Karen shifted as she turned around to face Brian, she was still sleepy as she opened her eyes and said, "Hey Nick, I had the weirdest dream last night." As she rubbed her eyes, she saw that it wasn't Nick and that it was Brian and she was in his room. "What? I wasn't dreaming, it actually happened?" She sat up with a worried face.
Brian looked at her. "You regret it now, don't you?" he said sadly.
She looked him in the eyes. 'His crystal blue eyes are too die for.' She smiled, "No I don't regret it. It's not like we had sex or anything, right?" she said quietly.
"Well, Nick's going to be here any minute, what now?" Brian said.
"Brian can you please tell Nick I needed to be alone today. I think I'm going to go take a walk I need to straighten things out."
"Are you sure about that? He's going to be worried about you." Brian said worried himself. 'She probably does regret it. She just... Oh man what have I done?'
"Yeah, I need time alone. That's all." Karen said.
"Well, then you better leave now before he catches you."
"You're right..... thanks Brian.." Karen said as she gave him a meaningless peck on the cheek. "Umm... Can I borrow your jeep?"
"Hmm.. do I trust you with that?" Brian chuckled.
"Please?"
"Oh alright! Just be careful with my baby!"
Karen quickly got dressed and headed out the door. She jumped into Brian's jeep and drove down to the park. She needed this time alone, she couldn't face Nick right now, she felt guilty as ever.
Meanwhile, Theresa woke up extra early. She got dressed and smiled at the sleeping Dawn, 'I had fun last night... I've never laughed so much in a long time.' She went down to get some breakfast and headed out the door. She headed straight to the park. As she continued to walk down the path she spotted a girl. 'Hey she looks familiar.' As she got close to her she realized who it was, 'Karen? And she's alone. I can't let her see me.' she said quickly as she turned and started to walk the other way.
"Theresa?" Karen said to herself. 'I need to talk to her, I have to find out what I did so wrong to make her hate me.' She ran after her. "Theresa?!" she yelled.
Theresa turned around, 'What the hell does she want? I'm just going to ignore her.'
"Theresa?! Please stop!" Karen yelled.
Theresa stopped and turned around. "What do you want?" she asked rudely.
"Theresa I want to know why you dislike me so much. I don't know what I did to earn your hatred." Karen said.
"You should know what you have done bitch." Theresa yelled.
"I am not a bitch okay? You have no right to call me names. I just want to know what I did to you to be treated like shit by you." Karen yelled back.
"Well, like I said the other night, I take it you weren't listening....waltzing into other people's lives like you belong and making them fall for you little games...."
"Games? What games?" Karen asked questioningly.
"Games? Ha you sure are fooling me. You think you can play those games with me. I don't think so... I'm not falling for your little MISS INNOCENT act...." Theresa turned to walk away.
"Look, I don't know what your problem is but I'm not playing any games." Karen said as she grabbed Theresa's arm. "All I wanted was a few good friends. I even tried to be nice to you, but you blew up on me like... like.."
"Let go of me..." Theresa yelled shaking her arm loose.
"Why can't you just tell me what I did wrong?" Karen said even louder. "Maybe I can fix it, maybe I can..." Then Karen remembered the way Theresa looked at her the night Nick asked her out. "It's about Nick isn't it?" she finally said.
"What? Why would you think it's about Nick? Nick has nothing to do with this.." she immediately said.
"Yeah right. I see the way you look at him, I see the way you act around him. Making out with Travis that night was to make him jealous wasn't it?" Karen accused.
"I'm sorry you don't know what your talking about." Theresa defended.
"Come on Theresa, I can see it in your eyes, you like him don't you?"
"Why are you asking me this? You're the one who's going out with him." Theresa began to cry. "You... you're standing in the way between us, I would have had him by now if it wasn't for you."
"So it is true? You do like Nick. And that's why you hate me so much." Karen said finally realizing her problem. "I didn't know you liked Nick, honestly."
"Dawn has told me from time to time that you didn't know.. but the way he treats you, the way he always talks about you, hurt me to see that he really did like you." Theresa cried even harder. "I broke up with Travis because of him."
