Sequel: Love With a Motive
Status: Jan. 25, 2014: I'm reposting this story. Woo hoo!

Maybe Holding Hands Wasn't Such a Good Idea

Assault With a Deadly Pillow

It was a sunny Sunday afternoon and I was sitting in Kara’s bedroom and had just finished relaying the events of my weekend to my eerily still and quiet best friend. I was anxiously awaiting her to say something—anything—but Kara remained as still and silent as a centuries old Terra Cotta warrior statue. The fact that she hadn’t so much as moved an inch was creeping me out; she looked as though she were hardly breathing. I had honestly expected her to explode into a flurry of motion half way through my retelling. I expected yelling, ranting and motioning with her arms wildly with her exasperation with me. I expected something, not nothing. Kara was completely still and quiet and her behavior was throwing me off guard.

“So that’s everything,” I said being the one to break the long five minute silence first, unable to take the deafening calm for one more second.

Then without a sound, Kara stood up and slowly lifted the small square, yellow pillow off of her bed. In a swift, fluid motion so sudden it looked as if Kara was a blur as she moved, she hit me with the pillow repeatedly.

“I go away for one little weekend and you fall in love with my brother again!” She said emphasizing each word with a hit to any piece of me she could manage.

“Ow!” I complained, shielding my head and face from her actually kind of painful pillow assault.

“I thought you were over him!” She hit me a few more times before stopping.

“I was! I mean, I am. I mean, I, I, I...don’t know,” I said quietly fixing my messed up hair. I took a chance and peaked up at Kara through the slits in between my fingers.

Kara lowered her weapon to her side. “What do you mean you don’t know? How can you not know?”

I lowered my hands from my face slowly, unsure if Kara was actually done hitting me or not and sighed. “K, its compl—”

“Don’t you dare say ‘complicated’, because that would be a load of bullshit and we both know it.” Kara’s eyes darkened as she raised her pillow up threateningly. “I’ll use this,” she warned. “Don’t test me.”

I closed my mouth swallowing the word I was going to say and thought quickly for a moment. “I mean, I don’t know.” I said lamely as I buried my face in my hands. “Tell me what to do. Please.”

I felt the bed sink as Kara sat down next to me. “As much as it pains me to say this, in the official capacity of your best friend, I think keeping this thing up with my brother is for the best,” she grumbled out.

I looked up at Kara in surprise. I definitely wasn’t expecting her to say that. “Who are you and where is my best friend?”

“Ha ha. Very funny. Just hear me out. You already offered to help Matt, which means, you’re kinda stuck helping him out, at least, until we see the last of Tiffany, and who knows when that will be. That bitch has some serious staying power.”

I knew all of this already. “What’s your point, K?”

“Well, even if I told you to ‘dump’ Matt,” she said using her fingers for air quotes, “we both know that you won’t because you made a promise, and you always keep your promises. The only thing I can say, is next time be careful about the promises you make and to whom you make them to.”

I flung myself back on her bed and covered my face with a pillow and groaned into it. “You’re just telling me stuff that I already know.” My voice was muffled by the cottony barrier.

“You got yourself into this mess, Liv. But I’m gonna help get you out of it,” Kara said confidently.

I pushed the pillow off of my face. “Really?”

Kara nodded. “What else are best friends for?”

“And how do you plan on helping me?”

“I’ll figure it out later,” Kara shrugged. “But I’ll definitely come up with something so don’t worry your pretty little head about it, Liv. I got yo’ back, home skillet.”

I laughed at her nonchalance. Trust Kara to be so casual about something that could be potentially hazardous; especially so, because Tiffany seemed the type to lash out violently with little to no provocation. I only hoped that I would be prepared for when that would happen and I really hoped it wouldn’t come to that.

I wished I could be so calm and casual about everything like Kara seemed to be, but with Tiffany’s words and fierce glares still fresh in my mind, I couldn’t just shrug it off. There was something about Tiffany that just rubbed me the wrong way. Kara would say it was just me being jealous over Matt, but it wasn’t that. I just didn’t know what it was exactly and if I couldn’t explain to myself there was no way I could even begin to tell Kara about it. All she would do is make some lewd—and completely true—comment about Tiffany and that would be the end of that.

“So was Matt weird this morning?” Kara asked, a mischievous twinkle in her eyes, her tone reeked with subtext. “Any more longing stares or funny vibes?”

