[Edited] Chapter 17: The Thing With The Spying!

Scott:

As soon as we walk into the apartment, Aria immediately heads to Nova's room. 

Nova follows her but stops and returns back and takes Jenna by her hand and heads to her room and closes the door.

What's up with that?

Something really must be going on in Nova's mind. 

I quickly take off my tux jacket and head to my room and throw it on my bed. 

I stare at the thin wall that separates mine and Nova's room. 

Oh! Screw it! 

I walk towards the wall and place my ear against it, trying to listen it to the girls' conversation.

I hear Nova's voice describing our date. 

From the way, she's describing it, it doesn't seem like she didn't like it. 

In fact, she seems happy.

"What the hell are you doin'?" A voice yells.

I turn around to see Rye and Drew standing near the door, staring at me.

Damn it! I forgot to lock the door!

"I... er... I was... um... uh," I stutter.

Ryan holds up his hand and glares at me and walks away.

What just happened?

I look at Drew, who just shrugs in response.

Ryan returns with three empty coffee mugs in hand. 

He walks towards me and says, "If you wanna do something... do it seriously."

What the...?

He places the rim of the mug against the wall, and places his ear over the base of it. 

He looks up at the ceiling and starts speaking, in response to the things he hears from the next room, "Mmh mmh... uh uh... keep going... ooh... that's interesting!"

And curiosity kills the cat!

I look at Ryan and give him my cutest puppy dog eyes. 

He looks at me and smirks and hands me a mug and gestures with his eyes for me to copy him. 

Immediately, I notice the conversation from the next room could be heard more clearly.

Huh!

Who knew Ryan is that smart?

"I watch way too many spy movies..." Ryan says, explaining himself.

Someone fake coughs. 

We both turn to look at Drew who is still leaning against the door. 

As if on cue, Ryan and I raise our eyebrows at him.

Drew looks around awkwardly, being conflicted whether to do the same or return to the living room. He turns towards the living room, then back at us and then repeats this, four to five time. 

He lets out a frustrated sigh and curses out loud. 

He takes a deep breath and calms himself, and walks towards us and takes the mug from Ryan's hand and copies us.

"So... um... at the end... I... er... I kissed Scott... um... no... Scott kissed me... um... uh... I mean... we kissed each other." Nova's voices pours into my ears.

Ryan and Drew both snap their heads at me. 

"You kissed her?" Drew whisper yells.

I just shrug and give them a awkward smile.

"We need to have a talk, young man!" Ryan states whispering.

"Young man? Who are you? Nova's dad?" I whisper yell at him.

"Watch your tone, young man. Where are your manners, son? No talking back at elders." Ryan states whispering - clearly in his dad mode.

"Son? Seriously?" I whisper back.

"Kids these days..." Ryan sighs and shakes his head.

Drew and I chuckle. 

I'm glad that Ryan has Nova's back.

On second thought, "Why are you whispering?" I whisper.

He looks up at the ceiling thinking. "I dunno... why are you whispering?" He whispers back.

"I dunno... you whispered first!" I whisper yell at him.

Drew smacks our head with his hand and holds one finger gesturing his ear and then back to the wall.

Damn!

We all tune in together to the girls' conversation.

"I like Scott... I really really do. I mean, who wouldn't?" I hear Nova say. 

I feel my heart swell and cheeks flush.

Damn! 

"But?" I hear Aria say.

There's a but?

"But... but... what if I fall in love with Scott and... I..er.. I... lose him too? I mean... I'm not afraid of falling for him. I mean, I already have feelings for him that I can't control... I just... you know... I'm.." Nova replies.

"Scared." Jenna finishes.

"I'm scared." Nova says softly. 

That's why she ran into her room.... to have a girl talk. 

Okay. It's not like she doesn't have feelings for me.... it's just that she's scared. 

I can deal with that. 

I just have to prove that I'm not going anywhere.

"You know... you're not the only one." I hear Jenna murmurs.

"What do you mean?" Aria and Nova ask together.

"I... er... I think... I'm in love with Rye." Jenna says.

Holy Crap.

On cue, Drew and I look at Ryan, who froze in his spot, his eyes wide. We place our mugs on the night stand and stare at Ryan to see him, still standing there motionless.

Drew waves his hands in front of Ryan's face.

Nothing.

Looking closely, I notice Ryan's cheeks turning into a tomato.

Click!

I turn to see Drew taking a photo of Ryan in his cell. 

I mouth to him, "What are you doin'?"

He mouths back, "What do you think?" And smirks.

Oh boy! Ryan's a goner.

Drew's never gonna let him forget this moment for his entire life! 

Plus, the blushing doesn't really help.

I take Ryan and pull him towards my bed and make him sit on the edge of it while Drew brings a bottle of water.

To think he would sprinkle some drops of water on Ryan's face... instead he pours the whole bottle over his head. 

Poor guy.

As if waking from a coma,  Ryan looks up at us and starts yelling, "OH MY GOD! JEN LOVES-"

I push him down, so he's laying on the bed and climb up on top of him and pick up a nearby pillow and push it over his face, trying to stop the noise, before the girls hear it. 

He shakes his hands and legs over me, trying to fight me, still screaming.

"Shut up before they hear you, damn it!"

Suddenly he stops screaming and waving his hands and holds his hands up in a surrender gesture.

I remove the pillow from his face. 

Taking advantage of my sudden relief, Ryan pushes me down out of the bed and I land on my butt.

"Ow! What the...?" I start but stop when I look up at Ryan to see his face red.

