"Come on, try it." Edward was so persistent on making Jade eat his favorite dish: Sushi.

Over the years that they were friends, he had never succeeded on making her take not even a small bite. That special night, he was determined to make her eat at least an itsy bitsy bite, because for Edward it was a matter of life or death. That small piece of  sushi would determine their future.

"Edward, I said no. How many times do I have to say no? You should be grateful that I still sit with you while you're eating that" Jade was utterly disgusted and she was glaring at Edward and the dish.

"I am grateful, believe me." He admitted, cleared his throat and continued  "I know that you have said a million no since forever but I still think you should try it. I tried the crispy chicken for you."

"We were 12 then, E. And you need to stop taking this as a leverage for your schemes."

"12 or 100, I would do anything for you."His smile was genuine.

"You became addicted to crispy chicken after that." She smiled at the memory of a small Edward eating crispy chicken. It never got old.

"I did, good times... good times."

Jade laughed. Edward shook his head in order not to lose focus on what mattered in that moment. Jade was going to try the sushi even if it killed him.

"Stop drifting us from the issue at hand. Try this, please." He begged.

"Why?" Jade always wondered why it was very important for him that if she tried eating sushi.

"Because." he only said.

"Because?" she prompted him to continue.

He thought for a moment and decided that he would tell her exactly why, he wanted her to try his favorite dish. Even if she would take it as a joke, as she usually did.

"Because when you like someone you want them to like what you like."

"Is that so?" she smirked. He had always said that and she had never taken him seriously. But tonight, she wanted to believe him especially after what happened at Lucy's the other night.

Something had changed between them after that night.

"Come on J."

"E, you know I hate raw stuff, and I hate fish. And Sushi is raw and it's fish."

"You have never tried it." That was a usual reply that he had always used but it never worked.

Maybe it will work this time, though.

"and I-" would never she wanted to say but she couldn't because Jade saw something in Edward's eyes that made her want to at least take a bite from that disgusting thing just to make him happy. And she had to admit, something did change between them after that night. She decided "Okay, why not?"

"Are you serious?" Edward gaped at her and he was happy, he had finally succeeded to make her agree on tasting sushi. What a victory. He felt like he was the king of the world. He could do anything now. King Arthur got nothing on him.

"Jeez, if it makes you this happy." Jade shrugged and felt her body shiver so she directly hugged herself.

"You have no idea," Edward whispered back while trying to find the smallest piece of sushi to put in Jade's empty plate.

"Stop grinning like a fool, or I will change my mind." she slapped him on his arm harmlessly.

Edward managed to cut the smallest piece of sushi that was on his plate  into small portions. It wasn't sushi anymore. It felt like that was another dish. But he didn't care. He was reaching his goal one way or another. That was what mattered. Jade was going to taste sushi. Finally.

E: 1 - J: 0

She managed to take a very small piece and Edward was observing her all the time. Once she started to shew on that small bite she took, she started to gag and cough.

"EDWARD, remove this disgusting taste from my mouth." she managed to say while trying to reach for her glass of water.

She took a sip of  her glass and tried to control her breathing. It took a second.

It took a second for Edward to do what he did next. Edward is an impulsive person, he did the only thing that came to his mind.

Edward kissed Jade. She was too adorable when she was mad and he couldn't contain himself. He waited for her to calm down a little bit from her choke. But he had to kiss her again. He had to kiss her or he would die.

He wanted to kiss her, ever since that night at Lucy's. It was a dare, that was the truth but when they kissed something shifted in their relationship.

They both had realized that they felt more for each other. He had always known but it was the moment of truth for Jade. She was too shocked from what happened that she acted as if it didn't happen afterwards.

"EDWARD! What the hell? " she pushed him away instantly. She wanted to kiss him back, but didn't he see that she was choking just a mere second ago?

"You asked me to remove the taste from your mouth and that's the only way I know." He explained himself.

"Edward, that's the second time." Jade blushed. That was the first time that she had acknowledged that they had kissed before.

"The second time what?" he smirked, daring her to speak about their kiss.

"You know what!"

He got closer to her and held her hands. He looked straight into her brown eyes and admitted  "And it won't be the last, J. "

Jade hissed. "Ed-"

And he kissed her again. This time she kissed him back with the same urgency and fervor. But the kiss didn't last long. Jade had to stop this madness. Everything will be ruined if they continued kissing. She abruptly moved her lips from Edward's, she stood up and went outside.

She tried to take a deep breath to calm her racing heart but she couldn't. It was too much. Everything was happening too fast. Everything happened too fast.

Edward rushed behind her, and now she was standing in front of him. Her back to him. It was now or never.

He got closer and held Jade by the arms and whispered tenderly.

"J, you know that I am crazy about you, stop torturing me. I think I loved you since you gave me your bottle of juice, that day we met."

Jade's body shook from laughter. Even now, he succeeded at making her laugh.

"I love when you do that too, I love when you laugh, I love you when you're mad at me, I love you and you're not perfect."

Jade turned around and glared at him. "Way to go, stupid."

"See that's what I mean, I love you because you're not perfect and you don't try to be, you're too kind, too calm, too aggressive, too sarcastic, too beautiful and you give without thinking. You do everything in an extreme way. I love that."

Jade smiled. Edward smiled back.

Then, there was the silence. They looked at each other for minutes without saying anything. Jade couldn't tell him that she loved him just yet so she asked shyly,

"So now what?"

