A/N: Hey there, readers. Sorry this took me so long. Lots more is revealed about Dylan and Jared’s feelings in this chapter! So what are you waiting for, get to reading, you! Oh, and thanks to CrazyInAGoodWay, claireponcherrii, jcs22, and Juliet for reviewing! I love you guys! (:

…

“Dylan, are you okay? You seem really….angry.”

“I’m fine, Melody, so shut up and quit asking.”

The cheerful brunette frowned and shrugged. She was getting nowhere with Dylan. It was fourth period English, and Melody’s friend had been nothing but bitchy since first period. She knew it had to do with the Jared kid. But not knowing the details was driving her crazy.

She had been pressing the issue all period. But as displayed a short minute ago, Dylan wasn’t speaking up. Just snapping at any one who spoke to her and sitting silently otherwise. Frankly, Melody was worried for her friend. Was she really okay? It sure didn’t look like she was.

She sighed and decided to avert her attention to the teacher, who was lecturing on the proper way to use verbs such as “lie”, “lay”, “lied”, and “laid”. After about thirty seconds of trying to understand, she decided it was way too confusing and went back to Dylan.

“…who is Jared and why did you run away when you saw him?” she asked.

Dylan’s head snapped ferociously in the direction of her friend as she shot Melody a glare. “I told you to shut up. Besides, I promised Shaun I’d explain later,” she said.

“Oh!” Melody chirped. “Well, you never told me that. I’ll shut up now.”

“Thank god.”

Dylan felt her side vibrate. Her cell phone was going off.

Sighing, she stealthily retrieved her phone from her pocket and read the text from under her desk. It was from an unknown number, but she knew who it was as soon as she started reading.

I got your number from Chris. I really want to talk to you, so find me at lunch. –J

Dylan’s heart was beating fast and her hands were clamming up. For what reason, she didn’t know. Maybe it was how absolutely adorable it was that Jared typed text messages with proper grammar, spelling, capitalization, and everything. Maybe it was just the fact that it was from Jared in the first place. Or maybe it was just anxiety for her upcoming test next period.

…she hoped for the third option. There was no way she would ever admit to getting all nervous over Jared.

“Miss Ricardo, is there something you would like to share with the whole class?”

Dylan looked up abruptly to find her English teacher staring her down. She flipped her phone closed and stowed it away.

“Err, no, sorry Sir,” she said. Melody snickered at her discreetly.

“If you take your phone out again during class, you’ll get detention,” the teacher reprimanded. Dylan sighed.

“Ooooh, your uncle would be so upset if you got a detention!” Melody giggle-whispered to her friend. Dylan grimaced. He really would be.

The two friends returned their attention to class for the remaining fifteen minutes, trying their hardest not to drift off to sleep in order to avoid being punished.

Finally, lunch rolled around.

Dylan was hoping that Melody wouldn’t ask about the text message. That way, she could just forget about it and work on avoiding Jared instead of going to find him. To her surprise, she didn’t mention it once.

Relieved, Dylan made her way towards the big oak tree that she and her friends sat under for lunch every day, Melody following like a little puppy. When they arrived, Trevor and Chris were already seated under the shade of the large tree.

“Hey Mel,” Trevor smiled and greeted his girlfriend. She sat down next to him and snuggled into his arms.

“Aww, how cute,” Dylan said. She took a seat across from Chris. “Where’s Shaun?” she asked.

He shrugged, as if he couldn’t care less. However, Dylan knew otherwise. In fact, he was probably itching to know where she was as well. She had to work hard to suppress a grin.

“How was fourth period? Any homework?” Trevor asked.

Melody shook her head. “Nope, but Dylan almost got her first detention for checking her phone in class!” she said.

Obnoxiously loud laughter sounded from behind the group. Four heads spun around to see Jared moving towards them. Dylan flushed red with anger (at least that what she liked to tell herself it was from).

“Did I just hear correctly? Dyl almost got her first detention?” he asked.

“Um, yeah, why?” Melody asked curiously.

Dylan’s eyes widened as she realized her pride was in jeopardy. She shot a glare at the boy. Oh no you don’t, her eyes said. Oh yes, I do, his said back.

“Well, it’s just that back in England, Dyl got detention hundreds of times,” Jared said. Dylan slapped herself in the forehead. Melody’s eyes widened in surprise. Chris looked amused. And Trevor just looked…well, like Trevor.

When nobody said anything, Jared continued. “So often, in fact, that she and her parents knew the principal on a first name basis,” he said.

“Alright, that’s enough, Jared,” Dylan snapped. He smirked at her in satisfaction.

“Oh, by the way,” he continued. “I’m glad to hear you got my text. I was beginning to think you hadn’t read it. But now I know for sure that you were just trying to avoid me. So I guess that would make me…un-glad? But whatever, I shouldn’t be surprised. Never one for confrontation, eh?”

“Shut it, Herrington.”

“So, you really are here? It wasn’t just some crazy daydream I had in Biology?” Shauna’s voice joined the group. Soon after she had spoken, the girl herself came into view, taking a seat next to Chris.

“Nope,” Jared said.

“Unfortunately not,” Dylan added.

Awkward silence.

“….sooo, Dyl. What did that text message say anyway?” Melody asked. All eyes turned to Dylan and Jared.

“It said something about Jared wanting to talk to me.”

“…well what did you want to talk to her about, Jared?” Shaun asked.

“Oh! Well, you see, I wanted to talk to you, Dyl, about that last day….and uh, you know when you –“

“OKAY!” Dylan interrupted, not wanting him to voice what she knew he was thinking of. That stupid kiss, she thought. Why in the world did I do that again?

