POV: Zeke's

Author Note: So, I was lying in bed thinking to myself, "Hmm...Everything is Not What it Seems is decent, but come on, BlueOllie, that's not even remotely possible regarding the usual plot. And the sloppy ending? Blue. You should be ashamed of yourself." *smacks self on wrist* So, I wrote a more feasible fic and ate ice cream.

I strolled into the Russo Sandwich Bar in determination, backpack hoisted high on my shoulder, and second semester report card in hand. This was the day I would beat Justin at something. I'm tired of it. Year after year after year. I make the cheerleading team, he makes the basketball team. I land a lead role in a play, he directs the damn thing. I finally become Salutatorian of my class and guess who's Valedictorian. I know we're friends and all, but at some point his one-upping becomes personal. So without further ado, present me his ass, my foot is ready to kick. Straight A's and a 4.2 GPA.

As I opened the door, Alex called, "Here comes a customer! I'm on break!"

I laughed, "Oh, Alex. You're cute. Where's Justin?"

"In the lair with his monster girlfriend," she said, lifting the tiny brush she was painting her fingernails with and looked up at me from the register, "What? You want an autograph or something?"

I sighed and walked through the kitchen. Alex turned to watch me walk with a smirk and snickered loudly, "Oh, Lord. That's terrible."

I paused, "What?"

"Oh, nothing," she stifled her laughter. I shrugged and knocked on the door of the lair. Willingly, it swung open. Juliet gave me a fanged grin and led me in, "Okay, so Justin and I are arguing about George Orwell. Have you read Animal Farm?"

"Yeah."

"1984?"

"Yeah."

"Metamorphosis?"

I sighed, "That was Franz Kafka."

Justin was rifling through a book of spells, "Told ya, Jules!"

"What are we doing here?" I asked.

Juliet pointed to a weathered old man sitting in a chair with a pinched look about him, "We turned Max into George Orwell and he's not changing back."

I snickered, "Justin. How the hell did you do that?"

He looked up and winked, "Magic," and looked back down before I blushed. I hate it when he winks at me. I end up feeling like I look extra gay when he does that. Especially since I was on the cheerleading team. I got called a "spirit fag" in the hallways of Tribeca Prep until I quit. But, hell. At least I traded spirit fag for stage queer which was my reward for earning the part of Peter Pan in the school play, because, well, girls play that role often. Since I'm so effeminate with my too large eyes, high voice, and thin body, I'm bothered all the time about my sexuality. I'm straight, godammit, I just look gay.

I strolled over to Justin, trying not to switch my hips like I'm told I do sometimes, "Why isn't one of your spells working?"

"I dunno!"

"Dude," I turned asked the old Mr. Orwell at the chair, clearly used to seeing the average, everyday crazy shit go down in the Russo household, "What do you want us to do? You're dead. You gotta go."

"I'm forgotten! I must have died a pauper! No one remembers me."

I looked back at Justin, "He wants us to-"

"Quote him!" Justin responded.

"I was gonna say that..." I sucked my teeth, and put the sourpuss attitude away to manage the task at hand, "Can't you though? Quote him in a spell?"

"Yeah. I can create one," Justin thrust out his wand, "Your talent never went under discovered, so leave Max and go back, says Big Brother."

After a pretty bitchin flash of light, Max sat on the chair heaving, "Don't you ever. Use me as a guinea pig. Again."

Justin scratched his head, "Sorry, bro."

"This dude was in the military," Max winced, "It's like voluntary prison. Don't. Drop. The soap..."

We all shuddered and Max laughed, "Just kidding, it was awesome. I got to play with a rifle."

Justin looked equally horrified and I dropped my backpack a took a seat on the large red couch, "At least he didn't get worked over in some dark alleyway. Try pressing charges for 20th century rape."

"Yeah, you're right," Justin shrugged.

I grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl beside me and took a bite, "Of course I'm right-"

"Zeke, no!" Justin, Max, and Juliet screamed.

I swallowed and looked over at Justin, "Huh?"

"Those are charmed!" Justin slapped his forehead.

I blinked and stared at Justin. God, he was cute. He had such strong looking muscles and such dark hair. The way he was looking at me with those suddenly hypnotizing eyes almost made me shudder with sinful delight. Justin asked, "Max, we learned to charm food last week, right? And each fruit in the bowl was different. Right?"

"I had the oranges. I made them grow legs though and they kinda... walked... away..."

"Well, I charmed the bananas to give confidence. But he ate the apple that...Alex!" he hissed and walked out of the room. God, he has a nice ass. I bit my lip and leaned back on the couch moaning, "What's wrong with me?"

"I dunno," Juliet sighed, sitting beside me, taking my hand, "But we'll find out soon. For all we know, Alex charmed them with a regurgitation spell."

"But I feel perfectly- oh, God...hey, Juss."

Justin strolled back in, "Alex charmed them with a regurgitation spell."

I blushed and placed a pillow over my lap casually as my mind went places it should never go with Justin, playing with the tassels.

