The living room was full of happy chatter while Harris was making the final touches on our dinner and we waited for Taylor and her three hot brothers to get there. I wanted to help cook dinner, it’s in my instinct to do things by myself like that, but I have kind of gotten used to the ‘let others do things for you’ kind of life style, thanks to the lazy and rich people that I’m around who have too much money for their own good.

I had changed into a pair of jean shorts and a t-shirt with my hair braided down my back in a fishtail braid once Holly had interrupted me and Brendon in the patio.

As I made my way into the busy room, I made my way over to Elle as quickly as I could to get far, far away from Brendon and Holly while I anxiously bit on one of my fingernails.

“How’d your afternoon go?” Elle asked me curiously once I sat beside her on the couch where she was having a conversation with Isaac and Jarrod.

“Just fine.” I mumbled absent mindedly.

“Well, something happened.” Jarrod suggested.

“Nuh-uh!” I defended. “Shut up.”

“How do you know?” Elle asked him curiously, completely ignoring my defense.

Jarrod pointed to something over my shoulder. “I know my brother.”

I turned around to see where Jarrod was pointing and saw Brendon leaning against the wall, running his hand through his hair- he looked very distressed, and his shirt was still hopelessly wrinkled.

Before I could say anything to defend myself or Elle could say anything to get me to blush, the doorbell pierced through the quiet chatter.

“I’ll get it!” I said quickly, shooting to my feet and feeling very relieved that I had an excuse to get away from Elle before she could make any horrible comments about her assumptions.

As I walked to the door, I noticed Andy had gathered Tommy, Ryder, and Jackson to give them a small lecture about not teasing Taylor since we all knew she was probably going to freak out about meeting them since she freaked out yesterday when she found out that they were here.

“You’re no fun.” I heard Ryder huff at his little sister.

I rolled my eyes at him and  walked down the small hallway that held the front door. There was a small hallway that separated the front door from the living room, which is perfect for a serial killer because we wouldn’t even know that he was in the house unless he walked down that little hallway and shot us all. I swung open the door to come face to face with Taylor and three familiar boys standing behind her, only this time they were fully clothed. Cole, Damon, and… Brett. Those were their names, I think.

“Hi.” I chirped. “Come on in.” I opened the door wider and moved to the side, inviting them in.

“Hey.” Taylor chirped, giving me a huge smile that held a tragic amount of nervousness. But on the bright side, I was way more nervous than she seemed when I met them. Probably because I was also meeting Andy, Elle, Isaac, the twins, and Kale- the holder of all drama, at the time of course.

“Don’t be nervous.” I told her quietly. “They’re really nice once you get used to them.”

“I can’t believe this. I’m really going to meet Jackson Thorne?” She yelped.

“Taylor, calm down. She’s been acting like this all day.” Damon muttered.

I smiled at him. “It’s okay, I knew for a year before I met Ryder and I still almost fainted.”

When we got into the living room, nobody was there so I assumed they were in the dining room already. “I don’t think you understand my love for these guys.” Taylor breathed.

“She made us go with her to the first showing- at midnight- to that stupid chick flick last year.” Brett piped.

“Shut up!” Taylor squeaked and I laughed, I think I’ll like this girl.

“So have you run into any Snakaspideroos yet?” Cole smirked at me.

Of course, I blushed. “You said those only live in Vicky.”

“Victoria.” Taylor corrected me.

“Oh, well yeah that.” I said. “Anyway, here we are.” I announced, swinging open the dining room door to see everyone sitting around the extremely large black dining room table.

Taylor let out a loud gasp but before she could scream, one of her brothers wrapped a hand around her mouth to muffle her squeals.

“Hi!” Jackson chirped, standing up from the table to greet our guests. “Harris made homemade pizza, hope that’s okay.”

Holly glared at her brother before slapping him upside the head. Why these boys liked to mess with their fans like this is beyond me because I think it’s just jerkish if you ask me.

“Yeah, Taylor, isn’t it?” Ryder smirked at the poor girl, taking a swing from Andy. “Ow!” He yelped.

“Cram it, Ryder.” Andy snapped.

“As I was saying,” Ryder continued, ignoring his lethal sister, as I rolled my eyes. “You can sit wherever you’d like.”

“I think she can assume that.” I snapped at Ryder with the same glare that all of us were giving him before I turned to Taylor who was in a questionable state right now. “I’m sorry, they’re all jerks.”

“Hey, I didn’t say anything.” Tommy piped.

“That’s because you’re afraid of your fiancée, you’re still a jerk though.” Elle laughed.

I sat down at the table as Taylor and her brothers followed suit and took their seats as well. I didn’t realize it until I was seated, but I was stuck sitting between Brendon and Jackson. Brendon, as in the boy that I’d been making out with just half an hour ago when we were supposed to be just friends. And I haven’t spoken a word to him since.

Taylor ended up sitting between Andy and Elle, and I’m sure they did that to protect her from the two jerks that were Ryder and Jackson.

“This is a really sweet house.” One of the boys, I think it was Brett, commented.

“Thanks.” Ryder chirped. “It’s our parent’s.”

“And they just let you come across the world by yourself?” Cole asked incredulously. “You’re parents are sweet, dude.”

“Yeah, not really.” Andy snorted. “They just don’t care.”

