A/N: ... sorry? I have a good explanation, I really do. See, I moved (again) and didn't have connection to Internet for ages... gees.. those people really screwed up big time with that. Anyway, I won't promise the next chapter is going to be any faster, but I promise to try my best, Okay? I'm not the most inspired person these days, but hopefully that will pass soon. Anyway, you know what to do, right?


If I hadn't had enough of Brett the day he went to the mall with us, I certainly had now that Jamie had insisted on inviting him to join us for lunch, shrugging it off with an innocent "I think he's funny". After that I had given him such a fierce piece of my mind that anyone would have cowered in fear for their miserable little life. Anyone else than Jamie, of course. He had merely lifted a thin brow in a bored fashion and asked in his sweetest tone "Are you done?" I swear I could have smacked him round the head for so long that he couldn't have recognised his own face in the mirror afterwards. However, he had managed to save himself from such treatment by simply turning on his heel and marching away calmly.

Now I was sitting sullenly at one of the bigger tables in our school cafeteria, trying to ignore the fact that Jamie and Brett were talking animatedly about why the pepper in the salad was red instead of yellow. I didn't even want to think about why Jamie bothered acting like he was half as intelligent as he actually was. Perhaps it was so Brett wouldn't feel so bad about himself. Go figure.

Then, just because my day could get even worse, I spotted Mia walking towards our table with Elia striding beside her. They seemed to be in the middle of a heated conversation and surprisingly the boy didn't look all that happy at the moment. I would be lying if I said a corner of my lips didn't curve a little up in a satisfied smirk at the sight. I knew he had a weak point, too! Now I was just dying to know what it was. Not that anyone needed to know that. So I willed my face straight and directed my attention back to the newspaper in front of me.

"I just can't believe him!" Elia growled as he slammed his tray on the table forcefully and dropped unceremoniously in his chair.

"Yeah," Mia agreed as she followed his example a lot more composedly.

"I mean," the blond attacked his potatoes murderously, "the guy actually has the nerve to waltz into the classroom just like that and start posing for our paintings!" He glanced at Mia to see her nodding, "Like, who does that?"

Mia shrugged, "He does, apparently," she obviously noticed that Elia was going to say something again and quickly went on, "But you're absolutely right, that's ridiculous."

Elia nodded approvingly, "Yeah, it is."

Jamie and Brett had halted in their own conversation the minute the other two had arrived and now they were both staring at them curiously. I instead had the decency of only inwardly wondering as to what they were talking about.

"Who are you talking about?" Jamie voiced the question that was no doubt running through the minds of all the three of us.

Elia stopped glaring at his food to glance up at the redhead, "Laurent fucking Fremont" he spat, grimacing a little as though saying the name aloud was one of the seven deathly sins, "he apparently has a free period when we have art so the idiot of a teacher thought it a good idea to have him as our model," he grimaced again and I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. It couldn't be as bad as he made it sound.

"Jealous, are we?" I drawled tauntingly, "Maybe you wanted to model yourself, hm?"

The blond tossed me a look, his lips curling in a malicious sneer, "As if," he shook his head, "I don't give a flying fuck if that fucking bastard wants to show off but he doesn't have to do it in the fucking room I'm in," I noticed that every time he said "fuck" he stabbed one of his potatoes and Jamie flinched across from me. I also noticed that Elia seemed to really like said word when he was pissed off.

"Uhm, excuse me," Brett cut in shyly, "but who is Laurent Fremont?"

I snorted and muttered my answer mockingly, "Dex," whether the mock was actually directed at Brett or Dex, I couldn't really make up my mind on.

Now Jamie, whom I had thought was smarter than that, exclaimed, "Really?"

I stared at him incredulously for a long moment before sighing exasperatedly, "Honestly Jamie, you didn't think his name was really Dex, did you?"

He looked uncomfortable for a moment before he shrugged, "Dunno, I never thought about it. And Dex could be short for anything, you know" he pointed out, getting slightly defensive, "like Dexter."

I arched an eyebrow, "Well it isn't." He sent me a look that clearly screamed "Well it could have."

"Wow, Zach," Brett's awestruck voice cut in again, "you're so smart," his eyes were glinting in a scary fashion as he stared at me adoringly. I couldn't help cringing a little deeper into my seat.

The kid was obviously getting a little on Mia's nerves, as well, since the girl let out a heavy sigh and spoke in the tone she used only when she really wanted to sound patient, "Zach knows stuff only because he's a nosy bastard and the information practically comes to him. It's called journalism, darling, there's nothing fancier than that to it."

