This is radiobuzz's selection for her one shot contest prize.

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Eli was halfway through his reading for his Urban Studies class (reading that didn't have to be done until next week, just so you know) when there was a knock on the door. His mind was still so deep in population statistics so it took him a while to realize exactly who was standing on the other side. It had been a while since he had seen her (not that he was going to mention that) and, as a result, he didn't really have anything to say. So he settled for pretending she was someone, anyone, else. Someone he could look at without getting tongue-tied.

"Hey Julie, what's up?" he asked.

"Mateo and I broke up," she said, almost like he had never spoken, and pushed past him into the room. He stood there holding the door open like an idiot.

"Oh. You should come on in then," he said stupidly.

"I meant to come right over here," she said. "I wanted to talk to someone you knew both of us and didn't want to talk on my phone thingy," she waved her phone around for emphasis, "but then I walked by this party and I had a few beers and I feel way better."

He shut the door. "Are you okay? Are you drunk?"

Julie laughed. "No! You know me, I'm not good at being drunk. But I do have this warm feeling in my chest and I kind of like it."

"Come and sit down," he said, grabbing her by the shoulders and guiding her to sit on his bed. He decided to perch on the edge of his desk, not wanting to get too close. "Are you okay?"

"I'm good. Great, actually. I mean, I was upset at first but then I had an epiphany."

"And what was that?" Her eyes narrowed; she knew he wasn't taking her seriously.

"I remembered what you said to me, when you first heard that Teo and I were going out, about how I knew if he was worth waiting for. Like the sex thing."

"That if you were going to wait on something that big for so long the guy had to be worth it in the other areas too?"

She nodded. "Exactly. And I realized that he wasn't."

"He wasn't?"

For all his teasing he had always thought that Mateo was a good match for Julie. If he had actually thought that the guy wasn't worth it he wouldn't have said anything. If anything, Julie should have taken his comments as encouragement.

"No," she said with a sigh. "I cared about Mateo and he and I had a good thing going for a while but I never believed in the no sex thing like he did. I know it's probably not the best thing to say but I always felt like I was sort of missing out on something. Something I was ready for."

"I'm not sure if I understand."

"I realized that I can never truly know if a guy is worth waiting that long but I can know if I love someone and if the whole, you know, sex thing, happens with someone I love then that's all I can ask for."

"So that means you're going to do what."

"I'm going to have sex with someone I love."

"That's good. Any idea who?" he asked casually, even though he felt anything but. His heart was starting to beat faster and faster, his pulse echoing in his ears as he started putting this all together.

"You," she said, confirming both his greatest fear and fulfilling his wildest dream.

"What the-"

"I'm not saying that I'm in love with you. I think on some days it's a stretch to say that I even just love you. Actually, sometimes it's hard to even say I like you or approve of anything you do," she let out a choked laugh and pressed her shaking hands into her legs. "But I care about you and you care about me and I want to do this."

"This is so fucking weird," he said from the desk where he was cradling his head in his hands and rubbing his temples.

"What? That I want to have sex for the first time with someone I care about?"

Was he for real? he thought. Does she seriously not get why I find this weird?

"That you came here, right after you and Teo broke up, and ask me to have sex with you," he explained.

"What's so bad about this idea?"

I can come back tomorrow if that will make you feel better, she thought.

"Well, for one, when someone just decides to 'have sex so they can just get rid of their virginity,' that never ends well. For another thing, what about my feelings? It isn't like you to assume that everyone in the world is attracted to you."

"I'm not assuming that. That's why I had to have those drinks before I came here. I'm asking you to do this as a favor," she said.

"You want me to have sex with you as a favor?" For the first time in his life Eli wished he could be left alone with his homework.

"Sort of, yeah."

"This just keeps just getting more and more fucked up." He got up and started pacing around the room. He'd be bald soon enough if he kept pulling on his hair like he was right now but he had more pressing matters to deal with.

"And as for my assuming things, I wasn't just not assuming that you're attracted to me because I'm asking you as a favor."

"Oh really."

"I don't have to assume. I happened to hear from a little bird that you used to have some kind of crush on me?"

Fuck Casey and his blabbermouth. If I had been smart I wouldn't have told anyone, he thought.

"Ugh I can't believe you know about that."

That's it, he thought. I'm going to drop out of school and move to Canada. Or Russia. Anywhere Julie would never go.

"I do indeed." Part of him wanted to smack her for looking so smug and another part of him wanted to run and hide somewhere and another unidentifiable part part of him wanted to say "screw it" and do what she was suggesting. He had a sneaking suspicion that that part of him was untrustworthy and not worth listening to. But if Eli didn't do stuff just because he had a bad feeling he wouldn't be himself.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" he asked, giving into that part of him and going to stand in front of her. He could deal with the fallout tomorrow, tonight he was going to be stupid.

"As sure as I can be."

"That's not really what I was hoping to hear."

"Yes, I'm sure," she said.

And before he could even fully digest that response she reached up and pulled his mouth to hers.