A Dialogue Between Friends

"So you're running?" Callie asks, as she slides into Jay's passenger seat before he can drive away.

He gasps and then exhales hard in exasperation. "Do you have to be such a freakin' ninja all the time? It's really unnerving."

She merely shrugs her shoulders and watches intently as he throws the car into reverse and takes off down the driveway. He realizes that he has yet to answer her question, but she won't push him into answering or ask again. That's one of his favorite things about her, and one reason that they always get along so well. Jay will answer when he is ready to and until then, they'll engage in petty,
meaningless conversation.

"This isn't how it was supposed to happen," Jay states, causing Callie to reorganize her thoughts.

'Or maybe it won't be meaningless at all,' she thinks, before simply replying with an "I know," to urge on his thoughts.

"I've been planning this for a month," he continues, clearly needing to vent about his frustration over the whole Alexa situation. "Four of my plans to tell her have failed. They weren't straight-forward enough to get through to her and she didn't understand what I was saying. Okay...fine, I can deal with that. I can live with her being completely oblivious. But this plan was the Ultimate - it was absolutely perfect. Alexa would have no choice but to understand my meaning. She would finally know how much I care about her and she might have said No, or Maybe, or even given me a Yes, but she wouldn't have just stood there silently. My confession, it wasn't supposed to leave her speechless - stunned into complete silence! Anything would have been better than that god-
awful silence," and he ends with a defeated look on his face and a horrible tone of finality that Callie just can't stand. After all, this is a new beginning, not a melancholy ending.

"What if she said No?" Callie asks.

"What?" Jay asks, confusion plastered across his face.

"What if she said No?" she reiterates, with strict enunciation of every syllable. "What if your plan went perfectly, you told her exactly how you felt, but Alexa immediately told you No?"

Jay's eyes get wider as he thinks about her question and apparently comes to the same conclusion that Callie has. But he is arrogant and stubborn, and he'll be damned if he is admitting THAT out loud. It isn't necessary for him to do so anyway, because she is more than happy to oblige.

"You would be right here, running away...just like you are now," she states unnecessarily.

Since the idea is already out there, and Jay has an inability to lie to the woman currently sitting next to him, he accepts it and moves the conversation forward. "Of course I would be running.
In this theoretic situation, I would have just ruined my relationship with one of the best friends I have ever had, for no reason. So, yes, I think that I would have a right to be upset. Theoretically,
that is."

"Of course, but that's not the point Jay," Callie says, in her patronizing and gentle way.

"It's not?" he asks, clearly confused once again. 'You think I'd know how to follow her logic after five years, but nope, still clueless.'

"You're treating her silence as if she has refused you," she explains. "But she didn't. Hell, you didn't even ask her anything, or wait to see if she did say anything about it. You just bombed her with the biggest announcement she's ever heard, out of the blue, as far as she is concerned,
and then you left...before she could even process the information."

"Saying it like that makes it so simple," Jay shes his head at her (really at himself) in disgust. "Why didn't I just let her think about it? Damnit! I just had to open my big fat mouth and announce my love for her in front of everyone. God, I must have looked like such a jackass.
and shit! I ran away like a little coward! Damn, I'm never gonna hear the end of this."

"But won't it be worth it if she cares for you too?" Callie asks with a spark of knowledge alight in her eyes.

"No shit," Jay answers, with attitude, before jerking his face towards hers quickly. "Wait, do you know something? Do you think Alexa cares about me too?"

"I can only tell you what I've said before, Jay," she replies mysteriously. "You two have been dancing around each other for months, and yeah, I think you two would make a terrific couple."

"But?" Jay asks suspiciously.

"But Alexa has never thought about you in that way," she shrugs, giving the truth to him straight.
"She's never entertained the possibility of you as any more than one of her very best friends. So it's going to take her some time to adjust to this new version of you. Suddenly, you go from an overprotective big brother type friend, to a jealous courter...in the blink of an eye."

"It isn't 'suddenly,' Callie," Jay denies with feeling. "I've been courting her for a month now, and honestly, it's been a long time coming. She's been my princess for years."

"Just like I said?" Callie poses it as a question, but her lips pull into another smug smile that irks Jay just because he often wears a similar expression himself.

"Yeah, yeah, just like you said," he mutters in frustration. "Now, please tell me what to do."

"I've already said everything that you need to know," she replies with a mysterious smile playing on her lips.

He narrows his eyes at her and asks incredulously, "You mean you're seriously going to make me figure out something this important without your help?"

"I've already give you the help that you need," one more mysterious answer emits from her before she adds, "Besides, what kind of a friend would I be if I gave you all the answers and didn't allow you to learning anything?"

Before he can say a word in retort, Callie flings the passenger door open and death rolls out of the (still-moving) vehicle. Jay frantically looks into the rear view mirror, hoping for her to pop back up.
Moments later, she doesn't just that, looking none the worse for the wear. With a little wave and that arrogant smirk still on her face, she takes off back towards the Cena house.

"I swear, that woman is going to give me a heart attack one day," Jay mutters to himself, before contemplating the messy situation that his heart has gotten him into.