Chapter 39

Boone was walking down the busy streets of New York City one cool February afternoon after visiting an art exhibit that none of his friends had seemed interested in spending their Saturday at. So he went by himself, unbothered by the fact that he was alone. He had lived in such close quarters with his roommates for such a long time, and sometimes it was good to get away. The exhibit itself had been interesting enough, a study of famous black and white photographers, and now Boone was looking like any native New Yorker, wearing a black coat and drinking heinously overpriced coffee in a Styrofoam cup. There were lots of people around, enjoying the mild weather on their weekend, but Boone did a double-take as one girl walked by.

The flash of red-brown hair that flashed by was artfully messy in a way that made it look like she had just had rolled out of bed after having sex, was strangely familiar. That was when he realized that it was Anna, Shannon's best friend, and the girl he had lost his virginity to. They had had some attraction, but when it came to a long-term relationship, they were totally incompatible; she was needy and dramatic, and he was laid-back and immersed in other things – other people… well, he was immersed with Shannon.

"Anna!" He exclaimed. Even though things hadn't worked out, he still felt a bond to her that wasn't just because of their previous experiences together. Boone figured it was because of her close connection to Shannon. Anna stumbled over her shoe, which was, in predictable Anna fashion, a black stiletto boot, and quickly turned around, trying to decipher where the sound had come from. "Anna!" He walked towards her.

"Oh my god!" She squealed. "Boone!" She stood awkwardly in front of him, an eager smile on her face. Should he hug her? He decided that he may as well, but found himself holding on longer than he had expected to. She smelled like California. Like Shannon.

"Hey!" He said warmly. "What are you – what are you doing here?"

"I have a shoot," she twirled her hair around her finger nervously. Boone had never seen her display anything but obnoxious self-confidence, so this was a new side to her. Maybe Shannon had been right, when she said that she had changed. The old Anna had been known for her lack of tact and superior knowledge of cuss words. "It was yesterday, but I decided to stay the weekend. I can't believe I ran into you, though!" She exclaimed.

"Yeah, what are the chances?" He was genuinely surprised, and truly happy to see her. "I mean, millions of people in New York, and we happen to be in the same place at the same time."

"Must be fate!" She laughed, rolling her heavily lined eyes. Now that was more like the Anna he remembered.

"So, uh…" he started weakly. "Wanna go get some coffee?" He offered her a smile.

"Looks like you already got some," she noted.

"Oh," he looked at his empty coffee cup. "Well, wanna get some more?"

"Sure," she smiled. "You lead the way, New York boy." He led her to a nearby coffee house, a small little run-down place, never Starbucks, which many of the art freaks at NYU frowned upon intensely. The place was crowded, so after they ordered, he took her arm and led her to a table, where they sat down. "So this is where all of the intellectuals hang out?" She prompted, naïve.

"I don't that much," he admitted. "But the intellectuals and the art um," he lowered his voice, "freaks, do."

"Oh," she nodded, right as their order was called. Boone went and got their coffees, deciding it would be nice to pay, and sat back down. "Thanks for paying," she thanked him. "So, how do you like it here?" She asked him when he got back.

"I like it. I like being away from Sabrina, but I don't like being away from – "

"Shannon," they said simultaneously. An awkward pause followed. She looked at him, biting her lip nervously, and then looked away. Their relationship had concluded partially because Anna had called him on being in love with Shannon.

"Do you still…? Like, it's okay if you do." To a bystander, her question would have been incoherent, but they both knew what she was talking about.

"Yeah…" he looked down at his coffee mug, turning it around on its saucer. "Still do. Are you still mad at me?"

"I never really was. Well, I was a little at first, just cuz, you know, I really sorta fell for you," she laughed self-deprecatingly. "But then I was okay about it. I'm sure it's worse for you, it must hurt a lot to feel that way about someone…"

"Someone you can't have," he finished.

"Exactly," she nodded, the mood of the conversation shifted. Then she suddenly broke into a grin. "It did kind of suck though, having you as my first, now nothing quite measures up!"

"Sucked, huh?" He said immaturely, looking up dreamily, though he was only joking around with her.

"Shut up, Boone," she laughed, playfully pushing his arm. "I can't be held accountable for things I did when I was drunk, okay?"

"You weren't always drunk… only usually." He smiled innocently. "But you were like obsessed with my – "

"And now I'd say you're drunk!" She interrupted him, somewhere between completely humiliated and cracking up. They finished their coffees, and stood up, walking back outside into the colder air. "So…" she said. "Uh, nice seeing you?"

