If They Only Knew

(This chapter focuses on the events in chapter 21 of the main story.)

Leah's POV

"I'm worried about Kaley," I sighed as I watched her walk out of the room. "Since the incident with Ryan yesterday, she's been all tense and now she just looks sad and mopey."

"It's probably because Ryan doesn't want Darren hanging around her," Chris shrugged. "Darren wrote Kaley a note to let her know why he's been avoiding her, so that's probably why she's so upset."

"I just feel bad for her," I said, returning my attention on the clothes that I was hanging up on the racks. "I wish that there was something that I could do to cheer her up."

"I'm sure you'll think of something," Chris replied kind of absentmindedly.

"What are you doing?" I asked, turning towards him to see what had consumed his attention. His head was tilted down, looking at something that he was holding in his hands. I moved close to try to see what it was.

"Is that my camera?" I exclaimed, trying to make a grab for it, but he just moved it out of my reach.

"You guys take a lot of pictures," he smiled, waving the camera screen at me. "Like do you take pictures of everything?"

"I don't," I argued, attempting to grab the camera from him again. There were some embarrassing photos on there. "Kaley tends to steal my camera sometimes and take pictures with it. She's the one who takes pictures of everything. She says it's so that she can freeze the memories and be able to look at them later."

"That's cute," Chris awed. "But I think you need some memories on here too!" He suddenly grabbed my arm and pulled me over beside him, holding out the camera in front of him, pointed towards us.

"Say cheese!" he laughed, clicking the button and making the flash go off.

"Chris!" I exclaimed, laughing. "I wasn't ready yet! And I think my eyes were closed!"

"Here, let's try again," he grinned, holding out the camera again. His arm tightened around my waist as he pulled me closer. I instinctively leaned my head down onto his shoulder and smiled up at the camera. I couldn't believe how natural and comfortable this felt. In this moment, it felt like we had known each other for years.

"Ok, now a silly one!" Chris announced, making a funny face. I laughed as I followed suit, sticking my tongue out at the camera. Chris pulled the camera back after it flashed to look at the picture.

"Again! Again!" he laughed, holding out the camera again. We did a couple more crazy poses before Chris came up with a suggestion.

"Hey, I have an idea that I want to try," he said suddenly.

"Ok..." I replied warily, giving him a suspicious look. "What do you want to do?"

"I want you to look at the camera and give your best shocked or surprised expression, okay?" he looked excited so I couldn't help but laugh and agree to go along with whatever he was planning. I turned towards the camera and gave my best shocked expression. I watched as Chris' finger hovered over the button, but just before he clicked it, I felt something soft brush across my cheek.

I don't think I've ever had a more genuine expression of shock in a picture before. But then again, it's a very reasonable reaction to have when Chris Colfer kisses your cheek.

I knew what it was the second he did it. But that didn't make me any less shocked by it. As my face lit up with surprise, my stomach boiled with excitement and elation. It felt like butterflies were literally dancing around inside of there, singing joyous tunes of happiness and love.

"Great picture," Chris' voice brought me back down from the clouds I was floating on. "You're really photogenic, did you know that?"

"No, I didn't," I shook my head quickly as I tried to calm my racing heart. Did that really just happen?

"I think we should take another one," I said suddenly, gesturing for Chris to move the camera back out again. "This time you look at the camera."

"Okay," he grinned, turning his face away from me. "Tell me when you're ready."

Oh, you'll know, I grinned to myself as I looked at the cheek that was now facing me. Could I really do it? He had done it so easily, why should it be so hard for me to do it too?

Come on, Leah, I pumped myself. You can do this. Just do it! Without another moment's hesitation, I quickly leaned towards him and placed my lips gently against his cheek.

I'd always thought of Chris of having a baby face, but I never expected his skin to be as soft as a baby too. The skin beneath my lips was so soft and smooth, unblemished, perfect. I barely registered the camera going off because I was so lost in the wonder of his skin.

And oddly enough, he didn't pull away.

What felt like a couple of minutes, though it may have only been a couple seconds passed and suddenly Chris was moving away from me, looking down at the camera again.

Oh, no, I started to panic. What if I offended him somehow? Is it like against some sort of rule to kiss him? I've never seen fan pictures of him being kissed by a fan before... But I'm not just a fan, I'm his friend. And this is a totally typical, normal friend thing to do, right?

"These look great!" Chris said suddenly, looking up at me with a smile that put my worried thoughts to rest. "I think that we both definitely look pretty surprised!"

Surprised...

"That's it!" I exclaimed suddenly, making Chris jump slightly.

"What's it?" he asked, cocking his head to the side slightly.

I looked at him with a proud smile on my face as I said, "I know what to do to cheer Kaley up."

