Our lips were mere centimeters apart when the door of his room suddenly burst open.

"Jesus Christ!" a woman's voice cried in shock.

I jumped in surprise and quickly pushed Ethan off me abruptly, causing him to land on the bed beside me with a loud thud. I looked at the door in panic to see who had just come in.

I gulped as I took in the sight of Ethan's mum, who was looking at us with raised eyebrows.

"I see you guys are very busy studying." she snapped sarcastically.

Ethan coughed awkwardly and sat up. "Yeah, we were just taking a break, I was-" he paused, looking around his room for inspiration. "I was showing Mia some judo moves," Ethan said with a nervous laugh.

I vigorously nodded my head in agreement, deciding to just roll with it. I figured it seemed a legitimate enough excuse for the position we were in.

"Wow," his mother said as she let out an incredulous breath of laughter. "Judo certainly looks a lot more intimate than I remember. Do you put your face that close to all your male opponents to Ethan, or is Mia just a special case?" she teased, staring at him with an interrogative raised eyebrow and her hands on her hips.

My cheeks immediately started heating up like crazy because it was blatantly obvious that we were lying. She wasn't buying any of this judo bull crap.

"Well..."Ethan drawled as he scratched the back of his neck. "I might not have been practicing it in the exact same way I normally do," Ethan mumbled as he bowed his head down a little.

After a few seconds of everyone just staring at each other in awkward silence, his mother finally cleared her throat.

"Well anyway, the reason I came up here was to ask if Mia wanted to stay for dinner," she said as she looked over at me with a warm smile.

"Are you sure? I wouldn't want to intrude on your family dinner." I explained hesitantly.

"No, don't be silly. I'd love for you to stay. I have so many questions to ask you," she said as she shot Ethan an evil look from the corner of her eyes.

"NO!" Ethan exclaimed, with fearful eyes. "No questions, Mum. You'll ask her nothing." he snapped warningly.

I shot him a funny look from the corner of my eye, wondering why he was getting so worked up.

She just let out a laugh as she turned on her heel to leave. "I'll call you downstairs in an hour or so, okay guys," she said with a smile. "Oh," she said, turning back around once more. "Leave the door open, I don't want you guys practicing judo behind closed doors," she said with a smirk, as she propped the door open behind her.

As soon as she was gone, I didn't waste any time before smashing my head into Ethan's pillow and proceeding to scream into it. His pillowcase smelled deliciously like him, further driving home what I had almost let happen.

I can't believe I was going to kiss him. I clearly needed psychiatric help.

This was Ethan we were talking about. The same moron who once stole my gym clothes as a joke, the same guy who told our whole 8th grade class I was a lesbian. And the same dickhead, who on the very first day I met him, kicked a ball at my motherfucking face. He's been acting like my annoying little brother for the past six years, so why on earth would I just try and swap spit with him?

This was so weird!

"Well, that was an awkward time for her to walk in," Ethan chuckled from behind me, breaking the uncomfortable silence.

I slowly removed my head from the pillow and looked up at him with nervous eyes. "Look what just happened a couple of minutes ago was extremely weird, so please can we agree to not ever speak of it again," I mumbled as my eyes flickering between his in desperation.

He paused, seeming to get deeply lost in thought before he slowly started to nod his head. "Yeah, yeah, Of course, Mia," he said as he gave me a tight-lipped smile.

A smile which I noticed, didn't quite seem to meet his eyes.

I let out a massive sigh of relief. I'm so thankful his mum had walked into the room at the precise moment. As embarrassing as it was for her to find us like that, her perfect timing had stopped me from doing something astonishingly stupid.

"Now let's actually get to studying," I said as I let out a little nervous laugh.

I never thought I would ever end up eating dinner at the Blythe household, yet here I sat tucking away into my dinner at their dining room table. Ethan was quietly picking away at his food, in the chair beside me while his mother and brother sat across from us.

I couldn't help but giggle a little as I saw Dylan aimlessly stabbing at his food. He was clearly struggling to cut through his pork chop. Ethan let out a heavy sigh and clattered down his knife and fork.

"Let me help you, buddy," he said as he reached across the table.

