Hi, I'm Zoe Nicole Merrick

*Saturday Morning*

I woke up to find my head on a stomach, looking up at the body’s face, it was Alex. I suddenly got more comfortable and snuggled into his warmth, while I listened to the cute, quiet snores coming from his mouth.

It has been a while since I woke up, so I decided to get up, but my legs were wrapped around someone else’s, it was Kara. She was snuggled up against Rian, while Jack had his head on Rian’s ass, which I giggled at. Zack’s head was on Jack’s legs, while he had his arms wrapped around them. We were quite the sight, I must say.

Interrupting my funny thoughts, the door opened, and dad came down the stairs “Alright, come on kids, time to wake up!”

The noise of groans and people rolling over filled the room. Alex sat up, which made my head slide to his lap “Good morning.” He rubbed his eyes.

“Morning.” I smiled.

“I expect all of you to be upstairs in 15 minutes, somewhat alert, we have a bunch of cereal for you guys.” My father ordered, with a smile.

Zack was stretching his long, muscular arms in the air “Gosh I’m so sore.” He whined.

“Your fine bud, I promise.” I kissed his cheek, and attempted to help him up, but he’s so strong, it was only me holding his hands while he got himself up.

“Gosh my legs hurt.” Kara rubbed her legs back and forth.

“Aww I’m sorry Kara, our legs were like all wrapped around each others’” I explained.

“Well, that explains it.” Kara giggled.

A head hit the floor “Ow! Rian jeez!” Jack yelled.

Rian had a grossed out look on his face “You slept on my ass you weirdo.”

“Oh, I did? Sorry man.” Jack rubbed the back of his neck.

We all laughed, Jack is a dork, but he’s a good guy all in all.

“5 minutes!” My father yelled from up the stairs.

“We better get up there.” I sighed, he will do something drastic, not kidding.

“Yeah.” Everyone said, we all walked upstairs, and chomped down breakfast. It was 1:30 already, jeez, we slept a lot.

When we were all done, the boys went into the room for some more “man” time, and to get dressed. While Kara and I went into my room to change and hang out as well.

After both getting changed, we sat in the middle of the room, gossiping and telling stories about random, funny things that came to our heads, until she had to go.

*2:45*

“Bye Zoe!” Kara hugged me tightly, and kissed me on the cheek, as did I.

“I’ll see you later!” I yelled to her, as she got in the car. She smiled, only Alex was still here. His mom was on the way. Rian and Jack already got a ride from Jack’s mom.

“Guess who?” Alex’s said, wrapping his arms around my thin waist.

“Hmm, I’m going to take a wild guess and say Alex.” I smiled and looked back at his smiling face.

“You’re just too good.” He laughed.

I laughed along, just when a car honked in the driveway, signaling Alex had to leave. I sighed, Alex noticed, and he smirked.

“I’ll see you later, okay?” He smiled sincerely as he kissed my forehead, and wrapped me into a sweet, long hug. I all but melted into it, feeling his body against mine felt amazing, I loved the feeling. Looking around, I realized my parents weren’t around, so I kissed him softly, when I looked up, I saw him smiling. He kissed me one more time on my forehead before leaving to his car.

I closed my front door, bit my lip, smiling way to big. Why did liking him so much, come so easily for me. Looking up, there was Zack’s surprised face looking down at me, I just completely and totally proved his suspicions about me and Alex, right.

Dreading the talk we were about to have, I trudged up the stairs as Zack went into his room to wait for my presence. At the door, I took a deep breath, and opened it, he was sitting on the bed, waiting for me.

The silence that never happened between us killed me, so I broke it, “Hey.”

“Hey.” He quickly said “Start explaining now.”

I sighed “I like Alex, a lot Zack.”

“I know that.” He said, meaning he wanted me to continue.