“Well, we had to practically sneak out of the house to come tonight because they thought we were walking into a death trap.” Cole laughed.

“Are you triplets?” Holly asked randomly.

“Um, no..” Brett answered, a little taken back by Holly’s randomness- I’m sure they’ll catch on fast. “I’m eighteen, Taylor and Cole are twins, they’re seventeen, and Damon is twenty.”

“Libby is twenty!” Holly chirped excitedly as if it was the best discovery on planet earth.

I glared at her. “Yeah, so are you and half of the people at this table.”

“Well, yeah but we aren’t single.” She explained.

I let out a long stream of air from my nose and bit my tongue to stop from snapping at my best friend. I know she was only worried for my best interest, but this was getting ridiculous and humiliating and it really wasn’t funny anymore.

“You know, I don’t think she needs anymore people under her belt.” Isaac defended, much to my surprise and relief. Well, until I saw his troubling smirk. “I mean, she has the “just friends” ex and the guy who almost lost a video game to her because he was checking her out. I think that’s plenty, Holly.”

Oh, this again. Do they ever stop?

“Wait, who was checking you out?” Holly asked with a confused frown.

“Nobody.” Both me and Jackson snapped at the same time.

“I think that answers your question for you.” Damon snorted with laughter.

I glared at the stranger before turning my attention to Taylor who was still silently gaping at Ryder, and then her eyes would shift to Tommy, to Jackson, and then back to Ryder. She was still hopelessly starstruck, and I felt almost bad for her- if I hadn’t had to go through the same thing, I would have actually felt bad for her.

“That’s…” Elle trailed off in shock.

“Beyond disturbing.” Holly filled in, giving her brother a look that I couldn’t understand.

Not wanting to be in this conversation anymore, I let my attention drift to my right where Brendon was eating his pizza quietly. I couldn’t really see his face without making it obvious that I was staring at him, so I couldn’t tell what his mood was, but just by looking at him in my peripherals, I felt ten times more awkward than I did two seconds ago, and that’s saying something considering the topic of conversation was my love life and that was pretty frikkin’ awkward.

I heard the conversation move on to something else- I think the guys were having a conversation with the Australian guys about something, but I tuned it all out as I ate my pizza. I also noticed that Brendon never even spared me a glance, so he was pretty set on avoiding me right now- that’s just great. Please note the great amount of sarcasm.

“Your last name is Pezzy?” Is the next thing I heard when I began listening to the conversation again. “That’s a fucking awesome last name.” Ryder commented.

“You think?” Taylor chirped. Oh, so she was talking now, I see. “I think it’s weird.”

“It sounds like a nickname for a PEZ dispenser.” Damon mumbled, obviously annoyed by the sound of their last name which was apparently Pezzy. I think it was a pretty cool last name.

“There are much worse last names out there.” Elle told them.

“True.” Brett appeased her. “Anyway, we should get home or our parents are going to freak.”

“Yeah, we’re already probably fucked. Thanks for dinner, it was nice meeting you guys.” Cole announced as all three guys stood up from their seats. Has that much time already passed? Wow, I zoned out for longer than I thought.

“We’ll see you around.” Ryder said with a wave goodbye as we all watched Damon nearly have to pry Taylor out of her seat.

“Goodbye!” She called to the table. “We’ll see you guys later!”

Elle and Isaac walked them to the door while Harris insisted on cleaning up the table since we were all done eating. I wanted to offer to help, but for two reasons, I didn’t. For one, I was very tired and two, I knew that Harris wouldn’t let me help.

“Alright, well goodnight, everyone.” I mumbled, standing up from my chair as I was desperate to get away from Brendon and his silent treatment. Geesh, he was harsh.

I wished everyone a goodnight before heading into my room where I got dressed in pajama shorts and a tank top before brushing through my hair after I unbraided it.

I was about to check my laptop when there were two soft knocks on the door.

“Come in!” I called, laying down on my bed, horizontally and on my back so that I was staring at the ceiling.

When I heard the door open, I looked up to see Brendon, much to my surprise, walking into the room with a nervous expression on his face.

“Hey.” I said slowly as I sat up to face him.

He offered me a pained smile in return. “Hi.”

“Is Holly making you do this?” I asked quickly.

“No.” He laughed. “I’m here on my own free will, I swear.”

“Okay then.” I said. “What’s up?”

“I’m sorry. You know, for what happened.” He mumbled. “And it goes without saying, I don’t think this whole ‘just friends’ thing is going to be as easy as we thought.”

“Yeah, I agree.” I sighed honestly.

“I mean, we can still be friends, but we have to keep our distance until we’re like, completely over each other.” He continued.

“That sounds like a plan. Just no being alone with each other in fancy, low-lit rooms. That wasn’t very smart at all, really.” I mumbled softly.

“No, it wasn’t.” He said, laughing.

“So, mutual avoiding just for a little bit and then we can actually be friends.” I said.

Brendon nodded, looking a lot more relieved than when he came into the room. I guess that conversation could have gone a lot worse, but luckily, I’m an amazing person and I don’t freak out easily. Okay, that’s so not true, but this time, I didn’t freak out.

But instead of leaving it at that, Brendon smirked. “So you and Jackson, huh?”

I threw a pillow at him. “Get out.” I growled.

He burst into laughter as he made his way out the door with a small grin on his face. “I can’t wait to mutually avoid you.”