Unmentionables

Disclaimer: I don't own Hannah Montana. If I did, these moments wouldn't be unmentioned.

i.

I sank down further in my blankets, closing my eyes and trying to convince myself that the scary movie Lily, Oliver and I had watched wasn't real. It was a made up movie with a made up story line. Lily and Oliver were already asleep. Lily and I were sharing the bed and Oliver was sleeping on the chair. They were apparently unfazed by it.

I took a breath and tried to relax, to let my mind wander and daydream. But then I heard a noise in the bathroom across the hall.

It's just Jackson. Nothing to worry about.

"Lilly," I whispered, trying to shake her awake, "Get up. We have to check the house."

Lilly mumbled something incoherent and rolled over, pulling the blanket over her head. "Go away."

Something moved outside my door.

I stood up on the bed and jumped over Lilly, tripping off the bed and falling onto Oliver, who was sleeping sideways on the chair. He jumped awake and I pushed myself away from him.

"Get up," I whispered, "There's something here."

Oliver rubbed his eyes and sat up. "What?" he said, "Miley its fine, just go back to bed."

"No," I whined, grabbing his hand, "I heard a noise and I have to go check but I can't go alone."

Oliver pulled the blanket over him and layed back down. "Make Lilly go."

"I thought you were Smokin' Oken?"

"Not at one in the morning I'm not."

I grabbed his hand again and yanked him off the chair so he fell with a thud onto the carpet. "Come on."

He stood up and glared at me which didn't have its desired affect since his hair was completely messy. "Fine, but you owe me."

Lilly hadn't woken up, but she had pulled the pillow over her head and rolled over. We snuck out of the room. I made Oliver go ahead of me. He wasn't quite as freaked out. He walked down the hall with no problem, like he was just going to go get a drink of water. I snuck behind him, practically walking on his heels and watching the shadows in the hall as if they were going to morph into something else.

"Oliver," I stopped him by grabbing his shoulders. "We have to check the bathroom. I heard something in there."

"Are you kidding me?"

I looked at him. He looked tired and slightly cranky. I felt a small pang of guilt for making him get up, but then I thought about how he had made me watch the movie and decided it was his fault I was freaked out anyway. He brought it on himself.

"The quicker we check the house the quicker you can go back to bed," I told him. He rolled his eyes and led the way to the bathroom. The door was open, allowing us to see the blackness within. Oliver took a step into it and flicked on the light.

"Nothing here, now let's check the kitchen so we can go to bed."

Oliver was out of the bathroom and halfway down the hall before I could protest. I caught up with him, checking the games closet as we passed, and he slowed down his pace as we entered the dark kitchen. I grabbed onto his upper arm, walking slowly to avoid tripping on anything as we made our way to the light switch.

"Happy?" Oliver asked when we turned on the light. I looked around the kitchen and the living room, checking every corner to make sure nothing could be hiding anywhere in the house. I heard Oliver laugh at me when I actually checked in the piano.

When I was satisfied that the house was empty sans the sleeping occupants, I yawned and told Oliver we could go back to bed. "Finally," he said, turning off the light. Everything turned black and I waited for my eyes to adjust, but Oliver was much too impatient. I heard him run into things as he started across the room.

"Ouch, I think I just broke my toe."

I rolled my eyes. "You're exaggerating."

"One of my best friends woke me up because she was too scared to sleep. I think I reserve the right to exaggerate a little bit," he snapped harshly.

I winced. "Sorry, Oliver," I said quietly, blinking my eyes a few times to try and see him through the dark. I was just able to make out his silhouette.

He was quiet for a few seconds before saying, "It's really no big deal. It was actually kind of fun."

"You're lying," I said.

"Yes, I am," he admitted, "But I don't want you to feel bad."

I laughed. "I'll try not to," I said. He was slowly shuffling his feet across the room. I mimicked him and eventually we made our way back to my room.

"Thanks," I whispered as I took my place next to Lilly and Oliver went back to his chair.

He made some sort of noise to acknowledge that he heard me and then he was sleeping again.

ii

"I hate this book!" I yelled, throwing the novel across the beach. It landed on a blonde lady who had been peacefully sunbathing. He raised her sunglasses from her eyes to glare at us. Her tan line was almost comical enough to make me laugh.

Almost.

"Sorry," Oliver called as she tossed the book back over to us. It landed in the sand at my feet and I glared down at it.

"I don't want to read anymore. It's a dumb book anyway and I can't understand a word in it."

"It's not that hard," Oliver argued, picking it up and flipping through it.

I gaped at him. "Have you finished it?"

He shrugged, not meeting my eyes as he continued to stare at the book. "Sort of, I mean it's pretty interesting once you get into—"

"I'm not getting into it," I told him, "No one else in the entire school is."

"I'm sure I'm not the only one," he laughed and looked at me. As our eyes met his brow furrowed, the laughter fading from his face and I got a little worried when he didn't look away.

"Oliver?" I said, "Are you okay? I don't have a bug on me or anything, do I?"

"You have really pretty eyes."

I blinked and felt my face start to grow hot. He turned red and cleared his throat, turning his attention back to the flipping through the pages of the book again. "Have you never noticed before?" I asked, unable to stop the smile forming on my lips.

He shrugged, seemingly busy with looking for a certain page in the book. "I've seen your eyes before but I've never really noticed that they're so blue."

I bit down on my bottom lip to try and control the smile as Lilly came up to us, carrying three sodas. "Sorry it took so long, the line was huge."

"Hey Lilly, have you read this yet?" Oliver asked, holding the book up for her to see.

"Oh yeah," she answered, "It was pretty good."

