(( Disclaimer: I own nothing. Just T.J. Cold is an amazing song by Crossfade.))

I Never Meant to Be So Cold
Julie's POV
I don't think I've ever been more bored in my life. Adam's parents had come home in the middle of the three-day party after the induction and obviously weren't very happy. Since then all of the ducks have been quarantined inside their houses. As if I needed the temptation of being locked up in a house with Adam. I've tried calling Dean numerous times and left at least four messages but he has yet to call me back. There is something going on with him, I just don't know what. I know he's lying to me about going back to Chicago and the only reason I let his phony excuse slide is because I'm lying to him too. Well not necessarily lying, but I feel guilty because I know for sure that I have feelings for Adam. They aren't exactly one-sided either, which makes me feel worse. It's like I'm leading Adam on then running back to Dean, which isn't fair to either of them. For the last three days I've been trying to take Connie's advice and decide which of them I like more. But that's not working at all because I like them for such different things. And now with the absence of Dean and his lying to me, I feel like all I have left is Adam. And if I fall into one of my moods where I don't think, I might just act on my feelings for him. Speaking of which…
"Hey." Adam says as he sits down next to me. I had my jeans rolled up and my feet dangling in the edge of the pool. "What's up?"
"Nothing, I'm just really bored."
"Tell me about it." He slips off his sandals and puts his feet in the water next to mine.
"Where's T.J.?" I ask so as not to fall into an awkward silence.
"At the store. He ran out of beer or something."
"So is Eden Hall nice?"
"You saw it. The whole place basically looks exactly like that. Brick, perfect, preppy. T.J. seemed to have a pretty good time there."
"I wonder why, I heard the curriculum is pretty hard."
"I came sum it up for you in one word." I raise my eyebrows. "Dorms."
"Of course." I say laughing. "But aren't the girls and guys dorms separate?"
"A garden in between isn't quite separate. It's not hard to sneak out."
"Funny how you already know all of this. Planning on doing a lot of sneaking out there Banksie?"
"Not really. But with Charlie as my roommate I might just need to."
"Yeah." I say as I think about Connie being my roommate. Not that I don't love her, but we were roommates before and I already know how crazy she is. "Oh yeah, you never told me why Charlie was upset at the induction?"
"Oh, that. Yeah, Bombay isn't going to be our coach this year." I feel my mouth drop open. "He got a huge gig with Junior Good Will Games and he took it."
"Do you have any idea who our new coach will be?"
"Some guy named Ted Orion. But you can clearly see why that didn't go over too well with Charlie. Bombay is like his dad."
"That sucks."
"Yeah." Adam kicks his foot outward and it splashes water in my face. "Oh, sorry." He says, smiling evilly and offers me the sleeve of his shirt to wipe my face.
"I will get you back for that." I say with a grin.
"You can try." He responds, still smiling. Why does he have to be so adorable? Think, Julie. I say to myself, don't do something stupid.
"Oh, hi T.J." I say looking over Adam's shoulder. Just as he turned I let myself fall into the water grabbing him with me. I resurface at the exact moment he does. "Didn't I tell you that I'd get you back?"
"You'll pay for that one, Gaffney." He says, spitting out the water from his mouth.
"Oh, you think so do you?" I say as I swim away from him. He quickly swam after me but I was much faster. I swim to the center of the pool where I finally get tired and stop because my jeans are so heavy. Adam catches up to me. "Hey, hey unfair advantage."
"Admit defeat then." He says as he treads closer.
"Fine." I say as I duck my head under the water. I come back up and spit water into his face. "I admit that I defeated you." He rebounds much faster than I thought he would and grabs my feet as try to swim away. Before I know it he has both my hands…okay so he isn't holding me tightly and I could easily get away but I don't try. My flirtatious side takes over and instead I pull myself closer to him.
"We both know you won't actually do anything." Our faces are barely a foot apart. I know that if I do this, I can't go back. But at this moment, I don't really care.
"I'd never actually hurt you, Julie." Adam says softly. Kiss him, you know you want to…
"Hey guys! Dinner is ready!" T.J. yells as he walks out on the back porch. Thank god, I think as I pull myself away and swim towards the ladder. But that wasn't before T.J. had a good look at what was going on.
"Not hungry." I say as I grab my shoes from the edge of the pool, go back inside and immediately go to take a shower. Once I was finished I wiped the fog from the mirror and stare at my reflection.
"That was much too close, Julie." I say to myself as I dry my hair with a towel. I couldn't keep this in anymore. I run back to my room, get dressed then to Adam's room. He is downstairs eating dinner so I close the door and sit down on his perfectly made bed. I grab the phone from the bedside table and dial.
"Hello?"
"Tell me I'm stupid." I say while letting my head hit the pillow.
"Why, what happened?" Connie says on the other line. I could hear her chewing something.
"What are you eating?" I ask, the noise was getting on my nerves.
"A tootsie roll, now don't change the subject. What happened?"
"I umm, almost kissed Adam?"
"WHAT?"
"We were in the pool and it was totally innocent… until this completely different girl took over my body and I was five inches from his face. Thank god T.J. felt like being obnoxious and coming outside to tell us that dinner was ready."
"Oh, T.J. is so gorgeous."
"The fact hasn't escaped me Connie, but thanks for caring about me."
"Julie, I do care, you know I do. I told you what to do. Besides I don't see what would be so bad about you and Banks hooking up."
"Besides that fact that I'm with Dean?"
"Well Dean isn't here is he?"
"CONNIE!" I hear Connie's shrill laugh.
"I'm kidding, I'm kidding. But you have to decide who you want. Hate to break it to you babe, but you can't have them both."
"I can't do this, I need to talk to Dean."
"He still hasn't called you back?"
"Nope."
"You're not gonna tell him about this whole Adam thing, are you?"
"I'm not sure yet. I'm going to call him right now. See you tomorrow."
"Bye."
I hang up and stay completely still. I could still hear voices downstairs, so I have time. I pick up the receiver and dial Dean's home number for what seems like the millionth time.
"Hello?" A female voice answers to my surprise.
"Hello, this is Julie Gaffney. Can I speak to Dean, please?"
"Sure, hold on." I sigh outwardly. I honestly don't know what to say to him.
"Julie?" Dean picks up, slight surprise in his voice.
"Hi Dean."
"Hey, what's going on?"
"Not much. I was just sitting here wondering why haven't you called me yet? Or returned my calls for that matter?" I ask angrily. I hear Dean sigh. "I know you're lying to me about going back. I'm just not sure why you feel like you need to."
"It's not like you're being completely honest with me."
"But I've never purposefully lied to your face. It hurts me that you don't trust me enough to just tell me."
"You won't understand."
"You won't let me try to understand!" I'm losing my temper, I know it. "Tell me honestly right now, are you coming back?"
"I'm not sure yet. Probably not."
"Why?"
"I can't tell you."
"Fantastic." I say sarcastically.
"Fine, then you tell me what the hell is going on with you lately? Don't lie to me now and say it's nothing. There is something going on with you and you're hiding it from me." Tears build up in my eyes. "And it's been this way ever since you got to Minneapolis. What is it, Julie? Another guy, or something else?"
"I can't tell you." I say mimicking his earlier response.
"Then maybe we should just take a break or something." The tears fall down my face.
"Maybe we should." I wipe a tear from my lip. "Because I'm not sure I can be with someone who doesn't trust me."
"Same here."
"So that's it then?" I ask, my voice choking.
"Yeah, I guess it is."
"Bye."
"Bye." He sighs and the line goes dead.
End POV

