A/N: Hey everyone! I am soooo sorry I haven't updated in such a long time! I just got back from my dad's house, and I have all this fanfiction to deal with. So here's an update finally. Thank you so much for the reviews! Now I'm sorry that I won't be able to update for like a month because I'm going on vacation. And I'll barely be home this summer, but I'll update whenever I possibly can. Thanks so much everyone for being so supportive! Here's the next chapter. Enjoy!
Chapter Dedication: This chapter is dedicated to my friend Michelle (amazing fanfiction writer). Better times are on the way. Thanks for pushing me to write. It means a lot to me. This one's all you.
"Come on," she muttered impatiently.
"That maybe you'd want to go up to Santa Barbara with me this weekend."
"Santa Barbara?" she perked up with sudden interest.
"Santa Barbara."
Her shoulders fell when she realized what would happen. Michael saw the look on her face, and quickly tried to reassure her.
"But just as friends," he blurted out.
Sydney cocked her brow with quizzical effect. She was confused as to if he really wanted to be friends or if he just wanted manipulate her into being more than friendly.
"Alright," she agreed.
Vaughn loosened his tense muscles. He didn't know if she would actually want to spend the weekend with him or not. He had been a jerk, not telling Sydney about Alice and all, but there was something different about Sydney. Something that Michael just couldn't figure out. Maybe it was her smile. Maybe it was the way his heart beat four times faster every time he saw her. Maybe he fell in love with her the moment he nearly knocked her over the day she came to view the apartment. He just didn't want her to move on when she knew he already had a girlfriend. It was selfish, but he didn't want to see her go.
No.
He had just met her. Love at first sight was not possible. He barely even knew her. Thinking this way about a woman he just met. No, that was just wrong. But why did it feel so right? No. They would have to be friends first if anything at all.
"But," she continued. This caused Vaughn to tense up again. Oh the power this woman had over him.
"Yeah?"
"Just as friends. Nothing more, got that?" It was as if she was completely and totally in control of the coversation. And he didn't bother to say anything. He didn't care if she was bossy. Just the fact that she could forgive him and forget about what happen was enough satisfaction for him. "And don't think that I'll just forget about what you did. You can't honestly think you can get off that easily."
Damn. It was worth a try.
"Just friends. I promise."
"Promise?" Sydney asked, seeking more reassurance. She was acting like a seven year-old. A hot seven year-old...
"You can trust me," Vaughn smiled.
She combed her fingers through her brunette tresses, her eyebrow raised. Sydney studied Michael's face for any sign hidden complication. If there was any at all.
"Okay." She was at first hesitant. Could she really trust a guy who had lied to her? Would he do it again. She hoped not. "But just as friends." Man, she was really stressing the 'Just Friends' point.
Vaughn stuck his right hand out, "Friends?"
Sydney smiled warmly, shaking his hand firmly.
"Friends."
The bikini or the one-piece?
Packing to go a little vacation with a friend was tough. Especially if that friend might have had intimate feelings about her. Intimate feelings that she might want to return...Sydney just didn't want things to be awkward.
So. The bikini or the one-piece?
Both. Just to be safe. She certainly didn't want Vaughn's eyes wandering where a friend's eyes weren't supposed to be.
"Knock knock," a familiar voice said, tapping on the bedroom door, bringing Sydney out of her thoughts. Sydney dropped the bathing suits to be sure of who was standing at her door.
"Nadia?" Sydney asked, as if it were too good to be true. Her sister smiled, and came towards Sydney, instinctively, to give her a hug. "What are you doing here?"
"Just thought that I'd stop by," Nadia's smile faded. They wiggled out of each other's embrace.
"Are you alright?"
"Yeah, but I sort of need to talk to you."
"What about?"
Sydney motioned for Nadia to sit next to her on the bed, covered with clothes. It was apparent that Sydney was having trouble packing.
Nadia was hesitant at first with her reply, but finally spoke. "It's Cesar."
Sydney just stared. Her sister continued.