“Well, it all started that first day of school at Dulaney. We had English together, we talked a little bit, we were partners for this reading thing. Then, we had choir together too, we just talked a lot in that class, just random things about ourselves, and goofed around.” I breathed “When we were at lunch, and you just sat down after giving that guy a piece of your mind, Alex said, and I quote ‘Because I care about you Zoe.’ I thought about that all that night, the whole entire night.”

His face softened slightly, which meant he was understanding “Continue.”

I smiled “Okay. Then, that night he got my number from you or something.” I mentally thanked him for that “We got to talking, and he brought up something about Daniel, I asked him why he missed him, he told me about the suicide thing. Which is why we had that little moment the next day. Remember then we went to Rian’s and we watched The Secret Life Of Bees, and me and Alex were up in the bathroom?”

He smiled at first, but it faded when he realized we must have done something “Yeah.”

“Well, he was crying because he was thinking about Daniel. I felt so bad for him. So, when I saw those big brown eyes filled with tears, I couldn’t help myself. So, we both sat down, I put my head on his broad shoulders, and wrapped my arms around his muscular, hot waist.” I started getting off track, getting lost in the image of Alex’s sexy body.

“Zoe, your getting side tracked.” Zack pointed out.

“Sorry.” I blushed “So, I started crying, he must’ve felt the tears on his skin through the shirt he was wearing. He held my face, and wiped the tears away with his thumbs. We started to look at each other, and not to sound cheesy but we basically got lost in each others eyes, and we kissed, I mean we really kissed.” I emphasized the really.

Zack grimaced slightly “Go on.”

“The next day when we were practicing at his house, after we were done, right before you got there, we kissed again. We were snuggled up against each other too; but, he told me how he wants to be with me, and that he likes me. But, he doesn’t want to hurt me, he basically said he say a player. He said that he had already lost his virginity, and that he had 4 girlfriends at one time in 8th grade. But, I honestly can’t help but like him.” I smiled big, thinking of the memories of us kissing.

Zack sighed “It sounds like a bunch of bull shit. I mean 4 girlfriends at one time. I highly doubt that happened, sorry to break the news to you.”

“What would you know, you hardly even know him!” I snapped.

“I kind of do, but your right, you probably know him more. Think about it, he’s trying to make you think he cares so much about you, that he won’t go out with you, because he doesn’t want to fuck up. When he really just doesn’t want a commitment. I do know guys, Zo, I am one,” He chuckled “and guys play girls. Especially if he has already lost his virginity, which means he likes sex, which means he’s just using you.”

My heart broke, right then and there. I felt the tears pool up in my eyes, but I tried desperately to blink them back “But, he’s different. He is the sweetest guy I’ve ever met Zack.”

He looked at me sympathetically “That’s how it always starts babe.”

I couldn’t hide them anymore, I started full out crying, “No, your wrong.”

The pain in Zack’s face meant that he felt bad for me “I’m afraid to say I’m not. I know guys like Alex, they flirt and act like a complete and total ‘sweetheart’” He made air quotes around sweetheart and continued “then they get you to have sex with them, and they leave you.”

“Your wrong!” I sobbed out. The tears were flowing heavily by now, I was breaking down. How could I be so stupid?

“I’m your brother, why in hell’s name would I lie to you.” He said sincerely.

He had a point “I don’t want to believe you!”

He got down on the ground and held me, I wanted to fight back, but I didn’t “Shh, shh, I know honey, I’m so so so so sorry.”

It only made me cry harder, the tear stains on his shirt were getting really big, I couldn’t stop. I really really really liked Alex, I was just to naïve to realize it was all just an act. Zack made perfect sense, no matter how much I didn’t want to believe him.

Ruining the moment, Zack’s cell phone rang as he muttered “Fuck.”

He answered it

“What?”

“Oh shit, it’s already 3:15?”

“Yeah, sorry man! I had some … uh… stuff to take care of.”

“I’ll be there soon.”

“Kay, bye.” He hung up the phone.

