Imperfectly Beautiful (Jordan Knight Fanfic, Liadan #3)

Larceny and Leaving

-NATALIE-

I chewed on my bottom lip as I shifted my position on my beanbag in the loft where Logan, Danielle, DJ, and I were towards the end of watching Star Wars: The Force Awakens for seemingly the millionth time. It was one of the few movies we could actually all agree on, but I wasn't paying it an ounce of attention.

"Would you stop fidgeting?" DJ tilted his head backwards and looked at me. "You keep kicking me in my back."

"Sorry, I'll stop if you'll help me," I whispered back and glanced over at our siblings. Logan was only half watching the TV while playing on his hand held video game and Danielle was braiding Scout's tail.

"About what?"

"You know what."

"Natalie, you know how I feel about that dude," he shook his head.

My idea to head to the mall with my friends Layne and Rebecca and then meet up with my crush, Austin Marshall, had disintegrated after Layne's parents had decided that they were going away for Christmas this upcoming weekend and Rebecca had picked up a part-time holiday job in the gift shop at the hospital where her brother worked. Thus, I was left hanging without a good reason to go to the mall—unless I could convince DJ to come along with our siblings and then leave Austin and I alone to do our own thing.

"You just have to come to the mall. Afterwards, you can do whatever."

"If you can't let your parents meet the guy, do you really think you should be seeing him?"

DJ could be so no-nonsense sometimes that he drove me insane. He was fifteen going on fifty.

"I think my parents would like him, but I don't know him all that well and I don't want to scare him off."

"Why would he be scared off?"

"You know why. You even said you didn't think my dad would let him within five feet of me," I reasoned. "I mean, it's not like I'm going to be all alone with him or something. It's a public place. What's the worse thing that could happen? C'mon, I know kids who did stuff like this in middle school. I'm a sophomore!"

DJ rolled his eyes, "So?"

"So, I didn't even get asked to the 8th grade dance."

"The 8th grade dance sucked."

"Easy for you to say when you got to go. I'm a late bloomer."

"No, you're not."

"Yes, I am. This is the first time a guy has liked me and I don't want to blow it with him."

DJ looked at me, "Just 'cuz he likes you doesn't mean you have to like him back."

"Maybe, but I like that Austin likes me, DJ. He really, truly does and I like him too."

He shook his head, "Fine."

"So that's a yes?" I asked hopefully.

DJ sighed, "Yes."

"It's almost time to go guys, I'm warming up the car so start wrapping it up," Uncle Danny's voice carried up the stairs.

"Coming," Danielle called and I grinned and fought the urge to squeal as I turned back to DJ.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you. My sister is having a grown-up holiday party Friday night so I'm sure our parents will be happy to let us plan something anyway."

"Mmhm," DJ mused and drug his eyes back to the TV in time to catch the ending scene while I did a little happy dance to myself silently.

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