AN: It's been a dreadfully long time since an update and I'm terribly sorry. My wireless connection went out, and the repair guy FINALLY showed to fix it! Also, I went on the world's *worst* blind date. It was so awful, I swear I thought I was on MTV's Disaster Date. But no such luck. And to top it all off, I got food poisoning from the horrible restaurant. Anyway, enough about that general suckiness

DISCLAIMER: I solemnly swear I have no ownership rights to anything that' s actually worth money. DUH. I'm also up to no good XD


Chapter Nine

About an hour later I poked my head back in the door.

"How's it going in here?"

"Great, I'm just finishing up"

"Awesome! Hey, are you hungry?"

"Always" He joked

"Okay, what kind of pizza do you like?"

" Mushrooms, pepperoni, black olives and bacon. You don't have to order pizza though."

"You really helped me today, and you're getting pizza. I don't know what I would've done without you!"

"Don't worry about it, Baby. I'm sure you would've figured something out anyway."

I shook my head as I called in our order, getting an extra large pizza, a large order of breadsticks, and asking them to send a couple packets of those dried pepper flake things.

"So," I said, turning to him "Do you do the whole "nicknames" thing with everyone, or just me?"

"Sorry, habit….Does it bother you?"

"No, I was just wondering. I would turn on the TV, so we could watch something, but the cable guy hasn't been out yet."

"It must be awful" he teased "Not to be able to watch Jersey Shore or Sixteen and Pregnant"

"Oh god, that sounds like hell."

"Right, so what do you want to do?"

"I know! We can play "Truth"!"

"What the fuck is "Truth"?" he asked less then enthusiastically.

"We go back and forth and ask each other questions! It'll be fun!"

"No."

"I'll go first!"

"I don't know if you realized, but that *wasn't* a sarcastic "no"."

"Um…..Let me think…. Is plumbing repair your fulltime job?"

"Do you even listen when other people speak?"

"Go on! Answer!"

"Fine, Jared and I have a business with a few other of our friends"

"Your turn!"

"Okay, what do you do?"

"I'm a vet."

At this Paul started laughing.

"What? "

"Oh, sorry, just reminded me of something." he explained

"Okay, so you said no girlfriend, right? Any brothers or sisters?" I asked

"Not biological. What's your favorite movie?"

"If I had to pick, I'd be "Breakfast Club" or all the "Harry Potter" 's. Any tattoos or piercings?"

"Just one" he replied rolling up his sleeve to expose a intricate tribal design featured prominently on his bicep. "How about you?" he smirked.

"As for peircings, just my ears and belly button. And I only have one tattoo."

I turned around and pulled up my shirt to reveal the tribal "tramp stamp" style tattoo featuring a gorgeous wolf's paw print in the center inked across my lower back.

"Awesome, isn't it? When I turned sixteen, I really got into Native American culture and legends. This was one of my many rebellions." I grinned. I turned just in time to see Paul's jaw drop.

"Many rebellions?" he asked.

"Oh yeah," I laughed " I had a rainbow of hair colors, a lip ring, and got into a lot of fights at one time. I was known as one of the "bad kids", you know, the type parents warn their preppy little goody two shoes kids about. Which was prolly why I never lasted very long in any one foster home."

"Foster kid? Would've never guessed….. So, is this your real hair color?" he asked while reaching out to brush away stray piece that had fallen out of my messy bun.

"Yes, I stopped the dying ages ago. I only did it to piss off my "parents"." I said making "air quotes" around the word parents. "So, what about you? Ever do anything just to try and figure out who you are?"

As I questioned him, the doorbell rang interrupting me.

"Ooh, look! Pizza!" I said, heading to the door with my check in hand to get our food.

I pulled the door open and smiled at the pizza boy. He was short and stocky, with long, greasily tangled hair and a "Star Trek" t-shirt.

"Whoah," he said "You are totally not fat. Like, I would defiantly do you."

"Excuse me? "I asked.

