If You Only Knew

Kaley's POV

"They're on their last song," Leah commented slyly, nudging me repeatedly. I just ignored her, focusing instead on the shirt that I was folding as I listened to Don't Stop Believin' play quietly over the speaker system. We had decided to collect everyone's Act One outfits during the intermission to get a jump start on the laundry so that Leah and Chris wouldn't be totally swamped while I was gone.

"I said, they're on their last song," Leah repeated, nudging me a little harder.

"What, can't wait to get rid of me so that you can have Chris all to yourself?" I teased.

"How did you know?" she gasped loudly. It was so overly dramatic that it caused both of us to break out into a fit of laughter.

"But seriously," Leah said once we had settled down. "Aren't you excited for your date?"

"It's not a date," I rolled my eyes at her. "He doesn't think of me that way."

"Kaley, it is totally a date!" Leah exclaimed. "He's totally into you!"

"How do you know?" I sighed.

"I've got a sense for these things," she smiled.

"Sure you do," I laughed, rolling my eyes again. "So tell me then, Miss Senser, is Chris into you?"

"Well, I... Uh..." she sputtered, caught off guard by my question.

"Just what I thought," I laughed. "If you can't even tell if your own guy likes you or not, then how can you say that mine likes me?"

"Because it's just one of those best friend things where I just know!" she exclaimed with a huff.

"But how do you know?" I argued.

"I just know!" she exclaimed again, getting frustrated with me.

"But-" I started.

"Oh girls, you're so silly!" a voice came from the doorway. We both looked up to find Chris leaning casually in the doorway. Neither of us had noticed that the song had ended, allowing Chris to be able to sneak up on us.

"H-How long have you been standing there?" Leah asked nervously, as if she wasn't totally sure that she wanted to know the answer.

"Oh, long enough," he laughed, giving her a little wink which caused her to blush.

"Ready for your date?" Chris asked, turning his attention on me.

"Chris..." I added a warning tone to my voice.

"Oh sorry," he laughed, walking over to stand beside Leah. "Ready for your date that's not a date though it totally really is a date date?"

"Chris!" I exclaimed.

"I'm not taking that back, hun," he smiled, his eyes twinkling mischievously at me.

"Whatever," I rolled my eyes at him as I stood up from where I had been sitting on the floor, brushing the dirt off my pants as I did so. I turned and picked up the pile of folded shirts that I had been working on and set them up on the table.

"Hey," his voice suddenly filled my ears.

"Hi," I smiled, turning around to face him. And there he was, leaning oh so casually in the doorway, clad in a sexy white polo shirt that was slightly unbuttoned at the top, exposing the lightly tanned skin on his chest, and faded blue jeans that had scattered tears along the legs. I felt my heart skip a beat as I looked at him. It was moments like this that I remembered why I was so attracted to him. He was gorgeous.

"You ready to go?" he asked, a smile lingering on his lips.

"Yeah, sure," I managed to sputter when I found my voice again. "Let's go." I walked over and met him at the doorway, turning back for a second to say goodbye to Leah and Chris.

"Bye, guys!" I waved.

"See you later, Kales!" Leah waved back.

"You two have fun!" Chris smiled, his eyes flittering back and forth between us.

"Oh, we will," Darren replied before I could. "Shall we?" He offered me his arm, which I very nervously took. He was quite the gentleman.

"So I called Steven and asked him to meet us out back," Darren told me as we left the room and walked down the hall.

"Why the back?" I asked, trying to focus on what he was saying, though my mind kept drifting back to the fact that our arms were touching.

"Seriously, Kaley?" he sounded surprised. "Have you ever been to one of our concerts before?" I shook my head. Though I had always wanted to, I had never gotten the chance to go to one.

"Well," he continued. "There will be fans all over the place out there and if they see us together, well, they may get the wrong idea..."

And what's wrong with that? my mind subconsciously thought.

