"Kevin?" Macy asked into the phone, hoping that the fear she knew was in her voice wasn't as evident to the boy she had just called.
It was.
"Macy? Are you okay?" Kevin asked in obvious concern.
"I…I'm home alone and…well…I think someone's like…in the back yard or something. I mean, I closed all the blinds and curtains and everything and turned on all the lights and I'm blasting music in three rooms…and I'm carrying my baseball bat…"
"But you want me to come over?" Kevin said knowingly.
"Would you?" Macy asked, relieved.
"Be there soon. Don't open the door for anyone but me. And call the cops if anything happens."
"Okay. Thank you, Kevin. Really."
A few minutes later, there was a knock on the door. Macy ran to it and began to turn the key, but Kevin interrupted her.
"No. Check the peephole. Make sure it's actually me and not some doppelganger."
"Kevin, would your doppelganger know that I asked you to come over tonight? And doesn't he live in a different dimension? I know your tour bus is pretty rad and all, but it's not a time machine."
"Fine. Open the door."
As the door swung open, Kevin was surprised to have Macy lunge at him in a hug.
"Uh. Mace? You want to get inside? It is kind of dark out here. And we don't have any weapons to protect ourselves…"
"Haha. Right," Macy said awkwardly, letting him go and pushing him inside.
"So…you said you heard some noises or something? Outside?"
"Y-yeah. Like at first it just sounded like a cat or something…but then I kinda think I heard voices."
"Okay, well, I don't hear anything, so let's just do something to take your mind off of it, okay?"
"Did you go over to the picture window and listen for the creepy noise?" Macy asked, crossing her arms.
Kevin looked at her for a moment before walking across the room and peeking out of the window.
"Well?" Macy whispered softly from behind him, causing Kevin to jump.
"Holy—Macy, don't ever scare me like that again!" Kevin said, turning away from the window.
"Oh, I don't know. That weird scream-y thing you did might warrant a second listen."
He gave her a dirty look. "I could just go home—"
"No. Please, don't," Macy exclaimed, grabbing his keys out of his hand and putting them in her pocket.
"Holding me hostage are you?" Kevin asked. "Bet you've wanted to do this for years," he smirked.
Macy flushed, but punched him hard in the shoulder. "If I was holding you hostage, believe me, you'd know."
"Oh? How?"
Macy considered answering, but refused to do anything that could either freak him out or make him smirk even more, so she just cleared her throat and walked into the kitchen.
Kevin followed her and leaned against the counter as Macy dug in the fridge for a while. When she began putting food on the counter, Kevin got confused.
"Are you making something?"
"Yes."
"You don't need to make anything for me, Macy."
"I'm making this for me."
"Now that's just mean."
"I was going to make this before you agreed to come over. I always make more than I need to, so you can have some too. If you help."
"You want me to help you cook something?" Kevin asked.
"Yes. It's not that hard. I just want you to watch the pot of pasta and chop some veggies," she said.
"Okay." Kevin turned and looked at the stove for a moment, looking totally lost. "How do I do the pasta?"
"You're seriously asking that? You don't know how to boil pasta?"
"Um…no."
Macy sighed, put the knife she was holding down on the cutting board and pushed Kevin out of the way.
"You take the big pot and fill it with water. Then you set it on the stove and turn the heat on until it boils and then you toss the pasta in and some salt and wait a few minutes and then you drain it and you're done. Okay?"
"Uh…okay."
"If you get confused, just ask. I'll be chopping up these onions and stuff."
"With a knife?" Kevin asked.
"Yes, Kevin, with a knife."
"Don't use it on me if I mess up the food, okay?"
"Why would I do something like that to my big, strong protector?"
"You forgot to add hot."
Macy snorted.
"You don't agree with that? Maybe I should go up to your room and see about that…" Kevin said.
"No, you're not."
"Just try and stop me," Kevin said teasingly.
"With pleasure," Macy said, setting down the knife and leaping over the breakfast bar to tackle Kevin face-first into the brown shag rug on the hardwood floor.
"Macy. That hurts. Could you get your knee out of my spine?" Kevin asked, his voice muffled by the fact that his face was still planted in the rug.
"Not until you promise you aren't going to sneak up to my room and try to catch a peek of any posters that may or may not be in my room."
"Last I heard, there were more than just posters of me in your room," Kevin said, turning his face to the side.
