[b] 1995[/b]

As she stood, and played back on his joke, he laughed.  He was happy to see her smile, despite everything that had happened that day.  He couldn’t help but stare at the way his jacket fit around her body, something about it feeling possessive, making him want to show her off to the entire school to dispel any doubt that everyone should leave her alone.

At the thought, he had an idea to just let her keep the jacket, while they were around others.  Anything to stake claim.  He shook himself from his thoughts once again and smiled brightly, wrapping her arm up and taking her hand.  It was a small gesture that always seemed to be there, as if they couldn’t truly separate, when they were close.

“Meh.  Don’t thank me.  I would be a crappy friend if I didn’t come to the rescue every now and then.”, he explained, leading her around to the stairwell, and down the stairs carefully.  He made sure to stay close enough to catch her if she tripped.  As they made it to the bottom of the stairs, and to the emergency doors, he pulled the wire he had rigged to keep the alarm from going off (and placed back onto itself when they were on the roof, in case someone came in).  He carefully opened the door, and peered around the hall, pulling her with him.

“I was thinking we could walk into town.  I could take you to that little diner there, grab a burger…s-share a milkshake.”, he explained excitedly as they walked through the halls, “But it’s not a d-date…I mean unless you want it to be and then, well.  We could talk about that, and…oh my god Dean shut up…”

He sighed heavily as the word vomit left his mouth, closing his eyes with a furrowed brow.  His face turned a bright shade of red.  He had said his thoughts out loud, which was against his brains rules.