Chapter Eight.

I wake up shivering, with a massive headache. I open my eyes and look around. I'm outside, laying on a mattress in a pair of sweatpants and a really heavy sweatshirt, bundled in blankets. The cabin is only like ten feet away, so it's not that bad, but still. I'm sleeping outside! What the hell? I went to sleep in a room last night. Surely I wasn't that drunk that I fell asleep in the snow. How did the mattress even get outside?

"Why the fuck is it so cold?" I hear somebody scold next to me.

"Kyle?" I screech and he jumps up from under the covers. This does NOT look good. I didn't sleep with Kyle. I distinctly remember going to sleep inside, in a cozy warm bed next to Lia. "Did we-"

"Vance," Kyle mumbles angrily.

"I'll kill him," I state, starting to feel the anger boiling under my skin.

I throw the covers off of me and the cold air causes my body to shiver with Goosebumps.

"Hey, Abby, wait up, I get the first hit," Kyle shouts out, catching up to me. I run past the hot-tub and quickly yank the patio door open. All of my anger is being taken out on the door that I'm surprised that I didn't pull the handle off.

"No way, Kyle, I get the first hit," I giggle as he finally reaches me as we walk inside. I rub my arms with my hands to create even more warmth because the heat generating in the cabin isn't enough. "Vance Andrew Taylor! Wake your ass up!" I scream into the house, then hear a loud thud on the floor upstairs. I run to the stairs, still having Kyle follow close behind.

As I'm walking to Van's room, out stumbles Evan in a pair of sweatpants, leaving his abs open for the whole world to see. All of the sudden all thoughts of killing Van are out the window, when seeing Evan without a shirt on; his body is almost as muscled as Van's. Van also has a couple freckles on his chest that are so cute and add character and-

Oh my gosh, I see Evan's body and instead of wanting to jump him, I compare him to Van? I think of how much better Van's body is and how much more character it has? I am seriously disturbed.

I stare at Evan as he rubs his eyes and runs a hand through his mess dark hair. He stretches in front of me, flexing his muscles that make his body look even more amazing. Just because I like Van's body more, does not deny Evan his sexiness. Wow. Did I just use the word sexiness? My hormones are whack right now. I blame the snow.

"Good morning, sexy-sleepy-head," I greet, messing up Evan's hair even more, but in a cute way.

Kyle nudges me. "Abby, back to the ass-kicking," he reminds me.

"Oh. Yeah. Right," I say, walking past Evan and into his room, where Van is peacefully sleeping in the bed opposite to Evan's. Kyle and Evan follow behind me to see what I do. "Van, your ass is grass!" I shout.

Van slowly wakes, up yawning. "Yeah, and your ass is snow," he chuckles, switching sleeping positions, away from Kyle and I.

I get on Van's bed and jump up and down on the mattress in attempt to piss him off. "You know Van," I start. "What would you have done if one of us got hypothermia and died?" I say angrily.

"Seriously dude, not cool," Kyle cuts in.

I roll my eyes as his comment. "Exactly, I think I can speak for Kyle and I when I say I'm not ready to die, you asshole," I smirk, jumping on his bed.

"Especially, a virgin," Kyle mumbles.

"Dude, shut up, I'm trying to intimidate him," I tell Kyle, holding back laughter. "What would you have done if I died, Vanny?" I attempt sweetness.

"If had you died, I would still be sleeping, peacefully," Van grumbles jokingly.

I stop jumping and stare at him. "Why are you being a jerk?"

Van ignores me and pulls the covers over his head. "It's too early, we'll talk later," he groans.

I glance at a clock on the dresser and it's just past seven in the morning. "Oh, so it's okay for you to wake me up at the ass crack of dawn, anytime you want , but it's not okay when I do it? Yeah, that's totally fair," I remark, sarcastically. "Who in their right mind would put a person outside in the freezing cold?" I question.

"Ask your boyfriend," Van yawns again. "He helped."

