Rylee jumped up on the counter in the studio and Justin experienced a moment of déjà vu.  He stepped between her knees and placed his hands on either side of her hips.

“This position brings back memories.”  He grinned into her mouth as he caught her in a kiss.  Rylee pulled back after a moment and pushed his chest a little so there was some space between them.

“Christina thinks you’re going to propose to her.”  Any moment that might have occurred between them vanished and was replaced by a thick and uncomfortable tension.

“What?”  Justin stiffened and took a step back.

“She called me and she said that she left because she thought you were going to propose to her and she needed to get away for a while.”

“Where the hell did she get an idea like that?”  He started to pace, his hands going to the back of his head and he rubbed his neck to try and rid it of the tightness that was creeping into his muscles.

“She thought you were getting clingy, and after you asked her to move in with you, you kept calling.  She figured you’d fallen in love with her and that you wanted to propose.”

Justin stopped and sent in incredulous stare in Rylee’s direction.

“We’ve only been together for two months!”

“That’s what I told her.”  She started to pick at her nails, a nervous habit that had followed her out of childhood.  “She’s coming home at the end of the week.”

The pacing started up again and that sea-sick feeling was coming back to Rylee’s stomach.  Justin didn’t say anything as he moved back and fourth, clenching and unclenching his fists.

“Can you stop moving and talk to me, please?”  It was less of a demand and more of a plea.  Rylee’s exasperated tone put an end to the mindless wandering of Justin and he came to sit in the chair in front of her.

“What do you want to do about this?”  He placed his hands on her knees, rubbing circles over her jeans.

Her eyes lifted to meet his before she dropped them back to her hands.  “I want to run away and hope that it all takes care of itself.”  She gave him an unconvincing smile and let out a horribly derisive laugh.

“Ry…”  His voice was soft, begging almost.  He looked torn and uncertain of what to say to make the situation better.

“Justin…” Her tone bit at him. She was mocking him as a defense mechanism and he knew it too. 

“Did she say when her flight was getting in?”  Rylee responded with a shake of the head.

“She’s going to call me with flight details later on.”  There was such desperation on her face that Justin couldn’t help but stand and bring her into his arms.

“Let me know when she does call.  I’ll pick her up from the airport and tell her then.”

Fear and guilt shivered their way down Rylee’s spine and she suddenly felt very cold.  She had been dreading this moment for a while now, but she had been waiting for it too.  Life seemed to be in this stand-still and she knew that telling Christina the truth would start things moving again.  She just wasn’t sure of the direction they were going to head in, although, she could take a very good guess.

“Do you think we should tell her together?”  Rylee questioned.  She really wasn’t sure about the protocol when it came to telling people that you’d had an affair with their boyfriend.  She was new to this game, and she was starting to regret that she’d ever allowed herself to play without first thinking of the rules and consequences that came with such a foul.

“No.  I should tell her, I think she’ll feel attacked if we’re they’re together, and I’d hate to see what she does if she feels cornered.”

“She’s never going to speak to me again.”  The burn in the back of her throat indicated the tears that were about to start.  She swallowed thickly against them and closed her eyes tightly.

Justin didn’t know what to say, probably because he felt that Rylee was right.  Christina was going to blow up at the both of them about this, and he wished that things had happened differently.  He certainly didn’t regret allowing himself to feel something for Rylee and to recognize that Christina wasn’t the girl he wanted…he just didn’t think he’d gone about it the right way.

“We’ll figure it out, Rylee, and we’ll make it through this eventually.”

She wiped her eyes and nodded solemnly, the moment seemingly over as she jumped off the counter and started to mess with the mixing board.

“Let’s at least get some work done.”  She glanced at him quickly but her eyes had turned stony and he could read nothing in them.

“Sure.”

~*~

At first listen, it would’ve seemed that the room was silent.  Rylee was sitting on the couch, her hands clasped together making her knuckles turn white.

She could hear the ticking of the clock, loudly reminding her that time was passing and she was going to have to face her actions soon.  Rain spattered on the window and an occasional car could be heard passing by, splashing through puddles.

Justin had called her about a half hour ago, saying that Christina’s plane had landed and he was getting ready to bring her home.  That also meant that he was getting ready to break the news, and soon things were going to spiral out of control.  She wasn’t ready for it.

The rattling of the door sounded like a shot gun in the silence of the apartment.  Rylee’s eyes watched as the door handle turned slowly and the door started to move.

It was like watching in slow motion as Christina materialized in the living room and the two girls were face to face for the first time.

“Hey.”  Her voice was unrevealing and Rylee couldn’t read her mood.  She was starting to panic and was trying very hard to keep her cool.

“How was the flight?”

“Oh…it was OK.  I slept through most of it.  The ride home, on the other hand…”  Rylee’s insides started to twist and knot and she felt like she was going to throw up.

“Tina…”

“I broke up with Justin.”  That wasn’t what Rylee was expecting to hear, but if she could avoid the inevitable for a little while, she’d take it.

“You did?”

“Yeah, bastard told me he’d slept with someone else.”  It was so neutral and delivered in such a flat manner that Rylee really couldn’t tell if Christina was upset or not.  “I think you knew her.”

Oh shit, here it comes.

