% CHAPTER 17 %

I wake up in the morning with my clothes from last night still on. I can vaguely remember what happened last night, but obviously I'm alright because I'm tucked in and everything.

I look at myself in the mirror. My red lipstick is still on. So is the rest of my make up. Go figure. I go to the bathroom and scrub everything off before applying some eye popping eyeliner and eye shadow. Then I get dressed and walk out of the room.

It's 7:30 and Bret's not up. Doesn't he realize why have school today? Although we did kind of get home late. Still, it's no excuse. I walk down the corridor before opening his door a tiny bit. I can see Bret snoring away without a care in the world. What an idiot.

I open the door all the way and make my way inside, but once I've passed the door, I feel like I'm trespassing. I look over at Bret again. Is it right to be in his room like this? Maybe I should leave. How is Bret going to get up for school then? He probably won't. I know he'd rather stay home. I'm not letting him get that opportunity.

My eyes rest on Bret's sleeping figure. He's in a good sleeping position. I could wake him up easily if I wanted to. I smile, but just as I reach him, he turns over. My cheeks puff out in frustration. Man, he's even an asshole when he's sleeping. His bed is up against the wall and he's already on the other side of the bed. Now I have to go on there to scream in his ear. Damn it.

Is it worth it? To see the priceless look on his face, hell yeah it is!

I get up on his bed as quietly as possible. Don't want him to wake up before I get the chance to do it myself. A tiny creak is heard from my weight, but I blame Bret because he weighs more than me and he's on the bed as well.

Inch by inch, I crawl up really close to him. Being this close to him kind of freaks me out, not because it's uncomfortable, but because it is comfortable. It takes me by surprise how okay I am with this.

"This is it," I whisper to myself. I come in a little closer before finally letting loose. "Wake up Jackass!" I scream in his ear.

Bret shoots up and covers the ear I screamed into. But I'm still there so technically, when he's shooting up, he hits me and I tumble off of the bed and onto the wood floor. Second time I've fallen to the floor painfully because of him. I groan and blink a few times. Is he shirtless?

"Taylor?" Bret asks groggily.

I raise up my hand so he knows where I am. "I take full responsibility," I say, groaning again.

He gets out of the covers and steps on me. Idiot. I shriek in agony.

"Oh shit sorry," Bret says with a little feigned innocence. Did he step on me on purpose?

I move my body forward so he does it again. Don't worry I have a plan. As soon as he takes a step, I twist my body so he'll come falling down.

"Oh shit sorry," I mimic him exactly as he slips and falls to the ground with a grunt.

"My tail bone," Bret mutters, rubbing his butt.

"Well that's your problem," I say with a roll of my eyes and get ready to get up.

I'm not even halfway up when he tugs hard on my wrist, causing me to fall on top of a definitely shirtless Bret.

"It's yours too," he says with a smirk.

I stare at him in a shocked way for a few seconds as he grins up at me. I can not believe he did that. Then I realize that while one of my hands is being held prisoner by Bret's, the other is planted firmly on his shirtless chest. He's not letting go of my hand, but then again, I'm not trying to stop him.

Things get serious when I notice that those sparks of electricity have decided to make a reappearance. I can feel the sparks going crazy against my skin. Bret's Adam's apple goes down as he gulps. My heartbeat accelerates. He's nervous. Why is he nervous? Why am I nervous all of a sudden?

I feel my body being pulled down, as if an imaginary thread has us linked together and it's getting smaller and smaller as the distance between our faces close. Wait, what are we doing?

Before my lips can ever touch his, I jerk my head back. "Oh lord, the time!" I say almost immediately.

I jump up from Bret's lap and sprint out of the door. It's 7:37. After getting to the kitchen, I pour Raisin Bran into my bowl and Frosted Flakes into his. Then I pour myself some milk and sit down at the table.