Dean's POV
"Fuck!" I say as I hang up the phone. I think I just broke up with the most incredible girl I've ever gone out with, and I'm not sure how the fuck it happened. We've fought before but never broken up. That wasn't even a fight really, it was just a stupid…thing. I don't even know how to go about describing it, but I know it was stupid. It wasn't that I didn't trust her, I just couldn't tell her what was really happening because she wouldn't understand. And I can't just call her back right now because she is pissed at me and probably won't answer.
"Goddamn it." I say to myself.
"So what are you going to do?" I spin around and there is my mother, standing in the doorway to the kitchen.
"I'm not sure." I say, burying my face in my hands. My mother sits down across from me and weakly grabs my hands.
"Why didn't you tell her?"
"She wouldn't understand me wanting to stay."
"I don't understand you wanting to stay, either, baby. I'm thirty-four years old, don't you think I can take care of myself?"
"Of course, but you're sick, you need my help." I say desperately.
"Dean, in Minneapolis there is a girl you care about, a good school you should be in and a whole team that you deserve to play on."
"But you're not there."
"This is my home. I'm not going anywhere. But you, you're young, you can go anywhere, and yet you choose to stay here?"
"Say what you want but I'm not going back. You won't admit it but you need me." She smiled sadly at me. "I'll go back to public school and get a job to take care of us."
"Nobody should have to spend their teenage life being so damn responsible, I would know." I sigh, thinking about all that she sacrificed when I was born just before her eighteenth birthday.
"I have to." She shook her head, got up silently and left.
I look at the phone anxiously and finally pick it up and dial.
"Hello?"
"Hey, Fult. It's Portman." I just realized that he has never called me by my first name…
"Oh hey, what's up?"
"Me and Julie broke up." Way to just lay it out there, asshole.
"What?" He asked shocked. "Why? You guys were so together the other day."
"Not really. She doesn't trust me and I'm not being honest with her and she is keeping shit from me and she just got fed up and she freaked out and I panicked and said that we just shouldn't be together. Which is completely ridiculous because Julie is probably one of the greatest things that has ever happened to me and I don't know what to do." Fulton was silently listening on the other line. "Fulton?"
"Holy shit. That's out of control."
"Yeah." I say rubbing my eyes.
"So I guess in between all of that she didn't tell you the big news?"
"Big news? Good or bad?"
"Bombay is leaving. Take it as you will."
"What the hell? Why?"
"He got some huge job. Apparently we're not as important. He's a dick, we knew that."
"Yeah." I say recalling the time Julie first kissed me. Those were my exact words to her…how romantic.
"So when are you getting your ass back up here?"
"I'm not sure yet. Uh, my mom needs me to do some stuff here." I lied.
"Well make it a.s.a.p., dude. Charlie is wigging out and I need someone here to hang out with."
"Yeah. Hey, when you see Jules, can you tell her I'm sorry?"
"I will. See you soon hopefully."
"Okay, bye Fulton." I hang up.
This lying thing is really getting to me. I know that I'm not coming back, I'm just still figuring out a way to tell the team that.
End POV