"Yeah, it was nice." He said kindly. "Um, bye?" He pulled her in for a hug, which somehow turned into a kiss, though it was still fairly platonic. She stepped back, giving him a final pat on the shoulder, and started to walk away. "Anna!" He called after her. Being near her was like being near Shannon, and it filled him with sentiment. She stopped and turned around to look at him, walking slowly back over to him.

"Yeah?" She said expectantly.

"You don't have to leave… yet…" he trailed off.

"Okay," she grinned. "What do you wanna do then?"

"I dunno," he smiled playfully. "What do you wanna do?"

She raised her eyebrows, contemplating something in her head. "Wanna fuck?" She asked nonchalantly.

Had he misheard her? "Um, excuse me?"

"Do you want to have sex?" She said slowly, as if she were speaking to a retarded person.

He gaped at her, not sure whether she was joking or not. So he laughed uncertainly.

"I'm serious!" She blushed. "And now you're laughing! So much for that idea, then," she shrugged.

"Well…" he hadn't had sex in a really long time, and being any hormonal teenage boy, he wasn't completely turned off to the idea.

"Haven't you ever had casual sex before?" She asked him. "I mean, there wouldn't be any commitments or anything."

"Well, as long as we both know that…" he couldn't believe that he was actually considering this. "I mean, we have to be careful."

"Of course," she nodded eagerly. "So, you wanna?"

"I'm just… I mean, I can't guarantee that I won't say… that I won't say her name." He said quietly.

"That's okay," she shrugged. "I mean, we're just blatantly using each other for sex. Totally casual." She failed to see the irony in this statement.

Boone laughed. "I can't believe I'm agreeing to this." But he hadn't had sex in about a year, and he knew that sooner or later he was going to end up doing it. Better to do it with someone who understood the situation and knew him, he thought.

"My hotel's right down the street, so I guess we can just walk." This was beginning to sound sleazy. "Don't worry, it's like a 4-star hotel. I'm not talking about some seedy motel in the middle of nowhere," she seemed to read his mind. "Come on." She linked her arm in his and led him down the street.

When they reached the hotel, an ultra chic skyscraper in a sophisticated area of Manhattan, they walked through the marble entry-room and towards the elevators. The lady at the front desk gave him a reproachful look. Boone felt like dying. Why had he agreed to this, again? She pulled him inside the elevator and looked at him expectantly. "Your seduction style: nonexistent," she said blankly.

He rolled his eyes, and leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. She sighed, looking bored. So he kissed her on the neck. To hell with it, he thought, and faced her towards him, kissing her fully on the lips. He remembered how warm and inviting Shannon's lips had been a few weeks ago when she had visited, and deepened the kiss with Anna. When they reached their floor on the elevator, they were full-on making out. Shannon, Shannon, Shannon, he thought. She pulled back when the elevator door opened, because there were some other people standing in the hallway waiting to go down.

She used her key to open the door, and dropped her purse on the table in the foyer. The room was a large suite with lush carpeting and huge picture windows. He had stayed in numerous hotels like this, being from the same tax bracket as her. "Nice room," he said, walking into it and taking off his coat. She did the same, throwing it on the couch in the other room in front of the large screened television. Boone didn't like to be ostentatious about his wealth, but he had to admit he was pretty accustomed to hotel rooms like this.

"Yeah," she said distractedly, going towards the windows and closing the blinds. "A lot of the girls at the shoot couldn't afford it, so they're staying here. But they left this morning, so I have it all to myself!" She explained.

"Cool," he said. "What was the shoot for?"

"This magazine spread about summer fashions and make-up and stuff. Wearing a swimsuit in 40 degree weather? Not so fun." She wrapped her arms around Boone's waist, kissing him softly. "You're really hot," she noted.

"So are you." Though she wasn't as pretty as Shannon, in his opinion. To him, Shannon was pure and beautiful and gorgeous, but Anna was just hot. Even though they didn't look too much alike, it was still fairly easy to pretend she was her. Their characteristics were similar because they had spent so much time together growing up.

He kissed her on the lips, opening his mouth around hers. They made out for a few moments, and Anna slid her hand between them, as he crept his hand up under her shirt, rubbing his hand against her chest. "Screw this," she said, pulling away, and quickly unbuttoned his pants and unzipping them, kneeling in front of him on the floor.

Boone let her pull down his boxers, and start touching him. When she licked him, he sighed in appreciation. "So, uh," she said, licking down it again. "What were you doing in the touristy part of New York today?"

"I was at a…" she continued to suck. "An art museum."

"Oh. And why were you at an art museum?" She pulled back for a moment so she could talk, but then went right back to it. He found it a bit odd that they were having a conversation right now.

"Cuz I felt like it," he struggled to say.

"How long has it been since you're had sex?" She asked.

