WILL

Will sat up groggily, his brain feeling like lead, as he reached over the nightstand and threw the alarm out of his bedroom window. Then he realized what he had just done, got up with a jerk and walked slowly to the window to see the alarm lying among his dad's roses, still ringing.

Wow, that's one resilient alarm, he thought. He had thrown it out of the window a lot of times, but the cursed alarm clock never really got damaged. It just got louder.

Pain shot through his head and he lay down on his bed again. His memory was fuzzy. He remembered drinking at Shane's party. No, he remembered getting drunk at Shane's party. He cursed himself and went to the bathroom to look for some aspirin.

His memory kept coming back to him in small pockets and he looked down to realize he was not wearing his own shirt, but one of Shane's. A disturbing thought came to him. Why was he wearing Shane's shirt? He was not gay. No, he convinced himself, I did not sleep with Shane.

But then another memory of Penny spilling beer down his t-shirt came to his mind. He was in a room with Penny. Both of them were drunk. Penny dozed off. Will dozed off as well. 

He did not really remember what happened after that. He remembered Emma coming towards him in the party, but he ran away. He remembered how beautiful she had looked in that dress of hers. But he liked her more in her usual clothes, her jeans and a loose t-shirt. It made her seem more normal. In a dress, with makeup on, she felt completely out of his league.

Will smiled wistfully at the mirror. But then Matt's angry face came into his mind. His head felt less heavy, the aspirin was doing its job.

He then remembered Matt standing by the bedroom and Matt's words echoed in his head.

Emma really liked you.

He remembered it now. Emma had left, but Matt had stayed. He did not know why Matt was angry with him, but those words, they sent both happiness and dread through his veins. Matt had said like-d as in past tense, as if Emma had stopped liking him. 

He recalled standing inside the house, looking at the backyard to see Emma and Matt kissing by the pool. Yes, that was a very clear indication that Emma, if she had even liked him in the first place, had definitely stopped liking him now. 

He put his face in his hands. Great. Absolutely great. He finally had a chance to start a real relationship, with a real girl, with a smart, beautiful girl, a girl he actually liked, and he, instead of telling her how he felt, got drunk and got chummy with her best friend, which they misunderstood very badly.

Talk about a messed-up life. Well, no, it was not messed up itself...he messed it up himself.

He heard a knock on the door and chose to ignore it. His father came in anyway, carrying a mug with steam curling from it. Dad sat down beside him and handed him the mug.

The mug had a weird green-orange kind of colour. Will looked up at his father and asked,"Are you trying to poison me?"

"No, but I'm sure Matt would like too."

"How do you know?", he asked incredulously.

"You talk in your sleep", Dad answered simply.

"You know, nothing is more creepy than sitting in my bedroom at night and looking at me sleep."

"Well, I had to, after Shane dropped you off, so drunk, that you threw up on my roses."

Will had the disturbing realisation that his alarm clock must be lying in a puddle of barf. His father confirmed it by saying,"Yes, your alarm clock landed perfectly on top of the your puddle of dried vomit."

"Thank you for telling me", Will muttered.

His father handed him the cup,"Here, is my remedy to hangovers. Spinach, carrots, orange, greek yogurt, parsley with a hint of paprika."

Hearing that, Will wanted to barf again.

PENNY

Penny sat on the couch a cup of hot chocolate waiting in front of her, untouched. Her mother paced around the room angrily going on about how getting drunk and passing out on their doorstep in front of the neighbours had ruined their image.

She clenched her fists, her nails biting into the skin of her palms. They were worried about their image. Not their daughter. Her mother had been going on like this for an hour now. 

She hardly remembered anything from the previous night. The only thing she actually remembered was sitting shotgun in Kevin's car, then passing out on the front porch of their mansion, in front of her mom and Mrs. Samuel.

She kept racking her brain for any any memory at all, but there was only a blank. She had tried calling Emma so many times, hoping to ask Emma what happened, but she only got to her voicemail.

She had tried calling Matt as well, but Matt's phone was switched off.

She didn't know what was going on. Why wasn't Emma answering?

To answer her questions she got Shane's message.

Shane: Girl, check your Instagram

Penny: Why?

Shane: You'll see

Penny opened her Instagram just to see a picture of Emma and Matt kissing by the pool, posted by Kelly with a caption: Caught In Action!

Her heart got caught into her throat. So, they were serious. 