I turn my attention to Evan near the door. "You were a part of this?" I ask. Wow, I'm impressed, I didn't take him as the prank-type.

"Guilty," Evan grins.

I laugh, getting off of Van's bed and walk towards him. "My bad ways are rubbing off on him," I coo devilishly. "Come on, you can make it up to me by cooking me breakfast," I slip my hand into his.

"If you make pancakes and forget chocolate chips, she'll kick you in the nads, man!" Van warns Evan from under the covers.

I laugh, hysterically. "No, Van, that was because you're you and my knee just has this attraction to your balls," I reply. Evan sighs, like he's relieved. "What?" I ask suspiciously.

"I'm just glad it's only your knee that attracted to his balls," Evan teases. "It could be worse."

I laugh and peck Evan on the lips, he responds by kissing me back. This is better, I just need to keep myself distracted from my thoughts. When I'm alone, that's when I think about all of these questioning feelings for the jerk-face.

Evan and I walk downstairs and into the kitchen. I start getting things out of the fridge and pantry to make food. I guess we could be nice and cook for everybody. "So, you and Van put Kyle and I outside last night?" I question.

"Um, actually me Vance and the rest of the guys did," Evan corrects smiling. "Oh, except Dex had no part in it, I'm supposed to make that clear," He chuckles.

I laugh, that's so like Dex, but of course, I know that he was apart of it too, he's just fears me. "So now we're short a bed," I tell him. "I guess I'll just have to sleep in yours," I sigh, pretending to be disappointed.

Then Van stumbles into the room, rubbing his eyes sleepily. I tell myself not to stare at his t-shirt free chest. There is way too much testosterone in this house. Too much for me to handle.

"Aw, could you not sleep, Van?" I tease.

"At least I didn't wake up outside," Van smirks.

"You can't use that as a burn, when it was your fault, dude," I smile.

Van chuckles. "No, it was Dex, I was just an accomplice in the whole thing."

I laugh. "Sure, blame poor little Dex."

Van holds up both of his hands. "It was. Dex wanted you guys to think that his drink had mystical powers and actually worked," he explains and Evan's agreeing with what he's saying. "You know I don't even know why he would want his drink to get somebody that wasted, that they would have sex in the snow. That shit is cold," I think he just went from talking to me, to talking to Evan.

"Exactly, man. I only have two words to describe it; frostbite and shrinkage in unwanted places," Evan replies, agreeing with Van.

What is this? There must be a new world order.

Van and Evan burst into laughter, and Van's not fake-laughing, it's real laughing. If they continue to get along, we are going to have some serious problems. I mean sure, it's a good thing that my friends like my boyfriend, but Van isn't supposed to. If Van and Evan get along, it's because they have similar personalities and if they're similar then- No, Abby, just chill.

I walk over to the pantry and shuffle through all of the food that Mitch's parents have stocked in here. I can't find pancake mix, but I stop on a box of chocolate and strawberry cake mix. There are other flavors too, pretty much every flavor, but those are the two that stick out at me. Since today is Mitch's actual birthday, we should bake him a cake, right? I mean, to be good friends. I grab the chocolate, because lets face it; chocolate's better.

"You know, we should bake Mitch a cake, or something," I announce.

Van laughs even harder. "You, baking? Yeah, no, you see, some of us actually want to live," he teases.

I roll my eyes. "Fine then, you can help me bake the cake, Chef Boy-Moron," I throw at him.

"You know I'd offer to help, but I couldn't cook to save my life," Evan chuckles.

"Wow, you and Abbs are meant for each other," Van teases. "I hope that you can live off of grilled cheese sandwiches, because that's about the only thing that she can manage cooking, without it catching fire." Van now has Evan laughing with him.

I fight smiling along. "Van, I can cook," I protest.

"No, you can't, you microwave," Van laughs.

I nod, knowing that's true. I'd much rather use the microwave than the stove or oven, that and it's just safer. "So are you helping me?" I ask him, tossing him the cake mix.

