“Roller skating, beach trip, hiking, the zoo, and a two-day camping trip…” Lance glanced up from the piece of paper he was reading, a frown forming on his face. “Camping? In April?”

            “Technically it’ll be May by then,” Casey pointed out. “April ends Monday.”

            “Senior week looks fun to me,” I mused, scanning over the list of events. “Except the camping trip.”

            Chris tilted his head to the side. “You don’t like camping?”

            I shook my head. “Not at all. I hate the woods at night.”

            ‘Oh,” he started, smirking, “it’s not that you don’t like it. It’s just that you’re scared.”

            “You can share my tent!” Jeremy offered happily. “I volunteered myself to chaperone all these events, so you can stay with me and I’ll protect you!”

            Rolling his eyes, Chris sighed. “You do realize you probably have to tent with another chaperone, don’t you? I’m positive they won’t let Holly stay with you.”

            “I’m sure he will.”

            “He?” I echoed. “Who?”

            Jeremy pointed his slim finger straight at Chris. “This guy.”

            A snort emitted from Chris. “Me? Yeah right. I have better things to do with my life than play with a bunch of seniors for a week.”

            “Hey,” Casey, Lance, and I whined.

            “Holly excluded.”

            “Hey!” Lance and Casey cried while I smiled smugly.

            Jeremy chucked evilly. “Oh, I’m sorry Chris. Did I forget to mention I already signed you up for it?”

            “What did you say?” Chris’s voice was dangerously low. “You signed me up for camping?”

            Knowing what was coming, I silently begged Jeremy not to say more. I was afraid that the noise sure to come would attract someone walking by the classroom. Or worse, a teacher.

            “I signed you up for everything!”

            “You little brat,” Chris growled, shoving himself away from his desk. “Come here so I can kill you!”

            Letting out a quiet sight, I watched as Chris wrapped his hands around Jeremy’s throat and squeeze. The victim was busy laughing his head off, not taking his predator seriously. The motion caused me to subconsciously raise my hand to my own throat. The bruises from both Shawn and Mikey’s hands were gone now, but there was still evidence of the hickey Chris gave me. I was hoping after a whole week it would’ve disappeared. Luck, however, wasn’t on my side.

            “Okay,” Jeremy choked, his eyes watering from laughing so hard. “I c-can’t breathe now.”

            “Good.”

            Smirking, Casey wagged her finger at the blonde. “Jeremy, I told you the other day this would happen.”

            “You told him?” Lance echoed.

            “Yeah, I was with him when he thought… Never mind,” she said quickly, her face heating up in a blush.

            Interested, I watched her carefully. “With him? You guys hang out outside of school?”

            Chris stopped choking Jeremy for a moment. “You do?”

            “What about it?” Jeremy questioned, holding his head up high. “You two hang out outside of school, don’t you?”

            Annoyed, Chris shot him a dirty look. “Yeah, but what did I tell you—”

            “Oh hi Ms. Clemm!” Casey suddenly cried.

            Immediately Chris dropped his hands from around Jeremy’s throat, whipping around to face the door. My heart dropped into my gut as I twirled around as well. What was the principal doing here? We were in so much crap! Students weren’t allowed to be outside the lunchroom during lunch!

            When my eyes met the closed door, my eyebrows furrowed together. Had I misheard Casey? No one was there. “Casey?” I questioned, my gaze slowly sliding over to her.

            “Just joking,” she said, sticking out her tongue.

            “Why would you do that?” Chris snapped at her.

            “Chris,” I said disapprovingly. “Don’t snap at her.”

            He pursed his lips together. “She shouldn’t do stuff like that.”

            Casey huffed. “You shouldn’t tell Jeremy he’s not allowed to hang out with me after school, Mr. Heywood.”

            “She’s got a point,” I interjected quickly. “We hang out and we’re dating. They can hang out too, especially since they’re not dating… are or you?”

            Both people in questions waved their arms frantically, their eyes wide. “What? No way!”

            Amused by their response, I couldn’t help a little, knowing smile slipping onto my face. They really were cute. How often did they hang out after school? Why hadn’t Casey ever mentioned it to me? If they did hang out, maybe it was because they liked each other. Now I just had to figure out a way to get them together… I almost gasped an idea hit me. “Hey! I have an idea!”

            “What?” the other four persons in the room replied.

