“I’ve been scarred for life,” Ethan groaned once Johnny, Riley, and Sadie had driven away. “I think I need to go burn my eyes now.”

I rolled my eyes at him, patting him on the head before walking right by him and into the house. I was so elated that I wasn't even going to act bothered by what he was saying.

“I must say, I saw that coming,” Zach sighed, both him and Ethan following me inside. “Those two have made googly eyes at each other all year.”

I turned to scowl at the older Deveraux brother. “That is not true!”

He only smirked at me. “Whatever you say, babe.”

Ethan looked at his brother and then at me in disgust. “Don't tell me you two are hooking up, too!”

“You shouldn't know what that means!” I nearly shouted now. “You're ten-years-old!”

The younger boy stuck his tongue out at me. “I'll be turning eleven in a couple of months.”

“That doesn't make a difference!”

“I still don't understand why Johnny would want to kiss Maxynn,” Ethan said now, going back to our original subject while I just stood there and glared at him. “He's good looking and Maxynn just... isn't.”

“Is there something you want to tell me, bro?” Zach asked now with a wide grin. “You're not gay, are you?”

For the first time... well, ever, Ethan Deveraux actually blushed. It was almost remarkable how much he looked like a little version of Zach.

“I... I am not gay!”

“Zach! You shouldn't say things like that to a little kid!”

Zach looked over at me and shrugged. “Hey, I wouldn't be surprised. He's never liked any girls before. Ever. He's always just been really into school.”

“That's still a really mean thing to say to your little brother!” I snapped now, not knowing that Zach could ever be that cruel to his family. “Even though he doesn't act like it, he's just a child! He's a little kid, Zach!”

“I'm pretty sure he has better grades than you.”

I nearly fell over. “What is wrong with you?”

“What? I'm just speaking my mind,” Zach defended, as if that would let him get away with saying whatever the hell he wanted to. “If Ethan's gay, I just wouldn't think it would be that surprising, that's all.”

I looked over at the younger Deveraux brother to see his head down, his hair covering his face. I swallowed, or sure if I should talk to him or not.

“You're really horrible to everyone,” I scoffed to his older brother instead as I crossed my arms over my chest. I was sure glad that no one else was home, because I was sure it was embarrassing enough for Ethan with just me being there. “Just when I thought that you could actually be nice, you ruin it.”

“Hey, I said I'd be your knight in shining armor sometimes,” Zach snapped at me. “I didn't say I would be everyone's knight all the time.”

“She's right...” Ethan muttered just as I heard the front door unlock. Oh, crap! “She's right about everything! You don't care about anyone but yourself! I hate you!”

Just as Ethan yelled this, Elizabeth made her way inside with wide eyes. Ethan hurried up the stairs, away from all of us, and I couldn't help but feel bad for him. After all the obnoxious things he had said about me and to me, he was still just a little kid.

“What happened?” Elizabeth asked, placing her purse and keys on the counter as she looked at both Zach and me.

“Maxynn was the one that made him cry, not me,” Zach lied uncaringly, shoving his hands into his pockets before turning away and making his way up the stairs himself.

“Hey, you liar!” I shouted, not believing what he had just said. “You get back here right now and tell her the truth.”

“You don't need to worry, Maxynn,” Elizabeth sighed after we both heard Zach's door shut. “I know that it was Zach who caused it. Things have been a little rocky between the two of them lately, which I really don't understand because they used to be so close.”

“I guess… people just drift apart,” I sighed, not knowing what I was supposed to say about the two of them. “Maybe it’s the age difference or something.”

Elizabeth shrugged. “Maybe. Eight years is a long time.”

And Elizabeth was even older than Zach, which made me wonder what kind of relationship she had with her brothers. It was times like these that I was really glad that I was an only child, no matter how lonely it got when I was a kid.

I hurried my way up the stairs, not turning toward my bedroom, but Zach’s instead once I got down the hall. If he thought that I was just going to let him act like a total jackass, he was mistaken.

“Why, hello,” he greeted, and I couldn’t help but narrow my eyes at him. “What did I do to earn a lovely visit from my dearest Maxynn?”

