Drop Dead.

Taking a deep breath, I step into the kitchen and pray for once in my life that Laker isn’t there. Seeing him sitting at the table only proves to me that either God doesn’t give a damn about me or he doesn’t exist. Biting my lip, I make sure to stay on the completely opposite side of the kitchen from Laker.

I know he noticed. The frown stretched across his face tells me so but that doesn’t matter. It’s his fault. What the hell was he thinking, kissing me like that? First of all, we’re both males. Secondly, we aren’t even friends, at least I feel that way and if he doesn’t he’s just stupid. Thirdly, even if we are friends, just friends don’t kiss one another. It’s just weird.

It’s been nearly a week since that incident and maybe Laker’s words did help calm me down, that doesn’t mean a thing. In my eyes the kiss wasn’t necessary or wanted. Now being around him is just weird. I can’t help but think about the kiss, how it felt and what he might be thinking. It’s all too much. Everything is too much.

Things have been happening so quickly lately that I can’t believe it. My life seems to be even more hectic now. It’s not that a lot of things are happening, more like unexpected things that just make me stop and think what’s going to happen next? Are we all right here? Are we accepted? Just stupid questions that I don’t need to ask myself because I know the answer. Am I even making any sense? I doubt it. I can’t even understand myself anymore.

“Jinx, are you all right?”

At the sound of Mimi’s voice I look up from whatever I was previously staring at. She’s standing directly across from me at the other side of the kitchen next to Laker, who is sipping his orange juice silently. I sigh and nod, though I know and I’m sure even Mimi knows that is a lie.

My head is swarming with thoughts. It’s starting to give me a migraine.

“My head just hurts,” I reply silently, reaching for the Tylenol and downing a single pill along with some water. Somewhere in the background I hear Laker talking but I block out the sound and head upstairs to my room.

Closing the door behind me, I press my back to the wooden surface and sigh. My legs give out and I slide to the floor with a frown. What now, Jinx? Avoiding Laker is nearly impossible. He lives across the street for fucks sake and Mimi and Ken think that Gel and I need him around. And let’s not forget he drives us to and from school.

Fuck.

I run my fingers through my hair and decide the hell with it. I’ll let the cards play out as they should. I’m just going to try and avoid the boy and if it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work.

Getting up from the floor I head for my bed to fall on it. The covers are just calling me so I obey their demands and curl up in them. Although I just woke up about an hour ago my eyes fall shut and I pass out in seconds…only to wake up at the feel of someone shaking me roughly.

Their voice is a blur to my groggy mind. Swatting at them, I mutter some kind of gibberish and pull the covers up farther. There’s a soft chuckle that I can just barely hear before something wet presses itself against my neck and then my cheek and then my lips.

My eyes shoot open and I find myself staring up into two green jewels that can only belong to one person.

Laker.

Pressing my palms against his chest, I shove him away. With a loud “unf” he topples off the side of my bed and onto the floor. Angrily, I sit up and shout while rubbing my lips with my arm, “What the hell was that!”

“A kiss,” he replies around a sheepish grin.

Snarling, I point to the door. “Get out. Get out now.”

“Why?” Laker pouts.

“Because I fucking said so, Laker!” I holler. Didn’t this happen before? Why is he so stubborn? Why can’t he just listen to me and leave like I tell him to? Fucking prick.

Laker sighs and pushes himself onto his feet. He moves to the side of my bed and just as I’m about to throw my first punch he jumps on top of me, pinning both my hands beside me. I let out an angry growl and go to knee him, only to realize that he has himself between my legs so all I can do is hit his side.

I throw my head back and grunt. “I don’t think you know the definition of personal space.”

“I’m sorry I don’t read dictionaries for fun, unlike some people,” Laker replies jokingly but if he hasn’t noticed this isn’t a joking situation. I should just scream rape and maybe, hopefully Mimi will call the cops on him and get him arrested.

“Jinx, you’re acting weird.”

“I wonder why.” I roll my eyes.

“It was just a kiss, god you’re so touchy.” Laker shakes his head and leans in so that our lips are just only a few centimeters away. I blame my breath catching on the fact that I really don’t want him to kiss me. I blame an eternal illness on the reason why my heart stopped.

“I’m not touchy, you are. For some odd reason you have an obsession with making people unbelievably uncomfortable.”

It’s Laker’s turn to grunt. “You didn’t seem uncomfortable when I kissed you.”

“I was in shock.” Which isn’t a total lie because I was.

“How is it that you have a comeback for everything?”

“I have a brain, unlike some people,” I mock him from earlier, which makes him roll his eyes in response. Shaking his head, he looks away and stares at the floor intently. And not even seconds later he faces me, I expect him to finally move but he doesn’t.

He leans in to crash his lips against mine. My eyes open wide in shock. The kiss is exactly like the others, it makes me shiver. At least it started like the others but then I feel his fingers move from my wrists to my hand. He intertwines our fingers, why am I not stopping him? My eyes close on their own and maybe I start kissing back, I’ll think up a reason why later.

Something wet runs across the bottom of my lip. My chest feels heavy and every limb I own is shaking. I feel uncomfortable and vulnerable but my lips part for him anyways. I know what I’m doing but for unknown reasons I can’t move.

Feeling his tongue run across my own tells me that he wants some type of reaction but my mind is swirling. Everything seems so much harder to do so I just lie there and let him roam over every crevice of my mouth. It sends a sensation through my veins and my toes curl. It’s right then that I realize what we’re doing.

We’re kissing, again. I let him kiss me, again. I actually…kissed back.

Shit.

Without warning, I turn my face away from the kiss. Laker is shocked and goes to ask me something but I finally shove him off me and grab the covers to throw over me. Laker is silent as I say, “Leave me alone, Laker. I don’t want anything to do with you.”

Because you make things more confusing than they already are.

Laker doesn’t say anything to me. He heaves a sigh and the floor creaks, telling me that he’s leaving. It isn’t until the door closes behind him that I sit up from the covers. He’s no longer in here, just like I suspected. I bite my lip, maybe he’s finally given up on me? I sure hope so.

He drives me nuts.