Just Friends

Disclaimer: Sadly, this all belongs to a man named Josh. Oh, and Frank Sinatra (along with Billie Holiday) sang the song Just Friends. All songs quoted are by Frank Sinatra.

Feedback: Your comments are greatly appreciated. Thank you to everyone who has stuck by me for the duration of my first (published) story. Did I mention that reviewing gets chapters posted more quickly?

Author's Note: Since this chapter is so short, Chapter 13 will be posted later today.

Chapter 12: Then Suddenly Love Died

The music stopped, but we were still dancing

Which goes to show that music has charm

The lights were low so we kept on dancing

I felt the glow of you in my arms

The band had left the stand, and we were in heaven

Dancing on a cloud, way off in the blue, the music stopped

And people were glancing, but we went on dancing

For we didn't know, because the lights were low, and we were in love

"The Music Stopped"

Crack!

"Did you hear that?" Marissa asked Ryan, while flipping through the pages of the latest Cosmopolitan. Ryan was lying on Marissa's bed, head in her lap, eyes closed.

"It was probably just the thunder," Ryan said. Marissa looked out her window, seeing steady streams of rain on the window and lightning lighting up the sky.

"No," Marissa insisted, "It sounded like…something got struck by lightning."

Ryan opened his eyes and stared up at Marissa. "Something probably did get struck by lightning."

She rolled her eyes and stuck her tongue out at him. "Get up." Ryan didn't move. "Move," she ordered, picking Ryan's head up and shoving him off of her. She got up, threw the magazine on Ryan's chest, and walked over to the window. "Maybe it was your dorm…" she joked, but trailed off as she saw what had been hit. "Ohmigosh…"

Ryan sat up. "What is it, Marissa?"

Refusing to answer Ryan, Marissa ran out of her room. A minute later Ryan heard the door slam. He got up and looked out the window. It was quite hard to see, what with the rain blurring everything. But Ryan could see well enough to see what the lightning had hit.

Their willow tree.

He ran out of the dorm suite as fast as his muscled legs would take him.

As soon as Ryan stepped outside, he was soaked. Just like that. He could only imagine what condition Marissa was in, and mentally kicked himself for not running after her sooner.

She was kneeling by the willow tree, weeping. Ryan ran over to Marissa and slipped in the muddy mess the rain was creating, but managed to keep his balance.

He knelt down beside her. "Marissa, it's okay." Ryan tried to soothe Marissa, but she recoiled at his touch.

"No…it's not…okay," Marissa whispered between trembling sobs, "the willow tree is dead."

"I know…"

"No, you don't know! The willow tree stands for us! And it's dead. What's going to happen to us, Ry?" Marissa had stopped crying momentarily, but her eyes were dangerously filling with more tears. "Is this…going to be us?"

She turned to look at the tree, which had snapped in half. Ryan put his arm around his trembling girlfriend and guided her over to the tree. They sat down on the fallen trunk.

"Baby…we won't die. Not like the willow tree," Ryan said. He felt like he was trying to explain heaven to a child whose parent has just died. Whatever he said, he wasn't sure it would console Marissa.

Marissa buried her head in Ryan's shoulder, her lips pressed up against his damp neck. She wasn't kissing him though. She breathed unsteadily on his skin, drying it temporarily from the driving rain.

"I don't want this to be us…"

"We won't break, Marissa, I promise."

"But what if we do? What if this is a sign?"

Ryan considered it briefly. What if it was a sign? He was so sure it wasn't. Marissa was the one who needed reassuring. They'd been through too much to stop here. They were meant to be. Trees did not live forever, and no, people did not. But true love would last forever, whereas the tree definitely could not.

Marissa broke apart from their embrace. She ran her still trembling fingers along Ryan's forearms. "I've got to go…"

"Marissa, wait…don't go!" Ryan didn't go after Marissa. She turned around, a salty mixture of tears and rain dripping down her face and blurring Ryan's features. "Why are you doing this?"

"I don't know…" Marissa admitted, looking directly at Ryan but somehow avoiding his questioning eyes.

With bated breath, Ryan waited for her answer. Why was she doing this? Did she really think a tree's fate would befall them too?

Marissa took a deep breath, sucking in rainwater and coughing a little. Finally, she began…