% CHAPTER 13 %

Oh the horror! I can't control this terrible sneeze attack. It just keeps coming and coming and coming. I quickly grab a tissue from the tissue box I'm hugging so desperately and swipe it over my nose before blowing into the material as hard as I can. That gives me a headache, so I grab some water and gulp it down.

As I lean against the kitchen counter with my half empty cup of water, my thoughts wander over to Bret, who is currently at school. Has he been made fun of yet? I shake my head. Of course he hasn't. That's just a fantasy that'll never come true, unfortunately for me. I hate to admit it, but he really is good at making friends. Sometimes I wish I had that skill. When it comes to talking to new people, I kind of clam up.

After my sneeze fest is over, I decide to explore the house a bit. It's a two story home with a multitude of bedrooms thank god. I was having nightmares about having to sleep in the same room as Bret. Now I can sleep several doors down from him. Okay, maybe only two, but that's good enough for me.

Out of the entire house though, my heart just keeps guiding me back to the kitchen. I'm not an expert cook or anything, so how the kitchen looks shouldn't matter, but it just has that feeling. Its charming oak wood cabinets just cast a spell on me. There's an island in the middle, too, which I've always wanted to have for some reason. The tile is white with a dash of gray. When I buy a home one day, one very very far away day, I want the kitchen to be something like this.

Once I've finished exploring the house, I head up to my room. I take an hour long nap before getting up and deciding it's time to start unpacking my small amount of boxes that I have. Derek made us pack some things from our trailers so the house wouldn't look so empty. He didn't want people becoming suspicious.

I look over at the time. It's four o'clock. I've finished unpacking and Bret should be home soon. Maybe then I can interrogate him. Throughout this whole day I've been day dreaming about girls throwing mud pies in his face and him being an outcast. It would serve him right for being such an evil bastard. In reality though, I know it won't happen. Like this morning, I know Bret is good at making friends. There are more people that think like him than there are people that think like me. Overall, I will always lose, but no one needs to know I think that.

The front door opens and I hear laughter coming from outside. Oh god. Speaking of Bret making friends quickly... I know I said that he could easily make friends, but I was just rambling on in my mind! I didn't want it to actually come true! I'm horrible around new people! I never know how to act!

My body freezes in fear. Great, now I look like a weirdo, standing in the living room like a deer caught in headlights. Maybe I'm just dreaming. Maybe I thought I heard voices or something. Am I getting schizophrenia?

"Dude that was hilarious! The way she just worshipped the ground you walked on. You have to teach me that!"

My worst nightmare just became reality. Yeah, I know I said that I knew Bret was going to be able to get along with someone at this new school, but I may have actually wanted to believe that he would come home crying. For once, I just want to be the winner! Instead, he's bringing home friends.

Well, at least they aren't girls. I do not want to hear anything unusual going on in his room. The thought of him having sex with countless girls makes me gag. He probably used to have sex all the time back before his whole acting career launched. Boys are disgusting.

The three boys that Bret brought home instantly notice me. Of course they do. I'm standing frozen in the living room, facing the front door, which they just came through. I'm not a good conversation maker, and now that I know these are guys Bret brought home, I don't know what to say. At least if he would have brought home a girl, I would have had a plan. I was going to tell her how much of an asshole Bret really was to get her to leave.

One boy refuses to check me out, but the other two continuously take glances of me from head to toe. Instantly, my frozen body reacts and I can finally move.

"Quit it!" I snap at them. The two boys immediately bring their heads up to meet my eyes. One looks embarrassed, his cheeks blushing a bright red, while the other guy just has an arrogant smirk on his face.

Bret comes out from behind them and gives me a sympathetic smile. What? What's that for? Is there something I don't know about here? Did something happen? Why do I feel so weird under his gaze?

"Guys, meet my cousin, Taylor," he says, only sparing me a quick glance before turning back to his new friends.

Cousin? Wait, cousin?! I have to pretend to be related to this douche?! My eyes narrow at Bret, and he refuses to look my way, but I know he can see me in his peripheral vision. Oh, so now he's dodging my looks, is he? Not for long. He knows I'll get him back for this.

"So you're Bret's cousin?" One of the guys says and steps forward. It's the one who had the nerve to check me out and then grin like it was nothing. Arrogant prick. He has dirty blond hair.

I roll my eyes at the nerve of this guy. "Yeah, and you are?"

"Isaac." He lets his eyes roam over me again as he takes my hand to shake it.

