Just Friends

"I'm sorry," Amberly sniffled into Chris' chest. "I just, I freak out because of....I just....."

Jen sat up and away from Paul, standing up and approaching her friend. "I know, Am. I understand. Calm down, sweetie, okay? I'm alright. I was okay with it."

Amberly nodded, hugging Jennifer. "What if you're high and just thinking that you're okay with it?"

Jen thought on this statement. "I love you, Amberly Marie Mitchell, but I'm perfectly sober right now and in control. I chose to take that pill from Paul, knowing what it was and what it would do to me. Anything that happens while I'm high, I welcome. I can't do anything sober, you know that. I sit here, like a boring fly on the wall while you entertain everyone. You have the fun, you're the life of the party. I can't stand the thought of another weekend where I sit, frozen to the sofa, analyzing everyone's movements with my eyes- hoping that, someday, they'll come in handy for a piece of literature I'm writing. I'm tired of it, Am. Tired of it."

"I feel like I just stepped onto the set of Oprah," Chris laughed, stepping away from the two girls and taking a seat beside Paul. "What the fuck just happened?"

Paul shrugged. "I have no idea, actually. But I get the feeling I owe someone an apology."

"That would be nice," Jen smiled, turning to Paul and then gazing back to her friend. "That would be really nice, actually."

"I'm sorry, Am," Paul smiled sincerely, standing up and approaching the shorter female. At only 5'10" in height, he still towered over the 5'5" female. "I got angry for no reason, and I....I just didn't like what you were insinuating."

Amberly nodded and hugged Paul, accepting his peace offering. "I overreacted too. There's a reason."

Paul nodded, pressing his left cheek to the top of the girl's head. "It's alright, I understand. You don't have to explain, okay?"

"I know," Amberly sighed. "But maybe I should?"

Jen smiled at her friend, shaking her head slowly. "You don't need to do that, I think the boys understand and-"

"I want to," Amberly whispered softly. "Can I?"

Paul took his seat back beside Chris, both men nodding slowly. "What's the dillio?" Chris smiled, patting the empty slice of sofa to his left, motioning Amberly to take a seat. She did just that, leaving Jennifer to claim a patch of carpet in front of the trio.

"Jen and I had a party a few months back," Amberly began, swallowing down her fear and anxiety. She paused, collecting her thoughts. "We do that a lot, you know, invite friends for the weekend or whatnot. Jen was Straight Edge for a while, but I was always the beer-drinking, potty-mouthed fool who swallowed down anything anyone handed me without question."

"You were Straight Edge?" Paul laughed, raising an eyebrow at Jennifer. She shrugged it off. "Yeah, for like a week."

"Anyhow," Amberly continued in a meager voice. "We had some people over that weekend, you know, friends, and I was getting rotted with one of the guys. He hands me this pill, and of course, I knew what it was. I took it, willingly, might I add. A little too willingly, in fact. Jen wasn't drinking, but she was enraptured by this kid's friend, so she and he disappeared and left me with this other guy. Which was cool, cause like I said, he was a friend. Someone I trusted. So he and I decided to go into my bedroom and play videogames while we were rolling. We're in there for a while, and he starts getting very touchy. Which, you know, I was high too. So I was okay with that."

Jen tried to offer her support through eye contact, knowing what her friend was about to confess. Amberly took a deep breath before continuing. "I woke up the next morning, naked, next to this kid. I don't remember a damn thing that happened beyond him grabbing my breasts and asking if he could kiss me. I was so confused, and of course, since I was naked, I'm realizing that something I did not want to happen happened that night."

"I made him leave," Jen offered, guilt tracing the lines of her lips. "Amberly looked so lost when she came out for breakfast. I chased him out and told him to go home."

"He came to me before he left," Amberly frowned, trying to end the memory as promptly as possible. "He was grinning and he told me that the shit he gave me was laced. That he knew he needed something a little stronger if he was going to get into my pants. Just like that- he admitted it just like that."

"Holy shit," the men gasped in unison.

"I kicked him in the balls," Amberly laughed nervously. "And told him never to come back. I hope I never see him again, so long as I live."

Chris nodded in agreement. "I don't blame you."

"Who was it?" Paul asked softly, trying not to break the barrier of Amberly's emotions. "Someone we know?"

Amberly nodded, Jen shaking her head slowly. "We can't say, because....We just shouldn't say."

"If I know him, I will personally pay him a visit and kick his ass," Chris offered with a hopeful gleam in his eyes. "Huh, Am? I'll go straight up to him and pound his skull into pavement."

