"I didn't think you'd come over..." I said, opening the door for Ethan. He shrugged and walked in.

"I figured you would tell me about your date sooner or later. I'd rather hear about it sooner," he said, sitting on my couch. I stood and smiled down at him. He really was the best. I had texted him as soon as I stepped inside my apartment after my date with Austin and asked him to come over. He never replied, but came over anyway. I sat down on the couch and leaned against him. He pulled my large, warm afghan over us and then put his arms around me.

"So, how was it?" he asked me once we were comfortable. Now that I was all warm and snuggly next to Ethan, all I wanted to do was sleep.

"Amazing," I answered sleepily.

"You're going to have to give me more than that," he said.

"Well first, the restaraunt he took me to was gorgeous. The food was great and the view was spectacular," I said. And then I launched into a recap of the events of the night. I told him about our waiter, Will, and about talking about traveling in Europe and about making fun of the snobby looking people at the theatre.

"Did he kiss you?" he asked.

"Ethan!" I exclaimed, shifting so I could slap his arm.

"What?" he asked innocently. "I have to know if he tried to make the moves on you so I can beat him up if he went too far," he said. I laughed.

"He did kiss me. But that's all," I said. "I know what my limits are," I added.

"Yeah after that one time," Ethan recalled. I remembered only too well, also.

It had been in my senior year of high school, at prom. I went with a guy named Brandon Harris. He and I had been dating all year, so of course we were going to go to prom together.  Little did I know that he had plans to forcefully have sex with me on prom night. Long story short, Ethan found out and beat him up in the hotel lobby. Then, to get me out of my traumatized state, he took me to the city and had a street performer play the electric violin and let me have my one last perfect dance.

The moral of the story was that guys couldn't mess with me because Ethan would find out and he was extremely protective of me. In the end, it was never good for the guy.

"It was just a kiss, nothing else," I told Ethan, nestling back against his muscular chest. People always thought it odd how close Ethan and I were. We would link arms, snuggle together, give each other kisses on the cheek; it was no wonder why most people that saw us thought we were dating. We acted like a total couple. But we had our limits.

"When do I get to meet him?" he asked me.

"Whenever you like, home skillet," I replied, closing my eyes.

"You're not gangster," he told me.

"Are you kidding me? I am the OG," I said, opening my eyes and turning to face him. He laughed and shook his head.

"Right. You're probably the whitest girl I know," he said.

"Because you know sooo many girls," I said, leaning against him again.

"You're right; I do," he said, cockiness in his voice. I rolled my eyes.

"Speaking of girls, who did you do tonight?" I asked. Then I laughed. "Did you see what I did there?" I asked him. I felt him shake his head at my corny joke.

"Yes, I did," he said. I grinned.

"I'm such a funny person. I don't understand why people don't appreciate my humor more," I said.

"You're not funny. You just make stupid jokes," he argued.

"Which are funny. Ergo, I am funny," I said. "But back to what we were talking about, what'd you do tonight?" I asked him.

"Studied," he replied.

"I find that hard to believe," I remarked.

"Believe it. I have a physics exam on Monday," he told me.

"Why are you doing medicine if it's so hard?" I asked him.

"Because I want to be a doctor," he replied. "We've been over this a million times," he added, yawning. 

"But if you're not happy studying it--" I began.

"Who is ever happy studying? You have to be a complete social outcast for enjoying studying," he cut me off. I frowned. I didn't want to argue with him so I dropped it.

"Are you guys going to go on a second date?" he asked me after a moment of silence.

"Probably; he hinted at it," I replied.

"You should go to bed," he suggested, glancing down at me. I snuggled further against him.

"Nooo, don't leave me," I mumbled as I felt sleep fall over me.

"I'm here, Ace," he said softly, resting his chin on the top of my head.

                                                                      ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I woke up the next morning in my bed. I sat up, slightly confused. I had fallen asleep on the couch. How did I end up on my bed? I glanced down at my bed and saw a folded piece of paper. I picked it up and squinted at the note.

                                         "Ace,

                                             You were asleep and I didn't want to wake you.

                                              I moved you to your bed. I'll call you tomorrow.

                                                                                                                  -Toto"

I smiled at his note and read it over again. He really was the sweetest. I jumped out of bed and went to take a shower and change. When I stepped out of the bathroom, I saw that I had a text message.

"breakfast?" it read. It was from Austin. I smiled.

"sure." I texted back.

"great. come outside. i'm here." he replied. I looked at the message and then looked outside my window. Sure enough, I saw Austin standing next to his parked car in the sunlight. He glanced up and waved. I opened my window.

"How'd you know I'd say yes?" I asked. I saw him shrug.

"I didn't. I just hoped you would," he replied. I could tell he was smiling.

"I'll be right down!" I called.

"Wait, wait! I want to try something first!" he said. He came closer to the side of the building and went down on his knee. What the hell was he doing?

"But soft! What light through younder window breaks? It is the East! And Avery is the sun!" he recited. I laughed at his corny recitation of the words we heard at the play last night.

