Pacing the room, I took in a deep inhale and then an exhale as I tried to calm my racing mind. Just focus, Ethan, just focus.

It was very late into the evening, and I was at Lucas's house. His parents had gone away on some kind of trip for the weekend, so he'd invited me, some of our team, and some friends of friends around for a little small gathering.

Instead of enjoying myself and socializing like I normally would, I couldn't keep my mind straight. So, a little while ago, I had snuck off so I could pace back and forth around Lucas' bedroom like a madman alone.

Well, I suppose I wasn't entirely alone, his cat Senior Kit-Kat was sleeping in his little igloo bed in the corner. But he wasn't offering me life-changing advice, other than to yawn and glare at me from time to time.

Finally coming to a stop, I turned to the mirror and stared at my dishevelled reflection before lightly clearing my throat.

"Look, Mia, I'm kind of dumb and basically I've been lying to you your whole life–" Shaking my head, I stopped and groaned not liking how that sentence beginner sounded like either.

For the past five minutes, I'd been rehearsing various ways to confess to Mia that I liked her. I wasn't doing so, in the hopes of her reciprocating any feelings. She'd made it clear yesterday afternoon that we had no future together and I respected that.

Did I like it? No. Did it kill me inside? Very much so. But still, I respected it.

What I didn't respect though was how I'd cowardly avoided the truth yesterday and lied about my feelings. Mia deserved to know the truth, and frankly, I was fucking fed up with lying. I liked her, and I refused to be ashamed even if it was one-sided.

Just as I was prepping myself to practice again, I heard footsteps approaching from out in the corridor and suddenly the door to his bedroom flew open.

"Ethan, babe, are you in here?"

Turning around, I saw Lucas strut into the room and instantly smile upon seeing me. Though in a serious mood, my mouth did inadvertently twitch at his choice of nickname for me.

I plucked up a brow. "Wow, I see I've progressed from slut-boy to babe. I'm honoured," I commented flatly.

"You're welcome, whore," Lucas said with a wink. I immediately rolled my eyes.

More so lately, Lucas had been experimenting with nicknames for me, and let me tell you answering to 'Pookie' when someone is calling you from halfway across the parking lot can be quite an experience.

Chuckling, Lucas threw himself down onto the bed. "Anyway, Ethy why are we being all antisocial? People are asking for you," he asked as he looked me up and down.

"I'm just tired that's all, so I was just going to just study up here for a bit," I lied with a simple shrug.

"Hmm, okay, sure," Lucas murmured with slightly narrowed eyes as though he didn't believe me. I hadn't really gotten around to telling Lucas about Mia's rejection of me. Since things were going so well with him and May, I didn't want to depress his excitement with more news about my pathetic situation.

Lucas cleared his throat. "Anyway, I've got some good news," he announced with a smile.

Knowing Lucas and mine's idea of good news could vary, I eyed him over cautiously. "Which is?" I asked slowly.

"I was on the phone with May earlier, and with the help of Chloe, I managed to manip- I mean convince, all three of them to come over, you're welcome," Lucas explained with a light bragging smile.

My eyes widened slightly. "Mia's coming in a minute?" I repeated in confirmation, suddenly feeling my throat run dry. I wasn't at all prepared to see her so soon. I'd promised myself the next time I'd see her I'd confess, and now she was literally on her way.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

"Yup," Lucas smirked as he rose to his feet. "You can thank me with money, and flattery," he stated confidently as he made his way to the door.

"Now if you excuse me, I'm off to go seduce a lady. I suggest you do the same," Lucas called out over his shoulder.

Just as he'd stepped over the threshold of the door, Lucas turned back. "Oh, wait I almost forgot. Very important tip: don't eat a single one of the cookies that are in the kitchen. John and Mike, the guys from the football team that I didn't even invite, made them and put a shit ton of weed in them. And I'm pretty sure they put Viagra in them as well...."

My brows furrowed. "Viagra? Isn't that the shit that middle-aged men take to make them horny? Why the fuck would they put that in?"

Lucas shrugged. "I don't know, football players take a lot of hits to the head. Who knows?" he snorted.

