Whose Friend ARE You?

[husk]

Paige came in from the trail through the woods, her eyes red, keeping her head down as she absolutely hated anyone seeing her cry, or even seeing that she might have been crying at some point.

Marching up the stairs, she hoped Bobby hadn't gotten to Warren first. She needed a friend, and one that wouldn't go kick Bobby's ass. She loved her brother, but he was just too protective sometimes.

Unlike she'd done in the past, this time Paige knocked quite loudly on the door. Sniffling, she yelled to him through it.

"Warren? You there?"

[angel]

"Mmm hmmm. So there's nothing in the area available right now?"

The knock on the door actually made him jump, engrossed as he was in a conversation with the real estate agent who had been helping him look for apartments. When he heard Paige's sniffle - and her loud words - he immediately stood.

"I'll have to call you back. Thanks." Without waiting for a response, he hung up and slipped the phone into his pocket, opening the door and looking concerned. Paige didn't generally knock that loud, nor did she yell through the door at him. He reached out with a tentative smile to lift her face up to look at him, and the smile faded when he realised that she'd been crying. Was crying?

"Oh, Sunshine, don't cry. What happened?"

[husk]

She stepped into the room, sort of nudging him back, and shut the door behind her, leaning back against it. A few tears did slip, though it was more than obvious how humiliating that was for her. She wiped them away.

"Bobby slept with some other girl the night before he got arrested Warren," her voice got more tense the longer she spoke. She sniffed a bit, and let out a shaky sigh. "And he's trying to convince me it was me 'cause of some stupid scar. Stupid little shit... can't even remember who he was having sex with..."

Obviously the story didn't make a whole lot of sense, but then, neither had Paige's reaction. She wasn't sure -why- she was so upset, after all if something had happened and he'd slept with someone else, well, she wasn't the jealous type.

"And he made such a big deal out of me kissing Remy!" That made the tears spill fresh, the memory of how horribly ashamed he made her feel stabbing her anew. "And now this?" She shook her head, putting her hand to her eyes.

[angel]

"Oh, Paige." She wasn't making much sense, but she was one of his best friends, and she was obviously upset, and he could figure out exactly what she meant once she'd calmed down a little and could express herself clearly.

"Sweetie, come here." Wrapping his arms around her, Warren pulled Paige away from the wall, stroking her hair and doing his best to comfort her. Holding the crying girl to his chest, his wings unfolded to wrap around her and brush her arms with long white feathers.

"So he slept with someone else? But is trying to say it was you? What about scars?"

[husk]

"We were kissing, and his hand touched my stomach," she rested her face against his chest, curling her hands in towards herself. Oh it felt so nice to have someone hold her like that, as if he was going to make it all better. She knew he couldn't, but it was awful relieving to have a friend.

"..and he said, where are your scars? And when I told him I didn't have any idea what he was talking about, he got angry..." she sighed. "I got angry too. He swears we slept together that night, but I don't remember it. And I don't have any scars on my stomach..."

Whimpering, she breathed more slowly, trying to make sense of it herself.

[angel]

Hmmm. There had to be a reasonable explanation for it all - Warren knew that Bobby wouldn't cheat on Paige and then try to pretend it was her, and he also knew that Paige wasn't lying about not having scars on her stomach. So it was reasonable to assume that whoever it was that Bobby had slept with wasn't Paige, but who it was...

"Hey, it'll be ok." He kept stroking her hair as his head turned over all the possibilities.

"Just take a little while to breathe and think about it. Do you want a drink or anything?" Blue eyes flicked over to look at the little jet-black bar fridge next to the bed. It was the only place he could keep beer without getting in trouble, although he didn't drink too often, and he knew that there was a bottle of water in there too (which was good, since he'd no doubt get in even more trouble if anyone found out that he'd let Paige drink beer in his room).

"I'm sure he was much more angry at himself, Paige." Because knowing Bobby, and his reaction over just a single little kiss from Remy... Well, he wasn't the cheating type, and even if he was Warren doubted that he'd be able to claim it was Paige with a straight face. And there was no way in hell that he'd be able to get himself so worked up about a kiss if he'd been screwing around.

Surely Bobby would have memorised every detail of the pictures Paige had sent him. Having been the one to take them, Warren was well aware that there were a few that showed every detail of her stomach - but as most of those also included every detail of her red bikini, maybe Bobby hadn't been able to get past the sight of her boobs. Warren actually rolled his eyes over Paige's head at the thought.

