"Hi, sweetheart, did you have a good day at school?" My mom asks when she gets home from work.

"Yeah, it was fine," I lie. Trying to act like i'm not bothered by the fact Mason cheated on me was a lot of hard work.

"Well, go change into something nice. Evelyn has invited us and Charlie over for a congratulations dinner. Isn't that sweet?"

Oh God.

"Yeah." This is the worst timing for all of this to be happening. Right now I just want to be alone so I can eat chocolate and think about how much I hate life.

I go upstairs and into my closet, looking for an outfit. There's nothing I have that my mom would consider nice that I feel comfortable wearing, so I decide to wear a pair of shorts and a t-shirt my mom got me for my birthday.

"Come in, come in!" Evelyn greets us at her front door. She's so cheerful. It's painful.

"Thank you so much for having us over," my mom says, hugging Evelyn.

"It's fine, I'm just so happy for you," she hugs Charlie then looks at me with a big smile. "Marnie, how are you?"

"I'm good," I smile. She also gives me a hug. Damn this woman loves hugs.

"Dinner is almost ready, please come take a seat."

We walk into her dining room. It looks like a posh room with a large dark wooden table in the centre. Maggie is sitting in one of the seats on her phone, and I sit next to her. My mom and Charlie sit across from us.

"Hi, I'm Maggie," Maggie smiles at my mom and Charlie.

"Hi Maggie. My name's Joe. Evelyn's told me all about you, you really are a beautiful young lady."

"Thank you," Maggie laughs.

Evelyn walks out of the room and shouts Zeke's name, telling him to come downstairs.

Maggie leans into me and whispers, "Hey, Zeke told me about Mason. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," I flash her a fake smile which she frowns at.

"Move," Zeke says from behind us.

"No," Maggie says, "Sit somewhere else.

"Move," Zeke repeats again, more stern this time.

"No."

"Maggie-"

"Stop arguing," Evelyn cuts in.

"We are not," Zeke says to his mother before looking back at Maggie, "Fucking move," he whispers.

She groans and moves one seat along and Zeke sits down. Why did he need to sit there? Is it like the thing with his seat on the couch where he always needs to sit there?

"Congrats on your whole marriage thing," Zeke says to my mom and Charlie, even though he disagrees with marriage and thinks it's stupid.

"Thank you, Zeke. It's nice to see you again," my mom says.

"You too," he smiles then looks at me. He's about to say something before his eyes avert to my legs and his body stiffens.

I nudge him, making him look away. "Why would you do that to me?" He says, sounding pissed off.

"Do what?"

"Wear those," he lowers his voice, "Are you trying to make me hard throughout a dinner with both of our families?"

My cheeks flush and I look away, checking to see if anyone heard. My mom, Evelyn and Charlie are all busy talking and Maggie's still on her phone.

"You can't say that," I hiss at him.

"I can't help how turned on I get from your legs, nerd," he sighs.

My stomach gets butterflies and I feel my entire face heat up. I didn't know he found any part of my body attractive.

"Maggie, Zeke, do you mind helping me in the kitchen?" Evelyn says, standing up.

"I'll help," my mom stands up.

"No, no, this is your treat. You are not allowed to do any helping."

They argue over this for about five minutes, and Zeke his his head on the table trying his best not to scream at them, then my mom finally agrees to stay in her seat while Maggie helps.

Zeke sits back up, "I'm gonna be saying no, I insist in my sleep tonight," he mumbles to me, saying the impersonations of our mothers in a high-pitched voice.

I giggle and Zeke snaps his head round to look at me, his eyes are wide. "You laughed. I made you laugh."

"So?"

"It wasn't a fake laugh, it was a genuine that was funny laugh," he sighs and looks at the ceiling, "Progress."

Maggie and Evelyn come through, carrying plates of food and they set each plate in front of everyone. Evelyn has made lasagna, and it looks amazing. I'm not a big fan of lasagna, but the one she has made tastes amazing.

"You are an amazing cook, Evelyn," my mom says, "This is lovely."

"Thank you so much, I can give you the recipe if you'd like?"

Their conversation is blocked out as soon as I feel Zeke's hand move under the table and grasp my thigh.

My fork drops out of my hand, and the conversation stops and everyone looks at me. I quickly pick my fork back up, "It slipped," I laugh nervously, hoping they can't notice the blush on my cheeks.

Zeke smirks and I glare at him. I don't bother trying to get his hand off of me because truthfully, I kind of like it. His hand is warm, making my skin prickle, and it's the only thing i'm focusing on right now. For the rest of the meal it's the only thing I can think about, not about Mason. Just Zeke's hand on me.

"Are you all ready for dessert?" Evelyn asks.

"Marnie and I will get it," Zeke says quickly, standing up and pulling me up with him. Evelyn looks surprised by his offer and doesn't say anything as he pulls me into the kitchen.

"Why the sudden thoughtfulness?" I say when we get into the kitchen.

Zeke doesn't answer, instead he pushes me up against the counter and presses his body against mine. "You shouldn't have wore those fucking shorts," he says, his breath fanning my face from how close he is.

My breath hitches, my heart racing. Why does he make my heart like this? Why, goddamnit.

His pupils dilate as he stares into my eyes and feeling him against me, I discover that he wasn't lying about being hard...

"Woah! Keep it PG," Maggie shouts from the kitchen door, making sure everyone heard.

