Chapter 28 - Reunited

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**** Berkley's Point of View ****

Berkley was laying on her stomach on the Queen-sized bed in her room at her Dad's house, flipping through the yearbook from her Senior year of high school. She had spotted it on the shelf and was feeling sentimental, so she decided to take a look. As she turned through the pages, she stopped on a big picture of Dean in a black and white tux, wearing a Prom King sash across his chest and a gold crown on top of his head. He had a mischievous gleam in his eye and a cocky smirk on his face. Sydney, the head cheerleader, was beside him, clinging onto his arm proudly, wearing a sparkly tiara and a sash that said Prom Queen.

Berkley took a deep breath in and let out a sigh, slowly tracing a finger over his face. She missed that smirk of his so much. She missed everything about him; the sound of his voice, his laugh, his hugs, the smell of his cologne on her pillow, talking to him about her day, and the way he could always cheer her up when she had a bad one. Most of all, she missed the way he made her feel when she was with him, like everything was right in the world.

She had been able to cope without him over the last three months by keeping herself busy and distracted with school work, but after seeing him with his girlfriend yesterday, he was the only thing she could think about and it was driving her crazy.

Seeing him with Stacia on his arm made her so jealous she couldn't stand it. She had felt better back when she thought he had commitment issues and didn't want to tie himself down to one woman, but obviously that wasn't the case. Apparently he just didn't want her.

It hurt to know that Dean chose to make some stranger he barely knew his first official girlfriend instead of her. What did Stacia have that she didn't? Was she not pretty enough for him? She normally didn't give a shit what anybody thought about her looks, but when it came to Dean, that was a different story. She cared a little too much, especially now.

She wished things could go back to the way they were before they got so screwed up and complicated. She kept thinking she would get a call or a text from him, but after three months, it was starting to look like that might never happen. She wondered how long he wanted this friendship break to last.

Then a thought crossed her mind. What if he wanted it to be permanent? What if he had outgrown her friendship and didn't need her anymore? That's when she realized she might have to get used to being without him. Her life had revolved around Dean for so many years that she wasn't even sure how to do that.

As she looked down at his picture, her heart ached, thinking about how much she missed him. She couldn't take it. She snapped the yearbook shut and tossed it onto her bedside table, before rolling over onto her back and staring up at the ceiling.

She was pulled out of her thoughts by a light tapping sound on her bedroom window. She looked over and watched the window slowly slide up before Dean poked his head inside, and then the rest of his body slid in behind him, landing him onto the floor.

He stood up and closed the window behind him, shaking the powdery white snow off of his clothes and hair.

"Hey," he said, looking down and giving her a weak smile.

He looked so handsome that it made her breath catch in her throat and her heart skip a beat. Was she dreaming or was he really standing there in her bedroom?

"Hey," she said hesitantly, looking at him with curiosity. "What are you doing here?"

"What does it look like? I'm climbing into my best friend's window, just like I've done since I was twelve," he told her, peeling his coat off and tossing it onto her desk before kicking his shoes off.

He was making himself right at home. She scrunched her eyebrows, trying to figure him out. He was acting like everything was normal between them, when it was far from it.

"We aren't best friends any more. Remember? We're on a break," she told him, putting extra emphasis on the word break.

"I know. That's why I'm here," he said, walking over and plopping down onto the big comfy reading chair that was in front of the bed where she was sitting.

He let out an exhale and looked across into her eyes. "This break thing has gone on long enough, don't you think? You and I need to work this shit out once and for all."

She turned her body to face him and nodded, saying, "Yeah. I mean, I want to if you do."

"Yeah, I do. Look, I'll admit things were pretty fuckin' awkward between us after the Hamptons, and I've tried to be patient and give you time to get over that, but c'mon, how much time do you need? Don't you think it's been long enough?"

She was confused, scrunching her eyebrows at him.

"Wait. What are you talking about? YOU'RE the one that asked for a break from our friendship, not me."

He scrunched his face up and looked taken aback.

"No I didn't. You did."

Now she was really confused. She pulled her phone out of her back pocket and started searching for the text message he had sent her so she could prove she wasn't losing her mind. She scrolled and scrolled through her messages but couldn't find any text conversations with Dean.

"That's so weird. I can't find your text even though I know I didn't delete it, but anyway, you had texted me and said you thought taking a break from our friendship would be a good idea."

He nodded.

"Yeah, but I only texted you that cause Zander told me you thought things had gotten too awkward between us and you needed some space for a while. He said you wanted to take a break from our friendship and that was the important thing you needed to talk to me about that night. I texted you to confirm that was really what you wanted and all you said was okay."

"No," she said, shaking her head in disbelief. "I said okay because I thought taking a break was what you wanted. That's not even CLOSE to what I was gonna talk to you about that night."

She couldn't believe Zander had been lying to both of them that whole time. He acted like he was trying to help them get together, but obviously that was a lie.