"Plus, they would totally just freak out in general if they saw me walk out of here," he went on. "I've literally had fans chase our limo down the road and follow us for five blocks before we finally lost them. Ice cream's supposed to be fun and relaxing, not crazy, screaming fan-filled. I want ice cream, not I scream."

"Then I'm sure that you will love this place," I laughed. "They're a small little shop, independently owned, so not many people really know about them, but they have really good ice cream at really reasonable prices."

"Sounds great," he smiled at me. I had to force myself to look away to prevent myself from drooling over his gorgeously charming smile. We had reached the back door by this point, which Darren opened for me, and we soon found ourselves standing beside the long, black limo that I had ridden home in last night. Steven was there in an instant, opening the door for us to get in, and, taking a deep breath, that was exactly what I did.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Darren's POV

She seemed a little nervous getting into the limo, though I wasn't really sure why. I had thought that we had been doing better, getting more comfortable and relaxed around each other. But then again, I had never been in such close contact with her before.

Not since the day you first met, my mind subconsciously reminded me. I hurriedly pushed away all thoughts of that day, not needing to be reminded of our bad first impressions, but the memory of Kaley's scared and shocked face when I had grabbed her arm that first day persisted to flash through my mind. I fought this memory with the thought of her arm touching mine only moments earlier. I smiled as I thought about how warm and comfortable her arm had felt against mine.

It felt... right, I realized, smiling at the thought. Being around Kaley just felt right.

"Sir?" Steven's voice broke my thoughts, bringing me back to the real world. He was looking at me with a concerned and puzzled expression, and I suddenly realized that I was still standing outside of the limo.

"Oh, right," I laughed, getting into the limo.

Kaley had already scooted over to the far side of the limo and was currently looking at a notebook... MY notebook. I hadn't realized that I had left it in the limo this morning.

"These are really good," she said suddenly, looking up from the small pad of paper. She was talking about some of my more recent lyrics that I had been working on. The songs weren't done yet, having been stuck with a kind of writer's block, so I carried them around with me in case I got inspiration for what to write next.

"Yeah, those are kind of private," I blushed, taking the notebook from her hands. I had started writing a new song last night that had kind of been about her, not that I would admit that to anyone. Not to Chris and especially not to Kaley.

"I'm sorry," she mumbled, staring back down at her now empty hands. "I didn't know."

"That's alright," I smiled hesitantly as I slid the notebook into my back pocket. "I probably shouldn't have left it lying around." Her smile was just as hesitant.

"So," I broke the awkward silence that had developed between us. "Tell me something that's interesting about Miss Kaley Grant."

"Something interesting?" she remarked, blinking with surprise. "I don't know what's all that interesting about me... Ummm, well, what do you want to know?"

"Well, where are you from?" I asked. "You never did tell me."

"I'm actually from Canada," she replied with a slight smile. "The last city that I lived in before moving here was Toronto. Before that, I lived in a couple of smaller towns. I guess that you could say that I'm a country girl at heart, seeing as I was born and raised in a little hick-town. What about you?" I felt my eyebrows raise in surprise. I knew that Kaley was a fan, so I had kind of figured that she would have already known a lot of stuff about me.

Unless she's just being polite, I thought to myself. I considered this idea for a moment, but then just shrugged it off. Either way, Kaley was still waiting for a response.

"I was born and raised in San Francisco," I told her, relaxing back into my seat. "I now live in L.A. since I kind of need to be close to my work place."

"Oh my gosh, I would love to see the Glee set someday," Kaley blurted suddenly, her cheeks turning red only seconds later.

"Oh! I'm so sorry!" she exclaimed, looking very embarrassed. "I didn't mean to have a gleeking fan moment in front of you..."

"It's alright," I laughed. "I'm used to people gleeking out around me."

"I know, but I told myself that I wouldn't ever do something like this in front of you," she confessed, hiding her face behind her hands. "I'm so embarrassed!"

"Kaley," I sighed with a light laugh, gently peeling her fingers away from her face. "It's fine. Don't worry, okay? I thought that it was kind of cute. There's nothing to be embarrassed or sorry for." Her big, brown eyes looked up at me and a small smile crept onto her lips. Her eyes suddenly dropped back down again, back to her hands... hands that I was still holding. I hadn't even noticed that I had still been holding them.

