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

Put One Foot In Front Of The Other And Soon- Chapter 9

~~~~~~~~~~JAKE~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My eyes found their way across the large form room to the teenager with hair more blonde and gravity-proof than anything.

He was acting so peculiar as of late.

As though of miraculous coincidence to prove my point, Dirk turned around at that moment and our eyes met for no less than a MILLISECOND. As custom, I smiled - like I did whenever I caught anyone's eyes. It made their day better I hope. Within that millisecond he swung back around, and buried himself in his hoodie. See?! See! He was acting peculiar ever since he'd given me that tour around Chicago. That was the conclusion I had to come to.

At first I'd waited it out - just waiting to see how it played out; trying to find out what I had done wrong. He couldn't have been THAT angry about me splashing water about him. Could he? I really was sorry if it had struck a chord in him or embarrassed him. I hope that I didn't accidently trigger a childhood memory from when he was just a child, or maybe broken an unspeakable pact that I hadn't remembered.

Either way something was wrong. Very wrong. Peculiar. (Under these circumstances that has become my favourite word).

He appeared to be avoiding me; spoke less, and then spoke too much too quickly; turned away whenever we caught eyes; stopped making as many metaphors in conversation; for God's sake, about half of his phones were going to voicemail, or being answered after 5 minutes of hearing tones, so there was no considering phones as being an option to talk to him.

Still, I was going to sit it out. We had talked for nearly 11 or so years without a break that lasted more than 2 weeks. Things had never been this awkward! I looked up at the clock above the teacher's head. It would tick, tock, and torture me as the seconds went by slowly. Minutes. Hours, spent like this. Thinking about when Dirk would talk to me. Until the bell went off for lunch.

Gosh! It was time for lunch - maybe I could talk to him then. His mood hadn't stopped me from trying to talk to him, and it became a habit to attempt to do so at least twice a day. A rush of students got up immediately, ditching bags, throwing back desks, pushing against one another. As everyone threw themselves around me, I was about to join them in the chaos, when a hand grabbed my wrist, forcing me to look back at a pair of shades. It was like the crowd of hungry blokes and ladies turned colorless, like a slur of gray, in comparison to the still, coloured, steady Dirk Strider.

"Meet me after school - in the non-smoker's corner." He stated bluntly. It seemed nearly rehearsed. Was that a command? If it was, I didn't reply either way - I was flabbergasted that even a word had come out of his mouth at me.

Lunch passed treacherously slowly.

A whole total of 3 lessons passed incredibly slowly.

Surely enough, I packed my things after our last lesson and rushed out of the class room, corridor, and then school entirely as soon as possible. Something was up. Had someone died? Dirk could have always made some large scientific discovery - he most definitely had the knowledge to do so. Was there some large personal hullabaloo that I hadn't noticed? I was fairly bad at noticing things.

He was already at the corner when I showed up, running his hands through his hair - which was now becoming quite dishevelled in a nice bedhead sort of way. It was a custom of his. Suddenly, I found my hands running through my own hair. I took a deep breath before I showed my face, unsure of what emotion I should wear.

"Hello," I greeted, capturing his attention, lifting the mood.

"Hey." Was the simple reply, as Dirk surprisingly turned around to create the first moment of eye contact we've had for a week. Of course, he was the one to break eye contact, going immediately to scratching his neck, and then stopping, before looking around, and stopping. I didn't understand what was going on.

I walked forwards. "Are you okay?"

He closed the rest of the distance, and his mouth was on mine. I was aware of everything in that moment. His bottom lip met my top teeth sensitively thanks to a height difference. My cheeks colored, when I felt a freckled nose on my face, noticing the high temperatures both of us had turned from embarrassment? heat? His hands moved to my neck, and stayed there, bringing me in closer momentarily before a something melted inside of me, and my shoulders tensed. Moment ending. I don't know who moved away first.

A breeze whistled through the gap between our features, which I suddenly registered as being extraordinarily far away. The cool wind contrasted to my hot cheeks. My unfocused gaze finally focused on the bloke.. who had just kissed me. It was like suddenly seeing in high quality. I felt like glasses suddenly became unnecessary.

And then the words came out of his mouth, water too hot for one's skin.

"I think I love you."