Dorm #4: All I Ask of You

Autumn was full of nervous optimism. She needed to talk to Julie-Pierre and it was going to happen today, whether he wanted to or not. She was frustrated with his distant behavior last year, and it was going to stop. Whether they remained friends or not.

She knocked on her friend's door and was glad when he opened the door. The frown on her face was apparently staying, even though she had tried desperately to make herself smile. "We need talk. As soon as possible. Is now a good time?" she asked with no intention of leaving. She was going to demand an explanation on her schedule, not at his earliest convenience.

The German boy lay on his bed, much to even his surprise his face in a book of studies rather than committing to his normal shenanigans. The red-haired boy had begun to change even through holiday, and it was very easily showing. Not only was puberty finally striking, but with said puberty Julie-Pierre had started to come to terms with what he was feeling towards his friend. there was no way that he could destroy it, and it was a futile struggle to keep it from the girl he now loved.

No thanks to her, he had begun to find a balance between his fun and games and his grades. However, it was because of her that he was also restless and confused, so easily to become flustered and red in the face.

A knock came from his door, making the boy leap from the mattress in surprise, losing his place in his book as it flew from his hand, pages flipping to a random place several units behind where he initially was. He was confused at first, merely thinking that it was a fellow prankster, but then came the voice on the other side of the door. He could feel his face both become hot as a light and cold as a corpse.

It was Autumn.

He gulped, slowly getting up fro his bed as he gingerly made his way over to the door. Knowing the girl, it had to be something serious that she wanted to talk about. Was it his grades? No, he had managed to bring them up rather well. Was it his classes in general? No, that couldn't be it either. He had been paying more attention to the courses no thanks to her motivation.

It must have been how he had been ignoring her, how he had been trying to not look her in the eyes.

Oh, Lord, have mercy on me, he thought, reluctantly tsking hold of the doorknob. Gingerly, he turned it to bring a crack of light, of Autumn, to his sight.

For a moment he was silent, a little scared of what to say as the girl's sight brought the red to his face to shine more. "Y-yes?" he said, at first not hearing her question. "Uh, yeah, yeah, come in." His last words were in his native tongue, but sounded so close to their English counter one would have thought he was merely speaking with a German accent.

"Thank you," Autumn said, walking into his room. She was going to ignore his blush. He should be embarrassed. He was being selfish and rude and Julie-Pierre knew that she was going to call him out on it.

She was going to get right to the point. It was the most efficient and she was doing some training with Cerisier's new Seeker in an hour and she needed to finish some homework.

"First off," she started, trying to keep calm, "I deserve an explanation and I will not tolerate excuses."

Excuses are the nails that built the house of failure. Autumn's mantra because she''d never get anything done if she didn't remind herself. Julie-Pierre heard it plenty their second years, so she saw no point in repeating it,

"I have been telling you that you can tell me anything for our entire school experience," she said more softly."So if I hurt your feelings, you can tell me, I have no idea unless you tell me," Autumn reminded. She tucked a piece of her hair behind her ear and looked down at the floor. "Even if you don't want to be friends anymore, there'd be no hard feelings"she tacked on..

That was hopefully just a worst-case scenario. She'd hate to not be his friend. It'd make her sad. To not have him in her life would just be strange. But if he said that, she could more quickly move on with her life. "This just has to stop," she finished.

Julie-Pierre looked to the girl, seeming to sweat in the growing fear. Health truly hath no fury like a woman scorned. He tried to listen to his friend, but it seemed his own growing fear was making it hard to hear. The main thing he could hear was mutters that made her sound like trumpets, but he wanted to hear what she was actually saying.

He regretted his wish, for the question he heard shocked him.

"Not be friends?" he repeated, eyes widened. "Are you crazy? You're my best friend. Why would I not want us to be friends anymore, Autumn!?" It was clear that the question hurt him a little, but with how he was acting, his more secluded posture as he kept his eyes from looking directly at her, one could also tell something was biting at the back of his head.

Hearing her demand, the boy frowned. "Autumn," he muttered, "I..." rather quickly he was trailing off. How was he supposed to say this? "Well you see, I..." His face was getting worse and worse in how redit was getting all the suden, thankfully shadowing the look of paranoia.

Autumn was more than frustrated. She managed to at least look calm, but his answer was ridiculous. It was impossible to be friends with someone if you never spent any time with them? How could you say that if you were friends with someone if they showed you that you didn't care?

"I find that very hard to believe," Autumn said. "You haven't been treating me like a best friend, Julie-Pierre. And your defense makes me think that you are trying to hide something. So what is it?" she asked, crossing her arms.

She waited, but realized that this was going nowhere too quickly. Should she just drop it and leave, or be patient?

