"Avery you have to get me out of here. Is there a back entrance or something?" Seth hissed, beginning to take the groceries out of the car. Of course, I was only there for moral support since my hands were a little pre-occupied.

"No Seth. Throughout this entire three-story mansion, there is only one way in and out." I deadpanned, giving him a flat look. We had made the last-minute decision to go to my house instead as soon as the boy's heard where I lived. A house full of extremely breakable stuff was appealing to them.

"I'm being serious here Avery. Sophia is crazy," He spluttered, swinging the groceries around wildly.

"If she's crazy, then you're crazy. You two are carbon copies of each other. You're more like twins than you and Ethan are." I snorted. Seth's face pulled back in the offense.

"But I'm not sadistic like she is. She wants to hit me with a bat." Seth wailed. I rolled my eyes and opened the door to lead him to my kitchen.

"Have you already forgotten when you two tied me to an extremely uncomfortable chair and poked me for an hour? Because I haven't." I reminded him bitterly. That experience still haunts me and my butt.

Seth shrugged indifferently and placed the bags down on the counter.

"That was a completely different situation. Ethan is my little brother. I need to know things to protect him." Seth defended with conviction.

"By like five minutes!" I sputtered in exasperation.

"But still my little brother, so it doesn't matter." He dismissed stubbornly. "And Drake knows that there is a strict rule in the bro code against dating your bro's bro. Yet here he is, trying to get into Ethan's pants."

Disdain fell over Seth's face, and he leaned back to find support from the counter. It's very rarely that Seth gets serious. But when he does, it's most likely about his brother. Etan makes Seth's world go round. He is willing to give and do whatever it takes to make sure he's safe and happy.

I pulled myself over to Seth and leaned against the open space next to him.

"I understand your need to protect your brother Seth. I get that. But Ethan is a big boy and he can take care of himself." I gently lectured. "Besides, I don't think Drake just wants sex from Ethan. I think he wants something more."

Seth gave me a thoughtful glance and then rested his head on top of mine. It was awkward because of my crutches, and the fact that he was about a whole foot taller than me, but it was a moment nonetheless. I've never had a friend to have a moment with.

"You know something. Don't you? That's why you're not freaking out?" He queried, his jaw digging into my skull.

I scowled, digging my elbow into his side in a warning. "If you bring that up again, I'm going to get Sophia." I threatened in a low voice.

Seth stiffened, before relaxing against me again. "Yep. Going back to being quiet." Seth agreed before going silent.

We stayed that way until Drake came bouncing down the stairs with a huge grin on his face.

"Avery, dude, your room is so-, Hey, man. What's wrong?" Drake faltered when his eyes landed on us. Seth pulled himself away from me and faced Drake with his arms crossed over his chest. Drake ran over to Seth and wrapped his arms around him.

Something unexpected I learned about Drake, and this group of boys in general, is that they are extremely affectionate. Not in a weird way. However, Drake Weston does not believe in "too many hugs". I'm sure if it were possible, he'd have us all cuddle 24/7.

After a stiff second, Seth returned the hug.

"Just know that if you ever hurt my brother I will kill you." He hissed into Drake's year, but then exhaled a quiet sigh. "But I'm, sorry for yelling at you before. That was completely uncalled for."

Drake didn't even flinch at Seth's threat. If anything he held him closer.

"I'm never going to hurt him. No matter what happens." Drake promised in a hushed whisper. Seth nodded against Drake's shoulder.

"Then we're good," Seth mumbled, pulling away from Drake to give him a lopsided smile. Drake matched it and clapped Seth on the shoulder.

"Great, because Ethan is almost done tutoring Sophia and the food isn't ready yet." Drake reminded, going to the stove. Seth's face paled and he immediately followed behind him.

"I'm already a dead man walking. Lord knows she doesn't need any more reasons to kill me. Avery, on a scale from one to ten, how good are your seduction skills?" Seth rambled nervously, clambering through my cabinets for pots.

"They're definitely at a 15." Sophia chimed in a sing-song voice as she swung into the kitchen. My head ducked down to hide the fact that they were the same color as the tomatoes Seth was chopping. Meanwhile, Seth cowered between Drake and me, trying to make himself as invisible as possible.

