Breech

"Alex!" I snapped to attention as my friend, Mary, poked me in the side. I focused my eyes on her face with a slightly startled expression, I hadn't even realized she was talking.

"Girl what has gotten into you?" Mary asked. I gave her a sheepish smile and shrugged.

"I am not sure, I was just thinking..." I trailed off not really wanting to tell her what I was thinking about, it was very personal and I was not the type of person to discuss personal thoughts.

Mary looked at me for a moment longer with a curious expression. I could see the internal battle raging in her eyes as she decided whether to ask or just drop it. The latter won and she looked back down at her now closed Chemistry book. I figured she must of finished while I was thinking.

"So there is going to be a party at Roman's house this weekend. His parents are out of town for the week and they left him alone, despite of what happened last time." She gave a sneaky laugh and I couldn't help but think back to the night that I hardly remembered a few months ago. Every one talked about how great the party had been, but when I remembered the party all I could think of was the heated moment I had in the back room with a boy I hardly knew. It had almost ended badly for me. Thankfully my common sense made itself known before anything too bad had happened.

This of course was not what Mary was referring to. She was thinking of how Roman's parents had come home the next morning to find the house in shambles and Roman laying naked in there bed with two girls also sporting their birthday suits.

I gave Mary another smile and glanced down at my advanced Biology book. I read another page while she shuffled around, putting all her stuff back in her bag.

"So yeah, I was wondering if you wanted to go to Roman's party. Every one is going to go, all the people that went last time want to see if it will be as good as the first one and all the people that missed it want to see what they missed." I shrugged and bit my lip, glancing up at her and away from the page.

"Yeah I guess, I mean sounds better then sitting at home and rotting away." I said then returned to reading the assigned chapter. I caught her nod of acceptance out of the corner of my eye.

"Sounds good, I better get going mom is having some work buddies over for dinner tonight and she wants me to be that prim and proper daughter all dressed up and fancy." I laughed and stood up to walk her down to the door. We both knew that Mary secretly loved to dress up and be all fancy, something I hated, but she would never admit it.

When we reached the front door at the bottom of the stairs I reached out and gave Mary a one armed hug then opened the door for her only to find my best friend about to knock. Brennan looked in with his famous giant smile that flashed his perfectly white teeth and the twin dimples on either cheek. My heart skipped a beat as he pulled me into his arms for one of his lung collapsing bear hugs. I could feel his biceps roll on my back as he tightened them in the hug. He squeezed the air right out of me but I didn't mind because I was so lost in my attraction for him. I pulled back and I smiled at him then punched him in the arm.

"Why didn't you tell me you were back?" I feigned anger. He just continued to smile his heartbreaking smile.

"I just got back actually. I made my mom drop me off on our way home. She complained but I told her I needed to see you. So you know, when you get sick of me I need a ride home." I smiled even brighter and hugged him again. Brennan had gone to visit his dad in Virginia for the whole summer and then had stayed there into the beginning of the school year. I had figured he would stay there for his entire senior year and he had not let on over our video chatting, phone calls or texting that he was going to come home sooner.

I pulled back so I could study Brennan his dark brown hair was longer then I remembered it, the chocolaty waves drifting down to his eyebrows. His eyes were a dark blue, equivalent to the color you see when staring into a deep portion of water. They were surrounded by long dark eyelashes. His face was more angular then when I last saw him, all the traces of baby fat gone from his high cheek bones. His full chiseled lips were parted to show the perfect smile that had taken the dorky braces three years to create. My eyes drifted down his chest which had grown in size since last spring. I tightened my fingers on the top of his arms noticing how the thick bands of muscles tightened and grew under my touch, now he was just showing off.

"Jeeze, Bren, have you been working out? You are huge!" I said a little shocked, my little best friend had been swallowed by a monster.

"Yeah dad was working the new recruits all summer and he had me working out with them. I am a nice and tall 6'4 now." I shook my head and remembered back to the days when I was taller then him.

Mary having gone unnoticed for an extended amount of time, a frequent occurrence when Brennan and I hung out, so she was used to it, now made herself noticed by clearing her throat.

"Hey Mary!" Brennan exclaimed, he had obviously been unaware of her presence, "I didn't see your tiny self back there." I laughed and stepped back so they could hug. Mary looked extremely small next to Brennan. The hug was brief and they broke apart.

