Hi! So, this is my first story on fictionpress. Be nice. :) Plus, I just finished writing this...literally. I didn't even read it over. Yeah, that is probably why this is going to turn out to be crap. Oh shwell.

So, warning: this is extremely cheesy. I can't even begin to fathom its utter cheesiness. Plus, I know nothing of Ireland. So, those facts aren't right. I just have this Irish thing. I might go back and edit this later, but for now... it will be this. And I didn't even think about the fact that Raven is also a girl's name until after. I was thinking about it, and I was like, "OH SHIT! That's So Raven!" Oh well, I thought it was a pretty sexy name.

I don't own anything except the characters.

ENJOY.

xxx

~REVIEW!~

What a horrible day of school. I groaned as I pulled up into my driveway and grudgingly grabbed my backpack, slamming the door and walking to the front door of my house. I was reaching into my backpack for the key when the door flew open to reveal my mother eagerly standing there, hands pressed together in enthusiasm. I blatantly stared at her, trying not to think about how much this reminded me of the beginning of She's the Man, minus me being a soccer player.

There was no polite "how was your day today?" or "I hope you didn't run into much traffic on the way home!" My mom got right down to business, violently pulling me inside my house and shutting the door behind me. I didn't struggle, solely because I knew my mother to be incredibly strong, despite her outward appearance as a helpless, small woman. (Never judge a book by its cover, alright?) I sighed as she proceeded to drag me past the parlor and into the meeting room. I'm used to random episodes like this, and I figured it was just because she got a discount on some laundry detergent or something.

Now, I had expected to be alone when my mother dragged me into the room, but I was wrongly mistaken. There were three strangers in the room, one being someone of the male specimen that looked to be about my age. I examined him for a couple of seconds. He was looking right back at me. He had raven colored hair and emerald eyes. His appearance didn't affect me at all. My heart didn't stop beating as I gazed into his "beautiful swirling green orbs." No, I basically just decided that he was probably a jerk. Well, he could also be homosexual. See, this guy was too attractive to be nice. If he is nice, then he's gay. It's just logic.

"Annie, these are the O'Callaghans. They recently moved here from Ireland." My eyes widened at the mention of my favorite country. I had never actually been there, but I had a weird sort of obsession with it. I immediately grew a respect for this family, even if I didn't know who they were. "This is Gerard," my mother said, pointing to the man, who stood up and stuck his hand out politely. I shook it, noticing that he had an uncanny resemblance to raven haired boy.

"Pleased to meet you, Annie!" he said, and I struggled not to girlishly giggle. His accent was amazing, and just what I've always thought Irish people would sound like. I smiled in return, trying not to blush. I mean, hey, he's not bad to look at it. Who cares if he's old? Hm, he's probably not too old. I bet that they had raven boy over there pretty young. I wonder how old they were… Did they get married young?

"Um, Annie?" my mother embarrassingly asked, shoving my shoulder slightly. I was taken out of my daze, and I realized I was still awkwardly holding the father's hand. He looked like he was smiling solely out of respect, and I pulled my hand away quickly, trying to think of an excuse. I cleared my throat awkwardly, hoping my blush wasn't too noticeable.

"Sorry sir, I was just admiring your nice, firm handshake!" I said, realizing it was the first time I had spoken since I entered the room, and, of course, it was something stupid that came out of my mouth. He nodded, and I saluted him, forgetting exactly where I was and who I was speaking with. My mother didn't look pleased, but she continued on with her introductions and obnoxious smiling. I inwardly groaned, wishing it would end.

"This is Laura," my mom said, pointing to the mother, and I noticed that the lady was beautiful. God, what was this? This is an outrage—a scandal! What, do attractive people just band together and reproduce? Are they going to form some sort of army of attractive people against the unfortunate looking people? I ignored these thoughts as I shook "Laura's" hand, this time pulling away quickly.

