Freezepop

When we walk out of the bathroom, Brendon keeps his arm around my shoulders. Mitchy's jaw visibly clenches as he squeezes his ass onto the couch beside me, pushing Kat and Winnie over. We laugh as we try to fit all four of us comfortably. I look at the TV and see that Ryan and Spencer are totally kicking Ella and Andrew's butts, and my smile grows.

"Good game," Andrew says appreciatively when Spencer and Ryan win. Ella just quietly sets her controller on the floor and looks around. Her eyes settle on Brendon and me, laughing on the couch with his arm still around my shoulder in a protective yet wonderfully friendly way.

"So, what now?" Ella asks.

"Isn't this a Mario Cart Party party? Play Mario Cart Party," I laugh.

"Then come play with."

"Ella!" I whine. "You know I suck at that game! I don't wanna play."

"I'll play with you," Brendon says. "We could play teams again only everybody should play."

"I call Ella!" Andrew shouts and quickly pulls her small frame into his chest.

"I call Ryan!" Spencer grabs Ryan and does the same.

"I'm not playing!" Kat shouts.

"Neither am I!" Winnie screams just as loud.

"You wanna play?" Dylan nudges Mitchy with his shoulder and she shrugs.

"Yay! That works perfectly because there's only four controllers." I stick my tongue out at Winnie and Kat who just do the same to me. Brendon pulls me off the couch and seats me on the floor between Ella and Spencer then sits directly behind me.

"You're going down!" Spencer shouts as he points his finger in my face. I snap at it, and he quickly pulls his hand to his chest, looking horrified. "She tried to bite me! Brendon, she tried to bite me! Have better control over your pet!"

"Pet? Pet. Pet! I am no one's pet, Mister Man!"

"Hey, I thought I was Mister Man," Brendon pouts.

"Anyone who insults me or hurts me is Mister Man."

"Even if they're a girl?" Ryan asks snidely.

"Yes, Ryan, even if they're you. I mean a girl." Ryan's face gets this horribly hurt expression as he recoils from me and snuggles into Spencer.

"Dude, what the fuck are you doing?" Spencer asks, trying to push Ryan off.

"She called me a girl!" he shrieks and his voice cracks once it gets so high.

"Who said you weren't?" Spencer shoots back. Ryan covers his face with his hands and pretends to cry until Spencer elbows his side and says, "Ryan, get over it. Who do we want to be?"

"Princess Peach!"

"Who do you wanna be?" Brendon quietly asks as he holds the controller.

"Donkey Kong," I reply with no hesitation.

"DK? Why?"

"Because he's my favorite, and he's such a man."

"Donkey Kong it is then." He rests his chin on my shoulder as he selects our character, and he sits that way the whole time he's playing his round. For the first round it's Spencer, Brendon, Andrew, and Mitchy. Then it alternates to me, Ryan, Ella, and Dylan. Brendon plays a pretty good hand, finishing in second, but I completely bomb and finish last, to which Ryan endlessly mocks me.

"Told you I suck at this game," I mope as I hand the controller back to Brendon.

"You did pretty good for not being a gamer," he says, taking the controller out of my hands and readying himself for his turn.

"Lies." When it comes back to my turn, Ella picks what looks like the hardest course. "Oh, dear God, I'm gonna die." On the second turn, DK's cart flies off the track. When I'm about to loose him again on the fifth turn, Brendon's arms quickly snake around me and grab hold of the controller. His hands pin mine against the tiny contraption, and his breath is in my ear. I can't breathe, and I can't think with him so close, but it's a good thing that I don't have to because he's taken control of our character. So I just sit back, close my eyes, and breathe in the soothing scent of vanilla and cloves.

"Voi la." His soft voice slightly startles me, and my eyes pop back open. "That is how you play the game."

"Where'd we place?" I ask with what little voice I can find.

"Second. Again."

I nod a little. "Cool."

I expect Brendon to take the controller and sit back, but he doesn't. He keeps his arms around me and plays out the rest of the rounds. No one notices that we're not switching off. and no one seems to notice how we're sitting. At least, I thought no one did.

Brendon shifts to get comfortable, and it ends up with both his knees propped up on either side of me, and me leaned against his chest. I hear giggling behind me, and I turn a little to see Kat and Winifred whispering and pointing at us. When they catch me watching them, with mock anger on my face, they wave innocently and laugh some more. I drag my finger across my throat and point to them. Winnie wiggles her fingers in front of her and makes an 'ooh' noise.

"What are you doing?"

"Plotting their death."

"Why?" Brendon chuckles, and I can feel his chest vibrate against my shoulder.

"Because they're idiots," I say loud enough for them to hear.

"Hey, not cool!" Kat protests, pointing at me. Winnie picks up a pillow and chucks it at me but misses and it hits Brendon.

"Talk about not cool!" Brendon complains.

"Sorry, Brendon. I was aiming for tweedle-de-dum over there."

"You wish I was as dumb as you."

