Crush on you

Leila stared blankly at Fred wondering if she imagined hearing the words or he really said that he wanted to ask her out.

She opened her mouth to answer but no words came out. Leila cleared her throat thinking maybe it would help her voice. "Wh- what?"

"I... Well, I've wanted to ask you out." Fred repeated and she couldn't believe he said that. Twice!

"Listen Leila," he started when he saw her expression. "I know that it's not the good time to do that, but I'd really like to take you out."

Leila didn't reply she just stared at him. She looked like someone had told her that the sun had come out in the middle of the night. She couldn't think. She knew if her mind was working she wouldn't have been having this dream when she was supposedly awake. 'He wants to take me out?!' What was left from her senses screamed out.

Leila felt like her body was turning numb, cold and she couldn't breathe. 'Oh God no, not now.' She thought as she closed her eyes and wondered how long this was going to take.

"Leila, are you okay?" Fred asked quickly. He could see how her face turned white and how her breath came out shallow. He got up from his chair and sat on the bed next to her. "Leila!! Answer me, are you okay?" he asked again but couldn't tell what was happening to her, surely she wasn't going to faint because he said he wanted to ask her out.

"Pl... please," Leila whispered faintly. "On my night stand,"

Fred turned and waited for her to point out at what she wanted from her night stand.

"Tablets..." She whispered again and he found them next to the painkiller for her ankle. He quickly picked it up and handed it to her before reaching for the glass of water and forcing the two pills she got out into her pale, nearly blue mouth.

"Swallow..." He murmured, "easy, another sip!" Fred held the hand she lifted while she was drinking and found it as cold as ice. He put back the glass and took her hands in his trying to make them warmer.

After few minutes Leila slowly opened her eyes and Fred let out the breath he'd been holding for the last ten minutes. "You okay?"

"Yeah,"

The sound escaped her lips as if it was just a breath and Fred wondered what happened to make her so sick all of a sudden.

"Are you sure you're okay?" He asked again not quite sure whether she was okay or not.

Leila closed her eyes and took a deep breath, she let it out and he saw how her shoulders relaxed and how the colors went back to her face. "I'm okay now." She said louder this time while a hint of a smile covered her face.

Fred smiled warily and said, "We can go to the hospital you know,"

"God no," Leila said quickly. "I'm fine now."

"Well, you look better now. We can still go... It seems that I have a bad effect on you. Twice in only 24 hours that's a record." He said cheerfully.

Leila gave out a small giggle before leaning back a little. "Thank you."

"For what?" he asked. "If I'd known that this will happen to you when I mention asking you out I wouldn't have said it." he said and quickly cursed himself when he saw her smile fade away.

"Leila, I'm sorry..."

"No, no it's fine." She mumbled shyly and looked down. "I... sometimes I have problems breathing, it's psychological, and I'm fine now."

"Oh, I thought it's because of me."

Leila kept quiet for a while and it made Fred realize he was still sitting next to her on her bed holding her hand. He stood up and moved away from her bed. 'I don't trust myself that close.' He thought as he took few steps away from her bed.

"Why?"

Fred stopped when he heard her voice. He turned around and asked, "Why what?"

Leila took another deep breath before answering. "Why do you want to take me out?"

"Why do I want to take you out?" he repeated after her and it took him a while before realizing what the question meant.

"Ah... well," he muttered not knowing what to say. 'What kind of a question is that?' he thought to himself as he went back to sit on the chair next to the bed.

"Why? Hmm," he rested his elbows on his knees and sighed. "You are... different,"

"Oh," she let out a small sound and he was damn sure he heard disappointment in her voice.

"No, I mean different as in a good way!" He commented quickly.

"Oh." This time her tone was changed a bit and she raised her big brown eyes and stared pensively at him.

"I mean you are different than any other girl I've known," Fred said and found out that every word he said made it worse.

With Leila's questioning big brown eyes staring at him, waiting for his explanation he couldn't help the words that escaped his mouth.

"You look so adorable all the time and that's what makes you different."

Fred didn't know whether the red color that covered her cheeks and almost covered her neck was a good thing or a bad thing.

"I swear I meant different in a good way." He said, worried that she might shy away and the nice girl who he'd been talking to for an hour now would disappear and the shy girl that wouldn't talk to him would take place again.

But then when the corners of her mouth moved a bit, he heaved out a sigh. She smiled a little at the way he was trying to explain himself and he couldn't help liking how her brown eyes lit when she smiled.

"I... I thought you're going out with... someone." She mumbled bashfully.

"Ah- no, no I'm not." He said quickly but then thought, 'I think I should say the truth.' So he continued, "I used to go out with someone," he said preferring not to mention Benny or any other name. After he'd known she thought they were better than her he thought mentioning them was a bad idea. Especially now that he wanted to ask her out. "But not any more. I've wanted to talk to you Leila. Really, it's just that you can call me a coward for not doing it earlier."

