Stephanie looked at the piece of paper that Brian had given here and started towards A.J.’s house. She noticed some writing on the back and turned it over it said ‘I love you Nick.’ She looked at it for a moment wondering who had written it. She felt something and wondered if she was jealous, but why would she be jealous? Of course Nick probably had a girlfriend, but why had he not said anything about it? Her mind stopped as she pulled up in front of the huge house, it was defiantly A.J.’s. She walked up to the huge front door and rang the doorbell. It was several minutes before A.J. appeared.
A.J. had been feeling guilty ever since last night and now he opened his front door to find Stephanie.
“Hi.”
“Hey.” He responded
“Can I come in?”
“Oh, yeah.” He pushed the door open and she walked in. As she walked by him A.J. kissed her.
She smiled at him, “I think we need to talk.”
A.J. nodded, “Come on.” He turned and walked down the hall into a large living room, “You want something to drink?”
“No thanks.”
“It’s funny that you showed up, I’ve been debating on whether to call you or not.”
Stephanie looked at him waiting to see if he would go on, when he didn’t she spoke, “I’ve been thinking a lot about this whole ‘us’ thing.”
A.J. nodded, “So have I.”
“A.J. you are one of my best friends, and I love you so much.” A.J. nodded as she continued, “Do you think this is going anywhere?”
A.J. looked at her for several minutes with his arms crossed, “I don’t know. That’s what I wanted to ask you.”
They both stood there and just looked at each other. Completely silent they both made a decision and agreed. Still without saying anything A.J. stepped closer and put his arms around her. She slid her arms around his middle and sighed. She loved A.J. as a friend, and she hoped with everything in her that this would not change anything. A.J. pulled back just enough to kiss her, “You okay?”
She nodded, “Yeah, what about you?”
“I’ll live.” She smiled at him and then he realized that he had his arms around her and they were in his house, “What are you doing here?”
She laughed, “I wondered when you would figure that out. Meg and I had some time off from school and we decided to come visit.”
“Cool.”
“You want to go shopping tomorrow?”
A.J. grinned, “I thought you would never ask. Where are you guys staying?”
“With Brian.”
“You could always stay here.”
Stephanie stepped back, “No Mr. McLean, I think that would be a little to hard on your part.”
A.J. grinned, “Yeah, Baby!” He looked at her for a minute, “This is not going to change anything is it?”
“It better not.” She said smiling. “I’d better get back, Megan will be wondering what we’re up too.”
A.J. raised an eyebrow, “Is that a bad thing?”
“Oh, shut up!”
**
Stephanie found the house empty. She wondered where they could have gone. She went directly to the refrigerator. She pulled a can of coke out and almost dropped it as she shut the door and found Nick standing there, “Don’t do that to a person!” she said taking a deep breath.
“Sorry. Where did you go?” he asked
“To see A.J.
Nick didn’t say anything for a minute, “Why are you back so soon?”
“We talked, and I decided to come back.”
Something about the way she said ‘we talked’ started to get him to wonder, “What did you talk about.”
Stephanie sighed as she looked out the kitchen window, “We broke up.” If she had been looking at Nick she would have seen him jump, throw his hands in the air, do a little dance, and mouth ‘YES!’
“I’m sorry.” He said smiling. As she turned he looked sympathetic, “You are still friends aren’t you?”
“Oh, yes. That’s really why it wasn’t working. We are just friends.
“To bad.” Nick said shaking his head slowly. On the outside he was trying to sympathize but on the inside he was jumping up and down with relief that A.J. was out of the picture, or so he thought.
