Just Friends

Rob’s POV

My first thought when I woke up was, “Oh, shit.” I had sex with Jen. Jen, the “just friends” girl. Jen, the one who seriously should get her priorities figured out. I sighed and opened my eyes to see her sleeping peacefully in front of me, her bare shoulder rising and falling slightly with each slow breath. I stroked a piece of blonde hair from her face, thinking back to when it had been short and black. This color looked better on her.

When I covered her with my arm, her back pressed up against my chest and she sighed in contentment. I smiled at how innocent she seemed right now, wondering how someone like this could get in a fight with my now ex-girlfriend.

“Are you awake?”I whispered, just loud enough so it wouldn't disturb her if she wasn't.

“No,”came her response.

“Good. Me neither.” I pulled her closer, closing my eyes for a few more minutes of sleep.
It was quiet, just the two of us listening to each other's breathing. I wondered what she was thinking about, if she regretted last night at all. She didn't seem to, she was still here. That made me feel better. Maybe I hadn't made a wrong move last night. She could have done something to stop it, but she never had.

The door bell rang, but we both laid there, pretending we didn't here it. Then it rang again. And again. On the third ring, Jen groaned and shifted under covers.

“Ignore it,”I mumbled into her hair, tightening my grip around her body. It was quiet again.

“Rob?” Mike's voice carried up to us from below.

“God dammit,”I sighed. “I'll be right back.” I crawling out of bed to put on a shirt and a pair of shorts, and went downstairs.

Mike, Chester, and Brad were standing in the front hallway. “Can I help you?” I asked, not bothering to hide the annoyance in my voice.

“Dude, LPU signing. Twenty minutes,”Mike stated, pointing to his watch. “Lots of fans will be pissed if we're one short.”

I bent my head back. “Shit.”

“You forgot,”Chester noted.

I didn't bother to answer until I was half way up the stairs. “Yeah.”

Jen was still curled up on the bed and I quietly got dressed.

“Where are you going?”I looked up to see her propped on one elbow, her eyes sleepy as she watched me.

“LPU signing,”I explained. “I'll be back as soon as I can.” I kissed her head. “Get some sleep.” I looked at her one more time before I shut the door quietly behind me.

Jen's POV

I stared at my cell phone on the kitchen island like it was some foreign being. I reached out to grab it, then retracted my hand, then reached for it again. I did this for about a minute before I finally snatched it from the wood surface and pressed 2 for speed dial to Teal's number.

When I was in a problem as big as this, Teal was the only advice I had. I was still tired, even though I had slept in until eleven. Rob must have really worked me over last night. Oh, God What was wrong with me?

“Hey, bud,”Teal answered, her voice not nearly as perky as usual.

“Hey. How's Dustin?”I asked.

“He's okay. The funeral was pretty hard yesterday.”

“I'm sure it was. You okay?”

“Yeah. You don't sound like you are though...”

I grimaced at her assumption. “Teal...I did something really...wrong. I think. I need your help.”

“What? Did you make Sam 'disappear'?”

“No, but almost as bad.” I ran my hand through my hair.

“What?” I could tell she was assuming something really bad by the sound of her voice.

“I kinda...sorta...slept with Rob last night.”

Complete silence.

“Teal?”

“Rob cheated on Sam with you?”

“No, him and Sam broke up.”

“How long ago?”

I shrugged, then remembered she couldn’t see me. “A couple days, maybe a week.”

“So you were his...escape from heartbreak?”

“No!”I said, hearing how much I took offense to that in my own voice, then sighed. “It wasn't like that.”

“Were you guys drunk?”

“No.” After that one night, I vowed never to drink again.

There was static as Teal let out a long breath. “So what does he think of all this?”

“I don't really know. He left this morning to do some signing thing. Teal, I should have stopped it, shouldn’t have I? I mean, I kept telling him 'just friends, just friends' and then I go and let him screw me! Now he's gonna think that we're going to be together.”

“Is that what you want?” My first reaction was to tell her I didn't want to be with Rob, and I did, but then she said, “Are you sure?”

I didn't answer right away as I mauled it over. “I don't know,”I answered.

“Do you love him?”

“Yes,”I answered quietly. I not only admitted to Teal, I realized. I was admitting it to myself right them.

“And he loves you?”

“I think so...” Did I really want to be with Rob? Couldn't I just forgive and forget and trust him again? I had to have to sleep with him, right?

“So...let's see here. He possibly loves you. You tell him no. He goes and dates another girl. Deep down you were jealous.” I didn't object to that. “You get in a fight with her. He breaks up with her probably 'cause he knows it will make you feel better. You try to hide your feelings still, then you go and sleep together. That's what it took you to realize you love him back.”

I rubbed my forehead. “Yeah, I think that sums it up. But what do I do?”

“Take a chance, Jen. See what happens. We'll discuss more of it when I get back, but for right now all I can tell you is just go with it.”

I felt a lot better after talking with Teal. It felt like something huge was being lifted off my shoulders. I loved Rob. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that it had been that way for a long time, I'd just been to dense to admit. I kind of felt smutty that it took us to sleep together to realize that it was that way, but I had a good feeling about it at the same time.

I just hung out at his house most of the day, lounging around and raiding his refrigerator. I could have probably left and not had to worry about it what to say to him when he got back, but I wasn’t a whore. Well, not completely anyway. I was sitting at the kitchen bar when he finally walked into the kitchen. We stared at each other for a few moments, reading the other's face, trying to decipher what was going through each other's mind. This was when we were really facing the fact of what had happened last night. It was a lot scarier than I expected. What if he was just using me to get over Sam?

Rob was the first to break the silence. “Sorry I took so long. The place was flooded with people.”

“Its okay,” I said and smiled. “Its good you take care of your fans.” Sighing, I looked at him a little more serious. “Rob, we need to talk about last night.”

“Yeah, I know,”he said. “I didn't exactly mean for it to go that far...”

“Me neither, but it happened.”

He nodded thoughtfully. “So...are we just gonna go back to the way we were?”

I walked up to him and wrapped my arms around his waist. He was a little surprised by that, but he didn't say anything, and wrapped his strong arms around my body. “Rob,”I started, cranking my head to look up at him. He was really freaking tall. “I gave you my virginity last night. I'm not real keen on the idea of us just being friends anymore. But its up to you.”

He smiled. “I'm the one who came up with the idea.”

“I know. I'm glad you did. I'm sorry I couldn't figure out this stuff sooner.”

“Its alright. I knew you'd come around,”he smirked.

I narrowed my eyes at him, but ended up resting my cheek against his chest, too happy to think of a smart ass comeback. His breath moved the hairs on the top of my head as he kissed it. I moved my face up to kiss him back. It was nice. It felt right. More right than anything else. I thought that it might actually work, just going with it.