"You did?" Karen began to cry as well. "I'm sorry I didn't know.. if I knew I wouldn't have gotten in your way. I would never do that to a friend." She was now thinking about what she had done to Nick. 'Cheating on him with his best friend.'
"You still consider me as a friend, by the way I treated you."
"Yeah, I never had anything against you. I just didn't know why you dispised me so much." Karen said.
"Dawn was right, you are alright? I'm sorry I never took the time to realize that."
"Theresa? I'll break up with Nick if you want me too." Karen said.
"You'd do that? For me?" Theresa asked. Then she thought about it again. "No, don't! You make him happy and I wouldn't want to see him depressed because of my greediness."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah." Theresa stepped forward and gave Karen a hug without any hesitation, "Thank you so much, I guess my jealousy took over and I judged you without truly knowing you. I'm sorry."
"It's okay," Karen said. She held out her hand, "Friends?"
Theresa smiled and took Karen's hand, "FRIENDS!"
For three hours, Karen and Theresa talked and gotten to know each other better. Theresa was glad that she finally made amends with Karen. She knew now that her life was going to be better and that some day she'll find someone to treat her well. She was also glad that Nick was going out with Karen now, 'Now that I've talked to her, I'm glad she's the one to be with Nick.. he deserves her and she deserves him.'
Meanwhile, Nick arrived at Brian's house. "Hey Kev, where's Karen?"
"She went out.." he replied.
"She did?" Nick asked curiously. "With who?"
"I don't know. Ask Brian." Kevin asked.
Nick headed up to Brian's room. "Hey, Rok? Where's Karen?"
"She went out to get some fresh air." Brian said. "She took my jeep so I don't know how long she's going to be."
"Oh okay. Do you know why she went out?"
"She said she needed time to think about things."
"Things? What things?" Nick asked. He was worried now. "Did she tell you?"
"Don't worry Nick..." Brian said. 'Man, he really likes her. I can't believe I did that... but it felt so right... man, I have to tell him... but I promised Karen. This is going to be so hard.'
"Yo Brian. What's up? You look like you've seen a ghost." Nick said.
"Oh, I'm sorry, it's nothing."
"Well, what'd you want to do today? I guess this gives us some time to hang out alone without girls and problems." Nick suggested.
"Yeah, without girls and problems.." Brian repeated.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Nick asked again.
"Yeah, fine. Let's go play some ball." Brian suggested.
"Alright."
The two went to the driveway and played some hoops. 'God, I wish I could tell him, it's not right... we have to tell him.' Brian said to himself. He kept telling himself that.
"Rok? Ready for me to kick your ass," Nick challenged.
"Bring it on!" Brian laughed.
The two played ball for a couple of hours. Brian still fighting the thought of him and Karen. He stopped playing. "Nick? I have to go... I have an appointment." he lied. And he ran out.
Nick stood there. "Something's not right here." he shrugged his shoulder and continued to shoot the ball around.
Brian asked Kevin for his car keys and drove straight to Leigh Anne's house. He got out of the car and rang the doorbell. Mrs. Wallace opened the door. "Oh Brian dear, it's so good to see you again." She said as she gave him a hug.
"Yeah, I missed coming over," he said.
"You're still welcome here. Leigh Anne explained everything to me and I'm glad you decided to be friends." she said.
"I am too. But is Leigh Anne here? I really need to ask her some advice." Brian asked.
"Yeah sure, I'll go get her. She just got home." Mrs. Wallace said. "Come on in."
Brian walked in and stood there nervously.
"Brian?" Leigh Anne said coming down the stairs. "What's wrong?"
"We need to talk..." Brian said.
"About what?"
"Karen..."
"Karen?!" Leigh Anne said, "I don't understand."
"Can we go somewhere, talk alone?" he said quietly.
"Yeah sure, let me grab a coat." she said. "Mom, I'm going out with Brian, I'll be back for dinner."
"Okay, honey.. Brian it was nice seeing you again." Mrs. Wallace said.
