Friends and Lovers
By Misha

Chapter Fifteen

Author's Notes- This chapter is pretty short, but I focus on the three characters who really haven't been developed as much in this story. Mimi, Jason, and Brady. From this point on I'm going to give each of them a bigger part in the story, so I thought I'd let you get to know them first. Enjoy.

Sunday, November 26th 2000

Mimi stared out her bedroom window.

Six months ago, everything had been so different. Back then, she hadn't felt nearly so lost. It was only recently that she had begun to feel her life was shallow and empty.

Two of the things that had been so important in her life a year ago were slipping from her now, Chloe and Jason.

Chloe had been her friend since they were kids, but now... Now Chloe was so caught up in her relationship with Phillip, what had happened with Shawn, and Belle to have much time for Mimi. They were still friends, still hung out all the time, but it wasn't the same anymore.

As for Jason... Mimi felt their relationship slipping away. No, that wasn't true. Nothing between them had changed and that was the problem. She wanted more.

She wanted what she saw between Phillip and Chloe every time they were together.

She and Jason didn't have that. She loved him and she believed he loved her, but she didn't know if it was enough. She had often wondered if Jason really cared for her or if he stayed with her because she was a habit that he had grown used to.

She didn't know, but she would find out.

"I have to change something." She whispered as she turned away from the mirror. "So, I'll change our relationship. I'll leave Jason."

Mimi took a deep breath. There, she had actually said it, now all she had to do was do it.

But it didn't change the other problem in her life. Chloe.

Chloe had always been the one she could talk to about anything, but now... Chloe had Belle. In the last few months Chloe had formed a bond with Belle that Mimi could never be part of...

Tears started to fall down her cheeks.

She had lost her best friend and now she was about to lose Jason too. Where did she go from here? What should she do?
* * * * *

Jason thought about Phillip and the utter trust he'd had in Chloe when he saw her at Dot.Com with Shawn.

Do I trust Miriam like that? He wondered to himself. Am I secure enough in our relationship to have no doubts?

He already knew the answer. No.

He loved Mimi, but... Something was happening between them, they were growing apart and it seemed like there was nothing he could do to prevent that.

"But I love her." He whispered. "I can't lose her."

Still, it didn't seem like a choice. She was slipping away from him.

Jason closed his eyes, trying to fight the fact that he had the feeling that it would all be over soon.

"Why can't we be Chloe and Phillip?" He wondered. "Nothing will ever tear them apart."
* * * * *

Brady sat on the plane back to California and though about Chloe.

She had spent most of the weekend over at the Penthouse with Belle, giving him the opportunity to get to know her better.

The more time he spent with her, the more he begun to think about how good they could be together. Chloe was everything he wanted in a girl: she was beautiful, smart, funny, friendly, charming, talented.

There was only one problem... Phillip. She was crazy about him, even though Brady was positive that they were mismatched.

Phillip Kiriakis was a stuck-up, spoiled, preppy jock, he was everything that Brady would have thought that Chloe would have despised. Yet... There was something holding them together, something Brady didn't understand.

"I'll break the spell." Brady whispered. "Somehow, I'll get you to see that Prince Charming is totally wrong for you."

He still couldn't believe he was doing this, after all normally he would never go after someone else's girl, even if he did believe that they were mismatched.

But, this time... He had never felt like this before. There was something about Chloe... He had the feeling that she was one he had dreamt about since he was a little boy and he knew that he could offer her much more than Phillip Kiriakis ever could.

All he had to do was prove it to her.
* * * * *