"It's really nice to meet you!" she said, and I forgot about my prejudice against the attractive people army for a second as I listened to the Irish accent. This is very awesome. Wow, I can't believe I was having a bad day. Then, I remembered the next person I was supposed to be introduced to. I slowly turned my head in the direction of the raven guy, which I figured I would call him until I learn his name in about five seconds. He stood up and walked up to me, not bothering to wait for my mom to introduce him.

"I'm Raven," he said, his accent incredibly thick, and I immediately burst out laughing. His eyes scanned over me, clearly un-amused. I stopped laughing so fast that I broke out into a coughing fit, and my mom awkwardly patted my back. I glanced up, my eyes watering.

"I wasn't, you know, laughing at your name. I was laughing because," I started, unable to finish. What was I supposed to tell him? I couldn't say that I had given him a nickname before I figured out his real name, which turned out to be what his real name was. Yeah, that would go over well. "Well, I have this inside joke with one of my friends. It has to do with ravens." Wow, Annie, that was a great excuse. "Raven's a great name! You know, it really goes with your hair, which is…raven colored." I really need to learn to shut up.

"That would be where I got the name," he responded, still very much un-amused by my antics. God, Irish people are not all they're cracked up to be. Then again, I did just act rather stupidly and unintentionally insult his name, even though I like it. There was a long silence. I coughed to break it.

Then my mom decided to take the lead and explain to me why the hell there were a bunch of Irish strangers in our house. "They're our new neighbors. They moved into the Bensons' old house. I work with Laura." I nodded approvingly, unsure as to what I was supposed to do in a situation like this. "I invited them over for dinner, and your father is on his way home now." Throughout this entire explanation, I'm nodding and making a concentrating expression. I'm guessing I look like an art critic through other people's eyes. I don't even know if I heard everything my mom said, I was so concentrated on my nodding. "So if you'll just hang out with Raven until everything's ready." I nodded harder, even tilting my head to the side for dramatic effect. I stopped abruptly when I realized what she had said.

Wait, what? I'm supposed to hang out with a sexy Irish guy that hates me? Oh snap. I looked around to see if anyone had noticed my little slip-up. Raven was looking at me, looking both amused and confused at the same time. I gave him a thumbs-up (I give everyone thumbs-ups) and waited for my mother to stop droning on about nothing.

"So you two can just run along now," my mother said cheerfully, and I awkwardly motioned for Raven to follow me, unsure as to what I was supposed to do. I led him to the stairs, grabbing my heavy backpack on the way. I swung it over my shoulders and narrowly missed Raven's face, and he didn't look very pleased. I mumbled a sorry and walked up the stairs, going straight to what most people would call the "playroom." I didn't call it anything. I dropped my backpack on the ground very ungracefully and plopped myself down in the swivel chair in front of the computer.

Raven seemed to be confused as to where he was supposed to sit, so he stood there, his hands in his pockets. "You can sit on the couch," I stated flatly, pointing to the couch directly behind me. I swear I saw a hint of a blush on his face as he listened to what I said and sat down. We sat there awkwardly facing each other for five minutes. I mean, honestly? What was my mother thinking? I tried to start up a conversation. "So, Ireland, huh?"

Dear God, please never let me speak again. Amen.

His eyebrows furrowed a bit as he nodded. "Yes, Ireland." There's that accent again. I resisted the urge to tie him up to a chair and force him to speak every word that I knew so that I could hear how they sounded.

Instead, I just said, "Cool." Cue awkward cricket chirping. Raven seemed to be very interested in everything but me, while as I couldn't stop staring at him. Not because he was attractive. Psh, why would you even think that? "Ireland is my favorite country." He looked back at me, smiling slightly.

"Really? When did you go?" he asked, looking very interested. I prepared myself to answer, trying to think of how I should explain it.

"Oh, I've never actually been. I want to go, but it just hasn't come up. I just have this weird sort of obsession with Ireland. I think it's beautiful, and I especially love Irish accents. I mean, when guys from Ireland speak, I melt…" How the hell did that even come out of my mouth? Why can't I shut up? I blushed. That's the only way to describe it. I think I turned so red that I should have gone to the emergency room, but I would have no way of knowing, would I? Raven smirked, chuckling slightly. "I'll be right back." I walked quickly to my room and grabbed a pillow.

