“Let’s go to the beach!” Kate grinned at me the second she walked into my house on Saturday. She was fully showing now, so I didn’t know if it was the greatest idea if she went to the beach. “Come on, Maxynn! It’ll be fun!”
“I agree,” Zach piped up from the couch before I could deny anything, and I glared at him for taking her side. Zach was the only other person that knew why I couldn’t wear a swimsuit, and I knew that he was nice enough not to make me go when I wasn’t comfortable.
“You have to go, Maxynn,” Kate nearly whined now, not even letting me say no because she knew what I was going to say. “I already invited everyone else to go and they’re on their way over! So you have to!”
This was one of the reasons why I hated Kate for being the exact opposite of me. She did things without thinking first, while I thought too much. She knew there was no way I was going to go unless plans had already been made.
So I agreed, knowing there was no way I was going to be able to get myself out of this. But instead of changing into a bikini like all the other girls were, I decided to wear a low cut top with sleeves, and then short shorts as well. I might have had a problem with my arm, but I definitely didn’t have a problem with my legs.
Brianna drove us all to the beach in her van, but unfortunately Ethan had to come along for the ride as well. There wasn’t enough room in the car for all of us, so Aveline forced herself to sit on Zach’s lap. I had to force myself to act like it didn’t bother me at all.
But the worst part about the entire ride was that Ethan was there with us. The entire time he would sneak in this snide comments about me that made Aveline laugh as she continued to sit on Zach’s lap.
“Bye-bye, Maxynn!” Ethan cried out the window, once I got out of the car. “Don’t get pregnant!”
I looked back at him and glared, thinking that what he said would bother Kate, but she just laughed like she had the entire time in the car.
“I like him,” Aveline giggled when she saw how annoyed I was. “He should stay here with us!”
Ethan grinned at me when he saw my eyes widen at this suggestion. I already knew what he was going to say.
“Okay,” he said as he hopped out of the van. “I’ll stay.”
Great. This just got even worse.
Johnny, Zach, Aveline, and Logan all immediately jumped into the water almost immediately while I sat down on a towel with Kate and Todd. I didn’t know where Ethan went, but I was fine as long as he wasn’t anywhere near me.
“Maxynn, get in the water before I throw you in!” Zach cried out to me after about fifteen minutes went by, and he was actually able to hit the water hard enough so it would splash me.
“No!” I rejected. “I’m perfectly fine where I am!”
“But you swim in Zach’s pool!” Logan told me, as he swam right by.
I felt my eye twitch. “I was pushed in and fully clothed. I didn’t exactly swim.”
“Well, can you at least come get the volleyball out of the water?” Johnny asked me as he pointed at the volleyball that was going in and out with the tide. “We’re going to play later, so we don’t want it wet.”
I let out a sigh, pushing myself up from my spot and making my way over to the water. I made sure that Zach was nowhere near me as I bent over to pick up the ball.
“Sneak attack!” a new voice now cried out, and I let out a shout as someone tackled me down into the water. I rolled over in the wet sand to see that it was Ethan, who stuck his tongue out at me before diving out into the water.
“That brat!” I couldn’t help but shout, standing up from the water and brushing myself off as all my friends laughed in the water before me. “I’m going to kill him one of these--”
But I wasn’t able to finish, because just then a Frisbee hit me in the back of the head and almost knocked me down all over again. I turned around and picked it up, a boy that looked our age running up to go get it.
“Sorry,” he chuckled, and I tossed him the Frisbee. “My friends can’t aim for their lives, not to mention the wind’s not helping.”
I laughed, even though the back of my head kind of hurt. “No, it’s fine, really.”
He looked back at my friends who were now splashing at me in the water. I glanced back to glare at them, but Logan only smirked at me while Aveline scowled and both Johnny and Zach had a kind of look on their faces that I couldn’t read.
I noticed both Kate and Todd looking as well, and Kate almost looked excited. Sure, this guy was cute and all, but was he really that big of a deal? I didn’t really think so. I mean… he was just a guy.
I nodded at the boy now, unsure of what to say. This boy really was attractive, but nowhere near as attractive as Zach. If anyone thought that I was going to flirt with this guy, they were wrong.
“Barry,” the boy said, reaching his hand out.
I shook it. “Maxynn.”
“Hey, Barry! Are you bringing the Frisbee or what?” a boy cried from the group of Barry’s friends.
Barry looked back at them. “Yeah, I’m coming!” He then turned toward me and smiled. “It was nice meeting you.”
“You, too,” I nodded as he started his way away from me and back toward his friends.