“Stop being a smartass for once, will you?”

“But it’s so much fun!”

I suddenly grabbed onto his shirt, pushing him against the wall as hard as I could, even though I knew that no matter what I did, I wasn’t going to hurt him. He was way too strong and big and I was way too small and little.

“I don’t seem to be the one you want to be pinning against the wall, Maxxy,” Zach smiled sweetly now, and it made me want to smack him in the face. “What, do you want me to put on a blonde wig and let you call me Johnny?”

“Why do you always have to make fun of me? Especially about Johnny!” I shouted, my grip on his shirt tightening even more. I really hoped I would stretch it out and ruin it for him; at least that was something I could do.

“Maybe I don't like you doing anything with my friends,” he snapped at me, his change in tone now surprising me greatly.

“Well, there's nothing you can do about it,” I nearly seethed. “We're not really dating. We said we could do things with other people.”

“And yet you said I couldn't do anything with your best friend.”

“That's different,” I snapped. “You don't really like Kate. She's just another pawn to you. I really like Johnny and I'm not going to just use him.”

“Who ever said I didn't actually like Kate?” he asked me now.

This caused me to let go of his shirt and take a step back, not knowing how I was supposed to react to that.

“Are you being serious?”

“Nah, of course I'm not,” he snorted, and I really felt like bashing him against the wall again. “It's like what you said. She's just like every other girl to me. Pawns, puppets, pieces for me to enjoy however I like. You're smart, Maxynn. You're the only person that has ever really figured me out."

Without even realizing what I was doing, my hand was suddenly striking across his face. How could he talk about girls like that as if I wasn't one? We might not have been dating, but we were still in the middle of that stupid game of ours, which I didn't think I was ever going to win. Could this guy ever really live anyone but himself?

“Wow, I didn’t know you had that in you…” he told me, his hand on his cheek as he sunk down on his bed. “I must say that I’m surprised.”

“Cut the crap, Zach,” I snapped, placing my hands on his hips as I glared down at him as he continued to lay on his bed. “Did you really think that I was going to let you off when you said those things to your brother?”

“Ah, he knows I was joking around,” the lazy boy drawled, turning in his bed so his back was now facing me. How the hell could any girl find this attractive? Sure, his face was nice, but everything else about him just… wasn’t!

“Zach,” I growled now, grabbing onto his shoulder to turn him back toward me. But instead of doing that, he grabbed onto my wrist and pulled me down on top of him.

“What a comfortable position,” he grinned, and I bit the inside of my lip to stop myself from agreeing with him.

“Let go of me, Zach,” I muttered in embarrassment, trying my best to pull away from him but failing. Suddenly he turned the two of us around so that he was now on top and I was now underneath him.

“But this is much more comfortable…”

When his lips crashed down on mine, I didn’t know how to respond at first. When I didn’t respond, he pinched me in the side, causing me to gasp. Taking my open mouth to his advantage, he slipped his tongue in like it belonged there or something.

Knowing that there was nothing I could do to stop him, I ended up kissing him back. He was a good kisser, and the game gave me an excuse to kiss him back. So I did, because it wasn’t like it was a horrible experience or something…

Just when I thought I was going to pass out from lack of oxygen, Zach finally pulled away from me. It wasn’t very surprising that he wasn’t breathing heavily at all.

“Was that better than Johnny?”

I was way too out of breath to answer him. I pushed him off of me, sitting up now and brushing myself off. I didn’t know if I wasn’t answering him because of the answer to that question or if I was too embarrassed to talk to him about anything after that.

“Good night,” I finally mumbled to him without answering, jumping up from his bed and hurrying toward the door.

“You taste very good.”

“You’re disgusting.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, just go back to watching your little Disney movies,” Zach waved away, and I stared at him in almost complete horror. “I swear, you make me feel like a pedophile when I’m kissing you because you still watch things made for little kids.”

“I… I don’t… How do you know?”

But there was no point in denying it. I probably acted more childish than Ethan, with him acting like he was even older than Zach…

Zach smirked. “You fell asleep with your TV on last night. Beauty and the Beast was playing.”

