Berkley smiled and said, "Yeah. I'd really like that Zander."

That put a big smile on his face as he slipped his hand into hers and she looked over at him as they walked back down the pier.

He was so handsome that she could hardly believe he really liked her. This all felt like a dream that she was going to wake up from. The fact that he was the one that saved her life made this whole thing feel even more romantic. Imagine if they were to get married and have kids, what a great story they would have to tell them about how their parents met. He looked over and their eyes met and she smiled, before looking down at the ground.

When Zander dropped her back off at her dorm later that night, he got off his motorcycle and took off his helmet, helping her take hers off too before pulling her in for another hug. He held her for a minute as she breathed his cologne in deeply. Then he pulled in at her waist, bringing her body against him before leaning down and covering her mouth with his, kissing her deeply.

His tongue pushed past her lips and massaged against hers, making her insides flutter as she kissed him back, lifting her arms and wrapping them around his neck. He kissed her with so much passion that it made her entire body tingle and her legs felt weak. When he finally pulled back from the kiss and took a step back, her heart was racing and she was breathless.

"Good night beautiful," he said with a sexy smirk and a wink, before pulling his shiny black motorcycle helmet back on and sitting back down on his bike.

"Good night," she said with a shy smile and a weak, little wave, watching him start up the engine with a deep rumble and drive it away out of the parking lot.

She turned and walked towards her dorm with the biggest smile on her face she had ever had.

When she got up to her dorm room, Ember was laying on her stomach with papers and books laid all around her bed, writing in a notebook.

"Hey," she said with a cheerful smile. "How'd your date go?"

Berkley flopped down onto her bed with a dreamy smile on her face.

"It was amazing," she sighed. "Zander is SO sweet. He took me for a walk on the beach and we held hands and just talked for hours. When he dropped me back off, he gave me the most amazing kiss I've ever had in my life," she said, with her cheeks flushing as she smiled at the memory.

"Awww. I'm so happy for you. I'm glad it went well," Ember told her, before going back to her work. A minute later she looked up and said, "Hey, I ummmm, I hate to ruin your good mood, but I actually wanted to talk to you about something."

"Oh yeah? What about?" Berkley asked, propping herself up on her elbows as she laid on her stomach.

"Before I ask, I just want to preface it by saying that if I'm being too nosy, just tell me to butt out. I promise I won't get my feelings hurt."

"Okay," Berkley said hesitantly with an awkward laugh, wondering what in the world she was going to ask.

"Those nightmares you have, they ummm, they sound pretty brutal," Ember said quietly, looking down at her notepad. Then she lifted her head and looked at Berkley, searching her eyes. "Did something happen to your Mom? You were screaming Mom over and over in your sleep last night."

She hadn't expected that question and it took the wind right out of her lungs, making her suddenly feel an aching pang in her stomach as her brain struggled with how to answer. She had been on such a high from her date that she had almost forgotten about her nightmares and what had happened for a while.

She slowly sat up, looking down at her hands in her lap as she said quietly, "Yeah, about six months ago me and my Mom went through something really, really bad and ever since then, I've had nightmares where I relive what happened that day. During the day time I can usually block those memories out, but at night when I'm asleep, I'm not in control of my thoughts and everything comes back."

She swallowed hard before saying, "I'm sorry I'm being so vague, but it's really hard for me to talk about what happened. It takes me to a dark place mentally that it takes a long time to get back out of."

The only people that knew all the details about what happened that day were Dean, her Dad and her brother.

Ember looked at her with sympathy. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to pry. I was just worried about you. I've had bad dreams before, but nothing like yours. Your nightmares sound terrifying."

"Yeah," Berkley nodded, letting out an exhale. "They are. I did some research and found out they're called night terrors, which are a lot worse than regular nightmares. They feel so real that when I wake up, it takes my brain a while to realize it was just a dream."

"Do you have them very often?"

"Yeah, about three times a night ....... every night."

"Wow. Three times a night? I can't even imagine," Ember said with wide eyes, shaking her head.

She got up and came over, sitting down next to Berkley and wrapping an arm around her shoulder, pulling her into a hug. "I'm so sorry," she whispered as she rubbed her back.

Berkley leaned her head on her shoulder and let out an exhale.

Ember pulled back and looked into her eyes, saying, "I know you may not be ready to talk about it yet, but when you are, I'm here to listen. Or if you don't feel like talking and just need a hug and a shoulder to cry on, I've got you."

"Thank you," Berkley said, giving her a weak smile.  "I really appreciate that. And I'm sorry you got stuck with me as a roommate. I feel really bad about waking you up in the middle of the night like I did."

"Oh no. Don't worry about me. I can just get a pair of ear plugs," Ember said with a smile, making her smile too.

"They better be REALLY good earplugs," Berkley laughed.

"Yeah, you're right. In fact, I'm gonna go ahead and order some right now," Ember said, picking up her cell phone and clicking around for a minute before saying, "Done! I went on Amazon and ordered some that were engineered by NASA that are guaranteed to block out all sound. You've gotta make sure I wake up in the morning to my alarm though," she smiled.

"I can do that," Berkley nodded. "Thank you for being so understanding about all this."

"You're welcome. I'm not gonna give you a hard time about it. You've already been through enough and it's not like you can help it," Ember said with a smile, giving Berkley's arm a squeeze.

She was so relieved about how cool Ember was being about all this. Most people would've requested a roommate change immediately.

"Wait. You said you usually have three nightmares a night, but you only had one last night."

"Yeah, that's why you saw me sleeping with Dean. I texted him and he came over and snuggled with me after the first one. I usually don't have night terrors when he cuddles with me for some reason. I'm not really sure why."

