I was staring wide eyed at the stunningly beautiful woman in front of me.

Nixon's mom.

She looked to be in her late thirties and could have easily been a model with her thick curly blonde hair which was put up in a ponytail and big warm eyes that were looking back at me.

Now I realised where Nixon and Nova got theirs from. I also noticed that she was wearing a nurse's uniform with her arms folded and had a set of keys in her hand. She had a slight golden tan, resembling what I presumed was South American heritage.

"Girlfriend? Nixon you never told me," Sporting a little smile at me whilst I blushed like a tomato, she looked over to Nixon with an accusatory look and what looked like a little smirk, walking towards us. He smiled sheepishly, another look I had never seen him with before and rubbed the back of his neck with his hand. I looked at him with slight amusement, not believing what I was seeing.

Was the bad boy nervous?

"Er-"

I don't know what came over me but I spoke up in attempt to save him.

"I-I'm not Nixon's girlfriend, I'm Mara. It's nice to meet you Mrs Ford," Smiling, I offered my hand out but instead of a hand shake I was greeted with an embracing hug which caught me off guard.

She even smelt beautiful, something floral. Realising that my face was still covered with flour I pulled away slowly after a few seconds with an apologetic look.

"I don't wanna get the flour all over you Mrs Ford. I'm so sorry about the mess too,"

"No that's alright sweetheart it seems like you were all having fun," she chuckled in amusement, eerily looking similar to Nixon when he sported the same look earlier. "Nixon can clean it all up and please, call me Sofia,"

"But mama what about my pizza?" Nova had a little pout which looked ten times more adorable with the flour on her face so I couldn't help but smile at her.

I also felt a pang of guilt for throwing the flour on her, but she thought it was funny too and it was nice for all of us to have some fun. Especially seeing Nixon in a different light.

I liked this side of him and I had a feeling that only a handful of people had seen it. I've always wanted a little sister too, someone to take care of and be a role model for. But I guess it just never happened.

From what I've seen Nixon seems to be such a good older brother. The way his face softens whenever she asks for something and the way he talks to her. He seems so at ease and like a normal teenage boy. It really shatters the whole bad boy reputation. It even made me forget.

Almost.

"I have an idea," Mrs Ford turned to Nova and smiled warmly at her. "Why don't you girls get cleaned up whilst your brother cleans up this mess and I'll give you guys some money to go out and buy pizza instead,"

"Yeah! Are you coming too?"

"No sweetie I have to go back to work. They need me all night," Mrs Ford looked over to Nixon at the last part who nodded at her.

I guess Nixon had to take care of her all night and I'm guessing it wasn't the first time. Nova's face dropped in disappointment but she smiled to cover it up, placing her hand in her mom's. I followed after them out of the kitchen but not before glancing at Nixon. He was looking right at me with what seemed like a look of awe on his face for a reason I couldn't figure out. All I knew was that I had butterflies in my stomach. Smiling back sheepishly I realised that I probably resembled a clown with my messy face.

Hey, at least the flour was covering my blush.

Mrs Ford led me to the bathroom, so thanking her I locked the door behind me and looked into the large mirror on the wall. It's safe to say that I was whiter than an albino. Is this how I've looked all this time? I looked like an absolute mess whilst meeting Nixon's mom. I wonder what she must have been thinking, the flour was literally everywhere.

Groaning, I washed the flour off my hands and face trying my best to wipe the marks off my navy blouse.

Silently thanking God that it had all come off, I took my hair out of its messy bun letting my brown waves cascade down my shoulders. Looking at my reflection I sighed, still not believing that I'm in this whole situation. Smiling to myself at the ridiculousness I opened the door closing it behind me and not a second later my nose bumped into something hard which startled me causing me to yelp.

"We gotta stop meeting like this nugget," Rubbing my nose in an attempt to ease the pain I looked up to a smirking Nixon who looked really amused.

Of course my cheeks reddened from embarrassment as I took in his now clean, very handsome face. I was growing so familiar to his smell that it scared me, I could easily recognise it anywhere. But one thing that I would never get used to was the way his eyes pierced into mine.

The intensity was so much it was almost like he could see through my soul. I felt so vulnerable under his gaze. Exposed. Like he could read all my darkest secrets. We were officially having a stare off as neither of us were moving our gaze away and I swear I saw Nixon's lip twitch slightly upwards like he was trying to fight a smile. I found myself imitating him until I felt a hand tapping my arm and I looked down to see Nova, breaking my gaze.

"Hey Nova," I smiled at her as she grinned, holding my hand.

"Can we go now?" Nova started tugging me gently so I nodded and let her lead the way.

I'm guessing their mom had already left as she wasn't in sight. All of a sudden I felt something warm on the base of my ear and a trail of goosebumps traveled down my body.

"I win," Nixon whispered.

I could feel the close presence of his lips that lightly grazed the bottom of my ear lobe and I inhaled sharply at the contact, my heart beating ten times faster. As an automatic reaction my head whipped around to look at him, but to my dismay he was looking straight ahead with a blank face as if nothing had happened. Stepping outside I finally let out the breath I was holding, helping Nova into the back seat and settling down in the front.

What the hell was he doing to me.

****

The journey there didn't take long. Thankfully.

Looking up out of my window, the bright red Pablo's Pizzeria sign caught my attention.

