Grace woke up with a start, thinking someone had gotten shot again next door. She looked over at her boyfriend next to her, amazed how he could sleep through anything, and wondered if she should wake him up.

The banging started again and she realized that, thankfully, it was a person knocking way too forcefully and not gunfire. She eased out of bed and crept to the door, expecting to see the wino who sometimes wandered their hall at night. Looking through the peep hole, however, she saw a man that, though drunk, wasn’t the wino she had hoped for.

She left the chain on the door and opened it a crack.

‘Justin, what the hell do you want? It’s 4am.’ Grace whispered, her voice laced with hostility.

‘What the fuck do you think? I wanna talk to you!’ he screamed, his voice echoing down the hallway.

‘Jesus! Quiet, people are sleeping. I think you said plenty last time I saw you. I told you, I don’t want to talk to you sober, let alone drunk. Just go back home, Justin, and leave me alone!’

‘NO! And don’t tell me to shut up. You weren’t quiet when you went fuckin crazy in the hallway today. I’m not going anywhere until you give me a fucking reason for why you left me!’ he yelled before pausing and saying in a softer voice, ‘I needed you, Cece.’

Grace sighed and closed her eyes, all her anger dissipating at the sound of the hurt in  his voice. She didn’t need this.

Her voice softened, ‘Justin please. Just go home. That was a long time ago and I had a lot of things going on.’

He leaned his forehead on door and whispered, ‘Then tell me. I want to know what happened. What I did wrong.’

‘Justin, you didn’t do – ‘

‘Was there someone else?’ he asked, his voice holding the slightest quiver.

Silence stretched in the hallway as Grace paused, filled with a sudden urge to tell him the truth. How someone had came and popped the surreal bubble she’d been living in since she’d met Justin.

‘Yes,’ she whispered, ‘ but not in the way you think.’

He jerked back from the door, somehow shocked to hear her say what he’d been thinking all these years.

‘Look, it’s late. I gotta wake up early. I –‘

‘Was it Trace?’

She stopped, too shocked to even speak.

‘Excuse me?’

‘You heard me. Were you FUCKING my best friend all along?’

‘You know what, that fuckin does it.’

Slamming the door in his face, Grace threw off the bolt and swung open it open again, standing toe to toe with Justin.

‘What the fuck is wrong with you, Timberlake? Ignoring the fact that you’re accusing your BEST FRIEND, who’s put up with your SHIT for all these years, I’d like to point out the fact that YOU,’ she said, forcefully poking him in the chest, ‘and I were NEVER in a relationship. We were friends That means, if I wanted to fuck Trace til the cows came home, I could have and you couldn’t have said, because WE never existed as a COUPLE. It also means that I had to stand by and watch you parade groupie after FUCKING groupie into you bedroom, even after we -.’

Grace stopped unsure of how to describe the night they’d shared. The words ‘hooked up’ seemed to juvenile and trivial, but ‘made love’ seemed to intimate to say out loud. Justin was surprised to see a pained look cross on her face before she quickly hid it. Apparently, he hadn’t been the only one to walk away scarred.

Silence stretched in the hallway before she gave a resigned sigh and looked up at him, ‘You know what it doesn’t even matter anymore because you don’t matter to me anymore. Goodnight, Justin.’

As she closed the door, Justin watched as the fight left his eyes. He looked down as he began to feel guilty for the first time since she’d left.

Over the years, he had forgotten the girls. He tried to remember details, but all he got were blurred faces and ghosts of high pitched giggles. Ashley, Courtney, Amanda, none of them actually mattered, he’d only brought them around to make Grace jealous.

As he began to drown in guilt, a whiskey- fueled life saver came to his rescue and surrounded him in a blanket of comforting anger.

Justin suddenly erupted, ‘Fine! Be like that! You don’t mean shit anyways. And I don’t have to listen to this bullshit, I’m gone.’ he screamed before mumbling, ‘Now where the fuck are my keys?’

Grace froze in the midst of closing the door.

‘You drove here like that?!’

He rolled his eyes at her.

‘No I flew’ he said, turning to stumble away.

She sighed. She really REALLY didn’t need this right now. But, though he was being a complete jerk, she didn’t want another death on her hands.

‘Wait. WAIT! I’ll drive you. Hold on a sec.’

‘I don’t need your help. I’m fine!’

‘Just shut up and stay right there.’

 She closed door and grabbing her boyfriend’s keys off their uneven, Salvation Army coffee table, praying he wouldn’t wake up to find her gone.

Throwing off the lock and opening the door, she was half surprised and half relieved to see Justin still standing there looking pissed.

‘Gimme your keys.’

‘No.’

‘Just gimme the keys, Justin.’

‘Why?’

‘Because I’m driving.’

He giggled and raised the keys above his head.

‘If you can take the pebble from my hand, grasshopper.’

Annoyed, she swiped at them and missed, then pushed him into the wall, trying to use the element of surprise before grabbing at the keys.

He caught her arm as he fell backwards, pulling her snugly against his body, their faces six inches apart.

Grace’s breath caught as he looked down into her eyes and smiled.

‘We always did fit perfect together, you and I.’

She rolled her eyes, trying to hide the fact that she could feel her pulse racing.

‘Just give me the damn keys, boy.’

He surprised her by dropping them into her hand, still smirking. She pushed off of him with a grunt and walked down the hallway, anger propelling her faster down the hallway.