Julie-Pierre frowned when he heard Autumn speak. Did he really come off like that? Now he felt more horrible for what he had done, but he thought it had been for the best then. If Autumn didn't know of his feelings, he thought things would be better. It seemed that wouldn't be the case, however.

She was demanding answers, clearly, but how was he able to say it? He knew his answer, but it took so much courage to try and even bring it out.

"I..." He began to try and sum up the courage. to say it. Though he only had one syllable out of the three, his face was getting more red by the second. Even to his surprise, however, his body brought itself to make a move that would be the breaking point of his and Autumn's friendship.

Eyes tightly shut in fright, the boy managed to bring his hands to her cheeks, pulling her into a kiss. It was a little dramatic, yes, but he couldn't help it, really. The main things he knew about love came from fairy tales and drama.

Realising what he had just done, his face glowed bright red as he pulled away.

Waiting was terrible, she decided. She had normally been a patient person, but she was beginning to think that she should pick a new personality trait to replace patience. It was boring and you never got what you wanted or needed on time.

She didn't have any time to react to his stutters because his lips were on hers.

When he pulled away, she blushed. Autumn had almost forgotten what they had been talking about. It was as if her brain had stopped completely, then suddenly restarted.

She looked up at him. "Now I'm really confused," Autumn admitted, still blushing.

What did a kiss even mean? Was it supposed to be a distraction? Did he like her? And if he did like her, why did he ignore her like he had?

She was attempting to put two and two together. Maybe he wasn't embarrassed for the reasons Autumn thought he should be. Was he actually nervous? Blushing could be a result of anxiety.

"Can you please just tell me what you're thinking?" she asked. That would help her a little bit.

"Autumn, I..." Julie-Pierre blushed, taking in a deep breath in hopes of gaining his composure. However, it seemed such a thing was only making matters worse for him. He could feel his heart racing and pounding hard in his chest all because he kissed her. If he had any doubt he had feelings for the girl before, this destroyed it faster than it came.

Still, it was courage he needed to really say it. Hearing the girl question him again, she, too, with red to her cheeks, the blue-hazel eyed boy managed to bring forth a light smile to his lips. Somehow after that embarrassing moment of valiance that came and went, he tried to act as if it didn't happen... to a point.

Softly, he grabbed the girl's hands with his own. "I like you, Autumn," he said, "All this past year, I've started getting a crush on you. I didn't know what else to really do but try and, well..." He trailed down, looking down a little in growing shame. "I know what I did was wrong, but it was all I thought I could do. I was a bit scared to let you know, so..." The smile slightly widened as he tried to look at his friend right in the eyes. "I'm sorry I worried you so much over this."

The back of his head wondered how the brunette even thought of him, though was scared to find out. Knowing her, she would be rather angry from the surprise peck to her lips from earlier. Only fate knew the answer, this point in time especially being a point where he wanted to be Fate itself to find the answer. He was impatient and anxious at the same time at this point, a horrible combination when you're in a pubescent puppy love situation.

Autumn watched Julie-Pierre smile down at her. It bothered her because it was playful, like he had heard something funny instead. Did he think that she was joking? She frowned again.

But then he held her hands and finally answered her questions.

Autumn didn't know how to respond. She felt like she was suddenly being forced to do something new with absolutely no instructions and told, You have one chance to do it correctly and a time limit. Good luck. It was sink or swim.

But it still didn't make sense. Ignoring someone because you like them? Maybe his words weren't ones that could be comprehended logically. Maybe liking her was not his original choice. Maybe crushes weren't choices at all.

And did Autumn feel the same way? What was having a crush really like? Was that the feeling she had in second year about him? The jealousy that was so random and out of the blue that she had dismissed it immediately? Was it why she couldn't stay frowning around him? She didn't feel that way about her other friends.

The only explanation, since she couldn't explain it and hadn't chose to feel that way, was a crush.

She didn't notice that she had started to smile. "What does that make us, then?" Autumn asked.

The boy's face was beet red, his eyes unable to keep a gaze with the girl now even as he did his best to. He felt so relieved that he got the words off his chest, but now they were coming back to haunt him as quickly as they left. Why had he done this, done all of this? If he hadn't tried to stray from Autumn, though he meant to to see if it would make his head level once more and his attempts failed miserably, then this likely wouldn't have happened.

But, now she knew, which could be a good thing. What if it wasn't, though? He only hoped it could be.

Julie-Pierre heard the girl speak, managing to look at her once more to see her smile. That alone made his heart skip a beat.

"I..." he began to stumble over his words, embarrassed. He hadn't been with someone like this before, at least to his memory, so this felt so new to him. It could be that, or the feelings he had to his best friend were so true that it seemed to new. Either end would result in him feeling like the happiest boy in the school on the inside. "I think that would make us boyfriend and girlfriend That is, if you want to."