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"What's going on, my friend?" Asked Dean as he walked into Roman's townhouse on a Friday.
Roman's house was two stories and with three bedrooms, two and a half baths with kitchen, living room and a small backyard.
"I thought you'd be with Katrina tonight." He added as he sat down on the couch.
He sat next to his best friend and sighed. "I thought I'd be with her tonight too, but I don't know."
Dean looked at the six foot three Samona sitting next to him. "What happened?"
Roman sighed and told him everything that had happened. "Katrina hasn't replied to my phone calls and texts and when she does, she doesn't talk much. Usually she passes my classroom to say hi before and after she does the library thing and whatnot, but she hasn't done that either."
Dean shook his head and looked at him again. "I'm glad that you tried to talk to her, that's a plus. But you still need to work on it."
"What do you mean?" Roman asked.
"You need to listen to her, Roman." Said Dean. "She's scared of getting hurt, and instead of you trying to comfort her and making her feel better about the situation, listen to what you ended up telling her. You want her, you've made that very clear. But it's also the first time that she's probably been in a situation where she wants to be with someone who's a professor at her school. Of course, that's going to be another reason for why she gets hesitant to try anything more than what she already has and you're not understanding what she's feeling or trying to say. From what you're telling me, that's exactly what it sounds like. I haven't talked to her in a few days, so I have no idea what the hell she's thinking."
"You sure you didn't take up Psychology or something in school?" Roman asked, jokingly.
Dean chuckled before looking back at his friend, thinking before saying anything. "It's possible that's just trying to create some space so that the two of you can calm down before talking again. Or it could be because of something else and she's obviously not telling us. Either way, reagrdless of why she hasn't talked to you much over the last few days, you need to listen to her, man. Find out exactly what she wants from you and from this situation. Don't be so hard on her, Roman."
They were both quiet for a while before either one of them spoke again. "Do you think that it's a possibility that she's more innocent than we think?"
Dean looked at Roman. "In what way are we talking about here? There's different ways that somebody could be innocent."
"When it comes to relationships." Said Roman. "Ever since we both started talking to her, not once has she ever mentioned ever being a relationship before and she did mention that her dad didn't let her date until she was eighteen."
They both looked at each other curiously before Dean's eyes widened. "It's possible. Katrina was really young when she started college and she's only twenty-two. It's hard to tell though. She's doesn't act like she's never had one, if that's the case."
"I mean, that makes it a lot more understandable as to why she may be scared." Said Roman.
Meanwhile, Katrina was with her closet friend, Derek, who she met on her very first day of college. He's two years older than her, but they've been there for each other every step of the way. What makes it even better, in Katrina's opinion, is that he likes guys just as much as she does and she can always count on him to be a shopping buddy. While they were at the mall, he noticed that his closet friend wasn't her normal self and wanted to help her feel better.
"How are you and this mystery guy of yours?" Derek asked. Katrina never mentioned who he was or the fact that he's in the school for fear of how me may react.
After telling him what had happened a few days ago, Derek hugged her and rubbed her arm in an effort to comfort her.
"I want to know who this mystery guy is." Said Derek. "I want to see if he's as physically attractive as you make him out to be."
Katrina smiled and looked down, wondering if she should tell him. "You have to promise that you won't tell anyone who it is. I really mean that, Derek. You can't tell anyone."
He looked at her seriously and faced her as they both leaned against the railing. "Who is it?"
She thought for a moment, feeling her stomach in knots and spoke quietly. "It's Professor Reigns. He's also the new coach for the football team."
Derek's eyes widened when he realized who it was. "Isn't that the gorgeous new English Professor who has long black hair, sexy grey eyes, and a tattoo on his arm?"
Katrina nodded and heard him gasp. She groaned and closed her eyes, covering them with her hands, wondering if she did the right thing.
"No, no, no." He said pulling at her hands. "Girl, I can't be mad at you for that. I've talked to him a few times for that story that I told you I was writing. I heard he's an amazing English teacher and so I thought I'd ask him for his opinion on my stories. He seems like a really nice guy."
"That's part of why I'm nervous about this whole situation with him." Katrina told him. "I don't want him to get in trouble if anybody at school finds out. Especially if it's the wrong person that does. But I don't want him to keep me a secret. I want him to be proud of me enough to show me off to everybody and not be afraid to do so."
Derek sighed and looked at her. "I promise to not tell anybody. We can't help who we like and by the way you talk about him, you're completely into this guy. I know you though. This whole not wanting to get hurt thing and him getting into trouble is not the only reason you hesitate. Is it because you've never had a boyfriend before?"
Katrina's cheeks turned pink as she nodded. "He doesn't know that though. I would feel embarrased if I told him."
"Why?" He asked. "That's nothing to be ashamed about, sweetie."
"Because I'm twenty-two and I've never had a boyfriend." Replied Katrina.
Derek looked at her like she was crazy. "If he likes you as much as he claims, then it shouldn't matter to him and you know that. Besides, any guy would be crazy to not want anything to do with an amazing woman like you."
She nodded, knowing that he was right. They continued to shop as she tried to relax for later on tonight, because she would be dancing at an event at the beach. Somebody saw her perfomance at the club that she sometimes dances at, and invited her to dance with them. Katrina was excited, because this would be the first time in years in where she would be performing in front of a crowd as large as what's expected to be at the beach for the event. But she was also a bit down because she wanted Roman to be there, and watch. He had become one of her biggest fans when it came to her dancing and she knew that she would miss his cheering.
Later that night...
Dean and Roman were on their way to the beach in Roman's black Tahoe because of Dean insisting that they go tonight.
"Are you really not going to tell me why we're going to the beach at this time?" Roman asked.