"I'm coming down, Romeo," I called, closing my window and grabbing my bag. I walked outside to him and kissed his cheek.

"Good morning," he said cheerily.

"Morning," I replied.  "Just couldn't stay away, could you?" I joked as we got in his car.

"To be honest, I just really wanted to try out that corny line," he said, smirking at me. I laughed. "Dunkin' Donuts?" he asked. I nodded. Austin drove the short distance and we stepped out. I felt my phone buzz, but resolved to check it when he wasn't around. He asked me what I wanted and I told him to get me a coffee and a chocolate glazed doughnut. When he walked away, I checked my phone. I got a text from Ethan.

"Where are you?" it said. I felt guilty immediately. I had completely forgotten, but every Saturday, we would go to IHOP and eat breakfast together. I glanced up at Austin who was standing in line. He sent a smile at me and I returned it quickly.

"I'm at DD with Austin" I texted back. After a few moments, he replied.

"Oh." was all it read. I felt another pang of guilt. How could I have forgotten? I wanted to slap myself for being so careless. Austin came back with our food.

"Is everything all right?" he asked, seeing my preoccupied face.

"What? Oh. Yeah. Everything's fine," I said.

"You sure?" he asked, not looking convinced. I took the coffee from him.

"Yeah, it was just..." I paused, not knowing whether to tell him or not. I decided to. "Every Saturday morning during the school year, Ethan and I go to IHOP and get breakfast," I explained. "He's there now," I said. Austin stood.

"Let's go then," he said. I blinked.

"What?" I asked.

"Well you said he's your best friend, right? I don't want to come in between your guys' friendship. I'll take you there," he said.

"But we just got food from here-" I began. He shook his head.

"You can save it for later. That doughnut will taste just fine later on tonight, too," he said. I stood up, too and kissed his lips lightly.

"Thanks," I said softly. He smiled at me.

"No biggie. Now I have an excuse to meet him," he said as we walked out.

                                                                         ~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Ethan! This is Austin, my...boyfriend..." I introduced a little weakly. I could tell from his expression that this wasn't how Ethan planned on meeting Austin.  Austin held his hand out to Ethan, who hesitated at first and then grasped it.

"Errr, hi..." Ethan said, shooting a glare my way. We sat down at the table Ethan was at.

"Well, I guess we were bound to meet sooner or later," Austin said. "You somehow always came up in our conversations," he told Ethan.

"Did I?" Ethan asked, looking at me. I looked at the ground. This was really awkward and uncomfortable.

"So you two have been friends for a while now?" Austin asked, trying to make conversation.

"Yeah. We met in kindergarten," Ethan answered slowly.

"Where do you go to school?" Austin questioned.

"I'm at Richmond," Ethan answered. Austin nodded. "I'm studying medicine," he continued, answering Austin's question before he could ask it.

"You play soccer?" Austin asked, nodding at Ethan's blue track jacket.

"Yeah, for the University," Ethan answered.

"Nice, I used to play up until high school. Then I stopped," Austin said. Ethan's face brightened a little at this. Finally, they had found something in common.

"Why'd you stop?" Ethan asked. Austin shrugged.

"I was on varsity, but I didn't think I was good enough to play for the college team. So I stopped," Austin replied. Ethan nodded.

"I didn't think I was good enough, either. But they asked me to play and offered me scholarship. I thought, why not? I'm going to be in debt after medical school anyway. This way it'll be a little less," Ethan said.

"That's smart, I guess. But they would have never offered me scholarship," Austin said. And then they went on to have a long conversation about different soccer leagues and who their favorite team was and what the statistics were. I zoned out and played games on my iPhone.

"Well, I actually have to get going," I heard Austin say. He looked down at his phone and then up at us. "But we should definitely get together and play soccer some time," he told Ethan.

"For sure," Ethan replied. They shook hands and Austin kissed my forehead. I saw Ethan glance down at his lap.

"I'll call you later tonight, Avery," he told me softly in my ear. I smiled at him and he walked out. I turned to Ethan and glared at him.

"What?!" Ethan asked.

"Stop stealing my boyfriend!" I cried.

"I am not!" he exclaimed.

"Are too! He didn't say anything to me the whole time!" I said.

"That's not my fault! You wanted me to be friends with him and now I am," Ethan said. I pouted. "Stop being so dramatic. You like it that I don't hate your boyfriend," he said, poking my arm.

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever," I said. "What are you doing the rest of the day?" I asked.

"Studying. I told you, I have a physics exam on Monday," he answered.

"But what am I supposed to do?" I asked. He shrugged.

"Beats me," he said, standing up.

"Can I watch you study?" I asked him.

"I won't get anything done, then," he said. I blinked. He sighed. "Fine. Come on," he said. I grinned and followed him out to his car. I loved winning.

______________________________________________________________________________

A/N: Vote for the cute Ethan/Avery scene in the beginning?

=)

XOXO