Chapter Sixteen.

When I finish getting ready for tonight, I stand in front of the full length mirror hanging on my closet door. The dark grey pencil-skirt stops about mid-thigh, not showing too much. The sapphire blue blouse is low cut, showing a little bit of my cleavage, or rather, lack of cleavage. My dark brown hair falls in long waves around my shoulders. Finally, my black heels add about two inches to my height. They're really cute shoes, but the more that I look at them; the more I want to throw on my black Converse. If Kristen Stewart can wear them on the red carpet, I should be able to wear them to meet my boyfriend's parents, right?

The whole idea of wearing more girly clothes is actually growing on me, but me and high-heels will never be friends. Friends don't cause each other pain. Well, come to think of it; yes they do. I immediately think of Van, who is out getting stuff for the party he's throwing tonight.

Van and I haven't ever had the chance to throw a party, seeing as our parents were really good friends. His parents would always be home if mine were ever out of town, and vice versa. It's like we were always under constant supervision. Now neither of our parents is around. I'm kind of sad that the first chance we have to throw a party; I won't even be able to go to. Not like I'm really up for the idea of getting drunk. After what happened in Aspen, I think I've had enough alcohol for a couple of years.

Before walking out of my bedroom, I sweep some mascara through my eyelashes, bringing out the blue in my eyes.

I grab my POS phone off my dresser and put it in a sparkly black clutch purse, along with my wallet and a small tube of lip-gloss that Lia so graciously gave me for Christmas.

I make my way downstairs and follow a voice into the kitchen where I see Van on the phone. He's probably spreading the word about the party. I'm kind of glad that I won't be here for tonight's craziness.

"...tell Mitch to bring a keg too," I catch Van saying. "I'll see if Abby can..."

"If Abby can what?" I ask curiously.

Van acknowledges me and it takes a couple of seconds for him to find his words. "Uhm, Michael isn't coming so I was wondering if you could pick up the keg from his house when you get off girlfriend-duty?"

I shake my head. "Evan wants me to stay at his place, so I don't know if I'm coming home tonight," I say quietly, staring down at my shoes.

"Dex, I'll call you back," Van says into his cell phone quickly hanging up and sliding it into the back pocket of his jeans. He steps in front of me, stretches out his arms so that his hands resting against the counter, leaving a small space between us. "What's wrong, Nips?" Van jokes, causing a smile to break across my face.

"I told you to stop calling me that," I remind him.

"I'll stop calling you Nips when you stop liking it," he smirks.

I reach out and pick off an invisible piece of lint, just to have an excuse to touch him.

"So you're staying at Evan's?" Van checks, keeping his tone of voice at a calm level.

"I guess," I answer. "I mean, unless you need me back here, like for the party, or anything?" I ask, kind of hoping that he says he does. "Or maybe if you need me here to keep an eye on you, Boozy," I tease.

Van chuckles. "I'll be fine. Besides, I'm not planning on drinking a whole lot tonight," he admits.

I nod along. "That's probably a good idea. At least if you do that, you'll be able to keep it under control a little." I glance up at Van to see him looking at me like he's trying to figure out how to solve an intense math problem. Feeling a little self-conscious, I start to twiddle my thumbs in my lap.

"Hey," Van says soothingly. He cups my chin between his thumb and pointer finger. Once he gets me to make eye contact with him, he put his hand back on the counter. "You okay?"

I begin to think about last night and how I wouldn't even let him finish what he was trying to say. I'm almost certain that he was going to say that he has feelings for me. Actually, I'm positive that's what he was trying to do. I don't think that I've ever seen him that vulnerable before. A good kind of vulnerable, not like he was when he broke up with The Slut. Last night, it was like he was opening himself up and just blew him off.

"I'm sorry about last night," I blurt, realizing that my response to his question didn't really make sense.

Van shows his half-hearted smile. "Don't worry about it. It wasn't that important anyways," he assures me. He's lying, I can tell.

I want to say something back, but the doorbell rings.

"Can you please talk to him about ringing the doorbell?" Van jokes.

I laugh. "Behave? For me?"

"Always," he half smiles.

I slide off the kitchen counter so that I'm standing. I expect him to back up, but he doesn't. The space between us is small enough to make a claustrophobic person have a panic attack.

"Do me a favor," Van pauses, "look underneath the passenger's seat before you leave."

"Why?"

"Just do it."

"What did you do to my car?" I snap, getting defensive.

Van laughs, walking away, leading me to follow him.

