There was only one fire truck once we got back to the house, and I was surprised and also relieved. It meant that the fire was either not that big, or it had already been set out. I was sure hoping for the latter.

We sprinted onto the front lawn where Brianna was standing, talking to a fireman. When she saw her two sons and me, she immediately threw her arms around us and hugged us tightly.

“I’m so glad you three are okay!” Brianna cried, and I felt bad for worrying her. “When Elizabeth called me and told me there was a fire, I thought you three could have been inside! I was so relieved when I found out you three were in the hospital for Kate and her baby!”

I was glad that we were, too. I didn’t know how bad the damage was inside, but at least I knew it wasn’t as bad as my house had been. There was absolutely no damage to the outside of Zach’s house, which was definitely good.

“It was only a quarter of the kitchen,” Brianna sighed, still trying to catch her breath. “Elizabeth was luckily able to get home and call for help before it got out of control. I don’t know what caused the fire just yet, since they’re in there investigating that now.”

My blood ran cold when I saw Officer Lopez and Officer Black make their way out of the house, and I was scared of what they were going to say once they saw me. This was the second time a place I was staying in had caught fire…

“Maxynn,” Officer Black greeted, pronouncing my name like Maxine, just like he always did. “I’m afraid we’re going to have to take you in for some questioning.”

“Excuse me?” I blinked now, not believing that this was actually happening. “And why would you have to do something like that?”

“The fire was caused by the oven being left on,” Officer Black informed me now, and I felt my stomach drop. “We were told that you and your boyfriend here had been baking before you left for the hospital. Since you’ve been a suspect in another fire before, we need you to come with us.”

“No,” both Zach and Brianna spat at the same time, and it seemed to surprise Officer Black more than it surprised me.

Brianna smiled sweetly at the officers, but she could kill someone with that look, and she placed a hand on my shoulder as she said, “You boys won’t be taking Maxynn anywhere. Sorry, Samson, but you’re not going to touch my daughter.”

As much as I found it creepy that she knew Officer Black’s first name, all I could think about right then was how she called me her daughter. Not her daughter-in-law or her son’s fiancée, but her daughter.

And I already felt like a Deveraux.

“I’m sorry, Brianna, but it has to be done,” Officer Black now informed her as he narrowed his eyes. “This girl has been a suspect of a murder before. We don’t know what she’s capable of doing.”

“If I’m a crazy, psychotic murderer, why would I set a house on fire when I knew that no one was inside?” I couldn’t help but snap at him, very pissed that he thought I’d do this to the house of people that had let my father and me in when we had nowhere else to go. 

Both officers had nothing to say to this, and I knew I had got them. If I wanted to kill someone by setting the house on fire, I would have done it when people were actually inside.

“Well, since you have nothing that you’re doing right now, we’re still going to take you in for questioning,” Officer Black snapped now as he took a step toward me and moved his hand to his back pockets for his handcuffs.

Oh, hell no.

“Ethan, don’t you have hockey practice today?” Brianna suddenly asked her younger son, who nodded at his mother as if she was crazy. “Great! Maxynn, why don’t you take him there and keep an eye on him for a little while? I’m sure you’ve got nothing better to do.”

I couldn’t help but smile at the officers as I said, “Why, you couldn’t be more right.”

And I nearly grabbed Ethan by the collar of his shirt and dragged him toward my car. I was not going to go back to the station for questioning.

Ethan and I said nothing to each other all the way to the ice rink, but it wasn’t like I was expecting him to talk to me. Once we got inside, he left my side immediately to go get dressed so he could practice.

I saw down in the bleachers and watched as the boys practiced. Riley was here, but Johnny and Sadie weren’t. The last time I had been here, I was with Johnny and he had said that maybe I would be the one to marry Zach. And here I was now, months later, and that had actually been true.

My eyes widened when I saw four boys crash right into each other, only one of them shouting out in pain and falling onto the ice. I couldn’t tell which one was Ethan, so I didn’t know if the boy who was clutching his ankle on the ice was him or not.

Much to my surprise, when he took his helmet off, it was in fact Ethan. His coach immediately got down onto his knees to inspect his ankle, and I was too far away to hear what he was saying. The coach then ordered two of the boys on the team to help Ethan off the ice and over toward me.