I force my lips into a thin straight line and then sigh. Honestly, this guy isn't worth my time. Blowing up on him isn't going to get me anywhere, although I'd really love to strangle him right now. Guys think they can get away with anything these days. "Nice to meet you. My name's Taylor."

Isaac smiles at me again, his resting over mine a little longer than I'm comfortable with. I quickly slide my hand away and give him a bitter smile.

It's not long before another guy steps up. "The name's Jake," he says with a kind smile. He's obviously not as interested as Isaac, but I can't forget that he was the other guy that checked me out. At least he was embarrassed about it. I had to give him points on that.

"Hey." I give him a quick head nod to show acknowledgement.

"I'm Aaron," the last one says. He's the decent one, since he didn't try to check me out once. Thank god. I was beginning to think there weren't any guys like that around anymore.

"Nice meeting you," I say politely. My eyes look over to Bret, who has finally grown enough balls to at least look my way. This is it. I have to seize the moment. "Bret, could I have a word with you?"

I see the gulp travelling down his throat and he nods quickly, trying to cover his nervousness with a cocky grin and a roll of his eyes. "Yeah, whatever."

I grab his arm hastily, ignoring those stupid throbs of electricity that I get every time I touch him, and drag him to the hallway connected to the stairs. I no longer try to hide the fury I've been keeping behind my tight lipped smile.

"Cousin?!" I explode loudly, well as loud as I can in a whisper. "I'm supposed to pretend to be your cousin for five entire weeks?! What were you thinking? You could have given me more of a heads up!"

"I had no other choice," Bret whispers back. "How else am I supposed to explain why we're both living together? It would be weirder if we were living together and weren't related."

"Oh, like we actually are?"

He scratches the back of his neck awkwardly. "Well we've got a good reason. Even if we're not related, we're co-stars and that's enough."

My eyes roll before I can stop them. "Okay so we're cousins. Anything else you haven't mentioned yet?"

"No, that's about as far as I got on our cover story."

Our cover story. Why didn't Derek make us a cover story? Now we have to figure out all of the details by ourselves. What if we mess up? One screw up and it's all over.

Well now isn't the time to think about that. We can always expand our cover story later, together. If Bret ever tries to pull something like this on me again, he'll wake up in a box on a cargo ship headed to Africa. I'm not joking. I'll find some way to do it. I'm an actress. I've got connections.

"Okay, let's head back before they get suspicious of us," I tell him quietly. Then we both head back to the living room.

Aaron gives a sheepish smile. "Sorry if we caused any trouble. We can leave if you want," he said, directing his words to me.

I shake my head. "No it's okay. I just wish he would have given me a little more notice." I point at my clothes and he seems to understand. I look like a slob. My hair is in a crappy bun and I'm wearing a sweater with sweatpants. Sweaters and sweatpants are a horrible fashion statement. I wonder how Isaac and Jake even managed to see past that and check me out. Maybe because I'm a female.

"Yeah, your cousin told us you were sick and that's why you didn't come to school."

"Yeah. It's a cold." I then turn my attention to Bret. "So how was your first day at school then cousin?"

Bret smirks, ignoring my underlying tone of fury. "It was amazing if you really want to know."

"He has girls drooling all over him!" Jake exclaims in both amusement and awe.

I puff out my cheeks. "Great,"I say sarcastically. There are definitely going to be girls coming over sooner or later. I guess I will be able to use my plan after all.

"Oh sorry," Bret apologizes, even though there's a big smile on his face. "You probably didn't want to hear that."

"Don't worry sweetheart. If he wants to do anything to those girls I'll let you stay over at my house so you won't hear the racket." Isaac says and winks at me.

Bret turns to glare at him faster than I can respond. What's with that? I choose to ignore it and answer to Isaac's smartass comment for myself. I'm not a baby. I can handle things by myself. Hormonal teenage boys are a piece of cake.

"That makes me feel so much safer." My words drip sarcasm. And then I have to sneeze. "Damn it Bret, get me a tissue!"

The guys look at me with shock. What, can a girl not cuss around here?

Of course Bret has to be Mr. Macho and says, "Why don't you get it yourself?"

God, I've had it with him and we haven't even lived in this house for a week. It's only been about a day and a half.

I mimic him. "Why don't you go get it yourself? Hmm I don't know. Maybe because I'm sick!" I sneeze again; and again. The third time I sneeze, a tissue appears in my hand, curtesy of Isaac. "Why thank you," I say. "Even he has better manners than you! What the fuck do those girls see in you?!" I yell.

The boys say something along the lines of, "Oh she burned you!" I stand my ground. I have no problem settling business between Bret and I right here right now.