"Where are you going? I'm not done talk-"

"I'm being nice, just like you asked," he states, opening the front door.

I smile at Evan who's holding three red, long-stemmed roses. Even if I hate flowers, he does look good standing there holding them.

Van slaps his right hand over his heart while staring at Evan. "Ah, Evan, you brought me flowers? You really shouldn't have," he says, drowning his voice in sarcasm.

"I believe those are for me," I state, pushing Van out of the way. I pull Evan into a hug and give him a quick kiss. I take the flowers, but prick my middle finger on one of the thorns. "Ow, damn," I gasp, pulling my hand back.

"Are you okay?" Van and Evan ask at the exact time, in unison, like they've been rehearsing it.

I nod. "I'll go get a band-aid. Van can you put those in some water for me?" I start walking up the stairs to my bathroom.

Thorns are another reason why I'm not a huge fan of flowers, with my luck; I always get pricked by them. The thought is lovely and they're really pretty, but they die. Guys constantly give their girlfriends flowers for their birthdays, Valentine's Day, or whatever the situation and they're beautiful at first, until they wilt to death. If a guy were to bring flowers that won't ever die, then I might actually like flowers.

"Clearly Evan doesn't know your take on flowers," Van chimes, stepping into my bathroom, holding the flowers in a vase.

I turn on the faucet and watch as the blood down the drain with the water. "I seriously think that I punctured an artery or something, Van," I exclaim dramatically.

Van chuckles, setting the small vase with flowers on my dresser. "Come here, you big baby," he jokes, turning off the water. He grabs a small hand towel off of the shelf above the toilet and takes my wounded hand. "Didn't you pay attention in health? You're supposed to apply pressure to stop the bleeding," he says, holding the towel on the spot that's bleeding.

"I'm surprised that you paid attention to anything other than the chapter that covered sex," I smirk.

"I stopped paying attention during that chapter right after we learned how to properly use a condom, I was too busy practicing," he winks.

"Van Taylor, you're awfully bold to perv on me with my boyfriend down stairs," I smile.

"Babe, please, I could easily take him," Van boasts confidently.

I roll my eyes. "Is he really just sitting down there? Couldn't you keep him company, or something?"

"Oh, you mean while you're up here with a punctured artery or something?" he questions rhetorically, making fun of me. "Somebody had to come up here and take care of you."

I laugh. "Well thank you, Dr. Van for taking time out of your oh-so-busy schedule to save my life," I remark, sarcastically.

"Don't worry about it, I live to save others."

I roll my eyes. "How much longer?" I gesture to my finger.

Van takes a peek under the washcloth. "I think we may need to amputate it."

I hit him on the shoulder with my free hand. "Very funny."

He chuckles, tossing the towel to the floor. Reaching around me, he grabs the two boxes of band-aids from my medicine cabinet. "Power Rangers or Ninja Turtles?" he asks.

"Ninja Turtles," I answer, without a doubt.

Once Van has the band-aid ready he says, "hold out your finger."

I put all of my fingers down, except for my middle finger. He said to hold out my finger, what a coincidence that I can flip him off at the same time.

"Cute Abbs, real cute," he chuckles.

I smile, satisfied as he wraps the bandage around my cut. "Thanks, Van."

"You're welcome, but I'm afraid that we have to discuss a payment," Van tells me, letting his hands fall to my waist as his arms snake around my back.

"Do you want me to punch you?"

Van stifles a laugh and leans in closer, resting his chin on my shoulder, pulling me in tighter. "Do I have to beg you to put your arms around me, Abbs?"

I take a deep breath, throwing my arms around his neck. "I guess I can spare a hug," I say. After a couple of seconds, I drop my arms, expecting Van to do the same, but he doesn't. "Come on, Van, I have to go," I laugh.

"Five more seconds..."

"I really need to go."

"I like holding you, Abby," Van whispers against my neck.

"Can you do it later when you sneak into my room in the middle of the night?" I joke.

"You're staying at Evan's tonight," he reminds me.

I slide my hands behind my back and grab his hands, unwrapping them from my waist. "We'll talk tomorrow, 'kay?" I promise, stepping aside. "Be good tonight, Van, try not to get into too much trouble without me," I giggle, walking to my door, but abruptly stop in my tracks. "Oh and can you lock my door? I really don't want some random creeps in my bed."

Van laughs. "Sure thing."

I walk back downstairs and see Evan sitting on the couch text messaging somebody. "Sorry about that," I say.

