Cold as Ice

If we had been in a cartoon, I'm pretty sure my jaw would have fallen to the floor. "What did you just say to me?"

Johnny smiled very slowly. "You heard me."

"I did hear you. But I don't think I understood exactly." My hand was still in his inky hair, and his arm was still around me. I let my fingers run through it until my hand rested on his shoulder.

"Isn't it just a little bit obvious?"

"Not quite." I bit my lip.

I felt his muscle tense under my hand. He looked away from me, focusing on something just beyond me. He was silent for four deep breaths. Finally, with a sigh, he met my eyes again. He had that struggling look again, but somehow he managed to force it away and slightly wrinkle his nose. "Allow me to rephrase the question, then. If I were to just grab you and kiss you, right here, right now, what would you do?"

"Honestly?"

"No, I just love it when people lie to me." He rolled his eyes. "Of course I want you to answer honestly, dumbass."

"Hey!" I tugged on his hair. "Be nice to me."

"Ow!" Johnny swatted my hand away, chuckling as he did so. "You don't have to be such a bully about it."

"Me, the bully? Me? Really?" I asked. Johnny nodded. I rolled my eyes. "Oh, sure,"

He grinned. "I'm not a bully."

"Yes you are! Do you recall anything you've done to me in the past... forever that we've known each other? You've made me cry more times than I can count on my fingers and my toes, and you clearly get some sick satisfaction out of knowing that I'm pissed off. It's either you're a bully, or I have clearly misinterpreted what a bully is."

Johnny raised his hand as if he were in elementary school.

I sighed. "Yes, little Johnny?"

"Are you finished?"

"No---!" I started to exclaim, but before I could, Johnny calmly leaned forward and pressed his lips against mine. I froze completely, making a shocked Mm! noise in the back of my throat. It was kind of like a playground kiss; had it not been for the fact that Johnny was taller, stronger, and wielded a very heavy artillery of sex appeal.

Hesitantly, he started to pull away, but I leaned into him and he pulled me closer. Now both of his arms were wound around my shoulders, and held me against his long, lean torso. His lips were full and soft, and tasted like spearmint. Without really thinking about what I was doing, I ran my tongue along his lower lip, and it moved, leaving our tongues pressed together. Stop it! a voice screamed inside my head. Stop it right now! But I ignored it. Johnny was way too good of a kisser for me to stop. I wrapped my arms around his thick neck, tangling my fingers in his hair, and fought against him for dominance. It was weird how it didn't feel wrong kissing him. In a sense, he was like a brother to me, and kissing my brother would be really weird, but like Johnny had said... our whole relationship was odd. It was like I couldn't get enough of him. The way his lips moved, the way they felt on mine was completely new to me.

I felt his lip curve slightly in that agitating smirk of his, and suddenly, I stopped. I took my hands out of his hair and ran them down his chest. I felt bad for kissing him like that. Only people who loved each other kissed like that - and the only reason I had kissed Johnny was because he was so good at it.

His smile dropped, and he eased off on his grip, letting his lips slide off of mine. He cleared his throat and licked his lips, breathing hard. "Uh," he panted, "first thing I have to say to you, is holy shit."

"Yeah," I breathed. My mind was reeling. "Holy shit indeed. Let's never tell anybody about that, okay? Pretend it never... uh... happened."

Nodding, he rubbed the back of his neck, licking his lips. "Agreed. And the second thing..."

I awkwardly ran my hands up and down my arms. I had goosebumps. Johnny gave me goosebumps. I shook my head, refusing to believe it. I wondered what the second thing he had to tell me was. If that boy said that he was in love with me, I was going to kill him. Why I was going to kill him, I wasn't sure, but if after all of those years of torture, he secretly loved me, I would get him back. But what else could he possibly have to say to me after a kiss like that? "What?" I asked nervously. "What's the second thing?"

"I'm..." He paused, gritting his teeth, "hungry."

I shrieked and burst into laughter. Leaning forward, I fell into him and giggled until I started to tear up. His chest tightened and loosened as he laughed with me. I looked up at him. "You scared the hell out of me."

