Leah gasped as Nick slowly pulled away. "Nick ... that ... oh my gosh."
Nick grabbed her arms in his hands to prevent her from leaving in case she was going to try to. "Leah, please ... I know I probably shouldn't have done that, but I love you, okay? Why won't you believe me?"
"Shut up, Nick! That shouldn't have happened, and you need to stop saying that you love me before you ruin our entire friendship!"
"What does that mean??" he suddenly felt on the defense. "Are you threatening me? You're not gonna be my friend unless I start living in denial about my feelings for you? Leah, I've tried! I've tried to get over you, I've tried to spend weeks ignoring you, I've tried to be with other girls ... none of it works! I love you and nothing is going to change that! I'm sorry you can't deal with that fact."
"Nick, I have a boyfriend!" Leah pulled her arms from his hold. "I have a boyfriend that loves me and I love him too! He will NOT find out about what happened here, because I refuse to have a relationship ruined because you kissed me! I love you with everything in me ... but as a friend! You are my friend ... my best friend ... but that is all! And that is all that we'll ever have, Nick ... a friendship."
Nick sighed and looked down at the water, "Okay," he finally conceded, before standing from the step and walking out of the pool. "Just remember," he added as he turned back around and faced her again, "you kissed me back, Leah. You kissed me back. And that's something you can't deny."
Leah sighed and watched him walk back into the house. She felt like crying, but nothing would come. Instead she swam around the pool for a while, thinking about her boyfriend and what would happen if he found out that she and Nick had kissed ... but most of all she was thinking about her best friend and how much had changed between them when she moved to Florida.
~ * ~
Nick felt uncomfortable as he sat across from Leah at dinner that night. He was surprised that she'd even set a place for him at the table, but he guessed that she was trying to make things as normal for the two of them as possible. With a sigh at their lack of conversation, Nick finally spoke up, "So what are you gonna do this weekend?"
Leah suddenly remembered that Nick would be gone. He would be flying to California to record a few tracks with the guys for their next CD. "I'm not sure. Probably just hang out and not do much. What day are you leaving?"
"Friday at 2 in the afternoon."
"Okay," she nodded.
"Maybe we could like..." Nick flushed in embarrassment as he looked down at the table, surprised at how nervous he was. "I dunno ... do something the night before?"
Leah smiled gently, trying to pretend that nothing was wrong with their friendship. Maybe if she just ignored it, it would all go away. "Yeah, that would be fun. We could like go to dinner and a movie or something on Thursday. I mean, we could go clubbing, but I figure you probably wanna take it sorta' easy before traveling, right?"
"Yeah," Nick nodded. "That'd be good. Dinner and a movie sounds great."
"Okay," she smiled, before standing up and taking their dishes into the kitchen, both of them having finished. "I'm supposed to go to Freddy's, since he's back from his meeting now ... there's ice cream in the fridge if you want any."
Nick sighed and watched her go up the stairs to get dressed.