"Awww. That's so cute," Ember said with a smile and Berkley rolled her eyes, laughing. She needed to change the subject.

"So are you all ready for the first day of classes tomorrow?" she asked, looking across the room at all the papers spread out on Ember's bed.

"Yeah, but I'm nervous. First day jitters I guess. Hey, do you have your schedule? I wonder if we have any classes together?" Ember asked, getting up and walking back over to her bed and picking her schedule up. "You can check," she said, holding it out to Berkley.

Berkley got up and fished her own schedule out of her backpack, looking them both over.

"It looks like we only have one class together. Economics. Exciting," she said sarcastically with a laugh, handing Ember back her schedule.

There was a knock at their door and Berkley opened it to see Dean standing there leaning against her doorframe wearing some aviator sunglasses, his black leather jacket, a pair of dark jeans and a tight white t-shirt with his dark, wet hair tousled like he just got out of the shower.

"Hey," Berkley said with a smile. "What's up?"

"Nothing. Since when do I need a reason to hang out with my best friend?" he asked, sliding his sunglasses off and walking past her, plopping down onto her bed.

"Hey no shoes on my bed caveman," she said, sitting down next to him and swatting his feet off onto the floor.

"Fine," he told her, kicking his shoes off and stripping off his leather jacket before climbing under her covers.

"Just make yourself right at home," she teased.

"I will. So how was your date?"

"It was good," she said, fighting back a smile.

Ember scoffed. "It was more than just 'good'. You said he gave you the most amazing kiss of your life and you've been smiling like a daggone Cheshire cat ever since you got back."

Berkley's cheeks flushed and she laughed awkwardly, rubbing the back of her neck. She couldn't believe Ember just called her out like that in front of Dean.

"Oh yeah?" Dean asked, raising an eyebrow at Berkley and studying her face.

Ember stood up and said, "On that note, I'm going to the bathroom. I'll be back," eyeing both of them as she left.

Dean looked at Berkley, waiting for her to say something.

She couldn't help the smile that spread across her face. "Okay. Fine," she told him, laughing. "The truth is, it was a REALLY good kiss and he asked to take me out again sometime."

"So, you ummm. You really like this guy?" Dean asked hesitantly.

"Yeah," she shrugged. "I ummm, I think Zander might be the one." 

"The one?" Dean asked.

"Yeah. You know, 'the one'," she said, making air quotes with her fingers. "I wanted my first time to be with someone special and Zander saved my life. You can't get any more special than that."

He laid there in silence for a few seconds, thinking, before half-heartedly saying, "Yeah. That's great Berk," under his breath, sounding less than enthusiastic about it.

"Hey! What's your problem mister?" she asked, leaning over and punching his arm to snap him out of it.

He laughed, rubbing the spot she hit.

"I don't know. It's just," he said, letting out an exhale and running a hand up through his hair. "It's just weird hearing YOU talk about having sex."

"Oh, you don't like hearing about my sex life huh?" she laughed. "Well you've been doing that shit to me for years, so it's finally payback time. I'm gonna give you a taste of your own medicine and tell you all about how amazing having sex with Zander was and EVERY juicy little detail of exactly what we did."

He cringed, looking like he was suddenly nauseous. "I'd rather you didn't. I really don't want to hear about it."

"Oh really?" she scoffed. "Do you think I wanted to hear about how Sydney could suck start a Harley or how flexible Janine the gymnast was?" she laughed. "Hell fucking no! I hated every second of it, and now you'll get to see how it feels."

She couldn't wait to turn the tables on him. She was really going to enjoy torturing him the way he did her.

Ember walked back in the room and after gathering up her papers, she turned towards them and asked, "Hey Dean? Is there any way you could do me a favor?"

"Sure, what do you need?" he asked, still looking distracted by the conversation he just had with Berkley.

"Well, tomorrow is the first day of classes and I really need to get a good night's sleep. I ordered some crazy good earplugs, but they won't be delivered for a few days. Would you mind sleeping over so Berkley doesn't have nightmares tonight? She said she doesn't have them when you sleep with her. I'll love you forever and owe you one," she pleaded. "I mean, that's if it's okay with you if he stays over Berkley?"

Berkley scoffed. "Why wouldn't it be okay? Dean stays over at my house all the time. It's no big deal."

"Umm, yeah. I can stay over again," Dean told them.

Berkley looked over at Dean with a mischievous smirk and whispered so only he could hear, "Just try to keep your hard on to yourself this time big boy."

He narrowed his eyes at her before picking up her pillow and smacking her with it, making her laugh.

She picked up a pillow and smacked him back and the next thing she knew he was on top of her tickling her stomach and making her squeal and scream.

Finally he stopped and they both laid there panting, with him on top of her and gradually both of their smiles faded away as he looked down into her eyes. She felt something stirring inside as she stared up into his dark blue eyes that were looking back into hers, until he finally looked away and cleared his throat, getting off of her and sitting up.

He sat there in silence for a few seconds before finally saying, "Well if I'm staying over tonight I need to go back to my place and get my stuff. I'll be back."

She heard the click of the door as he left and she laid there panting with her heart beating like crazy. Then she looked over and noticed the way Ember was smiling at her. 

"I know what you're trying to do," Berkely laughed, throwing her pillow across the room at her.

"What?" Ember said innocently.

"Do you think you're the first person to try to get me and Dean together? Our parents have been trying to get us to be a couple for years. It's never gonna happen."

"Why not?" Ember asked.

Berkley laid there and took in a deep breath and let it out, looking up at the ceiling while hugging a pillow to her chest. "It's just not," she said quietly.

Ember didn't know Dean like she did. She knew she wasn't his type and they could never be more than friends.