Suddenly thinking of something, I frowned. "Well, when you see Mia, make sure to warn her about them, you know what she's like around bakery items," I muttered in thought.

"Yeah, yeah, of course, I'm not an idiot," Lucas said, brushing off my words dismissively.

"Anyway, see you in a minute," Lucas called out with a smile before finally exiting the room.

Silence engulfed the room as he left, and I was once again, left with my thoughts. Seeing how happy, Lucas was a small part of me felt slightly jealous, wishing I could be at the same point in my relationship as he was with May. Him and May had only been getting closer while here I stood a day after Mia rejected me.

Interrupting my thoughts, I heard the doorbell ring, and I stiffened in place, realizing it was probably them.

Making quick steps over to the window, I drew the curtains and looked down to the front of the house to see if I could spot them. Just as expected, I instantly caught sight of the vague shadow of three figures.

I swallowed hard, able to recognize Mia's outline even in the bad light. She would always be easily recognizable to me.

Stepping away from the window, I once again started pacing the room as I realized that I was going to have to face her with the truth today. Anxiety twisted my stomach as I wondered what she would say. Would she be uncomfortable? Would she be creeped out, annoyed? Would she not want to talk to me anymore.

Anxiously cracking my knuckles, I decided there was no harm in reading over my notes for a bit before confronting her. I might as well let her get settled. Making my way over to the desk in the corner of the room, I got out my book, and ignored all the loud sounds of activity from below me and just tried to focus.

Five minutes turned into ten, then twenty before finally forty minutes had gone by. In that time I'd also received about five or so messages from Lucas asking me why 'I wasn't downstairs flirting.'

Realizing I had gone far past the point of reasonable procrastination, I took a deep breath and finally rose to my feet. It's going to be okay, Ethan. Everything's going to be okay.

Feeling like I was walking into my nightmare, I took the stairs painfully slowly before finally reaching the bottom. I followed the sound of the noise to the living room where some speakers were lightly playing.

Upon entering, I noticed two of the football guys sitting on the sofa. Then, my eyes latched onto Chloe and Mia chatting dynamically a few spaces in front of them. I became stiff immediately as I saw her.

She looked frustratingly great even from the back and it was far from helping the situation. I was supposed to be making steps to get over her, and she was being far from helpful looking the way she currently was.

While Mia had her back to me, I could see Chloe's facial expressions and she looked quite heated about something for some reason. For the happy girl Chloe normally was, she was frowning a lot, and the next minute she snatched the red-solo cup that Mia had been holding out of her hand. Then oddly she started talking again as though lecturing her on something. Well, that was weird.

Making my way slowly over, I softly cleared my throat when I noticed a light break in their conversation. "Chubs, can I talk to you about something important?" I somehow managed to force myself to say.

Chloe looked over Mia's shoulder in surprise, and Mia soon turned around herself causing the two of us to lock eyes. As usual, the eye contact caused my heart to jump and my stomach to do all kinds of pathetic nonsense, in an attempt to inspire me to do something stupid. Do not kiss her, Ethan.

I eyed her up and down nervously as I prepped myself to ask her if we could speak alone.

Mia's eyes immediately lit up. "Ethan...," she drawled in excitement as a beautiful smile stretched across her face. It was a giddy kind of happiness; the kind you might get as a child, and it was oddly directed at me.

Opening her arms wide, Mia then completely caught me off guard and jumped into my arms.

I caught her around her hips causing a surprised chuckle to escape my mouth. Shocked would be a severe underestimate of how I felt as she hugged me towards her and drowned me in her scent. Very much enjoying the display of affection, I held her a little longer than I perhaps really had to, loving the feel of her in my arms. "Well, this is a greeting, I could certainly get used to," I laughed before I slowly lowered her to her feet.

"Don't get excited, Ethan, she's drunk," Chloe said flatly before shooting me an awkward smile.

The moment her words landed, my smile slid right off my face and as I looked back at Mia and took in her sloppy posture and overly eager expression, I realized she was right.

Mia immediately started shaking her head wildly from side to side. "No, that's not true at all, she's lying!" Mia yelled frustratedly as she stomped her foot down in frustration.

