The air felt thick as I stared miserably off at Mia in the distance. 

I had been kidding myself all along of any hope of a future with Mia in it. The only future, that existed was with her and Ben. Perfect, untainted Ben.

 I bet it wouldn't take too long for him to ask her out. Heck, maybe she'd even ask him out first. Then to finish the torture off, they'd make out right in front of my fucking face, just to further dig in my pain. 

To further dig in how many years of my life I've devoted to loving a girl who'd never love me.

Letting out a bitter scoff, I reaffirmed my grip on my cup and took another long swig.

I jumped slightly as a hand placed itself onto my shoulder. "You should forget about her," a voice said smoothly.

Taking my gaze off Mia, I refocused my gaze back onto April. She smiled, her eyes digging into mine almost devilishly. "Mia isn't worth it. She's into someone else. She doesn't care about you."

I visibly flinched, the words 'she doesn't care about you', ripping through me like a painful slice through my skin. 

I stilled as she drew all kinds of weird patterns against my shoulder with the tips of her finger before fixating her gaze on mine. 

"But, it's fine because other people care about you, Ethan. Better people," she whispered as she batted her eyelashes softly.

I watched in confusion as she leaned a little closer. Registering she was trying to invade my personal space, I ripped myself back. Narrowing my eyes, I felt anger wash through me 

"Actually, I think I can decide for myself who's worth it," I spat out harshly. 

 As frustrated as I was with Mia for lying to me about her crush on Ben, that didn't mean I was anywhere near okay with someone disrespecting her. Or, worse, saying she wasn't worth my time. She was always worth my time. 

Always had been, always would be.

April recoiled a little as though I had slapped her, then she blinked her way back into composure. 

She gave me a brief smile. "Yeah, of course, I know that. I didn't mean to upset you. I just wanted to give you some advice, that's all," she shrugged.

"Yeah, well, I'm good," I said sharply, not even caring that I was coming off as rude. 

Seconds of silence went by before April sharply cleared her throat. Smiling, she fiddled with the end of her hair. "So, a couple of us are going to go downstairs in a minute to play some games. Wanna join?" she asked sweetly.

The answer to her question landed on me almost immediately - Fuck no. 

I was just about to answer as such, but then I paused. "Wait, who else are you going to invite?" I asked slowly with narrowed eyes.

"Oh, probably a few girls from the dance team, some football lads, and erm...Ben's group, and Chloe's group and-"

"Chloe's group as in Mia," I interrupted.

 April smiled and nodded her head. I spared a look back at Mia, who was now relaxed back on the sofa with her friends. Making up my mind there and then, I turned back to face April and slowly nodded my head. 

"Okay, sounds like it'll be fun. I'll see you down there," I said with a forced smile. 

"Excellent," she winked. "Why don't you go down and join the others; I'll be back in a minute," she said. Then with a smile, she brushed her way past me to leave, not without providing a weirdly invasive squeeze of my bicep.

Watching her leave with a raised eyebrow, I suddenly got the shock of my life as a rather heavy arm slung itself over the tops of my shoulder.

"Sup, man," a voice called out. 

Turning my head to the side, I let out a heavy sigh as I found Lucas's rather large-sized head once again, inches away from my own. 

"Lucas I-"

"Ooo, what the fucks that? Is that pine-apple juice? Give me that," Lucas said at once.

 Without even waiting for me to respond, Lucas snatched my paper cup free from my hand and took a sip. It barely touched his lips for a second before he grimaced and pulled it sharply away.

 "Eww, what the fuck is in this? Tastes like absolute shit," Lucas groaned while wrinkling his nose. "God, don't drink this shit, man. It's off," he said as he chucked the glass onto a side table.

Rolling my eyes at his dramatics, I shrugged his arm off my shoulder and turned to face him. Lucas, quickly regained his composure, and soon enough, an annoying smirk lit up his face.

 "Anyway, just thought I'd check in to see how the stalking's going. How's mission 'cock-block Mia and Ben' going?" he asked rather loudly with the wiggle of his eyebrows.

 Widening my eyes, I hastily looked around to see if anyone had overheard him. When I had confirmed nobody had, I turned back to face Lucas with a daggered look.

Lucas pulled a face. "Oof, that's not a handsome look," he sang. 

Glaring at him with an even harsher spite, I grabbed his ear and squeezed. 

"Ow, don't stretch out my lobe," he cried. 

