Friends & Lovers Trilogy (2 page)

They were good to go.

She took out a couple bags of chips, put
them in bowls, and placed them around the living room.

She threw the blankets, a random sock, and
the magazines that were littering the floor into the big hope chest
that served as their coffee table.

She was considering running the vacuum when
Kara came out, dressed in a sweet sunshine yellow sundress, her
blond hair tousled around her face.

“
Thanks, Bree, the place
looks great. Do you think we should vacuum?”

“
I was just thinking the
same thing. Then I remembered who was coming over, and realized
we’ll probably have countless items spilled on the carpet before
morning comes, so what’s the point?” Brian laughed.

“
Very true,” Kara said.
“Pre-game?”

“
Absolutely,” Briana
replied, following Kara back to the kitchen to make herself a
drink.

She’d barely taken her first sip of cherry
vodka and Sprite when the front door opened and a group of people
piled in. It didn’t take long for the music to be turned up and the
sound of laughter and chatter to fill the room.

Briana was talking to someone she had taken
a college course with a few years ago, when she felt someone come
up behind her and softly kiss her neck.

She turned and looked up at Kent over the
rim of her glass.

“
What’s going on, Hot
Stuff?” he asked with his cocky grin.

At six feet, he towered over Briana, and his
unruly blond hair and self-assured manner always drew her to
him.

“
Not much, Kent, just
getting the party started.”

She and Kent enjoyed each other when neither
of them was in a serious relationship. Briana hadn’t had one since
Colin broke up with her in high school, so she was always ready to
enjoy Kent.

Sometimes he tried to get too serious for
her, and that was when she would tell him it was time to get him a
girlfriend.

They weren’t an item, and they weren’t
exclusive, but he was the only guy in this town with whom Briana
knew she could enjoy an uncomplicated relationship.

“
You here alone?” she asked
him.

“
Not anymore,” he replied,
taking her hand and leading her into the kitchen, where he made
himself a drink.

Once Kent had his Captain and Coke mixed, he
leaned down to give Briana a quick kiss before they headed back
into the living room.

“
That’s a promise of things
to come,” he whispered against her lips.

Briana mingled and got caught up on all the
town gossip. She was going back to fill up her glass when she
caught site of Kara going into her room with Pete.

“
Well,
that’s new
,” she thought with a
smile.

As she was filling her glass, the girl she
had been talking to earlier when Kent interrupted, came into the
kitchen.

She couldn’t for the life of her remember
the girl’s name. Kendra or Kylie, maybe. She’d just think of her as
Kendrie.

“
Hey, Bree, I didn’t get a
chance to tell you earlier because that gorgeous guy pulled you
away, but I’d wondered if you’d heard the news.”

“
What news?” she asked
absently.

“
About Colin.” Kendrie
seemed unable to control the glee that came out with that
statement.

Briana ran into this a lot. In high school,
most of the girls were jealous of her because she was dating Colin.
Once he left for school, dumping her in the process, those same
girls pretended to feel sorry for her, but she could tell that they
really loved the fact that he’d dumped her.

Since their town was small, she knew anytime
Colin came home on break. Everyone was more than eager to tell her
about it.

Judging by the girl’s tone, she figured
Colin must be home for the summer. It didn’t matter. She had
successfully avoided him so far. She could manage to do so for
another summer.

“
What about him?” she
asked, making her voice sound as bored as possible.

“
He’s moving back for
good.” Briana’s stomach dropped to the floor. She only half
listened as Kendrie rambled on.

“
He hurt his knee during
the last game of the season and can’t play football anymore. He
graduated and everything, but his dream of going on to play
professional ball is over, so he’s coming back here. They say he’s
going to work with his dad or something. I think he got in last
night.” Kendrie continued to prattle on, not realizing that Briana
was no longer listening to her.

Briana topped off her drink and walked out
of the kitchen, leaving the girl to stare after her, her words
still hanging in the air.

She walked in the opposite direction of the
crowd in the living room, down the hall and into her room. She
didn’t bother to shut the door, but opened her window and crawled
out onto the roof. She sat down and leaned back against the roof
tiles, looking out over the lights of her town.

She drank from her glass as she thought
about Colin.

How dare he come back here permanently? This
was her town. Sure, he’d grown up here, but he’d always planned to
get out and never look back. He wanted to go off to school and play
football, then make it big and move off to a city somewhere. He’d
always planned to visit once he’d left, but he’d never planned to
live here forever.

She’d taken comfort in that fact, and now he
was coming back to stay.

Well, things had changed, and Colin had
better watch his step where she was concerned. She had no plans to
welcome him back with open arms.

Chapter Two

Briana rolled out of bed at two in the
afternoon, a headache giving her grief. She wandered out of her
room and groaned at the sight that met her in the rest of the
apartment.

Plastic cups and paper plates littered every
surface, and just as she’d predicted, the carpet was a mess of
spilled drink and food. Some moron had even used one of her
favorite Aggie mugs as an ashtray. Gross.

She went into the kitchen and grimaced at
the mess in there, but figured it was best to focus on one thing at
a time. She grabbed a trash bag to get started in the living
room.

She was about halfway done cleaning up when
Kara came strolling in through the front door.

“
Hey, Bree, you’re up.
Thanks for getting started in here. I just ran out to get some
provisions,” she stated, holding out a to-go coffee cup.

“
Oh, thank God,” Briana
exclaimed, grabbing the cup and drinking as if her life depended on
it.

Kara chuckled. “I knew that would brighten
up your day. Gosh, what a bunch of slobs, huh? I can’t believe this
place looks so nasty. I’ll just put these muffins in the kitchen
and help you out.”

“
Wait… there are muffins?
The kitchen is just as bad. You don’t want to put them in there.
We’d better just eat them now.” Briana grabbed for the bag that
Kara was keeping just out of reach.

