FYI: This has nothing to do with Scott and Tarantino's movie. Sorry if I misled anyone.

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"Babe, I can explain—"

I slammed my door in his face and locked it. I couldn't believe him. I couldn't believe he would do something like that. I pounded my fist on the wall next to me a couple of times. Then I immediately headed for the kitchen. I needed ice cream.

I dug my spoon into my half empty container of chocolate chip ice cream and stuck it into my mouth, only to find out that it was freezer burned. Letting out a frustrated growl, I threw the container into the garbage. I stared at it for a second, breathing heavy. And then my emotions caught up to me. Sinking to the floor, I burst into tears, burying my head in my hands.

I heard the lock turn and the front door opened. I would have tried to get away, but I knew it was hopeless.

"Hey," my best friend called out. "I just saw Jason leaving. Wasn't it his turn to cook tonight?"

I tried to wipe my tears away before Jackson could see me, but I was too late. As soon as he saw me, he dropped his bag and sat next to be on the floor.

"Hey," he said softly, putting his arms around me. "What's wrong?"

I shook my head, knowing that if I spoke I would just start crying again.

"Cherie, tell me what happened," he said.

I opened my mouth, but just like I predicted, only a sob came out. Jackson didn't say anything, just holding me tighter.

"Just let it out," he whispered. "Let it all out."

"He—he cheated on me," I wailed after a few seconds. I felt Jackson stiffen. "Jason chea—cheated on me." My sobs got heavier and his hold got tighter. "He cheated on me." I repeated.

"Shhh," Jackson said, now rocking me. "It'll be alright."

"No, it won't!" I yelled, pulling out of his arms. "It won't be alright because I loved him! I love him!"

"I know, Cherie, but you can't just let something like that go," he told me, a little angrily. "You deserve much better than that."

I shook my head violently and stood up. "No, that's what they always say." I wiped the tears off of my face. "But maybe it's not true. Jason's a good guy. Maybe it was just a misunderstanding."

Jackson stood up also. "What did he tell you?"

I gritted my teeth, not wanting to remember what he told me. "We'll talk this out, everything will be fixed."

Jackson caught my arm when I tried to walk away. "What did he tell you, Cherie."

I shook my head. "Stop it, Jackson."

He held me by my upper arms and tried to look me in his eyes. "Did he tell you that he's been cheating on you since New Year's?"

I looked at him in shock. "You knew?"

"I didn't tell you because I knew you wouldn't believe me," he defended.

I wrenched myself out of his grip. "You're my best friend! You're supposed to tell me the second you find out!"

"No!" Jackson yelled. "I'm your best friend and I know you. You would have denied what I told you and accused me of being jealous. Our friendship would have been ruined, and you know that!"

I put my head in my hands and shook my head. "No. No. He can't do this to me."

Jackson's arms went back around me. "He did. For over six months."

I pushed away from him again. "I need to go think," I said, and then left for my room.

---

I ripped another picture off of my wall and stuffed it into my garbage bag. It was filled with dozens of pictures of me and Jason, unfortunately some of them with Jackson. The bag also had flowers from our two year anniversary that I had dried and saved, a teddy bear he had given me when we first got together, CDs, socks, and other random things he had gotten for me or that had been his. It was hard for me to throw everything away, but it had been two weeks since he confessed that he'd been cheating on me. I'd finally gotten over my denial and realized that we were officially over.

"Hey, need any help?"

I turned and smiled at Jackson. "That would be great. I'm just throwing away everything that Jason gave me."

Jackson nodded and started to help me pull down pictures. "How are you feeling?" he asked.

"Better than two weeks ago," I said with a shrug. I paused, looking at a picture of the three of us. It was amazing how much Jackson and Jason resembled each other, even though they were only cousins. In this picture, I was standing between them and they both had their arms around me. It had been taken only two months ago at Jackson's 27th birthday party. Jason and I had wide smiles on our faces, but Jackson's was a little strained. We had just finished taking the picture when Jackson took Jason inside to talk privately. They ended up getting in a fight and Jason and I left early.

Something in my mind clicked and I looked up at Jackson. "You found out at your birthday party."

