More than Friends

His stupid comment makes me laugh. “I don’t want to think about your dick. Stop talking like Dirty Dean. I hate when you get like this.”

“It’s not like you haven’t seen it.” He wiggles his eyebrows at me. “I can show it to you again if you need a refresher.”

I roll my eyes at him. “Keep it in your pants. We don’t’ need another incident like last night.”

He grabs me by the shoulder before we reach the kitchen and pulls me to the side. “I didn’t mean anything by that, Kat. It’s not like watching you puke was a turn on by any means. Sometimes, my dick has a mind of its own. We were in bed, you were practically naked under that shirt, and well, I’m a guy.”

“Do you ever think of me as more than a friend?” I blurt out the words before I can stop myself. Duke got into my head last night with his usual interrogation of our relationship.

“Yes. All the time.” He turns his head away from me to glance down the long hallway to our right, before looking at me again. Dean takes my face in his hands and moves his head close enough that I can feel his breath on my lips. “You mean everything to me.”

My entire body comes alive from his touch, sending chills down my spine that causes my toes curl. I shouldn’t feel these things for Dean, but the closer we get to graduation, the more I find myself clinging to him for dear life. I don’t want this to end. I don’t want to lose my best friend because life got in the way.

I shove my hand through his dark, wavy hair and hold him in place. “I can’t get

what Duke said last night out of my head.”

He strokes my jaw with his thumb, his blue eyes burning a hole through me. “If I were to kiss you right now, would you let me?”

“Do you think that’s a good idea?”

“I’m kinda drunk, Kitten. My ability to think this through is fading by the minute. What do you want?”

I want you, my heart screams, but my mind is a traitor. “I don’t know what I want anymore. I’m afraid things will be different between us after we graduate.”

“Same here.” He releases my face and takes a step back from me. “Let’s get another beer.”

“I could use a drink,” I mutter.

He slips his fingers through mine and drags me into the kitchen. We run into my brothers and their girls of the hour, who are throwing back shots of vodka. The brunette makes a quick hand gesture toward the boy behind the bar. He returns with four shots and sets them on the counter in front of them. The girls scream over the music to each other, and I watch as the twins give each other strange looks, as if they want to either ditch their dates or do one of their swaps.

“Watch this.” Dean points at the twins who are trading places without the girls knowing it.

“This always amazes me. How do girls not realize that Tucker has on a red polo shirt and Theo dark blue?”

“They don’t care,” Dean says into my ear. “Girls like that come to parties to get drunk and fuck one of my teammates. The who and where is irrelevant.”

“Because you speak from experience.” My stomach turns at the thought.

“I have higher standards than your brothers,” he counters.

We laugh as the blonde bobs her head, her hair billowing around her face, as she grinds on Theo to the beat of the song. She glances at her friend and shrugs as if she realized what the boys did and doesn’t mind.

“I’m ready for that drink now,” I tell Dean.

He raises his hand to the bartender and holds two fingers in the air. A few seconds later he slides two Solo cups down the bar in our direction.

“I’ll race ya.” Deans hands me the beer with a wink.

“If I didn’t know any better, I would think you were trying to get me drunk.”

“You could use a good buzz.” He takes a sip from his cup, leaving a layer of foam on his top lip.

My motherly instinct kicks in, and I wipe it away with my finger. Dean grabs my hand and sucks the foam from my finger with a sensual look in his eyes.

“Is this what you had in mind?”

He’s doing this on purpose, all part of his mental mind fuck to make me realize that we are good together, even though we have no future. We are better off as friends. But damn my body for responding to him this way.