Ethan refused to leave my house, despite me constantly persisting that I was fine staying by myself. He was so irritatingly stubborn that it didn't take long for me to give up arguing and just let the imbecile stay. 

It was completely beyond me why he was so desperate to hang out with a sick person in the first place. 

Not long ago, I had also kicked him out of my room briefly so I could change into some respectable pajama bottom shorts. There was no way in hell I was going to let him see me half naked again. The embarrassment I had experienced earlier was enough to last me a lifetime.

We were now downstairs in the living room watching some random episode of my favorite TV-show, the Vampire Diaries. It took a lot of persuasion to get him to agree to watch it as before I had so much as uttered the full name of the show, he was whining about how he 'refused to watch such sissy crap' as he put it. 

 He finally came around when I threatened to tell Lucas that I caught him sleep talking and murmuring my name, the night I snuck into his room. He seemed to immediately shut up after I brought this up. His face went a sickly white and he sunk lower in his chair as though he wanted the world to just engulf him.

I was now sat sideways on the sofa with my legs draped over Ethan's lap. I had sneakily put them there a while ago when I couldn't find anything to elevate my feet on. I had expected him to shove my legs off as soon as I put them on but surprisingly, he didn't bat an eye and just let me keep them there.

 "Ugh Damon is so fucking hot. The stupid main character doesn't realize how lucky she is to have someone as sexy as him fawn all over her." I said with a heavy sigh, as I admired the beautiful sight of the hot male actor on the screen. 

Ethan jerked his head to face towards me with lightning sharp speed. He shot me a nasty look as though I had just spat on him before rudely shoving my legs off his lap. 

The momentum of the push almost caused me to topple off the sofa and I let out a shaky gasp in surprise and quickly steadied myself on the armrest. 

"Hey! What the hell is your problem Ethan? That's no way to treat a sick person!" I huffed with a scowl on my face. 

 "Well maybe Damon can be your footrest," he spat bitterly. His face screwed up as he said his name, as though it was poison. 

"He's not even that good looking. You have shit taste in guys," I heard Ethan mumble under his breath in a barely audible voice.

 I just rolled my eyes and rudely dumped my legs back on to his lap again. 

What? Sue me, he's a good footrest okay. 

Ethan glanced over at me with his eyebrows raised and an unimpressed look on his face. 

"I'm not taking them off so get over it" I snapped. "Also, I don't have shit taste in guys, thank you very much." I retaliated defensively.

 A scowl of annoyance stayed on his face for a few seconds before it slowly faded and his eyes lit up in excitement. "Fair point, you did admit that you thought I was the most attractive guy in the room when we played 'Truth or Dare'." he chuckled with an enormous grin on his face. 

Well fuck. I was hoping he had forgotten about that embarrassing little slip-up.

 I scoffed. "Don't flatter yourself, Ethan. I lied. I was only trying to win you back into my good books because you were ignoring me." I explained quickly, making sure to keep my tone level and calm as not to come off as suspicious. 

The happiness in Ethan's eyes quickly swiped away and was instead replaced with a dull and lifeless look of disappointment. "Oh," he said simply. 

  Jesus Christ, he seriously bought that?

I felt the muscles of my face relax in relief, happy that I managed to worm my way out of him teasing me, for once in my life.

We then continued to watch the episode in comfortable silence. The only sound evident apart from the blaring audio of the TV, was my occasional sniffling sounds as I blew my nose into my wrinkled-up tissue. 

 Just as I felt myself nodding off slightly, I was immediately jolted awake when I felt a hand trail up the length of my leg slightly before stopping to cup my knee cap. It was such a small action, but it seemed to set alight every nerve in my body and I could no longer focus on anything else for the life of me. 

I then felt his hand creep slightly higher and move to rest on the inner part of my lower thigh before lightly starting to stroke the skin there. I looked at Ethan's face briefly to see if he was doing it on purpose to wind me up but his eyes were still glued to the screen and he seemed completely oblivious to my reaction to his touch. 

My heart was beating so fast, I might as well have been running a marathon. The placement of his hand and the teasing moving of his fingers against my skin was driving me absolutely nuts. My eyes enlarged in surprise when I felt his hands drift up even higher to rest on my upper bare thigh, skimming the material just underneath my shorts My poor heart, was seconds away from giving up altogether. I turned to face him again in suspicion, but he was still solely focused on watching the show. 