"What? What's going on?" Evelyn shouts from inside the dining room.

Oh God.

Zeke glares at Maggie, who's smiling innocently, and he pulls away from me, then takes plates of cake through to the dining room.

Once everyone has a slice of cake, Zeke, Maggie and I sit back down.

"What happened through there?" Charlie asks, watching Zeke carefully.

"Maggie saw two slices of cake rubbing together and got the wrong idea," Zeke answers and I almost choke on cake from laughing.

He looks at me and starts laughing too. "You have cake all around your mouth," he takes a napkin and wipes my mouth for me as we both continue laughing like idiots.

"Aren't they adorable?" Evelyn says and Zeke and I both stop laughing and look at her.

"They are, but Marnie has a boyfriend," my mom says.

Oh God.

"Really? What's his name?" Evelyn asks me.

"Uhh," I stutter, "Actually, we broke up."

"You did?" My mom furrows her eyebrows, "Why?"

"Um... He, um-"

"He cheated on her," Zeke finishes for me.

My mom and Evelyn both gasp. "Why didn't you tell me?" My mom asks.

"You were so happy about your engagement; I didn't want to ruin that."

"You seriously didn't even tell your mom about what happened? You've just pretending to be all happy?" Zeke says angrily.

"I was gonna-"

"For fuck sake, Marnie!"

"Language!" Evelyn yells.

Why is he getting so worked up about this?

"How did you find out about him cheating?" Charlie asks while my mom just looks shocked by Zeke's sudden outburst and Evelyn glares at him.

"I saw him."

Charlie looks at me sympathetically, "You can't trust teenage boys." I notice him glance at Zeke.

Zeke doesn't say anything for the rest of the time spent at the table, but when we're about to leave he holds onto my arm, stopping me from going. "Is it okay if Marnie stays here for a while? I kinda invited some friends over to cheer her up after the breakup."

He did?

"Yes that's fine, that's very nice of you Zeke," my mom says.

"Will there be boys?" Charlie asks.

"Yes... Just my friends but don't worry, I won't let them touch Marnie," Zeke smiles and puts his arm around my shoulders.

"Zeke, you're supposed to be grounded," Evelyn says.

"It's okay though, my babysitters here to watch me."

My mom and Charlie leave after saying goodbye and thanking Evelyn, and Evelyn goes into the kitchen to clean up and Maggie goes upstairs.

"Did you invite Zoe?" I ask.

"Yes," he takes out his phone.

"This is nice of you."

"Shut up."

"I was just saying-"

"You know I don't like to be praised for shit."

A couple of minutes later the door opens and Cole comes in.

"Cole! I feel like I haven't seen you in years," I wrap my arms around him.

"I know, Marn. I got married and had two kids then got arrested for robbing Mcdonald's and you missed it!"

Zeke pulls on my shirt from behind me, making me come away from Cole. "That's enough hugging," he rolls his eyes.

That's when I notice Isaac is behind Cole. Zeke invited him?

"Isaac," Maggie comes down the stairs and rushes over to Isaac, then jumps up and wraps her legs around his torso.

"I am going to kill them," Zeke states.

"That's depressing," Zoey says when she walks in and sees Isaac and Maggie.

Zeke grabs my arm and pulls me into the living room, Cole and Zoey following.

"You didn't kill Isaac there, I'm proud of you." I say, sitting in Zeke's spot.

He eyes me for a moment, before sitting down next to me.

Oh my gosh, he didn't make me move.

"I agreed to be chill. But if they cross the line, I will too."

Isaac and Maggie come in and sit next to Zoey. Cole sits on the other side of Zeke.

"Are you sure you can all be here without ripping each other's heads off?" I ask. Cole and Zoey look at each other but don't say anything.

"Yes, we can. Right Cole? No arguing. Or i'll kill all of you," Zeke threatens.

Maggie turns the TV on and puts netflix on, "So what are we watching?"

"Nothing. We're playing drinking games," Cole states.

"No, you're not," Evelyn appears at the living room door. "No alcohol allowed. I'm watching you Cole," she narrows her eyes at him and he pouts.

"We should watch a chick flick. Like mean girls or something," I say when Evelyn leaves.

"No," Zeke says.

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

I sigh, and then think of something. "Fine," I then sling my bare legs over his lap, and he visibly tenses.

"Get those off of me."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Alright then," he places his hand on my leg, then starts slowly moving it up to my thigh.

"Stop," I slap his hand away and take my legs off of him. That was giving me way too many feelings that I shouldn't be feeling.

"Would you bitches stop flirting and pick something?" Cole says.

"Fine," I look at the screen and something catches my eye, "What about X-Men?"

"Yes. Finally you said something logical."

I slap Zeke which only earns me a smirk. While the movie goes on, Cole falls asleep on Zeke's shoulder, Isaac and Maggie start making out and Zoey just texts on her phone. It's really only me and Zeke actually interested in the movie.

He places his hand on my thigh again, like he did at the dinner table and I try not to squirm. I want to make him stop because the feeling it's giving me is so strong I can't even focus on the movie anymore, but at the same time I love it.

I think Zeke will be the key to forgetting about Mason, because when I'm with him he's the only thing I can think about. His touch takes over my body and my mind, and I find myself drowning in him. And I love it.

+++

(idk who made that manip but i found it on google and i'm love😍)

also happy new year to you all when it comes. hopefully 2017 is much better than 2016.

ly

-emily