Just Friends

I was beyond busy with work, going on more than three assignments a day, doing paper work, and worrying about what I’d done to Rob. He wasn’t calling me or anything. It’d been nearly two weeks since I’d been over to the studio, which was a good thing since I was being run ragged. I probably slept four hours a day.

Not only that, but Dustin’s grandmother had died and Teal had to make an emergency flight back to Portland, leaving me to hold down the fort. I realized I could not do this without her, she took care of all the paperwork and money, things I really knew nothing about. Five days into her being gone and I was a complete wreck.

I was shuffling through our filing cabinet, when I heard the door open.

“We’re closed!” I announced sharply, not wanting to deal with any other customers that wanted me to take pictures of their unresponsive Great Dane. Plus it was nearly six and I wanted to go home.

I sighed when I heard the person clear their throat and turned to tell them off, only to see Rob across the desk. “Oh...hey, Rob.”

“Long day?”he asked.

“Long week,”I replied. “Teal left me with all this crap to do.” I wasn't in the best mood.

“Yeah, she called me. Told me to take you some place to relax.”

I dropped the file into the cabinet. “She did not.”

“She said you were probably stressed out and that you needed to get out.”He shrugged. “I’d thought we’d head to the beach.”

I didn’t say no, I was more than happy to get out of there.

“How’s Sam?”I asked hesitantly as we drove to the beach.

Rob was quiet for a moment.“Sam and I broke up a few days ago.”

I lifted my head. “Why?”

He shrugged. “She was spewing a whole bunch of shit I didn’t want to hear.”

I wasn’t sure what to think, so I left it at that. Luckily, we pulled up the beach. I didn’t surf though. I was too tired. I just sprawled out on the sand in my clothes, too busy trying to fall asleep. It was relaxing; I was at home here, just listening to the wind and the waves, feeling the soft sand underneath me. Rob surfed a little, but he quit early since clouds were rolling in.

When we drove home, I was nearly asleep in the passenger seat. When we stopped, it was dark. I realized we were inside a garage.

“Where are we?”I mumbled.

“My house,”Rob said, getting out of the Jeep.

“Why?”I asked, getting out too.

“I don’t want you home alone when you’re like this,”he said, ushering me through a door.

“I don’t have any extra clothes.” I took notice that the garage was bigger than two of my apartments put together.

“Yes, you do. Teal told me where your spare key was.” Rob didn’t look at me when he said that. “They’re up in the south bedroom.”

When I stepped through the door, I stared in awe at the size of the house. It was huge, anything you’d expect from the house of a rock star. The kitchen was...shiny. Everything looked new: The refrigerator, the floor, the sink, the stove. That was the only word I could think to describe it: shiny.

Rob caught my looks. “You want anything to eat?”

“No,”I said. “I think I’ll just go crash.”

At that moment, thunder boomed, followed by the patter of rain on the windows. I flinched at the sound. Rob directed me to the giant stair case and too my room, then I quickly departed up the stairs. I walked down the hall, doors leading to unknown places, until finally I came to the south bedroom. There was a pair of shorts and a tanktop on the dresser, ones that I realized I’d left folded on the couch. Good, Rob didn’t go through my room.

Through the large window, I could see with the flashes of light, the trees bending over from the billowing wind. Sheets of rain poured down, making visibility almost zero. I hated storms with a passion. If I could be scared of one thing, it was a storm. I just couldn’t stand the bright flashes of light or the loud crashing of thunder. Why did I like rock concerts so much then? I had a feeling I wasn’t going to be sleeping much tonight.

I changed and climbed under the covers, throwing them over my head. The rain was a steady hiss outside, toned down by the large house’s insulation. It was almost easy to sleep with until the sound of thunder echoed in the air simultaneous to the bright lightning. I was rigid, nervous, and still awake three hours later.

Letting out a deep breath, I sat up from under the covers, and almost ran down the hall, the wood floor smooth and chilly on my feet as I tried to locate the bathroom. It was completely dark in the house, I was surprised I didn’t run into anything. I discovered as I backtracked, that the bathroom was right across the hall from my room.

I hopped up on the sink, the marble cool on my skin as I listened to the rumble of thunder, wondering why I couldn’t sleep now. Just when I was ready to pass out from exhaustion, I got insomnia. That stupid storm wasn’t helping either. I sighed, trying to slow my mind and empty it of all thoughts.

The door opened a little more to show Rob leaning against the door jam, a inquisitive expression on his face. “You okay?” he asked.

I nodded, rubbed my eyes with the heel of my hand, and yawned. “Can’t sleep.”

“The storm?”

I nodded again. “That and other stuff.”

He stepped farther into the bathroom and stood in front of me. “You wanna talk about it?” I shook my head slowly, noticing the lack of space between us. We were both quiet, the storm still raging outside.

“Why are you so against us being together?” Rob suddenly asked. He was looking at me, his face showing how much he wanted the truth.

I swallowed, looking down at my legs. “I’m scared.”

“Of what?” There was a tint of humor in his voice.

I brought my eyes to his brown ones. “You and I...we have a great relationship now and if things went bad when we started dating, I’m afraid we couldn’t go back to what he we have now. We’d go back to hating each other, like that day in Junior year all over again.”

Rob shook his head. “You think way too much.”

“No, I don’t...”

I trailed off when his hand rested on the nape of my neck. “Yeah, you do,” he said quietly.

A shock went through me when his lips touched mine. It wasn’t like the kiss we’d had those weeks ago in Portland. It couldn’t even be compared. I found myself kissing him back, forgetting my beliefs about us for a moment. When he tried to pull away, I wrapped my arms around his neck, refusing to let go. I don’t know what I had been thinking. He gladly gave up on trying to escape, pulling me roughly against him as things began to get hotter. His hand moved down my thigh to my calf, hitching my leg around his waist. I took the hint, wrapping my other leg around him as he lifted me off the counter.

My back landed on the mattress, Rob’s body on top of mine, his mouth attacking my lips, our breath coming faster. There was no time to think. I tried to catch my breath when we broke the kiss to remove my tanktop. My heart was hammering in my chest. His lips went down to my neck and along my throat, his hands roaming over my body, making my muscles quiver. No one had touched me like this before and something inside was glad that Rob was the first one.

I’m not sure how or why it happened. Neither did Rob. Possibly it was the electrically charged air or maybe we both had a weak moment. Perhaps it was supposed to happen all along and only now was it showing itself. We wanted to dig up those feelings we had, bring them to the surface. We wanted to forget everything else and just for that one night, we wanted to get lost...