of half of these movies but I would watch them. I want to watch them all with you. There’s this theater downtown that shows an old movie every Friday night. I want to take you there sometime. I think you would really enjoy it and… I want to get to know everything about you, Gemma. Everything I know now is just little stuff I’ve had friends find out for me.”

Gemma felt her cheeks flush again and she looked down at the floor. “So you’ve been spying on me then.”

He shrugged unabashedly. “How else was I going to find out anything about you?”

“You come in here all of the time, Ryan. You could have just talked to me,” she told him.

He smirked at that, shaking his head. “I come in here to watch you but I could never talk to you. You’re not like the other girls, Gemma. I couldn’t just walk up to you and use my typical bullshit that I know every other girl would fall for. You’re different and I had to get myself ready until I felt brave enough…” he trailed off, rubbing the back of his neck.

Gemma stared at him, not sure what to say. She wasn’t even sure if she could speak if words weren’t completely beyond her at the moment. Ryan Woods, star football player and one of the most popular boys, was standing in front of her, spouting off things to her that normally, guys only said when they were written in a romance novel.

“You are one of ten people in the entire world that actually eat and enjoy cauliflower and you love mushroom pizza and get a small one every Friday night that you eat while watching movies. You drink Dr. Pepper and I love that you don’t drink anything diet.” He lifted his eyes and stared at her. “You’re shy. You keep to yourself. You don’t have many friends – none of them close to you. But the people that are close to you, the people you are completely comfortable with, you talk. You have morals and beliefs and you don’t give in just because someone else feels differently than you. You’re not a bobble head,” he said.

“A bobble head?” She echoed.

He nodded. “These girls I know… it doesn’t matter what I say. They just automatically agree with me and that drives me crazy. I want to be challenged. I want to be able to talk to someone and have them talk back to me. I don’t care if we argue because at least we would be having a discussion. An actual discussion.” He sighed. “I feel like I can have a discussion with you.”

Gemma swallowed the lump in her throat, shaking her head slightly. “You don’t know that, Ryan.”

“Yes, I do. I may not know everything about you but I know a lot,” he said, taking a step towards her, wishing that the counter wasn’t in the way. “The first time I saw you was that day in the park but the first time I really saw you was six months ago when my friend brought me here and you were working. I haven’t been able to get you out of my head. I come in here and I just watch you. I’ve been planning this night for months. I wanted it to be perfect. I wanted to take you onto the Ferris Wheel and… You’re not like everyone else.” He took a deep breath. “I’m pretty sure that’s why I’m falling for you.”

Gemma didn’t know what to say. She certainly wasn’t equipped for such a situation. Ryan Woods was standing in front of her, looking extremely nervous, his hands shoved in his jean pockets, and he had basically just said that he was falling in love with her. Something like this didn’t even happen in her dreams. Though she constantly read and daydreamed, Gemma liked to consider herself a realist. And in her realistic mind, the popular boy did not come to a coffee shop at night and profess his feelings for the shy girl he hardly knew. And yet, staring at him, looking into those blue eyes, she saw sincerity.

“I don’t think you’re like everyone else either,” she spoke suddenly, softly. “I’ve watched you, too. I don’t mean to. I just… I see this sadness in your eyes that never seems to go away. I’ve seen the way your dad pressures you to be the best. The way this entire town pressures you to be the best. I think you have the weight of the world on your shoulders and I think that you don’t even have fun while you’re playing football anymore.”

Ryan didn’t think of his next move. He leaned over the counter, one of his hands sliding onto her cheek, pulling her closer to him. He paused though when their lips were a hairsbreadth away though. He stared at her, her eyes locked with his. He didn’t want to push her. He knew that she was still unsure and he didn’t blame her. To say this was something that was sudden was an understatement. But when he caught a whiff of her scent, peaches, he knew that he had to do this. He didn’t know if he would get to again.

Gemma’s eyes fluttered closed as his lips brushed against hers lightly and she became acutely aware of his presence. His nose lightly brushing against hers, his hand cupping the side of her face, his thumb tracing across her cheek, his lips kissing her gently. He smelled like soap and just a hint of cologne – nothing too overpowering. His hand was cold from holding the cup of Coke but he gave her absolute warmth. His lips softly caressed hers, his tongue touching her bottom lip, tracing it, but he didn’t force her into anything. Gemma opened her mouth on her own accord. She rested her hands on the counter between them, leaning more into him. Ryan took that to be a good sign. Her lips were soft and warm. He wasn’t able to pull away – not that he was even thinking of doing that. He lifted his other hand to the back of her head, his fingers tangling in her hair and he almost groaned. God, he had actually dreamt about this. Since the first time he came into the coffee shop and saw her, he had wanted this to happen.

Gemma pulled away first, her lips prying apart from his, her lungs slightly out of breath. Ryan blinked his eyes open, staring at her, amazed that he had just been kissing her and she had been returning the gesture. She was a hell of a kisser. His lips were actually tingling. That had never happened before. And Gemma seemed to be experiencing the same thing for her fingertips touched her lips as if she couldn’t believe that they had just kissed one another. This had certainly been an unexpected evening.

“I’m afraid of heights,” Gemma blurted out.

It took a moment for the fog around his brain to dissolve and for him to realize what she was talking about. He smiled. “We don’t have to go on the Ferris Wheel.”

She shook her head slightly. “No, I meant…” she took a deep breath. She chewed on her lower lip, her cheeks flushed.

Ryan snickered, reaching over the counter and taking one of her hands, intertwining their fingers together. “How about I hang out here until you have to close and we can talk and then… we’ll go on the Ferris Wheel and I won’t let you go the entire time.”

Gemma stared at him. Ryan Woods liked her. He had come here and had kissed her. He had come here and told her things about her that he wouldn’t have known unless he asked people about her. He had made the effort to get to know her and though they still knew next to nothing about him, her heart fluttered in her chest just from looking at him. That meant something to her. She was a realist but the romantic hidden within herself found her body flying inside. He was so sincere and she knew that he was telling the truth. This wasn’t a joke. She was still having a hard time believing it but at least she could believe that he was telling the truth.

As if sensing her thoughts and her accepting as to his feelings for her, Ryan smiled and squeezed her hand. “We’ll go slow, Gemma. I promise.”

Gemma smiled at him and he grinned wider. Both knew that he wasn’t just talking about going slow in regards to the Ferris Wheel. That evening had moved so quickly. It was nice to slow down and take their time. And Gemma, smiling at him, looking at him with the counter still between them, had a feeling that they had more than enough time. After all, he had waited so long before making his move. He was clearly a patient person and that was something Gemma was grateful for. He knew so much about her. It was only fair that he answer all of the questions she had for him – her first question being if he could help her study for her English test tomorrow. It was the least he could do. He after all did interrupt her quiet night at the coffee shop.