Van's eyes scan over the box and he looks at me. "I can't," he says simply, "it's chocolate," he adds.

I roll my eyes and turn back to the pantry, where I grab the strawberry mix and throw it at him. "You're such a baby, Van," I tell him.

Van grins. "How about we make one of each and stack them, that way we both get what we want," he says.

"It's not about what we want, it's Mitch's birthday," I remind him, trying to win this argument.

He nods in agreement. "True, but he's not doing the baking," he points out.

I sigh, giving into the fact that he just want this battle. "Fine," I respond quietly.

When everybody's awake, the first thing that they want to do it go ski on the slopes. The Slut included, which is very shocking because I thought that the only thing It went down on, was boys, but apparently hills covered in white stuff is also included. Slut...

Van's staying behind because I'm staying behind, and he doesn't trust me to not burn the cabin down, not that I blame him. Evan was going to stay too, but for some reason, Kyle and Dex completely jumped up for joy saying that he should 'totally go because it's gonna be sick!' Kyle's words exactly, which is weird because Kyle has never used the word 'sick' before.

I was originally going to go skiing with the rest of the group, but I'm a bit too hung-over for that. Even after two Advil, my head is still pounding, so Van better not give me any crap because I'm really not in the mood. That's probably the real reason why he's not going too; to annoy the hell out of me, like he always does. But, I guess it's okay, because I annoy him too; it's a mutual feeling.

I walk downstairs after taking a shower and getting dressed for the day. I'm not dressed up because I'm locked up in this cabin, so a simple pair of black Soffe shorts and a white tank top.

Van has already fallen asleep on the couch, probably because I woke him up so early. I think about my rude awakening this morning and decide that he shouldn't get to sleep. I grab a pillow from the couch and lift it above my head to wake him up by attacking him with a pillow, but stop.

Van's so sweet looking when he's sleeping, when he's not talking, or being a jerk, or doing his jerk things. He still doesn't have a shirt on, and I get consumed by watching his bare chest raise up and down with each breath.

I sigh, knowing that I have major issues with this boy. If things weren't so complicated, it'd be easier to care about him, but between everything that's been going on between us in the last couple months is...difficult.

I put the pillow back and shake Van's shoulder. "Hey, loser, get up," I say jokingly. Van groans, already getting annoyed with me. "Fine, I guess I don't need your supervision to use the oven.

Just like that, Van immediately wakes himself up. "Why don't we just make the cake later and take a nap," he suggests, grabbing my hand to keep me from leaving the room.

"No, dude, the guys will be back in a couple of hours," I state.

"Are you just worried about your older boyfriend finding out that you still like to take naps?" Van teases.

No, I'm worried about him finding out that I still like to take naps with you, I correct in my head. "Just come on," I roll my eyes, pulling him off the couch. Van follows me into the kitchen and we quickly get out everything that we need. The only time that I've done any kind of baking, was in a high school cooking class and that was back in the ninth grade. I think we made muffins, and I burned them.

"So," Van starts, as we begin making the cake mix. "What does your mom think of Kevin?" he asks.

I roll my eyes. Evan and him get along, but he still can't call him by his actual name? "I don't know, I don't think that she cares, but she hasn't really met him," I answer.

Van nods along. "I take it that your dad doesn't know about him at all then, huh?"

I shake my head. "Nope, since my dad left, he doesn't really know much about anything," I reply, cracking an egg and opening it over the bowl. "You know, as much as I hate my mom, I guess in a way, I understand why she had an affair. She was only trying to make herself happy," I tell Van.

Van snorts, "a little too happy, don't you think?" He bumps his side to mine, in a way that lets me know what kind of 'happy' he's talking about.

I shutter, thinking about my parents in any way like that is disgusting. "Why do you have to be such a perv?" I question rhetorically.

"You aren't mad at your mom?" Van quickly changes the subject.