Ryan starts taking deep breath and coughing. "Are" Cough. "You" Cough. "Trying" Cough. "To" Cough. "Kill me?" Cough. 

He takes a deep breath and finally says it together, "Are you trying to kill me?"

Damn! I was suffocating him! 

I'm an idiot.

I face-palm myself and look up at Ryan and say, "Really sorry, dude."

He looks at me and smiles awkwardly. 

We both get up and do our hand-shake-man-hug-thing.

I look behind Ryan to find Drew nowhere. 

"Looking for me?" I turn to see Drew standing near the door, recording the whole thing in his cell.

Please remind me, why am I friends with these people...?

"What the hell?" Ryan and I mutter together.

"Just kidding, douches! I'm just holding a phone. I didn't record anything!" Drew says, laughing coyly.

We both relax but I make a note to double check his cell later. 

He can be sneaky sometimes.

"First - you try to kill me then - you act to shoot a video of it. I know what you guys are trying to do." Ryan rasps.

Drew and I raise our eyebrows.

What the hell were we trying to do?

"I know how this goes... first the princess confesses her feelings for a knight. Then we realise that the knight feels the same way... but then the other knights become jealous of their relationship. So they try to separate them by planning to kill the knight... they try but do not succeed... then they..." Ryan starts explaining but then stops when he looks at our face. 

It probably would have been like a question mark sign.

I place my hand against Ryan's forehead to check his temperature. 

Drew comes from behind me and holds up three fingers and says, "Ryan... look at my hand carefully. How many fingers am I holding up?"

Ryan swats both of our hands away, "What the hell are you doing? I'm fine, you idiots!"

I look at him and clarify, "Rye... you do remember the whole princess and knight thing-y that you just said, right?"

He lets out a frustrated sigh and nods. 

"Sorry guys, Jenna and I are watching too many chick flicks lately." He says, running his fingers over his hair shyly.

"Chick flicks? Seriously?" Drew says with disgust.

"Well, she likes it and um... uh..." Ryan starts.

"And?" I nudge him.

"And she cuddles up with me, while watching it... and whether I like the movie or not; three hours of cuddling Jenna is... is... you know..." He says with his cheeks red.

"Ryan, do you love her?" I ask her.

He looks at me surprised. 

His eyes widen and starts looking anywhere but at us. "I... um... I dunno what you're talking about."

"Rye... you are a terrible liar." Drew sighs, shaking his head.

"And really... stop with the blushing... it's really creeping me out." Drew says, shuddering.

"Remind me again why I thought that at least you guys would understand all this?" Ry sighs and shakes his head.

At that exact moment, we hear shuffling next door. 

Crap! They're coming out of the room.

We all look at each out and sprint to the living room, and jump on the couch. 

"Ow!" I screech. My butt still paining from the time Ryan pushed me out of the bed.

The door of Nova's room opens. 

Ryan turns and look at us with all seriousness and says loudly, "And that's why I think first comes egg and then the chicken and not the vice versa..."

Me and Drew mouth at him, "What?"

"Play along." He mouths back and gesture to the girls walking towards us.

"True."  Drew says immediately, nodding his head.

"That's what I was gonna say..." I continue.

"You guys are talking bout chicken and eggs?" Aria asks us, laughing inwardly.

"Yup."  We all say together popping the 'p'.

Nova sits down next to me, smiling. 

Jenna with Ryan on one of the smaller couches. 

And Aria sits on my other side and Drew on the other small couch.

We switch on the television and start watching re-runs of Friends. 

I look at Ryan to see him staring at Jenna and blushing. 

He catches my eyes and mouths, "What?"

I mouth back, smirking, "Stop blushing... you look like a freaking fire brigade."

"I can't help it!" He mouths back, whining. 

I chuckle.

Damn! He's whipped.

Nova looks up at me and asks, "You okay?"

"Yeah, babe... I'm fine." I whisper and kiss the top of her head and place my hands around her shoulder and bring her closer to me. 

She smiles and leans into my chest, sighing.

I look back at Ryan to see him staring at me suspiciously.

 "I'm watching you, young man..." He mouths.

And he's back into dad mode. 

At least, he isn't blushing any more. 

I shake my head at him, smiling and pull Nova closer to me.

After half an hour, Aria, Ryan and Jenna head to their room, calling it a night.

Drew just sits there staring at the television. 

I sigh and stretch my body. Nova looks at me and smiles and pulls a pillow over her thigh and pats it, raising a eyebrow at me. 

I smile and lay my head over that pillow, sleeping on the couch. She runs her finger through my hair while I sigh and close my eyes.

***

"Scott? Wake up, honey." Nova says.

I open my eyes, all confused to see Nova's beautiful face over me. 

"Hi." I mumble.

She chuckles and says, "Hi back."

I look around and ask her, "How long was I out?"

"About an hour or so..." She says, softly.

I quickly get up and stretch, immediately missing her warmth.

"Lets sleep..." She mumbles, yawning.

I nod and kiss her cheek, "Good night, Brownie..."

"Night, Ace." She says, softly.

I return to my room and close the door, change into my shorts and plop down onto my bed. 

"Best day ever." I mumble sleepily.

***

I wake up after an hour or two, when I hear my bedroom door open and close. I smell her cherry and vanilla scent before I even open my eyes. 

I hear her lay on my side and feel her snuggle closer to me, her head on my chest and arms around my waist. I put my arms around her, pulling her close.

She kisses my chest and mumbles softly, "Good night Ace."

I make a approving noise that sounded something like 'Mmh' and kiss the top of her head.

I feel her smile on my chest and mumble, "Best day ever."

***