"He...well...we're kinda of having our problems right now. And...he said that we should have a brake," Nadia said. But quickly added, "nothing permanent, just that we needed time apart. To figure out what we wanted."
"And..." Sydney pushed, urging her sister to continue- she knew Nadia had more to say.
"And I don't really have anywhere to go right now..."
"You were hoping that you could stay here," Sydney concluded.
"But if that's a problem, I could probably find some other plac-"
"No, its fine. It's just. I'm not gonna be here this weekend," Sydney explained. She loved her sister to death, but the whole reason she moved out was so that she and Cesar could have some time alone before the wedding. To figure their lives out and sort through everything. Not to have her sister living right there with her again, but in a different apartment. But how could she say no? Family was family. That had been a family rule. More like law...
"Oh."
Sydney wrapped her arm around her sister's slouched shoulders. "The guest room is vacant."
Nadia smiled. "Are you sure this all right with you?" Her sister nodded her reassurance. Giving her a hug, Nadia stood up from her place on Sydney's bed. "Now why on earth does you room look like, er...um...yeah, don't answer that." Sydney laughed.
"I'm going to Santa Barbara with this friend of mine," Sydney blushed, rubbing the back of her neck nervously. Of course she was afraid that Nadia might see that she wanted to be more that just friends with Michael. Not that her sister even knew who Michael was. She just had her ways of finding out interesting 'gossip'. Besides, it was Sydney who stated clearly that they were to be no more than friends...this trip.
"And that friend is a guy," Nadia stated knowingly, cocking an eyebrow. "Anything else?"
Sydney turned -if at all possible- a deeper shade of crimson.
"You are more than just friends?"
Shaking her head violently, Sydney replied, "We made it very clear that we were just going to be friends."
"We as in both you and him, or just you?" Nadia asked, crossing her arms over her chest.
Silence.
"Just you?"
Sydney nodded.
"Just friends?"
Her sister nodded again.
"Yeah, we'll see about that."
"You sure you still want to do this, man?"
"Weiss."
"Sorry, but you just broke up with Alice," Eric pointed out.
"Yeah, but I'm asking Sydney to go on this trip with me as an apology, if that makes sense," Vaughn explained.
"Wouldn't the apology be a little bit late?"
"Weiss."
"Sydney's a great girl, I just don't want to see her get hurt. That's all. Or you for that matter. Because you have the tendency to get into relationships where you are shut out or left broken."
"Nothing's going to happen. We're just friends. I think it'd take a lot more to hurt a friend's feelings. Don't you think?"
"Who decided about the whole 'just friends' thing? I mean that must have been a bit awkward after you took her to dinner and everythi-"
"Eric! You're rambling. I already told you. The morning after I took Syd to dinner, I called Alice," Vaughn said.
"Yeah, I got that part," Weiss slumped.
"Then why are you still worrying about this?"
"I don't understand everything that happened after you called Alice."
Vaughn pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head slightly. "I told her that we needed to talk. And of course I wouldn't break up with her over the phone, so I told her I'd take her to lunch. So I did, and tried to tell her things weren't exactly working out, but she just kept talking and talking. I mean honestly, how can women see that much in shoes. Shoes really aren't all that impor-"
"Mike."
"What?"
"You're rambling. Dude, all I wanted to know why Sydney caught you two at the apartment."
"Oh. Alice wouldn't stop talking about shoes, and the conversation wasn't going anywhere close to what I was expecting," Vaughn continued. "So she suggested we go back to my apartment, and I thought that that would be perfect to end things. But I guess when I was trying to open the door to my apartment, Sydney saw us."
"And assumed the worst," Weiss concluded on his own. Vaughn nodded. "Then who said to be 'just friends'?"
Vaughn narrowed his eyes.
"What?" Weiss asked, throwing his hands up in innocence.
"She did," Vaughn sighed. "And she made it very clear."
"Just friends?"
His best friend nodded.
"Yeah, we'll see about that."
"I still can't believe you said yes to him. Even after what he did."
"Francie, we're just friends now."
