“Why are we here?” Ethan asked, obviously bored out of his mind over the fact that he had to walk around a clothing store with his older brother, his older sister, and the girl he couldn’t stand.

“Come on, Ethan,” I teased, smirking at him. “This is fun and you know it. You just have too much pride to admit it.”

“This is not fun,” he snapped at me as he crossed his arms over his chest. “You’re a girl, so of course you think this kind of stuff is fun. It’s just stupid.” He now turned toward his brother. “Please don’t tell me that you’re seriously having fun.”

Zach shrugged, using the opportunity of being here to check out all the girls and wink at or flirt with them. I tried to ignore it, but it was really difficult to when almost every person of the female gender just had to stop to either talk to or ogle him like he was some kind of display or something.

I remembered the time when this would annoy me just because I thought it was enlarging his already huge ego, but now I was annoyed by it because I didn’t want them anywhere near the person I was in love with.

“Will you stop checking out every girl you see?” I cried, seriously fed up after I had counted over forty girls that he had come into some kind of contact with in that store. “We’re here because you agreed to come shopping with Elizabeth and me, not to check out these poor girls.”

Zach wagged his eyebrows at me. “I guess you didn’t know that the only reason I came here was so I could see the girls that are here.”

And I was in love with… that.

“I’m pretty sure you’re used to that by now, Maxynn,” Elizabeth sighed, checking out a top on the rack beside us. “I’ve learned to just not question it. As long as he’s not hitting on your friends, that’s fine.”

I made a face, remembering how he had hit on Kate many times before. That was not something I wanted to think about.

“I still don’t get why I have to be here,” Ethan now complained, reminding me that he was still here with us. “There’s no point in a ten-year-old kid being here.”

“Sure there is,” Zach grinned now, and all three of us knew we weren’t going to like what he was about to say. “Chicks dig guys with little brothers, or even sons. They think they’re cute.”

Ethan scowled at his brother. “So you’re just using me as bait?”

“Pretty much.”

I was surprised when Ethan hit his older brother in the stomach, but Elizabeth acted as if nothing was wrong at all. Zach only smirked at his younger brother, suddenly picking him up off the ground and over his shoulder.

Ethan punched at his brother in the back, but this did nothing at all. Ethan was too small and Zach was too big for it to do any type of damage to him.

“Both of you, stop it,” I snapped, slapping Zach in the arm then, so he would put Ethan down. Though that did end up happening, I was the one being picked up and thrown over his shoulder only a second after Ethan was free.

“Put me down!” I shouted, quieting myself down after I remembered that we were still in the middle of the clothing store. “Zach, put me down right now!”

“Hey!” we heard before the fight could really escalate, but Zach still didn’t put me down at the sound of this voice. All four of us turned our heads to see two security guards glaring in our direction, looking menacing and almost evil.

“Uh… Zach…” I blinked, my whole body feeling numb as I stared back at the two security guards. “You can put me down now…”

This caused him to throw me over his shoulder so I would now land on the hard floor of the store. I landed right on my shoulder blade, and I couldn’t help but hiss out in pain at the contact.

“Ow!” I cried, but Zach acted as if he didn’t even hear me.

An hour later, we were back to an empty house since all the adults were out. I was fuming at the boy that had been carrying me, but Elizabeth only acted like this was all normal. Not to my surprise, Ethan acted as if he was happy that we were no longer in the clothing store.

“I can’t believe you,” I snapped as we all walked into the house. “You got us kicked out of the store!”

“It wasn’t that bad,” Ethan told me, shrugging uncaringly.

“You got us kicked out of a clothing store!” I repeated, slower this time in case he hadn’t understood what I had said. “We’re never going to be allowed back in there!”

“You’re over exaggerating,” Zach now said coolly, walking into the living room with all of us following behind him. “We’ll be able to get back in there sooner or later.”

“They took our pictures and put them up on the wall!” I cried.

Ethan laughed now as both he and Zach plopped down on the couch. “Yeah, we’ll never be able to get back in there.”

“Idiot,” Elizabeth sighed, plopping down on the couch next to her brothers.

“I can’t believe you’re all acting like this is no big deal!” I continued, almost ranting as I sat down as well. “You got us kicked out of one of the most popular clothing stores in town and none of you even care!”

“What did I hear is going on?” a new voice now cried out from upstairs, and Ethan let out a groan. We turned to see Brianna quickly hopping down the stairs, and all I could hope for was that we weren’t going to get into any trouble for this. “The four of you got kicked out of a clothing store?”

I sighed, walking right by her and toward the stairs. “I really don’t want to talk about it.”

