Disclaimer: I do not own Meagan Meade's Guide to the McGowan Boys or any of its characters.

What are you so afraid of? The question was pounding in my mind, asking itself to me over and over again, though it didn't seem so unreasonable to ask. What was I afraid of? I was the one playing him wasn't I? But I think that's why I was afraid. I was afraid of liking him too much. I was afraid of having to choose between my reputation and feelings for someone that I had never experienced before, or at least not in a long while.

"Megan? Are you there?"

Open the door.

I head Finn's steps going towards the stairs leading down to the bottom floor of the house.

Quick, hurry up before he leaves you loser.

I acted on impulse. I hurriedly opened the door.

"Finn."

He turned around. His face was just about the cutest thing I had ever seen. His lips were slightly turned down at the corners, though his expression wasn't sad. He looked like an innocent puppy.

Using no words I asked him if he wanted to come in. I think it was the look in my eye, or maybe the small, shy smile that was fixed on my face, but he gave a baby-like smile and I stepped back, holding the door open for him as he stepped inside. We stood there awkwardly for a few seconds.

"I..I-"

"Yeah?"

"It's...its a great day today."

"Yeah, it is."

We stood there, me by the door and Finn near the window and the head of my bed.

"So..." I said.

"So..." he replied.

"Gosh Finn, what are we doing?"

"Uhh, I..don't..know?"

"Okay I'm just going to come out and say it."

"No, no let me. I'm the guy, I'll do the talking."

"Okay."

"Okay so here it goes," he said, taking a deep breath.

"I like you Megan, like, I really like you. But I don't want to get myself in the situation where...where having something between us, will be...y'know...bad for us."

At this point he was facing me with a small blush on his cheek.

"I don't want to, have to go through all that again. I don't want to go through with anything to have it not be worth it. I don't want to have to be with you, and just get hurt in the process."

He was breathing heavily, more from the effort than short of breath.

"Megan, say something."

"I like you to Finn. A lot."

He looked at me as if expecting me to say more. But when he realised that was all I was going to say, he asked me, "So, what happens now?"

"Well, I'm not sure."

"Okay, well I have an idea. Tonight, there's going to be a big bonfire by the beach. And since Aimee's parents agreed to let us miss one day of school, we're leaving here tomorrow instead of tonight. So, do you wanna like...hang out?"

"Hang out?"

"Yeah, we can join them at the bonfire, and maybe just..talk?"

I smiled, "Sounds great."

"Cool so, I'll swing by your room in an hour or two."

"But I thought you said the bonfire was tonight? Isn't it like four hours away?"

"Yeah but, I wanna show you something." He shot me a smile and walked out the door, saying goodbye with a small wink.

I sat on my bed, feeling flustered and excited. I had a date with Finn!

"So, I hear you have a date with Finn."

"Whoa, jeez Aims you scared the crap out of me."

"I'm a scary person Megs, thats what I do."

"Whatever. How'd you know about my date with Finn anyway?"

"I don't know. How'd I know what Finn was doing about ten minutes before the ten minutes before he asked you out?"

"Huh?"

"Haha, never mind. Point is, you've got a date. With Finn."

She looked at me, as if waiting for a huge outburst of excitement. Realising that the outburst wasn't coming, a puzzled look replaced the smirk which was firmly fixed on her face.

"Aren't you excited? You have a date with Finn."

"To be honest, I'm not sure if I want to go through with it, the date and ..the plan..you know..."

"Okay, are we even on the same page? Are you hearing yourself?"

"Yeah, I know. I can hear myself?"

"Then why did I just hear you say that you don't want to go through with the plan? I mean, Finn's my cousin and all and I don't want him to get hurt. But...but you...you're going to seriously...wow..."

"What's so 'wow' about this?"

"You're risking damaging your reputation!"

"By saying no to the date?"

"By not taking Finn out! You already got involved with him and everyone's going to think you couldn't do it if you don't break Finn's heart!"

"Shhh! Do you mind? He's right next door!"

