Getting to Me

That night after Zacky kissed her, Mandy avoided being around everyone. It wasn’t that she was angry that he’d kissed her, or even confused. She simply knew that if Brian found out about the kiss, he’d blow a gasket. And while McKenna had seen some of what happened, Mandy doubted she was going to tell anyone. She was only ten, and she thought stuff like that was gross. No, her secret was safe with the little girl.

She had skipped dinner as well, opting instead to stay in her bedroom. She didn’t think Zacky would come up to her room to see her since McKenna was in her room across the hallway and Brent was in his room next to hers, so she was left alone to think to herself. The kiss hadn’t been anything sexually charged, or even very intimate. It had been just a simple kiss; a way for Zacky to convey that he was feeling something about Mandy that neither of them could put words to.

“Mandy, are you in here?” Her mother’s voice asked from her doorway, knocking once on the door before she walked into the room, smiling at her daughter as she stepped inside. Mandy smiled when she saw that her mother was carrying a mug of cocoa and a piece of toast for her.

“Thanks, Mom,” she smiled at Suzy as she set the plate and mug down on her desk before she walked out of the room, leaving Mandy to her thoughts once again. She smiled as she walked over to the desk to grab the small snack that her mother had prepared for her, taking a small whiff of the chocolatey scent and dipping the toast in the warm liquid before eating it, closing her eyes and moaning slightly as the food slid down her throat. There was just something about hot chocolate and toast that always seemed to make her insides melt, and sometimes she thought that she could survive on the two items.

“Are you okay in there?” Zacky asked from her doorway, causing her to choke on the toast and the mug to slip from her hands, splashing the hot contents all over the wooden floorboards and hitting her sock-covered feet.

“I didn’t see you there,” she said quickly, blushing as she moved to grab a towel hanging off of a hook by her wall, leaning over to wipe up the mess. Zacky chuckled as he bent over as well, grabbing larger pieces of glass and tossing them into a waste bin before he hissed in pain as a sliver of the white ceramic cut through his index finger.

“Here, let me get something for that,” she murmured, grabbing his hand and wrapping her fingers tightly around his injured finger, not paying attention to the blood as it dribbled out of the cut and splashed onto her own skin. She led him out of her bedroom, blushing as his legs brushed against hers while she led him to the upstairs bathroom, flipping on the light with her elbow and then reaching into the medicine cabinet for a Band Aid.

“You don’t have to do that,” he murmured as she opened it, looking at her with a soft smile on his face. She rolled her eyes and blushed as she wrapped his finger with the bandage, letting go of it once it was done.

“There, you’re all patched up,” she smiled at him, tilting her head to the side when he shook his head, a small smirk on his face as he lifted his hand back up to her. “What else do you need me to do to it?”

“It still hurts,” he smirked at her, shifting his weight onto his other leg as his gaze stayed on hers. It took a few moments for his words to sink in, but when they did, her blush turned to a deeper red color as she grabbed his callused hand with her smaller ones, pressing a small kiss to the tip of his finger before letting it go, giving him a small smile after she had.

“There, did that make it feel better?” She asked, her eyes cast to the floor as she awaited his answer. She could tell within the small expanse of space in the bathroom that the dynamics of their friendship had changed. He was no longer just her brother’s best friend to her, and she was no longer just Brian’s little sister to him. They were somewhere in between, and she liked where they were at.

“Yeah, it feels better now. Doesn’t hurt,” he smirked at her, reaching up with his other hand to push some hair out of her eyes. She cleared her throat as he made that motion. They stood there just like that for several moments before footsteps could be heard on the other side of the wall, a sign that someone was coming up the staircase. Quickly, Mandy walked out of the bathroom, leaving Zacky alone in the small room as she walked down the hallway to her bedroom.

“Hey, Mandy?” Brian’s voice asked her from the stairwell. She stopped and turned around to face her older brother, seeing a blank expression on his face. She wondered if perhaps he had somehow figured out that she and Zacky had just semi-flirted with one another in the bathroom, or if McKenna had told the rest of the family about the kiss she and Zacky had shared in the barn after all.

“Yeah?” She asked him, blinking once and attempting not to give him any indication that she was as nervous as she was. There weren’t many things she was afraid of in life, having grown up on a ranch, but Brian was one of those things that could absolutely terrify her occasionally. And when he was angry, he was definitely terrifying.