I decided to see if I could irritate her a little further, "So you're saying journalism isn't fancy?"

She turned to look at me disapprovingly, "That's not what I said. Don't be difficult."

"Oh, I got the picture he's quite easy rather than difficult," Elia chose to slip in, his trademark smirk in place and one of his eyebrows rising at the glare I shot him for his comment.

"Stop it," I hissed, thankful that no one else at the table seemed to understand his comment.

He rolled his eyes mock-tiredly, "Really, don't be so uptight all the time," then suddenly he looked as though he had just come up with a great idea, starting to rummage through his school bag. A moment later he had a bag of lemon drops in his hands and he looked like he had just won a million dollars, "Gosh, I love these things," he announced cheerfully, plopping one in his mouth, "I practically live on these," I suddenly realised why I always detected a bit of lemon scent when I went close enough to him. Not that I went that close often, mind you. Elia tossed another merry smile about the table and held the bag out, "Lemon drops, anyone?"

Mia shook her head but Jamie and Brett took the offered candies. Then when the bag was in front of me and the scent of lemon floated in my nose, I shuddered because the feeling of Elia's lips on mine was suddenly fresh in my mind and I remembered exactly how he had tasted of lemon that godforsaken Sunday when I had met him and he had oh-so-subtly stuck his tongue down my throat.

No matter how much I suddenly craved that taste, I forced myself to shake my head slightly, muttering a somewhat choked "I hate lemon."

Bad call, apparently, "Since when?" Jamie's suspicious voice came right away, having me cursing myself in my head for not having stupid friends, "Lemon's been practically a drug to you for as long as I can remember," He gave me this pointed look, "and that's pretty long," he then added.

Elia obviously found this very interesting, "Really?" he tilted his head and looked at me curiously.

I winced a little, all the horrible images of what he could do with that information running through my head, "Well now I hate it. End of story."

Jamie gave me one last sceptical look, "Fine," he said a little sharper than needed. It was kind of irritating that he didn't believe what I said one bit lately. Then again, lately I had started lying a lot more than earlier and he had always been very good at detecting whether I was speaking the truth or not.

"Okay boys, cut it out before you even start it," Mia's voice came suddenly sternly, interrupting our well-started glaring contest,"What's with you guys anyway? All you've been doing lately is bickering," Elia had the nerve to chuckle but the girl silenced him with a hard look, "You included."

"What!?" the blond pulled the stunned act off quite believably. Then after a short pause and a tired nod from Mia, he snorted, "Well, if someone had even a little bit sense of humour," this was said with his amber eyes fixed on my stormy grey ones.

I gaped, "What!? I do have a sense of humour, mind you, but it's pretty fucking hard to be humorous when someone couldn't take a hint if it fucked him right up the ass!" I flared. I had no sense of humour?! What the fuck. I had a great sense of humour, he was just not worthy of witnessing it.

Elia smirked maliciously, "Oh, wouldn't you like that?"

Oh that was it, "You -" I never finished that sentence and just maybe it was for the best.

"Shut up! Just shut up!" Jamie had everyone at the table flinching away from him and staring at him in utter shock. He seemed too outraged to notice, "Zach, will you just stop being childish for one moment?" I didn't remember him ever giving me as disappointed a look as he did now, "And do you, Elia, really – absolutely – have to provoke him?" Elia writhed uncomfortably under his icy glare, "'Cos I can't listen to you guys any more when you can't act civil around each other for one minute. I don't know – or frankly even care – what it is between you two but why can't you just kiss and make up for the sake of all of us?" By now he had calmed down and was just looking between us in a demanding manner.

Elia was the first one to recover from the shock and a brief smirk crossed his face as I was sure he was just dying to comment on Jamie's choice of words, but thankfully knew better and just bit it back, instead muttering a "Sorry," that could have been more convincing. He just couldn't take anything seriously, could he?

A long, awkward moment passed with no one daring to open their mouth until Mia grinned, "Right! Couldn't have said it better hun," she announced light-heartedly. Although I'm sure if having been in Jamie's position she would have added a power word or two somewhere in between but hey, who cares, right? Not me. She eyed everyone at the table, probably expecting one of us to say something; she hated awkward silent moments like this. Finally she rolled her eyes, sighed and adopted an excited tone she used only in emergencies, "Oh did I already tell you, Travis is gonna come pick me up tomorrow to spent the weekend at his place!" She beamed, trying to poke some life into us.