I hadn't been to this place in years. It was our favourite place as kids, Dad used to bring us all the time. I remember beating Aiden at the air hockey table every time we played it was literally the only thing I was better at than he was. Smiling in nostalgia I was interrupted by the sound of Nixon opening his door and letting Nova out. Taking off my seat belt I followed suit, following Nixon with Nova's hand in mine.

The smell of baking pizza and the bustling noise of people hit my senses in full force as soon as we walked through the double doors. It was exactly the same as I remember, it hadn't changed one bit. The same beige patterned carpet was on the floor and the same red painted walls with the funny art. To our left was the games area and I smiled at the white air hockey table centered in the middle.

"I have to warn you, I'm pretty good," I looked over to Nixon with a confused face who was smirking at me and then looked over to the direction of the table.

I smiled back in amusement realising what he was on about. He had no idea what he was getting himself into, I'm not the reigning champion for no reason.

"Ethan!" Nova ran forwards and jumped into the arms of Ethan who was stood a good few feet in front of us. When on earth did Ethan get here? I looked at the pair with a smile as he easily caught Nova in his arms, spinning her round as she squealed. So he was also good with kids.

Kayla would definitely approve.

"Grinning about me?"

"W-what? No, I wasn't grinning," I felt my cheeks heat up in total embarrassment and I put on a straight face to Nixon who was smirking as usual. My gaze was torn away from him as a warm body and big muscles embraced me with a bear hug.

"Mara, I missed you!"

"Missed me? Ethan you saw me at lunch earlier," I chuckled at him as he still had a grip on me, which was getting tighter and tighter. I tried to subtly wiggle out of his embrace but had no such luck.

"Let her go she can't breathe asshole," Looking over to Nixon I mustered by best thank you face as I could finally breathe again. For some reason he had a look of annoyance on his face. What did I do?

"My bad," Ethan smiled sheepishly at me which made him look so much younger, though he didn't look like he had any regret and then put an arm around my shoulder leading me to a booth where Nova was sat down colouring in a picture. He pulled me down so we were across from her, and Nixon was sat across from me.

"Hey Mara, guess what?" Ethan wiggled his eyebrows at me which made me laugh.

"What?"

"This counts as our first date," I blushed in embarrassment and hit his arm which I'm pretty sure he didn't feel at all due to the layer of muscles. He hit me back which was probably his version of 'lightly' and before I knew it we were in a mini fight.

"I'm going to the bathroom," We both stopped to look at Nixon who had stood up with a hard expression on his face and left the table. Me and Ethan looked at each other with the same startled look as he finally let go of my hands.

"What's up with him?" I asked.

"He's jealous," Ethan smirked.

"Jealous of what?"

"You're denseness never fails to amaze me," Ethan swooned and dramatically put a hand on his heart so I kicked his leg.

I was not being dense, there was absolutely nothing for Nixon to get jealous over. I really didn't get him sometimes. His mood swings were worse than mine when I was on my period.

And mine are bad.

"Shut up," My brain failed to muster a good insult back so I frowned.

"You insult and hit like a girl," Ethan started guffawing at me whilst I sunk back in my seat. I must admit, it wasn't one of my finest moments.

"Newsflash, I am a girl!" I exclaimed waving my arms around in frustration.

"Defensive. Are you assuring me or yourself?" Ethan gave me a look the way I imagined a shrink looked at their patient.

"Ethan!"

"Mara!" He imitated my voice which almost made me burst out laughing.

"Excuse me, are you guys ready to order?"

"I want pizza!"

I almost forgot Nova was in front of us.

Approximately thirty minutes later our whole table was filled with food. And Nixon was back.

His hard expression was now gone and replaced with his usual blank one. Occasionally he'll smirk whenever we made eye contact, to which I blushed in response or look in amusement to something Ethan said. If there's one thing I've learnt, it's that these boys eat at least ten times more than I do and eat very quickly. You'd think I wouldn't be surprised at this, especially with having two brothers, but it's something I will never get over.

"I wish you were there Mara, I mean the guy's face was just priceless! I can still picture it like it happened yesterday," Ethan was crying with laughter and banged his fist on the table.

He was reminiscing about a prank he and Nixon pulled on a kid whilst they were at summer camp. I know right, the bad boy went to summer camp. It took me a moment to let that fact alone sink in.

I couldn't help but snicker in amusement at his reaction and it seemed like the Ford siblings felt the same as I did. Poor Ethan was probably thinking that we were laughing with him but in reality we were laughing at him. He calmed down after a few minutes so I took the silence as an opportunity.

"Hey I'm just gonna go get a refill,"

"Me too," Nixon spoke up.

"Is that code for meet me in the restroom for a quickie?" Ethan asked.

As if on cue, I immediately felt my cheeks heat up in embarrassment. I couldn't bring myself to make eye contact with Nixon who was already standing up, or with Ethan who was snickering. I swear to the holy God of nuggets that if I wasn't frozen in place I would have slapped him so hard and left a hand print.

The next sequence of events happened so quickly that I nearly missed it.

"Yes, do you have a problem with that?"

Ethan stopped snickering, I was yanked out of my seat by a warm hand and towed across the restaurant. I briefly heard Nova asking what a quickie meant and within seconds my hand was let go and the warmness vanished which brought me back to my senses.

"Nixon wait up! You're walking too fast," I yelled whilst trying to maneuver my way through the cluster of people as Nixon sped ahead. It took me a good few minutes as I made it through the crowd and I was suddenly stopped dead in my tracks by the view in front of me.

Nixon and Slutty Stacey.