by Karla Luna
“You look cute with my glasses.”
“You’re practically blind! How can you even see with that?”
“Rude. You’re right in front of me, I can see you.”
“Take them off, you nerd.”
He chuckled and took them off me.
I opened my eyes and quickly turned, watching Davne casually cross the street with cars beeping at him because he wasn’t looking.
He just gave them the wonderful finger.
I so wish at least one of those cars ran him over.
When I turned back around, Zavier placed his glasses back over his eyes and looked up at the beanie he had put on me. “The beanie looks…”
“Don’t say cute.” … even though you’re the only one allowed to call me that.
“I was going to say exquisite, alluring, charming…” I could tell he was joking as he stopped to laugh, giving me a glimpse of his adorable dimple again.
“You’re so lucky you’re cute,” I said with fake annoyance.
“Hey,” he said as he bit his lip and grabbed my hand. “Just playing. Let’s go eat.”
“Hell, yeah!” I yelled out as I jumped right on him so that he could give me a piggyback ride. I thought he’d stumble or drop me, but he’s stronger than he looks. “Zavier Coin, you had me at ‘Mom!? I’m home!’”
He chuckled again and began walking towards the closest fast food restaurant. “Wonderful first impressions, huh. I met the girl in her underwear.”
“Sweet, sweet memories.”
“Ship…”
“Ship.”
“Ship?”
“Ship.”
“Ship.”
“Zavier.” I put my French fry down and stared at him as he sipped his drink, giving me innocent eyes for I don’t know what reason. But it looked cute, I can tell ya that. “How many times are we going to repeat the same word to get you to understand?”
“Oh, I understand clearly. We’ve repeated it a total of 17 times already.” I sighed and let my head fall. But then, I took a deep breath and looked up at him again with a big smile that might’ve seemed fake but wasn’t.
“Ship—”
“18…” he said in a singsong voice as he put his lips over his straw.
I slapped his arm and he smiled, but let me continue talking. “It’s just a thing people do, you know. I know you know this, don’t pretend you don’t know this because you know that you know, you know?”
“No,” he said with a cheeky smile, but it was clear that he was kidding. He just loves to joke around, doesn’t he? I’m seeing a new Zavier today and damn, I loved him even more by the second. “All right, my dear Evelyn.” He sat back on his seat and asked. “What is the ship?”
I bit my lip and thought about it. Thought about it real good.
Then, it’s like it came to me so suddenly. It’s like I heard the angels singing, or I saw the light from heaven coming down, or perhaps witnessing God himself being resurrected…
Okay, that’s probably too much. But still, it was that great.
“Zav—, I got nothing.”
Zavier laughed when I sat back down… because I didn’t realize I had gotten up from my seat. But then, my eyes went wide and I snapped my fingers at him and waved my hands over his face. He just kept staring at me with those adorable brown eyes. Then he grabbed my wrists and nodded at me, urging me to tell him what was up. “Zavelyn… our ship! That’s our ship!”
And I heard the angels singing again…
“Zavelyn…”
“Zavelyn.”
“Zavelyn?”
“Zavier, don’t start with me again.”
He grabbed a French fry and pointed it at me. “You are crazy.”
Meh, I’ve been called worse. I admit, he’s got himself a pretty damn bossy crazy-ass bitch.
“Oh, teddy bear. My dear, darling, adorable, sexy, hot, damn fine…”
“The point…” he said, but I saw the tint of red in his cheeks and I almost gushed because of it. I felt ridiculous. It seems like I only showed this side of myself to him.
“If this were a story, people would so be cheering us on.”
He slowly took a bite of his French fry and raised his eyebrows at me. “I highly doubt it.”
It’s been a while since I’ve had my own type of fun. Honestly, being with Zavier was all I needed to be happy. But sometimes, I still needed to do the things I learned to like over the years.
I kept pulling on his hand, leading him toward the club. Yeah, this nerd was pretty strong but I was also strong myself, so I managed to at least pull him towards me a little each time.
