He immediately pulled back to look at me for a couple of seconds before taking a deep breath and sitting up. “I’m sorry, Riley. I’m so sorry.” He groaned, putting his hands up to cover his face. He looked really upset. I reached out a hand to pull his hands away from his face. I didn’t like it when he hid his emotions from me, we talked about everything, we had no secrets. I needed to know what this was all about.

“Clay, what was that? Why did you do that? I mean, not that it wasn’t good because it was… but, I mean… what?” I stammered, confused and embarrassed. I could feel the blush burning my cheeks and was silently grateful that there was only the bedside light on so it wouldn’t be too noticeable.

He gulped. “I don’t know. I shouldn’t have done that. I’m so sorry, please forgive me,” he begged, looking at me with pure horror across his face.

Wait, why did he look so horrified? Oh my God, was I a bad kisser? Was I that repulsive to him that he is horrified that he’s just kissed me? Immediately I was terrified that this was going to ruin our friendship.

“Clay, don’t worry about it. But it shouldn’t have happened, let’s just leave it at that, shall we? I mean, I don’t want things to change between us, do you? You’re my best friend in the whole world, I couldn’t lose you,” I said, starting to tear up.

He pulled my close to him, and let me cry on his chest. “I couldn’t lose you either, Riley Bear,” he whispered, kissing the top of my head.

I pulled back to look at him, my best friend, my angel, the guy I needed to have in my life forever. “Let’s just pretend that this didn’t happen then, okay?” I suggested.

He wiped my face and smiled at me a small sad smile. “Okay, Riley Bear.” He moved and settled down onto his back, pulling me close to his side with his arm round the crook of my neck. He leant over and turned the light off.

I buried my face in his chest and breathed in his beautiful smell, trying to calm myself. I had hormones running all over my body. Part of my mind was screaming at me to grab him and kiss him again, to run my hands over his perfect body, to take off his clothes and run my tongue over every inch of him. But the other part, the sensible part, was telling me to close my eyes and go to sleep and in the morning forget that this even happened. Finally, after what seemed like forever fighting my body’s urges, I drifted off to sleep in his arms, listening to his heartbeat.

When I opened my sleepy eyes in the morning, the first thing I saw was him staring at me. He looked tired. I traced the dark circle under his eye with my finger. “Did you not sleep well?” I asked, trying my hardest to ignore the part of me that was telling me to jump on him and kiss him again. I really had no idea what had come over me, but instead of just seeing Clay as my best friend and the goofy kid that I used to build mud pies with, I could suddenly see the attraction that he held for other girls.

He smiled weakly but it didn’t reach his eyes. “Not really. I was a little worried.”

“Worried? That movie scared you, didn’t it,” I teased, laughing hysterically.

He laughed and tickled me, making me squirm. “No, Riley Bear, it didn’t scare me. You were the one whimpering and talking in your sleep all night,” he replied, suddenly looking sad again.

“Whimpering and talking?” I asked, confused. I thought back to the dream I kept having last night. It was about Clay, he’d said that he couldn’t be my friend anymore, then he’d turned and ran off and no matter how fast I ran after him, I couldn’t catch up. I shook my head, trying to clear it. What on earth had I said in my sleep?

Clay brushed my hair away from my face softly. “You kept saying that everything was ruined. You kept calling for me, and crying,” he whispered, pulling his arm tighter around me. I couldn’t speak. “Have I ruined everything, Riley? Please tell me that we can forget what happened last night, please,” he begged, looking me straight in the eye.

I nodded and tried to smile. I would forget it, I would make myself. I loved Clay too much to let him walk out of my life. “Of course we can, Clay. Why don’t you go back to sleep? We can skip the run today and have an extra hour in bed,” I suggested, putting my head back on his chest. I heard him sigh in contentment and I looked up to see he had his eyes closed and a smile was tugging at the corners of his mouth.

The next couple of days were a little strained. Clay didn’t touch me much, didn’t put his arm around my shoulder or hold my hand as normal. It was weird, and I missed his contact so much. I didn’t want to say anything about it, so I just went with it. By Friday I couldn’t take it anymore, the loss of contact was really starting to get to me. I was walking to class with Rachel, I hadn’t spoken to her about what had happened between me and Clay, but she had noticed that we seemed to be acting a little different around each other. I saw him walking towards me with Tom so I stepped in his path so he had to stop.

