Ethan could not get a word out, still frozen in shock at my Dad's bluntness. 

"Dad this is Ethan, my friend from school," I lied looking up at him with innocent eyes. My Dad completely ignored me and his eyes remained firmly fixed on Ethan, staring at him with an icily cold expression. 

My dad was a Police Investigator, so he had perfected the art of a hard glare over the years from numerous interrogations. I'm pretty sure I hadn't even seen him blink since we opened the door.

 "Ethan, would you like to explain to me why you are carrying my daughter?" he asked with a surprisingly calm tone. 

"We....were....I..." Ethan stumbled out nervously. I don't think I have ever seen Ethan at a loss of words before, he never loses his cool. 

I let out a sigh, deciding to save him. "I just sprained my ankle falling off the sofa. It was so stupid," I said with a chuckle, deciding to tell the truth.

 "Did somebody push you?" he said looking at Ethan accusingly.

"Who's at the door Jeff?" my Mum called approaching the door. Once she saw the situation and my Dad's expression she leaped into action. 

"Jeff stop tormenting the kids and let them in. Mia is clearly hurt," she said pushing him out the way. She was observant enough to have immediately noticed my swollen ankle. 

Ethan scurried past my Dad and followed my mum to the living room. My dad slammed the door behind us and let out an aggravated tut before following us into the room. Ethan gently lowered me down onto one of the sofas before immediately lifting my ankle on the armrest, so it was elevated.

"Jeff, go get some ice," my mum snapped bossily. My dad rolled his eyes, before trudging off to the kitchen in submission. 

"Are you okay sweetie?" my mum asked sweetly as she caressed my cheek. 

"Yeah, it's really not that bad," I said with a half-smile, not wanting her to worry. As my Dad returned with ice, my mum turned to look at Ethan in curiosity. 

"Mia never told me she had a boyfriend, what's your name?" she said as her eyes lit up in excitement. My Dad let out a weird snarl sound as she said this before throwing the ice pack down onto my ankle hard, causing me to wince in pain. 

"Ouch Dad be careful," I cried.

"My name is Ethan," he said reaching out to shake my mothers' hand with a warm smile. 

"And he's not my boyfriend," I added in quickly. I'm not sure why he had decided to leave that out, it was like he had a death wish or something. Could he not hear Jeff the snarling beast from behind him? 

"Oh, Ethan. Mia talks so much about you..." my mum said with widened eyes. She knew I hated Ethan. I complained about him a lot. Like a lot a lot.

Ethan turned to look at me, his eyes lighting up in amusement. "Does she now?" he said giving me a subtle wink. 

 "Don't get excited. I'm mostly just complaining about you," I retorted quickly, wanting to kill any idea of me having a crush on him from his mind.

"Do you want to stay for dinner, Ethan?" my Mum asked kindly. 

He looked like he was about to say yes as he glanced over at me but he seemed to hesitate as he spotted my Dad from the corner of his eye, who somehow managed to look even more pissed off than before. 

"No, it's alright. I should be heading home anyway," he said with a nervous laugh. "But it was nice meeting you, Mr. and Mrs. Collins," he said politely. "See you later Mia," he said with a smile, before finally heading for the door.

As soon as we heard the door closing behind him, my dad spoke up. 

"I don't like that boy one bit, he's got way too much confidence," my Dad said as he started to pace around angrily. "Wait a second why the hell were you even with him in the first place?" my dad said snapping his head to face me. 

I let out a heavy sigh, as I mentally prepared myself for the nightmare of a conversation that was about to pursue

After my dad's thorough interrogation, I was finally tucked up in bed and I was busily texting Chloe and May about today's events wanting to keep them updated. It had been a long evening for me, having to explain repeatedly to my Dad that Ethan was not my boyfriend but was, in fact, my supreme nemesis. Even after several hours of explanation, he barely seemed to believe me. 

Just as I was about to put my phone down, I saw a random text-message pop up from an unfamiliar name.

Sexybeast xx: Still awake Chubs?

I rolled my eye immediately knowing whose number it was. Ethan was the only person who called me by that god awful nickname, and the name he had saved himself under on my phone was 'Sexybeast' which was probably his attempt to be funny, probably referencing to when he blackmailed me into yelling it out in the middle of my workplace. Deciding to text him back straight away, I started typing.

Me: You really got busy on my phone didn't you dickhead. How did you even get into it?

After a few seconds, I got a response.

Sexybeast xx: Making Damon Salvatore your password isn't exactly the best idea when you have his face as your lock screen is it....

Me: Well in my defense I didn't know anyone was going to actively break into it. And thanks to you, he's not my lock screen anymore, is he?

Sexybeast xx: So you haven't changed the picture.....

I could practically feel him smirking through the phone as he typed that. I was such an idiot, I can't believe I just openly admitted that I hadn't changed the picture, his head was probably the size of a double-decker bus by now. I just blanked him, hoping he would just stop texting me altogether.

Sexybeast xx: Hello?

Sexybeast: Still there?

Sexybeast xx: Are you distracted looking at your lock screen or something?

I rolled my eyes as I read his text messages, his arrogance was truly something else. With a scoff, I threw my phone on to my nightstand and was about to turn off my bedside lamp when my phone started ringing. I glared at the phone in annoyance and picked it up again.

 And of course. It was Ethan. Doesn't he know it's annoying to call someone late at night? I was tempted to ignore it, but I found myself pressing the answer button anyway.

I pulled the phone up to my ear. "What," I snapped.

I heard chuckling on his side of the phone. "Wow, I'm happy to talk to you too Chubs," he said sarcastically. 