"Same here I miss you." Brian said giving her a hug.
The two left the house as they walked towards Kevin's car. "Where's your jeep?"
"I lent it to Karen. She needed time alone..." he drifted.
"Karen? Brian, you never lent me your car?" Leigh Anne joked getting suspicious.
"Haha, you never lived with me..." Brian laughed weakly.
"Okay.. What's wrong? You're not yourself..." Leigh Anne asked. "Does this have something to do with Karen?"
Brian looked at Leigh Anne, "You were right. I'm in love with Karen."
"I'm glad you finally admit that, now what's your problem?" Leigh Anne smiled.
"I can't tell Nick that, he's my best friend... I can't like my best friend's girlfriend," he said tearing up. "He's so happy with her. I don't know what to do."
Leigh Anne said to him, "Well, how did you finally come to your senses about all this?"
"That's the problem?" Brian sniffed. "The way I found out... I betrayed his trust.."
"Brian? You slept with her?" she asked surprised.
"No, it was nothing like that."
"Then what happened?"
"Nick had a family dinner to go to and Karen stayed home because she wasn't up on going out. When I got home that day she was all alone. She asked me to hang out with her and we just talked." Brian said. "God, Leigh Anne! Karen and I never got to hang out like that in a long time just us two." he looked down. "We were having a good time and out of nowhere we kissed each other."
"Did she return the kiss?"
"That's the weird thing, she did...."
"What happened after that?"
"Well, she said she had to go to bed and like that she ran up the stairs. I decided to talk to her about it and we agreed not to tell Nick." Brian continued. "I left her room and got ready for bed. Then she knocked on my door saying she couldn't sleep, she felt bad for betraying Nick and she started to cry. I went to give her a hug and we kissed again this time we couldn't control ourselves... We didn't have sex or anything but things got pretty heavy...She ended up spending the night in my room..." He looked at Leigh Anne, "It's pretty weird, huh? I'm sharing my feelings with my ex-girlfriend." he laughed.
"I'm here to help, Brian. I am just glad that you can still trust me with things and come to me for help knowing how much I hurt you already." Leigh Anne smiled. "But in my opinion, you should tell Nick what you guys did. Remember me, you know exactly how Nick would feel if he finds out in an unexpecting way. I did that to you.... so take the feelings you felt when you saw me and Jordan together and put them in Nick's shoes. You guys are best friends, you can't keep this from him. Honestly, you and Karen need to think about his feelings, he will be hurt but it will give him time to think things through and to see what he really wants to be done about you and Karen. I've learned that if you want to finish business, you have to finish it because if you don't the situation will stand incomplete and your life will be constantly bothered by the fact that it's standing in the way of you and whoever else involved from moving on with happiness."
"I guess I should talk to Karen and talk to her about telling Nick, eh?" Brian raised his eyebrows.
"Yeah, Brian and you better do it soon before he finds out for himself."
"Leigh Anne, thank you, I always knew you were going to be a big part of my life and even if it's just being friends, you are still special to me and I'm glad that we could still talk like this." Brian smiled. He reached over to give her a hug. "Thank you Leigh Anne, I knew you could help."
They both got up and headed towards the car, 'I knew all along Brian liked her.' Leigh Anne stopped. "Brian? She makes you happy, doesn't she?"
"I don't know, every time I'm with her, I get this tingly feeling like she's inside of me, like she can read my mind." Brian said. "I knew I was in love with you but this is more than love... I just can't explain it."
"Brian, do you think Karen might like you too?" Leigh Anne asked.
"I don't know.. she is pretty worried about what Nick might think, and so am I. Leigh Anne? I'm scared, I'm scared of losing my best friend." Brian's voice trembled.
Leigh Anne embraced him. "I'm sure you can get through this, just tell him soon because this way he'll know that it was a mistake."
"Let's go, Leigh Anne, Nick's at my place and I've got to find Karen." Brian pulled her with him as they ran to Kevin's car. "Thank you," he said giving her a peck on the cheek.
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