Page 83 of Just Friends
“Because you had such a long wait.”
“Sometimes,” she said pensively, “you have to wait a long time before you get what you want.”
“True.” I rolled onto my side and swept my eyes up and down her body, stealing peeks at her figure through her t-shirt. “Sometimes, you never get it.”
She laughed quietly. “Oh, c’mon. You geteverythingyou want.”
“Says who?” I asked indignantly.
“Don’t even try to deny it, Jax,” she said. “How many boys grow up wanting to be a pro athlete? Millions, I’m sure. But you—you actually made it. You’re famous, you’re rich and handsome and stylish and cool, andyou get all the girls, too.”
“I don’t getallthe girls.”
“No? Hm, I must be forgetting someone,” she teased. She rolled onto her side to face me, too. “Who haven’t you gotten?”
I liked the fun, flirty tone in her voice—and I liked where this was going, too.
“There’s this one girl,” I began, unable to hold back an grin. “We’re pretty tight, actually. But she’s turned me down a couple times.”
“She did, huh? She must be a real bitch.”
I shook my head. “Nah, she’s really cool, actually. That’s probably why she keeps turning me down. She’s too good for me—she knows she can do better.”
“Too good for you?” She laughed. “I highly doubt that’s why she turned you down. It was probably for some other reason.”
“Like what?”
“Hm.” Her eyes rolled upward as she gave it some thought. “You said you’re really tight with her, right? So maybe she’s afraid that if your friendship became physical, it’d change things, and her connection with you would fizzle out.”
I chuffed. “I’d tell her she’s crazy if she thought that. Things wouldn’t change at all.”
“No?” She let out a doubtful laugh. “Tell me, have you ever kissed this girl?”
“Er, yeah.” I swallowed. “Just one small kiss, though.”
“And did thatone small kisschange things?”
I grumbled. I’d walked right into that one.
“Well … yeah, I guess it did,” I admitted. “But I wish it didn’t.”
“I bet she wishes things didn’t change, either. But that’s the way things are.” She frowned. “Who knows, though? Obviously, I don’t know this girl; I’m just hypothesizing here.”
I played along. “Right, yeah.”
“For all I know, there might be someotherreason why she turned you down.”
I raised a curious eyebrow. “Like what?”
Her breathing deepened. Lost in thought, she stared right through me, her eyes searching for the truth. “Maybe, since you and her are so tight, she’s seen how you are with other girls.”
I pursed my lips, disappointed and ashamed, with no one to blame but myself.
“And maybe she’s told you that she doesn’t care that you sleep around. She’s even toldherselfthat, too—because she really believed it. Or shewantedto believe it.” A sadness filled her eyes. “But she can’t deny it anymore: shedoescare. She cares a lot. And it hurts her, Jax.”
“I’m sorry,” I said quietly. “I had no idea it hurt y—” I caught myself before I broke the rules of our game. “I mean,her.”
“Neither did she.”