"I don't feel any different," I lied. I mean, come on. What am I going to say? The apple gave me a Justin loving potion? Hell no. That's awkward as fuck. But not as awkward as the blush I'm getting as evidence just by looking at Justin. That potion must work good.

"You don't wanna toss your cookies?"

I mumbled, "No." I don't wanna sleep with him. I don't wanna sleep with him. I don't wanna sleep with him.

"Are you sure? Because magical vomit can last for hours. Think stomach flu hell."

Max laughed, "I charmed myself with that once and-"

"Get out," Justin and Juliet demanded.

"I'm going, I'm going," Max strolled out sorrowfully.

Juliet patted my shoulder sympathetically, "You'll stop throwing up eventually."

"I'm not nauseated!" I exclaimed angrily.

Justin sat on the other side of me, gazing at me with those brown eyes as if I were a science project, "Hmm...then what are you...?"

I pressed harder on my pillow, thanking God that it had another use aside from a minor personal distraction. Aww, man... I pleaded against my will, "Nothing. I swear."

"Are you sure?" Juliet asked.

I looked at her, thankful as hell she spoke, "Yeah, honest."

Justin shrugged, "Maybe Alex charmed us into thinking she actually did something."

"Yeah. That sounds like her," Juliet sighed, "Okay, well, it's almost five. Me and my parents are going to that family reunion in Transylvania in a few minutes. I gotta run."

"Okay," Justin pouted as she stood, "See you."

She kissed his cheek and patted mine, "I'll be back in about two weeks, okay. Don't burn down the place."

Juliet swished out of the room, pink dress billowing around her knees after her. Justin sighed, "And that's why God invented skirts."

I growled, "The dress was tacky and you know it. I mean, pink plaid, Little Miss Wisconsin? Come on."

Justin laughed, "You think I care? As long as she smiles, you know?"

I sighed as he smiled. Adorable. I took off my zip up sweatshirt and tied it around my waist as I stood, "Yeah, well, I have homework."

"Today was the last day of school Zeke," he blinked.

"And dinner! My mom's making hummus."

Justin snickered, "Ah, you're so Jewish."

I bit my lip and hoisted up my backpack, walking toward the door, "Well, see ya-"

"Those assholes!"

I paused and turned, "What?"

Justin walked up and stood centimeters from me, snatching at my rear.

"Hey, now! On the third date buddy!" I backed up.

Justin held up a piece of lined paper that read, Have a great summer by the public rest rooms, stage queer.

"The football team probably plastered it to your sweatshirt in the locker room again," Justin sighed.

Those damned football team guys really like pissing me off, writing lies on my back for the world to see. But now, they were right. I felt my eyes fill up with tears and I wiped at my cheeks, storming out of the lair, tearing off the stupid sweatshirt and ran out of the shoppe, collapsing against the wall outside.

Alex laughed as I ran past her, "Nice going, stage queer."

Justin's footsteps and voice rang out, "What'd you say to him?"

"Nothing, God."

"Alex."

"What? I mean he sure was running fast with that...well, thing off his back."

Justin sighed, "What'd you charm that apple with?"

"A regurgitation spell...what?"

"He's not barfing. He says he's fine."

"Oh, well...no harm, no fowl, right?"

"Wrong. He says he's fine, but I don't think so. I will get to the bottom of this," Justin promised.

My mom knocked on my bedroom door lightly, "Honey, your dinner's getting cold."

"I'm not hungry," I replied, laying on my bed and staring at the Galaxy Wars poster on my ceiling.

"Are you sure? I made hummus."

"Yeah, I'm sure."

My mom paused, "Do you want a hug, sweetie? You sound like that'll do you good."

"No. I just...I'm playing chess with myself," I slid a black pawn to meet my white knight and thought of Justin for the sixteenth time since starting the game. He's probably asleep by now, it was around ten at night last time I checked.

"Oh, alright," she chuckled, "Who's winning?"

I let a weak smile rise on my lips, "Well, I'm totally crushing me right now. I'll tell you when it's over."

"Alright, honey. Good night."

My phone buzzed beside me with a text:

...Justin: zeke, u ok? i dunno wat alex did to that apple, but im worried bout u. Txt bak any symptoms.

Oh, of course. Symptoms. Let me see...fever, dizziness, daydreaming of your guy friend having wild, passionate sex with you. I'm not giving you shit, Justin.

...Sent: Me? im fine, Juss, rly im totally fine i'll txt u bak l8r if green tentacles start growin 4om my spine lookin 4 the nether regions of a young lass

...Justin: lol kk, but jic, u kno how dangerous alex's spells can b, so watch out, zekey

...Sent: kk, justey

...Justin: ...u sure everythin's fine, last chance now.

...Sent: yh

...Justin: just makin' sure cuz u look down

...Sent: how u kno how i look?

...Justin: look out ur window nd let me in, dude

I glanced over at my dark window to see him standing by it, wet from the late Spring rain, waving emphatically. Growling, I hopped off of my bed and lifted the windowsill, "It's ten something at night."

"So?" he responded.

I sighed and shook my head, "Be glad my room's on the ground floor."

