"Lili?" Drew looks confused opening the door and finding me here. "What are you doing here?"

I clasp my hands together and offer a small smile. "I think we should talk."

He raises his eyebrows in surprise. "Oh... Okay."

"Sorry, it's kind of out of the blue but..."

"No, it's okay. Come on in," he says, stepping back to allow me inside. He looks a little nervous as he leads me to the living room.

We sit side by side on his couch and he waits patiently for me to begin.

"I can't hold it against you anymore," I say. "I need to forgive you. So I will. Drew, I know you never meant to hurt me. I know this was not the purpose. You're happy with Mandy. I understand that. And I don't want to ignore each other any longer. I truly want us to forget about all this and go back to being friends."

He looks genuinely shocked by this sudden request and change of heart. He stares at me for a few seconds, eyes wide. Then he nods, a smile growing on his face.

"That sounds wonderful," he says, shaking his head.

"I'm sorry I didn't come to this earlier, I just..."

"I wouldn't blame you if you never forgave me, Lili. What I did was wrong. I know that. But I am very glad you've forgiven me," he says with a smile. "I've missed being your friend."

"So am I," I say. "How have you been lately, I mean I haven't exactly talked to you..."

"I'm great. I'm just gettin' on with life. Or, at least, trying to. Anything new with you?" Drew asks me, leaning back on the couch.

"Not exactly," I say, suddenly going red. I look away.

"What happened?" He asks with a smirk. "You're not telling me something. I can see it in your face."

"No, I'm not hiding anything," I say, looking him directly in the eyes and trying to be convincing.

"I don't believe it for a second. Tell me now," he says, leaning closer.

"No! No, you tell me about Mandy. I want to hear about you two. How's it going?" I ask him, quickly changing the subject. I don't know why, but I feel awkward having the first conversation back speaking to him about me and Brendan kissing...

"We're great, I think. I've taken her out on a few dates. She's nice and really funny. I actually think you'd like to meet her. If that wouldn't be too awkward," he says.

"No, that sounds great," I tell him with a smile.

"Now, back to you. You're not telling me-"

Someone rings the doorbell.

Drew goes over to the door and opens it.

"Hey," he says with a smile at the person on the other side of the door. "How're you doing?"

"Great," says the other. I recognize his voice immediately. It's Brendan. "I feel like I haven't seen you in forever. Thanks for calling."

"I thought it'd be nice to hang out," Drew says.

Then Drew looks over his shoulder at me. His eyes widen a little and steps away to let Brendan inside. He's wearing a grey jacket and dark jeans. May I say that he isn't easy to take my eyes off of. He doesn't notice me at first, just walking inside.

"Uh, yeah, so I have a visitor," Drew says, smiling at me. "Came over unexpectedly."

Brendan's eyes fall on me and I see him smile slightly. Then he walks over to where I sit on the couch, sits down next to me, and leans in to give me a light kiss on the cheek. I feel my cheeks go red and I avoid Drew's gaze.

"Whoa, you guys are a little more friendly than I remember," Drew says with a laugh.

"And you guys aren't yelling at each other from across the room," Brendan looks at me with his eyebrows raised.

"I wanted my friend back," I explain shortly.

"I see," Brendan nods. "That's surprising, actually. Not many people really mean they'll be friends after a break up."

"I'm just too cool," Drew smirks.

"I guess so," I smile.

"Now about you two," Drew says, looking between Brendan and I. "Are you together."

Brendan says, "Yes," at the same time I say, "No."

Brendan looks over at me, eyes wide, looking shocked.

Drew lets out a low whistle. "Well this just got awkward."

"I don't believe I was ever officially asked," I shrug, looking away from Brendan.

Suddenly Brendan drops off the couch and onto his knee, taking my hand in both his. He looks into my eyes, saying, "Liliana Carols, will you, the most beautiful, kind, hilarious, smart, and wonderful girl I know, do me the honor of being my girlfriend?"

I smile at him, shaking my head. "Of course."

Then he stands up and puts his hand on my cheek before kissing me. My hands wrap around his neck and I almost forget Drew's here until he coughs.

I separate myself from Brendan and he takes his place back on the couch beside me, looking like he feels accomplished.

"I feel like I just witnessed the beginning of something magnificent," Drew says, wiping fake tears from his eyes.

"Wow, big words you're using there, Drew," Brendan laughs. "Don't hurt yourself."

"Ha. Ha," Drew rolls his eyes. "So funny."

"Um," I say awkwardly, holding my hands together on my lap. "Sorry for stopping in so unexpectedly. I can go now." I stand up, grabbing my phone off the couch.

"No, stay," Drew says. "Really Lili? We're friends again. You really think you can just leave?"

"I don't want to interrupt your bro time sesh," I say, shrugging my shoulder.

"Sit down," Drew says. "We need to talk about this immediately."

I draw my eyebrows together in confusion, but sit myself back onto the couch. Drew sits on the chair across from me and clasps his hands together underneath his chin.

"Lili, Lili, Lili," he sighs. "First of all, you cannot say 'bro time sesh' in public. It sounds pretty bad, and I'll have you know I'm straight as a pole and have a girlfriend."

Brendan starts cracking up beside me, leaning over, a hand on his forehead.