She had thought Matt liked her. They had almost-kissed on so many occasions. Well, one of them was a part of a plan. Or maybe she was just delusional, and stupid to even think like that. She felt ashamed for liking her best friend's boyfriend.

She couldn't see it anymore so she put her mobile down, but at the same time, her mobile beeped with another text from Shane.

Shane: I don't know what drama is going on between you four, just, next time, please don't get drunk and have you-know-what at my house and then pass out. You guys don't know                      how heavy you really are. 

Penny felt confused. What was he talking about?

Penny: What in the world are you talking about?

Shane: Don't act all dumb girl. First you and Will have sex in my bedroom, then Emma and Matt start crying and making out by the pool, then Kevin and I have to drag you both to your houses...I'm never having a party again.

Penny almost spit her hot chocolate out. She and Will...No, it was not possible. She had long ago realised that she did not like Will at all, then what was this. Must be some kind of misunderstanding.

Penny: Shane, I think there is a misunderstanding.

Shane: Then you better sort it out, girl.

EMMA

Emma stood in front of the canvas paint brush in hand, looking at the eye staring back at her, wondering what she was missing.

It needs to be more green.

She mixed a bit of the shade sage with the turquoise blue to create more of the sea green colour of Matt's eyes. She did not know why she was painting an eye, but that morning, she got up and just started painting without thinking.

She had captured his honey skin perfectly and was painting his thick lashes when she heard a voice behind her, "You are forgetting the scar near my eyebrow."

She whirled around to see Matt leaning against the door frame smirking at her painting.

"Has no one ever taught you how to knock?". She was so relieved she had moved all her other paintings to the attic. She didn't know how Matt would react to the painting she had made, of Will, one side of him covered in a tux and mask while the other was his white t-shirt with his blue jeans.

"Don't blame me, your door was not locked", he said, smiling  crookedly.

Emma took the painting off the easel and kept it near the window for drying.

"How come you never told me that you paint?", Matt demanded.

"You never asked", said Emma, smiling slightly,"don't feel so hurt. I never really shared my paintings with anyone. Penny has just seen some of them."

And there went his smile, disappearing from his face with the blink of an eye.

Emma worked up the courage to ask him,"Matt, when are we gonna talk about last night?"

Matt looked at her with sad eyes,"What's there to talk about, Emma? We kissed. It was just in the impulse of the moment. We got...carried away."

Emma arched an eyebrow at him," Seriously, Matt. Carried away?"

"Then what am I supposed to say?"

"Matt, what's going on? Do you have feelings for me?"

Matt remained silent, and his silence answered everything. Emma took his hand, unable to stop herself, then used her fingers to raise his chin and looked him in the eyes.

"Matt, you are the most amazing friend I've ever had, and I promise you, we'll get through this maze of emotions together. Lets give it some time, them we'll see if these feelings become something more...", Emma couldn't help but blush as Matt smiled at her," so, let's just forget this and go out for froyo. My treat."

MATT

They sat in the froyo shop looking around as some the people from their school kept looking at them and snickering.

He was confused, what was going on?

"Emma, let's get out of here and go to the park. These people staring at us are creeping me out."

Emma nodded and they walked to the park side by side, her shoulder brushing his arm, send sparks through his arm. What was going on with him? He still liked Penny, but now felt strange around Emma.

He had to confess something to Emma. They sat down under another tree, and he looked at her.

"Emma, um, you were my first kiss",he confessed, looking down.

He heard Emma jerk in surprise,"You've never kissed someone before?",she asked.

"No", he replied.

He looked up to see Emma smile slightly,"So...how was it for a first kiss?"

Matt smiled at her,"I'm glad it was you."

Matt didn't even get time to register what was happening before Emma put her hand behind his neck and pulled him into another kiss.

She smelled like vanilla, and tasted like limes, her lips soft and warm against his. He lost himself to the touch, not caring that they were in a park. But he did not know how he was feeling, and did not want to make it more confusing than it already was.

So he pulled away and looked at Emma seriously, "Hey, as much as I love doing this, lets figure everything out before we do this again."

Emma's mobile beeped. She frowned as she read the text.

"What happened?", Matt asked.

"Shane just told me to check my Instagram."

Matt saw her eyes widen when she opened Instagram, and he snatched her phone to look at what she saw.

And there was a picture of them kissing. Just when they had decided to not overcomplicate things, Kelly the angel dropped an atom bomb on them. Great.

Emma looked at him, concern dancing in her blue eyes as she said to him,"Do you think Will and Penny have seen this?"