When I turned back over to my friends in the water, Logan was the only one smirking at me. I didn’t even want to look back at Kate because I knew she was going to be so much worse.
“What?” I snapped, trying my hardest not to glare at the brunette boy before me.
“Oh, nothing…” Logan shrugged, floating by.
“I find that hard to believe…” I told him, my tone cold.
Kate suddenly waddled up beside me, and it almost made me roll my eyes. This was so not going to be good, and I knew it.
“So… who was that?” Kate smirked suggestively, and both Zach and Johnny looked uncomfortable.
“That was Barry. I don’t really know him.” I shrugged it off.
“I bet he purposely did that, Maxynn!” Kate now giggled, and I really found that hard to believe. “I bet he threw it over here just so he could talk to you!”
There was no way that was right. I was the only girl fully clothed, and I was now covered in wet sand because of Ethan. Even Kate was wearing a two-piece swimsuit and she was pregnant! He’d probably hit on her before he ever hit on me.
Kate saw my glare and quickly waddled back to her spot, which I knew was the smartest thing she could have done right then.
“Dude, let’s play some volleyball,” Johnny told us as he got out of the water. “Maxynn looks like she’s going to die if she has to get anywhere closer to the water, so let’s get out for a while.”
Todd now got up from his spot next to Kate to play volleyball with us. I wasn’t exactly great at the sport, but then I wasn’t horrible at it either. It wasn’t going to be that difficult to play anyway, since there’d be three people on each team.
But before we could start and make up teams, we heard laughing from where Kate was sitting. We looked over to see a group of teenage boys laughing at Kate. I immediately recognized them as the guys Barry had been playing Frisbee with, even though he wasn’t with them.
“Look how fat she is!” the ringleader cried, making the rest of the group laugh as Logan looked like he was getting ready to bash all of their faces in.
“Hey,” I said, placing a hand on his shoulder before he could go over there. I knew it would not be a good idea if he got in a fight with someone on the beach. “Let me handle this, okay?”
He looked a little calmer and nodded for me to go over there, which I did as quickly as my wet clothes would let me.
“Hey!” I yelled at the boys once I was close enough to let them know I was talking to them, and they looked away from a crying Kate.
“Look, it’s the girl Barry was talking to that he called one of the hottest girls he’d ever seen!” the ringleader said again, and I could see that out of the corner of my eye that Zach and the rest of my friends had heard.
I crossed my arms over my stomach, for some reason feeling uncomfortable. My shirt was wet, so they could see through it, and I knew those perverts were taking advantage of it. I heard footsteps coming up behind me in the sand, but I ignored it.
“Pigs!” I spat at them, not knowing what else I was supposed to say. Barry wasn’t with them, but if he hung out with guys like this, I knew I wanted nothing to do with him.
“Aw, babe, I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings or anything,” the leader of the group now started, making his way closer to me now. This caused me to take a step back. “It was a compliment, honest. You really are a hot chick. How about you come hang out with us?”
The other boys wolf whistled at us as I glared. They really were disgusting. I was about to turn him down flat until I felt an arm snake around my waist.
“Sorry,” Zach glared. “She already has a boyfriend.”
I had to bite the inside of my lip to stop myself from looking shocked, but I’m not sure if it worked or not. This was definitely the last thing I was expecting from Zach, of all people.
“Oh, really?” the ringleader asked now. “Prove it then.”
This really wasn’t that hard to do, since I had to kiss Zach almost every single day. So when he leaned in and kissed me, I didn’t freak out like I almost always did. I just kissed him back as if it was normal, as if we really were boyfriend and girlfriend.
“Oh, looks like he’s right,” the leader now grinned, obviously not hurt by the fact that I was already taken. “Let’s just go back to making fun of Fatty then, shall we?”
As much as I would’ve loved to continue kissing Zach, pretending as if no one else was there around us, I pushed him away. I was still in his arms and we were staring at each other for only a few seconds, both breathing heavily.
“I…” I gulped. “I have to go help Kate.”
He nodded, letting me go and not saying a word.
“Hey, assholes!” I shouted at them now.
“Oh, you’re back? Did you get tired of lover boy and decide to come to me?” the leader smirked now, and I could help but think that Zach’s smirk was so much hotter.
“No,” I started calmly, even though I felt my anger growing. “I would like you to leave my pregnant friend alone!”
The boys looked shocked, but then the leader laughed. “So she isn’t a Fatty! She’s a slut!”
