A/N: I have a very clear mental image of Andrea and Danny, so I thought it only fair to help you guys out picturing them. Andy looks a lot like Danneel Harris (who played Rachel on One Tree Hill) (Which I do not own, lol) and Danny is very much based on Garret Hedlund's portrayal of Don Billingsley (minus the redneckisms, lol) in Friday Night Lights (the movie) (which, I regret to say I also do not own, because it's one of the best movies ever and Don is one tall drink of water lol). If you have no idea who either of those people are I have pictures and I can send them to you lol, just holla!

Something To Think About

I couldn't remember the last time I'd gaped at something with such blatant disregard for manners. My mother had raised me better than that, my socially conscious friends had always kept me in check better than that. So what was the matter with me?

It was April 10th and Andrea was celebrating her twentieth birthday by hosting a dinner party at her beautiful uptown apartment. The one her lawyer father paid the rent on and her interior designer mother had furnished. Colette, myself and half the squad had shown up, most of them sporting boyfriends. Before arriving I'd been upset that Ryan couldn't be on my arm due to rehearsal, that I'd have to brave that night alone. But after just minutes inside the door, I had never felt so grateful for the saving grace of Julliard in my entire life.

Maybe it was because football season was over and the squad had dissolved into studious obsession. Maybe it had something to do with spending so much time around Ryan and listening to all his talk about music and stage lighting and scripts. Maybe it was trying to pay my bills while keeping enough food in my cupboards and paying for Metrocards, slinging me into the real world at the price of high maintenance habits. But somewhere along the way, I'd forgotten what this was like.

Sitting with your beautiful friends, all dolled up and knowing you look just as good. Tall, muscular boys dying for a split-second of attention. Laughter, football talk and recollections of the season's most memorable moments on or off the field filling the air. No awkward tension, no misunderstandings or unfamiliar theatre slang. Just fun. And probably a little more alcohol than necessary. I guess I'd forgotten how good it felt to be around people just like me.

People who had never had problems in high school. People who were as wanted as they were close-minded. People who spoke the same language I did and always saved a spot for me in class. People whose weeks usually revolved around a field or a court or a diamond. We still had audiences but they were rowdier, sometimes even dangerous. We had lights, but they never shifted or changed, visible for miles around in all their tall, blinding glory. We had concessions, but they were cheap, messy and probably going to give you heartburn. For the past couple of weeks, I'd forgotten this life even existed.

Most of all, I'd forgotten what it was like to be in a relationship like Andy's. Her and Danny had been going steady for three months and though we'd met, I was sure we'd never actually hung out. From across the table, I couldn't help my eyes from soaking up the pair of them any chance I got. Their interaction, their chemistry, the way they looked beside one another. It wasn't that Ryan and I didn't bounce off each other the way they did, it wasn't like we didn't playfully flirt with one another. But it was different. He would make a joke that borrowed lines from some black and white movie I'd never even heard of. I would roll my eyes and make reference to some famous moment in sports history he was ignorant to. Sometimes we just didn't get each other.

Our chemistry was obviously existent as well…but again, undeniably dissimilar. Ryan and I wanted to be together. Andrea and Danny on the other hand were meant to be together. The universe loved them together. Everything about their relationship was right with the world. It was easy and filled me with warm fuzziness just watching them.

The most striking thing about their relationship however was also the most shallow. Andy had always been breathtaking. Long, dark red hair, a heart-shaped face and perfect, olive skin made most girls that caught sight of her jealous. Though I had never been envious of my best friend before, I suddenly was that night.

Danny was more attractive than I remembered. His frame was huge and very well filled out, perfect for his position on our football team as the starting fullback. Long muscular legs, bulky hands that caught footballs as softly as they handled his girlfriend, honey-brown eyes possessing an inner strength and steadiness I admired. When he laughed, his dark blonde bangs fell into those eyes and if I wasn't careful it was easy to forget what the people around me were saying just from watching him. He didn't talk much. Lacked the loudness and excitement that came as a package deal with Ry. He didn't need to beg the world for attention because it was handed to him anyway. He was the glorified hero, she was the beautiful princess and as they sat beside each other I couldn't stop myself from staring because I'd forgotten what having that felt like.

The jealousy didn't sprout so much from his looks as it did my own stupid imagination getting carried away. Behind my eyes, I could see them sitting on her couch watching games and screaming at the television together. Getting into popcorn fights and playing drinking games between commercials. I could see them working out at Columbia's gym together, pushing each other, supporting each other, making each other better. I could see them laughing around campus, the proud sparkle in my best friend's eye as every other girl glared with envy.

I could see her pom-poms waving furiously as she bounced up and down on the sidelines of a game, screaming as Danny made crucial blocks or bought his offense time through a close fourth quarter. The entire crowd hollering along with her, celebrating and clapping because of her boyfriend. I could see his hands all over her after the game, lips stretched into a grin against her mouth because they'd won and she'd been there and the whole school loved them. I could see them on top of a world I'd always day dreamed about in high school. Those moments, that Andrea would undoubtedly get with her boyfriend, were all I'd ever asked of life. I loved Ryan, but I would never have those moments with him. That more than anything made me wonder, if only faintly, whether I wouldn't have been better off never having met my boyfriend.

In the back of my mind, the blonde wonder's voice echoed softly.

'If this were a movie, you'd end up with him at the end, wouldn't you?'

Try as I may, the response I'd felt so earnestly at the time came back to haunt me.

'Just 'cause I like basketball games and the clothes at Abercrombie… what does it matter?' Now, studying my best friend and her perfect, gorgeous, tall, athletic, normal, all-American boyfriend I didn't just understand what Ryan had been trying to say, I felt it too. I didn't want him to be right…but in moments like this, I was wrung with guilt for not being completely unshakable in my faith that he wasn't.

'She just doesn't fit inside of our world.' Sharpay's voice wiggled its way into my head, serving only to further undo any sense of my relationship with her brother being right.

'There's a reason we steer clear of the theatre geeks.' Collette's words came back to me, sending a storm of emotion flaring through my system. God, they'd all been trying to warn me from the beginning. Maybe they'd actually made some sense. Maybe I was crazy. Maybe this wasn't love at all. Maybe Ryan and I were just in lust, living in a fantasy world because New York City was cold and neither of us could stand to be alone for very long.

"Sweetheart, is everything okay?" Andrea looked across the table at me, steely-blue eyes wide with gentle concern, a hesitant smile decorating her pretty face. Snapping out of my thoughts, I met her eyes with my own smile a few seconds too late, nodding.

"Yah, yah I'm fine. I think I'm just kinda tired, this semester is kicking my ass you know?"

A chorus of depressed agreement rose around us, filled with complaints of teachers and assignments and a general lack of sleep or time. Andrea's smile stayed in place and she rose her voice once more to silence everyone at the table.

"I think what we all need is a little sugar. Who's ready for dessert?"

Reluctantly, I nodded as my own smile joined everyone else's. Birthday cake wasn't going to be solving any of my problems that night, but it sure as hell couldn't hurt.

Mmm. Cake. Football players. Reviews. Just a few of my favorite things... :D