            “Casey and Jeremy should come over to Chris’s tonight and have movie night with us! Lance, you could bring Lexi too!”

            As if surprised he was included in the plans, Lance did a double take at me. “Me too?”

            I nodded eagerly. “It’ll be fun!”

            “I’m in!” Casey chirped, her brown eyes lighting up in excitement. “Can it be horror night— oh my God! We could have a giant sleepover!”

            Jeremy grinned. “Ah? Do your parents allow you to sleep over guys’ houses?”

            “My parents are pretty lax,” she told him.

            “Her mom’s kind of like mine,” I added, trying to picture Nadine. “Except less crazy…”

            Lance pulled out his phone. “I’ll have to ask Lexi..”

            “Tell her to invite Aaron. I don’t want him to feel left out.”

            “Sure.”

            “Excuse me,” Chris interjected, his eyes narrowed at me. “Can I talk to you for a minute, Holly?”

            My heart sunk a little bit at his intimidating demeanor. “Y-you’re talking right now, aren’t you…?”

            “Alone.”

            Begrudgingly I stood up from my desk. With his finger, he beckoned me toward the supply closet. I shot Jeremy and Casey a “save me” look, but they both just smirked back at me. Scowling, I turned my back on them and marched over to the room Chris was waiting in. Some friends I had.

            “Are you enjoying lunch?” Chris asked as he shut the door.

            “Yeah,” I murmured, my eyes glued to the floor.

            “That’s good. You know, I did say you could live with me, Holly, but you aren’t living with me right now.”

            Nodding, I grimaced. “Yes, I know.”

            “And yet you still go ahead and invite the most annoying person on this planet to my place on our night? Hasn’t this happened before?”

            “But this time I also invited my two best friends,” I pointed out.

            He stared at me blankly. “Holly.”

            I gave him my best puppy-dog look. “But Chris! I just want you to get along with them! I’m hoping we have a long life together and that can’t happen if you don’t get along with my best friends!”

            “So Aaron and Lexi are your best friends now?”

            “Well…”

            Crossing his arms, he breathed out slowly. “Fine. Just this once. And you owe me.”

            “Yay!” I cried, throwing my arms around him. “Thank you, Chris! I love you! I’ll do anything to repay the favor!”

            “Anything?” he repeated, raising an eyebrow. “Okay... You can do the dishes and clean up my apartment tomorrow then.”

            “Okay!” I agreed quickly. How much of a mess could we make?

            “About senior week… Are you okay with it?”

            I cocked my head to the side, pulling away from him slightly. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

            He frowned. “It gives all those girls that have their tiny crushes on me to flirt with me. All. Day.”

            “Oh,” I responded, my smile now dropping too. “That could be annoying…”

            “I’m not interested in them though,” he said quickly.

            I laughed. “I know that, Chris. I’m the person you love the most, right?”

            “Yes,” he told me, leaning in to kiss me on the nose. “And you’re lucky about how much I love you. I’d have to love a person a lot to let Jeremy sleep over.”

            “Is Jeremy that bad?”

            “He likes to crawl into bed with unsuspecting victims…”

            I blushed at the memory. “Oh, yeah.”

            “But you’re sleeping with me tonight, right?”

            “Is that even a question?”

            He grinned. “I thought not.”

            “Hey!” Jeremy suddenly shouted from the other room. “Seriously! What have I told you guys about doing stuff back there?”

            Rolling his eyes, Chris pushed me away from him and took my hand, leading me out of the room. “He really is a brat…”

            “That you have to deal with all night long!”

            “Joy.”

            * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

            “Okay. So we have two orders of hot wings, a party sized cheese pizza, a party sized pepperoni pizza, a large garlic bread, an order of mozzarella sticks, and three bottles of soda. Was that everything?”

            I stared at the poor delivery man carrying our whole order. “Let me help you,” I said, holding out my arms. “I’m so sorry you had to carry this all.”

            “It’s no problem,” he responded, looking relieved as he handed me the plastic bag with the sodas in it and the pizzas.

            The weight of the five items nearly toppled me over and I struggled over to the kitchen table to set them down. For some reason the delivery guy followed me in, putting the rest of our order on the table as well. From the living room I could hear Aaron and Lance arguing about what movie we should watch. Chris was standing by the living room door, his arms crossed as he watched me paying the delivery man. A lot of money was wasted on the food.

