Friends

Part 15

"I just want to be friends."

You stare at him, feeling your stomach start to drop painfully, an awful feeling rising into your chest that made you feel sick and dizzy and just -.

"That's the first thing you ever said to me, when I met you as a kid," Chris continues, rocking back on his heels as he stares at you. "I just want to be friends with you. What were we, five or six?"

What?

Probably.

So....

"And I thought, for the past twenty years, that's all you wanted to be," he mutters, running his hands through his hair. "You never made me think any differently."

Because you figured he didn't feel the same way, you didn't want to ruin the friendship you had with him.

You just stare at him, letting him continue, afraid to interrupt.

"So, I mean, if you want to try to give this a shot, and take it somewhere else and decide that I'm not a complete and total fucking asshole, we.... we can," he huffs, shifting his weight uncomfortably. "If that's what you want. And you can hit me again if that would make you feel better."

You didn't want to hit him again.

You felt bad for hitting him.

Though at the time, mentioning your sister like that?

That was a low hit and he knew it.

Both of you knew how to get under the eithers skin, maybe a little bit too much, and hurting each other wouldn't be a problem when it came to arguments.

You wipe quickly at your face, tears still lingering on your lashes, your eyes feeling raw where you had rubbed them so much that day. You feel awful about how everything has turned out, all the fighting and arguing that could have been avoided if you just hadn't been such a baby about it.

"I'm sorry," you mutter, staring at your feet. "For being so awful, about this, about everything, I -."

"You're not being awful at all, I was a jackass to you yesterday when you were excited about your new job," Chris sighs, shaking his head. "I started a fight and I know it. You didn't do anything wrong with your ex, you didn't want to get married to him and there's nothing wrong with that. I just... I was so pissed off that he can come back at any time he wants, and -."

"He's not coming back," you cross your arms over your chest, looking at everything in your bedroom that wasn't him. "That's been made clear at this point."

Yeah, it really had.

Chris just shrugs.

He doesn't know what else to say.

The both of you just stand there, refusing to look at each other, refusing to make a move or anything else.

So...

Where were you guys going to go with this? Were you going to remain friends, or try for something more?

What was going to happen?

Chris had made the offer, why weren't you accepting?

"So... what do you want to do?" Chris sighs, finally looking at you, taking a step forward until he was mere inches away from you, making you have no choice but to look up at him. "Do we.... what do we wanna do about this? Sleeping together probably wasn't our best decision."

"Our?" you snort. "You started it."

"Well you didn't seem to have any objections to it."

Point.