A/N: Hey everyone! It's been like two years since I've updated. For me, it seems like it was just yesterday since I updated this. But for you, it might have felt like an eternity. There has been a lot that has been a lot happening in my life since I last updated. Mostly high school stuff. And writer's block...well! I musn't let you wait any longer...Here you go!
Dedications: To my friends Michelle and Yani who I have no idea if they've forgotten me or not but I miss them! So this is for them!
"Vaughn," she whispered seeing he was still awake. He was startled, he had expected her to have gone asleep.
"Yeah?"
"Why are you sleeping out here?"
"Well, because I thought that you might want you priva-"
"The bed in there is big enough for two."
"I just, I don't know about Eric," Nadia shook her head. "I'm supposed to be engaged. But I just feel more like myself around Eric. I don't know, Fran."
Nadia and Francie were in Sydney's apartment. It was just after one o'clock on Sunday afternoon. The two had just gone shopping for Spring, which was a highly anticipated season in California.
Francie was observing the blue dress she just bought. "Well, how do you feel around Cesar?" she asked warmly.
Nadia sighed. "I feel like I'm on the first date...everyday," she said, running her fingers through her hair. "It's like I'm constantly trying to make a good first impression. Like I'm not good enough for him and have to prove that I am."
"And that's why you were worried about Sydney moving out and Cesar moving in?" Fran asked, setting down her latest purchase. She got up from the couch and trekked to the kitchen for coffee. "What some?" she gestured to Nadia. Nadia nodded a 'yes'.
"Yeah. Him moving in finally got to the point where I was nervous to come home," the former began. "Not like first date nervous, but the kind of nervous that could completely steer the relationship in another direction. I was planning out things I wanted to say and was always worried about how I looked." Francie came back to the couch with two cups of coffee and handed one to Nadia.
"And that's why you wanted to move back in with Sydney?" Francie asked.
Nadia hesitated. "Yeah. Wait. How did you know that?" Francie shrugged. "I didn't want Sydney to feel like she couldn't go and get some independence. That's why I said that Cesar wanted a break."
The truth was, Nadia was afraid of commitment. She had just recently found stability in her life, and that was her own sister. Her own sister who just moved out. She was afraid to admit that her relationship with Cesar progressed quicker than she expected. And she was afraid to admit that she was emotionally dependent on Sydney.
"Then what did you say to Cesar?" Francie inquired.
"I told him I wanted a break to think before we continued on with the engagement," Nadia sighed again. "But don't tell Sydney! Please," she quickly added.
"Never."
"I don't want her to feel like I can't not have her around."
"I think you should tell her that you're having doubts, Nads," Francie said with a concerned smile.
"I know."
There was silence for a moment as the two woman stared off in different directions.
To dump Cesar or to not dump Cesar...to date Eric or to not date Eric...
Francie broke the silence. "Well other than that, how's the sex?"
Nadia smiled and gave her two thumbs up.
The two giggled until they heard some laughter outside the apartment that didn't belong to them.
Nadia jumped up from her spot on the couch and ran to the window to see what was going on outside.
It was Sydney and Vaughn. Francie mouthed Who is it?
Sydney and Michael, Nadia mouthed in response.
In seconds, Francie, too, was at the window, spying on her best friend and her male friend.
Sydney was rummaging through her purse to find her key.
"Thank you for taking me this weekend," she offered, looking down at her shoes. "It was beautiful down there." She looked up.
Michael brushed the hair out of her face, smiling. "We should go again," he whispered, closing the space between them.
Sydney exhaled, resting her arms on his shoulders. "I'd like that."
He kissed her softly on the forehead and pulled her waist in closer for a warm embrace.
Back in the apartment, Francie punched a high-five in the air, gave Nadia a high-five, and did a victory dance.
Silently.
They returned to their post at the window in anticipation.
Sydney was first to pull away from Michael, but didn't do so without giving him a quick kiss.
And quick it was.
So quick that four seconds later, she was walking through her front door right as Francie and Nadia were jumping into their respective spots on the couch, pretending to resume some previous conversation.
"Syd!" they said in unison, rushing up to greet her. Both hugged her and tried to supress excited giggles.
"How was your trip?" Nadia asked happily while Francie wheeled Sydney's suitcase to her bedroom. The two desperately tried to cover up the fact that they'd been watching by the window for the past five minutes.
"It was great," Sydney replied contently as she walked in the kitchen to pour herself some coffee. "How were your weekends?"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, Syd," Francie laughed. She took a seat at the kitchen counter next to Nadia. "You have to tell us about Santa Barbara."
