<3// Pen..Pals? //<> - (A DirkJake Fanfiction)

Love Is An Old Joke - Chapter 10

JUST TO SAY - because I hate copright and fraud - parts of the dialogue used in this is from Dirk's breakup speech in canon. ALSO! I already have plans for this fic, and there should be an ending fairly soon - I just like extending the numbers of chapters for fun. I hope you enjoy! And I hope that Dirk isn't overly out of canon - I just hink that he would have a lot of pent up rage from his bro. I hope I do teen angst justice, enough to make Kurt Cobain proud.

I'm also so happy to hear that you guys like this fic it makes my day brighter and happier, it's great!

Enjoy!!

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"I think I love you."

My heart's rate quickened at the confession. I could feel every red blood cell moving throughout me, into and out of every cappilary, everywhere inside of me. Muscles pulsed inside of me - reminding me of their presence. Most obviously my heart.

How could I have been this unaware?

Immediately, I could read the look on Dirk's face alongside every little detail of the past week, until eventually I could tell just by one single breath on Monday a week back that he had been in love with me. Oblivious nitwit! How long had this been going on?

There was a small crease in that space, you know the space between your eyebrows, that was now evident.

The sheen of a nervous sweat on his forehead was evident.

The slight redness, however faded it had become, on his cheeks was evident.

The unimportant way his lips stuck slightly to one another after what had just happened, was evident.

The way his hands were clenching and unclenching was evident.

The irregular beats of his eyelashes were evident, particularly in comparison to my heartbeat which chose to slow down to 1 beat per minute.

He had a crush on me.

That was evident.

"Jake-" My name graced Dirk's lips. What was I going to do? Kiss them? Did I want to? I wanted to take off his sunglasses, and see what emotions were in his eyes.

"Dirk." I replied back, probably to fast, on pure instinct - it was a reflex.

"Jake." We both looked steady on at each other. It was eyes behind sunglasses in contact with my green eyes.

"You're not joking are you." The words each came out jolted individually from my mouth rather than as a whole sentence, as though there were full stops between every syllable.

Silence was amidst us once again. I could hear crickets from a mile away. A smart ass usually stood in front of me, rendered silent. Silent. It was unnaturally silent for the environment we were used to. It was worse than the entirety of the past week.

The blonde rubbed at his eyes, discretely, but I picked it up. "We could go for it like life's shitty multiple choice set. It's really a) you say no or b) you say you're heterosexual. It's completey fine. A or B?" His voice had taken on a dose of sarcasm. I was just stuck there, grappling to my breath, trying to steady it.

"Dirk, I've j-"

"Yeah, no. I thought so." Something in him sounded strained. "Heterosexual, and all that - go figure."

"Dirk." I was stuck on his name. It was all I could say. "I just haven't thought about thi-"

"And what is 'this'?" He questioned.

"I-" My words got caught in my throat as though it was something caught in a blender. "I-"

"It's fine. Jake." The two phrases sounded separate, as though they couldn't be put one with the other. Dirk's face fell, even further than I ever though believable. His calm demeanor proved to be a facade when his eyebrows scrunched as he rushed away. As he walked off with a scoff of disappointment, I felt like I'd broken something priceless. Then he vanished.