Sleeping With My Best Friend - (Complete)

Chapter 20 - Heartbreak & Nightmares

**** Berkley's Point of View ****

Berkley came into the house carrying some cotton candy, nachos, and a huge soda Dean had bought her at the arcade.

"You spoil me too much," she teased, as she watched him kick the door shut behind them with his foot, because his arms were busy carrying the huge stuffed giraffe he had won for her on the three point shot basketball game.

"Tell me about it," he said with a light-hearted laugh, throwing the giraffe down onto the couch. "I figured you deserved it though after beating a bunch of full grown men on Dungeons and Mayhem. They take that game WAY too seriously. You could tell they were really pissed about getting beat by a teenage girl," he laughed.

"I know. I loved it," she said with a proud smile, setting her stuff down on the kitchen counter. "Little do they know, I hardly count as a girl. Growing up with you and my brother and all your friends pretty much makes me an honorary dude," she laughed.

Dean laughed too, shaking his head. "No, you're definitely not a dude Berk."

"Hey, you're the one that's always told me I'm just one of the guys, remember?" she asked, walking up and poking her fingernail into his chest with a mischievous smirk.

He ran a hand up through his hair and shook his head, laughing. "No, you're definitely NOT just one of the guys .......... not anymore," he added, letting out an exhale and stuffing his hands into his pockets, looking down at the floor.

Hearing him say that made her stomach do a flip. He had told people so many times throughout the years that she was just one of the guys, but apparently he didn't see her that way anymore.

He walked past her and grabbed a beer out of the fridge, taking a long drink from it before getting a lighter out of the drawer.

"I'm gonna go start a fire in the fire pit," he told her before sliding the backdoor open and disappearing outside.

She watched him walking down to the beach out the window, thinking about the fact that he had been acting really weird today. He was a lot more guarded and hesitant than normal.

They had always been very touchy-feely with each other their entire lives. When they said goodbye, they would usually give each other a hug and a kiss on the cheek. When she was going through a hard time, he would snuggle up and hold her in his arms and when he was sore from sports, she would give him a massage to make it feel better.

When they were hanging out with friends, she would plop down into his lap and it was pretty common for him to lay his head in her lap so she could run her fingers through his hair while she was reading a book. Growing up they had movie nights on the weekends and he'd usually end up falling asleep in her bed and staying over, and sometimes she'd even wake up to them cuddled up together.

That was their normal, not this weird, distant thing he was doing today. He had walked and sat a little further away, leaving a big gap between them and he seemed to be avoiding looking at her. She didn't like it and she decided to make it her personal mission to change things back to how they were before.

She walked through the sliding door and out towards the beach. It was a beautiful night, with the dark sky full of white, twinkling stars overhead and a warm breeze blowing lightly, carrying the fresh smell of the ocean with it. She could hear the gentle crashing of the ocean waves in the background, as the white powdery sand squished between her toes.

When she reached the fire pit, Dean was sitting on a log, poking at the small flames with a stick and she sat down beside him, laying her head down onto his shoulder and staring at the dancing flames in front of her.