Ignoring him, I pulled on it and started hurling him towards the directions of the basement stairs.

 "Ow, ow, ow," he cried all while I led him down the stairs.

Once we were down in the basement, I released the tight hold I had on Lucas's ears and allowed him to stand fully. Lucas pouted and soothingly rubbed up and down his ear while giving me the evils. 

"Not cool, man. You know I have sensitive ears," he muttered.

I let out a disbelieving scoff. "You know whose ears are also sensitive," I whisper shouted. "Fucking Mia's! You know the girl who was in the same room as you when you were blabbing really loudly about my cock-blocking plan," I said as I gave him a pointed look.

Lucas's mouth formed an O. "Ooo, yeah, good point," he drawled.

 The temptation to smack him upside the head was pressing, but I just about managed to withhold myself.

"So...anyway. Why did you lead me down to the basement?" Lucas asked with a raised brow as he observed the small groups of people stacked out around us.

I let out a heavy sigh. "Because everyone's going to play a game down here in a minute, and I need back up in cock-blocking Mia and pretty boy, okay," I explained.

Lucas's lip twitched up. "Pretty boy?" he snickered. "Have you got a new crush, Ethan," he teased.

 I gave him a flat look.

"Hmm, no answer, interesting," Lucas drawled. "Really interest- Ow," he cried as I whacked him in the arm.

"Jeeze, you can't even make a joke anymore," Lucas pouted as he gave his arm another affectionate rub.

I was about to make another snide comment when my eyes caught onto Mia walking down the basement stairs alongside May. Again, I forget myself for a handful of seconds and trailed my eyes up the length of her flawless body all the way to her rosy lips, and most importantly to those unforgettable eyes of hers.

"God, May's looking different these days," Lucas murmured absentmindedly. 

Snapping out of my daze, I turned to Lucas, who for some reason seemed very focused on watching May descend the stairs.

 I raised a curious eyebrow. "What'd you just say?" 

It took Lucas about three seconds to register my voice, and once he did, he blinked rapidly and swerved his head my way.

His eyes darted around a little as though nervous. "Nothing, I was just saying May looks different, that's all," he shrugged.

 Completely intrigued now, I raised my eyebrow up even higher. "How so?" I probed, unable to hide my smirk.

 Lucas opened his mouth as though about to answer, but then he suddenly shut it, seeming to clock on to what I was heavily trying to pry out of him. 

 "In a mind your business kind of way," he said sharply. 

I laughed, unable to believe this was happening. "You're so crushing on her. I can't believe this," I snickered, my teeth breaking through my grin. 

Call me sad, but I had been waiting for this moment for many many years. Let's say, Lucas had not been shy over the years in ridiculing my obsession with Mia, so I had patiently been waiting for a time where he'd get a pathetic crush on someone also. And, it finally looked as though that beautiful moment had arrived. 

Up until now, I'd never seen him lose his composure over a girl before. Sure, he flirted and dated around, but he never looked the way he had only seconds before. He looked completely and absolutely whipped.

For the first time ever, I saw Lucas's face contort in embarrassment. "I'm not crushing on her," he protested.

 My smirk grew wider. "Hmm, you're on the denial stage already," I drawled.

Lucas gave me the blankest of stares. "You're really enjoying this, aren't you?" he asked flatly.

 "Yup," I chirped.

Continuing on with my torment, I raised an eyebrow. "Didn't you used to tell me all the time that May was, and I quote: 'an unstable and violent girl with extreme bladder and biting issues."

Lucas paused for a fraction of a second. "Well, yes, but that's because she peed on me back in kindergarten and then proceeded to bite me. We've been over this," he scoffed.

"Hey, maybe that was her way of marking her territory," I winked.

I watched as Lucas went oddly silent and then turned back to look in May's direction. He stared at her for a while as though dancing with that possibility. 

"Hmm, maybe," he hummed.

I bit my lip, finding it hilarious that Lucas was seriously into the idea of being peed on as a form of territory marking. 

 Before I could get in a snide comment, a flash of blonde hair caught my eyes. And as I feared, Ben, the motherfucking, barbie-boy walked boldly past my eye line and over to his friends.

I immediately felt on edge and shot a nervous look over to Mia who was still laughing and chatting idly about something with May. I had to keep the two of them apart; they were both ticking time bombs of love confessions, kissing, and relationship-starting.