My eyes widened. Okay, she's very drunk.

Mia attempt to storm away in anger, but she tripped on her second step causing her legs to give out from underneath her.

I quickly jumped towards her and wrapped an arm around her waist before she could fall. "Woah, careful," I said.

My heart was jumping wildly just from the close contact, and looking down at her, my eyes rocked between hers in concern as I noticed how truly distant the look in her eyes was. And how odd, her entire demeanor was. What on earth had caused her to drink this much?

Once I'd steadied her, I turned back to Chloe. "How long has she been like this?" I asked.

"I have no idea, I just came in here, and she looked like she was about to dance on the table for your buddies," Chloe spat with disgust, her nose wrinkling.

Something in me snapped the second I heard her words, and at once my eyes spun toward the sofa where the two guys on the sofa were sitting. They were the two guys from the football team; the little shits weren't even formally invited. My jaw locked tight, and noticing me staring at them, the two guys froze, and a horrified look passed over both their faces.

Imagining them preying on Mia at her weakest, I knew at that moment I wouldn't feel the tiniest slither of guilt if I got the opportunity to rip them apart limb from limb. I think I'd even laugh. Hypothetically, of course, I wasn't stupid enough to let these worthless pricks be a reason I spent a day in prison.

"We...er...I...," one of the guys stuttered.

"Just get the fuck out before I do something, I regret," I snapped. And I meant it. Prison, or not if they stayed another second in my present, there was no way I'd be able to control my shit.

Wasting no opportunity, the two of them scrambled to their feet and ran over to the door like their life depended on it.

"Aww, you're so mean," I heard a voice interrupt.

Looking over, I realized it was obviously a remark from drunk Mia who looked after the two boys with a falling smile. What the fuck? Though she was very drunk and didn't know what she was saying I couldn't help but feel annoyed.

"Mean?" I scoffed. "They're lucky I didn't put them into a fucking hospital."

Mia oddly enough for the fact I was pissed, looked me up and down with a giddy smile. Suddenly, Mia threw her arms around me with a giggle, causing me to once more stumble back in surprise.

My eyes widened as she aligned her face right up to mine to the point our noises were bumping. My eyes fell inadvertently down to her lips, then back to her eyes again, and I fought myself desperately not to do anything. I tried the best I could to remind myself that I could smell alcohol on her breath, and not to fucking do anything, no matter how beautiful she looked.

Mia leaned even further into me as though taunting me, and her eyes seemed to sparkle. Trust drunk Mia to be a seductress. Carrying on the torture, she leaned her mouth up to my ear, causing me to freeze

"You're just jealous because you missed my dance. I can do it again if you like...," she whispered lightly in my ear. Her lips accidentally brushed against my ear lobe as she spoke, only making the situation worse. Soon images of Mia dancing alone for me flickered past my mind, and before I knew it, my arms that I hadn't even realized had already been wrapped around Mia were now tightly gripping her waist.

Hearing her giggle again, I remembered she was drunk. "Shit, no," I swore before gently pushing us apart.

Feeling annoyed at my weakness, I looked her up and down with a frown. "Why the hell did you drink so much?"

"Because I wanted to?" Mia answered with a bright expression and a shrug. "Oh, and because of the cookies...," she nodded. "Oh wait, oops, Lucas asked me not to tell you that," she giggled before clumsily slapping a hand over her mouth.

My brows furrowed in confusion for a half second wondering what the fuck she was on about before it then hit me. My heart stopped.

"Shit, you ate the edibles!" I cried.

A thousand different emotions ran through me as I realized that not only was Mia drunk but she'd clearly taken an overly generous portion of the edibles. Edibles that were mixed with God knows what kind of weird substances. For fucks sake they put Viagra in there, fucks knows what else those psychos might have put in there for shits and giggles.

Swallowing, I looked Mia up and down, realizing the true horror of the situation.

Chloe's eyes mirrored my own and widened in size as she looked over at Mia. "Oh my god, is she high?"

