Immobilized in shock, I forgot how to breathe, and all I could do was stare at the demonic middle-aged man before me. 

My finger instinctively curled a little tighter around Mia's waist; her presence the only thing calming my racing heartbeat. His eyes fired up with anger, ruthlessly stared through me with a piercing gaze. 

There were no two ways about it - Mia's father wanted me dead. No, actually worse than that; he wanted me eliminated to the point where nobody even remembered who I was. 

A million different horrible scenarios ran through my head all in a matter of a second: 

What if he bans me from seeing Mia? What if he got her transferred to another school so she would never see me? What if he took her to a secret scientist that finds a way to delete all memory of me from her mind? What if-

Mia cleared her throat, causing my thoughts to run flat. "Dad, this is Ethan, my friend from school," she said smoothly.

 I turned my attention her way and found her staring up at her dad with feigned innocent; her big brown eyes widened beautifully.

 I swallowed thickly, getting a little distracted by the stare myself. If those eyes were aimed my way, she could probably convince me to do nearly anything.

Remembering, I was in grave danger and that it was not the correct time to be fawning over Mia, I turned my head sharply back to her dad.

My eyes expanded a little as I found him still staring at me with an even more murderous expression. Something told me he wasn't too happy at the way I had previously been staring at Mia.

"Ethan, would you like to explain to me why you are carrying my daughter?" he asked in an eerily calm tone.

It was only as he proposed the question did I remember Mia's dad's profession. In a few of our spats over the years, Mia occasionally liked to drop in the fact that her dad was an investigator in an effort to scare me. I didn't think much of the threats at the time. But now, standing in front of a man whose literal job was to vigilantly question and analyze criminals; I suddenly wasn't feeling too hot.

I swallowed in preparation to speak. "We....were....I..." I mumbled, tripping up over my words.

 My palms grew sweaty under his ever more pressing gaze. I knew it was paranoia, but it almost felt as though he knew about the massage I made her give me. As well as all the horny thoughts I had as a result of it...

Further increasing my nervousness, I felt Mia's gaze also digging into the side of my face. She no doubt thought I looked pathetic.

Saving me, she let out a heavy sigh. "I sprained my ankle falling off the sofa. It was so stupid," she explained to her dad with a chuckle.

His eyes narrowed in on me. "Did somebody push you?" her dad asked, without missing a beat.

"Who's at the door, Jeff?" A lady's voice called out from behind him, thick with what I believed to be a Spanish accent. 

Soon enough, a beautiful woman came into view over the shoulder of Mia's dad. She had thick shoulder-length black hair and skin that was coloured a tawny, yellowish-brown. I instantly recognized her as Mia's mother, having seen her a fair few times at pick-up time in middle school. But even if I hadn't, it was blatantly obvious they were mother and daughter as the general shape of their features and complexion were startlingly similar.

The natural smile that rested upon her face abruptly dropped as her eyes narrowed in on Mia, then me, and finally her husband.

"Jeff, stop tormenting the kids and let them in. Mia is clearly hurt," she huffed as she pushed her husband out of the way to make room for us.

She gestured me in, and sparing one last awkward wide-eyed look at a murderous-looking Jeff, I scurried past him to carry Mia through the threshold.

Following her mother into their living room, I couldn't help but let my eyes drift around the place. I'd never been inside Mia's house before, and rather embarrassingly, I was kind of excited. It had a homely feel to it, with a vast array of family photos lining the wall. A smile tugged to my lips as I spotted a photo of a six-year-old Mia pulling a wide-bearing toothy smile at the camera.

Once I got to the sofa, I gently lowered Mia down onto it, making sure to carefully prop her ankle up on the armrest in the hopes of reducing the swelling.

Once I had straightened up, Mia's mother whipped around to face her husband. "Jeff, go get some ice," she ordered.

Jeff rolled his eyes but nonetheless trudged off to the kitchen in submission. I stifled the urge to snort, finding it hilarious how whipped he was by his wife. Clearly, the Collin's woman had a gift for getting seemingly strong-willed guys to fall to their feet.

Mia's mother leaned over her and gently caressed her cheek. "Are you okay, sweetie?" she asked, her eyes darting back and forth between Mia's in concern.

"Yeah, it's really not that bad," Mia said, cracking a half-grin, in an effort to reassure her mother.

Soon enough, Jeff rounded the corner of the kitchen with an icepack in hand, and I instantly felt on guard.

Mia's mother turned to me with a radiant yet inquisitive gaze. "Mia never told me she had a boyfriend. What's your name?"