The rest of the boys had begun playing again as Ethan plopped down next to me unhappily. At first, I said nothing, since there was really nothing I could say, but I knew that something other than hockey was also bothering him. I was afraid that he’d snap or yell at me if I asked him, but I also felt like whatever he was holding in was hurting him, and it would have been better if he let it out.

Since when did eleven-year-old boys get so complicated?

“Um,” was all I said at first, so quiet that I barely heard myself. Why was I so scared of a little kid? He might have been a boy, but I was still seven years older than him. It wasn’t like he could hit me or anything. At least I didn’t think he could.

“What do you want?” he snapped at me now, and I knew that he was going to be angry. “I’m really not in the mood to talk to you of all people right now.”

Now this really ticked me off. Why was I such a bad person, and why did he hate me so much? He was just a little kid, and I hadn’t even met him before I moved into his house. He had been so nasty to me ever since then, and I just wanted to know why.

But instead of snapping back at him, I asked, “Are you okay?”

“Do I look okay?” he spat now, rubbing his swollen ankle with his small hands. His coach said that it wasn’t broken or sprained, only bruised, but I couldn’t help but feel bad for him. It really looked like it hurt. “I don’t want to talk to you right now so just leave me alone.”

But I couldn’t do that. Not anymore.

“Tell me what’s wrong,” I ordered now, and this seemed to catch him off guard because he was now staring at me with wide eyes. “Why don’t you just tell me what your problem is? Everyone else might have not been able to notice that something’s wrong with you, but I sure did. And it’s been bothering me, Ethan. You might not like me, but I sure as hell like you. I’m marrying your brother, and I’ve been living with you for months. I never grew up with siblings, so you’re like a brother to me.”

I was out of breath by the end of this, and Ethan continued only to stare at me. I wanted to shake him and demand a response, but I knew that that would do no good.

“So what’s wrong?” I asked again now. “What’s your problem?”

His wide eyes quickly turned into a harsh glare, and it wasn’t something I was expecting. I thought that I had actually gotten somewhere with him, but I guessed that I was wrong. We were back to square one.

“My problem,” he began, and I was surprised that he was actually telling me this, “is you.”

What a vague answer. That was rare for Ethan, who was practically a boy genius. I had a feeling that what was bothering him would have something to do with me, but I needed more than just a simple answer.

“Yeah, okay,” I nodded, not wanting him to know that his answer did kind of hurt my feelings just a little bit. “I kind of thought that that was your problem. Do you want to go into a little more detail of why I’m your problem?”

“I hate you,” was all he said, and he might have as well kicked me right in the stomach. The air in my lungs disappeared for a few seconds, but I had to act as if nothing was wrong. I had to act normal.

I had complained so many times that this boy would have been the death of me, and for all I knew, that could have been true.

“Who do you hate me so much?” I had to ask, scooting closer, but he scooted away, looking just as angry and irritable as ever. “You have to give me a reason. You can’t just say you hate me and then not tell me why.”

I could tell that he bit the inside of his lip, and I felt kind of bad for the little guy. I obviously did something to make him upset, and he was only eleven years old. I was eighteen. That fight wasn’t fair.

“Before you came along, Zach hung out with me all the time,” he muttered darkly now, and I knew he was finally going to tell me what I had wanted to know for weeks now. “He was my best friend and I was his. He’d always hang out with me and take me places, and we’d just spend time together. But that all changed when you moved here.”

I wanted to ask how I could have possibly changed anything by just moving here, but I didn’t dare say a word. I knew it was probably best if I said nothing at all.

“Before you came along, Zach was able to get any girl he wanted without even trying,” Ethan continued now. “He didn’t even have to think about it. He’d hook up with them, forget about them, and then hang out with me and not even think about those girls anymore. But then you came, and you were the first girl that ever denied him. I swear, it was like he became obsessed with you and you were all he could think about. All he ever thought about was how he was going to win you over. Whenever I asked him to hang out with me, he told me he was busy. He was busy with thinking how he was going to win you over. You might have already figured this out, but he was obviously in love with you a hell of a lot longer before you fell in love with him.”

I swallowed, not expecting to hear all this from Zach’s younger brother. “Ethan…”

“But I thought it wouldn’t last for a long,” Ethan continued now, as if I hadn’t even said anything at all. “I thought that you’d give in and he’d just forget about you, just like all those other girls. I thought he’d give up on you and not care about you. But I was wrong, because then you moved into our house.”