My cheeks were flaming, and I would have stormed right out of his room if I wasn’t paralyzed with embarrassment. Other than the scars on my arm, liking Disney things were my biggest secret. Singing them was an even bigger secret… and yet I had told Zach that easily when he had picked me up because he was making fun of me for singing emo music…

“I don’t only watch Disney movies,” I defended, knowing I was going to lose this fight.

“Yeah, I know,” Zach shrugged, and I was surprised that he was agreeing with me so easily. Usually he just added fuel to the fire. “You just watch cartoons. I’ve seen the movie collection under your bed.”

“Stop going through my room!”

“You’re supposed to be eighteen, not eight,” Zach reminded me, as if that wasn’t completely obvious.

“I’m seventeen,” I nearly growled.

Zach mocked looking terrified. “Oh, no! That means I’ve been making moves on a minor! I could go to jail!”

I turned away from him finally, not in the mood to deal with his idiocy any longer. I really did wish he’d go to jail for hitting on a minor, but it wasn’t like he was super old or anything. He was only eighteen himself.

Now I knew I was going to have to hide things really well in my room, since Zach had obviously been going through my things. In all honesty, I wasn’t surprised that he had done that. I actually should have been expecting it.

I slammed my door behind me so Zach would know I wasn’t happy with him, and I could have sworn that I heard him laugh from his room. I then looked over at the mirror on my wall, making my way over to it and examining myself.

I had just gotten kissed by two different boys. I fingered my lips, thinking how I got two different feelings from both of them. Johnny’s kiss was sweet and gentle while Zach’s was rough and hard. There were feelings behind Johnny’s kiss but there weren’t any behind Zach’s.

And, of course, the one closest to my boyfriend at that moment was Zach. But hopefully soon I would be able to change that.

~*~

“So,” Aveline started as I tried to focus on our project, and I could already tell that it was something I didn't want to hear, “I heard that you and Johnny were lip-locking yesterday.”

My eyes widened at her. “What? Where did you hear that?”

“From Zach, of course,” she shrugged as if it was no big deal. “Everyone's been talking about it.”

I was going to kill Zachary Deveraux one of these days. He had no right to go tell anyone what had happened between Johnny and me! Now all I could hope for was that Johnny wouldn't think I was the one telling everybody...

At least Zach didn’t tell everyone that we had made out the day before. If he had done that, then I definitely would have killed him…

“Everyone?” I swallowed, not sure if I should have believed her or not.

“Oh, yeah,” she waved away, the gigantic grin on her face making her nose brace even freakier than it already was. “I find it all really hilarious. I can’t believe that Johnny actually kissed you! I wonder if he washed his mouth out afterwards.”

I rolled my eyes at her. “You don’t know anything, Aveline.”

“I have been friends with Johnny longer than you have,” she informed me now as she pulled a nail filer out of her bag and started filing her nails, right in the middle of class like she owned the place or something. “I know his type. And it is definitely not you.”

I couldn’t let what she was saying get to me, because I was sure she was just trying to piss me off like she always did. I wonder if I could break something else of hers without getting in trouble for it…

But I couldn’t help but feel a little bothered over what she had said to me. For all I knew, it could have been true. Johnny could have been just like Zach; he could not care about girls at all. They both were best friends, after all.

This thought stayed with me for the whole day, and it didn’t help that I didn’t see Johnny at all. Was he avoiding me, or was it just a coincidence? I usually saw him at least once during the day…

I didn’t have anything to look for in my locker, and yet I stood there for what seemed like forever after school. I waited so long that the hallway that my locker was in was now empty. I knew that Johnny and Zach were still at school though, since they had football practice.

When I saw Sean, another senior that was on the football team with both Zach and Johnny, make his way down the nearly empty hallway, I found this as my opportunity and nearly pounced on him.

“Sean,” I called out as the blonde boy walked by. “Have you seen Johnny at all?”

Sean smirked at me, and I didn’t like the look of it. “Oh, you want to see him so you can make out with him again, huh?”

