Prompt #11: Sweet n' Tart.

-11-

The second Jason stepped off of the elevator leading to his floor he was attacked.

Not so much attacked where he needed to pull the gun that rested in the waistband of his jeans out to protect his life. He wasn't actually attacked in the physical manner at all.

It was more of a verbal attack by the one person who wouldn't shut up no matter how many times he told her to.

Carly Corinthos.

Though she was one of his oldest friends – even older than Sonny, the woman drove him insane. She always had one scam or another running through her mind, always causing trouble for those around her. It didn't matter that he and Sonny forbid her to act out on any of her wild ideas, the blonde did whatever she wanted whenever she wanted.

And that included driving Jason insane with her constant need to butt into his life.

"I can't believe you brought her with you last night. What the hell were you thinking and why are you just now getting home?"

"Leave me alone."

She ignored him, of course.

Following him, Carly caught the door to his apartment right before it slammed in her face, huffing with great dramatics. She slammed the door behind her as she prowled after him.

"Do not tell me that you slept with her!" she wailed in a high pitched voice.

"Fine," he shrugged out of his jacket. "I won't."

"I think I'm going to be sick." She threw her hands up, spreading her fingers wide. "How could you do this to me?"

"How does this have any thing to do with you?" He snapped, his eyebrows raised high as his head tilted to the side.

She stomped her foot. "Because you know how much I can't stand the little twit. Besides the thought of you… and her…" She shivered. "Ugh, it's gross."

Jason stared at her for several moments, his expression hard. Letting out a loud breath, he wiped his mouth, curling his hand around his chin before dropping it to his side. "I didn't sleep with her, ok? Would you just drop this?"

He didn't know why he asked. Carly was Carly and she didn't drop anything. She would nag and nag and drive a person to the brink of throwing something at her head before she would stop. It's like she had a sixth sense about that. When someone was about to snap she would quickly make her escape.

She knew he was a patient man.

"As glad as I am that you didn't sleep with her, I still can't get the image out of my head."

"You brought it up."

She flicked her wrist, dismissing his interruption. "Now, back to my first question: Why the hell did you bring her? I didn't invite her."

"She's my friend, Carly."

"Doesn't mean you had to bring her to my party."

Jason sunk onto his couch, rubbing his head, the stirrings of a headache throbbing behind his right eye. "Why do you have such a problem with Elizabeth?"

Carly took a seat right next to him, her leg bent on the cushion between them, her arm stretched on the back of the couch. "She's such a… goody, goody," her lip curled. "She walks around like she's so much better than everyone else. And she's just… she annoys me so I don't like her."

"Elizabeth's a good person. You've never given her a chance."

"That's because I can read people and the second I saw Elizabeth I knew she was a little bitch. You would be better off if you just cut all ties with her."

"You didn't start hating her until I moved back here," he pointed out.

She shrugged her shoulders. "So," she flicked her wrist again. "She's using you, Jason."

When he rolled his eyes in frustration and stood, Carly followed right behind him. "She's this little innocent nobody…" He gave her a hard look but she continued, ignoring him like always. "And you're this hot bad boy. You're a thrill to her and she's using you. Once you let her in, she'll find out that she can't handle your life and then you'll be the one hurt in the end."

Oh, how little she knew.

He shook his head but Carly stood her ground. "She'll only end up hurting you, Jason. I'll rip her hair out before she gets a chance to."

"Stay away from Elizabeth," he spoke in a low voice, taking a step toward her. "Don't go near her."

"It's already beginning, isn't it? She's got you blinded by her little halo. I've got to fix you."

"Carly," Jason warned. "Just leave it alone."

"No! I can't stand by and watch you fall all over yourself for someone like Elizabeth. She doesn't deserve you…"

"Enough!" his voice boomed against the walls of his apartment, startling her into silence. "I don't care how much you hate her, Carly. I'm tired of listening to you put her down all the time. You don't know Elizabeth; you don't know what she means to me. I'm the one who doesn't deserve her."

"Jase…"

"No. You say she's not good enough for me and that she'll only hurt me, but I'm the one who's not good enough for her. It would make me happy to be with her, to come home to her everyday but I wont to that to her."

He looked away, scratching his chest. "So you don't have to worry about me ending up with someone and not being there for you and Sonny whenever you need me."

"That's not what this is about," her voice sounded wounded, the tears in her eyes backing up her hurt at his outburst. He couldn't seem to care at the moment.

