What the hell had she been thinking? Julie had long run out of energy to run and was now striding her way home along the busy road. The weather had also decided to break, tons of rain falling from the sky, seemingly directly onto her. The rain was coming so thick and fast that it was ski-jumping off her eyebrows. Her hair has gotten battened down and was beyond heavy. It was clinging to her face and body. This would be awful had it not shielded her from the eyes of the drivers. Her clothing has become transparent and clingy to an inordinate degree. She made a swishing sound when she walked and she had to blink every second just to see somewhat clearly. She wanted to cry, she needed to cry. Who was she kidding? She was crying, huge gulping sobs that shook her body and made her eyes sting. Her mother called it the 'ugly cry', the cry every girl needed every once and awhile. She needed to stop crying.

"Suck it up Julie," she told herself out loud "enough of the sookie-la-la stuff already." Surely there was a way to make this easier?

Find the positive she thought. What positive? She kissed Tim. He didn't kiss her back. So she licked him. Matt witnessed it all. She had to walk home. In the rain. To a house where Tim now lived. Positive? Hmm at least the weather was warm and the rain was refreshing. Or it would have been if it weren't coming down in torrents. A car drove past, hitting a huge puddle and splashing her all over. She gasped. Find the positive. Find the positive. Find the positive. She could forgo the shower in the morning.

Julie kept striding towards home. She calculated that she should be home in around 25 minutes but that didn't bode well for the books, iPod and cell phone in her bag. She looked and felt like a drowned rat. It completely a genuinely awful day and she knew there would be no respite at home. Tim would probably never speak to her again. Matt would probably make assumptions of his own. Her dad would probably hear about it and insist on some weirdly worded and very tangent ridden lecture and her mom would give her that look. The disapproving one. The one that made her feel about the size of a grape.

She stomped on talking aloud to herself.

"Julie, why couldn't you have kept your lips to yourself? You inflicted a bad kiss on him and then you licked him. Licked him? Who does that outside of a porn? Seriously what kind of desperate, sad, pathetic loser are you? You'll never be able to lift your head in public again. Tim will never even look your way. He didn't even respond. Not even a movement of any kind. What must he think? What must he think of me?" she finished it off with a scream and kicked the curb.

"Owwww," she cried hopping up and down trying to hold her foot and remain upright. She may have broken her toe. Genius. Well she couldn't walk now. She'd have to catch a lift. She scrambled through the wet and very limp contents of her bag and found her cell. She called her dad's number and waited for the call to get routed. Except nothing happened. The phone was clearly incapable of functioning.

Julie closed her eyes, faced upwards and took a deep breath. It was quite difficult with rain poring over her face, she choked when some made its way up her nose. Ewww, that was disgusting. She looked around and saw a house that she knew quite well, Matt's. She hopped the distance and up the stairs, knocking on his door.

"Mrs Saracen, are you home?" she called out. Knowing Matt's grandma she may not have heard the knocking or possibly believed that someone was attacking the house. Either way this was a phone line and a car ride home. Knocking proved to be singularly ineffective and she sat down on the top step discouraged and depressed. No one was home. She put her head in her hands and took some relief in the respite from the rain. Okay this way better, sheltered from the rain and a brief time out on the Tim-thing. Maybe she could hide out on Matt's porch forever?

After forty minutes a rust bucket pulled up slowly out the front of the Saracen home.

"When did you get a car?" she called out to Matt. This was news to her. As was the Latino nurse who was assisting Matt's grandma exit the car. He looked up surprised and hurried to speak to her. He kept looking behind him at the two ladies slowly progressing up the path.

"Uh Julie, what arrrrrrre you doing here?" he stuttered. Was he serious?

"Matt, I need to get home. I started walking home after well, you know, and it started raining and then I broke my toe and then I saw your house. I just wanna go home," what started out as a normal statement turned into a wailing cry. He looked so uncomfortable she would have normally giggled if she weren't so wet and emotional. He put his arm around her should and patted it awkwardly.

"You broke your toe?" he asked.

"Well uh, I don't think so it just hurts a lot," she sniffed.

"Okay well I'll give you a ride home then," she smiled with gratitude and she hopped to the car as he briefly spoke to the nurse.

They drove silently for awhile.

"So uh Julie, what's going on?" Matt asked. Julie turned to him and gave him a grimace.

"Obviously a lot Matt. How have you been? How are you and the cheer sl- um leader going?" she deflected.

"Ah oh it is okay," he responded.

"Fine. You saw me humiliate myself before with Tim. I am feeling embarrassed that my ex-boyfriend got to see that," she muttered.

"Wasn't thhhat the point?" he queried. She shot him a look that had it been a laser beam, it would have melted his face off.

"No Matt," she spoke slowly and condescendingly "I wasn't trying to make you jealous. I like Tim and he doesn't like me. Okay?'

Silence abounded. She was being a bitch to him again and she couldn't help it.

"I'm sorry. I have just had a really bad day and I don't see it getting any better. I shouldn't take out my frustrations on you. I'm being unfair. Sorry. " He smiled at her

"It's still awkward ... isn't it?" he asked.

"Yep."

"Will it ever not be?"

"I don't know." She looked at him and honestly answered. He nodded as he pulled up at her house. Tim's truck was in the driveway. He was home. She took in a deep, nervous breath.