"Oh that Travis we still haven't met though you've been going out for two months?" Jamie asked sarcastically, still apparently in a bad mood.

Mia rolled her eyes again, "Come on, you know he's busy with college and stuff. He really wants to meet you guys but there just hasn't been a good timing yet."

I snorted, "Yeah, that or you two are just too busy going at it to care about the formalities of a relationship."

She gasped and turned bright red, "No! We haven't even -" she cut herself off, "and this is none of your business!"

However, she had already caught all of our interest, "Really? You haven't had sex yet?" I crossed my arms across my chest and leant back in my chair as if to stress my point.

"What if we haven't?" She said defensively, "it's not what relationships are all about," after this statement she met a grave silence and four similar blank stares. The girl sighed exasperatedly, "I really should get girl friends," she muttered under her breath before giving us all unreadable looks, "Does anyone of you even know anything about relationships, anyway?"

We continued giving her the same blank stares mixed with silent questions.

She smirked in a scarily Elia-like fashion and chose to feed our curiosity, "Has either one of you, Jamie and Brett, even had a proper relationship, like, ever?" She watched in growing amusement as both of them turned at least three shades of red and looked away. Then her merciless gaze fell upon me, "And you, specialist, don't give a damn about anyone else and are just too scared to let anyone close enough to actually have a relationship instead of just meaningless sex with anyone willing to lie down," I scowled at her. Like that bitch knew anything about me! "And wipe off that smirk, Elia, I know you're sitting here with us because you're hiding from your girlfriend," Mia's voice attracted my attention back to her and then to Elia, who failed to hide his discomfort at her revelation. For once he knew better than to start arguing. Which made me wonder if he really did know what was best for him, after all.

"But.." the blond boy muttered then, falling silent as though having suddenly forgotten what it was that he was going to say.

"Honestly," Mia continued in her usual, half-hearted manner, "it's all about the shitty attitudes you're all sporting," at this Jamie looked like he wanted to say something but settled for just biting his bottom lip. The brunette girl smiled a little now, in a kind way, as if trying to soothe the possible hostilities still hanging over our little group, "Really, there's nothing wrong with you guys – generally," she added as an afterthought and I knew I made the exception, "if you just tried a little harder."

"Yeah, sure," I murmured, leaning back in my chair and folding up the long forgotten newspaper in a gesture telling the subject no longer sparked my interest.

"I'm serious!" She exclaimed, purposefully missing my point, "The girls I talked to in PE said... well I'm kinda embarrassed to have to say this but..." she actually blushed, "...well, there is a list," she blurted, dissolving into a fit of giggles.

Jamie stared at her, wide-eyed, "A... list?" He exchanged bewildered looks with Brett.

"What list?" The younger boy asked, fingering absently a black strand that fell into his face.

Mia took a few deep breaths to stop laughing, "It's the...um.. I quote: 'to do list'." A silence stretched on. Until...

"Oh, I know about the list." Everyone's head snapped in Elia's direction so fast I was sincerely surprised no one broke their neck.

"You know about the list?" I hissed, narrowing my eyes at him.

"You don't know about the list?" Brett's face was oddly shocked, "But I thought you knew everything." I could practically see his petty little world come crashing down and I had to seriously resist the urge to hit my head onto the table.

Thankfully Mia was quick to react, "No, honey, contrary to popular belief, Zach isonly human," that left me wondering if it actually helped or if it just made it sound weirder.

But again, my musing was interrupter, by Jamie this time, "But seriously, Elia, you know about the list?" His voice was laced with amusement.

Elia rolled his eyes, "Of course I do. I date Priscilla Kelsey for god's sakes."

"And do you also know that you're on it?" Mia asked casually, a sly smirk playing on her lips. The silence still stretched on as we watched the blond boy turning a light shade of pink and rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly, avoiding looking any of us in the eyes.

Mia was the first one to figure it out, "Oh my god you do!" she screeched, then burst out laughing again, this time Brett and Jamie joining her.

Elia's face grew a little redder yet and he turned his head away as though in shame but I could see a small grin tugging at the corners of his lips. I snorted a little with amusement and turned my gaze to glance through the cafeteria to see that thankfully no one was paying any attention to us. This was a conversation that definitely didn't need to be added in the Hall of Fame of rumour about me. It was pretty booked, anyway.

"Yeah, well," Elia's voice attracted my eyes back to studying his face which now had that grin on that he apparently hadn't been able to suppress, "Why would I not be on the list, though? I mean I'm fucking hot," he made a small gesture with his hands that simply demanded everyone to look at him.

