A/N: Okay, so I was really depressed tonight and writing this helped me feel better. Comment and vote :3

“I don’t know why you’re so against this,” he whispered and grabbed a hold of my waist; he was a gentleman to his dates. Even if they were fake.

I didn’t respond. He had cut me off by leaning down next to my ear and spoke low, “There he is.”

The man stood with his back turned to us in the parking lot that was mostly empty. He appeared to be searching for something. He was in a casual suit, so was John- I hadn’t noticed that until now. From just his back I could tell he was toned and in shape, tall too. His hair was dark brown with highlights and messy in the back, but the front seemed to be straight. It was similar to John’s.  From the little skin I saw on his hands and neck he was fair skinned.

“Hey,” John called.

“Finally, where were you? Who’s this girlfriend?” the man spun around.

I knew that voice, I thought. We came to a dead halt in front of him and I finally looked away from the black pavement. He’d changed his hair and had grown a tad taller. He’s eyes were still the same chocolate brown I’d fallen in love with however.

I felt my jaw drop a little. My first instinct was not to touch him, or kiss him, or hit him. Those were privileges that had been taken away. So my first instinct was to mumble into my hair, "Of course John would know him."

“What?” Noah asked.

“Noah, this is Lexi. Lexi-,” John begun, but was cut off when Noah growled, “I know who she is.”

I was taken aback. Did he really hate me that much? He didn’t even want to see me? I hadn’t done anything to him. He was the one who broke my heart and he was the one who left me one year ago. I wasn’t normally an angry person, but that was too much. I hadn’t done anything wrong. Not now and not then. Noah had no right to be the angry one.

“You know her,” he blinked. I gasped a little at the way he lied. John lied. He knew Noah and I knew each other and how we knew each other.

I got calm all of a sudden. I got numb. There was no way in hell I was going to enjoy sitting through a dinner with those two.

“Yes, I know her,” he repeated his furious tone.

“How?” John pressed with a wicked grin.

“It doesn’t matter how,” I suddenly jumped in and tugged on John’s hand, “Let’s eat.”

“Come on, Noah,” he said a little baffled at my lack of reaction shown.

We walked to our table in utter silence. The first words spoken since the parking lot were our orders.

“How did you two meet?” Noah asked confused and angry.

“She works for my dad,” John snickered when he realized what that implied.

Noah’s eyes widened and he stuttered, “You’re a str-stripper?”

“No,” I snapped, “I’m Sam’s secretary.”

“Why does a strip club owner need a secretary?” he accused in disbelief.

“Complaints mostly,” I sighed. That was not the conversation I imagined having with Noah if we ever met again.

“But Sam’s secretary was supposed to be old,” he gawked.

“I’m younger than you,” I reminded him.

The waiter stopped to give us our drinks then quickly went way. Maybe he noticed the palpable tension. Noah had a coke sitting in front of he, he refused to touch it. John had a sprite; he was drinking it like he’d never have liquids again. With the way this group was headed he well very may have not.

“We not dating,” John stated out of the blue.

“I thought you said-,”

“I said she was a very special girl,” he flashed me a smile, “And that I really cared about her. Not that I was dating her.”

“John, I turned to face him, “Were you pranking me?”

“I guessed I was,” he mused, “Sorry.”

“How was this even a prank?” I asked confused.

“More like a way to get you to come?”

“Wait,” Noah barged in, “You knew Lexi and I knew each other?”

“Well, yeah,” he shrugged.

“And instead of just telling us that you did this?”

He nodded and Noah exploded, “Why?”

“Hey, don’t yell at him. Especially in here. We should probably skip dinner and just take this outside,” I suggested with a hope that this night would end soon.

“Fine,” Noah snarled and threw a twenty on the table, “Let’s go.”

The three of us made our way to the parking lot and stood at least a foot away from the other two in a circle.  We stared at each other for a moment and then spoke.

“Why did you bring us here?” Noah demanded.

“It seemed like a good idea at the time,” John said.

“It’s a horrible idea,” he snapped.

“It was nice of you to try John, but Noah and I weren’t friends. We weren’t anything,” I said bitterly.

Noah groaned, “You’re kidding right?”

The two of us ignored him and John beamed down at me, “You’re on my side.”

“I don’t take sides,” I proclaimed.

“Well, isn’t that very diplomatic of you?” Noah rolled his eyes.

“Lexi,” I heard someone called and the three of us craned our necks to see who it was.

“Gabe?” I asked surprised and turned my entire body to face the upcoming figure.

“What are you doing here?” he asked excited.

“I told you, I had plans with John,” I nodded my head toward John.

“Hey,” Gabe slapped him on the shoulder, “Your dad’s coming. The guys are getting food, you should join us.”

John shot Noah and me a look and quickly decided Gabe was the safer choice, “Yeah, alright. Noah you can give Lexi a ride, right?” He sighed and gave a reluctant nod.

I considered how this night was going and was surprise he didn’t leave me to walk. He hated me so much; wouldn’t an hour long walk home make his night?

“Bye, John,” I said sadly.

“Bye, Lexi,” he smiled apologetically at me.

Noah gestured with his shoulder to his car, “Come on.”

“See you Monday,” Gabe winked at me.

“We still have to set a time,” I reminded him.

“I’ll call you,” he flashed me a smile.

“No personal business during work hours,” I warned.

“Never!” he exclaimed.

