"Hey, Loui?" Florida mumbled. He was laying on the floor in Louisiana's room, about to go to sleep, when something had crossed his mind.

"What's up, sha?" His best friend responded.

"Exactly that. What does 'sha' mean?" He asks.

"Oh uh.. Mais, it's nothin, Flo. Dont worry 'bout it" Louisiana shakily responded, feeling his cheeks heat up at the question.

"Oh, okay." Florida responded, too tired to pry at the moment, but he was going to keep asking later. The sunshine state quickly drifted off to sleep, leaving Louisiana wide awake and nervous.

He couldn't help but wonder what would happen if Florida, his best friend, his crush, found out what he had been calling him this whole time. He didn't want to think about it. Before, calling Florida "sha" was kind of his little secret, a fantasy he kept up every time he said the word. But now, if Florida found out, it wouldn't exactly be a secret anymore.

He turned over in his bed to face his best friend, quietly admiring him. Quietly wishing he could be sleeping next to him, or holding his hand, or playing with his hair. Louisiana wished, more than anything, that maybe Florida loved him too.

But he knew it was impossible.

-The Next Day-

"Shut the hell up, California!" Texas' shouting broke Loui out of his head. "Oh what do you know! You don't have any beaches!" California snapped back.

"Not gonna lie... I wish we did.." Texas- no- Austin said, shakily removing Texas' hat. "Aw, Austin! You can come visit one of my beaches whenever you want!"

"Really!?" Austin exclaimed, a huge smile spread across his face.

"Of course!" California replied with an affectionate look.

Texas put his hat back on and snapped, "No! We do not need to see any of your stupid beaches, nation-state!"

"Ugh, I wasn't inviting you anyways!"

Louisiana blocked out their bickering for the rest of the meeting, just wanting to get away from the Table so he could go get another daiquiri.

He sat there, fiddling with his beads, not even realizing who he was staring at until he looked back at him. "Hey, Louisiana.. are you okay?" Florida asked him. "Oh uh yeah, don' worry about it, s-" Loui stopped himself before he could finish saying the word. He didn't want to remind Florida to ask.

However, Florida seemed to remember anyways.

After the meeting was over, Florida asked Louisiana if he could stay after everyone left because he wanted to ask him something.

"o' course sha." Loui responded. What's the point in not saying it if Florida already remembered to ask?

After everyone else left, and a lot of convincing DC that they would lock up for him, and that no it wasn't a prank, Florida spoke up.

"So, Loui, I actually have a question and I've been thinking about it and I'm so so so curious!" Florida said with an exited tone in his voice. The tone that usually Loui so loved hearing.

"Alright, shoot" Louisiana said, already expecting the question, and formulating fake answers.

"What exactly does 'sha' mean? And why have I never heard you say it to other states? Only me?" The sunshine state asked.

"Mais, sha, it's just Cajun slang" Louisiana told him. It wasn't technically a lie.

"Yeah I know but for what?" Florida pried further.

Loui let out a nervous chuckle, "Don't worry about it, it's nothin' bad" He said, standing up and heading towards the door. "Anyway I gotta go, my daiquiri's almost empty." And he ran out the door.

Louisiana got in his car, and took a few deep breaths. "Dat was too close" He said to himself.

While he was out buying himself a daiquiri and some crawfish, Florida was back home with California and decided to ask some questions. "Hey Cali!"

"Do not call me that."

"Whatever, do you know what 'sha' means?"

"Oh hell yeah, Loui tol- I mean, I looked it up a long time ago."

You see, California- being Florida's roommate and all- actually had a closer connection to Louisiana than others might think. Cal actually figured out that Louisiana had a crush on Florida way before he told her. And, of course, being Florida's roommate led to a lot of late night confessions and thoughts, and pretty soon, California knew that they both were madly in love with each other, but Florida was too stupid to see it, and Louisiana refused to make the first move.

"So what does it mean?" Florida asked him.

"I'm not exactly sure I can tell you that, dude"

After a bit of back-and-forth arguing, Florida gave up. He thought he'd never find out what "sha" meant.

but then he remembered the internet.