Evan looks up from his phone and smiles at me. "You okay?" he checks.

I hold out my hand with the Ninja Turtle band-aid on it. "Just another battle scar," I laugh as he stands up. Evan slips his hand into mine.

"You ready?"

I nod.

***

"Evan, your parents hate me," I state, matter-of-factly.

"They don't hate you," Evan assures me.

"Yes they do," I say, keeping my voice level. "Did you see your mom's face when I said that I didn't know what I wanted to do after high school? She probably thinks I've hit the jackpot with you."

Evan chuckles. "Okay, first of all, I don't have money, my parents do. And second, my mom is just over-protective since my last relationship," he explains, taking my hand.

I nod along and give my full attention to the ground. I know in my head that this isn't going to work. Why am I finally coming to terms with the fact that I can't do this anymore? Evan doesn't deserve to be led on and at this point in time, that's all I'm doing. Maybe if I cut the cord now, we can still be friends.

"Ohmygosh, Abby!" a high pitched voice screeches.

My head shoots up, following the sound and my eyes land on Kim walking towards me. "Hey, Kim," I smile. "Is my brother here with you?"

Kim shakes her head slowly. "We, uhm, he broke up with me," she admits.

"Why?" Evan asks before I get a chance to.

Kim glances at me and back at Evan. "I'm kind of getting over my pissed off stage and I really don't want to go back there, if you don't mind, Ev. Especially not at your parents' party," she says quietly.

"When?" Evan asks.

"Last night," Kim whispers, sounding a little sad.

"Dammit, Kimmy," Evan replies, dropping my hand to pull Kim into a hug. "I'm sorry. Are you okay? Why didn't you call me?"

"You were out of town and busy I didn't want to bug you," she says.

"Come on, Kim, when have I ever been too busy for you, huh?" Evan chuckles.

"I'll give you guys a minute," I interrupt, I say walking away. Before either of them gets the chance to stop me, I make my way outside on the long front porch that wraps around the whole house.

There is seriously something wrong with me. My boyfriend and his "friend" look entirely too close and maybe it's just me, but there is definitely something between them and they just don't know it yet.

What's even worse is that I feel absolutely nothing seeing them be all sweet to each other. A good, devoted girlfriend would be jealous, or pissed that her "man" was hugging all over another girl.

Tears start to fill my eyes for all the wrong reasons. I don't even know why I'm crying. I'm not mad at Evan, I'm mad at myself for wasting all of this time on trying to force a relationship that isn't going anywhere.

Gosh, I'm so stupid to think that I could make this work to avoid feelings for Van. It's getting even harder to avoid him when he's only a door away from my bedroom, sometimes. That's not taking in account for the enormous amount of time that we spend in each others rooms just talking. And the late night sleepovers! How could I forget that? I hang out with my boyfriend by day and get down in snuggle-town by night. Does that make me a whore? Oh my god, if I have to question whether I'm a whore or not, that probably makes me a whore.

I should just leave and do Evan a favor, then maybe he'll realize that he and Kim are closer than they think. This must be how everybody feels when they see me and Van. I mean, all of our friends even think that there's something going on between us. To be honest, I'm not sure why I fought it. Well, besides the fact that Van is such a jerk half of the time, but the other half of the time, he's amazingly sweet.

Screw it, I'm leaving.

I start walking down the steps to head to my car. This is something that I should have done a long time ago.

"Abby, where are you going?

I turn to look over my shoulder and see Evan catching up to me. I stop walking to give him an explanation.

"Were you just going to take off without saying anything?" He questions.

"Evan, where exactly do you see us going?" I start. "And be honest."

Evan's forehead wrinkles up in confusion. "Is this about Kim? That was nothing, Abby, I swear."

I shake my head, wiping my tears on the back of my hand. "It's okay, Evan," I assure him. "That should be my first thought though, right? That you and her have something going on?"

Evan shoves his hands in the pockets of his pants. "This is about Vance, isn't it?" he assumes.

I blink quickly, trying to fight more unnecessary tears. I force a nod because I'm too chicken for words. "Evan, I am so sorry. I wanted this to work so badly, I'm just tired of forcing it."

"I wish that you would've told me sooner, Abby. In fact, I gave you a chance to tell me," he points out.

"I know, I should have, I'm sorry."

Evan steps closer and puts his hands on my shoulders. "I should be pissed off..."

"You aren't?"

He shakes his head. "Did you like me at all, or was it just because you thought I had money?" he teases.