I would have hit him with something if I had something available. “No, I just need to talk to him.”

“Sure,” Sean winked, and I was about to strangle him until he gave me the information I needed. “I just saw him by his locker. If you head over there now, you should still be able to catch him before he has to go for practice.”

“Thanks,” I nodded, slamming my locker shut and spinning on my heel in the direction of Johnny’s locker. “Talk to you later!”

I didn’t know if that was exactly true or not, but it didn’t stop me from nearly running all the way to Johnny’s locker, where he was, just like Sean said he was.

“Hey, Maxynn,” he smiled when he saw me, and I didn’t say anything at first because I was out of breath from running. “I’m glad I saw you before practice. I wanted to talk to you about something.”

I swallowed, forcing a smile. “Oh, really? What about?”

“About that kiss yesterday.”

Oh, no. This was it. He was going to tell me how bug of a mistake it was that he had kissed me and he was going to ask me to forget all about it…

Okay, maybe what Aveline had said had gotten to my head, but I think I had the right to be a little worried. I really didn’t know Johnny that well, even though I had to spend a lot of time with him the year before for our English project…

“I understand if you kissed me when you didn’t really like me like that,” I babbled, not even knowing what I was saying as I stared down at my feet. “Everyone’s always telling me that I’m not that pretty or I’m not your type, so it really wouldn’t bother me if you told me that you only kissed me because I was just another girl and--”

“I didn’t just kiss you to kiss you Maxynn,” Johnny informed me now, cutting me off before I could make an even bigger idiot of myself. “I kissed you because I like you. I’ve liked you for a while.”

I stared up at him in complete shock, not expecting anything like this from him. Out of everything he could have said, I never would have thought that he would actually say that he liked me, out of every girl in the school.

“You… you like me?” I gulped, hoping that my voice didn’t squeak.

“Yeah, I do,” Johnny smiled at me. “And I was just wondering if you wanted to go out with me sometime.”

This was a dream come true. I couldn’t believe this. Johnny Walker actually wanted to go out with me! Me, of all people! Kate was never going to believe this! I barely even believed it and I was the one he was asking out!

“I’d love to go out with you,” I nearly giggled, which was something that I rarely ever did. I was seriously so happy that I felt like screaming! This would have been my first boyfriend… Even though I was a senior. “I’ve liked you for a while too, Johnny.”

His smile broadened, and he brought his head down and pressed his lips to mine. I smiled into the kiss, standing up on my toes so I could be closer to him.

“Huh, I thought PDA wasn’t allowed,” a new voice now said, causing me to nearly jump right out of my skin. Johnny and I both turned to see Zach smirking at us, his gym bag slung over his shoulder. “I’ve been hiding a lot of things that I guess I didn’t have to.”

“Well, I think our situation is a little different than yours, Zach,” Johnny sighed, turning toward his best friend as his arms wrapped around my shoulders. “Considering the fact that Maxynn is actually my girlfriend, unlike all the girls you hook up with.”

Zach’s eyebrows rose on his forehead. “Girlfriend, eh? You two are dating now?”

Johnny nodded. “Yep.”

Zach smirked at me before turning back toward his best friend and saying, “Well, we have to get to practice before couch yells at us again. Say goodbye to your pretty little girlfriend and hurry it up.”

My cheeks were burning as Johnny turned toward me and pecked me on the lips. He said goodbye to me, but all I could do was nod before he finally went off with Zach to go to football practice.

I was actually Johnny Walker’s girlfriend. This was all happening so quickly, and I thought I was going to fall down out of shock. I couldn’t wait to rub it in Aveline’s face that Johnny kissed me because he actually liked me! I knew she would hate getting proven wrong, which just made this so much better!

But then something else came to my mind, and it made me stop dead in my tracks as I made my way to the entrance of the school to go back to Zach’s house.

The game.

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Happy birthday to me! ;)

I don’t like this chapter at all… I don’t know why. But I’m trying to be happy about everything today since it’s my birthday so… yay?

This is for the 2012 Watty Awards! Please vote and share! <3