I stop cracking eggs at look at him. "Are you really asking me that, dude?" I respond, answering his question with a question. "Of course I'm mad at my mom, I'm just saying that I guess I can understand why she did it. Now, the fact that it was with your dad is just stupid, because your dad isn't exactly Prince Charming," I say seriously and he nods in agreement. "He's more like Prince Cunning, kind of like you," I tease.

Van rolls his eyes. "Yeah well, your mom isn't exactly Cinderella, and neither are you," he smirks.

"Good, because I'd much rather me Ariel, the sexy mermaid," I tease, laughing, putting the last ingredient in the bowl and begin mixing it.

Van laughs hysterically, getting a kick out of it. "Actually, if you think about it, you're more of a Snow White," he says. "Between all of the guys, you're the only girl that the guys actually see as a member of our sick-fantastic-group," he explains his theory. "Not to mention that now that Kevin's in the picture, that makes seven guys," he finishes. "Granted, none of us are short hairy men, but you get the over all picture."

I laugh, thinking in depth about his insane comparison. In a weird way, it works, maybe not all the guys are similar to one of the Seven Dwarfs, but Dex would definitely be the Dopey in the group.

When I'm done mixing the cake mix, I pour it into a cake pan and there's still half a bowl left, probably because the cake pan isn't the right size, but it's the only one Mitch had. I could also make two chocolate cakes because there are two pans, but Van is making a strawberry cake and he's taking up the other pan. He's a loser.

"See?" I hold the leftover cake mix in front of him. "We're wasting delicious cake mix because you insist on having strawberry. Haven't you ever heard of settling?" I question.

Van chuckles. "Why settle for what I don't want, when I can easily have what I want?" he throws back.

I sigh and scoop some chocolate mix onto my pointer finger and drag it across Van's cheek. Then I quickly go back to what I was doing before, pretending like I didn't do anything, even though he saw me.

I feel Van' eyes burning into me and I can't help, but look at him. "What?" I ask innocently.

Van keeps the corners of his lips from curling into a smile. "Really, Abby? That was a bit childish, don't you think?" he says.

I shake my head. "I don't know what you're talking about, Van," I fight a smile. I open the preheated oven, put the cake in, and Van puts his strawberry cake next to my chocolate cake. It should be illegal for them to bake in the same oven.

Van's knee bumps the oven door and it hits my wrist. I jump back at the hot sting and grasp the spot on my wrist.

"Oh, shit, I'm sorry," Van says apologetically, stepping closer to me. "Let me see," he reaches for my wrist.

"Don't touch it!" I snap.

Van rolls his eyes. "Don't be a baby, just let me see it," he chuckles.

I move my hand to see a red burn-mark about the size of a penny. "Does it hurt?" Van questions.

"No, it feels like a bucket of sunshine," I smirk sarcastically. "Yeah, it hurts!"

Van laughs as I look at his face, which still has a chocolate cake mix smeared on his cheek. I grab a towel from the counter and wipe it off. "That was a major waste of chocolate cake mix, I don't know what I was thinking," I joke.

Van walks back over to his leftover cake mix and I walk to the sink and run warm water over my burn, to prevent it from blistering. This is why Van's such a dumbass, I have proof and it's going to become a scar on my wrist.

"Hey, Abbs," Van says.

I turn around and start to ask what he wants, but I'm cut off when puts a dot of strawberry icing on my nose, with his pointer finger. I close my eyes, pretending that he didn't just do that.

"Really, Van? Are we going to play this game?" I question, walking over to my leftover chocolate cake mix. Van's laughing as scoop a handful of the cake mix in my hand and quickly turn around and smear it all down his chest. His laughter stops and mine starts. "I win," I giggle simply and turn to leave.

I'm not even out of the kitchen when Van's arms slip around my waist. He presses his chest against my back, allowing me to feel his muscles. I love his hugs from behind, although, I could never tell him that. Then his hands travel to my boobs and the quickly leave and he waits for my reaction. I stare at the pink hand prints from the strawberry cake mix on my white tank top.

