You & I

"Grace?" There was humour and question in Tara's voice. I had to turn my weak attention from the half-eaten double cheeseburger, to Tara's beaming face.

She had certainly recovered. It must have been the shock of Chris sitting down next to her on the couch which kick-started her motor functions again. And now here we were an hour later, sitting in the mom and pop diner just down the street from my apartment, because Tara had requested 'a burger the size of my head.'

Thankfully, Chris hadn't come with us.

"You know I believed you right? About Chris."

I raised a brow at this.

"Ok, maybe I took a little convincing. But what if I started telling you all about my new friendship and then dropped one hell of a bomb when I told you that said new friend was a Hollywood actor."

"Hey, if you told me you met Ryan Gosling on your way home and the two of you went for coffee, I would believe you." I paused long enough to actually mull it over. "Though photographic evidence would help."

"Seriously Gracie, you know you can tell me anything right?"

I leaned back in my chair. "Whoa, why is everyone getting serious with me today?"

"Are you going to tell me what the real deal is between you and Cap America?"

"Real deal? You're making it out to be complicated when it's not. We're friends, that's all."

"From an outside point of view, it looks like you're both trying to avoid your feelings."

"There are no feelings other than friendship." I tried to sound sure of myself, but I was doing an awesome job avoiding eye contact.

"I beg to differ."

"Well for one thing, Chris doesn't see me like that-"

"I knew you liked him!"

"-he has Melody fricken' Francis, with her perfect face and perfect hair. I bet she doesn't have to fear humidity, because her perfect hair probably doesn't even react to it-"

"Whoa sweetheart, you're acting as though she punched a puppy."

I guess I was, and I didn't even know where the outburst had come from. I picked up a handful of fries and shoved them into my mouth. Maybe Tara would drop the subject.

"So, you're jealous."

Nope. Wasn't going to drop it. I should have known that.

"I feel like I'm in an episode of the Twilight Zone. Never thought I'd see the day that you, Grace Parker, infamous for being indifferent and unaffected when it comes to matters of the opposite sex, is getting jealous because of a guy."

I let my head fall on to the table top, my forehead hitting the cool, smooth surface with a thud. "I don't know what's happening to me, maybe I'm ill?" I mumbled. "At first it was just a regular, healthy appreciation. Like when you see a beautiful person walking down the street and they hold your attention, but you know it's not going to amount to anything other than a passing glance."

Tara gave me a sympathetic smile.

"I've only known him for a short while, but somehow it just seems longer," I said. "And yes, I am aware of how cliche that sounds."

"Give it a couple of weeks and you'll be listing all of his annoying traits."

At that moment, it didn't seem likely. But I smiled anyway. "You're right. Besides, it doesn't take a lot for people to get on my nerves."

"In the mean time I think you need something, or someone to take your mind off Chris."

Tara had the familiar wicked glint in her eye -the one that only lead to trouble, and I suddenly wanted to change my ZIP code.