"OH MY FREAKING GOD!" I screamed into the pillow. It was followed by a series of profanities, but I've done you the honor of editing them out. Then I looked into the mirror to see fix my messed up hair from the pillow. I glanced at my appearance, frowning. I'm wearing my school uniform, a typical Catholic school outfit. My blonde hair was falling out of its ponytail, so I fixed it, walking back into the room with no name. Raven was sitting on the couch still, but he was staring at a picture on the wall. It was a picture of my friend Paige and I at Halloween. She was dressed as one of those horrible ghost sheet things, and I was dressed as Dwight Schrute from The Office. He looked up when I walked in.

"Nice costume," he stated, pointing to the picture. I grabbed it from him, making sure our fingers didn't brush.

"I'll have you know that everyone loved my costume. You probably just don't know who it is!" I said defensively, placing the picture on the computer desk as I sat back in the swivel chair.

"It's Dwight Schrute from the American version of The Office." He looked at me indifferently, waiting for my response. I freaked out.

"Oh my gosh, do you watch it? That's my favorite show ever!" I said, flipping out and flapping my hands around obnoxiously.

"I've seen a couple of episodes," he responded, shrugging. I frowned at his unenthusiastic response. I'll admit that his accent is slowly getting to me, making my heart beat a little slower, thank you very much. But, HA! I still haven't melted in his "swirling green orbs" as most romance writers put it.

"Do you have a facebook?" I asked, the thought suddenly coming to my mind. He nodded.

"Do you?"

"Yes! I'll add you," I stated, turning to the computer and clicking safari. I typed in facebook and logged on, seeing notifications. I got momentarily distracted as I had a fake flirting conversation with one of my guy friends over photo comments. I heard someone clear their throat and I looked to my left to see Raven standing there suddenly, glancing down at the screen. I jumped out of fright, letting out a little yelp. "Oh sorry! I got distracted!"

"So I can see," he muttered under his breath, but I caught it, frowning a bit at the rudeness. I went to the search bar at the top, typing in Raven. I reached a complication soon enough though.

"Um, how do you spell your last name?" I asked, not looking up from the screen. I could feel the roll of his eyes as he pushed the chair I was sitting in away. I rolled to the other side of the room, and I scoffed. "That was so rude!"

"Don't care," he stated, bending down to type his name. I used my feet to roll myself back to the computer, placing it to the right of Raven. He pulled his facebook up and sent himself a friend request from my account, and then he logged off in one swift move.

"Dude, you're like a ninja!" I stated, and I saw him look at me out of the corner of his eye. Before I knew it, he was logged onto his facebook. I looked at his home page curiously, trying to take it all in before he used his ninja skills to accept my friend request, thus taking us away from the home page. All I saw was a whole bunch of girls, who were al writing stuff on his wall about how they'll miss him. "Needy," I whispered, but I'm pretty sure Raven caught it, judging by the arrogant, smug smirk on his stupid face. I was right in the beginning. He is mean. He's a player too. I bet he's gotten girls pregnant. God, that is just plain rude! Before I know it, he is logged off of facebook and standing up straight, glancing curiously down at me.

"Sorry, I'm not one for sitting around on facebook. I didn't want you to do that the entire time," he stated, and I tried not to blush. Okay, so he's not mean. He's incredibly awesome. I like him. Wow, am I bipolar or what? While looking up at him, I saw the shelves on the wall, which held tons of board games.

"Oh my god!" I stated, and Raven looked genuinely alarmed.

"What?" he asked quickly, glancing behind him, trying to figure out what I was looking at.

"Board games," I whispered. Raven looked at me oddly, and I laughed at the expression on his face. "We can play board games!" I announced, getting out of the chair and running towards the wall. "How do you feel about connect four?" I asked, standing on the tips of my toes and grabbing the game.