"Modest, too," I muttered sarcastically.

The blond's eyes flicked to me, glinting strangely, his grin turning into a teasing smirk, "Maybe you are just jealous," he said softly, "after all, the only time people ever talk about you is when there's a new, delicious rumour spreading," I hadn't really noticed it before, but his voice could hold a surprising amount of malice when he wanted it to.

However, because I wasn't one to start crying over some spiteful remark, I stood up calmly, aware that everyone at our table was staring at me in a stunned silence, "Get up," I said, ridding my voice of emotion.

Elia just smirked up at me, "What's this? Picking a fight with me?"

I felt my fingers curling up into fists, my eyes now flaring down at him, "I said get up," I whispered venomously, waiting for a moment longer. When he still refused to do as I said, however, I grabbed the front of his shirt and yanked him up in a swift motion, starting to drag him forcefully out of the cafeteria. I was vaguely aware of everyone in the room watching us in silence now, but I was too enraged to care.

"Zach?" Jamie's voice called after us carefully, "What are you gonna do?" I barely heard him through my inner seething, "Zach!"

Through all the built up anger that was now about to burst out, I managed to be thankful that the hall leading to the men's bathroom was fairly empty, leading to as little distraction as possible.

"Get out!" I ordered coldly as I stormed into the bathroom, still dragging the protesting Elia after me. A couple of freshmen scampered out with terrified looks on their faces. There was a dull thud as Elia's back hit the wall and after that a quiet shuffle from one of the stalls. I halted on the spot, my gaze flicking to glare at the offending door, "I meant everyone. Get the fuck out!" I positively flared now, watching the third kid stumbling out of the stall, trousers barely pulled up, "And make sure no one comes in!" I called just before the door slammed shut.

I turned back to the matter at hand, tightening my hold on Elia's shirt and pressing him further into the wall. He grimaced a little but kept watching me composedly.

"You," I whispered, too angry to know what to actually say now that I had him surely listening, "...you don't know anything about me. You hear me?!" I nearly screamed, "Nothing." I pushed him a little again, not caring that the wall would not bend.

I think he nodded slightly but I could never be sure.

"What the hell are you even doing?" I hissed, gripping the shirt tighter until my nails dug through the fabric and into my palms, "Just what the fuck do you want from me?" I growled before he had time to answer the first question.

He cracked a small smirk like the bastard he was, "Nothing, I just –"

Whether it was because of the infuriatingly nonchalant tone of his voice or the generally impatient nature I was cursed with, I didn't know, but I just couldn't let him finish, "No, fuck!" I gave him another shove, effectively silencing him as he grimaced again, "Befucking quiet! I don't want to hear it."

He probably thought he could fool me with the innocent face he pulled right then, "But you just –"

"Shut up!" I snapped, ignoring the fact that I had, indeed, asked, "You just can't do a fucking thing you're asked to, can you?" I shook him a tad for good measure... or perhaps to keep myself from carrying out the sudden desire of banging his head into the wall.

Elia smirked again, "Well... it depends," and then, catching me off guard, his face leant just slightly closer and something clicked against his teeth and then the fresh scent of lemon reached my nostrils as his tongue slid out to moisten his bottom lip. I shivered involuntarily, attempting – and failing – to not let my gaze slide to his lips that had the smallest smirk still playing at the corners.

And now his lips smelled of lemon and he was just so fucking close I couldn't just ignore it. Okay, so maybe I underrated it a bit. When I said I had a thing for lemon, I mean. The thing is, regardless of how embarrassing it is to admit, it's one of my serious weaknesses. Something that – when gotten in wrong hands – could really get me in deep shit. Long story short: it just scattered my concentration into thousands of pieces that I would have hell recollecting later.

I vaguely realised Elia had managed to untangle my hand off the front of his shirt. I stepped back a little, rubbing the bridge of my nose in an irritated fashion, "It's not gonna work you know," I muttered, looking up at him again, "whatever it is you're planning," I realised I wasn't half as pissed as I was moments ago. It was fucking hard to try fighting with someone who didn't participate.

"What?" he asked in an amused voice and I noticed he was closer again although I hadn't noticed him actually moving. The lemon flavoured treat in his mouth was drawing my focus away from the matter at hand again and right to the slightly parted lips of the boy in front of me. I shivered out of my daze a moment later.