I nodded. "Yes, now excuse me for a second. I need to go find Lucas and kill him," I snapped simply and firmly. Grabbing a hold of Mia's wrist, she stumbled after me with light laughter as I towed her behind me toward the direction of the kitchen.

I roughly flung open the kitchen door and instantly spotted Lucas leaning up on the kitchen counter. He was mid-conversation with May and was making that stupid smile he always did whenever he was shamelessly flirting with her.

"Lucas!" I yelled.

He broke conversation and immediately looked toward me in surprise. His eyes went to me, then followed on behind me to where Mia was. That's when he became incredibly still, and his eyes darted around panickily.

"Well, shit!" Lucas said.

I let out a bitter laugh. "Shit indeed. Would you like to explain to me why the fuck Chubs is high on fucking Cannabis?" I yelled.

Lucas shifted nervously from foot to foot, looking like he wanted to be anywhere but here. "How do you know I have anything to do with it?" Lucas asked cautiously.

"She told me, maybe next time, don't trust someone high to keep your fucking secrets," I snapped in annoyance.

"Look, man, I'm sorry, but she ate the entire plate before I even got there," Lucas argued.

I let out a long-frustrated sigh, for once in my life not amused by Mia's love of all things sweet and sugary. I turned to Mia who was swaying side to side in boredom and gave her a long dry look. "Of course, you would...," I muttered.

Mid-swaying, Mia suddenly stopped and blinked those large brown eyes at me. It was annoying how cute it was. How the fuck was she cute when she was drunk?

"You've got eyes like, Ian Somerhalder," she suddenly announced abruptly while shamelessly looking into my eyes.

Completely caught off guard by her declaration, I blinked once then twice before slowly bit by bit a smile started to creep onto my face. I couldn't help it, knowing the numerous times Mia had ranted on about this man's good looks and especially so how much she liked his eyes. And now here she was, all inhibitions gone; comparing me to him.

"You mean, the actor you're obsessed with? The one you find hot?" I laughed, my eyes sparkling in amusement.

Mia nodded her head eagerly, completely oblivious to the damage she was doing to her future self. "Yup," she replied chirpily. Her response only made me smile wider, finding her lack of control over her words more fun than I probably should have.

Narrowing my eyes slightly in thought, I wondered slightly if what they said about drunk people was true – do intoxicated people really tell the truth? If so, I very much cared to hear more of Mia's truths. And even if they weren't true, I certainly wouldn't mind hearing her tell me more about how good-looking I was.

May winced, clearly noticing her friend making an absolute fool out of herself. "I think that's enough confessions for today, let's get you to bed," May sighed as she started to walk over to her with a smile.

I was about to hand her over; trusting May would take more than good care of her but selfishly a part of me wanted to look after her myself. And besides, Lucas and May deserved some time together.

Before I could stop myself, I found myself pulling her close and lightly shaking my head. "No, you should stay and enjoy yourself, May. I'll take her upstairs and look after her, I wanted to get some homework done anyway," I explained. "And besides, I'm quite interested in hearing a few more of her confessions," I chuckled rather honestly.

May let out a light snort, her eyes dancing amusedly. "Fair enough, I don't blame you. I'll come up to check on her in a bit," May said as she shot me a grateful smile.

I turned back to Mia. "Let's get you upstairs, shall we," I said with a light smile. Wrapping an arm around her waist, and legs, I lifted her up into my arms.

Mia turned to boldly look at me. "Ooo, this is fun, I like being carried. Especially, by you," she said with a wink as I made my way over to the stairs.

As the shockingly bold sentence left Mia's lips, I bit my lip while trying not to laugh and tried to focus on ascending the stairs.

Completely uncaring, Mia continued to stare at me with a tilted head as I carried her. I'd caught her staring at me before, but this kind of staring was something else entirely. There was no subtility, and I could feel every place her eyes landed on my face, and she didn't give one single flying fuck about hiding it.

Soon enough, I glanced down at her. "Why are you staring at me?" I finally asked with a laugh.

"Because I like the way you look," Mia shrugged with sparkling eyes.

My mouth instantly broke out into the widest of grins at her statement, knowing her words were doing far too much for my now increasingly inflating head. A part of me wanted to record her saying this shit, so I could play it back to myself as a treat.