He groaned or whined whenever I managed to do it, and when we were finally right in front of the doors, he huffed, giving up entirely. It made me smile in triumph at my ways of dealing with something like this.
“Club?” He looked at the doors. “Really?” He looked at the doors again. “I don’t want to drink…”
“You don’t have to. Don’t drink at all. I’m not forcing you into anything. And I won’t drink either. It’s illegal, remember?” I said as if it was no big deal. I felt like a complete bitch when I basically forced him to drink and smoke (even though I had good reason… I think). But that wasn’t Zavier, and I didn’t want to change him by making him do things he didn’t want to do – or those that weren’t specifically appropriate for him.
He was still the innocent guy I first met, and I wanted it to stay that way. I would hate myself if I made him do things he didn’t want to.
Well, I was forcing him into a club. But it’s just for a little fun. No worries. This time, he won’t have a panic attack, and I was going to make sure of that by staying at his side the whole time.
“Mmm… still. When does Evelyn Jo even refuse to do something because it’s illegal, huh? That’s new, where did she go?” He put his hand over his forehead and pretended to search the surrounding area.
But I just laughed and grabbed his hand again. “Just… come on!”
Once we were inside, we heard the loud music playing ‘You Make Me Feel…’ and I turned to Zavier with a smirk, moving my shoulders to the beat. Then I fist pumped the air while jumping and moved farther into the crowd, watching as Zavier shyly looked around and politely said ‘excuse me’ to a few people around him so that they could move out of his way.
A few guys gave him weird stares as if he didn’t belong, while some girls looked hungry enough to eat him. It had me rolling my eyes as I went over to him, grabbed his hand, and yelled out, “This nerd’s with me you motherfuckers!” The girls glared at me and the guys waved me off. But hey, we were in love with each other, so no one else mattered.
Zavier blushed and covered his face with his free hand, but I heard his warm laugh as I pulled him closer to me. I put his hands on my waist and kissed the spot below his ear, hearing his intake of breath.
I smiled to myself and pulled away a little to look at him, so that our noses would be touching. His hands on me tightened and I put my arms around him, starting to move my hips to the music.
He watched me with eyes full of lust as he pulled me closer, suddenly pushing me away to spin me around and pull me to him again. Only this time, he kissed me when we were close again.
We continued to dance with each other, laughing and smiling because we felt happy and free. It was like there was nothing to worry about right at that moment and I loved it. This was what I loved.
And being with Zavier, it’s made me realize that I wasn’t so bad. I’ve done bad things, but I’m actually a good person at heart.
Unless, you know, someone gets on my nerves. But that’s just the thing. If someone gets on my nerves, I punch them or say something witty. If someone gets on my nerves and is bothering Zavier… well, you might as well call an ambulance because there was no way anyone was hurting my teddy bear.
I loved being with him – every second of every minute, and I wanted to be the one to kick the ass of anyone who hurt him.
O
nce we had gotten home, I still wanted to be with him. So ignoring the two goofs arguing over what to watch on TV, I took Zavier up to my room and made him sit down on my bed. Once there, he was nervously looking around as if he’d never been in there before.
I took my jacket and his beanie off and then grinned, once I started to take my shirt off.
“Whoa, whoa, okay, do you need some privacy or something because I-I can go, you know, I can go and…”
“Shhh…” I said as I started to slip out of my pants to give him full view of my body. He gulped and clutched the bed sheet. “Nothing you haven’t seen before.”
“Y-you’re going to stop there, aren’t you?” he stuttered and I smiled at his cuteness and nerves.
“Sure… if that’s all you want?” He blushed at my question as I slowly started walking towards him. “You should take your clothes off, too.” Just a suggestion. And a very good one at that.
“It’s… I’m cold.” He shyly smiled and hugged himself, rubbing his arms for warmth. But he didn’t look the least bit cold, even though it was December.
“Body heat, my teddy bear. Plus, I stripped. It isn’t that cold.” I shrugged and walked over to him, but he held his hands up as if to stop me. “What?”