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

Chris' POV

The way that Leah's face just lit up made my heart warm. She was beautiful. There was no denying that. She was especially beautiful when she blushed. I don't know why, but she just seemed to shine when she blushed. Maybe it was how the shy, timidness of the action made her seem more sweet and innocent, just pure and beautiful.

I was kind of disappointed that she didn't blush when I kissed her. I thought for sure that she would have, but that wasn't the only reason I did it. I wanted to see what it would feel like. Sure, I'd kissed girls' cheeks before, but for some reason I just really wanted to do this with Leah. What I wasn't expecting was for her to kiss me back.

It kind of feels like she's returning the affection, I beamed to myself as I quickly flipped through the pictures. We actually looked really good together. My eyes trailed down to where my hand was resting on her waist in the picture. She didn't seem to mind that I did that, which made me happy. Maybe she could have feelings for me.

No, Chris, stop it! I scolded myself. You're letting this get out of hand!

I can't help it, I sighed. She's just so beautiful...

I stopped on the picture where I kissed her cheek. She definitely looked genuinely surprised, but in a pleasantly surprised way.

"These look great!" I spoke up suddenly, looking up at her as a smile spread across my lips. "I think that we both definitely look pretty surprised!"

"That's it!" Leah exclaimed suddenly, making me jump slightly.

"What's it?" I asked, cocking my head to the side slightly.

Leah just looked at me with a mischievous grin on her face.

"I know what to do to cheer Kaley up," she smiled proudly.

Oh. This wasn't where I thought this was going. But, for her sake, I played along.

"What?" I asked.

"We're going to throw her a surprise party!" Leah exclaimed happily. "We can get a cake and balloons, and maybe we can convince the cast to sing to her or something and-"

"I feel like I'm missing something here," I laughed, cutting her off. "Why a surprise party?"

"Oh," Leah blushed, making my insides twitter with excitement. She glanced around to make sure that no one else was around and then lowered her voice before continuing. "Well, you see, it's kind of Kaley's birthday tomorrow."

"It is?" I raised my eyebrows in surprise, following her suit in lowering my voice. The last thing we needed was for someone to overhear and accidentally blurt the plan to Kaley. That would take the whole point out of the surprise party. "Why didn't you guys tell us sooner?"

"Well, Kaley didn't really want to make a big deal of it," Leah shrugged. "It's been just me and her for a while, so we're not used to having parties. There was never any reason to. And no reason to tell anyone."

"Well of course we can throw her a party!" I exclaimed softly. "The whole cast would totally be in for singing to her, they already love you guys and it's only been what, like two/three days since we met you? And I'm sure that we could even convince Darren to take the lead on singing her Happy Birthday."

"That would be perfect!" Leah quietly squealed. "She's going to love it!"

"I'm sure that he'll do it," I replied with a smile. "They've become so close. I don't see why he wouldn't want to."

A sudden noise made us both freeze. I shot a quick glance over at Leah, who looked just as confused and suspicious as I did. I quickly took a step forward to look around behind the clothing racks that we were standing behind.

"What was-" I started to say as I poked my head out, quickly spotting Kaley. "Oh, hello, Kaley!"

"Kaley, when did you get back?" Leah asked, coming out from behind the racks as well. Her voice could have almost given us away as she sounded like as if we'd been caught doing something that we were supposed to be doing.

"Only like a minute ago," Kaley shrugged, giving us a suspicious look. "What were you two talking about?"

"Nothing!" we both blurted simultaneously. We instantly looked at each other, both of us surprised, but the moment that our eyes locked on each other's, we both broke out laughing.

"It was nothing," Leah said after a moment, turning back towards Kaley. "Just some me and Chris stuff." She gave Kaley a playful wink before casting a quick sideways glance at me, in which our eyes locked again. I could seriously get lost in her eyes.

"Whatever," Kaley rolled her eyes at us before moving over to the racks to grab some of the clothes. "Just keep it PG, guys."

I could tell that she was just teasing us, but that didn't stop the blush that crept not only onto Leah's face, but my own as well.

"Sorry about that," Leah apologized, turning back to me once Kaley had left the room. "We tend to tease each other like that all the time."

"It's no problem," I grinned. "I think that your friendship is really sweet. It's nice to have that kind of friend that you can joke around with about anything. I hope that we can reach that level some day."

I quickly turned away before I could see her reaction, afraid of how she might react to that. Leah and Kaley had a very tight, close relationship. That was obvious from the very first day when I saw how naturally she stood up for her friend against Darren. I think that that was one of the things that drew me so quickly to her. She's the kind of girl that's not afraid to speak her mind.

"I'd like that," Leah's voice suddenly cut through my thoughts, proving my point and making my heart swell. Even if nothing ever happened between the two of us, I know that I'd at least have gained a really good friend.

But friendship wasn't what I was looking for.