He shrugged.

"Let's do it!"

Fifteen minutes later, and we are both sprawled out on the floor, the connect four game between us. I'm staring intensely at the game, trying to figure out what Raven's latest trick was. I swear, that boy is possessed by the devil. How else could he have beaten me ten times already? I'm so good at this game! I slowly place my red piece in the hole, wincing as I see Raven cheer.

"I win AGAIN!" he states, putting his piece in, where an obvious four in a row is. So, I'm not that great at this game. WHATEVER. "You know, you're not very good at this game."

"Yeah well….you're not very good at life!" I say back lamely, "Let's play another game…what about checkers?"

An hour and thirty minutes later, and I want to shoot this boy. He beat me at everything that is simple and quick, and I was just about ready to scream. "Let's play Guitar Hero!" I say finally, turning on the huge television and setting it up.

"I'm good at Guitar Hero too, you know. I'll probably just win again," he stated arrogantly, and I tried not to slap him. I hate losing.

"Well, I'm good at Guitar Hero too!" I state.

"I'm better!"

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

"GAH! What, do you play guitar in real life or something?" I ask, rolling my eyes.

"Actually, yes. I do," he says, shrugging.

"WHAT CAN'T YOU DO?" I yell at him, and he looks genuinely scared for his life. Well, no, he doesn't. He's smirking, but I know he's scared in the inside. Suddenly, my cell phone rings.

Never Let You Go by Third Eye Blind is blaring out of my phone, which is in my backpack. I walk to my backpack and open the pocket, grabbing my phone. I look at the screen, seeing it's Paige. I glance over at Raven, who is watching me. I look back at my phone and press talk.

"Hello?" I say into it.

"ANNIE! GUESS WHAT?" she screams into the phone, and I pull it away from my ear, trying not to go deaf.

"The fifth dentist has caved, and now they're all recommending Trident?" I say sarcastically into the phone, getting a sigh from Paige.

"Stop quoting Friends. Anyway, no. I think that Blake is going to ask you out!" she yelled, and I wish I could smack her.

"Yeah. Why would I care?" I ask, shrugging.

"Why would you care? Because you need a boyfriend, and he's cute!" she stated, and I could practically hear her frowning.

I sighed as I try to think of what to say. "Well, you see, I already have a boyfriend." Why the hell did I just say that? I hear her screaming on the other end, and I continue talking."Um, yeah. His name is…Raven!" I say, trying not to laugh. I look over at Raven, whose jaw is to the ground. I smile slightly at him, trying to explain to him what I was doing with my eyes. It didn't work.

"Why the hell didn't you tell me?" she screams, and I shrug, even though she can't hear me.

"I don't know. We're just so in love, I didn't want anyone to know. I mean, we're practically ready to marry! We're already planning out everything in the future!" I gush, having way too much fun with this. I hear Paige gasp. I hang up with her before the conversation continues.

Why was I saying Raven was my boyfriend?

I do not know. I thought I would have some fun.

Speaking of Raven…

He looks like he's about to faint. All color has drained from his face, and his eyes are widened in what looks like a permanent state of shock. He struggles to speak. "You think that I'm your…boyfriend?" he asks, horror stricken.

"No. I was just saying that to annoy my friend. You were right here, so I thought, 'Hey! I might as well have some fun with this!' It was for shits and giggles," I say to him, wondering why I'm acting this way. "We should go on a fake date though, you know, just to be more convincing."

Now I know why I'm doing this. I don't like it at all though.

You see, I'm attracted to Raven. I know that he will never ask me out on a real date though, so this is my way of ever going on a date with him. The subconscious of my mind must have been acting upon this, and now it's so obvious. I should so be a psychologist.

Back to this current complication…

"Are you insane?" he asks, and I blush. It's finally really kicking in. Oh my god. Oh my god. I am the stupidest person in the world.

"No, I just thought it would be fun. You know, like a prank. Sorry…" I look down as I say this, but I hear Raven laugh.