"No he's not, he went out for a bit. Something about a bonfire. But that's not the point! You're risking your rep! Are you seriously going to risk it, just because 'you're not sure' you can go through with the date? I'm your best friend Megan, I don't want you to have to go back to how you were before, and this is the only way to keep you from having to go through all that crap again! Your bad reputation is what stops the rumors and gossiping. You know that!"

"Yeah I know, but if I go through through with the plan of breaking Finn's heart, its more likely to 'damage my reputation' than if we just call the whole thing off."

"What? How does that work? The only way for that to make any sense is if you can't go through with the plan of breaking his heart because you like him but thats just...oh."

She took one look at me and it all just clicked. That's one of the best things about Aimee, she gets me, no matter how hard or how farfetched the situation is, she can take one look at me and understand everything completely.

"Since when?"

"Since the first day."

"Oh.."

"Yeah, sorry I didn't tell you."

"Haha its okay. I should've known. All the signs were there."

"What d'you mean?"

"Megs you're my best friend. I should've realised earlier that you liked someone. It was actually pretty obvious now that I think about it."

"Haha, thanks Aims."

She smiled at me.

"So do you need help with your preparation or not?"

We spent the next hour choosing what clothes I was going to wear and what topics of conversation I should avoid.

"Aimee! Aimee! Seriously?"

"What?"

"I think maybe I should just stick with, I don't know. Being myself?"

"If you say so. Are you sure about this date? It's not to late to back out."

A knock at the door interrupted what I was going to say. This is it.

"Or maybe it is too late. Okay well have fun!"

She practically pushed me towards the door and waved me forward. I took a deep breath and opened the door. And I nearly fainted form shock right then and there.

"Hey Megan, why are you dressed like that?"

There, standing in my doorway, was Tyler. Tyler freaking Davis.

"Tyler? What the hell are you doing here?"

"Aimee baby calm down. What kind of a boyfriend would I be if I didn't visit my girlfriend when she was in town?"

I was speechless, lightheaded. I just had to sit down. I went over to my bed and collapsed against the wall. I was breathing heavily.

"Tyler, there's something I need to tell you, and I'm going to say this as nicely as I possibly can," Aimee said, smiling sweetly.

"Yes? What is it you want to tell me?" Tyler replied with an equally sickening sweet smile.

I could almost swear I could hear Aimee's brain shouting insults at him, so I dried my eyes and waited for, probably, the most entertaining thing I would be seeing in a while.

"SHE DOESN'T LOVE YOU ANYMORE YOU STUPID HEARTBREAKER AND SHE NEVER WILL! SHE GAVE UP ON YOU AGES AGO. YOU'RE NOT HER BOYFRIEND, SHE'S NOT YOUR GIRLFRIEND AND YOU'RE NOT WELCOME HERE YOU STUPID PATHETIC EXCUSE OF A 'BOYFRIEND' OR WHATEVER IT IS YOU CALL YOUR RELATION TO MEGAN."

By the end of her little speech she was panting hard, her chest heaving up and down. Her eyes were blazing with a fire that I only see in her eyes when she's really passionate about what she's saying, which made my heart flutter to think that she was passionate about keeping my heart safe from that bastard Tyler Davis. To most people, Aimee's reaction to my ex-boyfriend's appearance would appear rash but Aimee and I were as close as sisters. We felt each others' pain and no matter how cliche that sounds, its true. I had spent a lot of my childhood making and breaking friendships. I don't know what it was but I always seemed to get myself involved in the wrong crowds, and funnily enough it all started back even before I met Aimee. The bad choices in crowds to hang out in continued throughout my life, though there were a select few who were real friends to me. Aimee was an example of that. But the wrong crowd type people? Tyler Davis is a very good example of that.

