Brian sighed as he pulled open the door to his refrigerator and peered inside.
He hated it when he got hungry and didn't know what he was hungry for.
Moving aside a jar of mustard, a smile appeared on his lips at the sight of a small container in the back of the fridge. The smile got larger as he reached back and brought the container towards his face.
Grape jelly.
He could still hear Lois' words clearly in his head, giving him the do's and dont's of grape jelly and her.
"Mmkay, but just so you know, you cannot eat the grape jelly." she said, her eyes giving him a warning stare.
He looked at her puzzled, waiting for an explanation. Thankfully, she gave him one.
"I have a grape jelly fetish." Her eyes squinted for a moment. "Okay, fetish isn't the right word, but you know what I mean." she corrected. "I love grape jelly, and no one is allowed to eat it. No one! Even Justin isn't stupid enough to try and come between me and my jelly. So I'm warning you now to stay away from it, or suffer all the wrath that is a jelly-less Lois. Mmkay?"
Brian laughed. He couldn't not laugh at something like that.
He had just spent the entire day with Lois, wandering around the city.
They hadn't been doing anything in particular. Just walking around, checking out some shops and spent at least three hours in a coffee shop talking about anything and everything that came to their minds.
It was now early evening, and the two had decided to go back to Lois' apartment and watch a movie.
Justin and Lauren had been leaving to go to Justins mothers house for dinner just as Lois and Brian were coming home.
Brian had met Justin a few times before, and the two had gotten along very well. Even though the first time Brian ever met Justin, he hand was stuck under the TV stand with a lampshade on his head. But other than his occasional strange behavior, Brian thought very highly of Justin.
Lauren had acted a little strange for the first few moments when Brian had first met her. He couldn't quite place what she was cautious about, but after a short while she seemed to relax. She was very intelligent and he had spent a long time talking to her while Lois and Justin bickered over something to do with snack cakes and parking meters.
Sitting on one of the tall stools in the kitchen, Brian leaned his elbows on the counter. "So, I take it I'm not allowed to eat the grape jelly?"
"Not if you wanna keep that purdy face of yours intact, Willay." Lois replied as she pulled out a jar of jelly.
He smiled.
For some reason, she had taken to calling him Willay instead of Brian. He didn't mind, however. For some reason, anything she said sounded funny to him. She could say spoon and he would smile.
Her presence was intoxicating to him. Whenever he was away from her, all he thought about was calling her or being with her. Whenever he was with her, the time seemed to go too fast.
The strange thing was, to him anyways, that it wasn't a romantic infatuation. Sure, he was attracted to her. He wasn't a moron. But for some reason he just liked being around her, and it wasn't anything deeper than a strong feeling of being alive whenever she was around. She had this odd sense of excitement that he thrived from whenever he was near her.
She seemed happy with their relationship the way it was, so he wasn't going to go and complicate things by moving it to a romantic state when neither of them seemed too sure that is where they wanted it to go.
They had spent a lot of time together over the last few weeks, but Brian did notice over the last few days especially that something seemed to be troubling Lois.
She had spoken quite often of Joey, but Brian had yet to meet him. The only member of NSync he had met had been Justin.
Lois talked about Joey quite a bit. About trips they had taken, jokes they had and pranks they had pulled. Brian could tell that Joey meant the world to Lois just by the way she spoke about him. It puzzled him that he hadn't met him yet, and considering how much time he had been spending with Lois lately, that seemed to mean that she wasn't spending much time with Joey.
But he knew it wasn't his place to question or inquire about a friendship like theirs. He was sure things were a little different between them than most friends, simply because of Joeys career.
Smiling at the jar of grape jelly that Lois had given him, Brian set it on the counter beside him as he reached in to grab a loaf of bread.
Just as he closed the door to the fridge, a soft knock sounded at his door.
Looking at the clock, he saw that it was only three thirty in the afternoon. He wasn't expecting anyone today.
Approaching his door, he peered through the peep hole and saw Lois. He smiled.
Pulling open the door, he grinned.
"Hey, Lolo." he smirked. "Dont bother trying to reclaim that jar of jelly. I alre- -" he was cut off by Lois rushing into the room.
She threw her arms up and around his neck, pulling his body close to hers. He could feel her hands run through his hair, grasping the back of his neck to pull his face towards hers. Before he had a chance to even think about what was going on, she was kissing him.
And not just kissing him. It was like she was trying to swallow his lips.
Normally, Brian would be the kind of man who would respond to a beautiful woman kissing him this way. But this was such a shock, he could only stand there, rather stupidly, as she pulled on him.
After a few seconds, he regained his composure, and places his hands on Lois' shoulders, gently pushing her back to look at her.
The moment she felt him grasp her arms, she became more forceful. Her hands pulled at his hair, her body pressed so closely to his it was as if she was trying to bury herself inside him.
He was so shocked, he didn't know what to do. Lois had never made any indications that she wanted their relationship to progress to this state, and here she was raping him with her mouth.
Not that that was a bad thing, but still.
Suddenly, Lois pulled back for a moment to try and gain better access to Brian. When he felt the contact break, he took a quick step back to try and get her under control.
Grasping her arms firmly but gently, he stared at her.