"I'm sorry. I had to. You should've seen how pale you got." He brushed a strand of hair away from my face. "I really am sorry. For kissing you."

I blinked at him. "You're sorry?"

"Yeah. I don't know why I did it, I just kind of... did."

Rolling my eyes, I said, "I noticed."

He chuckled. "Hey, you kissed me back."

"Well - well - what else was I supposed to do?" I stood up, blushing furiously. "Bite you?"

His eyes lit up as he stood also, and loosened his tie. "Well."

I punched him, and turned away to run into the kitchen. I heard him run after me and squealed as I rounded the corner. I skidded into the kitchen and grabbed an old-fashioned eggbeater that was hanging up to defend myself as Johnny ran through the doorway. His eyes gleamed wildly as he slowly advanced on me. Every step forward he took, I took one step backward, gradually coming closer to a corner. I raised the eggbeater. "Johnny, don't you dare. I swear to God, I'll---"

"You'll what?" He snorted. "Beat me to death?"

"I appreciate the humor, but please..." He lunged slightly, and I shrieked. "Johnny, don't do that!"

Laughing, Johnny closed the distance between us, pressing me into the corner. He raised his hands and in one swift movement, threw the eggbeater on the counter and grabbed me by the waist. I squealed and laughed and fell against his chest as he tickled me mercilessly. "Johnny! Stop! Don't! Please!" I choked out, tears of laughter running down my cheeks.

"Cry Uncle!" He demanded.

"Can't breathe!" I wheezed, a fit of laughter dissolving my sentence as his fingertips danced on my ribcage.

"Johnathan Frost!"

Johnny stopped tickling me, and I stopped laughing. He whirled around, spinning me with him like a rag doll. "Yes?"

My brother was standing in the kitchen doorway with a very angry look on his face. I smiled at him. He became confused. "Uh... what's going on?"

Johnny looked down at me, and I looked up at him. At the same time, we innocently shrugged, and said, "Nothing."

Ash narrowed his eyes, flickering his glance back and forth between Johnny and I. "It sounded like he was hurting you."

"I wasn't hurting her." said Johnny. "I was tickling her."

"And that's all you were doing?" My brother asked.

"Yes." I assured him. "That's all."

"Okay." He exhaled in a sharp gust. "You scared me."

I felt Johnny's abs clench as he chuckled. "Sorry, bro. She's just so hard to resist, you know?"

"I'm sure." Ash gave Johnny a look. "I'm going to take a shower. You can have one after me, if you want."

"That would be awesome." I said.

"Not you," said Johnny, pulling me up into a standing position, and spinning me around to face him. "Though you could sure use one. You smell like horse."

"Oh..." I raised my fist at him and tapped it against his nose. "I could just beat you senseless, you know."

"But you wouldn't, because you like me too much." He winked.

"I don't like you at all." I told him.

"Right back at you, Kiddo." He let go of me and walked out of the kitchen behind Ash. I heard them muttering something to each other, and then Johnny distinctly neigh loudly enough for me to hear.

I had my towel in my hand and was leaning against the wall outside the bathroom. I heard the water stop running, and the sound of Johnny shaking his wet hair like a dog. I grinned and remembered how in the summer, he'd always fling his wet hair at me after getting out of my pool. I heard his voice, and leaned closer to the bathroom door to listen to what he was saying. He was singing something. An Alice Cooper song.

"I wanna love you, but I better not touch
I wanna hold you, but my senses tell me to stop
I wanna kiss you, but I want it too much
I wanna taste you, but your lips are venomous poison
You're poison, runnin' through my veins
You're poison, I don't wanna break these chains..."

He opened the bathroom door, and I fell onto him. He jumped and stumbled backward, but caught his footing, and thankfully, me. "Jesus! What the hell are you doing?"

"Sorry. I heard you singing, and..." I looked up. His face was bright red. My cheeks tingled. "I'm sorry." I said, and backed away from him. He had a towel wrapped around his waist, and held it with a death grip, his knuckles turning white. It rode low on his hips, showing off his "do-me" lines, and the light treasure trail leading from his belly button.

"What?" asked Johnny. Despite his deep blush, he smiled arrogantly at me. "Do you like what you see?"

