A few hours after the part had started, it was over. Only a few people stayed after most of the guests left, and none of us seemed to know what we were supposed to do.

“So…” Kate started, looking at everyone now as we all sat around the living room. “What are we supposed to do now?”

“I don’t know,” I shrugged, picking at a piece of cake that hadn’t been touched by anyone at the party. The cake was literally so big that I was sure I had more than half left. “Why ask me? This party wasn’t my idea.”

I sat on the couch, Johnny beside me with his arm around me. I honestly had no idea what we were supposed to do, especially when I had to leave in an hour for singing lessons. I had already skipped too many, and I knew Andie was going to think something was up if I kept skipping lessons, so I had to go this time. Even if it was my birthday.

“Hey, I know!” Kate suddenly squealed, scrambling off of Logan’s lap and hurrying into the kitchen. “I know what we can play!”

She came back out seconds later with a bottle in her hands, and I felt my stomach drop. She was not thinking what I thought she was thinking, was she?

“Let’s play spin the bottle!”

“What are we, in eighth grade?” Aveline asked, her arms crossed over her chest as she scowled and scooted closer to Zach on the couch. “Kids in middle school play spin the bottle, not kids in high school. Especially not seniors like us.”

Kate waved her away, setting the bottle on the floor in front of us. “So? There are six of us here, so it’ll be even. Sit, sit!”

Kate yanked me off the couch, and I wasn’t even about to fight the pregnant girl. No one else seemed like they were going to fight her either, and that was the smartest thing we could have done. I had already kissed two out of the three boys here, so it wouldn’t have been that big of a deal…

“Here, Aveline,” Kate said, handing the bottle to the other girl. “You can go first to get it over with.”

Aveline rolled her eyes, placing the bottle on the ground and spinning it around. We all sat there and waited for it to stop.

I wanted to groan as I waited, because we all knew who Aveline wanted to kiss. The only person she wanted was Zach, and she had a one out of three chance of doing it.

I didn’t know why it was taking so damn long. I wished that it would just stop on one of the guys so they could kiss and I could leave for my lessons.

When it finally stopped, I was surprised to see that it stopped at Logan. I would have thought that it would stop on Johnny before it stopped on Logan, but I guessed that I was wrong. This was definitely a strange turn of events.

Kate didn’t seem bothered at all that Aveline had to kiss her boyfriend, and I knew it was because it was completely obvious that Aveline wanted Zach and no one else. It was also obvious that Logan wanted Kate and no one else.

They kissed for only a second before scurrying away from each other. It was almost funny, but then I remembered that I still had the possibility of kissing Zach in front of my boyfriend for the second time.

“I’ll go next,” Kate smiled, spinning the bottle and waiting to see who it was going to land on. I didn’t want her kissing Zach, but I’d rather her than me. I already had to kiss him in the bathroom earlier that day, and it would have been even worse if I had to kiss him in front of Johnny. Having Kate kiss Zach would have been bad, but not as bad as if I would have to kiss him.

When the bottle stopped at Johnny, I felt my heart sink into my stomach. I should have known that this was what was going to happen. With my luck, this wouldn’t be the last time I had to kiss Zach in front of Johnny.

“You don’t mind, do you, Maxynn?” Kate asked me now, and I had to shake my head and tell her that I didn’t mind at all, even though I did. I wanted to kiss Johnny, not Zach. I had kissed Zach enough and had been avoiding Johnny for so long.

They kissed even quicker than Aveline’s and Logan’s, and I didn’t reach for the bottle because I knew I didn’t have to. It was already decided who I was going to kiss. The stupid bottle had already decided for me.

“Déjà vu, huh?” a new voice now said, and I jumped in surprised and looked up to the stairs to see Ethan watching us. I glared at him, but he merely saluted to me. He didn’t even move from his spot.

I didn’t know if he was talking about how I had to kiss Zach in the pool or not, since he wasn’t there when that happened, but he could have just been watching from a window or something inside the house. He could have been talking about how Zach and I kissed in the house, which I knew that he had seen even though no one else knew about it…

This was so not good.

There had to be some way for me to get out of this. Was Johnny really going to be okay with Zach kissing me again?

“Well, look what we’ve got here,” I heard Aveline sneer from behind me, but I only rolled my eyes and didn’t even turn around to face her. “Look who gets to kiss Zach. What a freaking surprise.”

I now turned back to scowl at her. “I’ll let you take my place, if you want.”

“Nuh-uh,” Zach denied, grabbing onto my arm when I tried to flee. “You know the rules, Maxxy. You have to kiss me.”

“I didn’t even spin the bottle!”