"Fine. I will go on a fake date with you," he states, and I struggle not to jump in glee.

I'm going on a date with Raven. I'm going on a date with Raven. I'm going on a date with Raven.

Forget the fakeness. We all know he's secretly in love with me, even though he's only known me for like two hours.

The moment is interrupted, however, when my mother calls us down to dinner.

~~~four days later~~~

Why am I so stupid? Why was I so happy to be going on a fake date with him? After knowing him for the past few days, I have really gotten to know him—like him for who he really is. I mean, he's the only person I know who can beat me at everything yet still allow me to like him. He's basically everything a girl wants. He's cute, very smart, funny, and talented. God, and this is a fake date.

Paige has been pestering me for the past few days, trying to figure out everything about him. I didn't lie about most, but I did have to lie about when I met him and when he moved here. I told her that he was home-schooled also, which was not true. The truth was that he was coming to our school next week, but I could probably make something up for that soon enough.

I sigh as I look into the mirror, looking at my strapless floral printed dress. My hair is down and in its natural state—frizzy. I didn't put much make-up on, because I hate make-up. I take one last look in the mirror as I walk downstairs, calling Raven.

"Yeah?" he answers, sounding completely out of breath.

"Are you okay?" I ask, laughing slightly. I walk to my front porch, sitting on the swing as I wait for him.I'm going to drive us to the [really nice] restaurant we're going to, where we are meeting up with Paige and her boyfriend. Paige has never met Raven, so, boy is she in for a surprise.

"Dog is chasing me again," he struggles to say, and I laugh hysterically. Since Raven has moved in, one of our neighbor's dogs has gotten out four times, each time finding Raven. I see a figure out of the corner of my eye, and I see Raven running towards me, clad in a suit. I laugh as I stare at him, hanging up. He runs to my house, not stopping when he reaches me. He runs straight into my house, slamming the door behind him. I glance at the door and laugh. The dog runs up to my porch, and I laugh as she barks at the door.

"Aw, does someone have a little crush on Raven?" I ask, scratching her ears. She barks a little in response. I laugh, and I hear Raven yell that it's not funny. "I'll take you back to your mommy and your daddy!" I say to the dog. I pick her up. Yeah, did I mention that she's a small white Maltise? Yeah, and Raven is terrified of her. I walk her back to her house, giving her to the owners as they apologize profusely. I shake their apologies off and return to my house.

Raven is waiting there, wiping sweat off his forehead. "God, I hate that demon dog!" I shake my head at him, sighing. I walk to my car and hop in the driver's seat, as Raven hops in the passenger's. I turn on the car and glance at Raven, who is still panting.

"You need to exercise more," I comment dryly, pulling out of the driveway. He glares at me, and I ignore it as I drive. He turns on the radio to a random station, where U2 is playing. I nod approvingly. Raven, being from Ireland and all, is a huge fan of them. I love them too. We don't really talk for the first half of the drive. On the second half, Raven makes a comment.

"Why are we going on a fake date?" he asks, and I try to maintain control of the steering wheel.

"Because I'm trying to trick my friend into thinking that we're a couple!" I say, way too defensively. He will never know I like him.

"See, I think that you asked me out on this fake date because you like me. You're just using this as an excuse to go out with me. You're attracted to me. You LOVE me," he says mockingly, and I blush.

"That is so not true! I don't like you! I think someone is a little too egotistical!" I retort. Out of the corner of my eyes, I see Raven flip his hair "seductively."

"Girls love me!" I can't argue with that, so I shut up, praying he will too.

When we get to the restaurant, I park and get out, meeting Raven at the trunk.

"Am I paying for you?" he suddenly asks, and I glance at him weirdly.