“Listen, I wanted to tell you…”

“Oh, it doesn’t matter.  I guess she’s just some slutty intern anyway, he didn’t even tell me her name.  Anyway, it gave me the perfect opportunity to act wounded and break up with him.”

“Wh-what?”  Now she was really confused.

“Yeah, he said she’d just started working at the studio and he’d slept with her before I left for home.  I guess you were right, he didn’t want to propose!”  She seemed tickled by the situation and Rylee’s stomach was lodged somewhere up in her throat.

“Christina…”

“Just a sec, I need to pee.”

Rylee watched the retreating form of her friend and she could feel her heart thumping against her chest at a rapid pace.

He didn’t tell her.

He left out a really important piece of this equation and now Rylee was going to have to break the news to her best friend that the “slutty intern” was really Rylee.  What was he thinking, anyway?  Did he really expect things to just blow over and go away if he only told a half-truth?  That was the only reason she could think of for why she was now in this situation.

“So, what’s up?”

Rylee ran her hands down her pant legs and took a deep breath.  She would have to say something eventually, she was just hoping for a divine intervention before hand.

“I know the intern.”  Maybe she could start off simple and build up to it.  Maybe courage would miraculously infuse itself into her system and she’d be able to get through this without choking on her words or completely breaking down.

“I’ll be she’s just some dumb blond.”  At any other time, Rylee would act offended at the blond comment, and it was intended to be a joke.  But this wasn’t any other time, this was now.

“No, she just made a really stupid mistake.”  Her tongue darted out to wet her lips and she took another deep breath.  “Christina…it was me.”

There was a stretch of silence before a loud guffaw came from the girl across the room.

“Good one, Ry.  Sure…like you would ever do something like that.”

Rylee closed her eyes and tried to stop the tears that were forcing themselves against her eyelids.  She wasn’t sure how she had expected this moment to go, but this wasn’t it.

“No, Christina, it was me.  I slept with Justin, I’ve fallen for Justin…I caused him to cheat on you.”  Her voice cracked on her last words and there was very little energy in her speech.

“Holy fucking shit, you’re serious, aren’t you?”

She couldn’t do anything but nod.  The tears had triggered something else in her, and now tension was creeping down her neck and into her chest and it was getting harder to breathe.

“I’m sorry.”  It was raspy and broken and it seemed so empty in the sudden strain that had filled their apartment.

“You bitch.”  The words had a physical affect on Rylee, as if Christina had reached across the room and slapped her across the face.  She stumbled backwards a step and hiccupped through her tears.  “Don’t fucking cry, you’re the one that betrayed me.  I should be the one in tears!” 

The pitch of Christina’s voice had reached a fierce level and her face was red with anger.  She stared at Rylee with a hatred that tore through the other girl with fierce strength.

“I can’t believe you.  I…”  Christina started to pace, unable to look at the other girl in the room.  “I trusted you, I’ve always trusted you.  I never thought you would do something like this to me.  You, the girl that’s always told me how much she hates cheaters.  You’re such a fucking hypocrite, Rylee-Jean, and I can’t believe I thought you were my best friend.”

Rylee had fallen to the couch and her knees were pulled into her chest.  She made no sound, but the rise and fall of her shoulders made it obvious that she was crying.

“Did you two plan this, or something?  Have you been hiding this behind my back the whole fucking time?”

“No…”  She shook her head and gathered words from her jumbled thoughts.  “No, it just happened.”

“Fuck that, it just happened!  That’s such bullshit, Rylee.  Obviously you had feelings for the guy, you don’t just randomly have sex.”  She stopped to send a sneer in Rylee’s direction.  “Unless this was some ploy to get a job or something.”

“No, I…we…”  Rylee forced air into her lungs and counted to ten in her head so she could calm her racing emotions.  “We didn’t plan it.  I do have feelings for him, but I didn’t act on them because of you.”

“Well obviously that didn’t work too well.”  There was such venom and spite in her words that Rylee felt like she was in a physical fight.

“I’m so sorry, Tina.”

“No, no.  You don’t get to call me that anymore, and you don’t get to feel bad about this.  I’m the one that got fucked over, remember?  I’m the victim here, not you.  Go ahead, you can have him, you’re both lying and conniving and fucking….CHRIST!  I can’t even look at you.”

Christina stormed down the hallway and grabbed her still-packed suit case.  She roughly picked it up and made her way back to the living room.  She didn’t bother to look at Rylee as she grabbed her keys and headed toward the door.

“I’m leaving.  I’ll be back in two days and by that time I expect you to have your shit packed and out of here.  And you owe me rent for the past two months.”

With the slam of the door, she was gone.

Rylee dissolved into a fit of tears and the sobs wracked her body with such ferocity that she fell to the floor in a heap. 

She had lost her best friend, and it was all her fault.  There was no one else to blame, and the guilt was sitting so heavily on her conscience that Rylee felt as if someone was piling stones upon her chest. 

Coughs, hiccups, sniffles, sobs…she couldn’t stop crying and she couldn’t catch her breath.

The look on Christina’s face kept playing through her mind’s eye and it stabbed another spike of pain through her heart every time.  The words kept replaying in her ears, loud, hurtful, deserved.  She deserved all of them because of what she’d done, but even knowing that didn’t make hearing them any easier.

For something that had felt so good at the time, it was certainly bringing a hell of a lot of pain at the moment.