"Now you tell me how you feel about me."

"Edward, I_"

"I won't push it, but you should know you're my girlfriend now."

"Edward, no. I can't. " She shook her head aggressively.

"WHAT? why?"

"Because_"

"Because what Jade? WHAT?" Edward was getting angry. He didn't know if he should be angry at Jade or at himself or at both.

"I don't know."

"You like me?"

Jade shrugged.

"Just don't answer that, I'm leaving. "

"NO, Wait."

Jade hurried behind him. He stopped.

"Ed, why do you want to leave?"

Edward turned around, walked up straight to her. "Because I'm fucking tired Jade, I'm tired going back and forth. Ever since, we kissed the other night and you're driving me crazy. You act like there is nothing between us when I know you feell this, you feel all of it. Right now, I tell you I love you, you say nothing. I tell you I want you to be my girlfriend, you say nothing. Your eyes say things that I really want to believe, but your smart mouth here gets the best of you every fucking time."

"Don't curse."

"Oh my God, really, you decided to comment on that, unbelievable. I'm leaving Jade."

"NO you can't. "

"Why?" He eyed her.

"You can't leave without paying the bill." She mumbled out.

"Oh my God Jade." She frustrated him, just when he thought she would say something else.

"Also, you brought me here remember, you can't leave me alone."

He ran his hand through his hair in exasperation. "You're really messing with my patience Jade. Come. Let's go."

"No, I can't, I am not leaving without you paying" she stood her ground.

"Are you serious now? I won't leave without paying Jade. And I won't leave without you." He was at the verge of ticking off.

They went inside both of them. He paid the bill, she gathered her purse and put on her jacket. She went outside and waited for him, she couldn't be in the same place at him at that moment. It was a good thing that Edward's friend spotted him and started chatting with him, she needed that time to clear her head.

When he was outside, he passed by her and said "Come on let's go."

"Is it because I told you that you can't leave without me that you're taking me with you or do you really want me to come with you?" she asked him in a soft whisper, his back to her.

"Jade!" He turned around.

"What?" she said her voice low.

Edward turned his back again, getting ready to leave. Jade was too much at this moment. He wanted to kiss her and remove the frown from her face and he wanted to shake her in order to get some sense into her. She confused him and got him all tangled up in knots, drove him crazy.

Jade took a deep breath.

Screw it. Here goes nothing.

"I love you too Edward, but I'm scared." Jade uttered out so quickly that Edward thought maybe that was his ears were doing tricks on him. He turned around to face Jade and saw that tears started to form in her eyes.

He took a step towards her and she did the same while wiping some tears off her face with her sleeve. "I'm freaking scared. You should understand. You have to understand. You're freaking amazing . Girls are everywhere around you. And you've just said it yourself I take things to extreme. I don't want to get jealous. Because I know I will go crazy, I don't want you to break my heart. Because it will fucking hurt."

Edward became so close to Jade towards the end of her speech, until he finally wrapped her in his arms. "Don't curse J." He only commented.

He was proud of her, she had finally admitted everything. He tightened his hold on her when he felt her shiver against him. She was laughing.

E: 2 - J: 2

"Don't make me laugh when I'm emotional."

"So,"

"So?"

"You want to be my girlfriend?" he nuzzled her.

"I_"

"It is simple J, Yes or No?"

"Yes."

"Then you are my girlfriend ."

"Edward-"

"I can't promise you or assure anything. I don't want to break your heart but I can't promise you something I'm not sure of. I know you'll get jealous and I will get jealous too. So we're even. and if it makes you feel any better, I'm scared too but I'm way too happy at this moment to even care about my fear."

Jade laughed. "We should move. We have an audience."

"I don't care, I like how we are right now, wrapped up in each other."

"You do?"

"Yes I do, I love that I am way too taller for you, you look so small and fragile in my arms."

"You know looks can be deceiving, you are the most  aware person  that my small size doesn't define my strength."

"Maybe I had always let you win because I had always known that I loved you?"

"We both know  that you don't let anybody just win, all the times I have won, I won fair and square. I am just better at boxing than you are."

E:2 - J :3

"Oh yes you are, but I am still taller and you will always look small in my arms."

She stuck her tongue out at him and he laughed. He pulled her close and kissed her. He didn't care if all the people saw. Jade was finally with him.

....

They walked to the car. Before he could open the door for her, Jade hugged him and took him by surprise.

"What was that for, girlfriend?"

"Say it again."she whispered.

"Girlfriend."

"mmm." She closed her eyes, her hold on him was tighter.

..........

"I take it you're not scared anymore?"

"No, I'm terrified. But I'm way too happy at this moment to even care about my fear."

"Heyyyy you stole my line." He held her hand and kissed her knuckles.

"And you stole my heart." she smiled. She admitted that was cheesy but it was the truth.

"I'm glad I did."

.............

"Hey Jade,"

"Yeah..."

"I love you."

"And I love you "

............

Jade's gift to Edward 

***************

Word count: approximately 2300 words

Okay so I wrote this a while back ago (more than two years, I think), I decided to republish it because of a special someone.

I love this story so much even if it's super duper cliché. I love it because when I read it, I remember where I was and where I am today and I feel so proud.

I changed a couple of things from when I first published it. It's not way too different, the essence is still the same. I just elaborated it more (I hope).
The rant is over, thanks for anyone who is reading this. Don't forget friend, Love is there, waiting for you around the corner.

With Love, Christa-Maria