"Oh, sorry," I exclaimed, pulling my hands away.

"I-It's fine," she stuttered, her fingers finding a loose strand of hair to fiddle with. It was kind of cute how she did that when she was nervous.

"So why move to New York, country girl?" I asked, adding in a light bit of teasing with the new nickname.

"I told you, Leah and I moved here to pursue our dreams," she replied, crinkling her nose at the nickname.

"Which are...?" I persisted.

"Leah wanted to get into theatre, acting and stage managing." she shared. "Me, I wanted to be an author, write stories for a living... But so far that's not looking so bright for me."

"Chris just published his first book," I commented. "Why don't you have him take a look at your work? He could give you some tips or something."

"I would love that... if I actually had anything to show him," she sighed. "I'm kind of stuck in a bit of a writer's block right now... I was hoping that a change of location would help inspire me, but so far I've had no luck."

"Wait, wait, wait," I blinked repeatedly, shaking my head slightly. "So you've been here for a year and you haven't written anything?"

"Well, no," she sighed. "I've written some stuff, but nothing worthy of being published or even read by anyone else."

"How do you know if you won't even let anyone read anything?" I argued. "You are your own worst critic. You may feel like something that's yours is not good enough when, in reality, it could be the greatest thing the world has never seen!"

"Well, that was oddly inspiring," she laughed, a smile creeping back onto her face.

"Inspiring enough to let me or Chris read your work?" I asked, hopeful, a smile trickling onto my own face.

"Mayhaps," she smiled slyly at me.

The limo suddenly slowed to a stop and the glass separating us from Steven lowered.

"I've stopped a block away, like you asked, Miss Grant," he told us. I turned to Kaley, puzzled.

When did you ask that? I wanted to ask, but she spoke before I could.

"I asked him before you got in," she explained. "While you were daydreaming." There was laughter in her voice and I realized that she was teasing me. I just rolled my eyes and held out my hand to her.

"Shall we?" I put my other hand on the door handle, ready to open it.

"We shall," she smiled, taking my hand. I was surprised by how soft they were as her fingers entwined in mine. I quickly opened the door and gently pulled her out behind me, never letting go of her hand. I was surprised once again by not only how natural this felt, but also the fact that she was actually letting me continue to hold her hand without pulling it away.

"Don't worry about waiting for us," I told Steven when his window rolled down. "It's a nice day. We'll walk back." I quickly looked back at Kaley to make sure that she was okay with that and she smiled, reassuring me.

"If you're sure?" Steven sounded hesitant. He was always so willing to be of assistance, so willing to please.

"I'm sure," I laughed. "See you later, Steven!"

"Good day, Mister Criss, Miss Grant," he nodded to us both as we began to walk away.

The street that we had stopped on was surprisingly empty, which I was thankful for. I was no stranger to having people react to seeing me get out of a limo and it was a refreshing change not to hear screaming girls every time that I stepped out of a vehicle.

"So, how far is this place?" I asked as we walked along the sidewalk.

"It's just up ahead," she laughed, pulling me along a little quicker. My fingers were still laced through hers, so I gave them a light squeeze. She seemed excited about going to this place.

Within minutes, she was pulling me into a small little shop with a sign that read Joe's Scoops. A small bell jingled as we passed through the doorway.

"Hi, what can I... Kaley?" the voice came from an older woman behind the counter. Her greying hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail, keeping it away from her lightly wrinkled face. Her lips were parted in a surprised expression that was mirrored in her pale blue eyes.

"Hi, Grace," Kaley laughed, giving the woman a small wave.

"Kaley! How are you!" the woman addressed as Grace exclaimed. "It's been a while! And who's this? Is this your boyfriend?" I instantly felt Kaley tense up slightly at this question, her hand suddenly pulling away from mine.

"N-No," she laughed nervously. "He's just a friend. Darren, this is Grace. Grace, this is Darren."