Adam's POV
I sprint up the stairs, my hair still wet from the interesting pool occurrence. T.J. sat there all through dinner, smiling across the table at me. He thinks he actually saw something. What he saw was a really tense moment that was probably a mistake in Julie's eyes. In mine though, to quote Guy, 'I was this close.' I turn to the right and open the door. There sitting on my bed is Julie, hysterically crying. At the most vulnerable moment, she looks possibly even more beautiful. Wearing a huge black sweatshirt and shorts, her hair still wet and falling around her pink, tearful cheeks. Of course, this is the farthest thing from my mind because firstly I care about why she is so upset. I rush into the room and kneel in front of her.
"Julie?" I ask looking into her eyes. She just looks at me sadly then blinks out more tears. "What happened?"
"I don't know." She chokes out, her whole body shaking. I gently hold her face in both my hands. She covers my hand with hers and continues to cry. I wipe away the tears with my thumbs as they fall. I had only seen her cry once before, at the airport before she went back to Bangor, and it wasn't quite this intense. Five straight minutes of this go by.
She sniffles and breathes in deeply. The tears don't stop, but they come in less amounts. I take my hands from her face and sit down next to her.
"Sorry." She said still sniffling, using the sleeves of the hoodie to wipe the tears off her face and neck.
"Don't be." I say still staring at her intently. "Are you okay?"
"Sure." She says unconvincingly.
"What happened?"
"Dean and I broke up." She said simply. Hide your happiness, Banks.
"Oh…what happened?"
"He was lying to me about going back to Chicago and I called him out on it and he freaked out and then I lost my temper and he suggested we break up and so we did."
"That's stupid." I say honestly. "Neither of you meant it. You should call him back." Yes, I just said that. Me, the one who is crazy about the girl in front of me, suggested that she call and take back her boyfriend.
"No, not now. I'd have to do it with a clear head and I dunno, maybe it's a good thing. I mean we should take a bit of a break for a while. With school starting and everything."
Suddenly, and to my complete surprise, Julie stands up, grab my hands and pulls me up next to her.
"What?" I ask quizzically. She smiles and a single tear falls from her eye.
"Nothing." She says, then throws her arms around my shoulders and hugs me tightly. I awkwardly respond and hug her back.
….
6-15-06
((Okay, so this is this fastest I've ever updated any of my stories, ever. But last chapter was kind of short and boring.
And I didn't get as many reviews as I had hoped ((ehem that means you review more, mmkay?))
My friend who edited this for me says: Why do they always end up hugging at the end of a chapter? Why not a kiss already?
Haha, yes that is true. And they will kiss, not to worry, soon. One or two more chapters before school starts and we get into the actual movie and SCOOTER (yum) drama and other such lovely things. Umm responses:

Ghostwriter: Thanks for reviewing
Gaffney06: I will, its just taking a while and thanks. I have 2 last finals and then done!

Anyway review with comments, criticisms, and suggestions.

You guys are the only thing keeping me motivated so make it happen))