As I was about to turn and leave Sam and some of the club’s associates called from behind Gabe, “There you are. How did you beat us so fast?”

“I took the parkway,” he grinned.

“Noah!” Sam boomed, “I haven’t seen you in a while.”

“Hey, Sam,” Noah tried his best to sound glad to see him.

“Lexi?” he gawked.

“Sorry, I didn’t come in early today,” I blushed.

He pulled me into a bear hug and kiss the top of my head, “I was worried about you. Call next time you decide to skip work.”

When he released me I took a step back and smiled wearily at him, “Over slept. Otherwise I would’ve called.”

“Okay, see you tomorrow.” He eyed Noah and then flashed back to me, “You going to be okay? Chelsea went home with Kerry today. She said something about a fight between the two of you.”

“I’m fine. Bye.”

“See you later, John,” Noah said as politely as possible.

I followed Noah to his car. It was nice and made me wonder how he could possibly afford this when he was still in college. The car itself was sliver with amazing body work and black details. The inside was even better. The leather seats were black and the stereo lite up in the night. It was cold, but Noah had the heater started. I shivered a little, but he caught on.

“Are you cold?” he asked shocked. I couldn’t understand what about that shocked him.

“I’ll be fine,” I shut my chattering teeth.

He sighed at my stubbornness and removed his suit’s coat to hand to me, “Here.”

“I’m fine,” I snapped.

“Lexi, just take the damn jacket!” he yelled.

I snatched it from his hand and pulled it onto my body angrily. Once he was sure I had it on he backed out of the parking lot. We were in the car for a good ten minutes before either of us dared to say anything.

“So you work for Sam?” he asked angrily, to my surprise.

“Yeah…” I trailed off.

“How’d that happen?”

“I don’t think you want to hear that story,” I sunk into my seat.

“Why not?” he gritted his teeth.

“Noah,” I said sternly, “I don’t want to tell you about that night.”

He rolled his eyes, “You’re so stubborn.”

“At least I wasn’t screaming at John,” I scoffed, “He was just trying to be nice.”

“He was not. You’re so naïve. He was probably trying to get in your pants,” he took a sharp turn right and I almost slammed my head into his window.

“My relationship with John isn’t like that. And it’s none of your concern who’s trying to get in my pants,” I reminded him and had to resist the urge to stick my tongue out like a child.

He mused for a minute, “You’re right.”

“I know I’m right,” I sighed then realized he didn’t know where I lived. “Where are you going?”

“To my house, why?” he asked oblivious.

“You have to take me home first.”

“I don’t want to know where you live,” he stated bitterly.

“It doesn’t matter. Take me home,” I growled.

“Clam down,” he order, “I don’t want to see you any more than you want to see me.” That broke my heart. He really didn’t want to see me. I didn’t care how furious I was with him; I wanted to see him. It felt good to see him.

“So then why would you take me back to your house?”

“Because I don’t want to see the rest of your life any more than I want to see you. But I already saw you so there’s not much I can do about that now.”

“Fine, when John gets out he can take me home,” I said teary.

“Oh God, are you crying?” he asked with a strange mix of sympathy and exasperation.

“I am not crying!” I exclaimed.

“Did I make you cry?” he asked humorously.

“You’re a jerk.”

“I’m a jerk,” he stated like it was a question and added a ‘psh’ at the end.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked outraged at that point.

“No personal business during work, Never!” he imitated Gabe, “And what was with that wink?”

“Go to hell, Noah. Gabe is a nice guy,” I spat.

“Really?” he laughed, “It’s a wonder you’re not pregnant, yet.”

I sucked in air. Did he really just say that? I was not a whore. For a year did he have an imagine of me as a hooker? I pictured him as the perfect man still. I couldn’t believe I’d wasted a year pinning over that guy. He wasted a year of my life.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Exactly how it sounds,” he parked in the street.

“I’m not a whore. And I’m willing to bet you’re not a virgin,” I swung open the door and slammed it shut as hard as I could.

“I’m not,” he admitted and followed me out of the car, “But I don’t believe you’re one”

“And why not?” I stopped walking toward the house and place my hands on my hips.

“Look at how you’re dressed,” he scanned me over twice with his eyes.

“I couldn’t agree more.”

“What?” I could tell I’d totally thrown him off.

“I hate wearing this,” I spat, “But John and Chelsea had a field day fixing me up like this. The only good thing about stiletto heels is that I could stab you with them.”

“Violence never solved anything.”

“Whatever, Noah,” I turned to walk toward the house again, but paused when I saw the actual house. “You live with John?”

“Yeah,” he said plainly and continued to walk.

I shrugged it off and followed him to the door. He flew the door open and took a step in. I followed he’s lead. The house was nice on the inside too. There was a large flat screen against one of the walls and a couple of couches. It was colorful, unlike mine and Chelsea’s house. Behind the living room appeared to be a kitchen, but I couldn’t be sure because there was a wall that covered most of it. I refused to look at the rest of his home.

“Where’s John’s room?” I inquired.

“Why?” he asked suspiciously.

“I’m going to stay there until he comes to get me. That way you don’t have to see me anymore than you already have,” I said resentfully.

“Lexi, I didn’t mean it like that,” his eyes looked remorseful for a second, but quickly became hard again.

“I didn’t care. It really doesn’t matter to me what you think about seeing me,” I lied, “Where’s John’s room?”

“Upstairs, on the right,” he pointed to the ceiling.