"Whatever. Why did you call?" I said bluntly. 

"Well I'm rather interested to hear the reason why I'm still your lock screen," he said with a snicker. I blushed in embarrassment. "Don't flatter yourself, I just haven't had the effort to change it back." I said drily. 

"Hmmm sure," he said sounding far from convinced. 

"I'm serious," I whined, frustrated that he didn't believe me. 

I heard him laughing heavily at me from the over side of the phone. "Since I'm your screen-saver now, I think it's only fair you send me an equally scandalous picture of your own that I can use for my screen saver," he said with amusement in his tone. 

"In. Your. Fucking. Dreams," I said extremely slowly, emphasizing every word to make my point.

 "Aww don't be like that Chubs," he said in a playful tone. 

I just rolled my eyes at him before something popped into my head that I had meant to ask him but forgot. "Also, Ethan, why the fuck did you delete tinder from my phone?" I asked accusingly.

 He paused for a couple of seconds before answering. "It matched you up with too many weirdos, I was doing you a favor," he said with a scoff. He wasn't wrong, to be honest, but that still didn't give him the right to just delete the app without my say so.

 "Whatever Ethan," I said dismissively. 

"Why are you even on it? Are you trying to get laid or something? Please tell me you haven't actually met someone on there," Ethan said in a voice that sounded strangely angrily.

 "Er no. Not that it's any of your business what I do," I retorted back. 

"Just don't meet up with anyone on there," he snapped back. Who the fuck was he giving demands to? 

"Fuck you, Ethan. I'll do what I want," I growled, before angrily hanging up the phone. He tried to call back but I just put it on silent and chucked it on the nightstand. 

 He wasn't the boss of me.

-----------------------------------------------

"Nah, I'd give him an 8," Ben said gesturing over to someone in the far corner of the shop.

 He was making up an ice cream sundae for a customer while I sat slumped down on a stool behind the counter. I was back at my workplace, Sugar Shake and it had been quite a long day so I was incredibly bored, meaning Ben and I had resorted to playing a game where we rated how bad people's haircuts were on a scale from 1-10. A bit cruel of us but it was okay they couldn't hear. 

"Are you kidding me? He's a solid 9, his barber should be behind bars for that monstrosity." I said snorting while turning to get another look at his hair. 

"Woah that guy over there looks fit as hell; where the hell does, he get his haircut?" Ben said nudging me with his elbow. If anyone had overheard him, they would assume Ben was gay. He wasn't trust me, the number of female customers he flirted with was a joke but I guess it did get the tips in so I couldn't exactly blame him.

 Looking up to see who he was talking about, I saw Ethan. 

Of course, it had to be him.

 He hadn't seen me yet and was slowly making his way up to the counter. "Hey, isn't that the same boy who embarrassed you the other day," Ben said with a snort as he got closer. 

"Yup," I snorted. 

Ethan looked irritatingly good today, wearing his usually tight-fitting t-shirt and black jeans with his soccer jersey loosely thrown over his shoulder. He had spotted me now and his light blue eyes sparkled with mischief as he started to make his way over to me. "Hey Chubs," he said with a smile. "I see your ankle is all healed up," he said as he settled into the stool across from me.

 Thankfully, when I woke up today, the swelling had gone down, and I could walk on it. 

"What are you even doing here Ethan?" I said with a heavy sigh, I was still annoyed at him for trying to boss me around yesterday about Tinder. Who the hell did he think he was my dad? 

"I was just craving some ice cream that's all," Ethan said with a shrug, sporting his usual insufferable smirk. He was lying, he was either here to embarrass me or annoy me. I watched him lean forward on the stool and have the audacity to help himself to a menu from behind the counter. What a confident little prick. 

He cleared his throat. "I'll have the cookies and cream sundae with Oreo cookies and extra whipped cream please," he said with no hesitation. "Oh, and you might as well add some chocolate sauce in too," Ethan added, as an afterthought.

 I narrowed my eyes at him, I shouldn't have expected anything less of him to order one of the most time-consuming sundaes on the menu just to anger me. With a dramatic sigh, I got up from my comfortable position on the stool so I could start making it. 

I passed by Ben who was grinning his head off, probably amused by how pissed off Ethan had made me. "Aww. Don't look so sad Mimi. You've only got an hour left," Ben said in a baby voice; reaching out to squeeze my cheeks. 

Ethan, who had barely seemed to have noticed Ben at all, whipped his head up to look at Ben with a frighteningly rapid speed. He glared at Ben with an emotionless glaze and a clenched lower jaw and I watched in confusion as he looked Ben up and down in disgust.

"Keep your hands to yourself buddy," Ethan spat out at Ben, his tone completely void of its normal humor.

 Ben looked momentarily stunned before he collected himself and gave Ethan an awkward smile. "I don't think we've met, my names Ben. I'm Mimi's friend. I've seen you around at school, you play soccer, right?" Ben said warmly, as he reached out his hand for Ethan to shake 

"Mimi?" Ethan said with a rude scoff, not reaching out to return the handshake. 

Ben who looked a bit uncomfortable now, slowly lowered his hand. "Yeah that's my nickname for her..." he said trailing off awkwardly, clearly able to feel the weird tension building up in the room. 

"Hmm," Ethan hummed, seeming far from impressed.

"Anyway.... I'm just going to go deliver this to that table over there...." Ben said uncomfortably, as he scurried away with the dessert in hand, leaving me alone with the monster.

 "Chop. Chop. I want my ice-cream today Chubs," Ethan snapped impatiently, with a scowl on his face. 

What the hell had gotten him into such a bad mood?