He pulled Dylan's plate towards him before starting to cut it up into pieces for him. I don't know why, but this action caused a tingle to spread through my heart, and I found myself shamelessly staring at Ethan with a foolish smile on my face.

"Yay, thanks, Ethan." Dylan beamed with a toothy grin as Ethan handed him back his place.

I tried to focus back on eating, but I couldn't help myself, and my eyes soon drew back to Ethan's like magnets. He was chewing away on his food nonchalantly, looking completely relaxed and without a care in the world. I narrowed at him in annoyance, as I saw he didn't seem stressed out in the slightest.

We had almost kissed for fucks sake! Was this just not a big deal to him or something? Maybe it was part of his daily routine to kiss someone who's his friend, just to be a little dickhead and screw with their head. Who knows?

He's never been quite right in the head, so it wouldn't exactly come as a surprise. This whole thing was just weirding me the fuck out. What happened to that stupid bitch he had a crush on, huh? He clearly can't like her that much if he'll happily lock lips with any girl who comes within one meter of him.

Oh, wait, am I the distraction chick? You know the chick you kiss to prove you still have 'game'. He probably needed a confidence boost after being rejected by her so many times. It was weird to choose your friend as that girl, but I guess it was possible.

"Mia, are you alright, you look a little ill?" his mum asked, staring at me with furrowed brows and a look of motherly concern shining through her eyes.

"Erm no. I'm fine, just a little tired," I said dismissively.

I could feel the heat of Ethan's gaze boring through my skull as I spoke, as though he was desperately trying to read my mind.

"Ethan, poppet, staring at Mia for that long isn't very polite." His mother chastised.

Ethan just rolled his eyes. "Stop calling me poppet, mum," Ethan whined under his breath in a barely audible voice.

"So is this your first time at our house Mia?" his mother asked as she looked over at me curiously.

Just as I was about to answer, Dylan piped up. "Yeah, mummy, Mia comes here all the time! I like her so much, she's so funny and pretty and plays so many video games with me. And she's way better at them than Ethan," Dylan said, pointing at his brother with a giggle.

"Debatable," Ethan muffled out in a cough.

Jealous little dick.

"But we can never play for more than an hour before Ethan drags her upstairs with him so they can study." Dylan spat out in disgust. "They study so much! It's so annoying. And Lucas said I should never bother them unless I knock loudly." Dylan said with a pout.

Ethan and I immediately stopped chewing and froze in shock. Because Jesus fuck did that sound bad. It totally sounded as though we were ditching Dylan so we could go fuck around upstairs. Especially after what she had witnessed around an hour ago.

Ethan coughed awkwardly and shuffled nervously in his seat, indicating he was feeling equally as embarrassed at me. His mum looked at us and raised a single expectant eyebrow.

"I'm guessing there was some judo practice up there as well." she snapped sassily. I groaned and sunk lower in my chair, knowing this was going to be a long-ass dinner.

-------------------------------------------

It was the following day. Chloe, May, and I were all sat around one of our school's grimy cafeteria tables.

I hadn't told them about my near kiss with Ethan yesterday, as it was just way too humiliating of a secret to reveal. They were still consistently teasing the shit out of me for sitting on Ethan's lap the other day, so who fucking knows what they'd do with this information.

They'd start planning our wedding and naming our children, that's what!

Besides, I was never going to let anything like that happen again, so there was no need to bring it up. It was just a momentary slip of weakness, that was all. I didn't like him.

"Afternoon, ladies," I heard Lucas's voice sing from behind me, causing me to jump in shock.

Turning around, I saw that he was also accompanied by Ethan. I immediately snapped my head back in the other direction before we could make eye contact.

Lucas plopped down on the seat next to May with a contented sigh, and I laughed as she shot him a glare of disgust. I immediately stopped laughing when I saw Ethan smile at me. I then watched as he took a long-ass walk around the whole goddamn table, just, so he could pull out a seat beside me.

Why the fuck did he have to sit next to me? Couldn't he tell from my avoidance of eye contact, that I didn't want him anywhere near me.