I shot her a glance. “This is your brother you’re asking about, K,” I reminded her. “You don’t really want to know any of this, remember? But no, everything was fine this morning and this afternoon when we drove over here earlier. No weirdness. I think I imagined the whole thing last night,” I said with an embarrassed chuckle.

“Well, you’re the one who thinks he was checking you out. And you’re so right. I don’t want to think about my brother having some sort of secret, romantic yen for my best friend. It’s just so creepy on so many levels.”

Kara was being so inconsistent. On the one hand it seemed like she was interested in what was not exactly going on between me and Matt—because we’re just friends—and on the other, she acted as though we were grossing her out, I just didn’t understand her sometimes. I rolled my eyes. “He wasn’t checking me out. And I while said I thought he was, just come on, Kara, I was sleep deprived and it was a stressful day what with Tiffany being so creepy and all. I was imagining things. There was no way Matt was checking me out I’m sure of it.”

Kara leveled a glance at me. “Sweetie, we both know that’s what you really think even if you don’t want to admit it, subtext clues reveal all. Matt is a guy, and you are a girl who wasn’t wearing much of anything last night. Of course he was checking you out.”

“You’re basing your opinion on subtext that you’re imagining?” I opened my mouth to protest further but Kara lifted up her hand to halt my objection.

“There are only two reasons why a guy wouldn’t stare at a girl in a bathing suit. One, he’s gay like Carver and isn’t interested in your girlie bits. And numero dos, the guy’s dead, simple as that. Although, if he were a zombie that would be an entirely different matter altogether, so I’m not going to get into that now. Anyway, if I remember correctly, Matt isn’t gay and he’s definitely not dead, therefore, barring any sudden and temporary gayness that has since vanished or death, my brother was checking you out. So don’t sell yourself short, kid.”

I let out a soft chuckle and then sighed. “Thanks for not beating me to death with that deceivingly soft looking pillow.”

“The thought did briefly cross my mind, not gonna lie,” Kara smirked. “But then I’d only have Matt’s friends to hang out with until I find someone cool enough to call my new best friend. It’d be this whole ordeal and already you know how lazy I am, so I thought I’d save myself the trouble by keeping you breathing.”

“Gee, thanks.” I tossed a pillow at her.

Kara deflected the pillow with a lazy hand and a smirk. “I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, them’s the breaks, kid.”

“And don’t act like you hate hanging out with Matt’s friends. We both know you love them.”

Kara tried to look indifferent but I caught the sparkle in her eyes when I mentioned Matt’s friends Zacky, Jimmy and Brian. “Eh. I can tolerate them when the occasion calls for it.”

“Yeah, if by ‘tolerate’ you mean ‘moon over’ Brian, then yeah, you definitely tolerate the shit out of him,” I said with a laugh.

Kara’s cheeks reddened. “Shut up,” she mumbled. “It’s not too late for me to use my deadly weapon on you,” she raised the pillow slightly at me. “Play nice.”

I laughed again. “Okay, okay... Mrs. Brian Haner Jr.”

Kara glared at me and hit me with the pillow.

“I couldn’t resist, it was totally worth it,” I laughed breathlessly biting my lips to keep from smiling too big. “So how was your aunt’s?” I asked once I calmed myself down enough to speak without giggling.

Kara and I ended up having our movie marathon night after she finished telling me about her weekend and I was downstairs alone in the kitchen, about to call Carver for a ride when my phone rang before I could call Carver.

“Hello.”

“Hey, Liv. I’m sorry about last night.”

“Its fine, Tyler. To tell you the truth, I don’t even know what happened last night or if you should be apologizing.”

“Yeah, well, I feel like a total douche and I wanted to apologize anyway. What are you up to right now?”

“I’m at Kara’s. We were just hanging out. What are you doing?”

Tyler was silent a moment and I could tell he was thinking that I had spent the whole day with Matt, which I did yesterday, but today, I only hung out with Kara.

“Oh? And how are you and Kara doing?” Tyler asked. The strain from being too polite entered his voice and I knew that he really wanted to know about Matt.

“We’re fine. We had a second movie night because we didn’t finish some movies on Friday,” I bit the inside of my cheek after I lied. “Just the two of us, holed up in her room all day, munching out. And I was just gonna call Carver to come and pick me up.”

