Oh Baby, I'm a Fool For You

"Sounds to me like she kissed him," Veronica said from the other end of the phone.

"I know that he doesn't have a girlfriend or anything, but it bugs me," I said stubbornly, taking a large bite out of my chocolate bar. "And, there's another thing. I realized something weird today."

"This sounds juicy!" she said excitedly. "Spill!"

"Nikolai was all over me, touching me all the time and hugging me and tickling me, but I didn't mind. It's like, Ben is the only one who I feel uncomfortable around. I mean, how screwed up is that?" I asked rhetorically. "Doesn't that mean that I don't like Ben?"

"Listen up, Kaya. You're the one who thinks so much, so put the pieces together. Your stomach ties in knots when you're around him. You get easily embarrassed by him. You're hyper sensitive to his touch. You get jealous when another girl touches him. You can't stop thinking about him, and he's the guy you talk about the most. Go."

It took me a few seconds. "No!" I exclaimed in shock as I sat straight up. "You can't possibly be suggesting-"

"That you're in love with him?"

"Veronica... People don't fall in love in a month."

"Says who? Suppose there's a connection between you two that doesn't need a lot of time to connect completely."

"This isn't a movie! This isn't normal!" I exclaimed, beginning to pace around my room.

Honey, when was the last time you were called normal?"

I sighed and leaned against the wall, sinking to the floor. "What do I do?"

"Tell him."

I laughed dryly. "And get rejected? No thanks."

"Then just look for the signs. Call me when you figure it out."

"Veronica!"

"Bye bye, darling!"

The line went dead.

I wasn't really in love with Ben... Was I?

I awoke to a slurping sound. After cracking my eyes open, I saw Nikolai sitting at the end of the bed with a box of apple juice, drinking noisily as he paged through a magazine.

"Nikolai?" I asked, sitting up.

"Kit-Kat, good morning," he squeaked, leaping forward to get under the covers with me. "Oops," he said as his apple juice slowly leaked onto my blanket.

I groaned and laid back, covering my face with my hands. "I don't want to go to work today."

"Oh come on," he said, taking me around the shoulders and leaning me into him, "you get to do whatever a hot prince wants. That sounds pretty good to me."

"That's exactly why I don't want to go," I admitted, turning my face into his chest, which was covered by a tight Incredible Hulk shirt.

His fingers twirled my hair. "Did you finally realize that you're in love with him?"

I sat straight up and turned to glare at him. "What?!"

He chuckled and took my hands. "Kaya, my dear, sweet, oblivious Kaya. It's so obvious that it's actually painful to see." With that, he jumped out of bed and pulled me out with him. "Come come now, I'm taking you to set."

"Don't you have a certain actor to attend to?" I asked bitterly, rooting around in my suitcase for clothing.

"Nah, Georgie is sick, so they can't really do anything. They could do the castle raid, but the costumes are not anywhere near ready."

"Fine, fine," I grumbled, and shuffled into the bathroom. "You have to stop sneaking in here," I called as I changed.

"Who's sneaking? I have a key."

"What?" I yelled in surprise. I shook my head as I pulled on my jeans. "You're so weird."

"If you just figured that out," he replied, his voice light and airy, "our relationship might be in trouble."