“Okay what?” He looked confused.

“Okay as in, ‘okay time to stop talking about it in front of everyone okay’!” Dylan nearly shouted. Of course, this statement only spiked the interest from the audience.

“Ooh, why, what happened?” Melody asked.

“Yeah, I want to know! You promised you’d tell the story!” Shaun pointed out.

“Not right now! Not with him right here!” Dylan jabbed Jared in the arm.

“Why not?” Chris asked, speaking for the first time since Shaun had arrived.

Because! Dylan’s thoughts roared. Then I can’t leave out the stuff I don’t want to talk about, because he’ll butt in and tell them all what really happened.

“Just because,” she mumbled.

“She probably just wants to leave out certain things, and she knows she can’t do that while I’m here,” Jared said with a smirk set on his face.

Dylan’s jaw dropped. “What the…how did you…psychic!”

Jared laughed at her words (and her hilarious face). “I’m not psychic, Dyl, I just know you too well,” he said. She flushed red at this comment. Shaun and the others found this all very amusing, but they were also getting impatient.

“Okay, look, tell us the story or I’ll go berserk!”

“Yeah, seriously, it can’t be that embarrassing. What’d you guys do, make out or something?” Melody laughed as she said this, but when she looked at Dylan and Jared, they weren’t laughing. Dylan was actually a very impressive shade of red and had averted her eyes to the ground, whereas Jared’s huge grin had only grown huger.

Melody’s eyes widened at the realization of what this meant.

“Hey, looks like you’re right on the mark, Mel!” Trevor laughed.

“Dylan! You…and he…why didn’t you ever tell me?! I’m supposed to be your best friend here! Don’t best friends tell each other everything?” Shaun interrogated loudly. Dylan winced and hoped that nobody else was eavesdropping on their conversation.

“Okay, look, we didn’t make out, okay? He just kissed me,” she said.

“Oh, okay, but st-“

“Whoa whoa whoa. I kissed you? What the hell, Dyl, that’s bullshit and you know it! You were the one that kissed me and then broke my heart by leaving and never contacting me again, even when you knew I had wanted you to do that for years!” Jared interrupted, fuming now.

Dylan’s mouth hung agape. Everyone else was in awe, as well. Did he really just say that out loud?

“W-what?” Dylan finally whispered.

“Don’t act like you don’t know,” Jared spat back at her, a coldhearted glare accompanying the retort. Before she could even look surprised, he stood up and stormed out, leaving Dylan and her friends very, very confused.

…

“How was school?” Kendra asked as the cousins walked through the front door of their home.

Dylan was in a foul mood. She flung her backpack onto the ground with great force as she answered her sister. “Horrible. Terrible. Worst day ever.”

“Really? Why?” asked Kendra.

“Two words,” Shaun answered for her cousin, seeing as Dylan was lying face down on the couch and apparently didn’t find it necessary to explain any further. “Jared Herrington.”

Kendra’s face didn’t change, as Shaun had expected it to.

“You know who he is, right?” she asked curiously. Kendra had to have known him; Jared said he had been their neighbor and Dylan’s best friend. It seemed odd that Kendra looked so indifferent.

“Oh, of course I do. Good kid,” she answered as a slight smile escaped. It quickly disappeared, but not before Shaun saw it. It took her a moment to figure out what all the odd behavior meant, but eventually the light bulb above her head turned on.

“Aha!” she said. “You knew! You knew this whole time and never said a word to Dylan.”

Now this made Dylan’s face surface from the pile of pillows she had been previously and undoubtedly drooling on.

“Are you freaking kidding me, Kendra?” Dylan stared at her sister accusingly, sitting up fully now. “How could you not tell me something as important as this?”

Kendra didn’t seem to think it was as big of a deal as Dylan did. “Well,” she said calmly. “I wanted it to be a surprise! Mr. Herrington and I agreed not to tell you guys.”

Dylan scoffed. “Oh yeah, great plan. Just look how well that turned out!” she shouted. She stood up and began to stomp her way upstairs to her room. “You know, maybe I should just move in with Isaac, he wouldn’t dare keep secrets from me!”

SLAM. (That would be the sound of Dylan’s door being shut with great force.)

Kendra sighed as soon as silence had overcome the house again. “You know,” she said to Shaun, “I would’ve thought they’d be happy. Did it really go that bad?”

“Oh yeah,” Shaun answered. “When she first heard his name, she totally flipped out, and ran out of the classroom in tears. Jared chased after her, of course. Then things seemed fine…but, at lunch…” She shuddered, remembering the cold look in Jared’s eyes as he yelled at Dylan.

Kendra looked at her in understanding. “They used to always fight constantly. Our parents would get phone calls almost daily from the principal, telling them that Dylan had gotten into another fight. But it was always more of a playful thing with them. I wonder when it turned more serious?”

Shaun looked appalled. She just couldn’t stomach the thought of Dylan and Jared actually hitting each other. Surely that sort of relationship was unhealthy?

“Err…” she said. “They didn’t actually physically fight. But Jared said some nasty things, and Dylan looked really upset. And I still don’t know the whole story, I’m really confused. If they were best friends, why is she so angry?” she asked.

Kendra’s eyes filled with sadness. “Oh, Shauna,” she began slowly. “Dylan is in love with Jared. She’s just too scared to admit it.”

…

A/N: Phew. Another chapter finished! I hope you guys liked it, sorry again for the wait. Please review, I’d appreciate it! (: Thanks.

Next time: the issue of tolo comes up yet again, only this time Jared’s in the equation…can he and Dylan work things out?