Berkley came into the house carrying a huge, pink stuffed giraffe, some cotton candy and nachos, sipping on a huge soda.

"You spoil me too much," she teased him as she watched him kick the door shut behind them.

"Tell me about it," he laughed. "You deserved it though after you beat all those guys at the Dungeons and Mayhem game at the arcade. They looked so pissed to get beat by a girl."

She pointed a finger into his firm chest, laughing. "After growing up with you and my brother and all his friends, I'd say that pretty much qualifies me as an honorary dude. I'm just one of the guys, remember? That's what you've always told me."

He laughed and shook his head. "No I can say without a doubt, after what we did this weekend Berk," he lifted his head and looked into her eyes. "You're not just one of the guys."

The way he said that made her stomach do a flip. He had said so many times throughout the years that she was just one of the guys. Now apparently he didn't see her that way anymore.

He walked past her into the kitchen and grabbed a beer and started drinking it before grabbing a lighter and walking right past her out the back door to start a fire in the fire pit.

She noticed he had been acting a little strange today, a little less touchy-feely than normal and a little more guarded. They had always been very touchy-feely with each other their entire lives. When they said goodbye they would give each other a hug and kiss on the cheek. When she was having a hard time he would snuggle up and hold her in his arms or give her a back massage. When he was sore from sports she would return the favor and give him a back massage too. When they were hanging out with friends she would plop down in his lap and he would never tell her to get up or push her away. It was pretty common for him to lay his head in her lap so she could run her fingers through his hair while she was reading a book. Every weekend growing up they had movie nights and he would end up falling asleep in her bed and staying over, usually waking up cuddled up together. After the nightmares started his sleepovers became more often.

That was their normal. Not this distant thing he was doing to her right now. He walked or sat a little further away and seemed to be avoiding looking at her. She didn't like it and she made it her personal mission to change things back to how they were before. She set down all of her stuff from the arcade onto the kitchen table and walked through the sliding door and out onto the beach where he was poking at the small fire with a stick.

It was a beautiful night, the dark sky was full of stars and a warm breeze was blowing lightly. She could hear the gentle crashing of the ocean waves.

She sat down on the log beside Dean and laid her head on his shoulder for a minute, staring at the dancing flames in front of her.

He sat there in silence so she turned her eyes up to him and said quietly, "Penny for your thoughts?"

He took a deep breath in and exhaled, and she could feel some tension in his shoulder.

"I guess it probably would be a good idea for us to talk about all of this," he said, poking at the fire and avoiding eye contact with her.

Hearing that made her nervous and she said, "Okay," lifting her head off his shoulder.

He was looking down at the sand with an intense gaze in deep thought. She knew that look. That was the look guys got when they were about to break up with you. She would know. She had been dumped several times, most of which were Dean or her brother's fault for threatening them within an inch of their life if they didn't.

"Berk," he started hesitantly. "This thing that's going on between us, it can't happen. I care about you too much and I don't want to see you get hurt and I don't want to ruin our friendship."

She suddenly felt numb.

She sat there listening to his words, feeling the blood leaving her face and her heart ached. She felt her eyes stinging and they filled up with tears and the next thing she knew they were running down her cheek. She wiped them away and sniffled.

"Berkley," he said softly, giving her a sympathetic look as he laid a hand on her leg. "I'm sorry I sent the wrong message last night at the club. After 4 shots of tequila I wasn't thinking straight," he said with an exhale. "It was a mistake."

She shook her head and stood up. Hearing that he thought last night was a mistake broke her heart because it had been the single greatest moment of her life and she didn't regret it for a second.

"Sorry. I think I just need to be alone for a while," she choked out, and she turned and started walking back towards the house as her eyes filled with tears.

"Berkley!" she heard him shout but she didn't stop or even slow down. His explanation made no sense. He didn't want to hurt her, so he hurt her. That's man logic.

"I don't want to hurt you so I'm going to break your heart," she grumbled sarcastically as she went into her room and locked the door. There was no way she was letting him sleep in bed with her tonight.

She sat down on her bed and covered her face with her hands and started to sob. The pain was intense and overwhelming and she had never had a man break her heart like that before in her life.

She knew from the start what their agreement was and that they were supposed to just have sex with no feelings involved and just be friends after. She couldn't be mad at Dean for not feeling what she was feeling. She knew it was her own fault for letting herself fall for him so hard.