I could help it anymore. I tried to fight it, but I just couldn’t do so any longer. Before I even realized what I was doing, my fist was flying through the air and smashing against his nose, just like it had with Aveline all those months before.
The guys behind him almost looked scared as they called, “John, are you okay?”
Oh, so his name was John. That was nice to know. As long as he didn’t go by Johnny, that was fine with me.
His nose was bleeding, and possibly broken. I could faintly hear Aveline shout, “Again? Seriously?”
“The father of the baby is right over there!” I nearly screeched, pointing toward Logan with the hand I had punched John with, some of his blood dripping off as I did no. John was moaning on the ground as he clutched his nose, blood all over his hand. “Not like if you got a girl pregnant! You’d ditch her right away and never look back! Now get out of here, you pigs!”
The boys quickly scattered away quickly, obviously afraid of what I could have done next. It kind of made me proud of myself, even though I really shouldn’t have been.
“Are you alright, Kate?” I asked her now as I wiped John’s blood off of my hand.
She nodded. “Yeah, I’m fine, but that was amazing, Maxynn!”
I merely shrugged. “Eh, not really.”
“Not really?” Kate cried as she pushed herself up off the towel she had been sitting on. “That was awesome! You sure showed that jerk a thing or two! And what was with that make out session with Zach? It looked so believable! It almost made me believe that you two are dating!”
“It was to show those losers that I was Maxynn’s boyfriend,” Zach explained with a shrug, as if it was no big deal. He didn’t look like he was freaking out inside at all, not like I was.
“You’re Maxynn’s boyfriend?” Aveline shrieked, looking like she could have broken my nose now.
“No! One of them was just hitting on me!” I quickly excused, not wanting any of them to think that I was actually in any type of relationship with Zach. “It’s really not that big of a deal…”
Zach now grabbed the volleyball from Johnny’s grasp, and the two of them shared a competitive glare before Zach said, “Let’s go play some volleyball.”
We quickly split up into teams as Kate sat back down, closer to us now. I was on a team with Logan and Todd while Zach, Johnny, and Aveline were on the other. I knew Aveline was the weakest link on their team, and Todd was probably the weakest on ours. I knew exactly where I was going to hit the ball.
We bumped the volleyball back and forth to each other while Kate watched, someone occasionally spiking it or missing it. Much to my surprise, Zach was actually really good, and he was the only reason my team was losing.
The ball came up into the air, right at me, and I was going to hit it easily until what happened next.
It all seemed to happen in slow motion. Someone was calling out my name, and I turned around to see that it was Ethan. But instead of seeing Ethan’s face like I should have, I saw a gigantic crab that he was holding up instead. It caught me so off guard that it actually freaked me out, causing me to shout out in surprise.
I jumped at the ugly looking thing, and this caused me to ram right into Todd and send us both falling into the sand with me right on top of him. His entire face turned scarlet, and I couldn’t help but feel embarrassed as well.
“Sorry!” I apologized as I got up from being on top of him. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” he assured, pushing himself up off the ground and brushing the sand off of him.
Ethan was laughing his ass off as he placed the crab in the sand and let it find its way back to wherever it belonged. I was going to strangle him, but Logan cut me off before I could.
“I’m tired…” he whined. “Can we go home?”
Kate heard this and scowled at him, obviously not ready to go home yet. Wanting to be a good best friend, I suggested, “How about you guys go back and Kate and I stay here for a little while? Then when we want to come back we’ll walk. Zach’s house isn’t that far from here.”
Zach didn’t look so sure, but Ethan looked like he couldn’t wait to get himself out of there and away from him. After a few minutes of debating, they finally agreed to letting Kate and me stay. But before they left, Kate and Logan kissed each other goodbye. It almost made me wish that Zach would do that to me.
“You two really are a cute couple,” I smiled as I said now beside her on her towel, and she blushed.
“You really think so?” she asked, and I nodded.
It was silent for a little while, both of us just soaking up the sun for who knows how long. Kate’s pregnant belly was out in the open, and I couldn’t help but study it a little bit. I was pretty sure she wasn’t fully showing just yet, and I couldn’t wait until she finally had the baby, which I was pretty sure she was going to keep.
It was still silent until she finally asked, “So… how about you and Zach?”
I couldn’t help but freeze. This was definitely not something I was expecting her to say to me, out of all the things we could have possibly talked about.
“What do you mean?” I asked, feigning innocence.
She rolled her eyes at me, obviously knowing that I knew exactly what she was talking about. “Even though that kiss was a fake, that doesn’t mean it didn’t look like you enjoyed it. Because, Maxynn… you looked like you really enjoyed it.”
