All Grown Up
By Misha

Disclaimer and Notes at the beginning.

Part Five: Adam

"So you hitting the party at David and Karen's?" Jordan asked me.

It was Friday night and we'd just arrived back in Stoneybrook for the weekend. Byron had already left to go see Charlotte and the rest of my siblings were off doing other things, for once the Pike household was surprisingly quiet.

"Yeah." I said, with a shrug, trying to sound nonchalant. "Should be cool. Even if it is a high school party. Besides, Byron's going and Jeff sounded interested."

I was still getting over the shock of having my roommate turn out to be my old friend, definitely a lucky coincidence. Especially since I now had someone I could tell about my relationship with Karen.

I felt bad about keeping it from Jordan and Byron, we almost never kept secrets from each other, but I knew it was for the best. Byron would have to tell Charlotte who'd tell Becca and well it would just escalate from there and we couldn't have that. Until Karen's sixteenth birthday our relationship had to remain a total secret, which sucked, but I'd rather sneak around than not be with her at all. Speaking of...

"I'm gonna head out." I announced. "I have people to see, places to be..."

"Someone's going to go see a woman." Jordan said with a grin.

"Perhaps." I said mysteriously, returning his grin before heading out the door.

I didn't see the point in denying that there was a woman, or Hell even multiple women, since my brothers knew me too well for that. They just didn't have to know who the woman was or that it was far more than a casual hook-up.

No, what I had with Karen was far more than that--unfortunately no one could know that for months.

---

"I've missed you." Karen whispered, gazing up at me with her big blue eyes.

She'd told her stepmom that she was going out with friends and the two of us had ended up driving to Mercer for dinner and now we had parked my car in a private spot.

"I've missed you too." I told her, holding her close to me.

"I hate this." She pouted.

"So do I, baby." I whispered into her hair.

She turned to look up at me. "How can something so wrong feel so right?"

"Because it is." I assured her. "Its just... We're ahead of ourselves, in a few months, nobody will think its wrong. I promise."

With that, I lowered my mouth to hers, in a kiss that was meant to be sweet and reassuring, but soon ran away with itself. It was several minutes before we pulled away, both gasping for breath.

"I love you." She whispered, looking up at me with those big blue eyes of her.

"I love you too." I whispered in return, wishing I could shout that fact from the rooftops.

"I've been so afraid that you'd find some glamourous, sophisticated college girl and forget all about me." She confessed, burying her head in my shoulder.

I nudged her so she looked at me. "Baby, there's no one who could replace you." I told her honestly. "Even if I wanted to find someone, which I don't, I couldn't. No one compares to you."

It was true. The rational part of me tried to say that Karen was too young, that I was too young to be in such a committed relationship, and that the relationship was more work than it was wroth, but...

At the end of the day, the truth was, I couldn't get her of my mind, couldn't convince myself to walk away from her, couldn't convince myself that it was wrong. Because, after all, it felt so right.

---

"Someone had a good night." Jordan teased a few hours later when I came in.

I shrugged. "It was all right."

"So who is she?" Jordan pressed.

"You don't know her." I said with a shrug. "She lives in Mercer--we met at the mall a couple of weeks ago and have been gone a couple times, nothing serious."

The lie came fairly easily. I felt bad about it, but... Well, Karen was worth it. She wasn't my first girlfriend, but she was the first I'd ever felt like this about, like I could be with them for the rest of my life. When I looked into my future, all I wanted was Karen.

Jordan let it go with that and I headed upstairs. "Adam, can I talk to you for a minute?" Nick said from the bottom of the stairs.

I shrugged and waited for him to reach me. "What's up?" I asked as we walked into the room we all share.

"I need advice." Nick asked, sounding embarrassed. "Girl advice."

I have to admit I was a bit surprised, since as far as I knew Nick had had no problems with the opposite sex. "Oh? Since when do you need it?"

Nick shrugged. "This is different. She's different... Special."

"Anyone I know?" I asked, intrigued.

"Yeah, its Karen." Nick said, looking a little embarrassed.

I gulped, hoping I'd heard him wrong. "Karen Brewer?" I asked, hoping I sounded a lot calmer than I felt.

Nick nodded. "Yeah, it started a few months ago and I can't get her off my mind. So what do I do?"

I was frozen, I couldn't tell him not to pursue Karen without telling him the truth and I couldn't do that. Damn.

"Take it slow." I said finally. "You've got an edge, you're her friend, just slowly turn up the heat, put out a few feelers and see if she reciprocates."

Telling my brother to pursue my girlfriend, felt wrong, but I had no idea what else to say. Besides, I wasn't encouraging him to date Karen, just to see if she was interested, which I knew she wasn't.

Still, I felt like both a bad boyfriend and a terrible brother. Not a nice feeling.

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