Soon enough, April stepped forward and blabbered on about how she wanted everyone to get in a circle. With a sigh, I threw myself lazily down onto the ground beside Lucas.

 Normally, I found party games amusing but not this time. This one was purely business.

As I did a little scan around the circle, I noticed Ben smile over at Mia and greet her with a flirtatious wave. Nausea ran through me as I watched her reciprocate with an adorable smile of her own.

Pissed, I turned to Lucas and elbowed him to get his attention. "Look at them; they are making googly eyes at each other already. This is a fucking joke," I muttered out bitterly.

Lucas raised an amused eyebrow. "Ethan, babe, they literally just smiled at each other. You need to chill and un-pluck your panties from the twist they seem to be in.

I gave him a dirty look. "My panties aren't twisted."

 Lucas's brow raised even higher, and the corner of his lips twitched. 

"And I'm not wearing panties," I added in quickly, remembering I forgot to clarify that.

April soon cleared her throat, interrupting Lucas's next insulting comment. "So, now that enough people are gathered, we can start. We're going to be playing a game of Truth or Dare," she said, as she clapped her hands together.

The name of the game instantly filled me with dread. There were so many ways truth or dare could go wrong.

 I watched as April downed her bottle of beer before proceeding to lay it out in the middle of the circle. Then with the twist of her hips, she turned around and walked right over to where Lucas and I were sitting. 

I stilled slightly as she bent down and wedged herself in the small gap between myself and the girl beside me. Then, making it even worse, she pressed herself into my side so that the edge of her leg was quite literally in my lap. 

My fight or flight reflex was instantly activated, and I shuffled like hell towards Lucas's side, so April and I were no longer making bodily contact. 

Contrary to what I wanted Mia to think, I was by no means smooth when it came to girls coming onto me. It always ended with me getting extremely uncomfortable and fleeing.

"Okay, who wants to spin first?" April asked as she scanned around the circle.

"Me, me, me!" a voice shouted.

 I turned my head and found May practically jumping out of her seat with her arm straight up in the air. It kind of reminded me of something you might see from a hyperactive pre-schooler.

 Glancing Lucas's way, I was amused to find Lucas staring at May with the softest of smiles and far-away eyes. With a smile on my face, I nudged him.

 "Cute, hmm?" I teased.

 Lucas's smile fell swiftly from his face, and he glared at me. I chuckled to myself, loving how pissed he was getting by the teasing. 

Soon, enough May crawled into the middle of the circle and gave the glass bottle an enthusiastic swirl. As it spun, I felt my nerves start to rise. I definitely didn't want a truth or dare from May; everybody knew how evil she could be. Only an idiot would be comfortable getting one from her.

 Finally, the bottle started to slow, and to my relief, it rolled right past me and came to a stop in front of Lucas. Beyond intrigued now, I leaned forward and sent an amused look over to Lucas.

Ignoring me, Lucas kept his gaze firmly locked on May's, and the two of them seemed to engage in a weirdly intense staring match. 

"Truth or Dare?" She asked smoothly.

"Dare," Lucas answered boldly, without missing a beat.

 I resisted the urge to snort, knowing this was his unsubtle way of coming off all Macho in an effort to impress her.

May started to chuckle as though she found Lucas's bravery something of humor. "Okay, Mr daredevil. Swap clothes with me for the rest of the game," she smiled. 

In the blink of an eye, Lucas's facial expression went from amused to absolutely terrified. My face, on the other hand, did the complete opposite, and I started grinning from ear to ear.

 Call me what you want, but the prospect of seeing Lucas's rather large frame squeeze into May's petite-looking playsuit was definitely something I wanted to see.

"Shit, I should have gone with the truth," Lucas muttered under his breath. I glanced back over to Lucas and saw he was starting to fidget uncomfortably in his seat at the thought of having to parade around in her outfit.

Unable to help myself anymore, a single chortle escaped my lips before I completely lost it and started to break with laughter. Shaking through my cries of laughter, I tried desperately to control my breathing.

Lucas glared at me with a bitter scowl. "Shut the fuck up, Ethan," he bit out.

After a lot of reluctant groaning and moaning, Lucas traipsed miserably after May towards the direction of the bathroom. The second they were gone, April started blabbing on about something or another, and I half-listened in boredom while counting down the minutes till Lucas would return. 

