The Pack

Ch. 10

Bryce stood in front of Dana wide eyed as she knelt in front of him holding out a sign asking him to be her boyfriend. She grew tired of their unspoken thing and decided to do something about it. And through her creative mind she decided to do it as a grand gesture with a speech and a poster. Naturally, it caught the attention of the students around them. Some watched in anticipation, some giggled and others snickered after looking at Bryce's frozen expression. He may have been frozen still but his mind was running a mile a minute. He stared at the word boyfriend on the poster and Dana's expectant expression and he grew overwhelmed. He knew he loved her, they had a connection on a deeper level than she could ever understand, but the word boyfriend scared him. He could tell she liked him but he couldn't be sure if she would ever feel the same as him. She was a human and he was different, how could she know? Making it official meant he might have to tell her and the whole family worried about how she would react. "Can we talk somewhere else?" He finally spoke. Dana was hoping for an answer and instead she got another question. Her hopes were low but she continued on. 

"Yeah, sure." She nodded and stood. Together they walked away from the picnic tables and towards the cafeteria. "Look, I'm sorry about the big show but I was just tired of our whole unspoken thing-"

"You don't have to apologize. I... really, really like you. I do, I promise. And I like what we have going on but the whole boyfriend/girlfriend thing..." Bryce tried to find the right words but it was hard to work around the real reason. 

"You don't want to date me? You just want to keep messing around with my feelings? Are we friends or not? There's definitely something more-"

"I'm not saying no I just- I need to think." He sighed in exasperation. Dana quieted down to let him think, a bit annoyed. "Dating, officially, means getting to see other sides of a person... and I don't think you're going to like some of the other sides of me." He tried to explain. Dana was offended that he would undermine her feelings like that. 

"That's the whole point of dating. If one of the sides is that bad then you break up and if it's something you could manage then you learn to love it because you love the whole person and you will learn to love and accept all of their sides." She exasperated. Bryce was stuck on one word, surprised he had heard it. 

"Did you just say that you love me?" He asked, happier than he let himself express. Dana's eyes widened realizing that she had just exposed herself and her face went flush while her heart rate quickened as she tried to make an excuse. Bryce noticed all of these things and more. He noticed her scent getting stronger which confirmed one thing to him, she did love him. And if she truly loved him then that could only mean one thing to him: she did feel the way he did. 

"I'm talking about in the long term." She tried to say. He began to smile, letting some of his giddy show through. But because Dana was now embarrassed she didn't look up at him to see his grin. "You know what, this was a mistake, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that." She began to turn away but Bryce reached out for her. She looked back at him expectantly. 

"If the offer still stands, my answer's a yes... If you can learn to love all my sides." He spoke, his eyes smiling in sparkling half moons. She smiled finally. 

~~~

Bryce waited until getting home to tell his siblings about Dana. They were both waiting for him to tell them as they already heard from others. "Okay, so, I did something but I'm pretty much a hundred percent confident that it's going to be okay." He finally spoke while they all sat outside at one of the picnic tables. 

"Is it about Dana?" Willow asked which caught Bryce by surprise. 

"How'd you know?" He asked. 

"Everyone around you guys was talking about it." Caelum explained.