“Hey, Riley Bear. Everything okay?” he asked, with a big grin. I nodded and wrapped my arms around him, hugging him tightly. He didn’t respond at first, he just stood there, then slowly he wrapped his arms around me and buried his face in my hair. “Riley, what’s up?” he asked breathlessly, pulling back to look at me. “If someone’s upset you I swear to God I’ll,” he started, but I put my finger on his lips to stop him.

“No one’s upset me. I’ve just missed you this last couple of days, that’s all,” I explained, kissing his cheek and pulling away.

He smiled a weak smile; he obviously knew what I was talking about. “I missed you too.”

“Come on, Riley, we’ll be late for class!” Rachel shouted, making me jump.

Clay smiled. “Get going then. I’ll see you after school,” he instructed, stepping to the side to let me past. I stuck my tongue out at him as I started to walk off. Just as I got past him, he slapped my ass playfully. I sighed happily and walked off without saying a word. Hopefully that would be the end of that.

That night was his game night. He was driving us tonight, and afterwards he was taking me to my first party since starting the school. I was a little nervous about it, but Clay said that he would look after me. Rachel had told me that apparently these parties could get a little wild.

“So, you still gonna wear my number?” Clay asked, grabbing my hand to help me out of his car once we got to school. He didn’t let go as we walked to the school towards the boys locker room. I smiled. Everything seemed to be back to normal between us since this afternoon so I sighed happily.

“I sure am, if you want me to,” I replied, biting my lip.

He grinned. “Of course I do. You’re my best friend, Riley Bear.”

My heart dropped a little but I didn’t know why. I was his best friend, nothing more. So, why did I want to be all of a sudden? Why couldn’t I stop thinking about that kiss and how his lips fitted so perfectly against mine?

He pulled me into the boys locker room with him. “Hey, she can’t come in here!” someone shouted as I was dragged inside.

My eyes went wide; there were half n**ed boys everywhere. “Hmm, nice view,” I mumbled, smirking. I glanced around the room, raking my eyes slowly over each of the boys in turn.

Clay laughed and put his hand over my eyes. “Come on, little girl, let’s get that shirt for you and then you can go!” he said, laughing, leading me forwards. I could hear whistles and comments that made me smile. Clay muttered something like ‘shut the f**k up’ and then he put something in my hands. Still covering my eyes, he pushed me forwards again.

Once we were outside the door, I giggled. “Mmm, thanks for that!” I chirped, waggling my eyebrows.

He rolled his eyes with an easy smile. “Want me to walk you to the field?” he offered, slinging an arm around my shoulder.

I shook my head and laughed at his sweetness. He had always been like this to me, ever since we were kids he’d walk me to places because he was worried about me getting hurt. “I think I can make it.”

He chuckled too. “Okay. I’ll see you after.” He smiled and headed back into the locker room. As soon as the door opened, I could hear his team mates ribbing him about me. I just smiled and looked down at what I was holding. It was a huge maroon football shirt. I turned it round to look at the writing on the back. ‘PRESTON 12’. I smiled and slipped it on over my tight black top and light blue skinny jeans. I walked out to the field with a big grin and sat with Rachel, watching the game and fooling around.

“Hi,” a male voice said next to me after a little while.

“Er, hi yourself,” I replied, turning to look at him. He was tall, really tall, probably about 6 foot 3, he was well built but not overly muscled. He had shaggy black hair that swept over his forehead and bright blue eyes. There was a little scar running through his left eyebrow which had a little silver piercing next to it, he also had a lip ring at the corner of his bottom lip. He had on a black T-shirt that clung to his body and low slung jeans, with biker boots that he wore undone. He was so handsome that he looked like he had just walked out of a modelling shoot. I suddenly realised I was staring and looked away quickly, turning my attention back to the field where the game was still going on.

“So, you’re dating Clay Preston?” the guy asked, smiling.

Why on earth did everyone think that? I turned back to him. “What makes you say that?” I asked, confused. I didn’t recognise this guy from school. If I had seen him before, I definitely would have remembered him!

“Well, you’re wearing his number. Kinda a girlfriend’s job, right?” he countered, with a smirk. I looked down at myself, spotting Clay’s away shirt that I was wearing, I had completely forgotten about that.

“Er, no actually. We’re friends that’s all. We’re not dating,” I corrected, looking back to the field.

“Well, that’s great. I’m Blake,” he said with an easy smile. I bit my lip as I discreetly checked him out again. He really was hot.