What the fuck?

He suddenly turned to face me with furrowed eyebrows. "Why are you looking at me? What's the matter?" he asked in concern.

 I just coughed awkwardly and widened my eyes before shooting a pointed look to the positioning of his hand, hoping this would silently communicate the issue. 

He followed my line of vision to see what I was looking at and he jumped in shock as though he was equally as surprised to see his hand there too. He tore his hand away from my leg so fast, it was almost comical. 

"Shit, I'm so sorry. I had no idea." He blurted as he furiously avoided eye contact and a faint red blush spread across his cheek. I laughed, finding amusement in his embarrassment. 

"It's fine. I barely even noticed," I lied smoothly.

Gradually after the exchange of a few awkward glances, we both tuned into the television show. Ethan's hands remained incredibly rigid and still in his lap as though he was terrified, they might go for another excursion. 

The familiar jingle of my doorbell then decided to echo through the house, interrupting the uncomfortable energy in the room. I glanced in the direction of the door in surprise. Neither of my parents were supposed to come home for another two hours so I had no idea who the hell was at the door. 

"Crap, is that your dad?" Ethan said with a panicked voice, as he sat up straighter in alert. 

I took in his frightened expression and snorted. "Well for your sake, let's hope not. Just wait here, it's probably just a salesperson." I said with a heavy sigh as I started to journey my way to the front door.

I swung the door open and my eyes immediately landed on Ben. His distinctive sandy blonde hair was pulled back into a bun and he greeted me with a half-hearted tight-lipped smile and eyes that were littered with nervousness.

"Oh, hey Ben. What brings you here?" I said as I eyed him up and down with a confused smile. 

 "I just wanted to check up on you since you called up sick to work." he swallowed. "You're not avoiding me because of what happened at the party, right?" Ben asked cautiously. 

I tilted my head in confusion before I realized, he was talking about our almost kiss.

 "Oh no. No! Of course not. I'm actually sick." I laughed. "I've got snotty tissues to prove it," I said as I fished one out of my pocket as proof. 

 "Thank God, I thought you hated me for sure," he said letting out a massive sigh of relief. 

"Wait why would I hate you?" I said in confusion.

 "I just figured that since Ethan lost his shit at the party, that there clearly must be something going on with you two. I should have asked before trying to kiss you, I put you in an uncomfortable situation and I'm sorry," he explained guiltily.

 I almost burst into laughter, at his incredibly incorrect assumption. I snorted. "We're not...." I started to say before I noticed Ben's eyes were no longer focused on me but whatever was behind me. 

Curious, I turned around and my eyes widened as I saw Ethan standing directly behind me. For some reason, he had undergone an outfit change and stood before me completely shirtless. The extraordinarily shocking sight of Ethan without a top on completely robbed me of my trail of thought and I had absolutely no memory of what I was about to say.

 It was a bit of a fight but I eventually managed to rip my eyes away from the mass of well-sculpted tanned skin to look at him. His eyes glinted with mischievous energy which immediately alerted me that he was up to something.

 He dragged his eyes away from me and surveyed Ben, who was still stood awkwardly on my doorstep. 

"Hey, Ben," Ethan greeted confidently, in a surprisingly chipper tone. 

 Ben reciprocated his greeting with a curt nod and eyed Ethan warily as though he was a rabid dog that had the potential to attack at any second. I didn't blame him; Ethan had shoved him on to his ass at the party like some kind of maniac. 

I looked between the two of them in confusion, as they seemed to engage with some kind of weird intense staring match. Well, the intensity was mostly on Ethan's side, Ben just looked scared. 

 Then before I could even construct another coherent thought, I felt Ethan grab me around the waist. I stumbled back in surprise and fell clumsily on to the bare surface of his chest. I was instantly hit with the strongly intoxicating smell of his cologne and I tried my best not to breathe it in, not wanting to succumb to the effect it had on me. 

Just when I thought things couldn't get any crazier, he then proceeded to lean down and press a kiss against the back of my neck before moving to rest his chin in the crook of my neck. 

"Let's go back to bed..." he whispered in a raspy and rather loud voice.

 I almost choked, as I heard those words leave his mouth. "We weren't in bed. What the hell are you on about Ethan?" I hissed in confusion as I scrambled to free myself from his grasp. He was holding on to me so tightly, that my struggle was barely even noticeable.