"Besides, our weekend sucked," Nadia added. Sydney chuckled and shook her head.
She opened the refridgerator. "Did Weiss sleep-eat through our entire fridge?" she asked, searching for something to eat.
"No, I'm pretty sure he was concious," Nadia laughed. "Now how was Santa Barbara?"
Now Sydney had settled for some blackberry yogurt and took a seat next to Francie at the counter. "Good."
"That bad, huh?" Francie look at her. But Sydney was still smiling. "No? What happened!"
"Well," Sydney started, taking in a spoonful of yogurt. "We didn't go to Santa Barbara. We went to Anaheim instead, met up with some of his college buddies and went to Disneyland. It was great." It was quiet for a few minutes.
"Wait, seriously?" Nadia asked seriously.
"And I got his friend Eddie's number. I think we're going out on Thurs-"
"Sydney!" Francie laughed. Not for one second did she buy any of her story. "So it went well then?" This yielded a nod from Sydney.
After the one night in Santa Barbara, the night that Sydney invited Michael into the one bed with her, it was quite difficult to get him off her mind. Especially since she was with him the entire weekend. As much as she hated to admit it to herself, she was falling for him.
"Did you guys uh, you know," Francie pressed further. Nadia raised her eyebrows and motioned a thumbs up, side thumb and a thumbs down scale to Sydney for a response. Sydney laughed again.
She cleared her throat. "So. There was one bed."
"So Yani, what brings you to my lovely America?" Brady asked intently, sipping his hazelnut machiatto.
Yani blushed. "Actually, all of my friends had been here. I was the only one that hadn't." Brady, the guy from the day before, the one who asked her out at work, had taken her out for coffee. He intended to take her out for dinner but opted for coffee instead. Yani wasn't used to the time difference in the States yet and was still full from her lunch. Even at eight o'clock at night... "So naturally, it was always my dream to make it up here. Especially with all of their stories," Yani finished. She made sure to leave out the fact that she sort of ran away from home. Not from her mum or her dad or her friends even. But rather she was running away from lo-
"That you just couldn't help but curious, eh?" he concluded.
"Yeah," she blushed again. He was quite understanding.
From the first hour of their date so far, Yani had acquired that Brady was a Ralph Lauren model who lived in Hollywood with his cousin for six years. He didn't like hot dogs or the sound that the TV makes when someone is operating Tivo. And from this first hour, Yani was pretty interested. And it doesn't hurt that he's gorgeous...what luck I am having. Found me some friends and now a cute guy...
"Hey, so there's this great band playing down at a club called Fusion," Brady started. "And I was wondering if you wanted to che-"
"I'd love to!" Yani cried.
"Gah!"
Eric Weiss heard a yell of frustration outside the apartments.
"Where are those keys? No, Mitch. Please don't cry," the voice continued.
Eric peeked outside his door. There was a stumpy looking man with what looked to be a two-year-old on his hip. He was frantically searching his briefcase for his house key.
"Daddy's trying, Mitch. Ah. Let's call Mommy," the man said, handing the child his PDA. "Oh! Carrie! Honey! I forgot my keys to the apartment again...yeah, I'm sorry Sweetie...well I must have been out at lunch with Dixon and got too carried away. We were talking about specific six digit algorithms for the new system and he said that numbers would be easier to remember but I reminded him that with just numbers, there could be a huge security breach. So we decided on this combination of...oh sorry...yeah I just picked him up from daycare...of course. Alright. See you soon." He looked at the toddler in his arm. "Well, Mommy's coming home from Grandma's now."
Chuckling, Eric stepped out of his apartment. "Hey, man," he said, offering his hand to the previously hysterical middle-aged man. "I'm Eric Weiss. Call me Weiss"
"Oh! I'm Marshall J. Flinkman. Call me Marshall," he accepted Eric's hand with a chuckle. "And this is Mitchell Flinkman," the man added in a hurry. "And we got locked out." Marshall scratched the back of his head, wondering why this man was still talking to him.
"Do you wanna come in and hang out with me and my buddy, Vaughn, while you wait for your wife?" Eric offered. "I just couldn't help but over hear your conversation on the pho-"
"Yeah, thanks for asking, man," Marshall confirmed. He followed Eric back to his apartment to find another guy around Eric's age sitting on the couch watching TV.
"Marshall, this is Mike Vaughn," Eric motioned towards Michael, who was getting up from his seat to greet the new guests.
"Vaughn," Michael offered his hand.
"Flinkma-I mean Marshall," Marshall said nervously shaking Vaughn's hand. Damn, why can't I have a cool last name... Marshall thought. Vaughn extended his hand to Mitch. "Oh and this is Mitch."
