Dicky's POV
I hear a knock at the door. It's y/n.
"Uh. Hi." I stammer.
"Hey." She smiles. "Why did you leave?"
"I-uh."
"We beat Madison! She's totally humiliated now." Y/n laughs, and I have to keep telling myself, she's with Nicky.
"Well. That's good news." I try to smile back.
"I know!" Y/n looks at me closer. "Were you crying?"
"No." I sniff and turn away from her.
"What's going on in here?" Dawn appears in the doorway. And then Ricky. And then finally Nicky.
"Leave me alone, okay?" I try to push them out the door.
"What's wrong Dicky?" Nicky asks.
"Nothing." I groan. "Get out."
"Wait, are you still upset about Madison?" Y/n asks.
"Huh?" I mutter. Oh yeah. They think I had my heart broken by her. Seriously. Why didn't I come up with a different excuse? Yes, I may have liked her a bit when she wasn't being a total jerk but I was mainly just trying to distract myself from my real crush. Because I know that she's with Nicky.
"Yeah, you asked her out and she kinda rejected you," Ricky reminds me and Dawn elbows him.
"I don't really like her anyways," I brush my hair back.
"Oh. Then why did you invite her over?" Nicky questions.
"For the prank. Duh." I respond.
"But you said you were going to ask her out before we talked about any pranks." Y/n clarifies.
"Oh. Yeah. I didn't really like her." I nod.
"Then why were you going to ask her out?" Dawn demands. Jeez, can't they give me a break?
"Just go away, okay?"
"Dicky, why are you so upset?" Nicky frowns.
"I'm not, I just want to be alone right now!" I yell.
"Clearly, something's bothering you," Y/n puts a hand on my shoulder. I look at her slowly.
"Uh. It's because-I-uh..." I trail off. I don't want them to be mad at me, but I don't know what else to say. This whole thing is stupid. If I could just keep on pretending I didn't like y/n this never would have happened. If I hadn't run out of the room like that, they wouldn't be suspicious. God, this is all Madison's fault.
"Spit it out dude," Ricky stares at me.
"I can't."
"Why?"
"Because you'll all hate me." There I said it. Kinda.
"We would never hate you," Nicky laughs. "Where's this coming from?"
"Because I never liked Madison." I take a deep breath. "I was only asking her out because I like someone else, someone that I-I shouldn't like and I was trying to distract myself from that be-."
"Hold the phone." Dawn interrupts. "You like someone?"
"That's not Madison?" Nicky frowns.
"So you pretended to like her?" Ricky says.
"Why would you do that?" Y/n tilts her head.
"I did it because I was trying to pretend that I didn't like someone. I thought if I asked Madison out, then I would eventually like her instead." I explain lamely.
"So why did you run off like that? Did she say something? I mean, I know that she ended up liking Nicky so that whole prank thing happened but.." Dawn trails off. "Wait."
I pull Dawn out of the room and the others just keep standing in the doorway, looking very confused.
"You like y/n!" She whispers when we get to her room.
"How do you figure that?" I stutter.
"You ran out because you didn't want to kiss her on that dare!" Dawn widens her eyes. "But she's with Nicky!"
"I know! Why do you think I said I shouldn't like the person?" I say.
"I don't know!" Dawn throws her hands in the air. "This is bad. This is very, very bad."
"I know that!" I say. "What am I going to do?"
"You can't tell y/n. Or Nicky." Dawn starts. "Is there any chance that this is just a stupid crush that will go away after... a few days?"
"I don't know Dawn. Do you think a crush I've had for 7 FREAKING YEARS IS GOING TO GO AWAY?"
"Whoa, that's a long time." Dawn rolls her eyes. "What if we try and find you a girlfriend?"
"Huh? How's that supposed to help?" I ask.
"Maybe it'll distract you?"
"I already tried that with Madison. And you saw how that turned out!"
"Keep thinking, okay? We'll come up with something. In the meantime, just tell the rest of the people standing outside my room that you...uh....like Mae!" Dawn improvises.
"Mae?" I frown. "That sounds like unnecessary complications to me."
"Think about it, you didn't want to kiss y/n because you like Mae, and you also think you shouldn't like Mae because she's your sister's best friend!"
"This is a terrible idea."