"So he didn't tell you anything else that day, about me?" she asked.

Dean thought about it before saying, "Well, yeah, he said that you and him had sex the night before and that he had asked you to be his girlfriend and you said yes."

She gasped, with her mouth falling open and her eyebrows raised in shock. "What the fuck!? No he didn't!"

Dean looked confused. "Yeah he did. Is that not what happened?"

"Not even close!" she shouted. "First off, I have NEVER in my life had sex with him. Not even once! He tried but I shot him down. And second, I didn't even become his girlfriend until like a month after that!"

Dean looked like he was trying to process this information. She felt the same way, overwhelmed and angry. She couldn't believe Zander turned out to be such a weasel.

"I can't believe he told you all that, and that you actually believed him," she said, scrunching her face up in judgement and shaking her head.

"Yeah, I was so pissed off when I thought you broke our deal and had sex with him. Maybe if you had answered any of my calls or texts I could've found out it wasn't true."

She raised an eyebrow. "What are you talking about? I haven't gotten a call or text from you in over three months."

He scoffed. "What do you mean? I've called and texted you probably twenty times. I eventually gave up because I figured you needed more time and would reach out when you were ready."

She shook her head. "Well I don't know who you were calling or texting because it sure as hell wasn't me." Then a thought came to her mind. "Wait a minute, did you try to call me on my birthday?"

"Yeah, and I sent a text too. I was trying to take you out to Gino's pizza and that old arcade in Southie we used to always go to when we were kids, but you never answered." He looked like he was thinking and said, "Wait a minute. Let me see your phone."

She handed it to him and he clicked around for a minute before saying, "I knew it! That fucking asshole blocked me on your phone! Look!"

He turned her phone around and sure enough, there was 'Deanie Weenie' in her Blocked Contacts list.

She took the phone from him and looked down at it, shaking her head. "Wow. I can't believe he blocked you. What the hell."

She unblocked him and sat there thinking about it before saying, "I guess I shouldn't be so surprised. He was always really intimidated by our friendship. Every time I'd mention you, he'd get crazy jealous and I had to constantly reassure him that we were just friends. Apparently he felt so threatened by you he decided to lie to both of us to turn us against each other and he blocked you on my phone. He probably would've said or done anything to make you go away."

She sat there for a minute before saying, "That makes me wonder if the other things he told me you said aren't true either."

"What else did he tell you?" Dean asked with scrunched eyebrows.

She took a deep breath in and let it out, looking down at her hands in her lap as she said quietly, "He ummm. He told me that you said you only see me as a friend and that us sleeping together didn't mean anything to you, that it was just sex and I was reading too much into it."

He laughed and shook his head. "Wow, the audacity of that prick amazes me. I never said anything like that, and honestly I never would, cause it couldn't be further from the truth."

He hesitated, looking down at his hands before adding, "What we did in the Hamptons Berkley, that ummmm, that wasn't just sex. Being with you was different than it was being with anybody else." He slowly raised his head and looked into her eyes for a few seconds before saying, "The truth is, it actually meant a lot to me."

Hearing that made her insides flutter. "Really?" she asked softly.

He gave her a soft smile and nodded, whispering, "Yeah."

She studied his eyes, giving him a weak smile back. "It meant a lot to me too," she said, feeling her cheeks flush as she looked back down at her hands.

There was silence between them for a minute before she asked hesitantly, "Did he ummm, did he tell you anything else ...... about me or what I said?"

She was trying to figure out if Zander had told him that she was in love with him, like he said he did.

Dean thought about it and said, "Yeah, he said you told him I was just a fuckboy and that I wasn't boyfriend material."

She thought back and remembered the conversation she had with Zander that night when they were walking on the beach and he had kissed her for the first time.

She cringed. "Ugh, I actually did say that," before quickly adding, "but that was a LONG time ago. It was when I went on my first date with him that day we had moved into the dorms." She cleared her throat and rubbed the back of her neck, looking down and laughing awkwardly. "My ummm, my thoughts about you have changed a lot since then," she said quietly with a smile.

"They have?" he asked and she lifted her head and looked at him with a hint of a smile, nodding.

"Yeah," she said softly, feeling a flutter in her stomach from looking into his eyes again. "I'm sorry for that," she whispered. "You know, for calling you a fuck-boy."

He shrugged and said, "That's alright. You don't have to be sorry for telling the truth. I was one."

"Was?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

He nodded, laughing under his breath. "Yeah, I ummm. I know this might be hard to believe, but I haven't hooked up with anybody since our weekend in the Hamptons. I haven't even kissed anybody since then and the crazy thing is, I haven't even felt tempted to." He gave her a soft smile and said, "Apparently being with you changed something in me."

Now she was really confused. "What about your girlfriend? You haven't kissed her and you guys have been dating for three months?"

He laughed softly and got a guilty look on his face. "Yeah, about that. There's something I need to confess."


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