Her words took me aback, and a strange feeling ran through my heart at hearing the words: 'Mia' and 'boyfriend' in the same sentence. 

Mia's boyfriend. My heart raced at the excitement of it.

Blunting my excitement, a weird snarl sound emitted from behind me. 

"Ouch, dad be careful," Mia's voice hissed out from behind me.

Still in a dazzled state from being referred to as Mia's boyfriend, I completely ignored whatever brawl was going on behind me. No longer able to help it, a smile slipped through my lips and, I stretched out my hand, which her mother kindly shook.

"My name is Ethan," I said warmly.

"And he's not my boyfriend," Mia snappily intercepted. My smile dropped, and I sent a flat look Mia's way.

For fuck's sake, could she not let me live out my fantasies of being her boyfriend for one godamn second. What is a man if he can't dream?

Mia's mother's eyes widened in marvel at me. "Oh, Ethan. Mia talks so much about you...," she said as she looked back and forth between the two of us curiously.

Mia talks about me? I turned to Mia in amusement. "Does she now?" I said, shooting her a subtle wink.

Mia's eyes narrowed. "Don't get excited. I'm mostly just complaining about you."

Well, ouch...but I guess that makes more sense...

Mia's mum turned her attention back my way. "Do you want to stay for dinner, Ethan?" she asked politely.

I stole a look over to Mia, and the moment my eyes met hers, I immediately settled on a rather solid answer of yes. I was about to reply, but then I caught Mia's dad's expression. 

He looked by no means happy at the idea of me staying for dinner. In fact, he was looking at with an expression that quite clearly communicated: 'I swear to god if you say yes, I will murder you and your first-born child.'

And like that, I suddenly wasn't too keen on staying.

I let out a slightly nervous laugh before turning my gaze back to her mother. "No, it's alright; I should be heading home anywhere. But it was nice meeting you, Mr. and Mrs. Collins," I mumbled. "See you later, Mia," I said, shooting a smile her way. 

Mia's eyebrows raised slightly, clearly surprised that I was calling her by her real name. I would have called her Chubs, but I knew that wouldn't be a wise move in front of her father.

With a final nod goodbye, I turned and rushed my way over to the door; and into safety.

-------------------------

Rubbing the kinks out of my neck, I collapsed onto my bed with a groan. It had been a few hours since I had got back from Mia's house and I had just got through finishing my history assignment. Lucas had also left a few hours ago, but not before helping me get Dylan fed; and into bed.

 Since my mum was an important member of a big law firm, she often came back quite late into the evening. I always felt kind of bad that she worked so much, and she didn't have much of a social life. Sure, she went out with some work colleagues from time to time, but her love life was totally static. I think she was kind of scared of dating, which I couldn't exactly blame her for. I'd be scared too if the only ever relationship I had turned out as disastrous as hers had.

My phone flashed to life from where it lay on my stomach, and I lazily picked it to check the time.

  11PM

I pondered for a few seconds if I should go to bed, but as I aimlessly flicked through my phone, a particular new contact name caught my attention: Chubs X♡.

My lips curved up into a smile.

Hmm, I wonder if she's still up...

Before I could re-think it, I clicked on the message icon, and my fingers rapidly got to work to type out my message.

Me: Still awake, Chubs?

I tapped my finger nervously against the side of my phone as I waited for a response. I'd tried for years to get Mia's number, and now that I finally had it, I couldn't help but feel excited. Suddenly, a message popped up, and I rapidly sat up, getting ready to read it.

Chubs X♡ : You really got busy on my phone, didn't you dickhead? How did you even get into it?

My lips twitched up slightly at her insult. Blunt and to the point - that was my chubs alright. Moving my finger lazily against the keys, I sketched out a reply.

Me: Making Damon Salvatore your password isn't exactly the best idea when you have his face as your lock screen is it...

I got a response but a second later.

Me: Well in my defense, I didn't know anyone was going to actively break into it. And thanks to you, he's not my lock screen anymore, is he?

I smiled all through reading the message, but then I paused on the last few words: he's not my lock screen anymore.

She hadn't changed her background picture back yet? I was still her background picture. 

Me!

 At this point, I was smiling so hard that some people might argue I needed to be medicalized. I mean, could you blame me? If some stranger were to see her phone, they would assume I was her boyfriend.

Wanting to keep my cool over text, I typed back a teasing response.

Me: So you haven't changed the picture...

I waited a handful of seconds, and nothing came in. Curious, I hovered over my previous message, and my eyes narrowed as I noticed it was marked as read.

Huh, so she thinks she can blank me, well, we'll see about that...

