After the talk with Brianna at McDonald's, Benji decided it was time to settle the score with Kaylei and Joel. After all, this petty arguing couldn't go on forever.

Pacing back and forth in his room for a few minutes, trying to decide how to bring the subject up to his brother, he realized that talking through this with everyone that was involved was going to be a lot harder than he speculated. 'Hm, maybe I'll talk to Lei first.' he thought. He pondered that idea for a moment before settling on that. Suddenly getting excited to talk to Kaylei again, even if she was mad at him, he raced out of his room and down the hall into the kitchen, receiving a questioning look from Sarah when he passed her speeding down the hall. He snatched the phone from the receiver and dialed her number.

Listening to the ringing, nervousness set in. 'Why the hell am I nervous to talk to Kaylei? I've done it so many times before! What if she doesn't want to talk to me? What if she's so mad that she just hangs up as soon as she hears my voice?' Benji was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't even notice when someone on the other end had picked up and said hello about three times. 'Wait a second!' he continued thinking, 'why am I so worried that she's mad at me?! If anyone has a right to be pissed off in this situation, it's me!' By this time, he heard a dial tone. The person on the other end had hung up. 'Ah shit.' he thought, hanging his own phone back up, 'I'll have to talk to her tomorrow, because there is no way I'm calling her back now.'

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The next morning at school, Benji and some guys he knew from a class were hanging out in the hall, far away from the usual spot where he used to meet everyone else. Kaylei walked past him, laughing while she talked with Natalie and Billy. He watched her, wishing that everything was normal between them again. She glanced over, making eye contact with Benji but quickly averting her attention away from him. That eye contact was he needed to realize how much he had missed her. With no warning, he walked away from the guys he was hanging out with.

"Lei!" he called after her. Both Kaylei and Natalie looked over and Kaylei gave both Natalie and Billy a look like, 'I-need-to-talk-to-him-alone, so-I'd-appreciate-it-if-you-left.' Natalie got the hint and began walking in the opposite direction, dragging Billy along with her.

"Hey Benj." Kaylei said softly, looking at the ground.

"Hi." he replied, walking closer to her, making the distance between them less and less. After a short pause, he said, "I want to talk to you." When Kaylei said nothing in response, Benji took this as his cue to start talking. "Well, I went to lunch yesterday with - can we talk about this somewhere else?"

Kaylei looked away from the floor and at Benji. "Like where?"

"I don't know." Benji commented, trying to quickly think of somewhere else they could go. "We can ditch."

Kaylei shook her head. "I can't. I have a chemistry test."

"Okay. How about we hang out after school?"

"Can't, I have to work. What about tomorrow after school?"

"I can't tomorrow. I have to work." Benji finished.

"Well then we'll have to settle for Wednesday."

"No." Benji said.

"No? Well then I guess never?"

"No. Please just come with me today?" Benji practically pleaded.

"I can't! I have a test and I can't make it up."

"Fine. When do you have chemistry?"

"This hour."

"What about after chemistry? Then will you ditch with me?"

Kaylei sighed. "What's so important, Benji, that it can't wait until Wednesday and that I have to ditch?"

Benji was silent for a moment. "Us."

"Oh." It was Kaylei's turn to be silent. "Okay, fine. But this is the last time."

A small smile lit up Benji's face, the first one in a few days. "After your chemistry class then?"

"Yes. Meet me right here, because my class is right over there." she said, pointing across and down the hall a few doors. As if it was timed, the bell rang. "I gotta go."

Benji watched as she rushed towards the class, smiling sweetly at her teacher who was glaring at her because she was late. He turned around and headed towards his own class.

Benji sat impatiently at his desk forty-five minutes later, waiting for that final minute to pass for the bell to ring. Once it did, Benji sprinted (haha! Could you see Benji sprinting!?) to the place in the hall where he was to meet Kaylei. She arrived there nearly two minutes later and they both stood there, saying nothing. "So where to then?" Kaylei finally asked.

"I don't know. My house? No one is there." Benji suggested. Kaylei nodded and followed Benji to his car in the parking lot.

The drive to the house was silent, except for the soft hum of the radio that was playing bad songs. They finally pulled into the driveway and had gotten into the house ten minutes later. The pair sat on the couch next to each other, and remained quiet for a few minutes. "So." Benji said.

"So." Kaylei repeated.

Benji sighed. "How are you?"

"I'm alright. How are you?"

"Could be better."

"I'm sorry to hear that." Silence again.

Another ten minutes passed by, and Benji finally spoke up again. "So, Lei. What happened?" he asked with sadness and hurt in his voice.

Kaylei knew what he was talking about, so she hesitated to answer at first. "Well, I came over here and Joel was the only one home. He told me you were still at Billy's, so I went up to your room to wait for you. I was looking at a magazine when he came in and he looked ... stressed, I guess, so I asked if he wanted to talk. He told me how he doesn't think Anna cares anymore and I told him I'd talk to her and he just kinda looked at me and then, before I knew it, he was kissing me. And I know it looked like I was kissing him too, but I wasn't. I swear. I was surprised and I didn't know what to do, so I just kinda sat there."

Benji stared at the floor. "Oh." he mumbled.

"Is that what Joel said?"

"I haven't talked to him yet."

"Oh."

More awkward silence between the two followed. "Kaylei," Benji suddenly said, turning towards her and grasping her hand into his, "I'm sorry that I'm being a big jerk about this and making a big deal out of it -"

"Benji, it's okay! I totally understand why. You have a right to be angry and upset. Hell, I know I would be if I walked in and saw you and Anna or someone kissing!" Kaylei interrupted.

"It's just that ... Kaylei, I love you and I don't wan-" Benji stopped himself, just realizing what he had said.

Kaylei looked at Benji for a moment, letting a tiny smile creep over her face. "You love me?" she asked him just above a whisper.

Benji smiled a bit himself, happy with this sudden realization. "Yeah. I do."

Kaylei felt as though she wanted to cry, but instead she flung her arms around his neck. "Benji! I'm so sorry that all this happened and I just want you to know that I love you too."

Benji pushed her away just a bit so he could look at her. He pressed his lips against hers, something he had missed doing for those few days they didn't talk. They soon embarked on a make out session, where Benji let his hands explore the curves of her body. Getting bored of this, Benji gently pushed her down on the couch, removing her shirt. He temporarily stopped the kiss to graze his eyes over her body. Kaylei took this as her cue to remove his shirt. They both smiled at each other and began kissing once again ....

*A/N: Blah blah blah ..... I'm sure you can all guess what happens next! I'm not writing it, because one - I would probably do a horrible horrible job, and two - I think it's kind of gross to have to write that. You can use your imagination if you really want to. But yeah. So now ... I'm done.*