The next morning Berkley woke up to light streaming in through her dorm room window. She took air in, slowly blinking her eyes open as they adjusted to the bright light, looking around as her brain slowly became aware of Dean's body cuddled up closely against hers from behind with his arm wrapped tightly around her waist. He had spent the night in her bed thousands of times before and waking up with him cuddling her was nothing new, but this felt different.

Her eyes shot open when she realized what was different. His penis was rock hard and he was grinding it against her butt cheek. Just as she was about to move away from him, his hand slid underneath her shirt and cupped around one of her breasts, massaging it as he groaned against her neck. She froze. Was this really happening right now?

"Dean?" she whispered. No answer. "DEAN!" she shouted.

He stopped moving and suddenly jerked away from her, falling off of the bed onto the floor, scrambling to his feet and looking shocked as he realized what he had just done. His eyes were wide and he looked at her in the bed for a second as his half-asleep brain was still processing what just happened.

"Fuck! I'm so sorry Berkley. I didn't mean to do that. I was having a dream and it felt so real," he said, his face flushing red with embarrassment.

Her eyes left his face and looked down at the large bulge standing straight up in his boxer shorts and he looked down realizing what she was looking at. He covered himself with his hands and then grabbed one of the pillows off her bed and held it in front of himself.

He grabbed his pants and shirt off of the floor, putting them on really fast before saying he'd be right back as he headed out the door. A while later he came back in the room acting nervous.

"Is there any way we can just pretend this morning never happened?" he asked with an awkward laugh, reaching up and running a hand through his brown hair. "It was seriously just an accident and I don't want things to feel awkward between us now."

It was unusual to see Dean looking flustered and not confident.

"Of course ........ we can't," she answered with a mischievous smile. "You know I'm gonna have to give you shit about this for the next several years. And just when you think I've finally forgotten it I'm gonna bring it back up again."

"How did I know you were gonna say that?" he laughed, shaking his head and rolling his eyes before tossing a pillow at her face that she blocked.

"Because, you know me better than anyone else. That's how," she answered with a smile, getting up and grabbing some clothes out of her closet and her shower caddy. "I'm gonna go take a shower and get cleaned up. I'll be back." She turned and looked back at him, laughing one more time before closing the dorm room door behind her as she headed down the hall towards the bathroom.

As she took a shower, she thought about the fact that if it had been any other guy that had felt her up while she was asleep, she would've literally kicked their ass, but she knew Dean well enough to know he didn't do it on purpose. She believed him when he said he was just dreaming and the shame and embarrassment written all over his face afterwards proved that it was true.

She knew without a doubt he would never do something to her she didn't want to do. She was closer to him than anyone else in the world and she trusted him completely. The funny thing was, she didn't even feel weird or creeped out about the fact that he had touched her boob and pressed his hard on against her. Surprisingly, it felt like no big deal.

It got her thinking that maybe Ember was right that he would be a good person to practice with for her first time because she was so comfortable with him and he was safe. She decided she would talk to him about it and see what he thought.

She pulled her long, straight brown hair up into a messy bun, put on a pair of her favorite high-waisted jeans and a cropped, baggy, off-the-shoulder sweatshirt with a black sports bra underneath.

When she went back in her dorm room, Dean was already dressed in a pair of dark jeans, a black t-shirt that was tight enough to see his muscles and some Nike high top tennis shoes. He was looking good as always with his tousled short brown hair and his dark aviator sunglasses on. He was one of those guys that always looked good without even having to try.

"Hey ummmm. I wanted to talk to you about something," she told him, clearing her throat.

"About what?" he asked with scrunched eyebrows.

"I ummm. I decided I want to tell you why Ember was acting weird at the party. I don't want to keep it a secret any more."

His eyebrow raised. "Really? Good, cause the curiosity has been killing me."

She sat down on the bed and patted the spot beside her and he sat down next to her.

"So what's up?" he asked, turning his body to face hers.

She took a deep breath in and let it out, gathering up the nerve to tell him.

"Ok. So Ember had this crazy idea and I immediately told her no, but I'm starting to think maybe she was right," she told him, before hesitating. "Wait, I should probably explain how this whole conversation even got started first. So, I had told Ember one night that I'm ready to lose my virginity, but I'm really nervous about it and I don't want to get my heart broken. She thinks I'm overthinking the whole thing and that I need to get my first time over with, like ripping off a band-aid."

He scrunched his eyebrows, apparently not liking the sound of that. She looked down at her hands that were toying with the fringe on her blanket nervously.

"She thinks I need to do it with a guy that I trust and have known for a long time because it would be better than doing it with a random stranger that might turn out to be a bad guy. That's what happened to her for her first time. She said if she could go back in time she would have done it with her best friend instead of someone she barely knew."

