Rylee opened the door to her apartment and threw down her bags with a huff.  She was exhausted and still feeling the effects of her hangover.  Working in the studio had been stressful and her focus was off all day.  Needless to say, she was happy to be home.

“Ry? Is that you?”  Christina’s voice came floating down the hallway and Rylee suppressed a groan.  She was really hoping that Christina wouldn’t be home tonight.

“Yeah, it’s me.”  She shuffled over to the couch and flopped down in a heap.  Moments later, Christina was standing over her and giving her a strange look.

“You didn’t come home last night, what happened?”  The question seemed innocent, but Rylee knew that Christina already suspected something.  She had told Christina that she was going to Trace’s so she could only assume the things that were going through her roommates mind.

“I ended up getting trashed and staying at Trace’s.”  She hoped the answer would be sufficient, but she knew better.

“Oh really?  And how is Trace doing?”  Yup, Christina knew.

“He’s good, probably still hung over too.”  Rylee was silently praying that the question she knew was coming would go un-asked.

“Did you sleep with him?”  No such luck.  There was really no way to get out of this situation, but it wouldn’t hurt to try.

“We passed out on the couch together, so…sure, I slept with him.”  Much to Rylee’s chagrin, Christina started clapping her hands and bouncing up and down.

“I knew it!  You had sex with him!”  She let out a squeal that caused Rylee to grasp her head in pain.  “I knew there was a thing between you two!  I can’t wait to tell Justin.”

Rylee’s eyes opened at this statement.  This was what she was hoping to avoid.  She supposed that she shouldn’t care what Justin thought, but she really didn’t want word getting out about last night.  For one, it would make her look like a hussy, and second, she did have to work with Justin every day.  If this upset him, it would be hell to sit in the same room with him for hours on end.

“It’s nothing big, Tina, really.”  The look her friend shot her told Rylee that she wasn’t buying it.

“Nothing big?  You haven’t gotten laid in months, Rylee-Jean, this is huge!”  Christina pushed her way on the couch and sat next to Rylee.  “Tell me…was it good?”

“Uh…”

“Oh, it was bad.  A pause like that means it was bad.” 

“Well…actually, I have no idea how it was.”  Christina shot her a strange look, prodding her to explain.  “I was shitfaced, Tina, I don’t remember a thing after my sixth beer.”

It was quite for a moment while Christina thought of a response.

“Oh, well.”  A smile crossed her face again and she grinned down at Rylee.  “It doesn’t matter.  Obviously it happened because you two like each other.  I’m sure you’ll have another chance to go at it.  I knew it though, I was telling Justin the other day that I thought you and Trace would make such a cute couple.”

Rylee didn’t have the energy or the patience to explain to Christina that nothing was going on between her and Trace.  Christina had already made up her mind that the two were a couple and there really wasn’t much that could change that.  Especially since Christina had been taking it upon herself to play match maker for Rylee and she would actually leave her alone if she thought that she liked Trace.

And besides, she told herself, who cares if Justin is upset?  It’s not like he was going to drop Christina any time soon.

~*~

“Trace, dude, you here?”  Justin ambled through his house looking for his best friend.  He knew Trace was there somewhere, his car was out front.  Noise from the back of the house indicated that he was in the living room, but when Justin checked, it was empty.

The next best place to look was the kitchen.  Sure enough, Trace had his head stuck in the fridge.

“Hey, you’re letting all the cold air out.”  Trace closed the door and turned to face the other man.

“Impossible, the fridge generates its own cold air.”  Justin’s response was to flip the bird.  He noticed the food spread out on the table and gave Trace a strange look.

“This is hangover food, man, what did you do last night?”  He picked up a french fry and popped it into his mouth.

“I got trashed…duh, why else would I have a hangover?”

“Did you drink by yourself?  Really, Trace, that’s the first sign of being an alcoholic.”  Before Trace could respond, Justin’s phone rang.  He glanced at the caller ID and spotted his girlfriend’s phone number.

“Hey babe.”  He didn’t miss the roll of the eyes that his best friend threw his way, but he chose to ignore it.

“Guess what, guess what, guess what?!”  Christina’s voice came over the line in a high pitched tone and Justin had to lift the device away from his ear.

“What?”

“Trace and Rylee hooked up!”  With a raised eyebrow, Justin stared at his best friend.

“Is that so?”  Jealousy and anger was coursing through his body and it took everything in him to stay relaxed.

“I told you so!  She just told me that they hung out last night and ended up having sex.  I knew it!”  Her excited tone was grating on his nerves and he knew he had to calm himself down before he ended up saying something stupid.

“Hey baby, I’ve got another call coming in and it’s from the studio.  I’ve got to take this one, but I’ll call you back later.”  He waited for her to acknowledge before hanging up the phone, his gaze still attached to Trace.

“Lying to your girlfriend isn’t a good thing, JT.”  The death stare that was sent in his direction caused Trace to stop chuckling.

