“Who’s The Boss, Alyssa Milano?”

“Yeah.” Kerri said, dipping her spoon into the carton of Cookies and Cream ice cream. "I can't compete with that."

But was she supposed to be competing with anyone at all? Kerri and Justin were only friends. What was there to compete over? Things were becoming complicated and the line between their friendship and everything else was becoming blurred.

"I hate to point out the obvious, but you're out of your league, Ker." Serena stated, grabbing the carton from her friend to dip in her spoon. "Most of those famous people stick together. They may slum it for a while to get a different taste in their mouth but in the end they stay with their own kind. People like her have personal trainers, plastic surgeons on speed dial, and a crew of people to wipe her ass just so she won't have to do it herself…All of which you don't have and probably never will."

"Oh, thanks Serena." Kerri snatched the carton from her friend’s grip and got up to put the ice cream back in the freezer. "I mean it doesn't matter anyway."

"This is me you're talking to. It does matter. You're falling for him."

"Would you stop? I am not." Kerri responded defensively, slamming the freezer door shut.

Serena's head fell back against the couch as she laughed, "Oh puuullllease! You two steps away from tattooing his name on your ass!"

Serena could see that Kerri had grown rather attached to Justin. She was terrified that Kerri was getting in over her head. You just can't mix friendship with sex. It's like trying to mix oil with water. It rarely works out and friendships are torn apart because of it. "...All I'm saying is that when you start spending so much time with one person, you tend to wonder what it would be like if you were to kiss. And then you wonder how they are in bed, and it leads to exactly where you are now. You guys need time apart. And now that he is about to ask that Milano broad out on a date, you definitely need someone else to occupy your time, Ker."

Kerri tossed and turned all night thinking about what Serena had said. She hated admitting when her friend was right. Maybe the only reason they slept together was because of the fact that they were around each other so much. They were both lonely. Maybe it was only a matter of convenience. She couldn’t be falling for him. They hardly knew each other. She needed to clear her head and focus her attention onto something else besides Justin…Something...Anything other than sitting in the house and wondering what he was doing.

The following weekend, she found herself volunteering alongside Serena and a slew of her co-workers at a charity event to raise funds for underprivileged children. Most of the radio stations and various other organizations had set-up booths for various activities for the kids.

"Okay, sweetie. One more dabble of blue here..." Kerri lightly dipped her brush into the paint and brought it up to the little girl’s cheek. "Tada!  Blue's Clues, Blue’s Clues!" She sang, admiring her work.

She took the small mirror brought it up to the tiny girl's face. "Oh wow!" the bright-eyed child exclaimed as she looked at her cheek. Her mother leaned down and thanked Kerri once more before taking her daughter's hand and leading her away.

Kerri cleaned off her brushes and started to setup for the next child who would come along. As she was leaning over to the side wiping the brushes clean, she heard someone sit down in the chair. "And what would you like painted on your face today?" she asked.

"Hmmm…I don't know. What do you suggest?" the voice was rather deep for it to be that of a child.

Kerri looked over and noticed that it was David. It’s like when one person walks out, another slips right in the open door as its shutting. She looked down and wiped her brush again and said, "Hey."

"How you been?" he asked looking out at the droves of kids running towards the other side of the field to participate in the water games.

"I've been good!  Yourself?" she asked looking in the opposite direction for some sign of Serena.

"Seen better days..."

Kerri secretly reveled in the fact that things weren't going well for David. As far as she was concerned, he deserved every bit of bad luck that came his way. "Sorry to hear that. Hopefully things turn around for you soon." She said half-heartedly.

"They already have...I bumped into you." He smiled.

Kerri rolled her eyes as she replaced the murky paint filled water with a fresh cup. "I didn't get a chance to thank you for the gift. It was very nice."

"I'm glad you liked it. I stood in line for about 2 hours waiting to have it personally autographed by him."

David had gotten Brad Pitt to autograph a copy of "The Fight Club" for Kerri, when he was in town doing an interview at the station. Kerri felt uncomfortable being alone with David again. She kept looking around trying to figure out where the heck Serena had disappeared to.

They continued to talk for a few more minutes until a young boy and his dad walked over wanting his face painted like Spiderman.

"I'll bump into you later." David smiled before getting up and walking away.

Kerri took a deep breath before focusing her attention back to the little boy. "Okay let's see...Spiderman is green right?"

The little boy laughed. "No! That’s the hulk, silly."

"Ah, that's right." She smiled dipping her brush into the red paint.

She and David bumped into each other another five times that day. The more they talked, the easier it became for her to breath around him. It was still hard to look him in the eyes. She did her best to look down or look away. Anytime her eyes met his, visions from the past raced through her mind. Even after all this time, she still wasn’t quite over it. Why did it hurt so bad? She couldn't still have feelings for him...Or could she?

Justin was busy off wining and dining Alyssa. They'd been seeing each other on and off for about a month and things seemed to be going well. He'd barely talked to Kerri during that time. Their schedules seemed to clash. Anytime he would call, her voicemail would kick in or Serena would be on the other end of the line telling him she wasn't home. He was rather curious as to what was keeping his buddy so busy.

Early Sunday morning, after he had said goodbye to Alyssa and left her house to head home, he called Kerri. A tiny voice whispered, "Hello?"

"It's about damn time you answered your phone! Why haven't you returned any of my messages, mofo?"

"Hey. I’m sorry. I've been really busy."