Kara laughed again and took out a steaming
banana nut muffin, Briana’s favorite.

“
I’ll give you this on one
condition.”

“
Anything,” Briana
said.

“
We don’t mention what
happened last night with Pete. Like, ever.”

“
Deal,” she said, grabbing
the muffin and finding a clean corner of the couch to sit
on.

Kara sat on the edge of the hope chest and
began nibbling on her blueberry muffin.

“
What happened to you last
night?” she asked. “Kent was looking for you, but I had no idea
where you went.”

“
After that weird girl from
my Literary Dimensions on Film class dropped her bomb on me, I
kinda disappeared for the night.”

Kara sat up, looking interested. “Do
tell.”

“
I shouldn’t have let it
get to me, but she told me that Colin is moving home for good. Or,
I guess he already did, a couple days ago.”

“
Get out. I noticed you
were gone when I came out of my room last night.” Kara just looked
at Briana. “At first I figured you were with Kent, but then he came
up to me and asked where you were. I didn’t know and I didn’t see
you in your room, so I told him so. He hung out for a bit and then
I lost track of him. I wondered if you two had ever hooked up. Wow.
So…Colin, huh?”

“
Yeah. I was on the roof. I
just couldn’t stand the thought of that girl watching me and
waiting for me to break down or react to her news. She was so
excited to tell me, you know? It just pissed me off.”

“
You should have told her
to get lost,” Kara said, getting angry for her. “It’s our place.
She can take her gossiping ass someplace else.”

Briana laughed. Kara always made her feel
better when she was down.

“
Anyway, I stayed out there
most of the night. I wasn’t in the mood to see Kent, especially
when I was thinking so much about Colin.” Briana was starting to
lose her appetite.

“
Look, I know this town is
small as hell, and you’re going to run into him. But, Bree, it’s
been four years. You’re a grown woman with a job, and apartment,
and a hot man at your beck and call. You don’t need his shit. Just
ignore him.”

Kara had never met Colin. She moved to town
their senior year, after he left for school, and they had been best
friends ever since. She never knew Briana and Colin as a couple;
she just saw how Briana was affected after he left. She wasn’t his
biggest fan.

“
That’s easier said than
done, Kara. That girl said that he was going to be working for his
daddy. That means he’ll be working right down the street and he’s
gonna come in to eat all the time.” The thought made Briana’s
stomach hurt even more.

“
Stop, Bree. You’re not
seventeen anymore. Let him eat where he wants. Don’t let him bother
you. You have the upper hand here.”

“
You’re right. I know you
are. I’m just scared to see him. It’s been so long. What if when I
see him I feel just like I did when he left? I never want to feel
that way again,” Briana said softly, looking up at Kara and hating
how pathetic she sounded.

“
Then don’t,” Kara said
sternly. “In fact, we’ve spent enough time on the topic already.
Let’s finish cleaning this pigsty up so we can relax a bit before
work tonight.”

“
Okay.”

Once they had everything spic and span
again, they threw on their bikinis and went outside to lie out.
They didn’t have a pool or a yard, so they laid their towels out on
the driveway and made do.

Kara brought out her iPod and Briana brought
the tanning oil and the water. They relaxed, enjoying the music and
the sun, until the alarm went off, signaling it was time to go in
and get washed up for work.

They reluctantly headed into work, motivated
by the fact that it was Thursday night, so shouldn’t be too
crowded, and that they had plans to meet up with some of their
friends and go to the gravel pits after work. They brought their
bikinis in their bags and sported fresh tan skin to show off in the
moonlight.

It looked like it was going to be a pretty
good night.

Chapter Three

About two hours into her shift, Briana
realized just how wrong she had been.

She’d just finished an order and was
rounding the corner to tell Kara that the burger and fries were up,
when she caught sight of Colin’s family coming in the front
door.

Mrs. Grayson looked as sweet as ever,
holding her husband’s hand and smiling up at him as they waited for
the rest of their party to come through the door. He bent over to
say something to her, then they both looked over towards the
entrance.

Briana had been swept up watching them,
remembering a million different conversations that she’d had with
the Grayson’s, so she didn’t immediately follow their gaze. When
she did, her breath caught in her throat. She froze.

Kara came up beside her to check on the
order. She started waving her hands in front of Briana’s face when
she saw how still Briana was.

“
Hello? Earth to Bree. Is
my order up?” Kara chuckled lightly, and turned to see what had
caught her attention. “Who’s that?”

Briana squeaked, so overcome by emotion that
she couldn’t form a thought. Then Colin looked up, catching her
stare, and she was released. She took off in a flurry of movement,
anxious to get back to the safety of the kitchen.

Once behind the swinging door, she braced
herself against the stainless steel table and hung her head,
breathing in and out.

“
Was that him?” Kara asked,
scrambling in after her. “Colin?”

“
Yup,” she
managed.

“
Crap. I have to take out
this order,” Kara added a side of ketchup and mustard to the plate
before picking it up. “I’ll be back, though. Maybe I’ll tell Nicole
to seat them in my section.”

“
No,” Briana said loudly.
“Don’t make a scene, please.”

Kara tried her best to look innocent. “Who,
me?” Then she walked out with a smile on her lips and a swing to
her hips.

“
Oh, God.” Briana held her
head in her hands for a moment. “Pull it together, Bree. It’s been
a long time,” she whispered. She stepped back from the table and
shook her head, as if to shake the memories out.

She busied herself with the incoming orders,
and was just starting to breath normally again, when Kara came back
into the kitchen.

“
So, Nicole did sit him in
my section, but I swear I didn’t ask her to,” Kara said. “Holy
crap, Bree, he is freakin’ HOT.”