"No offense, but why are you two idiots sitting here?" May snapped bluntly.

Lucas chuckled. "You have such a delicate way with words, don't you, red," he said. "Well, firstly, I came over because I like annoying you," Lucas said as he bopped her nose.

May let out an aggravated growl and attempted to bite his finger. Lucas didn't seem too surprised by the attack and continued to talk as though nothing had happened.

"And secondly, because we wanted to invite you guys to the party I'm hosting tonight," Lucas said with a grin.

"Ooo a chance to trash your house and eat your food, wouldn't miss it," May said almost immediately, with an evil smirk on her face.

"Erm...I wasn't exactly permitting you to trash my house, but sure, if that's what gets you to come, then whatever." he shrugged.

"Not that I care if you come or not," Lucas added quickly as an afterthought.

"Nice save," Ethan snorted.

"Yeah, I'm in," Chloe said with a happy smile.

"What about you, Chubs?" Ethan asked curiously. Even though I was still facing forward, I just knew his devilishly blue eyes burning a hole through the side of my face.

"I've got a lot of work..."I said honestly, still stubbornly refusing to turn my head. I knew if I got one look at his eyes, my judgment would immediately be compromised. After all, I'm pretty sure it was his stupid fucking eyes that got me to lose my sanity the other night and almost kiss him.

Stupid blue eyes.

"Come on Mia, I'll be there...." Ethan sang as he nudged me on the shoulder playfully.

I snorted and couldn't help but turn to face him. "And that's supposed to be a good selling point?" I said arching an eyebrow up in amusement.

"Well, of course, it is," he said with a confident smirk. His light beautiful blue eyes shined back at me, almost as though they knew how little self-control I had.

"I'll think about it," I finally said.

----------------------------------

'I'll think about it' in Chloe's mind seemed to translate to 'I'm definitely going' because she showed up with May at around 8-o clock to my house all dressed and ready to go.

"Why the hell are you not ready, Mia?" she said as she strutted into my bedroom in a huff.

How did this bitch even get in? I gave my mum specific instructions not to let either of them into our home. After I got back home, I came to my senses and realized that those stupid, blue eyes of his, had hypnotized me into thinking the party was a good idea. Newsflash, it wasn't.

I just shrugged my shoulders, "Sorry, can't go, I don't have anything to wear. It's wash day and all, and I have this thing about wearing the same party outfit twice, so what's a girl to do. Oh well, hope you understand." I blabbed out quickly, pushing Chloe in the direction of the open door.

"Nice try." She said, shoving me off her and marched over to her bag. "I brought a spare dress so ha!" she said as she fished the red material out of her handbag before chucked it over to me.

"Hurry up and put it on already." she snapped.

With a sigh, I stomped my way to the bathroom to change. As soon as I had managed to get the dress into place, I looked at myself in the mirror. I raised my eyebrows, feeling a rather strange mix of emotions.

On the one hand, the bold cutouts along the waist of the dress filled me with an exhilarating freeing and confident feeling. While on the other hand, how tightly the blood-red material was molding to my ass, made me feel a little exposed and self-conscious.

Actually, scratch what I was saying before, most of the dress was making me feel exposed. The elasticated material made the dress look overwhelmingly tight. And the hem stopping provocatively halfway down my tanned thigh.

I blushed at the thought of Ethan seeing me wearing this. He's probably going to start hooting with laughter before taking a picture, so he captures the day 'Mia Collins become a hoe'.

Begrudgingly, I made my way out of the bathroom, to show the others. As soon as they saw me, their eyes widened, and they just stared at me in silence for an incredibly long time.

"God, Mia, you look so fucking hot," Chloe exclaimed in an overdramatic voice as she looked me up and down like a proud mother. I swear for a second, tears sprang to her eyes.

"Yikes, poor Ethan," May said with a wince as she surveyed my outfit. Chloe threw her head back and laughed, instantly getting whatever May was implying.

"Why?" I drawled out hesitantly.

"Well, the poor guy gets a boner when you simply look at him, so who fucking knows what's gonna happen when he sees you in this." May snickered as she playfully slapped my ass.