“You had sex with Rylee?” 

Trace watched his friend closely before answering.

“Yes, we had sex last night.  I don’t see why you’re getting out of shape about it, though, you have a girlfriend, remember?”

Justin shrugged and turned to grab a beer from the fridge.

“I’m not bent out of shape, I’m just curious.  I didn’t think Rylee had a thing for you, that’s all.”

“Oh, so you thought she was going to wait around for you, is that it?”  Trace was starting to get pissed off at Justin and he was almost glad that he and Rylee had shacked up last night.  Justin deserved to have this thrown in his face, after all, he was treating Rylee like shit.

“No.  I just…whatever, man.  You can fuck whoever you want, I don’t care.”  He stormed off down the hallway and Trace let out a curse.

This was getting ridiculous.  Justin was acting like Trace had stolen Rylee away from him, when Rylee wasn’t even his in the first place.  Who cares if they were attracted to each other?  Justin had a girlfriend and Rylee had the right to do whatever she wanted.

He followed Justin into the living room and stood in front of the TV to catch the other man’s attention.  This wasn’t over.

“Really, Justin, grow the fuck up.”  Justin was about to protest to Trace blocking the TV, but after hearing those harsh words he stopped.

“What?”

“You’re acting like I walked in and stole Rylee from you.  Reality check, asshole, you’ve got a girlfriend and you haven’t let any of us forget it.  You’ve dicked around with Rylee enough already, you don’t have the right to get upset about her hooking up with someone else, even if it is me.  It’s not like you’re in a position to be with her.  So do us all a favor and get your head out of you ass, OK?”

He didn’t wait for a response.  Instead, he turned and stalked down the hallway and out the front door.

“Shit.”  Justin threw his head back against the couch and let out the breath he’d been holding.

~*~

The twang of guitar strings was the only sound that could be heard through the studio.  Rylee sat with her head bent over an acoustic and she was playing chords to an old country song.

Justin sat at the desk thumbing through some paperwork, doing his best to avoid bringing up the conversation he desperately wanted to bring up.

“What song is that?”  Rylee’s head came up from its bent position but her finger’s kept playing.

“It’s an old Patsy Cline song, my mom used to listen to it all the time.”  Justin nodded his head and twirled around in his swivel chair.

“So…Trace?”  It slipped, really.  The look on her face told him she knew what he was getting at and it was almost cute to watch her cheeks blush.  It would’ve been cute if it weren’t for the fact that it was his best friend that was making her blush.

“Yeah, I’m taking it that Christina told you?”  Justin’s head nodded again and Rylee thought he looked eerily like a bobble-head doll. 

“She was pretty excited that the two of you got together.  I didn’t believe her when she said you liked each other, guess I was wrong.”  The sour look on his face was unbecoming and Rylee was getting a little upset with his assumptions.  If he was going to make his own conclusions without getting all the facts, she might as well go with it.

“Yeah, I guess things just happened.  Neither of us was really expecting it either, but…”  She trailed off and let him form his own thoughts. 

Justin turned back to the table where all his papers were scattered.  His face was getting hot with anger and, again, jealousy.  He hated that he was so attracted to her.  He thought that he would get over it if he focused on Christina, but it didn’t seem to be working.  Now, just thinking about Trace getting to be with her…getting to see those tattoos that were hidden…it made his blood boil.

The door opened, breaking both occupants of their thoughts.  Christina came strutting through the door with plastic bags dangling from her fingers.

“Hey you two.”  She wiggled her fingers at Rylee and placed a solid kiss on Justin’s mouth.

“What are you doing here?”  Rylee was the one to pose the question.

“J invited me for lunch.  We didn’t get to see each other last night so I’m here today.”  She placed herself firmly on the man’s lap and gave him a couple more kisses.  Rylee struggled not to gag.

“Yeah, I’ve been trying to spend more time with Christina but it’s been busy.  She was free for lunch today so I thought it would be nice to have her come here.”

At a loss for words, Rylee just nodded.  She placed her guitar gently in the case and stood.  She could hear the sounds of their kissing and she knew that she only had a few seconds to get out of the room before she said something mean.

“I’m gonna go find myself something.  You two have fun.”  She fled the room quickly and let out a string of curses as she made her way outside.  What an asshole.  How could he sit there and give her attitude for being with Trace when he was going to flaunt Christina in her face?  Rylee stifled a scream and climbed into her truck.  Angry music and fast speeds was what she needed.  That, or a chance to punch Justin in the face.

Justin sent a glance at the door that Rylee had just stormed out of.  He felt like an ass, but what was he supposed to do?  He had told himself that he was going to focus more on his girlfriend, so that’s what he was doing.  Suddenly everyone was getting pissed at him for wanting to be with Christina and he was really lost about what to do. 

Christina said something to him, and he tried his best to bring his focus back to lunch and the girl in front of him, but all he could keep thinking about was the girl that had just left.