Amberly forced a smile. "I don't want to say, Chris, it'll only make things uncomfortable. You know him well, and he's someone that you can't help but cross paths with often. It wouldn't be right, you know? It's my skeleton and my closet, and I don't want to infect anyone else's relationships with him. I really believe he's a good guy, deep down inside. He just fucked me up, irreparably. And that's why I freaked out on Paul. Not because I think Paul was trying to take advantage of Jen, but because it hit very close to home. It hit too close to home."

Jen nodded. "And I didn't even think of that when I took it."

"You alright?" Chris questioned Amberly softly, placing his left hand atop her own on her leg. She smiled softly, nodding slowly. "I'll live."

"I took it to be more outgoing," Jen confessed randomly. "My ex-boyfriend told me that I was a frigid housewife, minus the marriage certificate and the kids."

"What?" Paul laughed, shaking his head and smiling at Jennifer. "Are you serious?"

Jen nodded. "He wasn't too kind with his departing statements."

Paul laughed, taking another sip from his beer. "What did he say?"

"He started with saying that I was a frigid housewife, and went from there," Jen sighed, trying to be confident in the fallacy of the man's accusations. "He said that dating me was about as exciting as a Monday night at the Bingo Palace. He said that I fucked with the finesse of a dead fish. Then he went on to tell me I was fat and useless, and a pseudo-intellectual who thought she was far more gifted than she truly was."

"This was Jeff Spiccoli?" Paul laughed, referring to the man by the nickname he'd given him the first night they met. A no-good stoner, he'd told Jen, proclaiming the other man as the intellectual equivalent of the "Fast Times at Ridegmont High" character.

"Yeah," Jen laughed softly. "His name was Roger."

"Oh," Chris grinned, leaning forward to emphasize his statement. "And someone named Roger should really talk. 'Hi, I'm Roger, and I'm the voice of all that is cool.' As if."

Amberly and Jen both grinned at this. "Well," Jen shrugged. "He was quite popular with the ladies."

"Well, either way," Chris shrugged, eyeing Jen with a smirk. "He was totally off the mark. You're gorgeous, you're fun, you're intelligent and extremely talented. I know nothing of your bedroom skills, but I highly doubt you're frigid."

"He didn't like that he caught her with someone else," Amberly offered softly. "He was jealous and it sent him into a rage."

Paul looked as though he might swallow his tongue. "You cheated on Spiccoli?"

"I did, actually," Jen smiled sheepishly. "With Amberly." Her memories swirled back to that night, her body pressed to Amberly's, her hands exploring the other woman's tiny breasts. They'd been friends practically all their lives, their curiosity of one another growing with the passage of time. Jen had longed for the other female's touch, had welcomed it when Amberly had pressed her bright red lips to Jennifer's that night.

Amberly grinned with her own memories of that night. "I'm the woman!"

"You lost me," Paul smirked. "Did you just say that your boyfriend walked in on you fucking Amber?"

Amberly and Jen nodded. "He might have thought I was useless in the bedroom," Jen winked. "But I was even less thrilled with his miniscule little piece of meat."

Chris leaned back into the sofa and sighed. "That's it, I'm in love. Please, ladies, marry me now?"

Jen giggled and Amberly turned bright red. "It was innocent," Amberly tried to defend.

"Is that possible?" Paul smirked, shaking his head at Amberly. "I mean, think about it from his point-of-view. The dude can't satisfy his girlfriend, so she has to turn to another woman for pleasure? That's a pretty low blow to a man's ego, you know. Not that I wouldn't love to watch you tongue Jennifer to a mind-blowing orgasm, while I videotape the entire experience." Paul grinned and earned a playful slap from Amberly. "So typical of you, Paul," she laughed.

"So Jeff Spiccoli damaged your ego, and you feel you need to get high on X to recover from the trauma," Chris offered slowly, pondering his statement as it traveled over the plain of his lips. "That's too bad. I mean, there's nothing wrong with wanting to get high, but you shouldn't feel you have to get high to be more outgoing. Am I making sense?"

Jen nodded and giggled. "It kicked in, I'm totally fucked up."

Paul and Amberly began to laugh, Chris shaking his head in amusement, as well. "Well, so much for this serious conversation we're having."

"Sorry," Jen laughed. "I was trying to be serious, but it was just getting harder and harder not to laugh."

"On that note," Paul stood and stretched. "I am going to the little boy's room to powder my nose."

"Put powder in your nose," Chris corrected, smirking at his friend.

"Dude, that's so not cool!" Paul tsked the other man as he headed for the bathroom. "Plus, it's not true!"

