“I’m going to puke,” Ethan sung under his breath when Zach laced his fingers with mine. The older Deveraux brother and I glared at him, but he merely stuck his tongue out at us before going back to twiddling his thumbs.

I rested my head on Zach’s shoulder now, wanting nothing more than the baby to finally be here so I could see it and then go home. It had been hours, and yet we didn’t have any news about the baby just yet. I didn’t want to worry, but I really hoped that everything was going well for Kate. I didn’t know what I’d do if something happened to her.

“Did I miss it? Did I miss it?” we heard a new voice nearly shout as we continued to sit in the waiting room. “Did she have the baby already?”

I looked over to see that this familiar voice belonged to Aveline, and I nearly sunk right out of my seat. She had no reason to be there at all. Aveline and Kate might have not hated each other like we did, but I never thought of the two of them as great friends. She had to have been here just because Zach was.

“Is she okay?” Aveline asked now as she sat on the other side of Zach, right next to him. She was almost closer to him than I was. “I was texting Johnny and he told me that Kate went into labor! I definitely wanted to be here for the birth!”

I shot a glare at Johnny, who shrugged apologetically, as if he had no choice but to tell her where we were and what was going on. I guess I didn’t really blame him, since I was sure she wouldn’t have stopped bugging him until she told him the truth.

“I don’t remember you and Kate being such great friends,” I couldn’t help but snap at her now, my arms crossed tightly over my chest as I leaned back away from Zach, which only made Aveline lean into him even more. He didn’t even tell her to back off, even when his damn fiancée was right next to him. I tried not to make it obvious, but I was seriously getting ticked off at him never telling Aveline to stop touching him.

Zach noticed that I had moved away from him, but I wasn’t even looking at him anymore.

“Yeah, we go way back,” Aveline sneered at me now, but I wasn’t even listening to her anymore because her arms were now wrapping around Zach’s.

Johnny, Ethan, and Todd were looking at me as if they were waiting for me to snap and attack Aveline, but I wasn’t going to do that. I wasn’t going to be the violent this time; I had already broken her nose and once was enough. I’d probably get arrested if I punched her again.

I sighed, standing up from my seat and brushing my pants off before turning toward the exit of the waiting room. “I need to go to the restroom. I’ll be right back.”

This was absolutely ridiculous. Zach and I were supposed to get married and yet he wouldn’t even tell another girl to get off him. It was even worse since he knew I couldn’t stand the girl that was all over him.

I had accepted the fact that girls would be all over him, because just because he was in a committed relationship didn’t mean his looks were going to just disappear, but I thought Zach would have the decency to push them off, especially when he was in front of me. Was it really that hard for him?

I found myself in front of the room filled with the sleeping babies again, and I didn’t know why I kept going back to it. They just seemed so peaceful and calm, which was the exact opposite of what my life was right now. Someone was out to kill me, that person could have been the girl after my fiancé, and my best friend was having a baby. Things definitely could have been better.

“Is there a reason why you keep going back to the babies?” a new voice now asked from behind me, and I jumped in surprise before turning around to see that it was Zach, even though I didn’t even have to turn around to know this.

“I don’t want to talk to you right now.” And I meant it. I didn’t want to talk to him, and I wanted him to know that I was mad at him. He needed to know that I wasn’t okay with him letting girls just hang all over him like they always did. If we were going to be in a relationship with each other, he was going to have to let other girls know that.

Zach looked down at me, and I couldn’t read the look on his ace. He didn’t look confused, but he probably was. He had never been that great with reading me, so I was sure he probably had no idea why I was so upset.

“When I said I didn’t want to talk to you right now,” I repeated once Zach didn’t turn to walk back toward the waiting room, “I meant that I wanted you to go away.”

“What’s wrong?” he asked me now, his eyebrows furrowing as he took a step toward me. “Do you really think I’m just going to walk away from the girl I love when she’s obviously upset?”

“Oh, so you noticed?” I couldn’t help but quip, leaning against the wall now as I crossed my arms over my chest. “That’s nice.”

Zach said nothing, and all we did was stare at each other. I really couldn’t think of anything to say to him, and it seemed like he didn’t know what to say either. I knew that if I kept acting this way, we’d actually start a real fight. Zach and I hadn’t ever gotten into a real fight before. Not like this.

“If you don’t tell me what’s wrong, how am I supposed to know?” He shook his head and let out a sigh.

