Keep your friends close and your enemies, closer

“Are you taking my car today?” Ranger asked, grabbing his car keys from the coffee table.

I raised my eyebrows at him. “Well, duh. How else am I supposed to get to school?”

He frowned. “Isn’t Kent picking you up?”

I finished the last of my breakfast and picked up my school backpack. “Kent’s not my real boyfriend. It’s just a dare. We’re dating, but there’s nothing else to it. Got that?” Was it just me, or did the whole statement sound bitter?

He shrugged and left the house, with me on his tail. I slipped in the passenger seat of his VW Eos 1F, while Ranger fumbled with his seatbelt in the driver seat.

He turned to me with maniacal grin. “Ready, baby sis?” I smirked back at him. We have this little… conversation, which we always do whenever we take his car.

“As ready as I’ll ever be, Power Ranger.” I put on my seatbelt and a second later, we were flying. Again, not literally, of course. I mean, come on. Everybody knows you can’t fly if you’re not drunk.

Ranger was driving at a very fast speed- his usual -, as I basked in the scenery around me. The weather was pretty cloudy and it looked as if it was about to rain anytime soon. Honestly, I love rain. It’s my favorite kind of weather.

The first time Ranger drove like this, actually faster than this, I nearly flew from my seat. Oh, wait. You can fly without bring drunk. Because, I swear, I did fly. Good thing I landed on a soft patch of grass.

The second time he drove like that, my long hair flew to his face and very nearly choked him. I, on the other hand, was choking on my laughter.

So, he learnt to slow down, and I learnt to tie my hair whenever I rode in his car. Now, I was used to the speed, and enjoyed it even. I spent the short time we had in the car to reflect on what had happened yesterday. The beach incident.

Ranger came in the house about a half hour after I arrived home. He was obviously having fun with Olesia at the Make-out Fake-out, the popular spot for teenagers to make-out. He told me to get up and wash myself. After my shower, I plopped down on my bed and started blasting my music loudly. I avoided thinking about Kent. He was disturbing my thoughts nowadays.

I pulled away from my flashback once Ranger parked in his usual spot. We were already in school. I checked the clock on the dashboard.

“Ten minutes? That was fast. Impressive, bro.” I complimented him, walking over to the classroom block.

Ranger winked at me before turning around a corner to get to his locker. I went over to where mine was and began dialing the combination.

“Boo!” Someone scared, or at least attempted to scare, me from behind. I turned to see who it was. My heartbeat sped up when I stared in those deep blue eyes of his, but I kept my cool. I raised my eyebrow at him, before turning back to search for my books.

“Not surprised at all?” He asked, leaning against the row of lockers, to my left.

I shook my head. I didn’t get surprised easily. It was hard for anyone to try to make me scream from surprise.

“Oh well, worth a try. Come on, I’ll carry your books for you.” He offered, and when I didn’t answer, he took the books from my hands. I thanked him and shut the door of my locker. He fell into step with me as we walked over to homeroom.

“Hey Kent, where are we going tomorrow?” I asked, facing him.

He gave me this secretive smile and playfully nudged me. I prayed he didn’t notice the immediate effect of what happened when he touched me- I had goose bumps everywhere. “Hey now, Ash. I can’t tell you. Tomorrow’s date is a surprise. But I can assure you. You will definitely love it.”

I didn’t reply to his comment, but inside, I was overwhelmed with my emotions. The hugest emotion that I was feeling was this surge of happiness. Kent had actually planned our dates. What’s more, he was going to surprise me tomorrow. How sweet.

My first two classes were boring. I paid attention though because exams were around the corner. Okay, so maybe they were in three months, but I was a nerd. The second the bell rang, I walked out of the classroom and headed over to the cafeteria. Everybody was already there. Weird isn’t it? I was always the last one.

I waved to everybody and sat down next to Kent. He gave me a small smile and squeezed my hand under the table. Under the table, which meant that no one could have seen that. I decided to try my luck, and interlaced our fingers. I felt him stiffen just a little, so I looked up at him to see if he was okay with what I was doing.

He smiled down at me and leaned in closer to me. I was about to ask him what he was doing, but my breath caught in my throat. Kent was so awfully close to me, I was practically hyperventilating. He got closer and kissed my right cheek.

To say I was surprised would be an understatement. I was more than astonished. He moved closer to me and whispered. “You did that to me twice. It was only fair if I repaid you back right?” His breath sent shivers down my spine and I tried my hardest not to do anything weird.

He pulled away and smiled lazily. I looked away from him and met the looks of amazement on everybody’s face. I blushed. Well, at least they saw it. That was pretty much the point of the dare.

“Oh wait. I forgot my lunch. I’ll be right back.” I was just about to get out of the table when Kent pulled me back down.

“You can have mine. I’m not that hungry, anyway.” He offered. I frowned at him to see if he was serious, but he just rolled his eyes and pushed his tray towards me.

I still wasn’t sure if eating his lunch would be okay, so I just stared at the food in front of me. I heard Kent sigh next to me and he picked up a spoonful of soup. He lifted it to my lips, and fed it to me. I was blushing the entire moment, and I had to keep my eyes widely open from fluttering my eyelashes like an idiot.

