I bought a car yesterday. I pick it up on friday. It's a nice shiny '08 Chevy Cobalt - but it means that I have sell my '97 Mustang. The thought of all the money I've spent and the fact that I have to give up my sports car kept me up all night. That's when I wrote this. Yeah.

Awkward. That was the only way to describe the feeling in the room. A friend of Troy's had once told him that situations would only be awkward if you let them. He found himself truly doubting that as he sat an a rather stylish, yet uncomfortable, couch trying not to look at the basketball player sitting across from him on the matching oddly lumpy couch. Kelsi was sitting on the same uncomfortable couch as Zeke, doing her best to try and start a conversation. Despite her best efforts, though, neither man seemed to be willing to talk.

"So," Kelsi said with a heavy sigh, "did anyone see that new Paris Hilton movie?" Both men looked at her with confused looks, "No? Me neither," she said with a shrug. Once again the room lapsed into heavy silence. Time seemed to tick by painfully slow, with each person in the room taking turns sighing loudly.

The awkward silence was broken by the phone ringing, "I'll get that," Kelsi said as she stood up, "you two just keep on... staring at the coffee table." With that she got up and left. Out of the corner of his eye Troy noticed that she had her cellphone open and tucked in her pocket. No doubt it was her way of sneaking away from what would have to be the most awkward reunion she had ever set up.

The silence continued on for another minute before Troy took a deep breath and went to say something to Zeke. However, when he looked up from the coffee table he jumped when he saw Zeke staring at him. There was a glint in Zeke's eyes that Troy just couldn't place. Zeke had changed so much since college that Troy wasn't able to read him anymore, but the intense look scared him.

"You're going to kill me, aren't you?" Troy asked his old friend seriously.

Zeke's expression wavered for a moment before he burst out laughing. It was a deep laugh that Troy hadn't heard for years, and if it had been any other situation he probably would've been happy that he was hearing it. Right now he was a little scared that Zeke had gone crazy and was actually going to kill him. He couldn't get the image of Zeke suddenly becoming serious again and lunging across the table at him out of his brain. But Zeke didn't get serious, and he didn't lunge across the table. Instead his laughter intensified.

"So," Troy said hesistantly, "you aren't going to kill me?"

"No," Zeke replied as he wiped a tear away from his eye, "I'm not going to kill you. Why would you think that?" He was still laughing.

"Because I stole the girl of your dreams away from you?"

"Dude," Zeke said as he got up off his uncomfortable couch to sit next to Troy, "that was four years ago. Do you really think that I'm still upset about that. She liked you and not me. I took it too seriously." Troy was left shocked. He had spent four years thinking that his friend hated him, and from the way that Kelsi had acted she thought the exact same thing. How could they both have been so wrong?

"Why didn't ever call? Or come to my wedding?" Troy asked Zeke.

"I hated you," Zeke replied matter-of-factly. Troy felt like his head was about to explode. Zeke wasn't mad at him anymore, but he hated him at the time of his wedding. How could someone hate someone else for two years and then one day just be okay with it? "I really did hate you, for a long time," Zeke explained, "but then I met someone and they told me something that really hit me." Zeke paused to take a sip of the tea that Kelsi had brought out earlier. He set down his cup and stared at Troy.

"What?" Troy finally asked.

"Human nature drives us to find someone to be with," he took another sip of his tea, "essentially, we live for love."

"We live for love?"

"Yeah. Given that you left Shar I'm going to guess that it wasn't really love," Troy made a mental note to kill Kelsi for telling Zeke, "she was just filling a void. You were missing the love that you got from Gabriella and Shar was willing to give you that love."

"When did you get so deep?" Troy asked his friend with a laugh.

"I spent my first 8 games sitting on the bench," Zeke replied, "I had some time to think."

"You'd probably still be on the bench if it wasn't for that kid," Kelsi said with a giggle as she came back into the room. Troy got the feeling that she had been standing in the kitchen listening to their conversation.

"What kid?" Troy asked with confusion.

"You don't know?" Zeke replied, blushing.

"I did my best not to follow your career."

"Some kid threw his coke at him the first time he played. After doing the interview circuit about it the team seemed to just want him to play all the time. Good publicity, I guess."

"That sucks man," Troy said through his laughter.

"Eh. I'm rich and famous now," Zeke replied with a shrug. A cocky grin had replaced the blushing.

"But," Troy said with a nervous laugh "We're good?"

"We're good." Zeke replied before pulling his former captain into a hug. Troy was so happy that he didn't hear Jason come in, nor did he hear Jason clear his throat. He only took notice of his friend when he threw a magazine at him.

"No man love on my couch!"

That was short, wasn't it?

I thought about making it longer, but I didn't feel it was neccessary. It had been four years, Zeke would have to be over it. And for once, something good had to happen to Troy. I couldn't let terrible thing after terrible thing happen to him. I like him.

He probably hates me though.