I really thought that she was out of the house doing something. I’d have to make sure that there were no adults in the house before I started yelling…

The next day, the school day went by slowly and painfully. I had to avoid every spot where I could have seen Johnny, and it made me really glad that I didn’t have any classes with him. After he and Zach had gotten into a fight the week before, I didn’t think I’d ever be able to face him again.

“Hey, do you need a ride home or are you walking?” Zach asked me as he passed by my locker once the school day was over with.

“Uh, I’m walking with Kate,” I informed him as I shoved a book into my locker. “She told me to meet her after the debate meeting is finished, so I’m just going to wait until it’s over and then hang out with her for a little bit.”

Zach nodded before turning away from me and heading toward the entrance of the school. After he left, I quickly shut my locker and turned down the hall. Kate had told me what class she was supposed to be in, so I quickly made my way to it at the time she had told me to. I really wanted to go home, and I was sure that Kate did as well.

I opened the door and stepped into the classroom, surprised when I saw that there was no one in there, not even Kate. It seemed like no one had been in the classroom since the school day had ended an hour earlier, and it made me wonder if I had somehow walked into the wrong classroom.

When the door behind me shut, I almost let out a shut as I spun around. Much to my surprise, Johnny was standing there before me, in front of the door so I couldn’t get by him.

“Hey,” I swallowed, unsure of what I was supposed to say to him. “I… didn’t expect to see you here. Kate texted me and told her to meet her after her debate team meeting, so…”

“She’s not here,” Johnny informed me, and his tone caught me a little off guard.

I glanced at the door before looking back at my ex-boyfriend. “What?”

“She’s not here,” he repeated.

Something wasn’t right here. Johnny wasn’t acting like he normally did, and it was making me feel a little uneasy. It would probably be the best thing to get out of there right away.

“Well, if she’s not here,” I began nervously, trying to act like I thought nothing was wrong, “then I think I’ll just go home.”

Johnny slid closer to the door as I tried to move closer to it. “I don’t think so.”

This wasn’t good. This wasn’t right. Something was going on, and I did not want to find out. I was seriously getting scared now, and I had absolutely no way of getting out of this situation.

“We need to talk,” was what he said to me, and now this caught me off guard as well. I didn’t know if he wanted to hurt me or if he really did just want to talk. I still didn’t want to find out, but I really had no choice.

“Just to let you know, I asked Kate to send you here so I could talk to you without anyone else around,” he started now, not even giving me time to speak. “And I’m here to talk about you and Zach. It seems like the two of you have been together for a while now. How nice that is for the two of you, huh? Ripping my heart out and--”

“Johnny!” I shouted, turning back around to face him. “I’m sorry, okay? I’ll never be able to say that I’m sorry enough! I know that I hurt you, and I know that Zach hurt you, and it’s something that I won’t ever be able to forgive myself for! But you have to know that things went on between Zach and me before you and I even got together. I never would have done anything with him if we got together sooner!”

Johnny said nothing, but I didn’t blame him. If I was him, I’d have no idea what I’d say to someone like me. I still felt like a completely horrible person.

“I really am sorry,” I whispered quietly, remembering the look on his face when he had seen Zach and me together. “I really am, Johnny.”

He looked away from me now. “I… guess I understand.”

“Do you really?” I couldn’t help but ask, because I had a feeling that that wasn’t the truth at all. “Do you really understand? Don’t lie to me Johnny, please. Don’t try to make me feel better, because I don’t deserve it. I deserve everything you throw at me, so don’t be nice to me. I really don’t deserve it.”

Johnny shook his head. “No, I’m not going to be mean to you. No matter what you say, you don’t deserve it.”

“I’m going to tell you something you really need to know,” I started, knowing that I was going to regret this later. “And I don’t want you to freak out, okay?”

Johnny blinked at me, looking unsure of all of this. “Okay…”

I gulped, gripping my backpack tighter now. “It’s just… Zach and I started playing this game a little while after I moved into his house. It’s a game where… whoever falls in love with the other first loses and has to tell the entire school that we love the other person. I tried to end it when we got together, but Zach wouldn’t let me. He said I would have lost if I stopped, and he would have made my life even more miserable.”

Johnny only stared at me, and I couldn’t tell if he didn’t know what he was supposed to say or if he was just completely disgusted with me. I didn’t blame him for being disgusted with me, because I was pretty disgusted with myself as well. What I had done was horrible and disgusting, and there was no way getting around that.

“So you and Zach were playing a… game,” was all he said at first, and all I could do was nod. There was really nothing else I could do. “And it’s been going on for months?”

I swallowed again. “Yeah.”

“Why didn’t you just tell me?”

This was not something I was expecting him to say to me.