He obviously does though because he backs down and pretends nothing happened.

"So how are you two living together?" Jake asks suddenly.

I give Bret a look telling him I could handle this and start explaining. "Well you see, our parents are business partners. They travel around nationally to work and stuff. Right now, they're on this really long business errand so they bought a house for us two to live in so we could fend for ourselves."

Isaac says, "Wow that's pretty hardcore. You guys don't even have another adult living with you or anything?"

"Well, our other aunt Rachel comes by from time to time. The house is in her name, but she decided to stay at her house and just give the house to us. Our family is really trusting," Bret answers with a wink.

I roll my eyes. "No. They just know we despise each other and don't want to get in the way of our fights."

All of the boys share an odd look before Jake speaks up. "You guys really hate each other? I thought that was just your average family quarrel."

Bret rolls his eyes. "It is. She doesn't know what she's talking about."

I glare at him. Of course. I'm the one who doesn't know what I'm talking about. Bret is so rude. Yeah, I know these are his friends, but he's making me look like his psycho cousin.

Jake nods. "Oh okay. But bro, I've never seen so many girls fawn over a guy like that. You're some sort of chick magnet, aren't you?"

Bret immediately smirks. Oh god... "Well I don't mean to brag but..."

Then the four guys go into their own conversation about chicks. Not wanting to hear any of it, I go to my room. I can't take this much testosterone all in the same house. It's suffocating. I'm going to sleep.

$_$_$_$

My sleep is disturbed when the music I was listening to is turned off. I'm asleep, but I can sense what's going on around me. Without my music blaring, I feel weird. I toss around in my bed for a little before realizing that it's all in vain. I won't be getting any more sleep. I'm already too awake.

Sighing, I let my eyes flutter open, only to find someone's eyes boring into mine at a very close proximity. I panic and scream bloody murder.

He covers his ears with the palms of his hands. "Ow, my eardrums!"

I gasp. "Bret, what the hell? I was sleeping!

"I was just coming to tell you that the guys are gone now. I didn't realize you would be sleeping."

"Great. Now that you've told me, can you leave?" I shoot him an icy glare.

Bret stays seated on my bed. We stay quiet for a few moments, me because I'm mad, and Bret, because it looks like he's thinking over something. I look into his calculating eyes and find myself drawn to them. What could he be thinking about right now?

Bret eventually sighs and scoots farther away from me on my bed. "You've been sneezing in your sleep."

"Like you care," I scoff.

He rolls his eyes. "Geez, you act like I don't have a heart."

I ignore his response, partly because I kind of believe that he doesn't, have a heart that is. "What time is it?"

I sit up in the bed, and Bret, to keep more distance between us, scoots back again. "Around midnight."

I narrow my eyes at him. "Why do you keep scooting away from me? Do I have cooties or something?"

"No, but you are sick. I don't want to risk getting what you have. Sorry, but I'm not jeopardizing my health."

My eyes roll at him. Gosh, how many times have I rolled my eyes at him today? Maybe if I remember how many times he's annoyed me today, I'll know the answer. No, too many times to count.

"Why'd you wake me up?"

"We need to talk."

"About what? About how I'm your cousin and I didn't even know until we had guests in our living room?" I try to ignore how much of a couple we sound like when I say it like that.

Bret seems to have the same thought, because he immediately looks at me with an odd look on his face that I can't place. "Hey now. You're not my girlfriend or anything, so don't talk about our house like it's our house."

I look away from him, but not fast enough to miss the blush rising in his cheeks. Bret blushing? This is new. "It pretty much is our house. I mean we're living together."

"Yeah," Bret mumbles. "It's still hard to take in."

"Especially because neither of us wanted this."

He shrugs. "Well it isn't so bad. I've always wanted to live in a house alone to see how it feels to be responsible. It's a good experience."

His words make me laugh. "We'll see about that a week from now when both of us are chewing our asses off at each other."

A scoff comes from him. "I can take you," he says with boosted confdence.

My eyebrows raise at him. "You sure about that Mendoza?" I've never used his last name as a threat before, but it seems to do the trick. His nose flares.

"Is that a challenge?"

"I don't know, is it? You don't seem like a challenge to me."

Bret sighs. "We'll talk about this when you're not half asleep. Goodnight Taylor."

"Sweet dreams," I say, but really I mean the opposite. He should go die in a hole tonight.

Leave some feedback?

So I'll be updating regularly now. By regularly, I mean four or five chapters a day. I've put editing this story for far too long. So vote, comment, and show support.

Gracias mis estrellas :)

Beth