Coming Alive in August

Claudia's POV:

Sun raise shines in through the blinds hitting me directly in the eyes. I groan rolling myself over so the light would shine on my back instead of my face. A light knocking comes from the door making me open my eyes. I sit up at the sight of a room that I cannot exactly remember ever being in or even why I was. I look down at myself seeing all my clothes on that I had wore last night. I grip onto the edge of the bed and look down at the wall. Another knock echoes through the room.

"Yeah, uh. Come in," I call out confused. I close my eyes to recap on last night. Club with Kait, bar, drinks, Joe. That's it, Joe. This is Joe's house. I stand up and look toward the door as it opens. Joe lets himself in wearing nothing but pajama pants.

"Morning Miss Claudia, I hope you slept well," he smiles at me and leans against the door frame.

I look around the room for my shoes and purse. I grab my phone out to see if Kait called at all, she didn't. I don't know whether to be worried or not. She's a big girl, she'll be fine. If something was wrong she would have called me, right? Right. I look at Joe and smile. "I slept fine. Don't even remember falling asleep," I giggle nervously and look away. I try to recap more. Drinks, dancing, drinks, talking, drinks, more talking, taxi. Everything fades after that. Waking up in a different room is good though. I have all my clothes on. Joe is wonderful but I am happy nothing happened, or at least I think nothing happened.

"Uh," he fixes his hair pushing it out of his face. "Want to go get breakfast somewhere? Or lunch, its kind of late in the day," he chuckles softly scratching his bare chest.

I look down at my shoes and slip my feet into them. "We can go back to my place and eat. Kait cooks really well. She goes to school for it so I don't think she will mind," I smile and step closer to him. He looks directly at my lips and takes a step closer to me. I swallow hard keeping my eyes on him. Re rubs his lips together slowly then cups the back of my neck. His thumb grazes over my neck as he steps closer to me again. I part my lips seconds before his crash into mine. I hold back at first but something made me relax. It felt right in one of those ways a kiss is suppose to.

He pulls away with his eyes closed. "I would love that," he whispers then kisses me again. I pull away this time and blush. I nod my head and look away from him embarrassed.

Kaitlin's POV:

I drag my feet across the carpet of Claudia's living room all the way to the kitchen. I touch the coffee pot sending a shock out of my finger. I pull my hand away quickly mumbling, "ow." I sigh and look around for coffee grounds. I set up a pot of coffee and as I wait grip onto the counter. I wish I could redo last night. Every time with Ian and the whole thing with Ryan. Shouldn't I be flattered he wanted to kiss me? Does that make me pretty? I don't even know. I wish he didn't. I wanted a friend, not a sex partner. Maybe that's a lie. Maybe if the whole thing with Ian never happened, I would have let Ryan do whatever he pleased. I would have went home with him and that would be it. I'd wake up in his bed feeling amazing. Ryan Ross wanted me and I cock blocked him. No, stop. Ryan kissed me when he saw I was weak, this makes him the enemy. He would have used me and thought nothing of it. I was just Monday night. He probably found a new girl every night. Yeah, that's it.

The sound of the front door opening knocks me out of my thoughts. I step away from the corner and look out of the kitchen. The door opens revealing Claudia smiling with Joe following her into the apartment. I stare at the two of them till they put their attention on me.

"Kait. Hey. How are you?" Claudia smiles. She comes right over to me and hugs me tightly. "Would you mind making breakfast? I told Joe you would," she brushes hair out of my face.

"Yeah, I'll cook. What do you want?" I lean back against the counter. Claudia goes into her fridge and takes out a few things then stands on her tippy-toes to grab wraps from on top of her fridge. She sets down red and green peppers, eggs, cheese and mushrooms. I look at them and weakly smile. "Breakfast wrap? Got it," I force myself to laugh then get right to working.

Claudia leads Joe into her living room leaving me alone in the kitchen. If I was acting normal right now, I would care with how I looked. But I don't. I don't care that I look like a mess and Joe is here. I am happy he is though. I am happy as long as Claudia is. The way Joe was watching her talk to me was nice. He had something in his eyes. I can't find the right way to describe it, but if Claudia had seen it she would have smiled and blushed.

I drop chopped up peppers and mushrooms into a saute pan. I hear the sound of my phone going off and sprint into the living room to grab it. Claudia and Joe are sitting close to each other on the couch watching TV. I answer my phone and sprint to the kitchen so nothing burns.

"Uh, hello?" I mutter and flip stir around the veggies in the pan.

"Kaitlin," Ryan's mumbling voice sends a chill down my spine and makes my heart stop.

"Ryan. Why, why are you calling me? No, wait, how? How do you know my number?" I set down the wooden spoon I was using to stir the vegetables. I lean against the counter to keep myself steady and calm.

"I-wanted-to-say-sorry-about-kissing-you. I-texted-myself-with-your-phone-last-night-in-the room. I-shouldn't-have-kissed-you. I-was-horny-alright? I'm-not-a-bad-guy. Can-we-get-over-this? I-should-have-just-listened-to-you-instead-of-forcing-myself-on-you. I-can-help-you-out-with-the-whole-Ian-thing. Please-I-can-be-a-really-great-friend," he says everything on what seemed like one breath. His words mash up all together into one giant mes. He talked too fast. I keep silent to process everything and make his words understandable to me. He takes a deep breath and sighs. "I thought about you all night," he softly says.

"Don't even bother with me. You don't care. Forget it," I mumble. I hold the phone between my shoulder and my ear. I crack a few eggs into the pan with the veggies and mix it all together to make scrabbled eggs.

"Let me see you so you can see I mean every word I said. I wouldn't have called you if I didn't care. You can trust me. I will listen to you. Please," begging comes out in his voice.

I sigh and finish off the things in the pan. I pick up my phone and groan loudly. "I can't just let you into my life. I don't even allow myself into my own life. Ryan, I'm complicated. I need space. Look, I enjoyed kissing you but it freaked me out. I really need to go. Joe Trohman is here and I need to make him and my friend breakfast. I'm sorry. Bye," I hang up and shove my phone into my sweatshirt pocket. I ball my hands into fists and breathe slowly to relax myself.

I put the pan ingredients into wraps and roll three up. One for each of us. I bring them out on paper plates to the living room. The second I set down each plate Joe looks at his phone then quickly types something in it and shoves it into his pocket. He looks up at me and smiles. "Thanks," he looks down at the wrap and digs right in. I kneel down on the floor next to the coffee table and poke at my wrap not really in the mood to eat.

Claudia's POV:

Kaitlin is acting strange. I didn't let Joe notice, but I was listening to Kait's conversation on the phone instead of listening to him. She was worrying me. Something wasn't right. I don't know who Ryan is, but something had to happen last night. She never acted like this. Even if she was feeling less than OK, she would cover it up and try to act as natural as possible. I could see she was trying to act it, but she was failing. Failing way to much to ignore.

Joe lightly runs his fingers up my spine vanishing all of my thoughts. I look at him and smile. He leans toward me to whisper in my ear, "Can I steal you for the day?"

I can feel my cheeks grow a blush. I take a bite of my breakfast wrap and nod. I swallow and nod again. "I'd love that," I hold my hand over my mouth with my words. I did it only to hide food that was in my mouth even though I had already swallowed it. It was kind of a reaction I had whenever I talked when I am eating.