After about ten minutes, the door swung open, and the second I took in the image before me, I quite simply lost it. Lucas, God bless him, had made a very noble effort to squeeze his way too big body into the tiny scraps of black material. It was absolutely bulging at the seams, and I was genuinely worried if he did so much as a squat, the material would bust free. 

May, on the other hand, looked absolutely fine. Though the clothes were quite big for her, she seemed pretty content in them. If anything, it looked like she was borrowing something from her boyfriend.

Suddenly, from the corner of my eye, I saw movement. Turning my head, I was surprised to see Mia whip out her phone before taking a picture of Lucas with the flash on. 

This immediately filled me with amusement, and if I weren't supposed to be ignoring her, I would have high-fived her there and then. The only thing that disappointed me was that I didn't think of it sooner.

 Lucas swerved his head her way, seeming to notice the flash straight away. A look of horror crossed over his face. 

"Delete it now," he yelled as he started to storm his way over to her.

Mia chuckled in that gorgeous way of hers, and her eyes seemed to sparkle with some sort of idea. Then before I could fathom a guess about what she was going to do, she shoved her phone in her bra before relaxing back with a content little smile on her face.

 Her action inevitably drew my attention to her breasts. Rather pathetically, I felt myself gulp as I traced over the tight blue material overlaying her bra.

 Lucas was certainly not allowed to go anywhere fucking near Mia's boobs, but I on the other hand, was more than happy to volunteer as tribute.

 Snapping a little out of my daze, I noticed Lucas roll his eyes before backing away. "Screw you, Mia. I thought we were friends," he muttered sulkily before hobbling his way back to his place beside me. 

I raised a humor-filled eyebrow as May high-fived Mia before also returning to her place.

It was now Lucas's time to spin, and he wobbly crawled his way over to the centre of the circle before giving the bottle a spin. Like before, the bottle spun around at a dizzying speed, and slowly by slowly, its speed reduced until it finally came to a stop. Following the tip along, my brows raised as I found it pointing to Mia. 

Now, this should be interesting...

She immediately froze once she noticed it landed on her. When she had collected herself together some, she shot Lucas a weak smile in a likely effort to appease him.

"I bet you wish you were nice to me now. Don't you?" Lucas taunted. 

Mia looked a little worried at first, but this seemed to dissipate as she did another glance over his bulging playsuit.

"Truth or dare, Mia," Lucas asked, his eyes narrowing slightly.

"Truth," Mia said rapidly.

 Her answer didn't surprise me in the slightest, knowing she would want to play it safe after essentially bullying Lucas five seconds ago.

Seemingly unfazed by this, Lucas's eyes twinkled with mischief. 

"Okay, fine, I've got one," he chuckled. "Which guy in this room, besides me, of course, do you think is the most attractive?" he asked smoothly.

Not expecting him to ask that at all, I froze.

 Immediately, a strong wave of nausea ran through my stomach. I by no means wanted to hear her answer to that question. I mean, what was the point when I knew the answer already. She was going to say, Ben. 

I mean, why wouldn't she? He was classically handsome – blonde hair, blue eyes, tan skin. He was a walking Ken doll, for fuck's sake. How could anybody compete with a walking Ken doll?

Drawing my focus back to Mia, I found her staring ahead like a deer caught in headlights. She was clearly as unkeen to say the answer as I was to hear it. 

Suddenly, her eyes narrowed in on Lucas's. "I hate you," she grumbled.

 Lucas merely responded with a wink.

I tried in vain to maintain a cool composure, but my anxiousness for her answer shone through me, and I stared intensely at her as I waited.

Seeming to be in full panic mode, Mia's eyes rocked back and forth frantically, and her lips pathetically mouthed words without a sound. She looked my way a couple of times but then swiftly zipped right past me as though my stare embarrassed her.

"I...er....I," she stuttered nervously as more time passed by. 

The room was completely silent, further adding to the suspense and my anxiousness.

"Hurry up, Mia, spit it out," Lucas said, with a provoking smirk.

 Her eyes started to dart around even faster in panic, and as I was starting to grow genuinely worried, she snapped.

"OKAY, FINE. IT'S ETHAN."

A second of complete and utter silence passed through the room, so quiet that it was a struggle to even hear a breath. My brain replayed her words over and over again in my mind, but the more I replayed them, the more ridiculous they sounded. 

She couldn't have said what I just thought she did. She just couldn't have. 

Finally seeming to process what she had just said, Mia looked as though she has seen a ghost. Her eyes were widened, and quite frankly, scared. Abruptly, she whipped her head my way, and those beautiful doe eyes of hers stared at me with absolute horror. 