I glared at both of them and snatched the book away from Oliver who was now smirking at me. "Shut up."

iii

"Miley, put the helmet on. If you fall and crack your head open, there will be a lot of unhappy Hannah fans that would murder me if Lilly didn't get to me first."

I put the red helmet on and buckled the straps together. "Good to know you'd care more about the fact that I was dead than your own well-being," I said sarcastically.

"Survival of the fittest, now get on the skateboard."

I put one foot on the back bolts and started to push with my other leg. "No," I said, feeling unbalanced, "I couldn't do it a year ago when Lilly tried to teach me, and I can't do it now."

"Here, I'll give you some support," Oliver said, moving so he was standing just in front of me on the other side of the skateboard. I raised an eyebrow. "Put your hand on my shoulder," he lifted my hand and placed it on his shoulder, "And try again. Only this time, try pushing off with your back foot."

I did as he said, but only pushed off slightly, so the skateboard moved all of one and a half inches.

"You're gonna have to push off harder than that," Oliver said with a tone of laughter in his voice.

I didn't move. I felt perfectly stable standing on the skateboard with my hand resting on Oliver's shoulder. If I pushed off too hard, I would have to let go of my support beam and the skateboard was too wobbly for me to keep balance by myself.

"I don't want to learn how to skateboard," I told him, "I'm perfectly happy with the talent of singing and so is the rest of the world. I don't know why you're so set on making me learn something new."

"Both of your best friends skateboard. It'd be cool if all three of us went down to the skate park sometime."

"We can all go down to the skate park," I told him, "I'll sit and watch you and Lilly do tricks. That's fun for me. This," I looked down at the skateboard, "Is not fun for me. I can't even stay standing on the stupid thing by myself."

Oliver unexpectedly stepped away from me. My hand slipped off his shoulder and I started flailing my arms, trying to keep my balance as the board wobbled back and forth. Finally deciding that if I fell, I would want to fall forwards instead of back, I leaned forward slightly and put my right foot out. I toppled off the skateboard and Oliver caught me before I hit the ground.

I looked up at him, my eyes widening at the realization that our faces weren't very far apart. He smiled a little and I almost thought he was going to kiss me.

"You really can't keep your balance, can you?"

And then he said that.

I stood up straight and started walking away. I heard Oliver pick up the skateboard and he started walking after me.

"How do you keep your balance up onstage? I mean seriously. It's a miracle you don't trip over your own feet while you're dancing."

iiii

I couldn't sleep. It was impossible. I had tried everything. Warm milk, counting (imaginary) sheep, watching TV, listening to music, and none of them worked. I just didn't feel the slightest bit tired. I suppose that's what I get for drinking so much Coke. But it's not like Lilly or Oliver stopped me.

Thinking of my two friends, I reached over and snatched my phone off the nightstand. That night, instead of calling Lilly, something I normally would have done, I decided I'd call Oliver.

He didn't pick up until the middle of the eighth ring.

"I hate you," came his muffled voice.

"Oliver, I can't sleep. Talk to me."

"The fish fly at night."

"What?"

"I should hang up on you," he said.

"No," I teased, "Oliver, please don't. I'm dying of boredom and I really want to talk."

He surprised me when he didn't try to convince me to call Lilly and wake her up instead. There was silence on the other end until he finally said, "Alright, I'm up."

"Thank you," I said gratefully.

Silence fell between us and I realized that Oliver and I had nothing to talk about.

"Are you still there?" I asked.

"What?"

"Nothing."

Silence.

"Did something happen between us that I missed? Cause we've never had a hard time talking before," Oliver said.

I laughed. "Sorry, I guess I should have had something to talk about before I called."

"Just a minute, someone's coming."

"Wha—?"

"Shh…"

I shut my mouth and listened. I heard him set the phone down on something hard and then nothing. I counted the seconds in my head. When I got to eleven, he finally came back on the phone.

"Sorry," he was whispered, "My mom almost caught me."

"Are you not allowed on the phone?" I was whispering now too.

"Not in the middle of the night. I've been staying up late a lot and my mom said she'd ground me if she caught me awake past midnight again. Why are you whispering?"

"Because you are," I said, "Why have you been staying up late?"

"Oh, you know," he said evasively, "Just because."

"Why sleep when you have a reason like that to stay awake?"

"That's what I said."

I laughed again. Suddenly I heard movement out in the hall. I snapped off the lamp and said, "Just a sec, don't say anything."

I put the phone underneath the blanket and layed my head down on the pillow, leaving my eyes open very slightly. My door cracked open and I saw a small sliver of light. Dad stepped into my room and looked around.

"You awake?" he whispered softly. I fought to keep my eyes closed as I breathed in and out slowly, trying to look like I was asleep.

Apparently I fooled him since he left the room, closing the door with a small click. I picked up the phone again and put it to my ear.

"All right, I'm back. My dad almost caught me."

"Are you not supposed to be up either?" Oliver asked.

"I don't know," I answered, "But not getting caught just seemed like more fun."

"Yeah," Oliver said and I could just picture him smiling, "It is kind of fun, isn't it."

I nodded even though he couldn't see me. "We should do this more often and keep it as 'our thing'. We won't tell anyone else."

"Not even Lilly?" he asked, as if he was reminding me how she and I tell each other everything.

"I can keep a secret," I told him. He snorted disbelievingly. "Hey, I am Hannah Montana, which I have been able to keep from the rest of the world."

"Excluding Lilly."

I opened my mouth, but couldn't think of a comeback for that one. "Fine," I said, "You win this time, but tomorrow night you're goin' down, Oken."

And so started our nightly conversations.