“Because it should be obvious!” I shouted at him now, and this caused me to be glared at by a nurse, though I could have cared less about what she thought. “It’s obvious, Zach! I don’t like it when Aveline hangs all over you and you do nothing about it! How would you feel if I went back into the waiting room and just clung myself onto Johnny or Todd, huh? Would you like that?”

I didn’t even know what I was saying anymore. I just wanted Aveline to leave him alone and be out of our lives forever. I could only wish that graduation would come sooner so Aveline would go off to whatever college she was going to so she’d finally leave Zach and me alone to get married.

Zach seemed like he had no idea what he was supposed to say, but I wasn’t surprised. He might have been smooth around girls he barely knew, but smooth was the last thing he was around me. Around me, he was awkward and pretty much clueless.

“I’m sorry,” Zach apologized, and it wasn’t something I was expecting from him so soon. I knew he’d apologize to me sooner or later, but not this soon. “I should have known that that was what was bothering you. It’s just… Aveline’s been my friend for a long time and I don’t want to hurt her feelings. I’m a horrible boyfriend, aren’t I? No, I’m a horrible fiancé. It’s just… I’m not used to these kinds of things. I’ve never been in a relationship with anyone but you. I’m really sorry, Maxynn.”

“I…” was all I was able to say, and I wanted to hit him for this. He was making me feel bad for him, and it really wasn’t fair. I was supposed to be mad at him, but of course he made it so hard for me to. Without even thinking of what I was saying anymore, I ordered, “Marry me.”

Zach looked at me as if I was insane. “What?”

“Marry me,” I repeated now. “I want to marry you right now, or at least as soon as possible. I don’t want to wait until after we graduate; I want to get married right now. I don’t want to wait anymore. I just want to get married.”

Zach only stared at me, and I was now breathing heavily because even I didn’t know what I was saying. Even though Zach and I hadn’t had a set date for our wedding, we were sure it was going to be after graduation. But now, I just couldn’t wait anymore. I wanted to be his wife more than anything.

“Okay,” he nodded. “We’ll talk to our parents about it once Kate has the baby and we go home.”

I liked the sound of that. I was the one to nod now, taking a step forward and placing my head on his chest, where it belonged. I didn’t want to be mad at him, even though he really deserved it sometimes…

“Hey!” a new voice now said, and we turned to see the younger Deveraux brother glaring up at us as he got our attention. “I’m sure the two of you would like to know that Kate’s had her baby and she’d like to see all of us.”

Without even saying a word to him, I took off right by him and toward the direction of Kate’s hospital room. I could see Todd, Johnny, and Aveline all up ahead in front of me in the hallway, and I picked up my speed to catch up with them. I could hear both Zach and Ethan almost struggling to catch up with me. I didn’t remember ever being that fast.

“It’s a girl,” Todd smiled at me once Zach and I finally caught up to them as we continued on our way to Kate’s hospital room. I wanted to squeal in excitement, but stopped myself before I could. “Kate wants to see all of us now, so we should hurry before she falls asleep.”

I nodded in agreement, and we all continued to hurry toward my best friend’s hospital room. I was the first to get there, and I pushed the door open and let out a squeal when I saw the pink bundle in Logan’s arms.

“Why did I know that you’d be the first one in here?” Logan asked me with a wide grin.

I shrugged, my eyes glued to the little girl in his arms. They had had a girl. A cute, little baby girl.

“You had a girl?” Aveline nearly squealed, and I wanted to push her out the window. “Are you going to name her Aveline?”

Okay, now I wanted to push her out the window.

I seemed to be the only one angry with what Aveline had said, since everyone else in the room laughed before Kate giggled, “No, Aveline, we didn’t.”

“We’d like to introduce you to Allison Elizabeth Kale,” Logan grinned as he held the tiny baby girl up in his arms to show off to his friends. “She has my last name, since Kate’s going to as well once we get married.”

I saw the redhead’s cheeks turn just as red as her hair as she continued to lie in her hospital bed, and I smirked at her when she looked over in my direction.

“Well, we’re going to have to wait until after Maxynn and Zach get married,” Kate blurted out quickly, obviously no longer wanting this kind of attention on her anymore. “Let’s not make any plans until the two of them get hitched.”

Zach and I glanced at each other, and right then would have been the perfect time for us to tell them that we were planning on getting married a lot sooner than we had originally thought we would. But I didn’t want to take Kate’s moment away from her, so I stayed quiet and so did Zach.