"How do you do?" I extended my hand over the counter top to shake hers.

"Darren... Darren..." she seemed puzzled by my name. "I know I've heard that name before..."

"Kaley!" a high voice squealed. Something suddenly bolted out of no where and crashed into Kaley.

"Hi, Talia," Kaley laughed, trying to detach the small, blonde-haired girl from her waist. The tiny girl must have only been twelve or thirteen or so. When Kaley finally managed to pull the young girl away from herself, the small girl's bright blue eyes fell on me and she let out another ear piercing squeal.

"Oh my gosh! You're Darren Criss!" she squealed, pointing at me as if I didn't already know who I was.

"That's where I've heard it!" Grace laughed.

"Talia, it's rude to point," Kaley told her, trying to hold back another laugh. "I don't think that Darren likes to be pointed at, do you, Darren?" She turned to look at me, her bright brown eyes sparkling with glee.

"I don't know," I pretended to act puzzled. "How does it make you feel?" I proceeded to point my finger at the small girl, which resulted in another squeal to escape from her lips.

"Darren Criss just pointed at me!" she turned back to Kaley, jumping up and down with excitement. "Darren Criss just pointed at me!"

"Talia, I think it's time for you to go back upstairs," Grace said suddenly.

"But, Grandma-" she started to protest.

"No buts," Grace cut her off. "You've still got chores to finish and a bag to pack. Your mother will be here soon to pick you up and I know for a fact that you aren't ready yet."

"But-" Talia whined.

"Now, Talia!" Grace's voice was strict. With a loud huff, very clearly stating how she did not want to go, she turned to leave, stopping only for a second to tug on Kaley's shirt. Kaley bent down so that Talia could whisper something in her ear, to which Kaley nodded, and then she disappeared suddenly as quickly as she had appeared.

"Sorry about that," Grace smiled at us as we turned back to her. "My granddaughter is a huge Glee fan. It's all she talks about, night and day. She will never stop talking about this now."

"Sorry," I shrugged. I couldn't help being me.

"It is what it is," Grace shrugged as well. "So what can I get for you two?"

"Ummm, give me something random," Kaley said after a moment's thought. "Surprise me." I gave her a questioning look, to which she just shrugged and said, "I like to be spontaneous sometimes."

"Alright," I laughed, turning my attention back to Grace. "I'll have a random too."

"Two randoms, coming right up!" she laughed, turning away to get her scoops.

"So, it seems to be that you're no stranger to this place," I commented, turning my attention back to Kaley. She blushed slightly, ducking her head, a reaction that I was starting to get used to.

"I worked here for a little while when I first moved here," she confessed. "But they unfortunately had to let me go because they just couldn't afford to have many people on their pay roll. But I don't begrudge them or anything for it. I loved my time working here and I try to come here as much as I can to support them. They're like my little family, my home away from home."

"Order up!" Grace said suddenly, drawing our attention back to her. "Chocolate Monkey for Kaley and Moose Tracks for her... friend." She eyed Kaley, giving her a look that said, "I don't believe that you two aren't dating."

"Thanks, Grace," Kaley sighed, rolling her eyes at the older woman, as she accepted one of the cones from her. I took the other one, thanking her for it before turning and following Kaley over to a table by the window.

"This has always been my favourite spot to sit when I come here," Kaley said as we sat down. "I like watching the people walking by, so oblivious to the world around them..." She trailed off suddenly, starring out the window, a thoughtful look taking over her face. She seemed so peaceful that I didn't want to interrupt her. And luckily I didn't have to. Someone else did.

"Kaley, is that you?" the deep voice caught both of our attentions. Kaley turned her attention away from the window, a smile spreading across her face as she saw the owner of the voice.

"Joe!" her face was practically beaming as she lept up and hugged him. I slowly turned my attention towards this "Joe" person and I suddenly started to feel something that I had not felt in many years. It had been so long since I had felt like this that it actually took me a minute to realize what it was.

I was jealous.