Bret comes down a few minutes later, still shirtless. I turn my head away pretending to be disgusted, but actually, I'm trying to hide my flaming cheeks because just a few moments ago, I had been touching that chest. I can not believe myself. How could I stoop this low? I'm ashamed.

"Put on a shirt Bret."

"That can come later. Breakfast is always first."

"Bret!"

"I'm starving, so if you don't mind!" He hesitates when he sees I poured his cereal, but says nothing. He then pours in some milk and brings his bowl to the table. After taking two bites, he sighs and mumbles, "Sorry. For everything this morning."

A faint smile is on my face and though it may be faint, it still reaches my eyes.

"It's okay," I say softly. It was partly my fault anyway. Not that I'd tell him that.

At 7:50 we're ready to go. We grab our things for school and head to the car. After the little beep I open the passenger door and get inside. Bret does the same with the driver side.

He drives in silence. I ride in silence. It is in no way comfortable. Usually we would adore moments like these, where we didn't have any insults to throw at each other, but I'd take our little squabbles over this. I want to talk to him, but then it would make me seem weak and I know that I am not weak. Well not mentally. Physically, I'm pretty much the weakest person out there.

As soon as we are parked in the school lot, I open the door to leave.

"Hey Taylor," Bret says before I start walking. I turn to face him. "Have a nice day." He sends me a dazzling smile that I'm practically sure most girls on the planet would kill for, but I'm not most girls.

All the same, I beam at him for trying to lift my spirits. "You too," I say and walk into the building.

I'm the first one in the class, and in Mr. Hemley's class, that's not a good thing. I'm about to leave again so that I can get away before it's too late, but the damn teacher already spotted me.

"Taylor! The new student. Come on in."

I make sure to brace myself for the worst.

My feet shuffle over to my new desk, the one that's so conveniently placed even closer than yesterday. When I make it there, I take off my backpack and sit down.

"You can imagine my surprise when the teacher I just hit on turns out to actually be a student. You know that was a mistake, right? It won't happen again."

I look at the smaller distance between my desk and his. Somehow I doubt that. I nod anyway and begin taking out my schoolwork.

"Just please don't tell anyone. I could get fired or worse."

Our talk immediately comes to a halt when another student walks in the room. I exhale the breath I was holding in as Mr. Hemley walks away from me.

Slowly, everyone fills in the seats. I glance at Vicki just as the bell rings.

"Okay class! You have your assignment from yesterday. Time to work."

Mr. Hemley lets a student hand out more worksheets while he sits in his desk and watches us work. That means he's watching me work. Such a creeper.

I focus on things other than his gaze and try to solve the questions on the English sheet. After about five minutes, I'm tired of this. I need to talk to Victoria.

I raise my hand. As soon as he calls on me, I ask, "May we work in groups? All of this work would go by faster if we worked together."

Mr. Hemley looks startled. "Very well Taylor, but that means that the worksheets will be due today and not tomorrow." Everyone groans and he adds, "Not necessarily the end of the period. If you need to, you can turn it in at the end of the day." He's looking at me as he says this. "Groups of three or less! Go!"

I instantly move to Vicki's seat. "I'm scared," I confess to her as soon as I get there.

She frowns. "About what?"

I sigh inwardly. "The teacher! He keeps...eyeing me up."

Her eyes widen. "Really?"

I nod fast. Mr. Hemley creeps next to us. "Yeah and then he fell off of his board into the ocean! He almost died!" I act dramatically. Thank god I'm a good improvisar.

Vicki takes a glance at Mr. Hemley before she plays along. "That is just horrible!"

Then he leaves us. We continue talking normally.

"I'm starting to get creeped out," I say once he's gone.

"Yeah I can see why. Oh my god, what if he's a rapist?!" She whispers in an urgent tone.

I scoff. "Oh please! As if..."

"I'm being serious Taylor. He may be looking for an innocent girl that won't tell."

I give her a stern look. "I'd never let him take advantage of me no matter who he thinks I am, but rapist Victoria? That's a little harsh. He wouldn't be a teacher if he was."