My jaw drops open, he wasn't hugging me to be sweet, he was hugging me in order to get me back. Not to mention that he grabbed my boobs in the process. The nerve of him...

I spin around and stare at his grinning expression. My eyes quickly scan over his chest and I notice that the cake mix is barely visible. Probably because it smeared on the back of my shirt.

That's it, Van, I say to myself.

At the same time, we both go for our leftover cake mix and fling it at each other. I feel his hands rub cake mix in my face while I rub my cake mix through his hair. Both of us can't help but laugh as we do it, because we know that it' funny.

Finally, I tackle Van down to the kitchen floor and straddle him and pour the rest of the mix directly onto his chest. Then I rub my hands in it and use it as paint for his face.

Van picks up his bowl and pours it directly over my head, seeping into my hair. I can't believe that he just did that. Though, I'd like to hit him for that, I can't stop laughing, and neither can he.

For that second, I'm distracted, and Van rolls me over so that he's on top of me. His hands find my stomach and begin to Tickle Me Abby, not Elmo, which makes me laugh even harder.

"Van...stop...please..." I manage to get out in between my fits of laughter.

Van laughs. "Say that I'm the awesome-est person you know," he smirks.

"Fine. I'm the...awesome-est...person you...know," I laugh out, making sure that it doesn't come out how he wants it to. Instead of saying that he's awesome, I say that I'm awesome.

"No time for being a smartass, Abby, especially when your laughter is in my hands," Van teases, still not stopping, as my body shakes from laughing, and tries to get away.

I eventually give in and say it, as much as it pains me to, I still say it. But, a part of me knows it's true.

Van thankfully does what he said he'd do and stopped tickling me. He stands up on his feet and holds out a hand to me, I take it and he pulls me up. "You lose," Van tells me.

"Hey! It's not my fault, you held me down and tried to suffocate me with my own laughter!" I remind him.

Van laughs. "It's not my fault that you're insanely ticklish."

"Ugh, you're such a jerk."

"Don't be so hard on yourself, Abbs," he smiles. "I let you lose, so my heart was in a good place."

I bring my knee back and knee him in the groin, for the second time in two days. "Don't be hard on yourself, Van," I start, emphasizing the word 'hard' for a reason. "My knee was just in a good place," I finish, holding back laughter at my cleverness, as I walk away.

I rush up the stairs, two at a time, so that I can take a shower before the guys get back. It would be horrible if they witnessed this incident. Especially since I have Van's hands printed on my boobs with strawberry cake mix.

I don't even know how Van and I get in the situations that we do. I mean, do normal people throw their friends into a tub of strawberry milk? How about put them outside in the freezing cold? As much as Van and I are different, we're the same in all the ways that matter. Where I'm bad at something, he's good at it. As friends, we...complete each other, in some strange cliché way.

When I make it to the bathroom, I shut the door, start the hot water, and let the steam begin to fill the small room. For a big cabin, the bathrooms are awfully small and you can't use more than one at the same time, otherwise it uses up all the hot water, I learned that this morning-the hard way.

I pull my shirt over my head and put it in the sink so that the cake mix doesn't get on the floor, then I take off my short, right as the bathroom door busts open and Van's staring at me. I quickly cross my arms over my chest. Though he's seen me in my bra and panties numerous times, the situation is different now; I have a boyfriend.

"Van, get the hell out!" I screech. "A little privacy?"

Van shrugs, like seeing me half naked doesn't bother him, and it probably doesn't, since I disabled him from using his masculine part for a while. "Abby, I don't see why you're so shy, I've seen you naked," he grins, and I already know what he's thinking about before he says it. "We used to take baths together, remember?" Even when Van and I fooled around those couple times, neither of us were complete undressed.

"Yeah, we were five, and I'm sure things look different," I state. "Now. Get. Out," I say through clenched teeth. How is it that Van manages to do everything possible to piss me off?