Justin grinned and ruffled my hair, hoisting up a backpack, "Just let me in, man, this thing is heavy."

I sighed, allowing him to pass by with a sulky face covering my Japanese school girl shoujo face as his shirt rose up when he climbed over. God, would I like to ratatap that. Looking like that, he must be really good in bed... Oh, God Zeke.

"Dude, you ok?" he peered into my eyes after sitting on the sill.

I itched to sit beside him, "I'm fine."

"Aaight," he pulled a large spell book from his backpack along with a notebook labeled: Alex's Mess-ups.

I pointed at the notebook, "Really though? You keep track of 'em?"

"Hopefully she'll learn from them..." he flipped through the notebook and settled on a page, "Here we go. You. Okay, so I asked Alex a bunch of questions about the spell she cast and how she felt at the time. Turns out, she was too busy thinking about her date with Mason that she said the regurgitation spell wrong, so anything could have happened. Similar spells she could have cast by mistake include: a zen spell, a fatigue spell, a competitiveness spell, a suicidal spell, a homicidal spell- that one gets messy- and lastly the stupid ol' Cupid's Arrow spell which we can count out, because it's one of the most detailed, mentally focused things ever created. And Alex is so not capable of that. So...you feel like killing people, Zeke?"

I paused, not knowing how to respond to that, "...no."

"We're all friends here, Zeke," he scribbled stuff down.

"Dude, I don't wanna kill anyone!"

"Yourself, perhaps?"

I sighed, tearing my eyes away from his wet shirt that hugged his pecs like a best buddy, "Yes, but I have reason to."

"Why is that?" Justin looked up at me.

I lied, "The Muslims have land and I want it back."

He snickered, "So Jewish. Okay, not homicide, not suicide. You feel like creating a path to dharma?"

I feel like creating a path to the center of your- I shook my head, "Nope."

"Well, the fatigue spell would have you out by now, so they're both gone..."

"What's left?"

"Competitiveness. Wanna play craps? I got a twenty."

"Oh!" I rifled through my pocket and pulled out my report card, "Straight A's and a 4.2 GPA. Beat that!"

"Yep, the competitiveness spell," Justin grinned, "and...4.45."

"Dammit!" I hissed.

Justin gloated, "Aww, you're so cute when I'm kicking your ass at stuff."

I gazed into his eyes, hearing him call me cute over and over again, "I what...?"

"I said, you're so cute when-Zeke!"

I found myself perched on his lap, staring at him as if he were a Matissé, "Really? You think I'm cute?"

"That was a figure of speech, dammit! Get off my lap!" he shoved me away.

I collapsed on the floor and gazed up at him longingly. I want him so bad. And it's all spilling out at once like a large, red velvet fountain of love. He had to know, I couldn't hold it in, "Justin! I love you more than air! I want you to marry me! And if you don't wanna, that's fine. I'll be your mistress! I'll be there when Juliet can't. As long as I can see you everyday, my love-" I slammed a hand over my mouth.

Justin paused, "Really?"

"Yeah, so what? I like you. Don't get a big head," I growled gaining control of the red velvet fountain, "Blame the apple. I wasn't even mildly attracted to you until I ate some of that godamn fruity fruit."

"So, it was the Cupid's Arrow spell. I must have been the first person you looked at after taking that bite," Justin surmised.

I begged, kneeling before him and running my hands up his chest, totally loosing it, "Please...help me."

Justin pulled my hands from his chest and placed them in my lap, "There we go. Keep 'em there."

I nodded, "Whatever you say..."

"Now," he flipped through the spell book, "The counter spell. Tsh, tsh, tsh..."

I glanced over his lap and asked, "You find it yet?"

He looked at me, "...no. Patience, young grasshopper."

Our faces were so close. I mean, they've been this close before, but now... I leaned forward and he moved his face aside so my lips connected with his cheek. I grabbed his face and led kisses down his neck, "God, Justin, you're so cute."

"Mmm... a little lower," he moaned gently, "Yeah..."

I sucked gently on the base of his throat feeling a heightened electricity to go on, unbuttoning the top button on his shirt. Then my lips traveled to his soft collarbone while he continued to allow me to touch him. My hands were running up his bare chest in ecstasy to cup his neck in my hands. He glanced into my eyes and I blinked and couldn't help but feel a slight flutter in my heart. I leaned forward to press a kiss to his lips and he pushed me away before our lips could touch more than a whisper.

"Whoa, whoa, woah!" he placed me on the floor and leaned away from me and checked his zipper, "Shit! Zeke, could you just..."

His voice trailed off into the distance as I looked up at him, "Justin...?"

Justin stared at me blankly and blushed after a second, "...I gotta go."

"Was I going too fast?" I grabbed onto his shirt as he stood, "Was it something I did?"

He locked eyes with me, "...no...it was something Alex did. I'm gonna fix you, okay?"

I nodded and collapsed to my knees, "You're right! This is weird!"

Justin touched my hair softly, "Tell me about it."

And with that he melted into the wallpaper.

Dear Readers,

Oh, no he didn't!

Love, BlueOllie