"I'm confused." That about summed up the situation for him, he'd have to talk to Bobby sometime and try to sort it out.

[husk]

Paige lifted her head. "Me too," she said, wiping her eyes.

"I don't know what's going on... and he stalked away saying something about 'proving it'... like I'd lie about having sex with my own boyfriend?" She laughed bitterly.

Moving away from Warren to sit on his bed, she dried her eyes some more. "I don't get it. It seems like any time something like this comes up, even the hint of it, suddenly there's a fight. It's like he doesn't trust me, or... like he's just waiting for me to hurt him." Paige sighed, feeling guilty, though she wasn't even sure why.

"I feel... smothered, Warren." There. She'd said it. No doubt Warren had heard it in her voice before then, but Paige hadn't wanted to admit it. "I feel like we're married and we've only been dating a month. Two of those he was busy being arrested for murder!" She ran her fingers through her hair, the stress of all the things she hadn't talked about while he was gone obviously coming out now that she was upset.

[angel]

Crouching down to take a bottle of water from the fridge - there was one, thankfully - Warren handed it to Paige and dragged his desk-stool over to face her.

"I'm sure it's not like that," he murmured as she talked about Bobby not trusting her. Though it was easy to see why she'd feel that way.

When she said she felt smothered, though, he reached out to squeeze her knee.

"It's been hard, with him being gone, I'm sure it'd be different if he'd been around all this time." For one thing, Remy probably wouldn't have kissed her, but that wasn't the important thing here. Though Warren felt like finding Bobby and giving him a good kicking for starting a fight as soon as he'd gotten back, he knew that wouldn't solve anything.

"Was he the same before he left...?" That was the real crux of it. Warren could write off most of it to the stress of being arrested, but if Bobby had been acting like that the whole time they'd been dating? Well, then there was a problem that Paige and Bobby would have to talk about.

[husk]

Paige ran her fingers through her hair, this time a little less crazily. She smiled a bit as he handed her the water and took a drink, thinking.

"That's hard to say. It was the first two weeks, you know? Things are always intense." She looked at him, then laughed a little, blushing and looking down.

"I didn't think about it. I loved it, in fact. But then this arrest thing... I had a choice to make. Be with him, or don't be with him. I tried to tell him, I stand by you, but we'll see how it goes... but he needed me, Warren." She looked at him, her bottom lip curling a bit as her eyes watered. "I care about him. So much. I don't know if I'm in love or not, but... it's not fair for me to have to decide." She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. "But I had to decide. It's what he needed from me while he was away."

Her heart hurt. It wasn't Bobby's fault he'd clung too tightly while he was gone. Paige knew she was likely the only bit of sunshine he had at that point. And she'd wanted to be it for him.

"I just didn't expect... that tone in his voice..." her own voice fell to a whisper. "God Warren it was like..." she shook her head.

[angel]

"Hey, don't get down on yourself just because he's been angry. You haven't done anything wrong." He could understand that Bobby had needed her support while he was gone, but it wasn't fair on either of them to put that kind of pressure on a relationship so early. Mind, it wasn't exactly fair to put the pressure of an arrest for murder on a relationship so early, either.

"You know that I, of all people, am not the best person to be giving relationship advice." Warren smiled, trying to get Paige to do the same.

"So instead of trying to tell you what you should do, I'm just going to say that if you want a hug, I'm here, and if you want to vent, I'm here, and if you want someone to take you out for icecream sundaes... I'm here." He thought that she should probably speak to Bobby. But none of Warren's relationships had lasted long enough for him to feel qualified to be dispensing that kind of advice.

[husk]

Paige sniffled a little, and dried her eyes again. Shrugging, she nudged off her sandals. "I have to go get my little brother from the train station in an hour or so. Mind keeping me busy with a movie until then?"

She looked up at him, and smiled a bit more. "Thank War. I think I just needed to get it out. Sometimes you understand it more, ya know?"

[angel]

"Another one? Is the whole clan going to come up?" With a grin, he stood and walked over to put in a movie - he didn't pay much attention to what it was, since he made of point of only buying things that he enjoyed - and turn on the TV.

Joining her on the bed, he grabbed a pillow and lay down on his stomach facing the TV, looking over to Paige with a smile as he played with the remote.

"Anytime, Paige. That's what friends are for, right?"

Of course, he was going to have to find Bobby once she was gone and try to figure out just what the hell was going on. But that was just another part of being friends, especially when you were in the middle of two of your friends' rather interesting relationship.

[husk]

[end scene]