This is what happens with lack of sleep and when you listen to songs like "Two black Cadillacs" all day. No, I'm not going to continue it. Yes, you can if you want to (just let me know).

Copyright Ross B. and Janice K.

EDIT: Ok, a couple people showed interest in this story, so I may continue it. Just give me some time until I'm between semesters because I'm bogged down at the moment. I have an idea where I can take it, though.


Betrayal.

Deception.

Foolishness.

He didn't know. There was no way for him to know. The expression on his face, though; it was confused, questioning, and most importantly, full of apprehension. He could make assumptions right at that moment and she knew he would be correct. He was anything but brainless after all.

She was sure her urgency gave everything away. Normally she was at ease around him; he was her boyfriend after all. But now, she couldn't even give more than a quick glance towards him before she hurried out of the back yard in the direction of her home. The odd behavior would be more than enough to confirm what may be going through his mind at the moment.

She knew as brothers they confessed everything to each other…. Eventually, and Simon was a master at making his brothers confess what was going on.

The guilt was more than she could bear but she had placed herself in the situation after all.

If only she didn't let curiosity get to her. She shouldn't have gone over there.

The sun was shining on a beautiful spring day. Her sisters were inside supposedly finishing up their homework and Jeanette took that moment to enjoy the seclusion by wandering outside in the backyard to read. Though, at the moment, her attention was averted to the neighbor clothed in red. He had come storming out of the house with a frustrated growl and slam of the door behind him. There were only two people in the world that seemed to be able to get to him that much: his middle brother or her older sister. The latter who he had a sporadic relationship with; and from the conversations in their room lately she knew, at the moment, they were definitely off again. Whoever it was had made him angry enough to now be climbing up into the old tree house in their backyard.

She wasn't going to get involved; it wasn't any of her business anyway. Whatever fight of the week was going on in the group always absolved itself by the weekend only to repeat the cycle by the middle of the following week. It was expected, all six of them were around each other at some point every single day. The top offenders of conflict being everyone else but her and Theodore. Very rarely did the two of them find themselves fighting with someone, which was perfectly fine with her as she disliked conflict.

Letting her curiosity get the better of her, and before she could think any further, she set her book down and headed next door. They were best friends after all and friends should always be there when you needed them. No matter how much one of them disapproved of the asinine arguments that always seemed to erupt within the group.

Reaching the top of the makeshift ladder and pulling herself into the shelter she spotted him sitting in the middle of the floor idly playing with a baseball in his hands. She could just make out the anger on his face and hesitated. Was he going to be angry with her for not leaving him alone and turn her away making her efforts useless?

"What do you want Jeanette?" He was agitated just like she thought he would be. Taking a deep breath she figured she might as well talk to him, he had spotted her anyway.

"Hello to you too, Alvin," she sighed as she made her way over and sat next to him, "I saw you storm out. I just wanted to make sure you were okay."

"Oh."

Then silence. She knew he wasn't being shy. No, Alvin Seville was anything but shy. He had too big of a mouth to not go off about what was making him angry. He must be thinking of a way to announce what he had to say without completely offending her.

"Brittany is such a drama queen," so it was her that had done it, they must have been on the phone fighting again when she was supposed to be doing homework. Typical. "How do you deal with it?"

She was almost shocked; was he asking for advice? He never took advice, "Well, one way is to talk to her calmly about it."

"That's not what I meant," she saw him roll his eyes and shake his head at her.

"Then what did you mean?"

"Brittany walks all over you and Simon's a sarcastic asshole on a daily basis," he paused looking at her and she knew he was trying to read whether what he said offended her, "yet you don't let it bother you. How do you do that?"

How did she do it? She wasn't exactly sure and she answered him with a shrug, "I guess I just have a higher tolerance to a person's quirks."

He just nodded his head and went silent for a moment before starting up casual chatter with her. All was going well, he had calmed down. She wasn't sure if she ever just talked with him like this before. Or at least not recently, there was one time when they were younger; but that was a few years ago. She finally decided that this must be a very rare side of him when he wasn't up to one of his schemes. If only he let it out more often than he wouldn't look so arrogant. Nevertheless she basked in the chance to talk to someone that wasn't a girl and that didn't talk about school, or science, or intelligent discussions all the time. There was something nice in just hanging out with someone talking about whatever topic popped into your mind without thought and being met with interest.

She took a moment to pause their conversation to peek out the small window nearby. The once bright blue sky was now filled with colors of yellow and orange indicating that the sun would soon disappear and leave them in the dark. She took that as an indication to head back home before someone came looking for her. Excusing herself she stood up dusting off her skirt and he stood with her, assumedly to head inside himself.

What happened next wasn't something she had expected. Maybe he didn't either. Maybe it was something that just happened and shouldn't have.

As she turned to leave the tree house he reached out and stopped her. She thought she heard him say a thank you but she wasn't sure. Right now she was concentrating more on the fact that he was standing just a little too close to her and hadn't let go of her arm quite yet.

After a few moments of awkward silence he finally spoke up again, "she's just like you."

She was bewildered; he couldn't be hinting at that. At some point in their conversation she joked about how he didn't have a type of girl he specifically goes for as evidence of past relationships, but he defended himself stating that he did have a type. It didn't matter how much she prodded, though, he wasn't going to tell her anything beyond that.

Standing there, they must have been delusional at the moment because it happened. In a split second she went from looking at him confused, her heart rapidly beating in her chest, to feeling his lips pressed against hers. It was at that moment that all reasonable judgment seemed to escape her. It must have, for if it hadn't she wouldn't have been kissing him back. They especially wouldn't have gotten as lost in that kiss as they did.

She felt his hands wrap around her waist, pulling her closer to him, and she felt his tongue enter her mouth as she had no resistance to it. Getting lost in the feeling she ran her hands up his chest to wrap around his neck.

And then it hit her. This isn't Simon.

She snapped her eyes open and pushed him away. This wasn't right. Her mind was in a frenzy and she had to get out of there now.

"I-I got to go," she hastily mumbled not daring to look at him as she began descending the ladder as fast as her lack of grace would let her.

This was wrong. She was a horrible person. She should have ended it as soon as it started. She was the reasonable one, the one in a relationship that would now be in limbo.

It was all her fault.

As soon as her feet hit the soft ground she saw him standing there, the Seville brother she should have been kissing. No doubt he was coming outside to check on his brother and call him in for dinner. She couldn't talk to him at this moment, not while she was an emotional wreck from what had happened, and because the shame was steadily consuming her the more she stood there. Instead she quickly walked passed him, not even turning back around when he called out her name.

She was guilty and he knew it.