Frantically, her eyes scanned over each and every square inch of my face as though trying to gauge a reaction, but all I could seem to do, was stare dumbly at her.

Holy crap, she had truly said it...She'd said my name. 

Mine.

"Well, this is awkward...," Lucas snickered, filling in the lone silence that was sitting in the air.

 A few other chuckles broke out at his comment, but I was far too dazed to fully process them. This was far from awkward; this was the best day of my fucking life. Mia Collins thought I was good-looking. 

Actually, better than that, Mia Collins thought I was the best-looking guy in a circle full of the most popular guys in our school. 

At this point, Mia had a harsh redness to her cheeks and was avidly avoiding my eyes. Unable to stop myself, a smile broke through my lips. 

Soon enough, Lucas leaned into my side and whispered, 'you're welcome.'

The game soon continued on with more and more people doing various truths or dares. I barely paid attention to any of them, too consumed with replaying the words of Mia's confession in my head while trying not to smile too wildly.

April's turn soon came around, and I stilled a little as she brushed past me to get to the centre of the circle. She gave the bottle; a solid whirl, and once more, it went into an incredible speed. Once it slowed down, everyone watched until it came to a stop right in front of Ben.

The moment it landed, my eyes narrowed in on his. If it was up to me, there were plenty of things I'd dare him to do. Like to move across the country, or, I don't know, to get run over by a truck. 

Okay, fine, maybe that's slightly too far; I didn't want the bastard to die. Maybe the truck could just hit him and not run him over completely. Like yeah, he might still be permanently injured, but at least he'd be alive.

"Dare," Ben answered confidently, without even needing to be asked.

Of course, the show-off would have to pick dare...

A weird look passed through April's eyes, and she smiled. 

"Excellent," she chuckled. "I dare you to kiss, Mia."

My blood ran as cold as ice, the instance the words passed through her lips. Paralyzed with shock, I stared fixedly ahead as the most intense feelings of nausea swept right through me. As my heart pounded away in panic, I swept my gaze rapidly back and forth between Mia and Ben, not knowing what to do. 

 Then, to my horror, I watched as Ben shrugged his shoulders as though the request meant nothing to him. As though taking Mia's first kiss meant nothing to him.

 I knew from the way she talked about it that it meant something to her, and it sure as hell meant a lot to me. Her first kiss was supposed to happen alone and with mutual feelings, and well, with me.

Ben let out a heavy sigh and started to crawl his way across the circle while Mia remained deadly still. Horrifyingly still.

I waited and waited for her to say no, to tell April to go fuck herself, to tell her she wasn't going to do something she wasn't comfortable with, but she didn't.

 She just sat there.

And at that very moment, I finally realized exactly what was going to happen. Ben was going to take Mia's first kiss, and I was going to have to sit here and watch. 

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

Author's note:

Okay on that depressing note, that's chapter thirteen done. Hope you enjoyed xx

And now an important note: 

This book has NO update schedule. I always intended for this book to be updated in a slow and relaxed manner since it is only an alternative POV to my first book and everyone essentially knows exactly what is going to happen. No update schedule/random updates was always my intention, and I made this clear from the beginning. Please respect this decision. The vast majority of people have been very respectful and understanding of this decision and still are. However, ever since I've started to post my new book, I have been bombarded with messages telling me to update this book. Please stop doing that. It does not motivate me. It just stresses me out and actually puts me off wanting to write.

The only reason my other new book has a frequent update schedule is that I've already written it offline in a first draft form. That means all I'm doing is editing it, which is a LOT quicker than writing a new chapter from scratch and then doing an editing process on top of that. Also, to put it in context it takes me 2-4 days on average to write a chapter draft that I feel semi-proud of. And to specify, that means days where I'm not going out, not working, or doing anything else that takes a large chunk of my time.

So, just to sum it up, I'm a very busy person. I've spent all year studying for my super intense degree( a vet degree), and even though I've finished for the year I've still had to go on a placement which involved me leaving my home at 7am in the morning and coming back at 7pm in the evening. So, as you can guess, I'm tired as hell.

Writing for Wattpad is usually fun, and I love writing this bonus book, and I have every intention of finishing it. What is not fun, however is feeling pressured to do this within a certain time limit when it isn't my job.

So yeah, that's all I have to say. Thanks for reading xx