A/N: Hey, everyone! So I know the last thing I should be doing right now is starting a new fic, but I love FNL so much, I just couldn't resist. This is just a short chapter to start out with, they will be longer in the future. So read, review, and enjoy a little Tim and Julie!

Prologue

Tim Riggins had been living with Coach Taylor for a few weeks now. He wasn't sure what he had expected out of the experience when he had gone into it, really only thinking he needed a place to stay the night, but he sure as hell hadn't been expecting to become friends with Julie Taylor.

Living with her day and night, it was hard not to see her, to listen to her encourage him to try harder in school, to drink a little less. But he hadn't thought he'd actually like to spend time with her. Of course he had thought about her before. She was Coach Taylor's gorgeous, completely off-limits daughter. Especially for a guy like him. He was the petty criminal and she was the princess, locked up by her father and untouchable. Even Seven, who was about as far from an alpha male football player as someone could get, hadn't been able to make things work with Julie.

She was beautiful, she was smart, and though he wouldn't have believed it before living with her, she could make him laugh. She was damn cute sometimes. But she was still untouchable. Her father would never trust him with his baby girl. So he settled for being friends with her. He wasn't sure if it was settling, because he didn't think he wanted a relationship with her, but he did accept that he couldn't have sex with her. Julie Taylor and sex in the same sentence almost seemed wrong.

And yet their friendship didn't stop him from thinking about her in bed. But he could accept it was a friendship.

Julie Taylor knew it was wrong to think Tim Riggins cared for her. Tim had a different girl every week, he wouldn't want her. He might be living with her family, but that didn't mean he thought anything of her. If anything, he probably thought of her as a little sister, someone he had to protect and tolerate, but he didn't necessarily need to like her. And he sure as hell didn't think about her the way she thought about him.

He was her protector. He was big and strong and safe, and around him, everything felt like it was going to be okay. He was funny, he was smarter than a lot of people gave him credit for, and, though nobody saw it, he was sweet and kind and sensitive. But he had a hardened exterior, one that she only saw glimpses behind when he sat in front of the TV late at night with an expression of incredible sadness etched on his face. He'd had a hard life, she couldn't blame him for not wanting people to pity him. He didn't need pity, he needed respect.

She tried to respect him. She tried not to think that someday he was going to wake up and sweep her off her feet like she was a damsel in distress and he was a strong warrior. She had never been the type to wish guys thought of her like a helpless little girl, because she wasn't, but she cracked it up to wanting to feel the muscles of Tim's arms shifting underneath her. That, and that Matt had never been that great of a boyfriend. She wanted to feel what it was like to have a guy actually be a boyfriend to her, someone she enjoyed spending time with and someone she could open up with.

And she knew it was stupid to think that could happen with him. Tim Riggins didn't do relationships. He did one night stands. And she was even less of a one night stand type of girl than she was a damsel in distress. So she'd suck it up and accept that she was friends with Tim. And hopefully, some day, she'd find a guy who she cared about even more so she could finally believe that she didn't love Tim Riggins. But until then, that sinking suspicion would be nagging at the back of her brain.

Tim sat at graduation in his blue cap and gown. He was headed off to San Antonio State in the fall, a place he'd never be. Hell, he'd never imagined he'd even make it to graduation, much less get a spot on a college ball team. But he did, and he never could have predicted it, but he was going to miss Dillon. He'd miss Coach Taylor, Mrs. Coach, Julie… especially Julie. He'd miss Six, who he'd finally made peace with about the Lyla situation. He'd miss Lyla herself, and he'd miss Tyra, the one girl in school who always managed to piss him off and make him look like an idiot and make him fall half in love with her with every word she spoke to him. He'd miss Lando, the freak, and his humor. He'd even miss Smash and his ridiculous ego and he'd miss Seven, despite what he put Julie through.

Dillon was just plain his home, and leaving Billy was something that was going to be extremely difficult. His brother had raised him, and even though he turned out a lazy, slightly alcoholic, violent football player, he liked to think Billy had done a damn good job. He had turned out better than he could have.

He wasn't sure what would happen in the fall at San Antonio State, he wasn't even sure what would happen over the summer, but he knew Dillon would always be his home. He glance around him, spotted Street and Lyla in the crowd. He still clutched that dream they had shared before Street had had his accident. Lifting a beer in his mind as he watched the ceremony begin, he thought, Texas forever.