"Well you ordered like a shit load of food, so I thought "fattie", but let's just say if I was an enzyme, I'd be helicase so I could unzip your genes." He said, obviously thinking he was being smooth.

"What? You do realize what a fucking moron you sound like, right?" I said angrily, my voice rising in volume.

"Name's Conner," he said, tossing his bleached and disgusting hair over his shoulder. "How about we go back to my place? There's a "Docter Who" marathon on and my mom's out of town for some funeral for the weekend."

"Paul, Baby, I think you might have to come out here," I called back inside over my shoulder to Paul.

"Is there a problem, Babe?" He asked, with a slight edge in his voice as he walked up behind me.

"Oh, Conner here was just saying something about unzipping my jeans."

"What? I think you need to leave right now, you little bastard."

Paul grabbed the food, and slammed the door in Conner's face, not paying for it.

I called the pizza place back and began complaining loudly. The manager didn't seem very sympathetic until I mentioned a sexual harassment lawsuit. He practically fell over himself, offering coupons and discounts which I not so politely told him to shove up his ass. After I slammed the phone down, I looked up to see a grinning Paul.

"What?"

" Would you really have sued them?"

"Fuck no, it's just the quickest way to get sexist bastards to fix the problem." I explained. "By the way, thanks for being my pretend boyfriend."

"Anytime. But I'm curious, what would you've done if I hadn't been here?"

"Kicked his ass." I laughed.

"Sure, sure." Paul said, letting the topic drop as I poured sodas.

We settled into the overstuffed leather couches in the living room with filled plates. We started talking and kept eating, not paying attention to the time. Suddenly it was two thirty, and I had eaten WAY to much. That being said, it was only a fraction of what Paul had consumed.

"Damn!" I said, rolling and stretching causing my shirt to ride up and expose a sliver of midriff. "You sure can eat!" I joked.

"Hey, I'm a growing boy!"

"Mhhmmm, I'm sure that's it."

The bantering continued until it was nearly three and Paul said he unfortunately had to go. I walked him to the door, and was hugging him goodbye when suddenly I realized how freakin' hot he was. Temperature wise, mind you, although he's not doing to bad in the looks department.

"Jesus, are you alright?" I exclaimed loudly, "You're on fire!"

"Thanks Babydoll, you're not so bad yourself." He said winking.

"Not that, you must have a temperature! Here, come back in to the kitchen, I'll find a thermometer!"

"No, I'm fine."

"I really think-"

"No, I'm just warm-blooded, don't worry about it." He interrupted

"If you're sure…."

" 'Course Baby, I'm great. Maybe we can do the whole pizza thing again sometime?"

"Sure, it was a blast" I grinned.

I remained on the porch, waving like a lunatic until his truck disappeared around the corner. I shook my head as I went back inside.

"There is something about Paul…..I can't put my finger on it. Well, it'll come to me eventually ." I thought to myself.

I let Jack out of his cage and made my way to the phone to catch up with Dakota, and maybe work on my problem.


End Note: No offence to any Star Trek/ Doctor Who fans. Sorry I implied you were nerdy, I promise I don't think you are.

Conner was supposed to be reeeeeaaally creepy, by the way. And I've actually been hit on with that biology/gene pickup line *cringes at memory*

I wrote the beginning a few days ago, and Zoey feels almost "valley girl"-esq to me, with "Truth". I don't know why. Maybe I'm just tired.

Anyway, I couldn't resist the "pretend boyfriend" thing.

Or the tattoo.

Sorry for fluff LOL.

You guys should know I finished this at 2:00 am, just 'cuz I felt so bad for the posting gap , even though I have Sunrise Mass tomorrow/this morning. Yeah, that's right, you guys better love me XD

I would love to thank everyone who's reviewed, and the returning readers, and everyone who's put my work on alert. It's really a motivator to keep going.

Thanks ever so much for reading, and a review would be terrific!

~BookLuvver333