“Attention students.” The principal said through the PA system. Everyone ignored what he had to say and continued with their conversations. “I have an important announcement to make. There will be no school for the rest of the week.” The whole cafeteria stopped chatting and immediately burst into cheers and applause. “This is because some hooligans have made an accident in the chemistry lab and it would take some time for the school to repair the damages. That is all. Thank you.”

Dustin, Harvey and Ranger snickered among each other. It didn’t take a genius to figure out who the ‘hooligans’ were. “Freaking awesome, big bro!” I showed Ranger my knuckle and he slapped his knuckle to mine. I gave a hi-five to the rest of the guys and they spent the whole lunch telling us how it all went down.

The rest of the day bored me to no end. After school, Ranger dropped me off at our house and he stopped by Olesia’s for tutoring (he was tutoring her in History). I dragged myself into my bedroom and the minute my head hit the pillow, I immediately drifted off to sleep.

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I instantly opened up my eyes and breathed in heavily, wiping the sweat off my forehead. I plopped back down on my bed and tried to get the speed of my heart back to normal. It was just a nightmare, Ash. Just a nightmare. Kent’s going to be okay. Kent’s fine. Nothing will happen to him. He’s here. Breathe, Ash. Nothing is going to happen to Kent.

No matter how hard I tried to convince myself, I still didn’t believe Kent was okay. I was about to give him a call when my computer informed me that I had an instant message.

Kentroxurbutt!- What’s up, babe? Have you been online since just now?

I almost cried with relief. Kent was okay. He was here, messaging me. He has to be fine. I sat on my computer chair and replied him back.

QueenAsh- I guess I forgot to switch off the laptop yesterday. Haha. Hey, are you okay?

Kentroxurbutt!- Me? Yeah, I’m good. Why?

QueenAsh- Nothing. I just had a nightmare.

Kentroxutbutt!- What does that have anything to do with my well-being?

QueenAsh- I dreamed that something bad happened to you. And I got worried. It seemed so real.

Kentroxutbutt!- You okay, babe? It was just a nightmare. I’m still here you know. I won’t be gone for at least another sixty years, hopefully. Don’t worry okay.

QueenAsh- Yeah, okay.

Kentroxutbutt!- So, what happened?

QueenAsh- Something bad. Really bad. I don’t want to relive it, if you don’t mind.

Kentroxurbutt!- No, I don’t. Just relax okay. It was just a nightmare. Forget about it.

QueenAsh- Done :D

Kentroxurbutt!- Good! So hey, can I ask you a question?

QueenAsh- Shoot, baby.

Kentoxurbutt!- What’s up with all the kisses?

QueenAsh- Kisses? I… don’t know what you’re talking about.

Kentroxurbutt!- Sure, you don’t. Come on, spill it.

QueenAsh- I just wanted to make our relationship seem real to Mel, Olesia, Summer, Ranger, Dustin and Harvey. They don’t think we can get along with each other. Not only did I prove them wrong, I totally shocked them.

This was one of the reasons, just not the important one. There was no way in hell I was going to tell him the other reason.

Kentroxurbutt!- WE shocked them. I kissed you too.

QueenAsh- Haha. Okay, fine then. WE shocked them. So, are you going to tell me anything about tomorrow?

Kentroxurbutt!- Nope. But wear a nice dress, okay? We’re going someplace awesome.

QueenAsh- We’re not going to some motor cross thing, are we?

Kentroxurbutt!- Hey, how’d you know? Nah, just kidding. Give me some credit, Ash. I know how to be romantic, all right?

QueenAsh- Sure you do. It’s getting pretty late. I guess I’ll see you tomorrow.

Kentroxurbutt!- Later, babe. Sweet dreams.

I logged off and shut down my laptop. I tried to go back to sleep, but I couldn’t. The nightmare was still haunting me. I left my room and tiptoed over to Ranger’s. The hallway was really dark, so I was feeling my way through my twin’s door.

As I walked inside his room, I tripped on his skateboard that was lying right in front of me. I fell on my face and as I got up, I cursed silently under my breath. Stupid Ranger. Even though it was dark, I knew how Ranger’s room was like. It was messy. His clothes were lying around. His blue walls were filled with posters of various bands, like Avenged Sevenfold and Bullet for my Valentine.

I walked over to his bed and poked him gently. “Ash?” He rubbed the sleep from his eyes, and mumbled. “What are you doing here?”

“I had a bad dream. Can I sleep in your room?” I whispered, looking at the floor.

He looked at me seriously before scooting over to make room for me. “Go ahead.”

I smiled gratefully at him before slipping under the covers. “Thanks, Ranger. I owe you.”

“Yeah. Whatever.” He muttered, pulling the blanket closer to his body, and faced away from me. A few seconds later, he was already snoring. I smiled. No matter how annoying Ranger is, I still love him. And I know he loves me too. I closed my eyes, and slept with that fact glued into my brain.