Chapter One: #TrueLove?

Cat was dancing to an old CD of her grandmother's when Sam and Jade walked into the apartment that night.

"Cat, what are you listening to?"

Cat handed Sam the CD case and continued swaying to the music.

"Paul Young? Who's he?"

"Someone my Nona likes."

Sam listened for a moment. "He sings about One True Loves a lot, doesn't he?"

Cat laughed. "I like it."

"But do you believe in it?"

"What's my last name, Jadey?"

Sam sometimes wondered if Cat had noticed that she and like 98% of her friends from Hollywood Arts seemed to have the names of porn stars. To distract herself from asking the question aloud, she took the insert out of the CD case and studied it as if it were Boogie Bear IV: The Return of the Return of Boogie Bear.

"'80s?" she started to ask, then she really heard the popping drum machine and realized it was an unnecessary question.

"Isn't it awesome?" Cat asked.

Jade and Sam's eyes met and they smiled in mutual affection for their friend.

"Yes, Cat," said Jade.

"Fer sure. Totally." Sam piped up.

They were going to continue teasing her when they both realized at once that she was singing a different song over this young Paul person – and just what that song was.

"I think you're swe-e-e-e-e-e-ell," Cat sang under her breath. Sam had just recently learned what that song meant to Cat and more importantly what the boy who wrote it did. Cat had called him her "kinda boyfriend;" Sam had already started thinking of him as Cat's geek. Which made it awkward that in an impulsive moment, she'd kissed him in front of Cat. She felt doubly guilty, for that and because she'd asked him to play her his favorite song, not realizing he'd written it for Cat herself.

Now that she'd cooled down, Sam regretted a lot that she had done recently. What she had done...and who she had done it in front of. Because besides Cat, Freddie Benson had seen her kiss Robbie. If Robbie was Cat's geek, Freddy was Sam's dork. Or at least he had been. She really didn't know what he was to her now (especially after he'd seen her kiss Robbie)...which was part of the reason seeing him had so discombobulated her.

Freddie and Robbie were sharing a hospital room at that moment, and their ex/kinda girlfriends were trying not to think about them being hurt until they could visit them the next day...and doing a pretty piss-poor job of it.

Jade was smiling at Cat. "Thinking about Robbie, huh?"

"Maybe," Cat said with a half smile.

"How are you feeling about him these days?"

"Well I wasn't feeling great about him when..." she trailed off and looked at Sam.

"I'm sorry," her blonde roommate said.

"I know." Cat seemed satisfied with that – but Sam was not the only one whose conscience was itching.

"Listen, Cat," Jade said, "you should probably know, Sam inviting Robbie here...was entirely her own idea."

"Jade!" Sam said sharply.

"Nice try, Jadey," said Cat with a smile, "but how would Sam have known who Robbie was, how I feel about him or what his number was?"

For once in her life, Jade West was speechless. She turned to Sam. "How does she..."

"Always manage to come up with smarts just when its least convenient? I was hoping you could tell me. You've known her longer."

"Okay, Cat, it was my idea but I had a reason."

"Because you're filled with anger and rage?" Sam was taking advantage of the opportunity to needle Jade. She would expect nothing less from her new friend if the roles were reversed.

"Not at Cat." She turned to the redhead. "I knew you hadn't seen Robbie in a minute and I figured getting him here-"

"Jadey, its okay."

"It is?" Jade had a hopeful grin on her face.

"It is? Sam was a little more indignant.

"Yeah! I liked seeing Robbie. It makes me feel better."

Jade still didn't fully understand that, but she knew it was true. "I liked seeing Robbie too." she offered. Cat smiled and moved into the bedroom she and Sam shared.

Sam sidled up to Jade and said in a low voice, "Yeah, you liked seeing him fall into a pool of killer tuna..."

"Shh!"

Cat emerged holding three candles.

"What's those for, Cat?"

"I want to have a good old – fashioned girls bull session about boys."

"Oh god." said Sam. Cat had clearly decided to stop even trying not to think about Robbie, and it sounded like she was going to make Sam think about Freddie, too.

Not that she wouldn't have been anyway.

"Cat, I keep trying to tell you we don't need candles for -" Jade said, eyeing the door; starting to inch towards it.

"Don't you dare!" Sam mouthed at her while Cat was busying herself setting up the candles. Resigned, Jade started helping Cat.

"Cat's first 'good old – fashioned bull session about boys' was at a slumber party when we were in elementary school," she explained to Sam.

"So, now..."

"She thinks it's the only correct atmosphere for one, right."

The candles lit, Cat switched off the lights and said, "Okay, ladies...let's dish!"

This story is going to have at least six chapters. If you care to know, Paul Young is a real "Blue-Eyed Soul" singer from the '80s, but the song where he sings a lot about one true love is a figment of my imagination.