Dean shook his head. "Nope. You'll find out for yourself when we get there. Just know that I think you'll like what you see."
When they parked the car, they got out and walked around. Roman looked all around him to figure out what could have made Dean want to convince him to go there tonight. He was wearing his white, wife beater, and beige cargo shorts. He had his long hair pulled back in a bun and his favorite sandles.
They walked up to a stage that was set up with a white background that looked similar to a dome. There was already a crowd forming around the stage and taking some pictures. When they walked up to the stage they saw a woman dressed in a white, long and flowy pants, and a white shirt that showed her stomach and her sunkissed skin. Her long chestnut hair was in a neat bun and Roman could see her strong blue eyes and immediately knew that it was Katrina who had taken the stage.
Katrina looked out into the crowd and saw Roman standing there with Dean right next to him. Her breathe caught in her throat as the host announced her as she started to feel butterflies again when she realized how he looked at her. Roman had that look of desire in his eyes, just like he did a few days ago at the library and she tried to hide the shades of pink that were appearing on her cheeks.
"How did you know she was going to be here?" Asked Roman as he smiled when she began to dance.
Dean was quiet for a moment before he responded. "You've been miserable the last few days, so I tried to see where she would be today so that you could see each other. I didn't tell her anything about either one of us being around so that she wouldn't hesitate to tell me anything."
"You're a good friend, you know that Dean?" Said Roman and Dean nodded in approval.
After Katrina had finished dancing, the crowd erupted into a cheer as she smiled and gave a bow before waving and walking off the stage. I made my way through the crowd and saw her walking down the steps on the side of the stage and hugged somebody that walked up to her.
"Can I have an autograph because that was amazing." Said Roman as he reached her and saw the light in Katrina's eyes when she saw him.
The person whom she hugged, turned around to see who was talking to her and Roman froze in his tracks when he saw that it was a current student in the Master's program.
"Mr. Gates, I didn't know you two were friends." Said Roman, trying to act normal.
Derek gave a small smile, but gave Katrina a knowing look. "We met on our first day of school and we've been inseperable ever since. I didn't know you were going to be here, Professor Reigns."
"My friend told me about an event that was happening here tonight, so I came along. I didn't know Ms. Rodriguez was going to be here." Roman partially lied. Dean didn't tell him about an event, hell Roman didn't even know that anything was happening tonight at the beach. The truth was that he really didn't know he was going to see Katrina, but there was a happiness inside of him when he did that he was now having trouble containing.
Derek smiled when he saw the chemistry between Roman and his best friend, Katrina and knew what she had meant whenever she had talked about him.
"I'll leave you two. I will be getting some ice cream." Said Derek as he walked away. Dean called him to catch up to him, as if knowing that it was his cue to leave as well, leaving Katrina and Roman by themselves.
"Can we talk?" Asked Roman when he made sure that nobody else that they knew from school was around.
Katrina nodded and led the way to the boardwalk after letting the host know where she was going to be. They leaned against the railing of the boardwalk as she tried to fan herself with her hands in an effort to cool off.
"I'm sorry about the other day in the library." Said Roman. "I genuinly didn't mean to come off harsh or as if I didn't like you or anything like that. I should have been more sensitive and understanding to what you were trying to tell me. And I regret acting like that and to know that how I acted got you upset...I feel like a douchebag."
She stayed quiet for a moment as she grabbed the water bottle that she took on her way off the stage and drank some. "I'm not mad anymore about what happened, but it hurt. I realized that I'm pushing you away and I didn't think about how it would affect you or us and I apologize for that. But I didn't think that you'd say the things that you said."
"I want to make it up to you." He said softly.
Katrina looked into his grey eyes and knew that he was telling the truth. "I need to know that you're different from every other guy that I have ever met. That if you really are different, that it's going to be consistent and not an on and off type of thing as if I'm going to be okay with that, because I'm not. I need to know that you're worth it."
"Give me a chance and I'll show you." Roman replied.
She thought for a moment before responding. "With the last day of school being yesterday, I'm going to Virginia Beach for almost two weeks with Derek for vacation. I thought you should know."
"With Derek?" He asked with a slight tone of jealousy.
Katrina smiled when she noticed and placed her hands on his shoulders. "In case you haven't noticed, he bats for the same team as I do. Nothing's going to happen."
Roman nodded. "Yeah, yeah...I knew that."
She smiled and laughed just as Derek and Dean came back with some ice cream. Derek allowed her to try some of his and Roman smiled when she wanted to be reminded to get some after the show. After talking for a while longer, the host of the show came up to Katrina to let her know that she would be needed back up on stage in a few minutes. She followed him and waited by the side of the stage.
Roman, Dean and Derek cheered loudly when she went back up on stage and waved to the crowd. Her, as well as the other dancers all gave a bow and thanked everybody for coming out tonight to see them. She got her things together after finishing up the night and met up with the guys .
"You were really good tonight." Said Roman as he whispered in her ear. She smiled and blushed, as she felt his fingers lightly graze against hers and feeling his lips close to her ear.
Two weeks later...
As Katrina and Derek made their way through the Newport News/Williamsburg Airport in Virginia, she took out her phone to let Roman know that they were in Virginia and on their way to get a rental. He quickly replied back and she couldn't help but smile.
"How long is it going to take from here to get to the beach?" Asked Derek.
"Without traffic, it should take about 45 minutes from here." Katrina replied as they got their bags into the bus that would take them to where they could rent their cars.
Derek looked over at Katrina and saw her smile with each text that she recieved. He smiled knowing that it was from Roman, and gave her some privacy until she finished. They decided to take some pictures and post them up to Instagram and Twitter. They were going to make it a mission to have a good time for the next week or two without any problems.