Van ignores me and takes off his sweat pants and I quickly slap a hand over my eyes, preventing myself from seeing anything that may scar me forever.

"There are three other bathrooms in this cabin," I remind him, angrily.

"Yeah, but I can't use one while you're using one, or it'll use all of the hot water and I am not about to take a cold shower," he explains.

I peek through my fingers to see if he's wearing anything. Van sees me peeking, smiles and attempts to take off his green and black plaid boxers. "Boy, you better keep those on!" I shout, covering my eyes again, just in case he decides not to listen.

Van laughs. "Relax, Abby, nobody's getting naked," he assures me. "I wash your back, and you wash mine," he jokes.

I roll my eyes, and drop my hand for good. "This is so wrong, on so many levels," I sigh.

"Yet, so right on so many other levels," Van resorts.

I step into the shower and stand on one side, while Van stands on another. He steps closer to the water and I hold out my arms in front of me, stopping him. "Arms length apart, buddy," I warn.

Van holds up his hands, backing off. "That's okay, I'll just watch," he grins, teasingly

"Do you say perverted things, just to hear me tell you that you're perverted?" I laugh, attempting to get the dried, crusted cake mix out of my hair with water first before using shampoo.

He chuckles. "Maybe."

"You know, I'll admit, taking a shower with articles of clothing still on, is definitely a new thing," I change the subject. I'm trying to keep this as casual as possible. I mean, there's nothing bad about this, right? It's just Van, and I'm just Abby. We friends...that just so happen to be showering half-dressed together. No biggie, right?

"We could make it a tradition," Van jokes, wrangling his eyebrows at me, getting a laugh to escape through my mouth.

"An original..." I trail off thinking of a combinations of our names. "Vabby, tradition," I finish, laughing.

He smiles at my name combination. It's quiet for a couple of seconds, before he changes the subject. "I was just thinking, that we never talked about what you had to do, if you lost our little wager," he says.

I grab the bar of soap and start to lather my body in it, scrubbing harder when I wipe past any dried cake mix.

"What do you think would be fair?" I ask.

Van shrugs, going into thought about it. "I'm not sure, how about we just leave it as an open slot. If you lose, then I'll come up with something," he states. "And it will be mortifying, so you better keep those sexy legs of yours closed."

I roll my eyes in disgust. Of course, Van would be so nonchalant about sex, it's nothing to him. "You're the most disgusting best friend I've ever had. Just in case you were wondering," I admit to him.

He smiles with satisfaction. "Good, I take pride in that."

I hand Van the soap, turn around, and put my hair on the side of my shoulder. "Is there any on my back?" I ask. Van's quiet for a couple seconds, not responding. "Van!"

"W-what? Huh?" Van replies. "Oh, cake mix, right," he mumbles. "Yeah, tons, but your bra is in the way, perhaps you should take it off," he laughs, letting me know that he's just joking, probably testing my limits.

Suddenly, I feel Van's hands rub across my back, and just the touch of his hands is leaving tingles under my skin. After about a minute, he stops, letting me know that he's done.

Van stands under the shower head, while I wash my hair. I fight my eyes from wandering all over his body and scrub my scalp until it hurts to keep my focus on something else.

"Abby...Vance!" A voice yells from downstairs. Oh shit, the guys are back! They aren't supposed to be back yet. Why are they back? They said maybe four or five hours, it's only been maybe two hours. Not to mention that the cakes aren't even done, by the time we get out of the shower, they should be.

I quickly snap out of my Van-dreaming and make Van move over so that I can rinse my hair. "Hurry up!" I order Van.

Van chuckles. "Relax, Abbs," he tells me.

How am I supposed to relax when the guys are downstairs, and one of those guys is my boyfriend?

Then the bathroom door bursts open, "hey, who's in-" Mitch's voice says, but abruptly stops. "Wait a second, are both of you-" he stops himself again, answering his own question.

This doesn't look good. This doesn't look good at all. I'm screwed to the max.

*****

<3JustKaylay.