Her face was flushed, her lips swollen and her breathing was ragged.
"Whoa," he managed to muttered. "Whats gotten in to you?"
Lois didn't answer. Her eyes directed towards his lips again, and before he had the chance to stop her, she was kissing him again.
He felt her push him back gently towards the living room.
Stumbling back, Brian followed her lead as he tried not to trip and fall to the floor. At this rate, if she got him on the ground he may not make it back up with all his clothes on.
A second later, he felt his leg hit the side of the couch.
He knew he had to do something.
Something was obviously wrong with Lois for her to be acting this way, and he certainly wasn't about to take advantage of her if something wasn't right. He didn't want her to have anything to regret when it came to him, and he certainly didn't want to risk what they had now because of a temporary lack of judgment.
Grasping her arms more forcefully, he pushed her back firmly, breaking the contact.
He could barely catch his breath as he stared at her.
"Lois, stop." he gasped. "What the hell has gotten into you?"
Lois only stared at him, her breathing fast and unsteady. She looked as if she had just ran a marathon.
Looking into her eyes, Brian didn't know what he saw. She looked frantic, lost and confused all in one.
He hated to see that look on her.
The two stood still for a long while, both breathing heavily, waiting for the other to say something.
After a while, Lois finally spoke.
Breaking her eyes from Brians, she looked around as if she couldn't understand how she had gotten to his apartment. Returning her gaze to him, she immediately looked scared and unsure.
"Brian, I am sorry." she said, her voice small and lost. "I--" she didn't finish her sentence. She only looked around again, before falling to sit on the couch.
Sighing loudly as she regained her composure, she buried her head in her hands.
Waiting for a moment as if to make sure it was safe, Brian finally sat down beside her and watched her closely.
He wasn't sure was what wrong with her. This kind of reaction wasn't something he would expect from her, even if he had only known her a short time.
Sniffing lightly, she brought her face up to look straight ahead, her face signally she was lost in her own thoughts.
Finally she turned to him.
She didn't say a word. She only stared at him, as if waiting for him to give her the answers to every question in the universe.
"What just happened there?" he managed to ask. He knew it was a rather stupid question, but it was the best he could come up with at the moment. His mind was still racing with what had just occurred.
Lois sighed. She almost look embarrassed as she tired to figure out what to say.
"I'm so sorry Willay." she said. "I just," she paused, her head returning to her hands. "Ugh!"
Brians heart pulled as he look at her. She seemed to lost, and that was certainly a look he had never seen on her before.
"Lois," he said, taking one of her hands in his. "You know you can tell me anything, right? Ill listen to whatever you need to say."
Looking over to him, slowly a smile came to her face. He wasn't sure what that meant, but at least she was smiling.
"Im sorry I just attacked you like that." she laughed a little as the words left her lips. "I really don't know what came over me. I, ugh, I really don't even know where to begin."
"How about the beginning?" he joked.
She laughed lightly, as she fumbled with his thumb while she stared at their linked hands.
"I think I did something really really stupid." she said, her voice cracking slightly.
Brian didn't answer, so she continued.
"I think I fell in love with the one person I shouldn't have." her lip quivered slightly, but she managed to get the words out.
"The pope?" Brian joked, trying to lighten the mood. He knew it probably wasn't the best time for jokes, but he hated to see her upset and needed something to ease the tension.
She smiled, but no laughter.
"I wish," she said. "At least then I wouldn't be in love with my best friend."
Finally, it made sense. Well, sort of.
Brian himself had questioned the relationship Lois had with Joey. The way she spoke about him he had wondered if it was something more, or had ever been anything more. She had repeated told him that things between her and Joey were nothing more than a strong bond of friendship, and even Justin and Lauren had told him the same thing. Lois told Brian how everyone always questioned them about it, wondering if anything had ever happened between them but that it never had. They were each others soul mate, but not in the romantic sense. They completed each other in a way that no one else would, but that didn't mean they needed a physical relationship from each other.
They were friends, and nothing more.
But now, it seemed, that one of them did want more.
"So, you're in love with Joey?" Brian asked, leaning his head down in an attempt to get in her point of view while she still stared at their hands.
She nodded slightly, her lip quivering at his question.
"I take it that is not a good thing?" he said, unsure whether that was the best way to put it.
"No, its not a good thing." she said, her voice registering a slightly bitter tone. "Not when he has feelings for someone else. Someone else I fucking set him up with. Someone else I made him go out with." Retrieving a hand to smack herself in the forehead, she groaned. "I am so fucking stupid! This is all my fault! I made this happen!"
"How is this your fault?" Brian asked. "Its not your fault he is with someone else."
"You don't understand," she rambled. "It is my fault, because I picked the girl. I picked the girl just like he picked--" she stopped herself suddenly, her eyes looking up to his, a frightened look deep inside them.
Her looked scared Brian for a moment. "Just like he picked what?"
Lois didn't answer right away. She only stared at him, as if trying to decide whether or not to tell him something that would probably be something he didn't want to hear, or something that she didn't want to tell.
Finally, she opened her mouth, but no sound came out.
He raised an eyebrow at her encouragingly.
"Just like," she started, her voice barely audible. Clearing her throat uncomfortably. "Like he picked you."