Justin thought it was a dig to pay him back for the month before. "Uh huh…I got you. So what's up?"

The two of them talked briefly about work. Kerri asked about Alyssa and Justin went on to tell her about things that had happened over the past three weeks between the two of them. "…We ended up going back to her place for a drink and-"

"Okay...I don't need to know every single detail, J."

"Sorry." He smiled.

It was hard for Kerri to hear about the wonderful time he was having with Alyssa. She was jealous and hated it. Kerri was supposed to be the one he called to tell about his day, not this new chick. She was the one he was supposed to call when he needed advice. Kerri didn’t really even care about all the other stuff…That’s at least what she kept telling herself. But she had to pull the phone away from her ear when he started talking about kissing Alyssa.

Even though the two of them hadn't talked in almost a month, it didn't mean that they weren't on each other's minds. Justin was working up the courage to tell her when he noticed that Kerri was whispering a lot. He was just about to ask when he heard a deep voice mumble something in the background. "Who's that?" He asked, curiously pressing his finger to his other ear so that he could hear more clearly.

"Don't worry about it." She smiled.

Justin sat there trying to figure out who the hell was sitting in her apartment. Why hadn’t she said anything earlier about this guy. He tried his best play it cool. "Uh uh...How you gonna sit there all quietly listening to me go on and on about my dates and not tell me about your friend over there?"

"Cause it ain't none of your business. It's not my fault that you like to over share with me!"

"That's what friends do...They share things with each other." He coaxed.

"Well I think I've shared enough with you lately. Don't you think?” she laughed.

"That's fucked up." He complained.

There was more mumbling and he faintly heard Kerri begging the person to stop. Justin tried not to imagine what they could possibly be doing over there. But his mind was racing a mile a minute thinking about her lying naked under the sheets with this guy in bed behind her, kissing her, and caressing her like Justin had so many nights before. And probably on those brand new Egyptian sheets he had bought her. He was pulled away from his thoughts when Kerri uncovered her hand from the phone and told him that she had to go before she was late.

"Where are you going? We aren't through with this discussion, Ker."

"Bye, friend!" She chuckled shaking her head as she hit end on the call.

"Kerri? Hello!?"

Over the next several days, Justin was texting Kerri non-stop.  He needed to find out more about this guy. But Kerri was always vague in her responses. He stopped by her apartment a couple times to see her, but she was never home and Serena wouldn’t even give him any information. He’d invite her out with him, Alyssa and his gang of “friends” but she'd always politely decline, stating that she'd made other plans. Since when did she make other plans that didn’t include him? Since when was she the one who was too busy to talk or hang out? He didn’t like the distance growing between them.

"...I mean that's up to you, Justin. If you enjoy being with her then talk to her about it."

Kerri could hear him sighing on the other end. "I just don't see where talking about it would do anything. We have fun together, but we just aren't clicking on many other levels. I can’t really have a conversation with her.  We just don't get that deep."

Kerri propped the phone up on her shoulder as she laced up her sneakers, "Well you said you were only looking to have fun right now? What more did you want?"

"I don't know. I just...I want to be able to talk about more than just what my favorite position is or who did what on The Real World last night. We've basically run out of things to talk about."

Justin missed being able to sit there for hours and actually talk to someone. Someone who would actually listen to what he had to say and would honestly respond with something other than, “That’s nice" or "Good for you.” He missed his friend.

On his way home from a meeting the next afternoon, he decided to stop by and try to surprise Kerri. Only it was him who ended up being surprised when David opened the door to greet him.

"Kerri ran out to pick up Serena from the auto shop. They should be back soon." David said as he walked into the living room and sat back down on the recliner to watch basketball.

Justin watched him for a moment, seething at the fact that this guy was sitting in his favorite chair and watching basketball like he belonged there. He slowly inched his way over and found a seat on the couch to the left of David and tried to spark up a conversation by asking who was playing.

He hadn't realized that the guy Kerri had been seeing was her ex-boyfriend. She'd never told Justin who the guy was and he now realized why. The more he thought about it the angrier he became. She had eventually opened up and told him about her past relationship with David, but he thought Kerri would die first before she'd ever give him a second chance. "So you and Kerri are back together?" Justin asked.

"I'm working on it." David answered turning up the volume a little so he could hear.

The two men sat and watched the game until the commercials started to run. Justin couldn't hold his tongue any longer and looked across at David and said, "You really broke her heart, man. I hope you don't plan on doing it all over again."

David shot him a glare. "What business is it of yours?"

"She's my friend. I'm only trying to look out for her."

"You don't even know her.” David rolled his eyes. ‘You think you can just walk in here and talk to me like you're Mr. Know It All? Do you know anything about her past? Where she grew up? Who her parents were? Why she's so uptight and wary of everyone she meets?"

Justin merely nodded his head, not knowing what to say. It was true. Kerri hadn't talked about her childhood, or her parents.

"Yeah, I didn't think so. You don't know shit about her or me, so don't act like you do.”

Justin was furious. Mostly pissed off by the fact that this guy was right, than anything else. “Well, David, I do know that part of the reason she doesn’t trust people definitely has something to do with you” he spat.

With his voice raised, he said, “No matter what she may tell you, she still loves me. And I will get her back."

“The fuck you will! That'll never happen!” Justin yelled.

"What the hell’s going on?" Kerri called out from the hallway, placing her keys and bag down on the table by the closet.