"I would love to stay and catch up, but I really need to get going." Mary said rushing past Brennan to her old Toyota. "Bye!" she yelled over her shoulder. I felt slightly bad to just watch her leave but I would make it up to her tomorrow. We both waved as she drove out of sight down my long dusty drive then I grabbed Brennan and pulled him into the house shutting the door behind him. I ushered him into the kitchen as I took the defrosted chicken off the counter and started dinner.

"So tell me, how was Virginia?" I asked him heating up some olive oil on the stove before tossing the chicken breasts into the pan.

"Pretty much the same as California except the ocean is on the east not the west." It was just like Brennan to not focus on the little things. I just rolled my eyes at him.

"How was your dad and his new family?" I asked. Brennan's mom and dad had split up when Brennan was young because Tom, Brennan's father was in the navy and he moved around a lot. Tessa, Brennan's mom had not wanted to continue to travel like they did so they had parted as friends, or at least in a friendly way. Tom was now permanently stationed at a navy base in Virginia with a new wife, one of those perfectly slim women with the perfect blonde hair and wide, innocent blue eyes. They had gotten married last year and Brennan had gone east to meet his new baby sister. From the pictures he sent she looked just like her mama except she had Brennan's dark hair.

"How was Macayla?" I asked almost forgetting his little sister's name. His smile brightened as he remembered his baby sister.

"She is great. I wish you could of met her, Alex. She is so beautiful and smart and she never cries. She is so tough. Actually she reminds me a lot of you, tough and silent, rarely sad." he had a dazed look in his eye and was looking off in the distance. I looked at him surprised that he thought I was tough and happy. I had been miserable the whole time he had been gone, drinking and partying to fill the piece of me he had taken with him.

"She sounds awesome." was all I said, turning away and flipping the chicken. The oil sizzled some hot droplets sprang from the pan and splattered my arm. I looked down at the red dots on my arm, barely registering the pain. For some reason being around Brennan was harder then it used to be, maybe it was the strong sexual attraction I now felt towards him. Ever time I looked at those deep blue eyes I thought about them coming in close to me and then imagined the feel of his sculpted lips pressing against mine. Every time he said my name I bathed in the smooth way it rolled off his tongue. I shook my head and pushed away from the counter. I got out a pan and put in some rice, boiling it.

"I am assuming you are staying for dinner?" I asked avoiding looking at him as I counted plates.

"You assume correctly." I jumped because his voice was right behind me. I put the plates down and spun around to see Brennan leaning down over me.

"You know, Lex, you've changed. You have a more serious look on your face, you are more reserved then before, which is bad because you were always pretty reserved." he paused and studied my face, narrowing his eyes, "What happened? Did some one hurt you? Cause I swear I will mess them up." I rolled my eyes at him and placed my hand on his chest, trying to push him away with out noting the feel of his pectoral muscle under my fingers.

"No Bren, no one hurt me. I just had to learn to grow up a little with out my best friend around to have my back." I turned the rice down to simmer.

"Lex, I will always be there for you, no matter what the distance." I turned to look at Brennan after he said this. His eyes were so sincere and sweet that I suddenly wanted to hug him again, I really had missed him more then I had thought.

"I am so glad your back." I told him reaching out to hug him again, mostly so he wouldn't see the small tear that fell from my eye. He hugged me back, his stomach rumbling mightily against my body. I laughed.

"I take that as 'feed me'." I said letting go of him. I went back to cooking as my mom's car pulled up the drive. She wasn't my real mom, but she had raised me for as long as I could remember. My real mom had been married to my dad for less then a month when she got pregnant. They were young and happy, only eighteen. When she was seven months pregnant she was diagnosed with a brain aneurism and when the surgeon had gone into fix it he nicked the aneurism, causing my mother to bleed severely and her brain to swell. By the time they finally got the bleeding under control it was too late and she was declared brain dead. So I was removed from my dying mother and placed in Intensive Care for New Borns. That is where my dad met my step mother. Her own baby was extremely sick and soon passed on, but they kept on touch. I think in some ways my stepmom used me to replace the emptiness she felt from losing her own child. I was ok with it because I never felt like she loved me any less than my little brother because in her mind I am her daughter.

"Prepare to be showered in affection, my mother is home." I told Brennan, watching as my mother and little brother climbed out of her SUV. My brother was all clad in soccer wear.

"Damn you, I could have snuck out the back if you had given me sooner notice." Brennan said teasingly and I laughed kicking him lightly in the shin. He smiled brightly at me and I swear my heart skipped a beat.