"Isn't it?" his voice was mocking. "If it's not Elizabeth, then you would be bothering me about some other woman I was interested in. She could be just like you and you'd hate her. But I'm not going to sacrifice Elizabeth's happiness for my own. So don't worry anymore. I'll always be alone."

"I don't want that for you, Jase. I want you to be happy."

He looked at her in disbelief. "I do," she tisked. "I just never thought the twi… Elizabeth would be that someone who made you happy." She looked absolutely disgusted.

"Yeah, well," he shrugged.

Carly swallowed once, twice. She fidgeted on her feet before she finally threw her hands up in the air, letting out a frustrated breath. "Have you told her how you felt," she huffed, not looking him in the eye.

"No."

"Maybe you should."

"Like I said," he shrugged, "I'm not going to."

"Well if she makes you… God, this is so hard for me to say without gagging." She held up her hands when he glared at her. "If she makes you happy then you need to let her know."

"Not gonna happen."

She threw her hands up. "Why are you so damn stubborn?"

"Why can't you mind your own business?"

"I don't know how to," she smiled. He could tell she was realizing he wasn't going to budge on the subject. "Fine, I won't tell you how to live your life anymore."

He snorted.

"Do whatever you want." She turned around and walked to the door, speaking as she went. "Maybe it's for the best. Like I said before, she can't handle a man li—"

"Carly."

"Never mind," she shouted as she slammed the door behind her.

Jason rolled his eyes as he made his way up the stairs and to his bathroom. A long hot shower was what he needed, he decided. It would soothe away the stress he was feeling and even allow him to think about what he was going to do to make Elizabeth see his view of the situation without letting her know how he really felt.

A hot shower would take away his images of the night before – if only for a little while – giving him a clear head to think. He would be able to push aside the images of Elizabeth stretching beneath him in all her glory. Her silky skin rubbing against his, her lips forming a perfect shape as she moaned.

Yep, he'd be able to push all of that aside during his shower.

Stripping his clothes, Jason turned the knob of his shower all the way to cold.

Who the hell was he kidding?

Half an hour later, Jason pounded down his stairs, the effects of the cold shower still causing him to shiver.

His phone rang, focusing his attention to his desk where he dropped his cell phone earlier. "Yeah," he barked as he flipped the phone open.

The voice on the other line, a new kid Sonny just hired to watch over things at the warehouse, began to ramble on about a missing shipment and how he couldn't get a hold of Sonny so he'd figure he'd call Jason. "That's ok, right?"

The kid sounded scared to death making Jason close his eyes in frustration. Just what he needed. "Which shipment?"

"Oh, it's just a coffee shipment not…" the boy cleared his throat," you know. But I thought it was important to let you know. I thought if I didn't call right away I might get in trouble and I just—"

"Ok," Jason cut him off. "I'll send someone down there to take care of it and explain to you what you need to do the next time something like this happens."

"Thank you, Mr. Morgan."

Hanging up, Jason opened his door and saw Max standing outside Sonny's door.

"Max," Jason summoned the man with a gesture of his hand.

Max's eyes narrowed as he took his sweet time walking to Jason.

Jason's forehead crinkled. "I uh, I need you to get to the warehouse and find out what's going on with a missing shipment."

Max sucked on his teeth. "Do it your self."

"Excuse me?"

Max faltered, shuffling his feet a moment before he squared his shoulders and hardened his face once more. "I said do it your self… boss," he added the last part with a nod.

Jason stepped so close to Max that their faces were only inches apart. The glare he gave the guard was a glare that had broken many men before. Max didn't flinch. "Do you have a death wish, Max?"

"Do you?"

"If you don't tell me what the fu—"

"You made her cry."

"What?"

"Do you even realize what a wonderful person she is? How some guys would kill to have someone like her even look at them twice?"

Jason took a step back. "Who are you talking about?"

"Elizabeth," Max shook his head in disappointment. "You really are that dense."

"Watch it, Max," he warned with a hard voice before his face softened, dread creeping in his throat. "What do you mean I made her cry?"

"Just that," Max huffed before clearing his throat at Jason's hard look. "She came home today with puffy eyes and boxes."

"Boxes?"

"Yeah, boxes." When Max raised his eyebrows in some sort of sign, Jason just shook his head, still not understanding what the hell was going on. "She's planning on moving, man! You broke her heart for the last time and she's leaving so you can't do it again."

Like hell she was.

Jason pushed past Max, not catching the wide, goofy smile that spread across the guards face.

His footsteps picked up their pace until he was running to Elizabeth's apartment.

It looked like he was going to be selfish after all because there was no way in hell he was going to let her leave.

His life would be too empty without her.