Disclaimer: I don't own anything except my OC


I woke up the next morning, still on my couch. The clock read that it was already 11am in the morning. I must have really needed to sleep. I padded my way towards the kitchen, looking out the window. My car was parked outside. Carlisle must have already dropped it off. I was glad that him and I had talked last night. I had a feeling that things were going to start to look up.

I was right. The following weeks were much better than the preceding ones. Kathy commented that I looked much better and so did my co-workers at the bookstore. I had even nailed my next observation day with the vice-principal. Everything seemed to bounce back, my energy was up and I was sleeping normal hours again.

The only thing that hadn't gone away was the dreams. I originally thought that the dreams were a reaction to guilt and just like the insomnia, they would go away once I had talked everything out with Carlisle but they persisted. They had even increased in frequency lately. They were all rather innocent, most of the time he would just be standing there or smiling at me. Occasionally, our hands would brush in the dream and I'd feel a similar shock of electricity pulse through me before I'd wake up, out of breath and confused. The dreams didn't make sense to me. I didn't understand why I was so haunted by his golden eyes, his pale skin, and just all of Carlisle Cullen.

Admittedly, I had been seeing a lot more of Carlisle lately. Within the past couple weeks, every time I had a shift at the bookstore, he was there. We found ourselves in a lovely little nook of contentment in our friendship. We would talk for the majority of my shift before he would have to leave or I would finish my shift and have to leave. We already ran through the majority of random questions that we could think of and often just spent a lot of time talking about our days.

I learned a great deal about the inner workings of the hospital, learning which nurse was the best and which patients were the nicest. Carlisle spoke fondly about his work, he was always very patient towards helping people. I told him about my work too, about the kids who were struggling in certain subjects and what events were going on. He always listened perfectly, nodding in the right areas and asking me questions at the right times. It was very nice.

While we spoke, sometimes an image from my dream would flash through my mind or the feeling of an electric surge would rush through me. I couldn't help but take pause in those moments. The moments when his eyes would light up as he talked, elaborating on this or that. The moments when he would give me a smile, his eyes flickering with amusement as I did something silly. I could never forget those moments.

"You and Dr. Cullen seem close these days" commented Ben. We were setting up the new arrivals section of the store.

"Of course, we are, we're friends"

"You guys are more than friends" he continued, "All the giggling and laughing, all the talking about your personal lives, it's all clear signs of being more than friends"

I shook my head, stacking the books into a pile. "Friends do all of that stuff too, Ben, and since when have you taken it upon yourself to comment on the people in my life?"

"Since said person is always in here, I'm surprised he isn't here now actually"

"He won't be in today, he's covering Dr. Platt's shift at the hospital because today's his daughter's birthday"

"Okay, see this is what I'm talking about, normal people don't remember stuff like that" dsaid Ben, looking at me with an exasperated expression, "And also, 'just friends' don't tell each other when they're going to not visit the other one at work."

I rolled my eyes. Admittedly, Carlisle and I's friendship was a bit different than any of the other friendships in my life but that was only because he started off as just any other customer. Now, he was one of the people that I talked to the most.

"Him and I are only ever going to be friends, Ben" That was the truth. I knew that I liked Carlisle but it was just friendship, I had put a box around what we were. Our relationship would remain strictly within the box of friendship.

"So, if he suddenly asked you out, you'd say no?" he quirked an eyebrow at me.

"Yes, I would say no" I confirmed without hesitating.

Ben shook his head. "I don't believe that for a second"

"Him and I are in a very good place, I would never want to ruin that"

"So, you do like him then! You just don't want to ruin the relationship" he said, acting as if he were victorious.

I answered automatically, back peddling. "No, that's definitely not what I meant, I just meant that him and I are in a good place right now, I wouldn't ruin that by developing romantic feelings for the man"

"So, you admit that you could develop feelings for him"

I shook my head, rolling my eyes at Ben's words. "Can we just drop this entire topic, please?"

He shot me a look before holding up his arms in surrender. "Fine, speaking of switching topics, you are coming to my graduation, right?"

I had to do a double take at Ben, looking at him as if he had grown a second head. "What?"

"Graduation? You know that thing I've been talking about since the day I met you, ring a bell?" he said, teasing me slightly as he grinned at my baffled expression.

"You want me to go to your graduation?" I drew slowly, the words still processing in my mind. I wasn't expecting him to ask. In all honesty, I had never moved Ben out of the box of 'work colleague that I like working with the most'.

"Of course," he said, nodding as if it was the most natural thing in the world. "I couldn't have passed some of my classes without your endless nagging." I shoved him at that, laughing as I did so.

I had to admit that Ben had become a fixture in my life. I suppose he had become my friend without me even realizing it. "I guess I can carve out some time to come to the ceremony"

"How kind and gracious of you to make time for me" I laughed at his ridiculousness. Life was good. I now had more friends than I thought I had a few months ago.

Yes, things had settled quite well in the past couple of weeks and I couldn't be gladder for it.


Yeah, so I know that ever since I started this fic, I've been posting at least a chapter a day but I have my winter final tomorrow so updating might not happen tomorrow. I hope this chapter can sate everyone until I write the next one. Please let me know what you think of the story so far!