“But everyone else was eliminated!”

I heard Ethan snicker from the stairs, and I wanted to yell at him and tell him to go back upstairs so he wouldn’t have to witness another kiss between his brother and me, especially now that there were other people with us.

“Just get it over with,” Johnny sighed, rubbing his eyes with his hand. “I think I should just get used to this, huh?”

Zach cut me off before I could say anything with, “Yeah… You should.”

I wanted to strangle him, but all I did was act like nothing was wrong at all. Johnny could not know that there was something going on between Zach and me. He’d be crushed, and I was sure that I would be as well.

Instead of a messy, sloppy kiss like I was expecting, Zach only pecked me on the lips. He saw my confused look once he pulled away, and he merely shrugged before turning away and plopping down on the couch.

“Oh, come on. That was pathetic,” we heard Ethan call from the stairs, and I wanted to march right over and step on him. He was small enough to be crushed. “You two can do better than that. What are you, children?”

“Like you?” I couldn’t help but quip, always having to remind him that he was just a child, even though he never acted like it. “It’s not like you’ve ever kissed anyone before, Ethan.”

His face turned red in embarrassment. “So? That’s not important! What’s important is that you look like an idiot!”

“Agreed!” Zach called out from his spot on the couch.

Damn these two brothers. They’d get what was coming to them one day.

“You two are ridiculous,” was all I was able to say.

Zach shrugged. “Hey, I had my first kiss when I was four years old, so I beat him.”

“Four years old?” I couldn’t help but shriek, even though this wasn’t exactly shocking for Zachary Deveraux. “That poor girl! I feel horrible for her, having you as her first kiss. Who was it? Does she go to our school?”

Both Johnny and Logan rolled their eyes as Zach’s smirk only grew, and I knew the answer wasn’t one I was going to like. Since they had been best friends for some time, they knew what Zach was going to say. And it wasn’t going to be something good.

“Nah, she doesn’t go to our school,” Zach shook his head, and I knew something worse was coming. “She doesn’t go to our school because she was my preschool teacher.”

All I could do was stare at him in shock, not able to say a single word for a couple of moments. Zach had actually kissed his preschool teacher when he was only four? I had to say, that was sure in his character.

“Zach certainly likes teachers,” Ethan reminded me, still on the stairs, and all I could do was sneer at him in response. It only reminded me that I had to leave for singing lessons soon, and that was the last place I wanted to be, even more than here.

“I hope you get in a relationship with your teacher one day,” I snapped at Ethan now, not even knowing what I was saying. “Or maybe you’ll be the teacher and it’ll be your student. Then I’m going to come to you and laugh in your face while I tell you I told you so!”

“Aw, you think you’ll still be around by then?” Ethan asked me in fake sweetness before turning toward his brother. “Are you going to be married to Zach then?”

I felt my teeth grind together. “No!”

“And I’ll have you know, I have a girl I like,” Ethan defended, crossing his arms over his chest now as he leaned against the railing of the stairs.

“Does she have a short temper and does her name rhyme with Jackson?” Zach questioned his little brother, who immediately made a disgusted and horrified face. It took me a few seconds to realize that he was actually talking about me.

“Why would I ever like a troll like her?”

“A troll, huh?” I couldn’t help but ask. “What happened to ogre?”

“Ogre troll.”

“Ugh!”

Zach snickered, along with the rest of my friends as I continued to stand there, very unhappy about where this conversation had gone to. Considering the fact that Ethan was eight years younger than me, and absolutely hated my guts, I didn’t think that I was the girl he had a crush on.

“Yeah, Ethan likes this one girl named Anna Ryder,” Zach informed me, a wide grin on his face as he looked up at his brother. “He told me all about her. Apparently her brother is in a popular band, too.”

“Wait!” Kate called out, stopping us before we could continue on. “Her last name is Ryder? She has an older brother who’s in a popular band? Her brother couldn’t possibly be Ash Ryder, could it? From Hello Aria? I love their music!”

For the first time that day, Aveline actually smiled. “Oh, my gosh! So do I!”

I hadn’t ever heard of this band before, but I didn’t really think that it was a big deal. Since Kate was a huge fan of them, I was sure I’d be hearing their music sooner or later.

“Do you think that your friend could get us tickets to a Hello Aria concert, Ethan?” Kate asked the younger Deveraux brother now, and I was sure she’d get on her knees to beg if she wasn’t pregnant. “Or do you think we could meet her brother? Ash is my favorite out of all of the members of Hello Aria!”

Oh, man. I hope this excitement over this band wasn’t going to be a regular thing. I didn’t think I’d be able to handle it.