“Who-o w-was I-I-it?” I said through sniffles.

“Jack, I’m late for practice. I’m so sorry Zoe, but I can’t miss this, I’ve only been in for a week.” He sighed, he was genuinely sorry , you can tell by the look on his face.

“No, I’m coming.” I said firmly.

He looked surprised “I don’t think that’s the best idea.”

“I know it’s not, but I’m going, besides I need to talk to Kara.” I said. It wasn‘t a lie, I was going to get Kara’s feedback on this whole thing. As much as I trusted Zack, I wanted a girl’s opinion.

He sighed “Whatever you say, clean your face up though, you have tear stains, I’ll wait for you.”

“Thank you.” I kissed his cheek and walked out.

I walked into the bathroom and my eyes went wide, I looked a mess from the crying. Within 5 minutes though, I looked like I haven’t cried in months.

Walking out, Zack was right there, he smiled “You look good.”

“Thanks.” I smiled back, a fake smile, but surprisingly, he bought it.

He got on his skateboard, as I got on my bike and texted Kara “B at practice, need to talk”

I got a reply back soon “Already there (:”

Good, that means we can talk in the living room while they’re practicing.

We finally got to Rian’s house, I put my bike in the grass, and took a deep breath.

Walking into the house, the boys were pacing in the living room, when they heard the door shut, their eyes shot up to us and smiled.

“Good, you here.” Rian sighed. “We better get going.”

“Yeah, sorry about that, Zoe and I needed to do something, something very urgent.” He said.

“It’s all good.” Alex said, smiling at me. I was pretty upset, but I didn’t do anything, he looked confused at my not blushing or smiling back, but he shook it off.

“Kay, see you later Zo.” Zack kissed my forehead, and went downstairs, and Kara stayed upstairs with me, she looked confused. She must have felt the tension between me and Alex.

“Have you been crying Zoe?” She questioned.

The tears started to fall again, as I ran into Kara’s arms, and just cried as soon as we could hear them starting to play.

“Sh, sh, shh. Zoe, what’s wrong?” She grabbed my shoulders and looked at my sympathetically.

“A-a-a-Alex.” I sobbed out while one of the boys’ songs were blaring, I think it was called Break Out! Break Out! But I‘m not sure.

Kara gave me a confused face “What?”

“Z-Zack said t-that h-he is j-just using me f-for s-s-s-sex!” I sobbed louder, thinking about it more.

Kara’s eyes went wide “Calm down honey, let’s go to the bathroom, then you can explain.”

I nodded, as she held me by the waist and took me into Rian’s humongous bathroom. I sat on the toilet, as Kara gave me tissue after tissue. She just stood there with a sympathetic look.

My sobbing slowly stopped after a while, she gave me a wash cloth to wipe off my tears and make-up that smeared. “Okay, now explain.”

I sighed “Alex and I accidentally kissed in front of him, and he obviously had questions. I explained everything from the first day of school and him saying he cared about me to us talking about Lisa, and all the girlfriends he had at one time.” I sniffed, holding back the tears that dared to spill onto my face “He said that if he’s already lost his virginity, he has to like sex, so he’s only using me and acting all sweet to me, so he can fuck me. That he doesn’t really care about me.”

Kara gave me a look that said what?! “Why would he think that?”

“He said that he was a guy, and he knows how guys think.” I shrugged.

“Listen to me, Alex has made some stupid mistakes, I will admit; but I have a feeling that he really cares about you. The look in his eye when he sees you, it makes me smile. But, your brother may be right, guys do that, and he is a bit of a player, I’m not going to lie. Maybe he is just using you. I would just watch out for him, just be careful. Try to make the relationship just friends for now, and see where it takes you, and if he goes with someone else.” She smiled, she was trying to help.

I thought about it for a minute, “Good plan Kara, I’ll try it.”

She smiled and gave me a big squeeze of a hug, and I returned it. I hope I can control my feelings.