Amberly eyed Chris suspiciously. "He does coke?"

Chris watched as Jennifer lay down on the floor, staring up at the ceiling curiously. "Well, no," he tried to defend his band mate. "He's tried it, but it's not a regular thing."

"That's funny," Jen giggled.

"Actually," Amberly objected, gazing at the shut bathroom door quizzically. "That's not funny. That's serious shit. He's not seriously in there doing blow, is he?"

"Blow," Jen giggled. "That's funny."

Chris laughed at this, and shrugged at Amberly. "Do I think he's doing blow in your bathroom as we speak? No. Is it entirely out of the question? No. Paul does what Paul does, and I don't question him. He's an adult, Am, if I object, he won't care. Paul's headstrong, you know that."

"Then I'll just go find out," Amberly offered as she stood and pranced from the room. "If he is, he's so busted!" she called over her shoulder as she approached the bathroom door, knocking softly. The truth was, the door hadn't locked since the day she and Jennifer moved into the apartment. They had called their apartment manager several times, each time waiting around for hours before any maintenance personnel showed to inspect the faulty lock. Eventually, the girls had given up hope on having the item repaired; as all the men sent to inspect the situation seemed less likely of solving the problem than the previous. "Paul?" she called. "Paul, let me come in."

The door opened slightly, and Amberly stepped inside. She shut the door behind her quickly, and stared at Paul nervously. "You're?"

He grinned. "Taking a piss?" He returned his attention to his task and chuckled. "Hey, if you want to watch, that's your deal. You said to open the door, so I did."

Amberly turned around, a blush across her cheeks. "I'm sorry, I thought you might be doing something else."

She heard him finish, the toilet flushing as he zipped his shorts quickly and approached her and the tiny sink. "You thought I was coking up?" Amberly nodded, her face flushed with embarrassment. "Well, the thought had crossed my mind," he grinned as he lathered his hands with soap. "But then I realized that I had to piss like a Kentucky Derby stallion, and so I chose to go with Mother Nature versus committing a felony in your bathroom."

His brown eyes beamed as Amberly sighed with relief. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to distrust you."

Paul showed his brilliantly white teeth as he grinned like a child. "It's cool, Am. I was playing with you when I said that, that's all. I didn't think you'd freak and come watch me piss, but it's no big deal."

"I'm sorry," Amberly smiled as she reached for the door. "I guess I can't take a joke tonight."

She turned the doorknob slowly, tugging softly on the door and feeling resistance. Her gaze turned upward, and she saw Paul's large hand pressing the door back into its frame. "Where you going?" he offered casually as he blocked her exit. "Stay a while."

Amberly sighed and turned to face her friend. "What exactly do you propose we do in the bathroom, Paul? Hang out? Sing Kumbaya? It's a bathroom, let me out." Her words bordered on hasty, though her tone was friendly and nonthreatening. She was toying with him more than she was annoyed.

"I was thinking," Paul smirked devilishly as he stepped toward the door, Amberly stepping further into the room. "What I guess I wanted to say was that...."

Amberly sat on the teal toilet and shrugged. "Yeah?"

"Ever since Jennifer told me that fantasy about her and me with Linzi, I've had a serious problem," he confessed, sliding down the door and sitting on the floor with his legs drawn up to his chest. "It's bothering me greatly."

"What's that?" Amberly laughed, dabbing at her lips with a small square of toilet paper.

Paul scrunched his nose up and gazed down into his lap. "I have a raging hard-on and it's driving me insane."

"How is it that you just took a lengthy piss then?" Amberly challenged, grinning as she tried to fix her lipstick in the small handheld mirror that she and Jen kept by the sink. "I watched you, too, so don't go saying that was a farce."

Paul shrugged. "I had to piss bad enough. I did. Problem number one solved."

Amberly gave a blatant glance at the crotch of Paul's shorts. "You're not hard right now."

"Hmm," Paul made a mock face of concentration as he tugged at the fabric around his crotch. "You're right. I'll be damned. Amberly, can you help me?"

She shook her head and slowly stood from the toilet, staring into the large mirror above the bathroom sink. "You're on your own, Paulie. My hands are dedicated to the fulfillment of one Mr. Christopher Wilson."

As Amberly stared into the mirror, trying to reapply her smudged lipstick, Paul kneeled beside her and reached a hand to her jeans. "I'll prep you," he grinned, loosing the first button on her pants. "I'll get you ready for Chris."

Realizing that he wasn't just going to exit the tiny room, Amberly stared down into Paul's pleading eyes. "What happened to you?" she laughed, running a hand across his right cheek and feeling his five o'clock shadow. "Why are you all up in my business tonight?"