He looked at her and said, "What are you saying? You want to have sex with me?" he asked, laughing awkwardly and rubbing the back of his neck, looking down. "Ummmm. I don't even know what to say to that."

"Think about it Dean. It actually makes so much sense!" she told him excitedly, laying her hand on his arm. "I have NO idea what the fuck I'm doing, so if I try to have sex with some random guy for my first time, I'm gonna totally make a fool of myself. With you, I don't give a shit about that. I've already made a fool of myself in front of you a million times and you don't care. Plus, you've got lots of experience so you can teach me things, so the next guy I sleep with, I'll know what I'm doing."

He shook his head.

"No way Berkley. It's not happening."

"Why not?" she asked, surprised by his reaction. "I've never known you to pass up the chance to get laid by a pretty virgin."

He scoffed. "Yeah, well this is different."

"Why?"

"Because," he laughed. "You're you and I'm me and that would be so fucking weird. You're my best friend."

"So?"

"So, I don't think of you like that, but if we had sex I would start to. It would change things between us and make it weird and awkward and I don't want that to happen."

"Things don't have to get weird and awkward between us if we don't let them. We could just make a pact that it's a one time thing and that neither of us will catch feelings for the other because we both know we don't like each other like that. You would just be my best friend helping me out and doing me a favor."

"No," he said firmly, shaking his head. "You don't know what you're asking for Berk. It would be impossible for it not to change things between us."

"C'mon. Please Dean?" she asked softly, feeling kind of pathetic for begging, but at this point she was desperate. "I can't even imagine trusting any other guy enough to have my first time with them."

Dean stood up off the bed, grabbing his leather jacket and slipping it on. "Well that's too bad cause it's not happening," he laughed. "And I'm not changing my mind, so let's just pretend this conversation never happened," he said, heading towards the door and opening it. "I'm hungry. Let's go eat."

She took a deep breath in and let it out, before standing up and saying, "Fine. Whatever," in a mopey voice.

He laughed and shook his head, wrapping an arm around her shoulder as he lead her out the door.

"Awww. You're kind of cute when you're pouty," he teased, poking her dimple with his finger.

She glared up at him and said, "Shut up asshole," shoving him away. Then she couldn't help but smile, rolling her eyes.

"Awww. Don't be salty B. You know I'm right. Us hooking up would be SUPER fucking weird and you know it," he laughed.

"Yeah, you're probably right," she told him, letting out an exhale as they walked down the long hallway towards the elevator. "When Ember first suggested it, I thought she was a crazy. Then, after what happened this morning, I was surprised that I didn't feel weird about it at all. It got me thinking that maybe practicing with you was a good idea after all. Momentary lapse of judgement I guess," she laughed.

"Yeah. You'll thank me later for saying no. I promise," he said with a smile, stepping into the elevator.

"Well since you did say no, you can't interfere when I decide to bang a random hot stranger who may or may not be a good guy."

**** Two Hours Later ****

They slid into the booth at the diner across from each other and Dean started looking over the menu. Berkley looked at this man sitting across from her that she had seen every day for almost nineteen years and really studied him for the first time in a long time.

Dean was tall and a little bit on the skinny side, but still muscular with broad shoulders and straight, dark brown hair that always laid perfectly no matter how hard you tried to mess it up, strong thick eyebrows, clear lightly tanned skin and piercing dark blue eyes. His square jawline was peppered very lightly with stubble but it was clean and well groomed, giving him a rugged manly look. There was no denying that Dean Bradshaw was gorgeous. He always had been ever since they were really little.

He also had a charisma that drew people to him and a confident swagger that only he could pull off without seeming like a douchebag. His confidence came from being genius level smart without even trying, being instantly great at every sport he ever tried and knowing he could get any woman he wanted. She couldn't remember him ever wanting a girl he didn't eventually get, because all the girls at school had recognized what a catch he was.

It wasn't just his looks that made Dean Bradshaw a good catch though. He also had a big heart and on the inside, underneath that cocky exterior, he really was a good man. That's why he had always been her best friend.

There weren't too many guys that would have given up going to their dream school for their best friend, but that's what Dean had done for her. They had both applied to Yale, but when Berkley didn't get in, he paid the fee to defer his acceptance for a year so he could spend his freshman year at Boston University with her. She had tried to talk him out of it, but he insisted. After everything she had been through, he said he wouldn't feel comfortable being that far away from her until he knew she was better and didn't need him.

She heard a deep voice say, "Berkley? Is that really you?" pulling her out of her thoughts about Dean.

She looked up to see where it was coming from and she saw a tall figure heading towards their table and her heart skipped a beat.