Me: Hello?

Me: Still there?

Me: Are you distracted looking at your lock screen or something?

I snickered a little, knowing she was likely fuming on the other side of the phone. It went without saying that she was the last person in the world who'd ever fawn over a half-naked picture of me, but I knew a message like that would likely push her buttons.

When I still got no response, I let out a little growl of frustration. Then before I could stop myself, I clicked the call button.

 Did this look desperate? Most likely. But the more persistent side of me seemed to overrun any shame I might have felt.

Holding the phone up to my ear, I heard the dial tone for several seconds before it was abruptly cut off.

"What?" A rather breathless, wound-up girl's voice snapped through the phone.

A smile slipped past my lips. There's my chubs...

I chuckled, unable to help myself. "Wow, I'm happy to talk to you too, Chubs," I drawled sarcastically.

"Whatever. Why did you call?" she hissed.

"Well, I'm rather interested to hear the reason why I'm still your lock screen," I snickered, unable to resist bringing it up. Learning that she hadn't changed my photo had to have been the best news I had heard all week. Maybe even the best news I'd heard all month.

She paused for several beats, and I knew without a doubt that she was blushing. She cleared her throat.

 "Don't flatter yourself; I just haven't had the effort to change it back," she scoffed.

"Hmmm, sure," I hummed unconvincingly, in an effort to piss her off. "I'm serious," she whined, the frustration breaking through her voice.

I laughed, finding way too much amusement in her annoyance. Deep down, I knew she probably had just forgotten to change it back, but that still didn't mean I wasn't going to use this opportunity to tease the hell out of her.

Biting my lip, I prepared myself for a comment that I knew would have earned me a slap if she was here. "Since I'm your screen-saver now, I think it's only fair you send me an equally scandalous picture of your own that I can use for my screen saver," I proposed, my smirk practically audible through my tone.

I let myself dream for a second that she would actually give me one. Scandalous or not, I'd take anything she'd give me. Whether it was a sexy picture of her at the beach or a simple picture of her smiling.

"In. Your. Fucking. Dreams," she said slowly, making sure to annunciate each word with a cutting edge. 

Despite the pain of her words, I snorted a little - the irony of her statement really resonating with me. One day, I was tempted to straight out say, 'Yeah, I know,' just to see what she'd say.

"Aww, don't be like that, Chubs," I called out playfully.

She let out a heavy sigh which was no doubt followed by a long dramatic eye roll.

"Also, Ethan," she said, the seriousness of her tone drawing my attention. "Why the fuck did you delete tinder from my phone?" she asked slowly with a level of accusation to her voice.

I paused, realizing I had been caught red-handed. Shit. What do I say? What do I say? 

Finally, I decided to go with the truth.

"It matched you up with too many weirdos; I was doing you a favor," I argued.

 Remembering some of the messages, I instantly felt on edge. Worse than that – murderous. When the messages weren't gross, they were sexist, and when they weren't sexist, they were flat-out stupid.

 I mean, yes, there were a couple of guys who had initiated the conversation with a simple hey, but that still didn't mean they were one-hundred percent safe. There was no guy I fully trusted except for Lucas; I didn't even trust myself.

"Whatever, Ethan," she said dismissively.

"Why are you even on it? Are you trying to get laid or something?" I asked, my words slipping out before I could stop them. "Please tell me you haven't actually met someone on there?" I said, my voice coming out in much too harsh a tone. 

I knew I was overstepping way too many boundaries, and a thousand alarms were going off in my head, warning me to stop, but I couldn't help it. I was scared. 

What if she met up with some stranger on there, and they hurt her, or kidnapped her, or didn't listen to her when she asked them to stop.

 Bile rose to my throat, as I got swarmed with more and more nightmarish thoughts on what could happen.

"Er no. Not that it's any of your business what I do," she huffed.

"Just don't meet up with anyone on there," I snapped back, still feeling on edge. I would never forgive myself if she met up with some weirdo when I could have done something to stop it.

"Fuck you, Ethan. I'll do what I want," she bit back, and then before I knew it, the receiver line went dead.

 I groaned in frustration and quickly pressed the button to call her back. I swore as it went straight to voicemail. Knowing her, I wouldn't be surprised if she purposely went out with a tinder guy just to spite me.

Throwing my phone on the nightstand, I collapsed down onto my bed before running my hands repeatedly up and down my face.

Man, I'd fucked up.

----------------------------

Plucking my car keys out of the ignition, I lazily shoved them into my pocket before throwing open the car door. Looking up, I once again found myself staring at the ever-familiar sign above Mia's workplace – Sugarshake. 