He pressed his lips together and tightly closed his eyes before opening them again. I looked at him questioningly and watched as he stood up and took his jacket and hoodie off. Then, he went for the belt of his jeans and took it off, dropping it to the floor beside his jacket. My heart was hammering against my chest as he grabbed the hem of his shirt and slowly lifted it up to show me his sculpted abs.
I sighed when he finally had the shirt off, which he also threw to the floor. He hadn’t looked at me this whole time and I’m guessing it was the nerves. But we’ve been like this before, just not as a couple. I didn’t want him to feel super nervous, so I slowly walked towards him and grabbed his hand. He looked up at me and I looked down at his chest, placing the palm of my free hand on his soft, warm, light skin.
Getting closer to him, I sweetly kissed the base of his neck. He was breathing slowly, yet his heart was going wild against my palm. I kept on giving his chest sweet little kisses and grabbed the belt loops of his jeans, pulling him close to have his hips meet my own.
He groaned and that caused me to start sucking on his fragile skin. His arms were limp at his sides but I could feel them tense up as I continued to peck and nibble on him.
Before I even knew it, his strong arm was around my hip and I was thrown down to the bed, gasping at the sudden action. I looked up at Zavier but didn’t have enough time to register what was going on since his lips came crashing down hard on mine.
He was being rough, yet passionate, with his lips and his hands.
I felt him touch me everywhere and I loved it. I couldn’t help but moan out when he tightly gripped my thighs and pressed his body harder against me, making me feel everything. And it was clear, that like me, he wanted more.
“Zavier…” I whispered as he began kissing down my body, leaving small love bites and a little wisps of breath where his hot mouth was before each kiss.
He was grabbing on to my hands rather tightly when he was kissing me all over my stomach and the sight of him was the hottest thing ever. His muscles and veins were bulging out and when he came over to kiss my lips again, he thrust the lower half of his body against mine – making both of us moan.
“Shit,” he swore as he pulled away from me. His cheeks were rosy and he was breathing hard, looking down at our bodies. “I-I can’t, I can’t go any further than this, I just… I’m such a loser.”
“Hey.” I quickly sat up and grabbed his face in my hands. He looked at me with worry and sadness in his eyes and I hated it. I wanted to see him happy again. I didn’t want him putting himself down because of something like this. “It isn’t a big deal. Okay? You are anything but a loser. We don’t have to do anything if you don’t want to, but just know that I’d still love you no matter what. It’s okay. Everything is okay, teddy bear.”
He looked down at my lips, then at my eyes again. “Really? But I just…”
“Just nothing. Come here.”
And that is how this new and crazy couple went from having a hot make out session to an afternoon and night full of cuddling, food, and movies.
42: The Gang VS. The Silent
• Evelyn •
I had no idea when Zavier was going to tell Stormy we were dating, but I was sort of expecting a pretty happy reaction when he randomly told her as she woke up the next morning.
But what we got instead was her giving us a huge, surprised smile – and I’m pretty sure she burnt her hand with all that coffee since she squeezed the foam cup hard enough.
I was slowly stepping back as she blinked and tried to process exactly what her son had just told her. I mean, what did you say when you’re innocent, good son tells you that he’s dating a delinquent girl? For her, she seemed to have no words at all. I badly wanted to look inside her mind.
“Okay, well, this is going to need some… tough thinking. I’ll be in my office. Do not disturb me.”
She was gone before the clock could tick another second.
Zavier sighed and looked at me. I raised my eyebrows as he put one hand in his pocket and waved the other one about. Then he faked a laugh. “Well, she didn’t seem to hate the idea!”
“Zavier…”
He stopped smiling and cleared his throat. “Okay, she may hate the idea but she loves you. She’s been helping you out and we’ll be okay. She just needs to think, like she said. And with her,” he paused to bite his lip and shrug, “… that may take some time? So she may avoid you, and possibly me, too. But it’ll be okay. I promise you that.”
