Just as the film ends, there’s a knock at the door. I look at Ali triumphantly and she groans.
“You said you’d go.”
“Huh,” she stands up with a yawn. “I didn’t think we were gonna be so popular.” I laugh as she heads off to the door. A few minutes later, she comes back in with Howie. “Jade, Howie wants to see ya.”
I look up at him with a smile. “Hey Howie.”
He smiles slightly. “Uh, I didn’t realise Brian was here. I’ll go.”
I stand up and put a hand on his arm. “No, what did you want?”
He looks at me. “I kinda need to talk to you about somethin’.”
“Sure. Do you wanna go to my room?” He nods gratefully, avoiding Brian’s eyes, and I lead him into my room. I curl up on my bed and he sits next to me. “Ok, shoot.”
“It’s AJ,” he says with a heavy sigh.
I nod. “I was afraid of that.”
“I know. I’m seriously worried about him Jade.”
“Me too. I just don’t know what to do Howie.” Tears suddenly fill my eyes and he moves to wrap his arms around me. “AJ’s one of my best friends and I love him. I don’t want to hurt him. But I’m falling in love with Brian. I’ve never met anybody like him before… I’m so scared that I’m going to lose both of them.”
“Oh you won’t! It’ll all work out, I promise Jade. And you don’t have to deal with this alone anymore, I’m here,” he whispers in a soothing voice.
“Thanks Howie. I can’t talk about it with Brian cos he gets pissed off at AJ. And Ali’s great but she’s his cousin. And I always used to go to AJ with stuff but I can’t now.”
“I know. Has AJ ever come right out and told you how he feels?”
I think for a while and then shake my head. “Ali told me. But he knows that I know, but we never talk about it.”
“Maybe you should.”
I stare at him. “That’d be pretty dangerous.”
“Not if it’s just you and him. It might help him if he can talk it through with you. Maybe make a pitch for you to leave Brian, and then he’ll start to deal and move on?”
“Maybe,” I agree reluctantly.
“If you’re not comfortable with it, don’t do it.”
“No, I think you could be right.”
“Ok,” he says and we sit in silence for a while. “Y’know, you’re really not what I expected.”
I laugh. “You expected a real bitch huh?”
He chuckles. “Yeah, kinda. I WANTED you to be cos then I could rag you out for hurting AJ by getting with Brian.”
I smile sadly. “But you know now that it wasn’t intended.”
“Yeah. I think AJ’s madder at Brian than he is with you. Cos we all knew he had a major thing for ya. Since he first met you, he’s been drooling over ya.”
I stare at him. “Brian knew before he met me? About AJ?”
“Sure. It’d be pretty hard NOT to.” He suddenly looks worried. “But, y’know, Bri’s a GOOD guy. He didn’t mean to hurt AJ.”
“Of course,” I say but my voice is hollow. I have always thought that Brian is as innocent as I am in this whole thing. But he has known how AJ feels about me right from the start, and has never said a word. I stand up. “Do you want to hang around for a drink?”
Howie follows me to the door. “I guess I should go. I mean it’s kinda late and…”
“Oh, we’re all having a drink.”
“Ok then,” he smiles. “I’d like to get to know you and Ali a little better.”
“A little more better,” I say as I walk into the lounge, causing Ali to start giggling and Brian and Howie to look puzzled. I grin at Ali. “Howie’s gonna stay for a drink.”
“Cool.” She smiles at him and follows me into the kitchen. “So, AJ?”
“Yup,” I busy myself in making the drinks as she watches me. “As ever.”
“Did he rag on ya?”
“Nup, he was really cool actually. He thinks I should arrange to do somethin’ with AJ and then talk about this whole thing. Maybe once he’s admitted it to me, he can get over it.”
“Hmm, good plan.” She puts an arm around me and adds cheekily, “Or, you could always sleep with him.”
I almost drop my mug. “Wha…?!”
“Well, it’d put him off.”
“THANKS! You sayin’ I’m bad in bed?!”
She laughs. “No, I just mean that some guys want what they can’t have. So if you slept with him, he’d get over it.”
I giggle. “Maybe after sleeping with me, he’d want me even more…”
“You’d just have to make like a cold fish then…”
“Ugh.” I give her a playful shove, “Just cos YOU used to do that doesn’t mean I have to.”
Her smile dies and she looks at me coldly. “Gee thanks Jade, throw my past back at me why dontcha.”
“Sorry, Ali. I was just kidding,” I put an arm around her. “Besides, if you’re gonna insult my sexual prowess you have to expect some sort of humour backlash.”
“Yeah, I know. Sorry. I’m just kinda still dealing with that crap. Bein’ the neighbourhood bike kinda does that to ya.”
“Oh you weren’t!” I hug her. “You’re not like that. I mean, sure you slept around a little but…”
“I was, Jade. You don’t know who I was then. I’ve changed. I was the neighbourhood slut and I got into SO much crap. That’s why I got sent to Atlanta. As far away from Brooklyn as my parents could get me. You’ll never know who I was, Jade.”
“I know. But it doesn’t matter. Who you were then made you into the person you are now. And I love ya.”
She smiles and hugs me back. “I love ya too Jady.”
Howie sits down on the couch as the girls disappear into the kitchen. He smiles at Brian nervously.