"Fuck you," I murmured, not sure if it was aimed at him or myself and not really caring, either. I looked up at him coldly, "You're doing it on purpose, aren't you?" I was still irritated at him, "Pestering me." I smirked in a rather non-amused way, "But you're just digging your own grave because I don't want you near me and I don't give a damn about what you want, either," I turned to walk away, "so fuck off."

Then Elia made the critical move, grabbing my arm in a somewhat desperate manner, "I'm sorry," this made me look back at him sceptically. He slid towards me, still having a firm hold of my arm, "I really am sorry, OK?" his warm breath swept over my face, carrying the captivating scent of lemon. I felt weak.

So I was finally pushed to the edge and I did the only thing that my dazed brain allowed me to think of: I yanked my arm away and slammed both my hands into his chest, making him stumble back and regain his balance against the wall just before I crashed my lips hard onto his in a hungry kiss. It was not passionate and definitely not what I had planned when I first dragged him into the bathroom.

After what must have been the initial shock, I felt him kissing back, but frankly, I didn't give a shit either way. I grunted in annoyance, hooking my fingers into the belt loops of his jeans and pulling our lower bodies closer together. Yet at the same time I just wanted to push him away, making a pathetic attempt at doing so with a slight thrust of my hips, only to realise I merely managed to bring my body flush against his and caused a low groan to rise from his throat. The vibration it cause against my lips sent a small wave of delight running down my spine.

Elia's other hand was gripping my shoulder almost painfully while the other was in my hair, pulling at it absently as if he wanted to push me away, too. I didn't let him.

I ground against his hips again, slowly and teasingly, mildly interested in seeing if it would have any results. It did: he shuddered and returned my gesture with a grind of his own, a little faster and deeper than mine. I couldn't stop the soft moan that escaped my lips.

That, however, was the wake-up call for me and I ripped myself off him, staring at him in shock. He stared back, surprisingly unfaced considering he was still supposed to be straight. It disturbed me in a way that I didn't start analysing further due to present circumstances.

After a long-seeming silence that probably only lasted for a minute or so, I realised that the candy Elia had had in his mouth was now in mine and the realisation only served to disturb me more. Suddenly I wanted nothing more than to just escape the scene, "I uh... changed my mind about the lemon drops," I offered pathetically, attracting that familiar smirk out of the blond boy.

"Sure," he drawled, annoyingly calm, almost like we hadn't just made out in the men's bathroom. I glared at him and turned on my heel, more than ready to just leave and forget it ever happened.

I almost had Priscilla run into me at the doorway as she rushed in just then. I stopped right outside the door, my curious side kicking in.

"Oh my god!" she screamed the minute she caught sight of Elia, "I heard... Oh my god what did he do to you?" she continued fussing in the high-pitched tone and sounding of nothing less than a horse dying. Not that I had ever actually seen a horse die, but the mental image was just so strong I was positive it sounded just that.

I heard Elia laugh nonchalantly, "Nothing, we just talked."

She didn't seem to be paying too much attention to what he was saying, "Did he hit you?" she screeched, "Oh my god he did! Your lip is all swollen and red!" I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing out loud at that.

"No," Elia sounded thoroughly amused, "you know how I have the habit of biting my lips..." He sure did, even I had noticed it, "I'm perfectly fine, don't worry about me."

After that, Priscilla fussed over him some more, coming up with a few rather colourful nicknames for me, and after getting bored with the drama, I headed to my locker. After all, the lunch break was almost over.

Just as I closed my locker, Elia walked past me with a very viciously glaring Priscilla hanging off his arm. He stopped, earning a disapproving sound from the girl. He ignored her smoothly and smirked at me, "Almost forgot," he paused, looking as though reconsidering whether to tell me or not.

"Forgot what?" I asked, less than interested.

"You're on it, too," his voice almost got lost in the ringing of the bell that ended the break.


A/N: Hate it? Love it? Don't give a damn? Tell me and I'll try to make it worth your time!

Duzen Broken DreamZ: Thanks for your comments! Yeah, I hate shrinks too. That's why I'm not seeing any :D and don't plan to, either.

Yoko-sempai: Thank you so much for reviewing, I'm glad you like :) I love Zach, too, although I usually don't get very attracted to my own main characters. That's kinda weird, though, isn't it?

ks darkstorm: And here's another update for you. Took ages again, I'm sorry. I'm really trying.

Opal Rose: Another update this year, omg :D But yeah... Mr Sharpe is a bitch, isn't she? Well, she's supposed to be that way. Every story needs a villain and since Zach isn't doing such a good job at that, someone has to, you know?