“Are you kidding me?” I nearly cried. “How could I tell you something like that? You would have either not believed me or beat the crap out of Zach like the two of you did the other day! I couldn’t tell you about how I was practically hooking up with your best friend against my will behind your back! It wasn’t that easy!”

“I would have understood!” he now said, but I really didn’t believe him. I definitely wouldn’t have understood if I had been in his situation. “I might have beaten the crap out of Zach, but I wouldn’t have been mad at you.”

I really didn’t believe him. Everything would have been so much better if I just hadn’t gone out with him in the first place. Then he wouldn’t have fallen in love with me and I wouldn’t have been hurting him so much. Everything would have been so much better… but I screwed it all up with my stupid decisions.

“But… there’s a problem now,” I whispered, needing to let it out. “There’s a problem, and I have no idea what I’m supposed to do about it. I want to keep it a secret, but I don’t know how long I’ll be able to keep it inside my head. But I don’t want to tell Zach because then everything will just go downhill…”

Johnny only blinked at me. “What are you talking about?”

“I’m…” I swallowed, not wanting to say it out loud. “I’m in love with Zach.”

Johnny looked even more shocked than I was when I figured it out myself, and it made me feel horrible. This boy was in love with me, and I was telling him that I was in love with his best friend.

“You’re… in love with him,” he nodded, and it was obvious that he didn’t know what he was supposed to say anymore. “Well, then. That wasn’t something I was expecting to hear from you, honestly… So this is the reason you don’t love me back, right?”

“I… I guess,” I stumbled, not even sure of it myself. “When you told me that you loved me, I didn’t know that I loved Zach yet. I’m not even sure now how long I’ve had feelings for him. It’s just, I realized that I’ve always had this different feeling with Zach that I’ve never felt with anyone else before. It’s really weird.”

Johnny looked away from me. “Yeah, I guess it is.”

“Look, Johnny,” I sighed now. “I don’t want you and Zach to stop being friends because of me, and I don’t want you out of my life. I still want you with me, but just… as a friend.”

“As a friend,” Johnny nodded, stuffing his hands into his pockets. “I can do that.”

And I smiled at him, because I knew I could, too.

When my phone started ringing, I quickly dug it out of my pocket to see that it was Zach that was calling me. I glanced up at Johnny, and then at the door, and quickly said goodbye to him before scurrying out of the classroom and picking up the phone.

“Uh, hi?” I greeted, not knowing what else I was supposed to say.

“Where are you?” was the first thing he asked me, not even greeting me back in any kind of way. The tone in his voice surprised me, and I didn’t know what to make of it for a moment.

“What?” I asked back to him, still surprised by how he was acting.

I heard him let out an impatient sigh. “Where are you?”

I couldn’t help but furrow my eyebrows in confusion as I hurried toward the entrance of the school to make my way home. “Um… I’m at school.”

“With?”

“Does it matter?” I couldn’t help but snap at him, since I didn’t know how he’d respond to me being with Johnny. Both of them weren’t exactly happy with one another at that moment, even though Zach had no reason to be upset with him.

“Yes,” Zach snapped. “It does matter.”

“Why are you so worried about me?” I demanded, since I really didn’t think there was a reason for him to care so much. “Why do you care who I’m with?”

“Your house was set on fire, Maxynn,” he reminded me now, and it almost stopped me dead in my tracks. “Your house was set on fire and you don’t even know who did it. Kate came over asking if you were back from school yet, and when I told her you weren’t, she just scampered off and didn’t give me any answers. Now where are you?”

I let out a frustrated sigh. “I’m walking home now, okay? And I was just talking with Johnny. Honestly.”

I could tell Zach wasn’t happy with that, but it was better than being with someone who set my house on fire. I honestly thought that Zach was being too overprotective, but it did make me feel kind of happy that he was worried about me. It just showed that he really did care about me under all the teasing.

“Stop right where you’re walking,” Zach now ordered, and for some reason I did as I was told. “I’m coming to get you right now.”

Of course he was. I should have been expecting this from him when I told him that I was walking home alone. Well… at least it showed that he cared about me. That was all that really mattered to me.

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Excuse me if this chapter sucks. I had a really, really bad day today and I'm sick. I just needed this chapter ot be finished because it's already late...

But oh, my gosh. I don't know if any of you guys watch Pretty Little Liars, but the summer finale was on last night and it left me completely breathless. I can't wait until it comes back... I literally walked around school yesterday with -A written on my hand. ;)

For those of you waiting on Off to Neverland, that story is definitely going to be updated next. It's so close to being finished, but I just haven't had the time to write it... :/

This is for the 2012 Watty Awards! Please COMMENT, VOTE, and SHARE! And vote for Ethan in the Funniest Character category soon! :)