"You're right. Your brothers are up there too."
"Macy, I'm serious. If you don't get off my back, I'm going to have to go to the hospital."
"The hospital's not so bad. They have that really cute male nurse there…"
"I'm not Stella, Mace. Don't talk about boys in front of me."
"Jealous, are you?" Macy said, leaning over him to where the ends of her hair tickled his nose.
"Preposterous."
"Fine, whatever, don't tell me. But let's finish cooking, shall we?" she asked, getting off of him.
"I'll do anything now that I can move."
"Stop complaining. I didn't pin you that hard."
They went back to the kitchen and finished making the pasta, then sat down on the worn leather couch and started watching Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. They sat in relative silence for a while and slid their empty plates onto the coffee table. Macy was just stretching out on the couch when she suddenly sat up, paused the movie and asked in a low voice,
"Did you hear that?"
"No, what?"
"That rustling sort of noise…."
"No…"
"Well, come on…it sounds like it's coming from the side of the house…" Macy said, getting up and pulling Kevin along behind her by the hand.
"Macy…you—we should be careful," he said softly as she pulled back the curtains in the rec room and peeked out the window.
"I appreciate that you're concerned for my safety and all Kevin, but—Oh my GOD, there's SOMEBODY OUT THERE!" she said, jumping into Kevin's arms.
Kevin smirked just a tad as he held Macy. "Mace, it's okay…let's just call the cops, okay?"
Macy nodded. "Okay…"
She pulled back and dialed 911 on her phone.
"Yeah, hi. I'm at my house with a friend and we kept hearing weird noises from outside and we looked out a window and I saw someone sneaking around…"
Macy reached over and grabbed Kevin's hand as she gave out her address and told the dispatcher some more details. She finally hung up the phone and looked up at Kevin.
"They'll be here in fifteen minutes…don't go outside and keep an eye on each other…that's what they said anyway."
"You want to continue watching Indiana Jones?"
"Yeah…sure. Sounds great," Macy said distractedly.
Kevin pulled on her wrist when she didn't move. "Come on," he said, trying to come up with a reason to get her to out to the living room. "Indyyy…" he drawled.
"Okay, okay, I'm coming," she said.
They sat back down on the couch and watched the movie in silence until they heard the doorbell ring.
"Evening, sir, ma'am," said the older cop. "Mind if we come in?" he asked, cocking his head toward his younger-looking partner.
"Uh…sure," Macy said, opening the door wider for them. She gasped when she saw who they were escorting in.
"Isn't that—" Kevin started.
"Eh! Shall we not? I know who it is," Macy said.
"Oh, so you do know him," the older one said. "He said he was your boyfriend, but we don't always believe them in this kind of situation."
"Ex-boyfriend. As of 2:34 pm this afternoon. Apparently, he wasn't quite ready to let it go, were you now?" Macy said, twirling on the blonde-haired boy being held by the cop.
"You're just a little tease! And you run around with other boys and you ignore me!" Brendan Grant said loudly.
"I am not a tease. And I'm on a billion and one sports teams. Of course I'm going to have guy friends. And it's hockey season…I'm ignoring virtually everyone. But you have jealousy issues and can't let go of the fact that I don't worship the ground you walk on!"
"Well—"
"Kids!" the older cop barked, scaring both of them into silence. "Let's start over, shall we? You broke up with this young man this afternoon, and he snuck over here in order to do some damage to your property with the spray paint and eggs and toilet paper, but you heard him making noise and called us."
"Right," Macy said with a nod.
"You didn't ask for my side of the story…"
"Can it, Grant," Macy said shortly.
"Hey, let's not get crazy here, okay?" the younger officer said.
"I wasn't going to do anything…I just wanted to yell at him some more," Macy said defensively.
"Well, you should save that for another time…we're taking him down to the station for the night."
"Yeah, he'll be released tomorrow…but if you so desire, you can press charges then and we'll see what happens."
"Oh, I most definitely will be doing that," Macy said through clenched teeth.
"Very well. Good night, ma'am."
The two cops left with Brendan in tow and Macy turned to Kevin as the car left the driveway.
"Thank you," she said softly. "Wanna finish that movie now?" she asked with a smile.
"Sure," Kevin agreed. As they sat back down on the couch, Macy leaned into Kevin's side and nestled her head against his shoulder.