            “Did we order enough?” Chris asked sarcastically as I dug the chicken wings, garlic bread, and mozzarella sticks out of the paper bag on the table.

            “Well with four guys and three girls… I hope so.”

            Rubbing his eyes warily, he went over to the kitchen cabinet and pulled out plastic paper. “I swear, if there’s any thing spilled on my couch or carpet…”

            “We’ll make however spills it pay for the cleaning. Stop being such a pessimist, Chris. This is supposed to be a fun night. Hopefully there will be some progress in Casey and Jeremy’s relationship— oops,” I cut myself off, slapping a hand to my mouth.

            Chris narrowed his eyes. “So that was your plan all along.”

            “It’s not… I didn’t…”

            “Holly, what did I say—”

            “Look, we’re graduating in a month and everyone deserves a shot at love,” I snapped at him. “It worked out well enough for us, didn’t it Chris? Don’t you want to give Jeremy and Casey the same shot?”

            Taken aback by my response, it took my boyfriend a moment to respond. “Well…”

            “Even if you pretend to hate Jeremy, you still consider him your best friend. You wouldn’t want your best friend to be lonely, would you?”

            “I guess not,” Chris muttered. “It’s just weird.”

            “I think they’re cute.”

            “I smell food!” Jeremy suddenly cried from the other room. “Pizza, pizza, pizza, pizza, pizza, pizza, pizza!” he chanted, dancing into the kitchen. “Oh, Holly, the Goddess of Pizza!”

            Shaking my head, I grinned at his stupid nickname. “Actually, it was a male delivery guy who brought it.”

            The blond grinned back at me, shrugging. “I don’t even care. The food is here!”

            Casey popped into the kitchen a few seconds later, skipping happily up to the table. “Did you get my mozzarella sticks?”

            “Yes, I did,” I told her, pointing to one of the many boxes on the table. “Lance! Lexi! Aaron! Food! Come get it before it’s gone!”

            A few seconds later the trio being summoned appeared, making the kitchen feel incredibly crowded. We all maneuvered around each other to gather our food, having a few crashes in the process. Eventually we were all settled in the living room— Chris, Jeremy, Casey, and I on the couch, Lexi and Lance on the floor, and Aaron on the leather chair. Casey had randomly chosen Nightmare on Elm Street, so we were watching that. Not surprisingly, Chris had already seen it, so he began whispering what was about to happen into my ear.

            “Stop it,” I finally hissed at him, dropping my pizza.

            “Yeah, Chris, stop it. There are other people present you know,” Jeremy added suggestively. “Don’t embarrass Holly too much.”

            With pink cheeks, I turned my glare on the blonde. My heart skipped a beat in my chest when I realized he slyly had his arm around Casey’s shoulder and she was leaning toward him— not quite on him, but close enough. I had to resist the urge to push them together. Chris’s arms tightened around me, like he was predicting what I wanted to do.

            “Shut up and watch the movie,” Aaron hissed at us.

            I glanced over at him, realizing how lonely he looked. Maybe he could be the next person I played cupid for…

            “He’s going to be—”

            “Chris!” I cried, irritated. “Stop it!”

            “Shh!”

            “Yeah, Holly,” Chris murmured in my ear. “Shh.”

            Grinding my teeth, I elbowed Chris in the stomach. He groaned lightly, not able to tighten his muscles before my blow landed.

            “You guys are pretty daring…”

            “Jeremy, just shut up,” Chris ordered, giving him a hard look. “Get your mind out of the gutter.”

            He chuckled darkly. “It was never there to begin with…”

            “Jeremy, I’m trying to watch the movie,” Casey complained quietly. “Stop talking.”

            “But it was—”

            “Just quiet.”

            “But—”

            “All of you be quiet!” Lance called from the floor, throwing pizza crust into Chris’s face. “We’re trying to watch a movie.”

            Chris’s body tensed next to mine and I did my best to stifle my giggles. It was hard to stay quiet when it was already quiet. Without warning, he stuffed the crust down the back of my shirt. “Chris!”

            “Again?” Jeremy groaned. “Man, Chris.”

            “Jeremy!”

            “All of you guys shut up!” Aaron shouted. “Shit! You’re so annoying!”

            “Look, brat, you didn’t have to come,” Chris told him. “You shouldn’t have came. Not after that stunt you pulled last week.”