"Like, a while," he said, enjoying what she was doing. "Damn, that feels good."

"How long is a while?"

"Like, a year or something." She let go of him, shocked.

"A year? Looking like you, and you haven't had sex in a year?"

"Dammit, Anna! Don't stop!" He said, a little whiny.

"Sorry," she sucked a little more. "Is that good?"

"Yeah, really good," he closed his eyes. "Can you do it a little, uh, higher too?"

"Yeah," she obliged. He clenched his fists together. "Have you come close to doing it in a year?"

"You know… the only people I've ever had sex with are you and Erin."

"Erin had sex with you?"

"Yeah, for a while. But then she went all pseudo-religious and…" He trailed off as she sucked with more vehemence. "Shit."

"Well, are you guys at least on good terms?"

"Um, no." He paused, struggling to multi-task.

"I'm glad that we're on good terms," she rested her hand on his upper thigh, continuing to arouse him. At the moment, he was pretty damn glad they were on good terms, too.

Suddenly he remembered something he'd been meaning to ask her. "Whatever happened to you and Kevin?" He referred to one of his friends from high school.

"Oh, him." Anna licked over it again. "Oh, well, mainly we just smoked a lot of weed and had sex a lot." She shrugged. "We didn't think it was worth it to try to have a long distance relationship or anything." She cocked her head to the right, and sucked at him from a different angle, very lightly skimming her teeth against him. He clenched his fists tighter, feeling himself getting close.

"Hey, should I swallow or dodge it?" She asked, as if she were asking if he wanted salad or fries with that.

"Whatever you want," he strained to get the words out. When her lips touched him again, he was again reminded of Shannon, though her lips had never touched a place so intimate. "Shannon," he found himself say under his breath. "Fuck, Shannon…" he moaned. "Anna," he corrected himself, and then he came.

She pulled away, and Boone saw a flicker of disappointment cross her face. She sat back on her knees, getting ready to stand up again.

"Sorry?" He apologized for saying Shannon's name.

"It's totally okay. I said it was okay, so it's okay." She didn't sound so sure.

After they had cleaned themselves up, and Boone had calmed himself down from the experience, he decided to take full advantage of her being there, and kissed her again, pulling off her shirt, as she coaxed him onto the bed.

Afterwards, she fell asleep, but he found that he was unable to because it was the middle of the afternoon. He went to the bathroom and took a shower, trying to dry his hair with a towel as completely as possible. When Anna woke up, she also took a shower, and then he asked her if she wanted to go back to his dorm to meet his roommates.

When they got back to the dorm, the only people there were Lilly, and Rebecca, who as usual was locked up in her room. He could also tell that Ted was in his room, the usual death metal music thumping from it. He didn't know where Ben was. "Hey," he said to Lilly when he arrived. Lilly was in the kitchenette, washing dishes.

"Hey, Boone," Lilly came over and kissed him on the cheek. "Hi!" She greeted Anna. "Who are you?"

"I'm Anna," Anna shook her hand, surprisingly friendly and polite.

"This is Lilly," Boone introduced her. "She's one of my favorite roommates and friends. Lilly, this is Anna, she's my, um," he tried to figure out what she was. Friend? Maybe. Ex-girlfriend? Well, technically, but that sounded mean. "Um… this is Anna." He tried to correct himself. "She's a friend?"

"Oh! I've heard about you! You're his ex-girlfriend, right?" Lilly asked. It must have come up in a conversation at some point.

"Yeah," she said. "So." There was an extremely awkward silence.

"Why's your hair wet?" Lilly asked Boone.

"I took a shower," he said without thinking.

"Um, somewhere else?" She looked perplexed. "And your hair's wet too…" she gasped, faux-dramatic. "Boone! Did you guys…?" They looked at her guiltily.

Just then, they heard someone in the hallway, presumably Ben, nearing the door. Lilly looked at Boone and Anna reproachfully, and then ran into the hall to meet him. "Have you met Boone's hot nympho fuck-buddy?" They overheard her say loudly.

"We're standing right here, you know," Boone announced, hoping Anna's feelings wouldn't be hurt. But instead, he heard her snicker loudly.

"Oh my god," she laughed as Ben and Lilly arrived back in the room. "That is… the most perfect description of me I've ever heard!"

"Um, thank you?" Lilly said. "I was more expecting to be bitch-slapped, but that works, too." She tapped Ben on the shoulder. "Ben, this is Anna, Boone's hot nympho fuck-buddy!" She said confidently.

"Pleased to meet you," Anna rolled her eyes, shaking Ben's hand.

"And Anna, this is Ben, one of me and Boone's best friends."