"So Marshall, did you guys just move in?" Eric asked, getting himself some chips.
"Yeah, well sort of. Me and my wife kind of reserved our apartment since they were built so, hah yeah, we just moved in," Marshall said unsure of himself.
"That's cool, man," Vaughn nodded in approval. "Did you get a chance to meet Sydney Bristow?" Marshall gave him a questioning look. "Oh, she lives right next door here. She's new too."
Eric rolled his eyes. "Vaughn has a thing for Sydney. They went to Santa Barbara this weekend." This earned Eric a smack in the stomach. "What? I'm eating!"
"Oh, so she's your girlfriend?" Marshall asked Michael. Eric coughed. Vaughn was hesitant and loosened his tie from around his neck.
"Well see the thing is he's really into her and doesn't want to mess it up and is really reserved about it," Weiss said.
"Understandable," Marshall nodded in agreement.
"Hey, Vaughn. You never said if you two, well, hah, you know," Weiss asserted suggestively. Vaughn smiled. Marshall looked from Eric to Vaughn to Mitch and then to Eric again. "So that's a yes! So much for just friends, Mike.."
Michael was shaking his head.
"Dude come on!" Eric took a jab at the air. "Then why are you so happy?"
Vaughn smiled again. "I don't know."
"Sydney Anne Bristow!" Francie cried. "Are you actually serious?"
Sydney nodded her head.
"Wait, Syd. So you didn't sleep with him?" Nadia was confused.
Ever since Sydney had gotten home, all Francie and Nadia would ask her about was Santa Barbara. "Did you hold hands?" and "You went to the zoo? How romantic!" or "Was it a tender and tentative or just passionate kiss?" How high school, Sydney thought.
"Nope."
Nadia sighed. "Aw, Syd. Are you okay with just being friends with him?"
"Uh, Nads," Francie interrupted. "What I saw on the front porch did not look like friendship to me."
"You guys saw that?" Sydney snapped quickly.
"Sorry, Honey. We didn't think you could do it," Francie smiled apologetically. "So now you have to tell us what happened with the one bed."
Sydney let out a long sigh and recalled the memory that had been on her mind the rest of the weekend.
"Why are you sleeping out here?"
"Well, because I thought that you might want you priva-"
"The bed in there is big enough for two."
"Are you sure, Syd?"
Sydney put her hand on her hip in mock impatience. Vaughn smiled and stood up from the couch's pull-out bed and walked over to Sydney. She grabbed his hand and led him into the bedroom. Just a second later, she turned off the overhead light so that only the bedside lamp was glowing.
Still holding his hand, she snaked her other hand up behind his neck and pulled him close to her lips, just so that his lips barely brushed hers, softly. He brought her other hand up to his lips and caressed them with the right amount of tenderness.
"Vaughn," she whispered.
"Mhm."
"We shouldn't."
"I know."
This time, he led her to the bed and covered her with the top sheet. Climbing in behind her, he covered himself as well and draped his arm over her stomach. He felt her wrap her own arm around his and allowed herself to be enveloped by his body. Michael pulled closer to her and gently kissed her on the back of the neck.
Together, they could hear the waves crash onto the evening beach.
And they held on until morning.
"Aw, Syd, that's so sweet," Francie said warmly, placing a hand on her best friend's shoulder.
"Why didn't you want to tell us?" Nadia asked.
"Because I didn't want it to seem like I'm falling for him," Sydney admitted quietly. She was now cradling her head in her hands. "But I am." How could she let her guard down? Maybe it wasn't so bad to have finally found someone that made her feel this way. Afterall, Nadia said that before Michael she'd just been finding absolute losers. Maybe it was time for her to find a good guy.
Francie laughed softly. "You are allowed to like him. It's not like he's diseased..."
"You should call him," Nadia encouraged her sister, even handing her the phone. Sydney began to dial his number.
Knock, knock.
There was a knock at the door.
"That might be him, Syd."
"I'll get it," Sydney smiled. She opened the door.
But it wasn't Vaughn.
"Hi, Sydney. You may not remember me but I-"
Sydney nervously cleared her throat and scratched the back of her head in confusion. "Alice, hi."
A/N: Please review! I love getting them! It's beautiful feedback! I threw in a bunch of new stuff in there and finally brought Marshall into the mix. CLICK THE PURPLE-LY BUTTON! It misses you... I will try my absolute hardest to get this updated again soon, since I've gotten back into my writing groove. But keep in mind I have to pay certain respects to my other fics too...