Fall from Love

the relationship you two have is really weird. It’s like friends with no benefits. Why don’t you just kiss her and get it over with already? The two of you are great together.”
    He doesn’t have to tell me that. “It’s complicated. I like having her as a friend and I don’t think it would feel right if it were anything more than that.” Right now, I’m okay with us just being friends. For the first time in months, my life is actually going great and it’s because she’s in it.
    Josh nods slowly. He knows me well enough to know why I’m holding back and not taking it any farther with her. “I can understand where you’re coming from, but you can’t keep up the friendship for too much longer, the sexual tension that surrounds you two is going to combust at some point. If I had to bet on it, I’d say sooner rather than later.”
    Again, he isn’t telling me anything that I don’t already know. Even though Holly has become a close friend, someone I trust and care a lot about, she is also smoking hot. It doesn’t help that when her and Jenna stay the night, she’ll take my bed and I picture what she is wearing, or isn’t wearing, lying against my sheets. So even though there’s a large part of me that wants to be more than friends, I’m scared to lose her and the friendship we have.
    Where it gets really complicated is the fact that I still haven’t told her the truth from the night of the accident. Jenna keeps telling me that it doesn’t matter—that the past is the past—and I shouldn’t bring it up because it will just end up hurting her, but I’m not sure. If the time comes, I can’t ever take the next step with her if she doesn’t know the truth.
    Josh and I stand at their door and knock as my nerves begin to devour me. I’m not sure why, but picking Holly up and taking her to a party kind of feels like a date, or maybe I just wish it is. Even though, deep down, I know it’s not.
    “Come in,” Jenna shouts from the inside. When we walk in, Jenna is helping Holly with her costume and they both turn to us and smile.
    “Damn, dude, we’re two lucky sons of bitches,” Josh says under his breath as he eyes Jenna up and down. “I’d wear this stupid costume every day if she asked me to.”
    I only half hear him because I can’t concentrate on anything except for Holly and how hot she looks standing there in her costume. I’m not sure what she’s supposed to be, but holy shit if it’s not the hottest costume I’ve ever seen. Josh walks over to Jenna and leaves me standing there, staring like a dumbass. Finally, Holly turns around and makes her way over to me. As hard as I try, I can’t take my eyes off of her.
    The closer she gets to me, the more nervous I get. “Hey,” I breathe.
    “There weren’t a lot of costumes left, so I didn’t have a lot of choices. What do you think? Too much?” She looks down and examines herself.
    “No,” I choke out and then clear my throat. “You look great.” There are a few other words that come to mind—sexy, beautiful and hot—but they just don’t seem appropriate to say to a friend.
    She gives me a smirk, like I’m just saying that to be nice, but she has no idea how truthful I’m being, or what thoughts are running through my head right now, or how thankful I am that I agreed to go to this stupid party. I can’t imagine letting her out of this house looking the way she is without someone watching over her. Tonight she needs a bodyguard with how hot she looks in that outfit.
    “Can you guess what I’m supposed to be?” she asks, raising an eyebrow, clearly challenging me.
    Swallowing hard, I slowly look her up and down. She’s wearing a lavender top that’s cut off above her belly button, showing off her flat stomach. Her long skirt is a darker shade of purple and there’s a gold chain of some sort connecting her top and bottom. The gold eye shadow she has on makes her green eyes stand out even more than usual and her hair is up in a high pony tail on the top of her head. The entire outfit shows off every curve her body has, making it hard for me to concentrate on making an actual guess.
    “Um... a genie?” I say, finally.
    She busts out laughing and the sound of it courses through me. Hearing her so happy causes my chest to ache.
    “No, I’m not a genie, but I’ll give you a few more guesses.” She laughs. I try to snap myself out of the daze I’m in and stop staring at her so I don’t come off looking like a