Suddenly, Ted practically exploded into the room, looking supremely disheveled. "Did someone just say the words hot, nympho, and fuck in the same sentence!" He exclaimed, breathless.

Anna raised her eyebrows. "Um, hello to you too?"

Ted took one look at her. "You're her. You're the hot nympho."

"You're kind of frightening me?" Anna said, bewildered.

"Don't mind him, he's just an idiot," Lilly said, leading her away from him. Ted gaped at her.

"Boone," Ted said. "You're my new favorite roommate."

"Thanks?" Boone questioned.

"Did you discover some new drug or something?" Lilly asked. "You're acting even weirder than usual."

"N-no," Ted stuttered. "I gotta go," and with that, he disappeared into his room.

"And that little interlude was brought to you by Ted Darby," Lilly announced. "Druggie/slacker extraordinaire."

"I figured," Anna smiled. "Hey, you guys wanna go eat? I'm really hungry, and it might be fun." She shrugged.

"Um," Ben looked uncertain. "If you don't mind the school cafeteria?"

"We should invite Becky," Boone said. Not only did he feel sorry for her, but he didn't want it to seem like a double-date.

"Okay," Lilly said. Boone excused himself to go find Becky, who was in her room, and led her into the living room.

"Becky," he said, "This is Anna. And Anna, this is Becky."

"Hey," Anna shook Becky's hand. "How are you?"

"I'm good," Becky looked suddenly angry. "Um, how do you know Boone?"

"Well, he's my ex. But we're still friends, right?"

"Yeah." Boone rolled his eyes. "Friends."

Ben's sneeze that followed sounded suspiciously like the word "benefits". Boone ignored him.

"So we were gonna all go eat," Anna said warmly. "Wanna come?"

"Sure," Becky replied, surprising all of them.

They all went to dinner to eat the mediocre cafeteria food that had sustained them for the past six months. By the time they were done eating, Anna and Lilly had managed to bond over similar tastes in music, movies, and senses of humor. Becky seemed to take an instant dislike to Anna, and Boone wasn't sure why.

By the time they got back, it was pretty late, and Boone was, for obvious reasons, beat. Now they were all standing by the door, bidding Anna goodbye. Anna gave Lilly a huge hug like they had been best friends forever. "You have to call me!" She told her.

Lastly, Anna gave Boone a soft kiss on the cheek. "If I'm ever in town again, I'll give you a call, and we can… figure something out," she muttered in his ear. "Bye."

Right before Boone was going to go to bed, he heard his cell phone ringing. The caller ID informed him that it was Shannon calling. Excited to talk with her, Boone picked up the phone. "Hello?"

"You and Anna had sex!" Shannon nearly shouted.

"Hello to you too, Shannon," He replied. "Did she tell you?"

"No, Sabrina did." Shannon dead-panned.

"No she – did she really?"

"Duh, no, Boone, you're so gullible. Now answer my question: Did you and Anna engage in sexual intercourse today?"

"Well, like, I mean…" he tried to get around answering the question. "Yes."

"Why the fuck did you do that?" She sounded somewhere between completely furious and mildly amused.

"You know why." It had been the closest he could get to having sex with her.

"No, I don't, really."

"Shannon, look! I don't' have to share every bit of personal information about my life, okay?" He said, defensive. "We did it because we felt like it."

"Fine."

"Fine," he replied stubbornly.

Shannon giggled. "That's funny."

"Why?"

"It just is." She answered. "Boone and Anna, sitting in a – "

"Shut up! We're not back together or anything like that! I mean, God no."

"Well, good. I didn't like you guys together."

"Neither did I," he said honestly. "But she does seem a lot nicer and more mature."

"Yeah, she does. All the more reason to have random sex with her."

"Yup."

"Well, okay, I was just calling to berate you."

"Sure you were."

"Well, like I said, I'm just protective of you. No one touches my Boone unless I say they can," she joked.

He smiled. "Shan, I'm really tired. Can we talk tomorrow?"

"Sure," she replied. "But not too early. I have to beat Anna to a pulp first."

"Okay," he laughed. "Don't be too hard on her, though. I wasn't exactly arguing."

"'Right, Boone. I love you."

"'Love you, too." He shook his head, smiling slightly, and collapsed onto his bed. Well, that was certainly an eventful day, he thought.

dodges bullets Okay, you all have full permission to kill me, gouge my eyes out, or beat me to a pulp. Even if you do that, though, reviews would be nice. I seriously hope the Boone/Anna stuff wasn't too terribly painful, I know everyone hates her (or dislikes her) except me and my one ally Summerith. But I just couldn't help myself! And Boone needed sex. doesn't even bother dodging the rest of the bullets Erm, please review even if it is just to tell me how horrible and deserving of death I am.