Sure he was popular, considerably hot and was pretty much every shallow girls' dream boyfriend, I was stupid enough to think that he cared enough about me to actually change his bad habits. He was a playboy, he would smoke joints behind the school cafeteria and would occasionally be caught downtown getting some poor, innocent girl drunk so he could take her home and have some fun. And keep in mind he was only in his early high school years at the time. But he convinced me that he cared about me, that I was different to all those sex-driven, whore-like girls. He would feed me lines like, 'Your the only one for me,' and 'those girls were just my stepping stones on finding my way to you.' He would tell me that he was going through a phase and now that he had found me, he was going to stop. And I was stupid enough to believe it. I believed that fake smile and the predatory glint in his eyes. I believed that he would actually change for me. I believed that he cared. Well the jokes on me isn't it. I should've known. He wouldn't stop with the joints, or the girls or the drinking. He wouldn't change for someone as lowly as me, or at least as lowly as I felt back then. Boy was I glad when I finally pulled myself out of the mess that he left me behind in.

"I'M GOING TO GIVE YOU THREE SECONDS TO LEAVE OR I'M GOING TO KNOCK YOU SO HARD THAT YOU-"

"Aimee, Aimee its alright. I'll handle this."

"Yeah Aimee baby it's alright. Megan can handle me all on her own, can't you sweetheart?"

Aimee gave a disgusted snort. "Go drown yourself."

"Aimee," I gave her a stern look.

"Alright alright I'll go but if he's not gone in ten minutes I'm throwing him out the window."

She stormed out the door and closed it with a slam. I turned to face him and he smiled. I swear my heart stopped in my chest. That smile brought back so many memories, memories that I never wanted to forget.

"Hey honey-bear."

My eyes bulged and all of a sudden different kinds of memories flooded into my mind. They left me stranded with tears in my eyes and a pain that was twisting a knot in my chest. All of a sudden I knew what I had to do.

"Megan? Are you alr-"

*BAM*

"Okay what the hell was that for?"

"Get the hell outta my room."

"What did you say?"

His eyes were flaming but his lips were turned down into a slight frown.

"Get. The. Hell. Out. Of. My. Room."

"Did you just punch me in the face?"

"No I just handed you a Nobel Prize, OF COURSE I PUNCHED YOU IN THE FACE!"

"Fine, you're not worth it anyway."

"As if you ever were."

"You'll regret this. I came by to give you a second chance and you're throwing it all away so you can stay single forever?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh I think you know what it means. Single. Forever."

"Excuse me?"

"You very well know that I was the only person that ever loved you. That ever will love you ever. Face it. You're destined to be alone."

Jeesh has he been watching too many Sci-Fi movies? What's with the Jedi talk?

I was about to retort back with some snappy comeback but a knock sounded at the door and silenced me.

"Megan are you ready to g-"

Finn's eyes scanned over the room, taking in Tyler smirking, me in tears and the proximity between us that I had just noticed now.

"Sorry am I interrupting something?"

"No no of cour-"

"Yeah, dude sorry but me and Megan are having a moment. If you don't mind we would like some privacy."

"Tyler what the hell? Finn, no don't go," I pleaded.

"It's alright Megan. I'll see you later."

He quietly shut the door behind him but not before I saw the shock and hurt in his eyes. He has assessed this situation in the completely wrong context.

MY anger started boiling up. It was one thing to come here and insult me like that. It was another to hurt Finn.

"Get the HELL out of my room before I BREAK your NECK!"

I shoved him out the door and slammed it in his face. A slight 'ouch' alarmed me to the fact that I think I might have hit something. Then I remembered it was Tyler so it didn't really faze me.

I waited for about five minutes, waiting to hear Tyler's footsteps and sure enough he soon gave up and retreated back to wherever he came from. Sighing I stood and made my way to Finn's door. I knocked, listened and waited.

"Finn?" I asked, knocking again. I heard the door downstairs slam. I ran up to the roof just in time to see Finn running down to the beach. As soon as he arrived a crown of people surrounded him with hugs, hands to slap and warm hellos. It came to my attention, annoyingly, that a great deal of the people hugging him were girls. Why it bothered me, I had a pretty good idea. What I was going to do about it, I was sure.