He looked at me, a little confused for a second before seeing the picture in my hand. "Cherie, I'm sorry, I should have told you."

I shook my head, putting the picture in with all the rest. "Forget it. I understand that you were just trying to protect our friendship."

"A good friend would have told you as soon as possible," he said.

"You were right, though," I told him. "I was so blindly in love with Jason, that I would have ended our friendship if you told me. I just couldn't believe that he would do something like that."

He was silent for a minute. "At first, I couldn't believe it either."

I moved to my dresser, waiting for Jackson to continue while I pulled out anything that had been Jason's.

"I thought I knew him better than anyone, and I thought he loved you."

A pang went through my heart and I bit my lip to stop the tears. "He never loved me."

"I think that at one point, he did love you," Jackson said. "He just..."

"Found someone prettier and with bigger boobs," I finished for him.

"Cherie—"

"I met her," I interrupted. "I wanted to see if she knew that he had a girlfriend." Jackson was silent and I wondered if he knew the answer to that question. Judging by the look on his face, he did. "The stupid slut knew the whole time."

Jackson silently sat on my bed and watched me. I tried to ignore him, but it's pretty hard when he's burning a hole in your back.

"I got you something," he said.

I sighed. My birthday. Jason was supposed to take me to see my favorite band this weekend as a present. Now I just wanted to forget about it. It's just another stupid birthday.

"Jackson…" I said, getting ready to tell him that I didn't want whatever it was, but he didn't let me.

"I don't care," he said, taking my arm and putting something on my wrist. "You're going to accept my gift, and you're going to like it."

Laughing a little, I looked at what he'd attached to my wrist. I was a watch, but not just any watch. It was a cute little girl's watch that barely even fit. It was pink plastic with little butterflies going around the band and a butterfly on the end of the minute hand. I was being silly a few weeks ago and demanded Jason get it for me. It was only five bucks, but he told me to stop being childish and that he'd get me a watch for a woman.

"You know I was just fooling around," I said, but it was pretty obvious I was pleased with my present.

Jackson shrugged. "Everybody deserves to be a little kid once in a while."

With tears in my eyes, I threw my arms around him. "You're the best friend anybody could ask for."

Jackson seemed a little surprised, but hugged me back. "You're welcome."

We were like that for only a couple seconds when I heard a familiar voice say, "Oh, excuse me, I'll come back later."

I wrenched from Jackson's arms and spun to the door. "What are you doing here?" I demanded.

Jason put his hands up. "I was just coming to get my stuff."

I clenched my fists. "You have no right to just come into my house and think that I'll be alright with it!"

He let out that annoying chuckle I used to think was sexy. "You gave me a key, remember?"

"Get out!" I yelled, storming toward him. "Get out now!"

"What about my stuff?" Jason asked, backing away a little.

I turned and grabbed one of his cologne bottles and without thinking of the consequences, I threw it as hard as I could in his direction. I missed his head by an inch and it shattered against the wall behind him.

"What's wrong with you?" Jason yelled.

Before I could throw anything else at him, Jackson put his arm around me. "Get out, Jason. And don't expect to get anything of yours back."

Jason's mouth dropped open and I could tell he was about to protest, but Jackson didn't give him a chance. "GO!" he roared, making me flinch a little.

Jason hesitated for a second longer before finally walking away.

When we heard the front door slam shut, Jackson let go of me.

"Are you ok?" he asked.

I stared at the wall the cologne had hit and wondered how long it would be before the smell would disappear. "Yeah. I feel great."

Jackson started laughing. "Did you see the look on Jason's face after you threw that at him?"

I smiled a little. "Yeah, but I was too busy wondering what else I could throw at him to pay too much attention."

Still laughing, Jackson pulled me into a one armed hug and ruffled my hair like he did when we were in high school. "That was awesome. It's a good thing you weren't aiming, or you might have killed him."

I pushed him off and continued to rip the pictures off the wall. "Don't do that."

"Oh, you know you love me, don't pretend you don't," he said teasingly.

I smiled. "You wish, Jackie."

He groaned at the nickname and I laughed. If only he knew how much I loved him.

---

"You will never believe what I found out today," Jackson said, walking into the living room. He picked up my feet and took their place, setting them in his lap.