“Oh, yeah,” Aveline scowled, and I knew that she had remembered something. “I forgot that you two were going to get married. You’re not wearing that gigantic fake rock on your finger, so I completely forgot.”

I looked down at my ring finger, almost screaming when I saw that my mother’s ring was no longer there. I looked at Zach, whose eyes were also wide, and I thought I was going to faint. I had lost my mother’s ring. I was no longer wearing my mother’s ring and I had absolutely no idea where it was.

Ethan kicked a chair out for me to collapse in, and Zach was immediately crouching down at my side as I continued to stare down at my fingers. I tried to remember the last time I had it, which was when Steve had pointed it out before we started baking the cake. Had I taken it off so it wouldn’t have gotten dirty? I couldn’t even remember!

“Maxynn, calm down,” Zach tried to sooth, but it didn’t help me out very much at all. I wanted to scream and cry, but I tried my hardest not to take this moment away from Kate and Logan. They had just had their daughter, and I didn’t want to take this time away from them.

I breathed in and out, and it only made me feel a little bit better about this whole situation. It was great that Kate finally had the baby, but my mother’s ring was missing. I didn’t know if I had taken it off at home or if it had fallen off at the hospital. It was a big ring, so it wasn’t hard to miss, but it was definitely something that was worth a lot of money.

I had to find it. If it was just a normal old ring, I’d still be upset about it, but not as much as I was now. I wanted to find the ring and then superglue it to my finger so it would never have the possibility of a falling off ever again.

“My ring is not fake,” I had to spit at Aveline before I could say anything else, even though the ring was no longer on my finger. “It’s real, and it was my mother’s. So shut the hell up for once, Aveline.”

She had been getting on my nerves more than ever, and I knew that she was doing it on purpose because I had taken Zach from her. I wanted so much to tell her that she never really had him in the first place.

I seemed to have been so harsh that she wasn’t even able to say anything back to me, but this was a good thing. I was tired of her bitching and I just couldn’t listen to her voice anymore. If she kept it up, I’d definitely be pushing her out the window.

When Zach’s phone started ringing, I almost jumped because I wasn’t expecting to hear it. I was so focused on pushing Aveline out of the building and my mother’s missing ring that almost all other sound was drowned out.

He left the room before answering, and I now mentally slapped myself a few times before looking up at little baby Allison. She was so tiny and small, but so adorable as well. I could already see that she was going to grow up to be such a cute girl.

Kate’s bright red hair was slicked back with sweat, and I couldn’t remember a time I had ever seen her like this. We had had gym together before, but she had never tried hard enough to sweat, especially not this much. She was the kind of girl that would be embarrassed over sweating in front of someone else, but right then she didn’t even care. She was almost proud of it, because that was what she needed to do to have her baby.

I had always known that Kate would be the first out of all of us to have a baby, even though I didn’t think that it was going to be this soon. Either way, I was happy for her and I was glad that she and Logan were happy. Usually having a baby ruined teenage relationships, bit I could tell that Allison was just going to make Kate and Logan even stronger.

“Here, Maxynn,” Kate smiled, Allison in her arms as she offered her over to me. “I want you to hold her.”

I only stared at Kate for a moment, as if to ask her if she was insane. It wasn’t like I couldn’t hold a baby, but it seemed like she didn’t even remember that my baby doll had exploded only a few days before. Even though that hadn’t been my fault, and it was obviously an attack on my life, I still wouldn’t have felt comfortable with giving my baby to someone like me.

But I held her anyways, because I honestly really wanted to. She was so small in my arms, even smaller than she looked like, and I was surprised when her eyes flickered open for only a few seconds before shutting once again.

And I from that moment on, I was going to spoil the hell out of that little girl.

Yes, Aunt Maxynn was going to be one of those aunts.

And I honestly couldn’t wait.

When the door to the hospital room burst open, I turned toward it but didn’t jump in fear that I might harm Allison. I was surprised, along with everyone else, to see that it was Zach who had barged in, a look of panic on his face.

This was not going to be good.

“Maxynn!” Zach cried out, and I thought I felt all the hairs on the back of my neck stick up. “The house is on fire!”

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So... I'm going to Disneyland next week. I really hope that doesn't screw this story up and make it so I can't finish it in time for the Watty Awards... >.>

This is for the 2012 Watty Awards! Please COMMENT, VOTE, and SHARE! Don't forget to NOMINATE Ethan as Funniest Character! <3