Maybe with any other person she could've had no strings attached sex without consequences but she should've known better than to think she could do that with her best friend, the guy she was closer to than anyone else in the world, the guy that knew all her deepest darkest secrets and had been her rock her entire life.

She should've known that it would change things between them. Dean was right from the very beginning and he tried to warn her and she refused to listen. She couldn't be mad at him. She was disappointed in his choice, yes but she was only mad at herself. She should've known Dean could never have serious romantic feelings for her. He was way out of her league and always had been.

She couldn't help the tears that fell from her eyes as she walked into the bathroom and ran a really hot bath and added some lavender bath oil and eucalyptus bath salts she found in the cabinet under the sink. She got undressed and slowly slipped under the steaming hot water, instantly feeling some stress drain from her body as she breathed in the divine smell of the water.

Her muscles slowly relaxed and she exhaled deeply, tilting her head back and closing her eyes, enjoying the peace and quiet.

It was disturbed when she heard the door handle jiggle in her bedroom. When Dean found that it was locked he knocked.

"Berkley? Are you okay?"

She took another deep breath in and exhaled.

"Yeah I'm fine. I'm just taking a hot bath and I'm going to bed early. I'll see you in the morning Dean."

"Are you sure you don't want me to sleep in there with you tonight?"

"No I'll be fine. I mean I can't rely on you to sleep with me forever to keep me from having nightmares. That's not fair to you and it's not realistic. Thanks for the offer though."

She tried to disguise the sadness in her voice but she was sure Dean could see right through it. He always was able to read her like a book. She could never hide anything from him.

"Ok," he said, with hesitation in his voice. "If you change your mind just let me know."

"I will. Goodnight Dean."

"Goodnight Berk."

She closed her eyes and held her breath and slipped down under the hot water, drowning out the noise of the outside world. Having her face and whole body under the hot water was relaxing and she finally came up and wiped her hands over her face and ran them through her hair, taking a deep breath in.

After soaking for a long time she finally got out and dried off, slipping into a pair of silk pajama shorts and a silk pajama top with no bra and she wrapped her hair up in a towel. She climbed under the covers and created a wall of pillows behind her, trying to trick her mind into believing they were Dean and she hugged a pillow to her chest and just laid there, staring at the wall trying to sleep.

She groaned as she rolled over and tried a different position, trying everything she could to get comfortable. She flipped her pillow over to the cold side and punched it, trying to fluff it up a few times before slamming her head down on it in frustration.

'I'm a nineteen year old woman. I'm capable of sleeping on my own. I can do this,' she told herself in her head. She was going to have to learn to cope with the nightmares eventually, so why not start now? Maybe riding on the boat today was exactly what she needed to have closure and stop the nightmares. Maybe she wouldn't have them tonight.

Finally after tossing and turning non-stop for an hour the elusive sleep came and she drifted off.

"Your Dad said there's supposed to be a really nasty storm coming in today. He said it might be the worst storm we've had all year. I think we should just wait to do this in a couple days or something," Berkley's Mom said, flipping through her phone.

Berkley pulled back the curtain and looked out the window at the clear blue sky that had a few white clouds.

"Mom. It'll be fine. We still have some time before it hits. We're not going that far off shore so if it looks like the storm's coming in we can head back before it ever gets to us."

"I don't know honey. I think it might be a bad idea. Your Dad said," she started to say, but Berkley cut her off.

"Mom. You're always paranoid," she scoffed and rolled her eyes. "I just want to go out to this one spot where I saw something interesting underwater but I didn't have my scuba gear with me to get it. It looked like some sort of artifact that could be really old and worth a lot of money. Nothing's gonna happen to us. It'll be a quick trip and we'll be back before you know it. I promise."

She walked over and plopped down on the couch beside her and gave her a hug and then looked at her with puppy dog eyes, sticking out her bottom lip. "Pleeeeeease," she begged.

Her Mom studied her face, thinking before hesitantly saying, "Okay honey. Just a quick trip."

"Yes!" Berkley said, giving her a kiss on the cheek and hopping up off the couch.

Her Mom was always so overprotective and worried about safety. Berkley thought she was just overreacting like she always did. Her Dad and Keagan were always teasing her Mom about being paranoid too.

Berkley grabbed the boat keys off the table and said, "C'mon Mom. We need to get a move on so we can beat the storm."