"Sure." he smiled. "You can stay in my room."
"Thank you." I said, feeling relieved. "But I could've just stayed on the couch."
"Don't worry about it." he said.
I wasn't really in the mood to go back and forth about it, so I just smiled.
"Thank you."
We ended up going back to the kitchen to wait out the party while we both got drinks. We sat at the counter, talking about the whole closet situation. It was embarrassing now that I thought about it, I wasn't exactly the nicest to him.
"So, does your friend do that a lot?" he asked, taking a sip of his beer as he looked at me.
"You have no idea." I sighed, feeling annoyed again. It happened every time we went out together, she always wandered off doing her own thing.
He nodded, tapping his fingers on the bottle of beer.
"So how'd you end up living with Nick?"
He looked sad when I asked this, chewing softly on his bottom lip before answering.
"My asshole of a dad kicked me out when I was still sixteen, so I lived with Nick and his family for awhile. Then we got our own place at nineteen and we've been living together since." he said, still fidgeting with his beer while talking.
"Oh, so you've been through some shit together then." I said, feeling sorry for him.
"Guess you could say that. He's like a brother to me. That band I was talking about earlier, it was the first thing that brought us close together. Music is something we've both always been interested in."
I smiled. The friendship Julian and Nick had was the kind I always dreamed of having with Simone. Unfortunately, she wasn't the best friend type. She was just a whore, as fucked up as it sounds, it's true.
"Maybe I could listen to you play sometime."
He chuckled, that deep chuckle that always seems to make me nervous.
"Yeah, that'd be cool."
We sat at the counter for hours until the party ended, talking about the band. Talking about our lives. I felt like I'd learned more about him in the span of two days than I had anyone else in a lifetime. Everything about him truly interested me. And then the party finally ended, and people started leaving.
"Are you tired?" Julian asked, picking up his beer bottle to throw away.
I was tired, but I didn't want to sleep yet. I wanted to keep talking to him.
"No." I lied.
"Well, I am." he sighed, getting up and throwing his beer in the trashcan. "I'll show you my room."
I nodded, getting up and following him out of the kitchen. He lead me back up the stairs, and down the hallway to a door at the end. He opened it and I followed him inside. He smiled.
"This is it. You can sleep here tonight."
I still felt bad that he was going to let me sleep in his bed, but he was trying to do something nice so I wasn't going to turn his offer down.
I sat down on the bed against the bedframe, and he sat down on the edge.
"Do you need anything?" he asked.
I shook my head. "Thank you."
He smiled softly at me again, and as he was about to get up and leave, something came over me. I grabbed his hand.
"Julian?"
He looked over at me and raised an eyebrow. "Hm?"
"Can you..." I sighed. "Just stay in here tonight?"
I didn't know why I was asking him to sleep with me, I had just met him yesterday. But I enjoyed his company. I'd do anything to make him stay a little bit longer.
He looked hesitant for a minute, but then he spoke. "Sure, yeah. I can stay."
He sat down again in front of me and faced me.
"Tonight was nice." I smiled, causing him to chuckle.
"It was." he said.
We were sitting across from each other, and I couldn't help but stare at him. I probably looked stupid.
Everything went silent for a minute, and his smile slowly faded as his face went serious. Everything froze, and he was leaning closer to me I knew what was going to happen, and I didn't want to stop it, either. He was inches away from my face, staring into my eyes as if asking for permission. I closed my eyes, snaking my arms around his neck and pulling him closer.
Then I felt his lips meet mine. I could smell and taste the alcohol, and I loved it so fucking much. It was becoming my favorite scent, only after spending two days around him. I wanted him so badly, more than I've ever wanted anything else. I felt one of his hands reach around my waist, pulling me closer to him. He put his other hand on the side of my neck, pulling away for a second. He looked at me, and said something I didn't even have the guts to say myself.
"I think I like you. A lot." he said quietly, his voice sending chills down my spine. The way he was looking at me made me realize just how serious he was. He meant every word, and although all of this was moving so quickly, I didn't have a problem with it. I wanted him, and he wanted me too. But I was scared to love him. I just smiled.
"Julian," I said, but before I could finish, he pulled me into a kiss again.
He leaned back onto the bed, pulling me on top of him as he smiled against my lips. He straddled my legs on his sides, and I reached my arms around my back to unzip my dress when he pulled away from the kiss and grabbed my arms, stopping me from continuing.
"Jade... not yet." he looked up at me with sad eyes.
I nodded, slowly backing off of him and zipping the dress back up. "I'm sorry..." I mumbled.
"No, no. It's not you." he said, sitting up and buttoning his shirt back up.
I felt tears start brimming in my eyes.
"Hey, don't cry." his voice softened, and he grabbed my hand. He pulled me closer to him again. "Listen, like I said, I really like you..." he sighed. "But this is too much for right now. We just met yesterday.."
What he was saying made sense, and I felt stupid to not have realized it before trying. We just met the night before, and we'd spent less than an entire day together. I was already getting ahead of myself.
"You're right, I'm sorry."
"It's fine, Jade. I just feel shitty for leading you on like that.."
I shook my head. "No, don't think that." then I looked at the clock. "It's late anyway."
He smiled, sadness still in his eyes. "Okay, I'm just going to sleep in Nick's room, okay? He's probably already drunk and asleep on the couch, anyway."
I laughed, but I still felt shitty. It was all I was going to be able to think about. "Okay."
"Goodnight." he said, getting up and leaving the room.
I turned the bedside lamp off before laying down on my side. I couldn't stop thinking about what had just happened.
