Girl Crush

Chapter 3

 The light streaming into the room fell across Dani's eyes and she groaned, trying to turn over but finding herself unable to. Peeking one eye open, she quickly saw why. Eddie was on top of her, his arm slung over her chest, his leg hanging over hers. His long dark waves were brushing along her cheek and his face was pressed right against her, his nose nuzzling her neck. He was in nothing but boxers because that's all he slept in. She froze, inhaling a deep breath, reminding herself that this was all normal. Her head knew that, if only she could get her body to get with the program.

It happened six months ago. All these years they had been best friends, everything feeling easy and simple. They would touch without it sending shockwaves through her body. They slept together all the time and when she woke up with him inevitably flung across her, she would simply fling him away. She didn't stare at his lips, longing to find out what they would taste like. She didn't lay in his bed, fantasizing about doing things other than sleeping.

Then, suddenly, that all changed. She didn't know why exactly. There wasn't some amazing thing he did that made her look at him differently. There was no big event or fireworks or music playing. They had been laying on the floor doing homework, or Eddie's version of homework. That meant Dani was working and he was desperately trying to get her attention so they could do anything else. He grabbed her feet and pulled them, yanking her close to him. She shrieked and he grabbed her waist, bringing her body down on top of his, pinning her against him. Again, wrestling on the floor was something that happened all the time, but this time, her body had a visceral reaction to the feel of him pressed against her. She became very aware of every inch of him that was touching her.

Now, that was all she could think about all the time and all she wanted was for it to go away. She wanted, no she needed, things to go back to the way they were before she started looking at Eddie as more than just her goofy best friend. She hated how hard everything felt now, constantly trying to keep these unwanted feelings buried deep. She couldn't risk Eddie noticing. He was everything to her, and she couldn't risk losing him. Sharing that her love for him had turned into being in love with him would make things too awkward for them to ignore and that would lead to avoiding each other and losing her favorite person altogether.

Eddie groaned as his alarm started going off and buried his face further into her neck, nuzzling the flesh with his nose and lips. She stilled, terrified he would be able to hear how her heart was threatening to thunder out of her chest and give her away. Letting out a slow breath, she put on the persona of Dani, the best friend who wasn't at all affected by those beautiful fingers that were resting on her chest or those pillowy soft lips that were brushing her skin and shoved his arm off of her roughly.

"Come on freak, get up," she groaned. "God, you are such a bed hog!"

Eddie grunted, swatting his hand toward her as if she were an annoying fly buzzing around his head. As the alarm continued its incessant ringing, he grumbled and rolled over, slapping it with his hand so it fell off of his nightstand and onto the floor.

He had never been a morning person. He always said that was why he wanted Dani to stay over, because she was the only thing that actually stood a chance at getting him out of bed and to school on time.

Eddie slowly rolled to sitting, pressing the palms of his hands into his eyes. Dani rose from the bed and headed to his closet. She grabbed a plain back tee for herself and tossed him one of his Hellfire shirts. He let it fall to the bed and looked up at her through bleary, tired eyes, his wild mane of waves sticking up all over the place and Dani's heart seized at how adorable sleepy Eddie was.

"Help..." he mumbled.

"Jesus, you are such a child," Dani sighed, but she walked over, pulling his Hellfire shirt over his head. Grabbing the spray bottle from his dresser, she spritzed water and ran her fingers through his waves to try to tame them down a bit. "But you're getting your own damn pants on."