"If it has anything to do with Jason, I don't want to hear it," I groaned. He'd woken me from my nap and I really wasn't in the mood to hear what's going wrong in Jason's life today. We'd been over for three months now and I'm definitely over him.

"But this one's really good," Jackson promised, pulling off one of my socks.

I opened an eye and glared at him. "What do you think you're doing." He started to massage the now sockless foot and I closed my eye again. "Ok, continue."

"Jason got his girl pregnant."

Under my eyelids I rolled my eyes. This was supposed to be big? "I'm not surprised."

"And she aborted it."

This time I sat up with wide eyes. "What'd Jason do?" It was a well known fact that Jason's parents were very much against abortion and has brought it up multiple times while I'd been visiting. Jason himself has expressed his dislike for women who had abortions.

"Well, he tried proposing to her, and that's why she had the abortion," Jackson said. He continued with his massaging. "I don't know if Jason knows yet, though."

"And how do you know about this?" I asked suspiciously.

"Mallory knows her sister."

Right. Mallory. One of Jackson's many female co-workers. They seem the closest. And yes, I am jealous. And I'm jealous of everybody else that he works with. They get to spend forty hours a week with him, and I only get him in the evenings and maybe on the weekends. Stupid Mallory.

"What would you do if you found out your girlfriend aborted your baby?" I asked, lying back down.

"I don't have a girlfriend," he reminded me.

I rolled my eyes. "If you had a girlfriend, what would you do?"

He was silent for a moment. "She wouldn't do something like that."

I groaned. "I'm being hypothetical. If you had a girlfriend that would do something like that and did, what would you do?"

"There's only one woman who I can imagine being my girlfriend, and like I said, she wouldn't do something like that."

Wondering if it was Mallory, I couldn't help but ask, "Who is it?"

"I thought you would have figured that out by now," he said, moving on to my other foot.

"Mallory?" I guessed.

"You are so dense."

I knew what he was trying to say, but I didn't want to get my hopes up, so I just continued to act like I was clueless.

"What?" I sat up, taking my feet out of his lap. "You guys seem pretty close."

"Have you ever thought of yourself?"

I stared at him. I didn't think he would give in so fast. I didn't know what to say. I mean, I loved him, and I knew he loved me, but I didn't think he loved me as more than a friend.

"So…you like me?" I asked shyly.

He rolled his eyes and took my face in his hands. "No Cherie, I love you. And I've loved you since high school."

"Only that long?" I teased with a little blush. Man, I was dense.

He stared at me. "You make it sound like it's been nine days, not nine years."

"Well," I said, "I've been in love with you for twelve years. So, I beat you."

He continued to stare at me, so I gave him a quick kiss on the lips. "That means I love you, too, dummy." I grinned and lay down, putting my feet back into his lap. "Now, finish massaging my feet."

"Do I get a kiss for it?" he asked finally looking away and smiling.

"Not until you finish," I demanded.

"I can't believe you'd be this cruel to your best friend."

I laughed. "You know you love me, don't pretend you don't."

He gave me a wicked look, but before I could realize what he was about to do, he started to tickle me. And while kicking and screaming and laughing until tears were running down my face, I realized that Jason wouldn't have done this with me. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

---

I didn't think I would ever post on FP ever again, but here I am, posting another one-shot. The inspiration for this story? Freezer burned chocolate chip ice cream. And enough frustration to hurt anybody who dared make me angry. Writing this has made me feel a lot better, so all you have to worry about is me bursting into tears becuase you didn't like it. That's what happens when it's midnight and I forgot to take my anti-depressants for the past week.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed this. I actually enjoyed writing it. And I don't recognized anything you own. I always forget to put that at the end of my stories.

Edited October 14, 2010:

I hope nobody minds all the changes I made. I felt like it was weird that Cherie didn't love Jackson when they'd been best friends for years. I was just trying to make it seem like she wasn't going for a rebound. And for the title, I couldn't think of one when I had originally wrote it, so I just went through all the songs on my iPod until I found one that sounded like it fit. The song was True Romance by Silverstein. So, it has nothing to do with Tarantino or his movie.