“I don’t know,” Ethan now shrugged, kind of looking uncomfortable. “I could try, I guess.”

Aveline and Kate both squealed, and I now looked at the time now to see that I had to go to my singing lesson right then or I was going to be late. And I was so relieved that I was actually going to be able to get out of this mess and leave the house.

“I have to go to singing lessons,” I excused myself, not wanting to be a part of this conversation any longer. “I’ll see you guys later.”

Zach whistled at me as I grabbed my keys. “Tell Andie I say hi!”

That was the last thing I was going to do. I didn’t even want to be around Andie, let alone remember the reason why. I just hated to think that she and Zach had had sex together. The thought was almost revolting.

I took the long way to where I took lessons, wanting some time to myself. But even after taking the long way, I still got there way too early for my liking.

“Maxynn, you’re here!” Andie cried when she saw me, hugging me tightly almost immediately. I tried hugging her back, and she didn’t seem to realize how hard it was for me. “I haven’t seen you in ages! Happy birthday!”

At least she remembered that it was my birthday. It almost made me feel kind of better about everything that was going on between Zach and her.

“Thanks,” I merely thanked as she took me into the back room where our lessons took place. It was weird, being back in this place after so long. I was actually kind of getting used to not coming back here…

“So, how have things been?” she asked me as she sat at her piano.

“Good,” I nodded, even though I didn’t know if that was a lie or not.

Andie nodded back at me. “That’s good.”

“Zach says hi, by the way,” I told her, since there was nothing else I could even say to her. “I’m guessing things really went well between the two of you…”

Andie’s nose wrinkled. “Eh, not really.”

This shocked me. It wasn’t something I was expecting from her, considering how giggly and girly she had acted toward him the last time I had seen them together. They also had gone out on a couple of dates. How were things not working out?”

“I don’t get it,” I blurted now, as if I didn’t have control over my own mouth. “Why would you go out on dates with him and have sex with him if you didn’t like him?”

Andie’s eyes went wide, and I slapped my hand over my mouth in surprise. I could not believe I had just said that to her like it was nothing at all. What the hell was wrong with me?

“Zach and I didn’t have sex, Maxynn,” was the first thing she said, and it nearly made me fall right off of my feet.

“What?” I gulped, not sure if I believed her or not. “But… Zach said…”

But then I remembered that Zach never really said that he had sex with Andie; I just always assumed that he did. I barely even let him explain when I had confronted him about it…

“Zach’s a great guy, Maxynn, and he’s so very hot, but I’m not going to see him again,” she informed me simply now, as if it was no big deal at all. She seemed to notice my confused look, so she continued on. “I just don’t think that it’ll work out between the two of us. I mean, he kept on talking about another girl during our dates.”

I only blinked at her. “Seriously? Who?”

She gave me a look, as if to ask if I was stupid. “You, obviously.”

“What?”

“You’d come up in conversation, and he’d just keep talking about you,” she shrugged, and all I could do was stare at her. “It was kind of a turnoff. I didn’t have sex with him because I was sure he would have rather me be you.”

Hearing this come from her was too strange to stomach. I thought I was going to throw up all the cake I had eaten before coming here, but I forced myself to keep it down. Zach had talked about me while he was on dates with Andie. He went on dates with beautiful, bubbly Andie, and yet all he did was talk about me.

I felt something in the pit of my stomach that I hadn’t ever felt before, not even with Johnny. It scared me, honestly, and it was a feeling that I never thought I would ever have while I thought about Zach Deveraux. I had hated him so much the time we had first met, and I thought my feelings for him would never change. I thought that, to me, he’d always be the cocky, arrogant boy who thought about nothing but himself. But I was wrong.

He cared about me, in his own way. It might not have been love, or any type of sincere attraction at all, but at least he cared about me in some way. He had saved me in the blizzard, and I never felt awkward around him like I did when I was around Johnny, who was supposed to be my boyfriend. Things were just so much easier with Zach, and I hadn’t realized it until right then.

I collapsed into a chair, unable to stand any longer. Andie asked if I was alright, but I barely heard her at all. All I could think about was one thing.

I knew I just realized the reason why I didn’t love Johnny back, and I realized that I had been feeling this way for a long time. It was something that I didn’t want to admit out loud, and I was hoping that I was never going to have to.

I had lost the game.

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I keep thinking this story's going to end soon, but there's still nineteen chapters left. -_____-

I miss summer. School is seriously draining the life out of me. :/

This is for the 2012 Watty Awards! Please COMMENT, VOTE, and SHARE! And vote for Ethan in the Funnest Character category when the time comes! <3 Thanks, guys!