I awkwardly stared at my feet, and I couldn’t help but feel like the little kid in this situation. The way he was talking, and the energy he was giving out, just gave me chills. This wasn’t like the normal Ethan. This had really been bothering him for a long time.

“You moved in, and Zach moved even farther away from me. All he ever talked about was you. All he ever thought about was you. You were right across the hallway from him, and it was driving him crazy. In return, it was driving me crazy as well. Just because you’re a beautiful girl doesn’t mean he has to drop everything else in the world for you.”

“Beautiful?” I couldn’t help but ask. Ethan had never even called me pretty before; he’d always say that I was ugly. But now, he was calling me beautiful. And for some reason, it meant a lot coming from him.

“Yeah, beautiful, whatever,” he brushed it off, as if it meant nothing. “But just because you’re good looking doesn’t mean I hate you any less. You took my best friend and brother away from me. I thought that after you moved in and you two started fooling around, your relationship would go nowhere and I’d get my brother back once you were gone. But no, I was wrong, because now you’re getting married. You took my brother away from me. You took my best friend.”

I thought that he was going to cry, but his eyes were completely dry, just like they always were. I knew that there was no way Ethan would ever let himself cry in front of me.

“Ethan,” I gulped, trying my best to get rid of the lump in my throat. “Just because I’m marrying your brother doesn’t mean you’ve lost him.”

“Yes, it does!” he shouted at me now. “You took him away from me! It’s all your fault that we barely even talk now!”

This boy was hurting so much. He had been bottling it in for so long, and now it was finally able to come out, and I knew it felt good for him. This was what he needed; to vent. He needed someone to yell at, and I just happened to be the person he wanted to yell at the most.

“If it wasn’t for you, I’d still have my brother!” he continued to shout now. “If it wasn’t for you, he wouldn’t be a brainwashed monkey that follows you around like you hung the freaking moon! He was never like that before meeting you! He didn’t care about any girl before you came around! They were just toys to him! So why are you different? What’s so special about you? There’s nothing different from the rest of them!”

I stared long and hard at the boy who sat before me. What could I possibly say to him to make him feel better? I didn’t know why Zach fell in love with me out of all the girls he had been with. Maybe it was because I didn’t say yes to him right away. Maybe it was because I lived in his house for so long and it made him feel closer to me. Maybe it was even because he had to save me so many times. I didn’t even know the answer to his question.

“I don’t know, Ethan,” I spoke my thoughts, wanting to calm him down before he started crying. “I don’t know why Zach chose me. But you knew that this was going to happen someday, didn’t you? You knew Zach was going to fall in love someday and get married. It’s just… happening a lot sooner than you thought.”

Ethan was so much younger than us that he probably hadn’t seen it coming. Even under his genius IQ and his witty remarks, he was still just a little kid who loved and admired his big brother more than anyone in the entire world.

“Ethan, you still have your brother,” I voiced out, swallowing when I heard my voice crack. “Just because I’m marrying him doesn’t mean that he’d gone from your life forever. If you just talk to him, I’m sure he’d understand how you feel. I know Zach loves you, Ethan.”

Ethan scowled. “He doesn’t love me.”

“Yes, he does,” I pressed on now. “He loves you because you’re his brother and that’s what brothers do. Even through all your bickering, I’ve always been able to tell that you two love and care about each other. Even I love you, Ethan, because you’re like a brother to me. Even after all the nasty and rude things you said to me, I still love you.”

This surprised him, but I was expecting as much. Even I didn’t think that I would say something like this to him.

“So go home and talk to your brother,” I continued now. “I’m sure both of you will feel better about everything if you do. Because I might be marrying him, but you two share the same blood. You’re brothers. I don’t have any siblings, so I don’t have the type of bond that you two have. You can’t just forget about all the times you two had together because a stupid girl got in between you for a little while. So just… when we get home, talk to him. I’m sure it’ll make you feel a lot better about everything that’s been going on.”

Ethan said nothing to this at first, and I wasn’t expecting him to even acknowledge what I had said. But when he faintly, almost silently, whispered a quiet, “Thank you,” I knew that everything between us had changed for the better.

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Aww. I just love Ethan. He's so cute.

This chapter only took me an hour to write. Yay!

I'm going to Disneyland in less than a week! I'm going to try to upload two chapters before I go!

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