I gasped and hit her on the shoulder hard. "You're an actual idiot, no he doesn't." I snapped.

"Just look at his pants, okay, sweetie. You'll see what I mean," she whispered as she patted me on the shoulder.

"Well, on that note, let's get going," Chloe said as she opened my bedroom door.

I was incredibly thankful that my dad was working tonight because there was no way he would let me leave the house dressed like this.

As soon as I jumped off the last step on the stairs, my mum immediately appeared from the living room. She wasted no time before marching up to me with a fiery passion in her eyes.

"Repeat the sentences to me," she said, looking at me expectantly.

"Mum, do I have to? Chloe and May are right here, it's embarrassing." I mumbled under my breath so only she could hear.

"Repeat the sentences, Mia, or you're not going. And put on a jacket for heaven's sake." She said as she took off her cardigan in a huff and putting it over my shoulders.

I let out a heavy sigh. "I will not take drugs. I will not have sex with strangers. And I most definitely will not get pregnant. Happy?" I spat out in between gritted teeth.

I could faintly hear the giggles of my two idiot best friends behind me, further digging in the shame.

Fucking bitches.

"You got one of them wrong, Mia, you're not allowed to have sex at all!" she said with narrowed eyes.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. You need to relax, Mum. I haven't even kissed anyone before. I'm hardly going to skip through all the bases in one night, am I?" I said with a chuckle as I headed for the door where my friends were waiting for him.

"Yeah, I suppose you're right," she said with a sigh. "Love you, honey," she called out.

"See ya," I called over my shoulder, closing the door behind me.

May immediately turned to me with a teasing smirk as we walked to the car. "So why'd you change it to no sex with strangers, instead of no sex with anyone. Do you have someone in mind?" May said with a probing look in her eyes.

I let out a long-frustrated groan. "I'm not having sex with anyone May, especially not Ethan. So stop with the teasing." I snapped in annoyance.

As soon as the words left my mouth, Chloe and May stopped dead in their tracks. They looked at me and then at each other before they completely lost it and started to howl with laughter.

"What's so funny?" I whined, feeling left out from the joke.

"Nobody said you were going to have sex with Ethan, Mia." Chloe stammered out before pausing to catch her breath. "You brought him up all by yourself." Chloe finished, causing both her and May's laughter to intensify even further. I felt the blood drain from my face, realizing how badly I just messed up.

"I hate you guys," I grumbled bitterly, as I sulkily through the car door open.

After the surprisingly short journey to Lucas' house, we were finally there, we all hopped out of the car and made our way over to the house. We had decided to be more sensible tonight and make May the designated driver instead of me. Ethan would probably have a hissy fit if he found out I was going to drive again.

We rang the doorbell to the house and waited. Then around five seconds later, the door swung open to reveal a jolly-looking Lucas beaming down at us with a red-solo-cup in his hands. I could hear the speakers playing behind him, as well as the distant sound of voices, laughing and chatting in the background.

"Excellent, you girls made it." He exclaimed in an overly animated voice. "Now, if you want to enter, you must whisper the secret password." he whispered dramatically. "The passwords is Lucas is smoking hot." he winked, with a toothy grin.

I honestly couldn't tell if he was drunk or just acting like a moron by choice. Something told me it was the latter.

Before I had time to wrap my head around the stupidity of what he had just asked us to do, May had already proceeded to kick him in the shin. Lucas groaned in pain and crouched down to grab the injured spot. May just used his weakness as an opportunity to skip her way past him with a chuckle.

"That's not the password." Lucas crocked out in pain.

I just patted his back in sympathy as Chloe and I walked around him.

The party was already in full swing. It was quite a small party, but it still seemed to have that hectic atmosphere all high school party's seemed to have. Chloe and May wasted no time in abandoning me, running off somewhere to go flirt with some of the annoying football guys. Well, Chloe flirted anyway, May was just acting as her wing woman.

Not wanting to hang around all that testosterone, I surveyed the room to see if I could find anyone else, I knew. Sofas were pushed to the side, to make a makeshift dancefloor where a handful of people were up and dancing. Others just stood around the corners of the room, talking to other party guests.