 I had just come from soccer practice, and after dropping Lucas home, I couldn't resist one last pit stop. I hadn't really gotten an opportunity to talk to her today at school, and I kind of wanted to clear the air after being so bossy with her on the phone yesterday.

The bell above my head chimed as I made my way into the shop. Looking around, I noticed it was fairly busy – a usual group of preteen girls in the corner and a few odd groups of high school kids. 

Weaving my way past the tables, I finally spotted Mia behind the counter and I smiled in surprise as I found her already looking at me. She looked gorgeous as always with those familiar wide searching eyes, and escapes of loose curly hair falling messily from her updo hairstyle.

As I made my way over, her eyes narrowed slightly, likely assuming I was up to no good. 

"Hey, Chubs," I greeted as I slid myself into the stool across from her.

 I cheekily looked her up and down, not being able to resist the temptation of quickly checking her out. Then before she could notice, I quickly drew my eyes back to hers. 

"I see your ankle is all healed up," I observed.

She let out an exhausted sigh. "What are you even doing here, Ethan?"

"I was just craving some ice cream, that's all," I shrugged, trying to keep my face smooth and relaxed.

Well, I was more accurately craving some Mia time, but she didn't need to know that.

Deciding to wind her up a bit, I leaned forward and arrogantly helped myself to a menu from behind the counter. Her gaze burned into me, likely imagining bashing me over the head with it.

 Pretending to flick through it, I cleared my throat. "I'll have the cookies and cream sundae with Oreo cookies and extra whipped cream please," I said, reciting off my normal order. 

At this point, she looked like she wanted to punch me in the face, and understandably so. We both knew I was purposely ordering the most complicated sundae.

 It was with simple logic, really – the longer she spent making up the sundae, the longer I got to spend with her.

I smirked. "Oh, and you might want to add some chocolate sauce in too," I added smugly.

Her eyes narrowed into murderous slices, but reluctantly she pushed herself off the counter to get the relevant ingredients.

"Aww, don't look so sad, Mimi, you've only got one hour left," I heard a male's voice coo.

 I jerked my head in her direction fast. My eyes immediately zeroed in on her smiling blonde co-worker, who was in the middle of squeezing her cheeks. 

A nauseous feeling twisted in my gut at seeing him be all physical with her; and playful. Worse of all, Mia's cheeks had gone a little red, and she was actually fucking smiling at him. She never got all giddy looking when I squeezed her cheeks. Did she have a crush on him?

 I scanned his figure up and down in disgust before the urge to speak up become too overwhelming.

"Keep your hands to yourself, buddy," I spat out harshly, the words escaping my lips before I could stop them. 

Mia and the blonde boy turned my way, looking a little caught off guard. Soon enough, blondie's face relaxed, and a smile stretched to his face. "I don't think we've met, my name's Ben. I'm Mimi's friend. I've seen you around at school. You play soccer, right?" he said as he reached out to shake my hand. 

I glared down at his hand in distaste. His nice-ness only pissed me off further, hating that he was making it harder for me to despise him.

I didn't return his handshake, feeling petty. "Mimi?" I scoffed, repeating back his stupid nickname.

 It wasn't even that creative; mine was way more unique. 

From the corner of my eyes, I saw Mia glaring at me, likely upset that I was being mean to her special little boyfriend.

Ben looked around a little uncomfortably and slowly lowered his head. "Yeah, that's my nickname for her...," he said, trailing off awkwardly.

"Hmm," I murmured, wanting to drive home how unimpressed I was.

"Anyway... I'm just going to go deliver this to that table over there...." Ben said uncomfortably before dashing away with a dessert in hand.

Good riddance...

Scowling, I turned my attention back to Mia and found her staring off after Ben with a sympathetic look on her face. Jealousy twisted sharply at my gut once again. "Chop, chop, I want my ice cream today, Chubs," I snapped rudely, my frustration overtaking me. 

She rolled her eyes at me before reluctantly going back to work.

As I stared on at her, I felt my anger dissipate into guilt, knowing full well I had no right to be acting like this. 

But I couldn't help it. He was a torturous reminder of everything I wished I was. He was peaceful, kind, and above all, way more ahead than I'd ever be at winning Mia Collins's heart. 

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Author's note: 

Yay, so that's chapter ten done. I hope you enjoyed reading Ethan's first impression of Ben. Sorry if it was a bit boring lol. 

I'm heading into heavy exam season, so if I don't upload in about a month, it's not because I'm dead lol.