I laugh through my watery eyes and wrap my arms around him, hugging him. "You're such a good guy," I tell him.

"But Vance is better, right?"

I look up at him. "Only better for me. Trust me, I'm not your better," I say. "I hate doing this to you, I'm sorry. Quit being so nice."

"I will, when you quit apologizing," he chuckles. "I get it, you're a horrible person for liking a guy that you knew before you even met me. What do you want me to say? That you have a spot reserved in hell, or something?" Evan jokes.

"It's just that, you told me things, about your last relationship and here I am screwing you over just like that Chelsea girl."

"Abby, you're nothing like my ex," he says reassuringly.

I nod along. "Thank you for being so understanding about this," I say sincerely, dropping my arms, feeling him do the same.

"Well, what are you still doing here? Go fix things."

I shake my head. "I'll probably just drive around and wait until tomorrow. You know, get my head straight."

"If you don't do it now, then you'll wait even longer and that means that you just broke up with me for now reason."

I inhale and exhale sharply, knowing that he's right. "Alright, but only if we're okay. I don't want you to hate me."

"Abby, I don't hate you."

"So we can stay friends?"

"You work with Kim and she adores you, so we'll be seeing a lot of each other," Evan reminds me. "Don't worry about it."

"Good," I smile. "My brother didn't break her heart too bad, did he? Because if he did, I will help you kick his ass myself."

Evan laughs. "No, she hasn't told me; maybe you can talk to her about it and get back to me."

"Sounds like a plan."

Due to the current festivities going on at my house, I park in front of Maya's house. At least twenty cars are parked just surrounding my house. A stupid Ke$ha song is blaring from the inside, clearly loud enough for people on the outside to hear.

As I walk in, I take in the lovely sight of beer pong, dancing that could pass for sex, and full on sex that's taking place on my mom's beloved couch. And she made a huge deal about Van and I using the couch cushions to build out fort. I wish I could see the look on her face if she saw teenagers in the act of full on sex. At least I know not to ever sit on it again, whereas she sits on that couch all the time. Karma's such a bitch.

I look around the house for Van all over the place, thinking that he wouldn't be upstairs. There's nothing for him upstairs. Besides, he said that he was going to keep things under control. What a load of shit that turned out to be. This place is a mess.

I catch sight of Dex and yell out his name until I finally get his attention. I push in and out of people to catch up to him.

"Abby! I'm glad you made it, Vance said you weren't coming," Dex says. "How's Evan?"

"I broke up with him," I admit.

"You what?" he shouts.

"Look, that's not the point, where's Van at? I really need to talk to him."

"Uhh, I think I saw him go upstairs about an hour ago," Dex informs me.

I kiss Dex on the cheek and chug the rest of his drink to take the edge off. I practically run through people, pushing and shoving whoever is in my way. I've never had an adrenaline rush like this. That has to mean that I'm doing the right thing, right? I can't mess this up.

I open the door to Van's bedroom. Instead of catching him reading comic books, I see Lia making out with Kyle in his lap. However, I don't see any clothes.

"Oh, shit, I'm sorry," I blurt, covering my eyes with my hand. "Lee, I've seen your boobs before, but please tell me that I didn't just see Kyle's-"

"Well close the door and you won't have to see it again," Lia laughs.

"Have either of you seen Van?" I ask, still keeping my eyes covered.

"I don't know, Abby, check your room. Or any room for that matter, just please for the love of God, get out of this one," Kyle says, practically begging.

"Well, damn, Kyle, I hope that you're a lot nicer after you get laid," I snap, slamming the door shut.

I stare at my bedroom door, waiting for some kind of sign to tell me that I'm being completely dumb. When I grasp the door knob, I ignore everything else and push open the door, trying to fight the smile on my face.

The only light that's on is the lamp on my nightstand. That light is all I need to see what's on my bed.

Maya and Van are sitting up, facing each other on my bed. I wish I have some kind of eye laser to burn off the skank's hand as she rubs Van's shoulder.

Van looks up at me and smiles. "I thought you were with Evan," he says.

"Uhm," I stall, thinking of something to say. "I...uh, I just wanted to let you know that you won," I pause. "I lost and we said we would tell the other if we lost," I remind him. "Unless of course, you lost before me?" I check, glancing back and forth between him and Maya.

"Whoa, whoa, Abby, that's not what this is," Van says frantically, jumping off my bed.

I nod, stopping before I leave to say one thing. "It's whatever, Vance. Enjoy your night."

I just ruined mine...