"I..."

"I know we've only known each other for merely 24 hours but..."

Leila looked down at her hands and sighed before speaking. Her voice was clear and if she wasn't sitting in front of him he would have thought it belonged to someone else.

"I don't think that's a good idea Fred, I'm sorry but..."

He cut her off immediately before she gracefully rejected him and kicked him out of her place with her injured leg. "Wait, wait a second." He said and it made Leila stop talking and looked up at him. "I'm just saying we can have dinner sometime, together."

"We just did." She pointed out.

"Yeah, your right. We just did. But... we did as just friends."

"I'm sorry Fred, I think anything other than friendship is not such a good idea." She looked at him and continued, "I can still tell Casey and ask her to come stay with me if y-"

"Hey, no." Fred said quickly. "I think friendship is great! There's nothing better than to have a good friend these days." He couldn't believe he said that, he was mumbling words quickly trying to take advantages of the whole friendship thing.

Leila closed her eyes a bit. "Yeah?"

"Yes, definitely."

They looked at each other for a while, Fred trying to sound serious and Leila apparently trying to stop herself from smiling. They stayed like that for a while before Step made a small sound and moved from his place next to her on the bed and started wandering around the bed. They both watched as he moved around for a while and then went back to Leila, climbed up her thighs and went to sleep on her lap. Fred looked at the puppy and then at Leila who stroked the back of the little thing in love and tenderness.

'I never thought I'd wish to be a dog one day!' he thought wryly and watched how the puppy closed his eyes again and went to sleep on her lap.

"I think I should go to sleep too." Fred said as he got up ready to leave the room. He looked at her and said stretching out his hand, "Friends?"

Leila looked hesitant for a moment but then smiled and shook his hand. "Friends."

"Okay then, good night." He smiled down at her then at the sleepy puppy. "Good night you too."

"Night." she answered but then it seemed there was something she wanted to say but was shy.

"Something wrong?"

"Yeah, well... um can you... ah help me... I need to go brush my teeth and uh..."

"Yes sure, I should have thought about that myself." He answered and helped her put the puppy on the bed.

"Okay careful now wit-"

The moment he touched her hand in order to help her up he felt a quick shock go through him. Fred felt her shudder in response but neither one of them said anything. One of his hands went around her waist and the other held her hand as they struggled to get her to the bathroom. Fred opened the door and they got inside. There was a moment of awkwardness once they both stood there, each waiting for the other one to say something.

"Thanks, I think I can manage now." She mumbled and tried to free herself from his hands.

Fred kept her hands in his and spoke, "Sure?"

"Yeah,"

He let her go and slowly, not quite sure what was best to do he left the bathroom and closed the door behind him. Fred stood there behind the door wondering what he should do.

"You okay?" he asked.

"I'm fine, you can... You know, go and I'll call you when I'm done." She said and even though the door was closed between them he imagined how she looked like. Blushing!

"Okay." He exclaimed and thought that the best way to kill time was to take the remaining of their food and put them in the fridge. He went back to her room, picked up the tray, put all the dishes and the empty cans on it and carried them all back to the kitchen. Then when he finished putting everything in its place he filled the puppy's bottle with milk and took it back to the room searching for Step.

Fred went to the bed where the puppy was sleeping minutes ago but couldn't find him, "Uh where are you?" he muttered as he searched under the covers. He heard a noise coming from under the bed and grinned as he got down on his knees and picked the small puppy in his arms. "Come here you."

He was about to get up and leave with the dog in his arms but noticed that the medicine Leila took when she was sick was thrown on the pillow. He grabbed it and wondered what it was for. "Didn't she say it was psychological?" he questioned. But then he didn't have time to think about it because Leila's voice came muffled from the bathroom.

"Coming!" he shouted and quickly put down the puppy and hurried to the bathroom to get Leila.

When he reached the bathroom he found her standing there with what seemed like an old robe that covered her from her neck to her toes and her hair up in a ponytail. 'She really looks adorable' he thought as he again helped her back to her bed.

"Do you want anything?" he asked when she was safe in her bed and pulling the covers over herself.

"No, thanks." She whispered as she carried Step and placed him next to her. "Thank you Fred, for everything." She added shyly.

"Hey, it's nothing. Anytime you wanna thank me just remember that I'm the reason for all of this."

She giggled softly and reached for the bottle of milk on her night stand. "That's Step's right?"

"Uh, well yeah. I'll go now so you can sleep." He said and quickly left the room thinking that this was the second time he'd wish he was that puppy. 'Damn it, and it's only the first day." He thought as he took off his cloths and prepared the couch that was going to be his bed for the next three weeks.