Ben who I had almost forgotten was there, cleared his throat awkwardly and I blushed as I glanced up at him. 

Fuck. This looks so bad. It looks like I just blew off work, to mess around with my 'boyfriend.'

Ben shifted nervously in his place and looked even more uncomfortable than I did. "Look, Ethan, I'm sorry about the other night. I would never would have gone near her if I knew you guys were a thing." Ben explained apologetically. 

"Bu-" I started to say but Ethan talked over me. 

"Don't worry about it. I overreacted; I just get a little possessive sometimes." Ethan said with a chuckle as he wrapped his arms tighter around me.

 "Great. I'm glad we're cool." Ben laughed. "I'll see you guys at school. Have a good night guys." Ben replied happily before turning around and heading back out my driveway. 

I immediately snapped to my senses. "Wait..." I started to yell at Ben's retreating figure but Ethan slapped his hand over my mouth before I could finish my sentence. 

Ben didn't hear me yell and just continued his way to the curb, leaving with the incredibly incorrect presumption that we were a couple. 

I let out a growl of frustration before darting my tongue out so I could lick the underside of his hand. It was payback for when he did that disgusting shit to me. 

He just chuckled and slowly removed his hand from my face. "Nice try Mia but it's going to take a lot more than that to gross me out," he said with a chuckle. As soon as he saw Ben start-up is his car, he let out a contented sigh and immediately dropped his hands from around my waist before strolling his way back into the house.

I aggressively slammed the door behind, before following him into the living room. "What the hell was that Ethan?" I exclaimed dramatically. 

"And why'd you take your top off?" I blurted out in confusion as my eyes unconsciously dropped down to his chest. I think this was the first time I've ever seen him without a top on (well excluding the suggestive photo he had uploaded on to my phone). And let me tell you, the up-close, real-life version was not a disappointment. 

His muscles were ripped in an almost irritating manner and I'm pretty sure he had a bloody 6-pack or something. 

Not that I was staring long enough to count or anything...

 "Earth to Chubs," Ethan chuckled lowly, as he waved his hand in front of my face to get my attention. 

 I snapped my eyes up to meet his and I immediately looked away as I was met with his annoyingly cocky expression. 

"And to answer your question, I took it my top off, because it's quite hot in here," Ethan said as he fanned himself with his hands.

 I arched an eyebrow up in disbelief. "I can quite clearly see the goose-bumps on your arm," I retorted bluntly. 

"Yeah but that's only because I was standing near the door..." he added in retaliation.

 "Okay whatever Ethan, but that still doesn't explain why you heavily insinuated that we were dating to Ben," I grumbled in irritation. Now I was going to have to chore of having to explain to Ben, that he had got it all wrong about us dating and Ethan was just being his usual dick like self.

 "Well obviously because I hate him and I knew he would back off you if he thought we were a thing," Ethan explained with a scoff.

 I took a deep breath in and out, in an attempt to try and contain my anger and frustration. 

"For the last time Ethan, get this through your thick head. Ben no likey me. Mia no likey Ben. Ben and Mia are friends." I explained to him in an overly simplified baby voice.

He let out a heavy sigh and moved closer to me, so close that I could see the tiniest and most intricate details of his face. I had never really noticed before, but the corners of his nose were scattered faintly with freckles. It made me smile slightly as it made him appear all boyish and innocent.

It was cute and I kinda liked it.  

My eyes then drew to his eyes, which were shining their usual deep oceanic blue color as they slowly roamed over my face. I noticed he had the same funny expression on his face that he had when we were upstairs in my room.

 Slowly, he reached out to cup my cheek, which caused my heart to embarrassingly jolt in surprise. He swallowed harshly as he faintly traced the skin at the corner of my mouth with the edge of his thumb. 

"Do you not realize how amazing you are? If he doesn't like you already, then it's only a matter of time before he falls to his feet. It's an incredibly easy thing to do, trust me." he said with a harsh chuckle

He was looking at me with such an intensity it was, making my heart throb and his eyes were swimming with an emotion I couldn't quite decipher.

Then as suddenly as the emotion arrived, it was gone. He let go of my cheek immediately and took a large step backward so there was a considerable amount of space between us. 

"I'm sorry. That was..that was weird. I just...I just need to erm.... I just need some air." he mumbled weakly, before practically sprinting his way out of the room without even sparing me a second glance.

I stayed frozen in place, wondering what the hell had just happened...