"It'll be okay," he told her.

"Thanks Matt," she looked up at the house and asked "do you think you could help me up to the house?" Again he nodded. What was with her and non-talkers? He came around the side of the car and assisted her in standing. Matt wrapped his arm around her waist and had her lean against him as they walked. She smiled at him trying to convey her gratitude and she realised they would be friends again, eventually.

The front door of her house burst open and Tim rushed out. His face clearly showed concern.

"What happened? I looked everywhere for you. What did you do? He insinuated himself on the other side of Julie

"Hey Matt. Look man I've got her, thanks for your help," he charged forward, carrying most of her weight.

"Oww oww Tim, take it easy okay?" He looked distracted

"Oh yeah sure, sorry," he slowed down. She turned her head, looking at Matt

"Thanks Matt," she called. He stood there looking at Tim and her, shrugged and walked back to his car.

"I doubt very much that you looked everywhere for me. I was walking on the side of the road. Are you blind?" she snarked. She felt him breathe in deeply

"I see your bad hair day got worse."

"You are such a bitch!" Julie cried.

"I think I like ass better,"

"Just get me to my room already. I think I broke my toe" he looked disbelieving at her "well maybe sprained it or something" she muttered "it hurts okay?" He tried to hide his smile at her sulky tones.

He walked her to her bedroom and sat her on her bed. He went to leave, speaking to her without turning around

"We're going to have to talk about it sometime. When you're cleaned up, we'll talk." He left the room. It took her considerably longer than normal to dry off and get changed. Her toe was a little discoloured but clearly not broken. Trust her to be the hypochondriac. There was no avoiding it, it The Talk was going to happen sooner or later. It was undoubtedly going to be awkward and embarrassing but it was time to stop whining.

Julie shuffled out into the living room. Pausing at the doorway she saw Tim sitting in her dad's normal spot. She sat down on the couch and looked at her lap.

"So..." he started "you kinda kissed me."

Still looking at her hands she simply responded "yes".

"And then you kinda ran to Matt," she glanced up sharply "Did you do it to make him jealous?" he asked quietly, never breaking his glance from her.

"Tim no," she took a deep breath "I didn't do it to make Matt jealous. Matt just asked me that too. I wanted to. You see me as a sister, I see you as kissable."

She could see him mentally digesting the information. She decided to take charge

"Tim – let's just forget it happened, let's pretend that I never kissed you and that I am your little sister and we can go on our merry way, it was a horrible kiss anyway, I sort of rushed it, normally I am better, you could ask Matt, wait, now I am rambling and not making sense and let's just pretend I didn't do it and my parents won't know and we'll put it all behind us." It all came out of her in one garbled mess.

"Okay then," he paused "what about the lick then?" he smiled saucily at her.

"You want to be my kind-of-de facto-brother and then you say things like that. It's confusing. It's not fair,' she sulked. The smile fell from his face and he got serious

"You're right. I can't help myself these things just fly out of my mouth." The both sat silently next to one another, both unsure of where to go next.

"It wasn't that bad," there was no chance of her not recognising what he was referencing

"Are you kidding me? It was like kissing my grandma's cheek. It was horrible. Are you trying to get me to feel worse?" she retorted. He laughed so loudly that the couch almost shook. She glanced at him surprised-

"Truthfully?" she nodded "It surprised me. The venue I mean. It's not like I hadn't thought about it but I am living with your family," she looked at him blankly, he was humouring her.

"If you weren't living with my family would this be an issue?" she asked the hard question.

"Probably. Your father's my coach. Matt got a hard time and he didn't even have my reputation," he responded. It was then she realised that he had actually thought about it, in detail in fact.

"Oh," there was no way she could really respond to that. She couldn't change any of the factors – Tim needed a home and her dad was the Coach. This blows. This blows hard.

"Yeah. I think that's why I ignored you at first. It kept me from really having to talk to you. That's what I meant. The reason why I was ignoring you," he must be running out of batteries soon 'cause this was possibly the most she'd ever heard him talk. She didn't want him to stop.

"When I worked out that ignoring you wasn't working I sorta threw caution out the window and just had fun. Fighting with you is a blast." He turned a full beam smile on her and she melted.

"What about the kiss?" she asked.

"I wasn't sure if you kissed me for Matt or for me. I froze. You didn't give me long and then you licked me and ran away. You licked me!" he laughed. She covered her blush covered face with her hands.

"I am so embarrassed," she spoke into her hands. He gently prised her hands away from her face.

"Don't," he laughed again "it was like the best and most bizarre first date ever."

"Date?" she gulped. He was sitting rather close to her. She could feel his breath on the side of her face.

"Except I really didn't get a kiss goodnight. Well not a proper one anyway,"

"No you didn't,' she breathed. She was still looking straight ahead with Tim close on her right. She felt his breath again and then a tingling sensation on her ear. He was tracing the whirl of her ear with the tip of his tongue. Her pulse quickened but she daren't move. Julie did not want him to stop. His fingers were lightly drifting from her fingers to her wrist to the inside of her elbow and up her arm. She had never felt so exhilarated in her life. She was breathing fast. She couldn't believe this was happening.

Author's Note – I was kind of on a streak today so I continued. Thanks for the great reviews. There will be another chapter tomorrow.