“Have you seen Zacky? I need to talk to him about something,” he murmured, looking at the floor for a few moments before meeting her gaze. She didn’t move her eyes from his as she shook her head, feeling awful that she was lying, but not wanting Zacky to get in trouble with him if she did say that she’d seen him.

“No, I haven’t,” she lied smoothly, turning to walk back to her bedroom. Brian’s voice stopped her once again, and she turned to face him, this time annoyance splashed across her smooth features. “What?”

“Don’t let me hear you having another one of those dreams about him,” was all he said as he walked past her and towards his own bedroom, closing the door behind him. Mandy’s face heated as she quickly walked into her own bedroom, knowing that Zacky had heard her brother’s words. That meant he would know that she’d had a wet dream about him. She wasn’t sure whether or not it would creep him out, but no matter what his response would be, it embarrassed her to no end that he’d had to hear that conversation.

With her mind reeling and her heart thumping in her chest, she grabbed a pair of pajamas out of her closet and pulled them on before slipping between the covers of her bed, just wanting to sleep and forget about everything that had happened today.

And for the second night in a row, she had a dream about Zacky Baker.

-x-

“Mandy! Mandy! C’mon, Mandy! Wake up!” McKenna’s hyperactive voice called the next morning excitedly. Mandy groaned, trying to pull a pillow over her face to block out her little sister’s annoying words, before she groaned as the ten-year-old started jumping up and down on her mattress, making her feel almost seasick as she cracked her eyes open to glare at the little girl.

“Go away, ‘Kenna!” She said angrily, giving her sister a light shove and making her fall on her butt on the mattress, a goofy grin on her face.

“But you need to come downstairs! Brian said so!” She told her sister, tugging on the blankets. “He said to get you up, and I’m doing what he told me to do! So get up!”

“Do you drink coffee or something in the morning, brat?” Mandy glared at her sister, not caring that Brian had wanted her to get up. She didn’t feel like seeing her older brother, and she sure as hell didn’t feel like waking up at…She looked over at the clock on the table beside the bed to see what time it was. Groaning when she realized that it was only six thirty AM, she turned and looked at her sister again.

“Only when Bri lets me,” McKenna said cheekily. “Now come on. He’s gonna yell at me if you don’t come downstairs with me, and I hate it when he yells.”

Don’t we all? Mandy thought to herself as she sighed, pushing the blankets off of her body and slipping her feet into some green frog slippers that were beside her bed. Even if she wanted to, there was no way she could get back to sleep right now. She ruffled her little sister’s hair as she got out of the bed, and the two of them walked down the stairs together.

When Brian saw Mandy standing at the foot of the stairs, he grinned at her from the table, where he was eating bacon. “If you want some, there’s a plate in the kitchen,” he offered, turning his attention back to the plate in front of him. That made Mandy suspicious right off the bat. The only time Brian ever made any of his siblings breakfast was when he wanted something, and he knew that bacon was Mandy’s favorite breakfast food. She didn’t even bother to go grab any as she stood in front of him with crossed arms.

“What do you want?” She asked him through narrowed eyes, a yawn threatening to fall from her mouth as she studied his expressions. Yep, she thought to herself. He definitely looked like someone who was plotting something.

“Oh, nothing,” he said innocently before looking up at her, a smile still on his face. “You’re up to a…oh, say…six to eight hour drive, right?”

“What for?” She asked him, rolling her eyes. “Besides, what do I need to go with for? Don’t you have Zacky? And Michelle? What do I need to go for?”

“To keep Zacky entertained,” he said cheekily, before shaking his head when he realized how what he’d said had sounded. “I mean, distracted. No sex shit. No kissing, or touching, or anything like that. Just keep him distracted so he doesn’t drive me and ‘Chelle crazy.”

“What makes you think I’m gonna go? I’m tired, Brian. I have a fulltime job, and college courses.”

“I’ll…make you bacon every morning for a month,” he said, thinking for a moment. “And…I’ll…uh…do whatever else you want, as long as it’s not stupid shit.”

She smirked at him. This could definitely work to her advantage. Besides, she hadn’t been to Fargo in a long time, and she wouldn’t exactly mind seeing the city. And it allowed her to spend more time with Zacky, which was something she was looking forward to. Sighing as she gave in, she nodded and walked back up the stairs to her bedroom to get some clothes packed for the long trip.

She wasn’t sure what was going to happen in Fargo, but with Zacky there and the recent change in their relationship, things would definitely be interesting.