"Really?" Because just the other day, your exact words were that I was 'distractingly ugly'," I questioned.

"Pft...no,...more like distractingly hot," she giggled before she reached out to bop my nose with her finger. Loving every second of her flattery, I looked down at her with a smirk.

"You know, you're not too bad like this," I teased.

Finally reaching the upper level of the house, I made my way over to the guest room I often stayed in, and kicked the door open.

Steadily walking over to the bed, I lowered her softly down onto the bedding before quickly drawing back the covers so I could help her climb in. With my help, Mia managed to slide herself in correctly, all warm and covered.

Looking down at her, I smiled in satisfaction. "Just try and get some sleep, okay Chubs," I said gently as I reached out to tuck a stray hair behind her ears. "I'll be right at the desk if you need anything," I said as I finished tucking her in.

Satisfied she looked all warm and comfortable; I took one last look at her before straightening up and making my way over to the desk.

I wouldn't be surprised if she slept the whole night. She was a surprisingly easy drunk slash high person.

That's when I heard the furious rustle of covers. "No," she suddenly whined. "I don't want to sleep."

I'd barely turned fully around before I noticed Mia was out of bed and scrambling clumsily towards the door.

"Fuck," I swore as he quickly chased after her. I quickly wrapped an arm around her waist to restrain her before sharply turning her around. I must have done so with a little too much speed, as she grunted in surprise and fell heavily against my chest.

My heart jumped at the abrupt contact, not expecting to feel her flush up against me so suddenly.

Then making what was already a bad situation worse, Mia stared in mesmerization at my chest and started to pat my upper body.

"Wow, Ethan, your chest is ridiculously hard," she giggled.

Though her handsy-ness was severely raising my blood pressure, I couldn't help but chuckle at her words. I would have felt bad for her if all her embarrassing words weren't so flattering towards me.

For fucks sake, the girl had spent most of her life insulting me, it was hard not to feel a little happy at the enthusiasm of her compliments.

"You should really stop talking, Mia," I muttered with a chuckle. Sober her would know full well, I'd never let her live this down.

"What it's true," Mia smiled. "Mine is way softer, see," she said. Grabbing a hold of my hand, she smacked my entire palm bang smack on top of her left breast. My eyes widened crazily fast, able to feel far too much through her top.

For a split nanosecond I just stared at her with my hand still in place and in that second, I swear to God I almost went into cardiac arrest. Ripping my hand away fast, I willed my racing heart to calm down. Oh my god, you just touched her boob. Shit. Shit. Shit.

I could physically feel my face heating up, my face practically burning alive. I locked eyes with her, in embarrassment. "Mia, you shouldn't just let people randomly grope your boob," I mumbled.

"But it wasn't anyone, it was you," she smiled before wrapping her arms in a great big loop around my neck. This once again, caused me to stiffen. Her lips drew up to my ear, and my breath quickened.

"And you're always allowed to touch me, Ethan, always," she whispered. I nearly lost myself in that moment, knowing that was hands down one of the sexiest sentences that had ever left her mouth.

Why the fuck did she have to be drunk?

Pulling back slightly, so she could look at me, we locked eyes, and I watched as her eyes danced over my face.

From the way my heart was leaping about in my chest, and how tightly I was holding her, I knew things were bad. Very bad.

"M-mia, w-what are you doing?" I stuttered, struggling to find my words.

"This," she giggled.

Grabbing a fistful of my t-shirt, Mia pulled my lips directly onto hers. I had absolutely no time to react and a groan of surprise left my lips as she started to move her lips desperately against mine. Her hands moved quickly to my hair, and she let her hands delve between the locks while I just stood there, frozen.

As she started tugging on my hair, the sensation of her lips; her body pressed against me, the smell of her became all too much for how much I wanted her, and I gave in and kissed her. At the same time, my hand squeezed at her hip causing a moan to escape past her lips.

That instantly brought it all back to me, and I ripped myself away from her as fast as lightning.

Staring back at her with wildly frightened eyes, I realized to my horror what had happened.

"Shit," I whispered.  

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