When the movie finally ended, Kevin was about to get up when Macy put a hand on his arm.
"C-could you stay the night maybe?" she asked softly. "Not in a creepy way…just for company…"
"You really want me to?" Kevin asked.
She blinked at him with wide, sort of fearful eyes. "Would you?"
"Of course," he replied instantly.
Macy sighed in relief, her entire body slumping against Kevin's shoulder. "Thank you," she mumbled into his shirt sleeve.
"Don't worry about it," he said, putting an arm around her. "Totally happy to do it."
Some hours later, Kevin was being shaken awake by Macy. He sat up from his makeshift bed on the couch and looked up at her.
"You okay?" he asked softly.
She shook her head, the fringe on the blanket she had wrapped around her flying wildly. "I'm scared to sleep alone because of earlier…I mean, I know Brendan wasn't going to hurt me…he was just going to mess up my yard or whatever…but…"
"It's okay, Mace. I understand. It's completely logical," he scooted over and patted the seat next to him. "It's okay, come on, sit down. Kevin can make it better."
"That was really lame just now," Macy breathed as she sat down.
"Figures I try to comfort a girl and she calls me lame," Kevin said, wrapping his arms around Macy and tried to lay back down on the couch.
"But that's what makes you amazing," Macy said sleepily.
"So I'm amazing?" Kevin asked with a smile.
"Mhm. You're also amazing because you're cute and hot and you can somehow manage to do both at the same time or separately and you have hair that I really want to touch and a smile that's to die for and you look incredible in those tight pants and I really like you…and I think you should ask me out and then become my boyfriend and let me touch your hair and you should kiss me and tell me you love me and buy me stuff like candy bars or sodas and we should watch movies and hang out and then we should dress up as Indiana Jones and Marion Ravenwood for Halloween and be that couple that everyone loves to hate because we're so cute…" Macy said softly, rubbing her face against him.
"Is that all?"
"You're also really warm and have nice arms," Macy yawned. "But I need to sleep now, so good night, Kevin."
"Good night, Macy," Kevin whispered, stroking her hair as he kissed the top of her head gently.
The next morning, Macy sleepily opened her eyes and looked around confused when she realized not only was she on the couch, but she was cuddled up against Kevin Lucas.
This had to be a dream.
Kevin shifted and Macy scooted out of the way, falling off the edge of the couch and landing hard on her butt.
Nope, not a dream.
"Oh, good morning, Macy. Did you sleep okay?" he asked. Macy blinked up at him, trying to process what had happened last night.
She remembered Brendan and all of that and she remembered asking Kevin to stay the night, but how did she end up on the couch with him?
"How'd I fall asleep on the couch with you?" Macy asked.
"You came downstairs and said you didn't want to sleep alone…so I moved over and we laid down and then you talked for a little bit…"
Macy's eyes went wide and she scrambled to get off the floor. "What did I say? It wasn't something stupid or embarrassing, was it?"
"That depends on your definition of embarrassing, I guess," Kevin admitted.
"So I did say something stupid. What did I say?"
"You uh…you said I was both hot and cute and that I had nice hair you wanted to touch and…that you liked me and that we should date and I should kiss you…and you wanted to go as Indiana Jones and Marion Ravenwood for Halloween with me…"
"Oh god, oh god, oh god. I'm such an idiot. I can't believe I said that. That's so dumb. I-I-I…"
Kevin smiled as Macy jumped up from the couch and began pacing in front of him.
"Macy. Did you mean it last night? What you said?"
She paused and looked at him. She dropped her gaze almost instantly and stared at the floor. "Yeah…I did."
Kevin's face broke into a wide grin. "Good," he said, not noticing when Macy's head shot up and she looked at him in shock. "Because I whole-heartedly agree with every last statement you made and I will gladly dress as Indy for Halloween."
"I…you will?" Macy asked, a distracted grin on her face.
"Are you thinking of me in a leather jacket and fedora?" Kevin asked, pulling Macy back down to sit next to him on the couch.
"Maybe…"
"How about you bring your mind back to the present so I can do something else you mentioned…" Kevin suggested, bringing his face close to hers.
"I can try…" Macy breathed.
"Good," he whispered as he put his hands on the sides of her face and pulled her forward, softly pressing his lips against hers.