I shrugged, trying not to show that I really did enjoy kissing Zach out in the open, in front of people. “Maybe.”
“Oh, come on, Maxynn!” she whined now, poling me in the arm. “Tell me, tell me! I’m your best friend!”
She did have a point… She was my best friend and all, yet I hadn’t told her how I truly felt about Zach. It made me feel kind of bad, even though I was sure she’d understand if I told her…
“Fine,” I sighed, knowing that there was no way I could have gotten out of this. “I love him, okay?”
She looked shocked. “Love?”
“Yeah,” I nodded, still not wanting to admit it out loud to anyone. “But you can’t tell anyone!”
“I won’t! I won’t!” she assured, giggly and happy once again. “But does anyone else know
“Johnny,” I shrugged simply, not really wanting to talk about him or this subject any longer.
All we did for the next hour was sit there on the beach and tan, occasionally talking to each other now and then. I wasn’t exactly having fun, but I knew Kate was so I sat there and forced myself through it. After I noticed how gold she was turning and how red I was, I knew it was time to go.
“You know the way, right?” Kate asked as we exited the beach’s parking lot.
I nodded at her. “Of course. Come on, let’s go.”
We walked alongside the road and it took a little longer than I thought it would. Zach’s house was about ten miles away, and Kate was starting to get tired when we were about five miles away. I didn’t blame her though, since she was pregnant and all.
Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to walk home…
I noticed a white van following us once Kate started to slow down just a little. Even though I didn’t want to, I slowed down to help my friend even though I really just wanted to grab her hand in run. Something was definitely not right about that van.
It being hot outside did not help. My clothes were stiff from the water and the sand, so they were definitely still uncomfortable. There weren’t anyone around us, so it made me feel even more uneasy about that van.
I tried not to t think anything of it, even though it was totally the type of van on TV that kidnappers drove to snatch little kids. Thinking about this did not make me feel any better about it following us…
When I heard skidding tires, I knew what was happening. My stomach jumped into my throat, and I thought I was going to throw up as the side door of the van flew open to reveal one of the goons that had grabbed be the other day after school. I screamed, and so did Kate, but he didn’t even acknowledge me as they grabbed me and pulled me inside.
The goon shut the door and the other guy driving sped off. I saw that this guy was the other guy who tried to grab me, and I couldn’t believe that this was actually happening. What happened to the boys guarding me? I didn’t think anything would happen just walking back from the beach!
The man that had grabbed me smirked at me. “We finally got you, Maxxy.”
I glared at them. “Don’t call me that.”
Only one person could call me that, and that was it. I was glad they weren’t calling me Maxine anymore, but Maxxy was even worse. Maxxy was Zach’s nickname for me and nobody else’s.
“Why not, Maxxy?” the blonde goon that had grabbed me now asked, and his partner chuckled as he continued to drive. “Do you have a problem with that nickname?
I wished that I had left with the rest of my friends when I had the chance. I wouldn’t have been in this situation with two men I didn’t even know who obviously wanted me dead for no apparent reason. What could possibly be the reason for wanting me dead?
A thought struck me then. Were these the same people that had burned my house down? The same people that had killed my mother? Was that why they were after me, for some reason? Was it because of my mother, who died in the fire?
I gulped, looking at the two of them. This was it, I knew. There was no way I was getting out of this alive, and I was almost accepting of it. At least I’d be with my mother, which was something that would have made me happy about all of this. The one regret I would have had though was that I never got to tell Zach how I really felt about him, even if I did lose the game…
“Aw, look,” the blonde one laughed now as he nudged the brunette driving. “She’s crying. She must have figured out what we were going to do.”
I didn’t even realize that I had been crying, and I quickly wiped at my eyes so I wouldn’t feel any more embarrassed, not that that would have mattered. These men were going to kill me and there was nothing I could do to stop it. There was no point in stopping myself from crying.
I wanted Zach. I wanted him with me right then. How could I easily break a guy’s nose only a few hours before, but do nothing against two men that were going to murder me? Why was I being so helpless now, of all times I could have been? I wanted to stop crying, but I couldn’t. Because my life was over, and there was nothing I could do to stop what I knew was coming from happening.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please go nominate Ethan for Funniest Character! Look how cute he is in the picture on the side! How can you not nominate him? Tell me if you nominate him! The link to the page to nominate him is in the external link! ---->
This is for the 2012 Watty Awards! Please COMMENT, VOTE, and SHARE! And NOMINATE Ethan! :)