"Um, well, do it at the restaurant, and I'll pay you back later," I say, and he nods. We walk into the restaurant, and Paige is waiting there with her boyfriend, Kyle. I quickly walk closer to Raven. "Put your arm around my waist!" I whisper, and he obeys immediately. I try not to melt, and I ignore my annoying heart. I give Kyle the universal nod, and he nods right back. Paige is staring at Raven, and I can practically feel her drooling. Ugh.

"Paige and Kyle, this is Raven. Raven, this is Paige and Kyle," Raven pulls away, and they greet each other. I see Paige glance at me, wide-eyed, giving me the, "I can't believe you didn't tell me about this hunk of meat!" expression. I fake innocence back. As we walk to our reserved table, I feel Raven put his arm back around me, even though I hadn't asked. I blush and look up at him. He is looking back at me, and I quickly look away.

We sit down at the table in an orderly fashion. I sit right next to Paige, and Raven sits across from me, Kyle sitting across from Paige. You get the picture. Anyway, so we sit down, and I pick up my napkin and lay it in my lap as soon as possible. Paige rolls her eyes at me. "She does this at every restaurant. You've noticed, right Raven?" she asks. He awkwardly smiles and nods.

"Oh yes. My lovely Annie—always so polite at nice restaurants," he says, and I scoot down in my chair, wishing I was invisible. Paige leans closer to me and whispers in my ear.

"His accent is so sexy!" she whispers, and I nod.

"I know," I say in a regular voice so that Kyle and Raven would be curious. Raven is staring me down, wanting to know what we were talking about. I shrug at him, enjoying the power. I look at Kyle, who seems to be way out of the loop.

"So, Kyle, how's football going?" I ask him, and he goes on a long rant about something or other, and Paige absorbs in every word. I don't listen and instead glance at the menu. What the hell does this even mean?

"Pst. Raven!" I whisper across the table, leaning over. He looks at me, but his eyes linger down a bit. I notice that I'm showing major cleavage, so I cover it up with my arm. He looks back at my face, smirking.

"What?" he asks.

"You're such a pig. Anyway, I don't know what the hell any of this is…can you order for me or something? You're used to all of this fancy dining and crap, right?" I whisper.

He groans. "Fine, but I can't promise you that I won't order you something like cow brains on purpose!" I gag and struggle to keep my composure.

"Oh my god! Please don't!" I whisper-yell, resisting the urge to punch him. He rolls his eyes.

"I wouldn't do that. Why don't you just get spaghetti? Isn't that simple enough?" he asks, still whispering. I make a contemplating expression.

"Yeah, that sounds good."

I lean back and glance at Paige, who is giggling at something Kyle said. I make a disgusted expression. They turn to us. "We're splitting the spaghetti!" She gushes. I try to smile, acknowledging how happy I am for her, even though I'm not.

"Yeah, Raven and I are—" I was interrupted by Raven speaking.

"Going to split the spaghetti too!" he gushes, just as pathetic sounding as Paige. He reaches over the table and grabs my hand, squeezing it. I glare at him. It's amazing how easily I forgot how mad I was at him when he grabbed my hand. I basically went into a daze, gazing longingly at Raven. I can feel him looking back at me, really confused and possibly freaked out. "Um, Annie?" He waved a hand in front of my face, and I was quickly brought back into reality.

"I need to go to the restroom," I said quickly, standing up and rushing to the bathroom. I didn't miss Raven standing up though. God, chivalry isn't dead. I walked into the one person bathroom, and shut the door behind me. I looked into the mirror and decided to give myself a pep talk.

"Okay, Annie, you can do this. Pull yourself together!" I said to myself, splashing some water on my face. I pulled my dress up a bit before deciding that I was good. I opened the door and walked back into the restaurant, seeing Raven still standing. I smile a bit to myself and walk back to the table. I sit down and look at my friends.

"Oh, Annie. I ordered us separate spaghetti dishes because I think I might be getting sick," Raven says to me when I sit down, and he winks. I smile huge at him. Thank God he didn't make us go through with that. I mean, I probably wouldn't have minded it that much… Okay. I need to stop thinking all together.

"So, has Annie ever told you about the time that she broke her arm?" Paige asks, and Kyle laughs loudly. Oh god, that was one of the most embarrassing moments of my life. Paige, please don't do this, don't do this.