"Don't worry Seth. I'm not here for you, yet. I just need water because your brother isn't done giving me an aneurysm." Sophia groaned dramatically, yanking the fridge open. "Even though I could kill you and Drake right now for letting Avery stand on her leg."

"I have my crutches!" I cried in protest, but neither of them would listen. They both took one arm and dragged me over to the nearest chair before plopping me there. I shouldn't know I was nowhere near as intimidating as Sophia.

"It's for your own good Avery." Sophia chastised, closing the fridge shut. My face pinched itself together, but then Sophia began to stalk closer to me with a dangerous purpose in her eyes. I told myself that she was just walking; my stomach shouldn't be turning the way it is over that.

But my reminders were pointless because I knew deep down that Sophia doesn't just do anything. When that fire is in her eyes, she's looking for something. And there's no question of whether or not she's gonna get it.

She always gets what she wants.

She leaned in close to me. The type of close two friends wouldn't usually share. Especially not when there were other people in the room. Sophia continued to deny any form of rationality when her hand brushed against my cheek.

"We want you to get better as soon as possible. Right?" She breathed, not even bothering to hide her suggestive tone. Her eyes trapped mine in hers, giving me nowhere to hide from the spell that is her gaze. At the end of it all, I wasn't sure I escape her trance anyway.

"Yeah." I agreed without an edge of doubt.

Sophia smirked in response and let her hand trail down my face before she pulled away completely. When her heat untangled from mine, I could breathe again; the air was actually entering and leaving my lungs. She sent me a wink as a farewell and then she was gone.

"Avery, could you please spell and define the word 'whipped' for me? You seem to be an expert in the field." Seth joked, killing the mood completely. I shot him a glare and saw Drake unsuccessfully try and hold in all of his laughter.

"You know what. Why don't I go and find a baseball bat for the game later?" I suggested in falsetto, standing up from my chair. "And while I'm up, why don't I go and show Sophia that you two are letting me stand and-"

"That won't be necessary," Drake interrupted, gesturing for me to sit down again. Seth nodded in agreement, zipping his finger over his mouth. They both turned around and went back to cooking without another word.

I sat back in my seat with a smug smile.

Maybe I can be as scary as Sophia.

Δ

"Alright, I've had enough!" Seth roared, standing up from the couch. Everyone turned towards him with bored looks, and Sophia paused the movie.

I can't imagine what his problem would be. We were all sitting in a post-feast haze on my couch, watching the movie that Seth himself picked out. This was the most comfortable I had been in a very long time. I could honestly stay like this, curled up next to Sophia, for the rest of my life.

"What is the problem, Seth?" Sophia asked, waving a hand at him to continue.

"Ethan has been on his phone the entire movie, and the light is bothering me!" Seth whined, just about stopping his foot. "Who could you possibly be texting this much?"

Even with just the TV lighting, I could see the blush creeping up Ethan's neck. Whoever he's texting definitely isn't a friend like he told me earlier.

"I'm allowed to have friends outside of this group Seth," Ethan argued, stuffing his phone back into his pocket.

"No one said you weren't!" Seth exclaimed, his hands flying above his head. "I'm just saying that you can't text them in the middle of-"

"Well, I'm not anymore. Okay? Okay. Sophia, please unpause the movie." Ethan hurried, calming Seth down.

He made a few more unhappy grumbling noises, but soon the only sounds were those coming from the movie.

Until five minutes later when the familiar shrill of my phone went off.

Seth threw a whole tantrum right then and there, falling into Drake's lap and complaining about how much life sucks. It was a weird maneuver to get my phone out, but luckily Ethan was next to me to pull it out of my back pocket when I sat up.

"It's a text message from Marisol." He read from the screen with a scrunched nose.

I snatched the phone from his hands and stuffed it back into my front pocket. I wanted to believe that it was so dark that no one could see how nervous I was, but it was a fool's dream.

Sophia paused the movie again and looked down at me with righteous discontent.

"Who's Marisol?" She interrogated, reaching into my pocket for my phone.

"No one." I insisted, swatting her hands away.

Sophia only became more frustrated. So much so that she had to stand up from the couch and stare me down.

"Who. Is. Marisol?" She asked again, her voice oozing with authority. I debated lying, but that fire was there, and like I said.

Sophia gets what she wants.