I took a deep breath but nodded nevertheless. I was just about to walk over to give him a sweet kiss, when Ian slid right in between us out of nowhere and faced me. Cock-block. “Eve, sweetheart, buddy, best friend, partner in crime…”
“What do you want?” I demanded as I crossed my arms. Zavier scratched the back of his neck a little uncomfortably but stayed put.
“Surprise! We got an apartment! Darrel’s waiting up for me. Wanna go check it out? Of course you do, right?” He grabbed my shoulders and brought me outside right away. I called out to Zavier so that he could follow us, and we all walked to wherever this guy was taking us, which actually wasn’t that far.
In no less than five minutes, we were right in front of an apartment building, looking up at it. Ian seemed to be looking at it as if he were proud of himself for picking it out, and I almost started to step back to give him some privacy. “Beautiful, ain’t she?” he asked as he grabbed Zavier and I by the back of our shirts, putting us on either side of him so that he could place his arms around us. It’s like he had eyes at the back of his head sometimes. He never let anyone escape. “Damn, I’d love to take a picture of it.”
“Wait…” I turned to Zavier and saw him cock his head to the side as he looked the small building over. “Ethan lives in one of these apartments,” he said.
“Oh, he does?” I asked as I looked at it again.
“Yeah, just moved here temporarily so his parents could work stuff out. Apartment B4, was what Jesse said. But the guy hasn’t talked or hung out with us lately. Something’s up with him. He’s acting really… hey whoa, where are you going?” Zavier asked as he watched me starting to walk towards the building with Ian right in front of me, excitedly jiggling his keys and nodding his head.
“To check out Ian and Darrel’s apartment,” I answered. “Obviously.” Not… If Ethan was acting weird, I knew a way to get him to tell me what’s up. No one so quiet would be even quieter like this with his best friends. He’s supposed to be crazy, slightly less crazy than Jesse, but still crazy. He was just really off almost as much as Davne.
Oh... what I think was going on… better not be going on.
“It doesn’t really seem like it.”
“I want to go talk to Ethan.
There.” I didn’t listen to Zavier at all as we got up to Ian and Darrel’s new apartment, where Darrel was waiting for us with two boxes of pizza. One of them was already empty as he waved at us with a mouthful.
He was seriously my long lost brother, if he ate that much.
“Boys, we’re gonna go talk to sweet ol’ Ethan, in apartment B4,” I said, in the sweetest and gentlest voice I could muster. “Now get the shotguns.”
“What!? No! You are not…”
“I’m kidding, teddy bear,” I said as I watched Ian and Darrel stand behind me while looking at Zavier. And he actually looked pretty pale as he watched us all together.
“Please don’t scare the poor guy.” Gosh, he looked so cute when he was worried.
“We’ll be gentle, don’t worry.” I gave Zavier a sweet smile and then turned to Ian and Darrel. “Dare, you get the tape. Ian, you get the ropes and we’ll…”
“Evelyn.”
I held my hands up and turned to look at Zavier, but then turned back to the guys again. I pursed my lips. “Fine, fine. Hold the ropes, we’ll use the tape for the hands, too.”
“Don’t do that, you’ll scare the poor guy…”
I turned to him on the heels of my boots. “That’s the plan. He’ll say something then. We’ve done this before, it’s pretty easy.” I sighed and went over to kiss his nose. “Now, you stay here, watch some anime. You guys got Netflix, right?”
“Oh, fuck yeah, got everything set up already. We work pretty fast,” Ian answered as he grabbed on to the door handle with a smirk on his lips.
“Awesome.” I turned back to Zavier and grabbed his soft cheeks, smiling at him. “So teddy bear, you stay here and relax. And everything will be fine.”
“Surprise, motherfucker,” I said when he finally opened the door. I gave him a very sweet smile and heard Darrel behind me take out some duct tape.
Okay, so I was supposed to sweetly say ‘Hi, Ethan!’ at first. But this seemed way more fun.
His eyes went wide with horror when he saw us and he tried to close the door rather quickly, but my foot was even quicker. So I kicked the door open and that caused him to fall to the floor, grabbing on to his stomach while looking up at us.