"Second of all," Drew says, ignoring Brendan. "You should stay and hang out. Unless, of course, you've got some cooler people to hang out with."

"I think you and I both know that without you guys I'm a loner," I say, eyebrows raised.

"Hey," Brendan says, "Even if you don't have anyone cooler to hang out with, since I mean we set pretty high standards, you aren't a loner."

"Thanks," I let out a dry laugh. "But, I pretty much am. Anyways, what were you guys planning on doing?"

"Sorry to inform you," Drew says, "but we aren't like girls. We don't have every single thing planned out. We don't know what we're going to do..."

"That is so stereotypical," I say, shaking my head. "You must know nothing about many girls. We hang out and end up sleeping and eating food."

"Really?" Brendan raises his eyebrows.

"Yeah, it's so magical," I roll my eyes.

"Umm, well sorry Lils I don't think your mom would be comfortable with you eating and sleeping here," Drew says with a grin.

"How unfortunate," I laugh.

"But we could watch a movie," Brendan says.

"Like what?" Drew asks. "Wait..."

"The Grudge 2," they say at the same time.

"I finally found it," Brendan says. "It was at some little book and movie shop downtown."

"Why were you downtown?" Drew asks.

"I was visiting my grandma," Brendan shrugs. "Anyways, let's start that movie."

"The Grudge 2? No way," I exclaim, eyes wide. They should know this by now.

"Oh, come on, Lili. It'll be fine," Drew says.

"Yeah, I'll be here to protect you from the monsters on the TV screen," Brendan says, grabbing my hand.

"I'm pretty sure they'll kill you easily," I say, giving him a blank look.

"Ouch."

"You're watching this whether you like it or not," Drew says. "Let's go."

Against my will, I end up in the movie room on this huge black couch between Drew and Brendan. I have a big blue blanket to hide me from the disturbing images to come and a pillow to muffle my screams. Drew holds a bowl of popcorn and Brendan holds a bag of barbecue Lays.

Drew holds up the remote and presses play. I immediately feel my heart start racing and my hands get shaky as the screen goes dark.

As soon as the first image appears, I hide myself beneath the blanket and both Drew and Brendan start laughing.

*•*•*

I miss pretty much the entire movie hiding beneath my blanket. I couldn't even tell you what happened in any scene. Brendan was holding my hand the entire time and I'm pretty sure he can't feel it anymore since I squeezed it so hard.

Whenever someone in the movie screamed, I screamed twice as loud. Whenever the movie went silent, I started breathing heavily. Whenever something popped up on the screen, I screamed and threw the blanket over me.

So basically, I have once again proved that scary movies are not for me.

"It's over," Brendan says, pulling the blanket off from my head. "You can come out of your protection shelter now."

I push my tangled hair behind my ears and let out a deep breath. It's finally over. I'm safe. I survived.

"Hey, we should probably get you home. It's almost 10:30," Brendan says.

"And by 'we should probably get you home,' you mean, 'I should probably get you home so I can kiss you goodnight and have our special little moment,'" Drew says with a knowing smile.

"Pretty much," Brendan smirks. "Lets get going, Lili."

"Alright," I nod with a grin, and I follow him out to his car.

He drives me home, the radio on quietly, and he hums the songs as they come on. When we get to my house, he walks to my side of the car and opens my door for me. I thank him and we walk hand in hand to my doorstep.

"Thanks for staying today," Brendan says with a smile.

"You're welcome for enduring those torturous scenes so you could enjoy my company," I say, giving him a blank look.

"It wasn't that bad," he says with a soft laugh. "And look, you're alive aren't you?"

"I don't know, this could all be in my dead imagination," I say with a shrug.

"There's only one way to find out," Brendan says with a smirk.

"To find out if I'm really dead?" I ask, quirking an eyebrow. "Are you going to shoot me?"

Brendan starts laughing. "Well, no... This isn't exactly how I imagined this going. So just come kiss me."

I don't hesitate. I lean forward and place both hands around his neck and pull him to me. His lips are soft and taste like peppermint Chapstick. I feel his fingers brush across my cheek and shoulders until he finds my hands. He intertwines my fingers in his.

He pulls apart and we stay this way, foreheads touched together lightly, for a long time. His deep green eyes watch me carefully. I smile and then give him one last soft kiss before saying goodbye and entering my house.

My mom is on the other side of the door, eyebrows raised.

"Mom?" I ask, startled. "What are you doing here?"

"I live here," she says. "But I've got some questions for you... What was that out on the porch?"

"Were you watching me from in here?" I ask, eyes wide.

"I knew he was the one!" My mom exclaims. "I knew it, Lili. I called it. And now, you're going to get married and I'm going to have grand-"

"Mom!" I say, cheeks going red. "I'm a senior in high school."

"Only for another three weeks," she shrugs her shoulders. "My baby's got a boyfriend!"

"Mooom," I close my eyes, slapping my hand onto my face.

"Okay," she smiles. "Okay. I'm cool. It's okay. I only shipped you from the beginning, but I'm good now."

"Mom, did you seriously ship your daughter with a high school boy?" I ask, mouth hanging open.

"Old habits die hard," she shrugs.

I just walk up to my room, shaking my head in disbelief.