            A small chuckle came from the younger man. “Oh, you liked it.”

            “No, I didn’t.”

            “I’d watch yourself tonight,” Casey warned, her gaze going from the T.V screen to him. “Aaron might attack you while you’re sleeping.”

            Chris frowned at her. “Attack?”

            “Kiss or something. He kissed you before, didn’t he?”

            “How did you know that?”

            My eyes widened. Casey wouldn’t rat me out…

            “Oh, Holly told me.”

            “And me,” Lance added.

            “And me,” Lexi spoke up.

            “And me,” Jeremy concluded.

            I dropped my head, smiling wryly. Yes, my friends were the best. They really knew how to stick by my side.

            Chris set his jaw on my shoulder. “You told everyone, Holly?”

            “Chris, I didn’t—”

            “Holly wears a 36C bra.”

            “Chris!” I cried, my eyes wide with horror and my cheeks flushed in embarrassment. “Oh my god!”

            Jeremy burst out laughing at once. “Haha! I knew it!”

            “You knew it?” I almost shouted, completely mortified.

            “I knew you guys couldn’t wait until you graduated!”

            Casey gasped. “What? You guys did it? Did you use a condom?”

            “Aww! Holly’s bigger than me!” Lexi complained, pouting. “And she’s skinnier than me too!”

            I stared at Lexi. She was comparing our cup sizes? And I definitely wasn’t skinnier than her!

            “Huh… They appear smaller than they are, eh?” Aaron commented, his eyes lighting up mischievously.

            “You guys are all wrong!” I exclaimed, my cheeks so hot I was afraid they were going to catch on fire.

            Chris snickered. “I’m not wrong.”

            “You are such a jerk!”

            “Shh,” he said mockingly, “I’m trying to watch a movie.”

            Struggling out off of the couch, I pushed myself to my feet, glaring angrily at all those around me. “I hate you all!”

            “Love you too,” they commented in an offhand voice.

            “I-I-I’m going to take a shower,” I declared, glowering at Chris. “And I’m locking the door. Don’t even knock. I’ll be in there for the rest of my life.”

            He wrinkled his nose. “I don’t like pruned skin.”

            “Good!” I retorted, stomping off to the bathroom. “Stupid idiots,” I mumbled under my breath, stopping in the closet to grab my usual towel. “I hope they choke on their food.”

            Once in the bathroom I slammed the door shut and locked it, angrily stripping off my clothing. I’d never told Chris my bra size! How did he know? Did he guess? Did he secretly take a look while I wasn’t paying attention? When had he gotten the chance? He was so annoying!

            In order to cool myself down, I set the water to an unusually cool temperature before climbing into the shower. I sucked in a deep breath, unused to the feel of lukewarm water on my skin. After a few moments I decided to turn it up, letting steamy water hit my back and relax my muscles. It felt amazing. My anger was slowly pouring out of me and I reached for the soap, ready to clean myself from head to toe. I was going to use so much of Chris’s water, his water bill was going to go up. Hopefully his apartment manager would make him pay for it.

            About an hour later I climbed out of the shower, wrinkling my nose at my pruned skin. As I was wrapping myself up in my towel I realized my pajamas were in Chris’s room… Which meant I would have to pass the entrance to the living room in a towel in order to get them. Cursing under my breath, I slowly opened the door and tiptoed out of the room, doing my best to keep as silent as a ninjas as I snuck to Chris’s room. The living room was eerily quiet as I passed it. Everyone must have gotten really interested in the movie. Proud of myself, I sauntered into Chris’s room and shut the door, locking it. After that I dropped my towel, ready to do a quick change.

            “Ah…”

            My whole body froze. That was definitely not me… Turning to the closet, I realized Chris was standing there in only a pair of boxers. I stared at him blankly. He stared back.

            Then I realized I was completely naked.

            “Oh my God!” I cried, leaning down to snatch my towel up. Of course though,  my butter fingers dropped it again.

            He began chuckling at my panicked actions. “Calm down, Holly. It’s not like I haven’t seen most of it before.”

            Finally wrapping my towel around me, I glowered at him, a blush on my face. “It’s different with a bating suit on!”

            “Well you shouldn’t walk into a man’s bedroom and drop your towel like that if you don’t want to be seen naked,” he commented, smirking at me.

