~ Disclamer ~

I do not own Final Fantasy VII or any of the characters. (If I did then I wouldn't be writing fanfiction now would I? :P )

Chapter 1

Tifa woke up to the insistent sound of her phone vibrating on her nightstand. 'I gotta remember to turn that damn thing off before I fall asleep'. She thought to herself as she sat up and grabbed her phone.

"Hello?" She asked. "Hey Tifa!" came Yuffie's chipper voice on the other end. "We're going to have a little pool party at my house, you wanna come over? We can swim, drink sweet tea, and make cookies, and play DDR!"

"Um...I'm not sure" Tifa replied with hesitation, Yuffie however replied promptly with none "Come on! You can't stay depressed forever! Yeah Kadaj broke your heart and has treated you like crap but you just need to hang with your friends and forget about him! Or find some new hottie to help ease your pain".

Tifa winced at Kadaj's name, it had only been two weeks since the break up. The horrible lie he told, how betrayed she felt. How she could never get back what he took from her. "Cloud will be here! You know he has a crush on you!" came Yuffie's voice once again. "What?" responded Tifa, "I've known him since like the third grade, there's no way I could ever think of him as more than a friend. Besides, what makes you think he feels that way about me anyway?"

"Well, how much he asks about you is a dead giveaway. I overheard him say something to Kadaj about how it was cool you like video games and all" Yuffie replied. Tifa sighed into the phone "That doesn't mean anything! You and Aerith both play games too yet he didn't say anything about you two."

"That's because he knows I'm taken by my Vinnie! And I don't think he knows Aerith well enought to try and hit on her. He seems really shy to me. It's kind of cute on him though! Please Tifa, come over! You'll have lots of fun I promise!"

Tifa sighed into the phone once again as she threw her covers off of herself, "Fine" she replied. "Give me about an hour and then I'll head over."

"Yay! I'm sure Cloud will love to hear that you're coming!"

Tifa then stood and slunked off to the bathroom to get ready. She washed her face and brushed her teeth like any other morning and like most of her recent mornings she thought about Kadaj and their last encounter with one another. She quickly shook the thoughts away though, 'Not today' she thought. 'Today I'm just going to spend this time with my friends and forget about that asshole.'

Deciding to skip breakfast and mooch some food from Yuffie when she got there Tifa quickly dressed in shorts, a tight tank top and sneakers and then left the house.

When Tifa arrived at Yuffie's she just walked into the house without knocking like she usually did. "Wow! You're early!" yelled Yuffie when she saw her enter. "Tifa!" came Aerith's voice from the side. It was close. Really close. Tifa turned to look but almost fell backwards as Aerith tightly hugged her and held onto her.

"Ugh, too tight Aerith! It's nice to see you too though!" Tifa smiled as her other best friend continued to latch onto her. "C'mon now, I have to go stash my things in Yuffie's room".

"Alright, we'll be out back swimming so don't be a slowpoke!" said Aeriith as she pranced to the back door.

"Who all's here anyway?" asked Tifa as she turned to Yuffie who was stirring a pitcher of sweet tea on the kitchen counter.

"Hmmmm, Vinnie of course! And Cloud. And Zack too I think. "Tifa smiled to herself, "I should've known Zack would be here if Vincent and Cloud were. Those three are dangerous when they're together, you know that right?"

"Vincent promised they would behave and he'd better or they can just starve tonight!" yelled Yuffie.

Tifa laughed as she turned to head up the stairs to Yuffie's room. Yuffie's dad was a bigshot in a security company so she was treated like a princess, and her room definitely showed it. It was large, twice the size of Tifa's, and had a queen sized bed in it as well. It did have her personality in it however, with her clothes strung everywhere and random weapons strung about that she loved to play with. Tifa set her things at the end of her friends bed and turned to exit the room.

"Hey Zack, do you still have my phone?" Tifa thought that was Cloud's voice she heard yelling, it didn't sound too far away either. Sure enough, as Tifa exited Yuffie's room she ran right into him as he was exiting the guest bedroom next door.

"Oh sorry -" Cloud started then he realized who it was. "Oh hey Tifa, you got here pretty fast. Yuffie said it would take you an hour or so."

Tifa tried to respond but she was momentarily speechless. She had bumped into Cloud, a boy whom she had been friends with for about ten years but she had NEVER seen him shirtless. Yet here he was standing in front of her wearing jeans but no shirt. She felt her face heat up and she tried her best not to stare at his toned chest that was so close to her. 'Oh so very close'.

"You okay?" he asked. Her eyes immediately shot up and she took a step back "Yeah! I'm fine, sorry about that!" she replied then made a mad dash for the stairs. Her face felt like a thousand suns to her and she kept scolding herself for being so embaressed. 'Damn it! Pull yourself together Tifa! He's your FRIEND, you can't think of him that way! It's not like you havent' seen a shirtless boy before. Okay, maybe you haven't seen one with that hot of a body up close but- wait! I did not call Cloud's body HOT just now!' Her thoughts continued to spiral out of control and she couldn't help but feel this was going to be a VERY long day.

Read and review if you want! No flames though because I really just won't care if you do so you'll just be wasting your energy. I do however appreciate good reviews and will be more motivated to write if they are good and friendly. I will also do my best to respond to any questions you have. Thank you 3