"I know, but still," Francie said, eyeing Sydney go through Francie's closet.
"Where are you going Syd?" Yani inquired from a chair in the corner, painting her toenails.
"Santa Barbara," she murmured in reply, but turned around to throw her Aussie friend a puzzled glance. Francie's face showed equal bewilderment.
"What?" Yani shrugged.
"That was like the first time you didn't use all those weird, but seemingly elaborate words," Francie said, somewhat shocked to Yani's 'different' attitude. Sydney nodded in agreement. The Aussie lingo had apparently gotten the best of the two American women.
"Oh! Ha. I was just talking that way to freak you two out. For what it was worth, I'll just talk what you yanks call 'normal'," Yani explained, doing airquotes when she stressed the word normal.
Sydney rolled her eyes and giggled.
"Syd, you've been digging through my closet for the past fifteen minutes," Francie whined. "What do you want from me?"
"Those sandals...I know I saw 'em the other day..." Sydney muttered, searching through the piles of shoes covering Francie's closet floor.
"You could have just asked," Francie feigned annoyance, causing Yani to be the one to roll her eyes."Besides, what do you care about fashionable sandals? I don't think your friend would care about what your feet look like." Francie was right. Why should Sydney care about what Vaughn thought of her footwear. Friends wouldn't judge. But then again, boyfriends wouldn't either...
"Fran, there's nothing wrong with wanting to look nice," Yani started.
"Thanks Yani," Sydney said, appreciating her new friend in defending her.
"But if she wants to look nice kicking those off her feet when they jump in the sack, there's nothing wrong with that either," Yani said. "I guess," she coughed.
"Yani!" Sydney screamed, throwing one of Francie's pointed stiletto boots at Yani, just barely hitting the young Aussie in the arm.
"Well if you're worried about what Michael will think about your footwear," Yani continued. "I'd be even more concerned about what he thought of your aim."
Francie erupted in laughter while Yani tried to bolt for the door.
Sydney picked up the other boot, and threw it. After the boot hit Yani square in the rear, she tripped forward, falling into an imaginary puddle of giggles. Sydney pushed herself up from her spot on the floor and ran over to the laying form of Yani- who was still giggling.
"Bad aim my ass," Sydney laughed, pressing her foot onto Yani's butt in victory. She pulled a pillow from Francie's bed, just incase she'd have to use it.
"Aim! I meant, you want to make sure you have good aim. For you know," Yani winked up at the older woman, as Sydney began to playfully hit her with Francie's pillow. Yani laughed again. "Because guys hate it when women...ugh...don't know how to aim high!" Francie watched nearby in amusement. "In life! I meant aim high in life!" Yani squealed. "Child abuse! Child abuse! Woman!"
Sydney blushed and held her stomach from laughter, giving Yani the perfect opportunity to get away.
"Get back here!" Sydney screamed.
Yanicka made it to the front door, opened it, and yelled back to Sydney from the walkway outside the apartment. "Just friends, Syd? You know you would have settled for more. Wait no, wanted more. Not settled." Yani cupped her hands over her mouth so that Francie could hear from the bedroom. "Hey Fran! Did you hear that? Wanted more!" When Sydney came running, Yani bloted for her own apartment, opened the door, and slammed it behind her.
"Yani! Open this door!" Sydney laughed, pounding on Yani's door. She heard someone laughing along with her. It wasn't Francie.
She looked out of the corner of her eye to find that Eric Weiss was the one laughing. Not only laughing, but standing behind a grinning Michael Vaughn.
Sydney started to blush profusely.
"How much did you hear?" she asked nervously, looking down at the ground. Shit, shit, shit, shit...
Vaughn looked from Sydney to Weiss, then to Sydney again.
"All that I needed to hear," he smiled.
Shit.
A/N: How was that? Sorry it's been so long for an update. I didn't want you guys to think I gave up on this story. Reviews are always welcome. The little purple button is calling your name! Review responses are at my livejournal. Get their from my homepage on my author profile. Your feedback means the world to me!