“I can come and get you if you want,” he offered.

“Sure, that’d be great. I’d hate to pull Carver away from studying.”

“Okay, see you in about ten minutes.”

“Okay. Bye,” I said and hung up.

“There it is again.”

I jumped at the sudden voice and looked up to see Matt standing at the entry way of the kitchen, his arms crossed over his large chest and a smirk on his face, my hand over my thundering heart. “Give me a heart attack,” I muttered as I felt my heart beating quickly beneath my fingers.

“Sorry,” Matt smiled apologetically, “didn’t mean to scare you.”

“What were you talking about?” I asked. “What’s where again?”

“That ‘I-just-stepped-in-poop’ face. Were you just talking to Vaughn just now?”

I shot Matt an annoyed look. “I didn’t have that look on my face,” I argued stubbornly. “And yes, I was talking to him. He’s coming to pick me up.”

Matt laughed. “You wouldn’t know if that look was on your face because you didn’t see it, I’m the one who saw it, so your argument is invalid, therefore, I win. And I knew you were talking to Vaughn. I think that look only comes on your face when you’re talking to him. I wonder if you actually look at him like that and not even realize it,” he said thoughtfully.

“I’m sure I don’t make faces at him,” I said. What is it with these Sanders kids, huh? They act like they know me better than I know myself.

“Well, you never make that face at me is all I’m saying,” he smirked again as he moved past me to get to the fridge.

I rolled my eyes at his back and made a face. “So what have you been up to today?” I asked changing the subject.

“I’ve been thinking about tomorrow and the rest of the week. You do realize that we’re going to have to be together for most of the day, right?”

I nodded. “Yeah, I figured. I was talking to Kara about it—”

“Oh no,” Matt groaned. “Should I expect another speech from her?”

“No, she said she was going to help out.”

Matt froze with the bottle of water halfway up to his mouth. “She said what?”

“I know, I was just as surprised as you are,” I admitted. “She said she’d figure something out. And at this point, I’m willing to take all the help I can get.”

“That’s good because I had to tell the guys that we’re hooking up.”

I blinked. “You did what?”

“Relax. I had to tell them something before they started asking questions later. And as far as I know, they don’t know that you’re dating Vaughn. So as long as they don’t see you kissing him, we’re good.”

“You do realize that now I have to be triply careful at school, right? Now, I not only have to hide my real relationship with Ty from Tiffany and our fake relationship from Ty and his friends, but I have to hide it from your friends, too. How the hell am I supposed to do that, Matt? This is getting ridiculously complicated.”

“Oh, yeah, I didn’t think about that,” Matt said with a frown creasing his brows as he bit his lip. “Look, I’ll take care of it, I promise. Don’t worry about anything, okay?” He said walking forward and engulfing me in a big hug.

As frustrated as I was with the new situation Matt told me about, I couldn’t stop my arms from wrapping around his waist and resting my head on his chest. I breathed deeply and let out my breath slowly.

“Everything will be fine,” Matt said quietly into my hair. “I’ll make sure that it is.”

I hope so, I thought as I felt Matt’s arms wrap around me tighter. I just wanted to stay here in his arms for a little longer and not worry about anything.

The door bell rang.

Of course it would ring at this moment, I thought sourly.

“And that will be your douche bag,” Matt smiled as he stepped away from me.

I didn’t even bother to roll my eyes at him. “Shut up.”

Matt chuckled. “Seriously though, Liv,” his hazel eyes locked on mine and I couldn’t look anywhere else even if I tried. “I meant what I said last night. Every word of it.”

I nodded. “I know and thanks, Matt. I really appreciate it. I should get going. Tell Kara that I said good night.”

“I will,” Matt said.

“Good night,” I said with a wave as I went to answer the door.

“Hey, babe,” Tyler said as soon as I had the door open.

I managed a small smile. “Hi.”

“Are you alright?” Concern crossed Tyler’s face.

I nodded. “Just tired. It was a long day of doing nothing.”

Tyler laughed. “Well do you want to go get some ice cream before I take you home?”

“Sure,” I smiled. “That sounds great.”

I closed the front door behind me and let Tyler lead me to his car.
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Like I mentioned earlier, it's kinda short, but I did update twice. :)
Till tomorrow.