"Oh, no, she hasn't told me," Raven says, standing up straight in his chair and leaning forward to listen. Shit. Shit. Shit.

"Well, last year, Annie and I were hanging out with a couple of guys—one being Kyle. Annie, always eager to show off her awesome talent, decided to stand on the couch and sing and dance to 'Dancing Queen.' As if that wasn't weird enough, her dance moves were some cross between karate and stripper. She was trying to an exceptionally high kick when she fell backwards off the couch, breaking her arm."

Smite me oh mighty smiter.

"That is not fair!! I was still all weird from the laughing gas at the dentist!" I said, just about ready to die. Raven was smiling and laughing, which was a very pleasant site, let me tell you, but that didn't stop me from slapping his hand. He pulled back and shook his head at me.

"I'd like to see some of those stripper moves," he said in all seriousness.

"Paige, I am going to kill you. I don't know when; I don't know how. But I will kill you," I stated. She just laughed.

I talked to Raven the rest of the time, while Paige talked to Kyle. Raven and I were talking about board games and video games. When the spaghetti came, everything was quiet. I awkwardly looked the other way the entire dinner. I didn't want to see PDA from Kyle and Paige, nor did I want to embarrassingly eat pasta in front of Raven.

When dinner was over, the guys paid the bill and we walked out of the restaurant. We decided to take a walk in the park close-by, and I glanced at the moon. It was a boring half-moon—nothing special. Nevertheless, it was a beautiful night.

"It's a beautiful night," Raven said. Woah, that was weird.

"I know," I said back. We were holding hands as to further convince our relationship, and Paige and Kyle were…heavily making out by a tree. "That's not so beautiful.." I pointed to the lovely couple over there.

He laughed. "Yeah…Such a lovely sight. They look like they're so in love," he said sarcastically, and I rolled my eyes.

"Paige has a new guy like this every week. I honestly don't know why I'm friends with her." There was a long awkward pause, and I didn't know what to say. Apparently neither did Raven. We both just stood there, not saying anything.

"Are y'all gonna kiss or what?" Paige yelled, apparently having pulled apart from her oh so romantic embrace.

"Nope. He's getting sick, remember?" I stated. Phew. Awkward situation AVOIDED.

Paige didn't look convinced. "Aw, come on! If y'all really loved each other, y'all would kiss!" she yelled. Honestly, was she drunk? She sure did sound like it. I hesitantly glanced at Raven. He was staring back down at me.

I did get lost in his eyes at that moment.

But I still will not describe them as orbs.

"Let's just do it," he whispered. Oh, what the hell? I leaned forward. He leaned forward. You get the picture. We kissed. Except, once we started, we could not, to save our lives, stop. He wrapped his arms around my waist, and I wrapped mine around his neck. He was gentle and caring, and, man, was he skilled.

I can't tell you how long the kiss was. All I can tell you was that when we pulled apart, I was gasping for breath, and Paige and Kyle were clapping. "I'm pretty sure that broke a world record." I was already blushing, but I'm pretty sure it deepened at that point.

"We should go," I said quietly to Raven. He nodded, and we said goodbye to Paige and Kyle. When we got into the car and started driving, I think I died from the deafening silence. We drove all the way to my house, and, still, nothing was said. He didn't even turn on the radio. We sat in complete and utter silence. I didn't even look at him.

God, I hope things get better.

Shit, that kiss was good.

When we pulled into the driveway, I heard him unbuckle, and he walked me to my porch. When I got to the door, I glanced at him. He grabbed my hand once again.

"Listen, Annie. I want to take you on a date. Let me clarify, a real date," he said, and I laughed. "Are you up for it?"

"Yes!" I said, exasperated. He pulled me in for a hug and kissed the top of my head.

"Good." He rubbed my back intimately, which sent shivers up my spine. "Hey, you up for breaking the world record again?" I shook my head and smacked him. Nevertheless, I kissed him.

And, trust me, we did break that world record.