            “I thought you were in the living room!”

            “You thought wrong.”

            Still blushing, I stumbled over to my overnight bag, ripping it open and searching for my pajamas. “W-well…”

            “You know,” he started, my breath catching as I realized he was now standing directly behind me. “I’ll being seeing you naked soon enough.”

            My heart skipped a beat as I realized what he meant. “That’ll be different though…”

            “Not really,” he said, his arms wrapping around my waist. “Of course I’m expecting you to be embarrassed just like this. It’s cute.”

            “Chris…”

            He quickly kissed my neck before pulling away. “If you need pajamas, just tell me.”

            “Wait.”

            “Hmm?”

            Twisting on my heel, I gave him an inquiring look. “We graduate on June 7th… But I get out of school Monday, May 14th. Technically I’m not a student anymore on that date.”

            He must have known where I was going because his face went into you-can’t-convince-me-to-do-anything-I-don’t-want-to mode. “And?”

            “Actually… Um, well prom night is Saturday night. I was thinking…” Swallowing my embarrassment, I stared Chris straight in the eye. “I want us to spend the night together after prom.”

            To my surprise, he nodded. “Okay.”

            “Okay?”

            “If you’re ready.”

            “Wait, why are you agreeing so easily?”

            When his lips started curving up, I immediately regretted asking my question. “I thought about it a little bit and—”

            “I don’t want to hear it,” I interjected, holding up my hands. “I’ll just take what I got.”

            “Just make sure you’re ready,” he told me seriously. “Because once we start, it’ll be hard for me to stop.”

            My stomach constricted at his words. Suddenly I was nervous. Butterflies filled my stomach and my hands started to shake. Just a little over two weeks until I finally physically connected with Chris…

            Shaking my head, I quickly pulled out a new set of undergarments and threw them on before tossing on my pajamas. Chris was just pulling on his pants when I turned back to him. He glanced back up at me, surprised that I’d changed so quickly. When I started to leave, he halted me.

            “Where are you going?”

            “Back with the others…?”

            He shook his head. “Nah, they all fell asleep.”

            “What?”

            “Yep. They’re weaklings.”

            “I have to see this,” I declared, opening his door. “I’ll be right back.”

            He laughed quietly. “Okay, it’s quite a sight.”

            Knowing his words would be true, I slowly crept back to the living room. The television was still on, but now sound was coming from it. Lance and Lexi were dead asleep on the floor, Lexi’s head resting on his chest and his arms around her. I smiled at them. They made a cute couple. Aaron was lying reclined in his chair, his hands forming a makeshift pillow. Casey and Jeremy were on the couch, reminding me of myself and Chris. Jeremy looked like he’d fallen over in his sleep, dragging Casey down with him. They were in an awkward position— Casey’s legs still folded in her sitting position and Jeremy’s arm still around her shoulders even though she was lying on her side on top of him. It was moments like this that made me want to carry a camera around with me all the time.

            Returning to Chris’s room, I found him already lying in bed. I crawled in next to him, sighing deeply in content. “I hope they get together soon.”

            Chris grunted noncommittally.

            “What do you have against them?”

            “Nothing,” he sighed, turning over so that he faced me. “Go to sleep, Holly. I have a feeling we’ll be up early.”

            Frowning, I reluctantly nodded. “Okay, night Chris.”

            “Night,” he responded, leaning forward to gently kiss me. “Sleep tight.”

            I snuggled myself closer to him, wrapping my arms around his body. He did the same to me, pulling me closer. Luckily for us his room wasn’t too hot, so we managed to do this without being overheated. I realized at that moment I was one of the luckiest girls in the world (Lexi being another and Casey… sort of being one). Not every girl got to sleep in her lover’s arms all the time like I did. Smiling, I closed my eyes, letting sleep take over me. Yes, I was really lucky. 

___________________________________ 

Ten years later…

This was a fun chapter to write! I like writing chapters with no plot~ I don't have anything I HAVE to do. If you can't guess, the next five chapters are going to be the five things mentioned in the first sentence :P Beach trip is subject to change. I've done it before, so I don't really wanna do it, but a lot of my fans wanted that, so I might. You can leave a comment with another idea if you want!

Anyway. PLEASE VOTE. This was long so it'd be awesome if you voted c: 

My fanpage in the external link! :)