Paul blushed. "I took a pill right before you came in here," he confessed, bowing his head slowly. "I was already buzzed from the beer."

"Oh," Amberly laughed, understanding crossing the soft lines of her face. "So you want to fuck me senseless in the bathroom because you're high and your dick is restless?"

"You don't make it sound so appetizing," Paul winked, gazing back up into Amberly's jade eyes. "In fact, you make it sound downright tasteless."

"How about we compromise?" Amberly offered, a neutral tone in her voice. "You want to get laid right here, right now. I want to save myself for Chris, but I'm rather curious about something."

"What's that?" Paul questioned, his tongue lolling playfully.

Amberly licked her lips teasingly, taunting Paul as she stepped back and once again sat on the toilet. "Well, this boy was sitting in my living room earlier tonight, and he was telling this story about how he fucked this girl good and hard in a shower." Paul stared at her, questioningly, still kneeling in his original spot before the sink. "And he made a big stink about how he had this long, thick cock that he really battered this girl with." Amberly batted her eyelashes seductively. "And then he came into the bathroom and begged me on his knees to let him fuck me with it. So I was thinking, we could compromise some and maybe both of us could leave this room happy."

"Anything," Paul whispered.

"I'll suck your dick if it's as big as you say it is!" Amberly grinned, twirling a strand of her long hair coquettishly. "If it's not, I walk out of here and you get nothing."

Paul shrugged. "You saw me taking a piss, you saw my dick. There's no surprises here."

"I didn't exactly inspect the size of your equipment while you pissed, Paul," Amberly objected, standing off the toilet. "Do we have a deal or am I walking back outside and raping Chris?"

"Chris is raping Jen," Paul smirked cruelly. "I'd put money on it! So I should think you'd want a piece of me, you know, before I go fuck Jen so hard she never recovers from the pleasure."

"You're pretty fucking cocky, Paul Thomas," Amberly growled as she kneeled before him and reached for the button of his shorts. "What happened to the shy, quiet kid that used to help me with my math homework?"

"He's gone," Paul smirked. "He's been replaced by a better model."

"I see that," Amberly taunted, never breaking her gaze as she unbuttoned and unzipped his shorts, guiding them down over his bony hips. "He's grown up into a big boy who's quite cocky about his abilities and his size."

"Maybe he learned that you have to first believe in yourself," Paul smirked, continuing to meet her gaze without blinking. "Maybe he realized that he'd had low self-esteem for far too long, and he wasn't such a bad guy after all."

"He was never a bad guy," Amberly objected, reaching her small hand down into his boxers and running the length of him. "He was always a good guy. A little awkward, definitely lacking in fashion sense, but he always had a heart of gold."

Paul blushed, reaching his arms out to touch Amberly's shoulders softly. "And he always had a crush on a certain female friend, someone who always stood by him, no matter how hopeless the situation seemed."

Amberly's strokes stopped, and she searched Paul's beaming eyes. "Jennifer really, truly likes you, Paul. You should just tell her and get it over with."

"Maybe Jennifer's not the female friend I'm referring to," Paul offered in a soft whisper. "Maybe I adore Jennifer- have even had crushes on her- but perhaps I really like someone else right now?"

"I can't do this," Amberly objected, pulling her hand away and standing to her feet. "Jennifer really likes you, Paul. I mean, she really likes you a lot and I shouldn't be here right now."

Paul stood, gazing patiently into Amberly's confused expression. "Amber, I appreciate that, I really do. And I love Jennifer to pieces. What I'm trying to say is that, right now, there is no one else I'd rather be in this bathroom with, okay?"

Amberly nodded slowly, returning to her knees before the tall man. "Just don't tell her, okay?"

Paul nodded. "I wouldn't dream of it."

"You really think Jen and Chris are fucking right now?" Amberly questioned softly, returning her hand to Paul's hardening length.

"I don't know," Paul sighed, grabbing his t-shirt and pulling it over his head. "I have no clue. I know that Chris is crazy about both you girls. Jennifer wanting Chris? That's what I'm not sure I see. He's a bit crazy for her, you know, she tends to like the boring types."

Amberly laughed at this, working her thumb slowly over the head of her friend's erection. Paul gasped. "She's confused, you know? She wants a bad boy with the heart of a good boy. Instead of taking the chances on the bad boys, she goes for the boring boys- figuring they'll have good hearts. They don't. No single guys nowadays are worthwhile. The good ones are either taken or they're gay."