"Oh, it's on, bitch!" Kat gives a high-pitched war cry before she launches herself off the couch towards Brendon and me. He maneuvers so that's he between that flailing idiot and myself, but it doesn't do much good because she just ends up knocking both of us over, and we hit Spencer on our way down.

"What the hell?!" We look up from the floor to see Spencer holding an empty cup with the front of his light purple shirt soaking wet and blue. "I love this shirt!" he screams before he throws himself on top of the pile.

"Doggie pile!" Ryan gasps when he comes back into the room, and his weight gets added. Winnie's sitting on the couch, laughing her ass off, and taking pictures with my phone. Somehow, I was the one on the bottom, with Brendon on me, Kat on him, Spencer on her, and weak little Ryan at the top.

"I can't breathe!" I gasp. "And I can't feel my arm!" It's twisted under me, I know that much because my shoulder hurts like hell and there's something digging in my back.

Brendon pushes up as much as he can, and I have enough to pull out my arm. "Better?" he asks.

"I can breathe better now. Kat, stop fucking wiggling!"

"I can't help it!" she shouts between laughter. "Make them stop tickling me!"

"Me?! I'm on the bottom! What the hell am I supposed to be able to do?"

"Winifred, get off your fat ass and help me!"

"My ass is not fat! And just for that, you're on your own, Kat." Winifred humpfs as she crosses her arms and sits back into the couch.

"Brendon," I groan, "your knee's digging into my leg." I bite my lip and wince in pain as with every movement Kat makes, it sends Brendon's knee farther into my thigh. "Get them off. Oh, dear God, just get the fuck off!" I'm halfway laughing and halfway completely aggravated. Even though I don't think they hear me above Kat's shrieks, they still comply and.. slide off. Brendon sits up and pulls me with him. I can tell I'm going to have a bruise on my leg by the end of the week.

"How long do you think they're going to stay at it?" Brendon asks quietly.

My head snaps to the side to see Spencer sitting next to Winnie on the couch, eating a handful of popcorn.

"How long have you been sitting there?" I ask Spencer. He looks comfortable and knowing that he could have gotten them off us much earlier makes me want to scream and rip his hair out.

Spencer shrugs. "A while."

But Brendon beats me to the punch. He jumps off the floor and launches himself over the coffee table and onto Spencer, who flops over and knocks into Winifred. She clambers off the couch and situates herself next to me on the floor.

"It's not safe anywhere," she cries. "I just wanna go home!"

When Kat and Ryan's flailing bodies almost run into us, Winifred and I scramble into the empty recliner, squishing ourselves together for protection.

"When'd everybody get so dangerous?"

Ella's head pops over the back of the recliner. "Tracy, do you think you could get your friends to calm down? They're making my mom mad," she says in a snotty tone.

"Yeah," I laugh and nod my head. "I think it's probably time for us to go anyway."

"But you guys haven't been here even an hour yet!"

"I know, but we'd better go. Hey, guys!" Nobody hears me. Brendon continues to shake Spencer violently, making his head slam repeatedly into the cushions of couch. and Ryan continues to tickle Kat mercilessly. I turn to Winnie and ask, "Which group do you want?"

"I'll take Ryan and Kat. They seem less violent."

I nod my head understandingly, and we both cautiously stand, making our way to our chosen fates. I stand awkwardly beside the couch for a moment, head tilted to the side and watching Spencer who has such a comical look on his face.

"Help.. me!" He sounds weird because of Brendon's hands around his neck. It looks like Spencer's starting to turn blue so I grab Brendon's shoulders and pull him back, off the couch. He lands hard on his butt, and his head just barely misses the coffee table. "Freedom!" Spencer screams, shooting to his feet.

Brendon looks up at me, dazed and confused. "We'd better go. Ella's mom's not very happy with all the noise we're making, and I think Ella's mad that we're having more fun than she is." Standing up, he hits Spencer once more upside the head before he grabs my bag off the coffee table, slings it over his shoulder, and stalks out of the room. Laughing, I turn to see if Winifred's broken up Kat and Ryan only to find them all standing a little way from us, ready to go.

"Do you really have to leave?" Ella asks me as we head for the stairs.

"Brendon's my ride."

"I can give you a ride later, but you should spend the night; Mitchy is." I look past Ella to see Mitchy eyeing Brendon hungrily while she sits on Dylan's lap.

"Nah, I think I'd better go home."

Brendon's arm grips my waist, and he pulls me backwards, away from Ella. "Let's go, let's go, let's go! Toodle-loo, girls!" he croons in a femme pitch, and wiggles the fingers of his free hand in a goodbye.

"You're gonna end up making them hate me forever," I laugh when we get outside.

He shrugs and pulls me to his car. "Who cares about them? If that's seriously the most fun they get then they need a sense of humor or something."

Brendon opens my door for me, and I can't help but feel like he's my knight in skin tight jeans, whisking me away in his trusty steed of a car from the villainous lair of jealous teenage girls. And that makes me smile. It keeps me smiling as we all get back to my house and decide to hang out there for the remainder of evening, ordering pizza that the boys don't allow us girls to pay for and watching some of the best B-movies you'll ever find.