"Well let's focus on this worksheet so you don't have to turn it in at the end of the day and find out.

We talk work on our handouts for the rest of the period until the bell rings. I gather my things, saying goodbye to Victoria as we part ways, and walk out. Time for math.

When I enter math class and find Bret sitting on a desk, I can't help the frown that instantly jumps to my face.

"You're not in this class," I say.

He smirks. "Yes I am."

"What do you mean? You weren't here yester....day. Did you skip?" Bret bites his bottom lip, trying to feign innocence. I just roll my eyes. "Bret you're not gay so quit acting like it." A couple students chuckle. "And get off that damn desk! You're going to break it with all that weight in your ass."

Some more kids laugh. Bret frowns. "It's my desk. I can do what I want with it."

I smirk. "One, its school property. Therefore it is not yours and two, getting intimate with a desk is not the way to go. I mean if that's you, I understand, but I don't know if your bed can handle it. It's already squeaky enough as it is."

Okay, so that wasn't true at all. I should know because I was on his bed this morning. In a platonic way.

Bret is scowling by the time I'm done with my little speech. Everyone is laughing at him. He immediately hops off the desk.

"There. You happy?"

"Well I'm sure the desk is." He grunts and I lean into his ear. "That's what you get for skipping. Aren't you happy the world put us two cousins together in a class?"

Then I make my way to my seat, which happens to be diagonal from his, and sit down.

$_$_$_$

Once again, lunch has come. After getting my food, I set my things down at Vicki's table and sit.

"Hey girls," I say with a smile.

"Hey. Where's your cousin?" Gwen asks.

I look around the cafeteria. He's nowhere to be seen. Then again, knowing him he's out with a girl. He's taking advantage of public school as much as he can.

Now that I think about it, living a double life isn't all that hard for me since I'm not even famous yet. Public school isn't too bad either. The only thing I wish I could take away is creepy Mr. Hemley.

My shoulders do a little shrug. "I don't know. Probably out with some girl."

Even though I already thought it, saying it out loud makes it all the more real. I can not believe myself. We almost kiss, and then he makes out with another girl. Then we almost kiss again, and he does the same thing. If this happens a third time, I think my best option is to admit myself into the hospital.

Vicki rolls her eyes. "Of course."

I look back at the boy's table. "Hey, maybe since he's not here, we could sit there. I mean there's enough seats for all of us."

The girls look over at the other table doubtfully. "I don't know," Connie says.

I look over at Gwen. She can't deny the faint blush in her cheeks. I quickly remember the talk we had yesterday after school, at my house.

My shoulders nudge against hers as I grin at her. "Hey, this could be the perfect opportunity for you to get cozy up to Aaron."

Gwen's cheeks flame up even worse and she begins shaking her head vigorously. "I understand what you're trying to do here, but no thank you. He's just a crush. It won't actually go somewhere."

I chuckle. "We are definitely sitting at their table."

I grab my tray and make everyone get up.

"Wait!" Vicki says all of a sudden.

"What?" I ask.

"Before we go over there I think I should tell you. Umm Jake...Jake...I like Jake."

She puts down her head so I don't see her blushing mad. I laugh. "He's actually the most decent out of the four. That's nothing to be ashamed of. I could rate them from most mature to most childish. Jake, Aaron, Isaac, Bret! Tadaa!" I make small jazz hands. "Now let's go."

Connie laughs at my ratings. "Actually," she begins as we all head over there with our trays, "I think Isaac is way worse than Bret. You're just biased because Bret is your cousin."

The other girls agree. I can't help the frown that forms in my face.

"If you really knew Bret, you'd understand."

"If you really knew Isaac, you'd understand. Remember, you're not the only one who's got a guy cousin," Victoria says.

I guess she's right. Isaac is also her real cousin, so that really helps.

We set down out trays right at the seats. "We're sitting here today!" I declare. And that's how it goes.