Part 1
Casey was driving his best mate's girlfriend home. Josie called him, not her boyfriend, to come and pick her up after she was left stranded by a friend at a party.
He had known Josie as long as his best mate, Danny, had. They'd all grown up together and were close. But while Danny was serious, Casey was the larrikin. He and Josie had always teased each other and argued.
When they became teenagers he started to see immediately just how beautiful Josie was. And she was smart, their conversations were always full of crackling energy and teasing.
But then she started dating Danny and he tried to extinguish any feelings he might have for her. He even tried dating other people but, to him, everyone else was a faint copy of her. She wasn't perfect, but she was perfect to him.
He looked over at her now, in the passenger seat of his truck. Her chestnut hair fell in waves around her face. She had the most incredible green eyes that sparkled with humour and also naivety. Her strawberry lips covered white teeth that were just the slightest bit crooked in the cutest way. When she smiled she had dimples.
"Why did you call me?" He said.
She looked at him, hurt. He was so competent, strong and understanding. To be honest, he was always the first person she thought of whenever something went wrong. He always lightened her mood with his humour and he made her feel safe with his strength. He also had dimples when he smiled and his hazel eyes flickered with humour and intelligence. He was street smart, competent, knew how to handle himself.
"I'm glad you did. Call me. But why me? Why not Danny, why not a girlfriend?" He continued.
"It's always you..." she started saying before trailing off. "You're right, I shouldn't have called you," she ended.
"No, that's not what I said Jose, I'm happy you called me, I want you to be safe, I'll always be there for you. I just want to know why you called me."
She looked at him, he glanced at her while driving, trying to gauge her expression.
"I needed you," she said.
Suddenly he swerved to the side of the road and pulled up the car. Shocked, she asked "what the hell are you doing Case?"
"What do you mean...when you say needed me?" he asked.
"I don't know..." she trailed off.
He closed the distance between them "Jose," he said "I need to know...I need to know how you feel."
"Safe," she said. "Honestly... you're always the first person I think of, the first person I want to call."
"What does that mean?" he said.
She just looked up at him. Those green eyes. An ocean he could lose himself in.
She wanted so badly for him to hold her, to feel his strong arms around her. To rest her head on his chest and breath him in. Her mind told her she was with Danny but every fibre of her being yearned for Casey, it was instinctual.
And he felt it. With every fibre of his being. Every time he looked at her, he felt a current pulling him towards her. The urge to hold her, to protect her, to feel her against his body, was overwhelming.
But Danny, his best mate, her boyfriend, their childhood as three close friends. This divided the static filled air between them. They both understood the logic of that but their instincts did not.
"Jose, I need to know. I need to know... it's not just me who feels...this," he said.
"It's not just you...I feel it. I don't want to feel it. I've tried not to feel it. It's wrong..." she trailed off.
But nothing had ever felt more right.
"I've tried to ignore this, to crush it down," he said. "It's not just that I think you're beautiful...so beautiful... it's so much more than that. I see you, all of you. I've known you all my life and it's like you are actually inside me. I feel you. I desperately want to protect you... to hold you..."
He saw tears pooling in her eyes and he couldn't take it a moment longer. He took her in his arms and held her against him. He buried his face in her hair and breathed her in.
"Casey," she breathed through tears, her cheek against his chest.
He took her face in his hands, he brushed the tears from under her eyes with his thumbs.
He desperately wanted to kiss her but instead he put his arm around her shoulders and guided her back to the car.
Part 2
They would have to tell Danny. That was the right thing to do, they decided.
But how? How do you tell a man that his best friend and his girlfriend have been falling for each other?
The weekend came, and with it, the long awaited camping trip. The three of them, along with a couple of friends, packed their gear into a couple of cars and headed to their favourite secluded forest camping spot beside a river.
They arrived, set up their tents and built a fire. They had done this many times over the years growing up together. Except now it was different.
Josie sat beside Danny, across the fire from his childhood best friend Casey. And all Josie could think about was how badly she wanted to be on the other side of that fire.
But that could mean an end, to all this, to the easy friendship of this group, the strong bonds built over the years.
She noticed Casey looking at her over the fire. Willing to blow up his childhood friendship because he knew, on a cellular level, that the girl across the fire was his person. That she had always been inside him. That, no matter what, even if she never crossed the fire, she always would be inside him.
He couldn't take it anymore and got up abruptly. He walked off into the dark. Every cell in her body yearned to go to him but it was as if she was stuck to her chair.
Danny got up to get something and she could take it no longer. She got up and followed in the direction Casey had gone.
She found him beside the river, tossing pebbles into the water.
She sat down next to him.
"It's harder than you thought, isn't it," he said. "Risking all this, the years of friendship, the comfort of this group."
"It is," she said simply.
"You don't have to do it," he said. "I understand."
His arm brushed against hers as he reached for another stone.
"But I feel it," she said. "I can't make it go away."
"I'll tell him," he said.
"No, it should come from me," she said.
"What should?" said a voice behind them.