“How ya doin’ bro?”
“What were you sayin’ to Jade?”
Howie sighs. “Stuff.”
“What stuff?”
“Just stuff. It wasn’t about you.”
Brian scowls. “AJ right?” Howie nods. “Oh fuck AJ. Why can’t he just get over this whole thing already? It really upsets Jade.”
“It upsets AJ more.” Howie leans forward, lowering his voice, “And you KNEW AJ liked her.”
Brian shrugs. “I know and I feel bad about that. But the second I met her…”
“You should’ve held back. He’s practically your BROTHER Bri.”
“I tried. I didn’t exactly jump her the minute I saw her. And I sat and watched AJ fondling her most of the night. If she had liked him, she wouldn’t have looked so damn uncomfortable. I wasn’t goin’ to make a move on her until she kissed me cos AJ dared us to.”
“AJ DARED you to kiss Jade?”
“He dared Jade to kiss me. And the minute I touched her face I knew I couldn’t deny my feelings for her anymore,” Brian sighs. “Y’know our song Spanish Eyes? Well, it finally made sense.”
Howie settles back onto the couch with a sigh. He rubs his eyes. “Oh boy.”
An hour or so later, Howie leaves. Ali and Brian carry the mugs through to the kitchen and I head to my room to get undressed. I slip under the sheets just as Brian enters the room looking for me. He grins and sits on the bed next to me. He starts stroking my hair.
“I wondered where you’d gone sweetie.”
I stare at him. “Did you know about AJ likin’ me before you met me?”
His hand freezes. “Uh…I, uh…”
“Howie told me.”
“Oh.” I push his hand off me. “Jade, please don’t.”
“Don’t what?”
“Don’t get mad at me.”
“Why shouldn’t I? He’s supposed to be your BEST friend Brian!”
“I know… He is! I didn’t come here thinking ‘oh I’ll fall in love with AJ’s girl just to spite him’! Do you really think I’m that type of guy?”
I stare at him and then slowly shake my head. “No I don’t. But you could’ve at least TOLD me.”
“Oh, gee… Kinda hard to pick a moment for that. Hi Jade, I love you. Oh by the way, my best friend’s in love with you too,” he runs his hands through his hair. “Anyway, it’s not up to me to tell you. That’s AJ’s call. And you can’t say that you honestly had no clue!”
I shake my head. “No… I knew.” Tears fill my eyes and start to fall down my cheeks. “God, this is hopeless.” He looks up at me, shocked. He reaches out to gently wipe my tears away. “I mean we’re just hurting AJ and I hate it. I don’t feel right. And you guys used to be so close…”
“And we will be again. Just give him a little time, honey.” He curls his fingers underneath my chin to make me look at him, “Jade, I love you. Please don’t give up on us. I know it’s hard but we’re in this together.” I nod slightly. “Did Howie suggest anything?”
“Yeah, he thinks I should talk it out with AJ. Make him see that it would never have worked out – with or without you.”
“I think you should do that.”
“Me too,” I sigh and rest my head on my arms.
I close my eyes as Brian stands up. A few minutes later he’s down to his boxers and has climbed into my bed. He curls up around me and kisses my neck.
“Go to sleep Jady.”
I mutter something incomprehensible, already slipping into a deep sleep as Brian’s arms rest around my body. He makes me feel safe.
“I love you,” he whispers into my ear.
Brian listens to Jade’s breathing become slower and deeper. He gently kisses her hair. He is terrified of losing her. She just seems so wild almost, like the slightest thing could make her disappear. He wants to hold her in his arms forever. He can’t believe that he has only known her for less than a week. It seems like forever. He loves so many little things about her. The way her nose scrunches up when she laughs, the way her eyes show every emotion she feels, the way she looks at him, the shape of her lips, the way she smells of summer, and the way she fits so perfectly into his arms. This is it, he thinks drowsily, he’s seriously falling in love. And with that, he drifts off to sleep.
Nick tosses in his bed and pulls a pillow closer to him. He just can’t get to sleep and he has no idea why. AJ had dropped him off from the barbecue and he had played Nintendo until his eyes had blurred so much that he couldn’t see the screen. So he had gone to bed and now here he is, an hour later, tossing and turning. He punches the pillow with a frustrated sigh and stares up at the ceiling. If only Ali was with him right now, he knows he’d be able to sleep. The last few nights he had fallen asleep with his arms around her. She makes him feel right. She completes him. That thought is pretty scary, he has never felt so into any girl like this before. But he decided last night that he wouldn’t get freaked, he’d just roll with it. She makes him happy. He smiles up at the ceiling and drifts off to sleep, an image of her face dancing before him.
AJ glances at the clock. It reads 2am. The blinking red light is starting to seriously piss him off. He stretches out his hand to turn it away from him but knocks it to the floor instead. He mutters a curse and stares at the ceiling. The brunette lying next to him rolls over but doesn’t wake up. For that, he is thankful. He had gone straight to a bar after dropping Nick off and this girl had been all over him from the moment he had walked in. She was the type the other boys called a Backstreet Slut. But he didn’t care anymore. He had thought that it might have driven the image of Jade and Brian out of his mind, so he could go back to being the old AJ. He had downed his double vodka and taken her home. But it hasn’t made him feel better, just worse. Now he just wants her to leave.