I shook my head. "Not even."

"Mmm," He said dubiously. "Liar."

Rolling my eyes, I pointed down the hallway. "Go,"

"Sorry, sweetheart." He said, and passed me, brushing my shoulder. I watched him walk down the hallway, singing, "I got big booty bitches, big - big booty bitches; I got big booty bitches, big - big booty bitches, woo!"

I rolled my eyes again, and entered the bathroom. I slipped out of my clothes and got in the shower. As I lathered my hair with shampoo, I found myself saying, "Little bitches get out, we don't want no skinny bitches!" Damn that Johnny, I thought, as I rinsed it out and ran conditioner through it. In my head, I ran through the events of the night. Tying Johnny's tie, telling Cayden off, Johnny's secure and proud embrace, dancing with him, and the kiss. I thought about what Bailey and Jen and Kyle and even Ash had been telling me. Johnny couldn't have been crushing on me. He'd have told me by then. He had confidence rolling off of him in waves. He wouldn't have kept something like that from me - he would have just told me and gotten it over with, wouldn't he?

I scrubbed my whole body, glad to get rid of the sweat and old makeup, and the lingering feel of Johnny's lips. It made me uncomfortable, thinking of him like that. It twisted my stomach in a weird way that I wasn't used to.

The shower ran ice cold. I jumped, and quickly turned off the taps. Throwing the shower curtain aside, I stepped out and wrapped myself in my towel, gathered my clothes, and ran down the hallway. I banged on my brother's door and Johnny opened it, holding an Xbox controller in his hand.

"What do you want?" He asked, not bothering to make the fact that he was staring at my almost naked body subtle.

My teeth chattered. "You take too long in the shower. The water went cold."

"I'm sorry, Princess. I can't help the fact that I'm so big."

"Gross." I curled my lip and leaned to the side so I could see my brother sitting on the floor in front of his TV. "Ashley, I don't know why you're friends with this... monster."

"We've been over this already." Ash said. "I can't get rid of him, he's like a tumor."

"A highly attractive tumor." Johnny said.

"Atta boy," I patted Johnny's shoulder. "Dream big."

"I don't need to dream. I'm perfect."

I scoffed. "Sure. And I'm a llama."

"Close." He pinched my cheek. "You're a horse."

Before I could snap back at him, he slammed the door. I sighed and turned away. As I was about to close my bedroom door, I shouted, "You're a shitty singer, by the way!"

The next day, I woke up to the sound of gunshots, screaming, and Johnny and Ash laughing and saying something about barricades. I rolled out of bed and opened Ash's bedroom door to find them both in their boxers, with extreme bedhead, sitting on the floor, gaming.

Ash grinned sheepishly. "Did we wake you up?"

"No, but you're probably giving poor China a hard time." I yawned, and sat down on the bed. "Are you guys playing World at War?"

"Nazi Zombies, baby." Johnny said. "And little Skippy, over there, isn't doing any work!" He shot and instantly killed three zombies as they crawled toward him.

"I'm sorry that I'm not as good as you, O Mighty King of Zombie Slaying." Ash rolled his eyes. He offered me the controller. "Do you want to play?"

I grabbed it. "I'd love to."

Johnny laughed, and ruffled my hair. "You've just earned my respect. I could just kiss you right now."

He'd done that on purpose. I glared at his stupid grin. "Shut up, and let's kill some reanimated corpses."

Ash left for work, leaving Johnny and I alone in his room, doing some hardcore zombie killing. We made it to the thirteenth wave of the attack, after our fifth attempt, and Johnny screwed us over. I shoved him. "What the hell? You suck at this."

"I'm sorry," Johnny said, chuckling. "I guess I must relinquish my crown as King of Zombie Slaying. It's yours now."

"I don't care about royalty, I just wanted to win the damn game. But you had to go and screw it up, like you do with everything."

"I don't screw everything up." He said.

"You mentioned the word kiss," I said.

"So? Your brother will never know. Besides, it's not like it meant anything, anyway."

I looked at him. It felt like I'd swallowed something sharp. Of course, I knew that the kiss hadn't meant anything. It hadn't meant anything to either of us... had it?