DISCLAIMER: ...
A/N: Yeah, about that 'updating more during the summer' thing… Sorry. I guess not having my own personal laptop and having to use the desktop really makes me not want to write… Or maybe I'm just lazy. Probably the second one…

"Lust?" Rose cocked an eyebrow as she questioned me.

I turned to look at her. "Yeah, lust." I answered back.

She frowned. "Curious."

"Very." I adjusted my backpack and watched the sidewalk pass under me silently.

"ARE YOU SURE?" Rose burst out suddenly.

I quickly looked up at her. "Um... Yeah...?" I answered back slowly.

"That sounded more like a question than an answer to me."

"That's because it was." I paused. "Look, I'm not sure what I saw. All I know is that Zim was looking at me in a very weird way." I shrugged.

"You know," Rose started, "he probably was lusting for you. And I don't really care how this next statement sounds but, you're very hot Maxi." Rose bit her lip as if she were trying to hold something back and looked me up and down seductively. "Very, very hot."

"Oh God." I said, rolling not just my eyes, but my whole head and pushed Rose off the sidewalk into someone's lawn. "You're such a creep! I'm surprised someone hasn't locked you up yet!"

Rose regained her balance. "You have no room to talk! You're just as bad as me!"

"Yeah, I know." I smiled and reached up to grab a leaf from a low hanging branch above me. Haha... Low hanging makes me thing about penis. And with that, my smile turned into a smirk.

"Anyways," Rose began again, "You're very pretty at the least, and I bet there are a couple of boys in that school who already want to confess their undying love for you."

"Aww, thanks! You're quite the looker too, you know? With all your tan-tallness and whatnot." I gestured at her.

Rose grinned and flipped her hair away from her face. "Baby, I know. And speaking of pretty, how about that Kenny guy! He's beautiful!" She exclaimed throwing her hands up toward the sky.

"Holy shit! He's gorgeous!" My eyes widened as I practically screamed. "... I want to bake cookies on his stomach."

"What?" Rose yelled. Then we burst out in laughter, throwing our heads back and clutching out stomachs. We were just winding down when we both heard and unfamiliar chuckle not far behind us.

"What's all this?" I felt a strong hand come down on my shoulder. I breathed a sharp breath and held it. "You want to bake cookies on me?" With that, I turned promptly and found Kenny standing behind me, smiling cheek to cheek.

My cheeks flushed. "I-I... Umm, I was just..." I stuttered, trying to find some excuse-really any excuse to get me out of this awful situation.

Rose cleared her throat, signaling that she was going to save me. Relief washed over me. I smiled, closed my eyes, and thanked the Lord. "Yeah, she does."

My eyes shot open and I'm pretty sure my jaw broke from the impact of hard cement. I gave Rose a look that was an obvious 'What the FUCK?' one. She shrugged with a devilish smirk smacked on her face.

"Well then..." Kenny grinned seductively and his arm slithered around my waist.

I felt my ears get hot. I tried to slip through his strong grasp, but it was no use. So I just stood there, looking at him wide eyed with an undoubtedly awestruck look smacked on my face while he held me uncomfortably close to his side.

He... Well, we walked over towards Rose, who's eyes were also filled with shock/confusion.

"Uh..." Rose started eyes shifting between calm Kenny and mortified me. "I, uh... We... W-we." I've never seen Rose stutter like this before, I thought and I felt the distress melt away as I continued to watch Rose struggle for words, it's actually really funny. I flashed a wide, teeth-baring smile and snorted loudly.

Rose put a halt on her sputtering and Kenny looked at me. "Oh my God Rose." I again tried to slip from Kenny's grasp and succeeded this time, and I walked over to Rose, still grinning like a maniac. "You were stuttering like a bitch, dude! I've never seen you at a loss for words like that!" I turned to Kenny and whispered to him: "I'm going to put this in my diary when I get home." and winked. He laughed a boyish laugh. Aw, his laugh is cute! I conceived.

"Yeah... I've never stuttered like that!" Rose agreed with a confused look on her face. "Maybe whatever the hell you two were doing just a moment ago," she gestured to Kenny and me. "caught me off guard."

"Still." I began, "At least it was entertaining!" I shrugged. All of us kind of chuckled and nodded our heads in agreement.

"So Maxi, should we start heading home?" Rose inquired.

"Sure. Why the hell not?"

"You could come too Kenny." Rose added.
Kenny looked down at Rose. "Um... Sure, I'll come. As long as it's okay with Maxi and all." He put up his hands as if to block an oncoming ball and cocked an eyebrow in question.

"I don't mind." I shrugged again. "We could start on our project. It seems really easy so it probably won't take too horribly long."

Rose pointed at me. "You're right!" She smiled. "We could.'

"Well... What about Zim?" Kenny asked. Rose and I turned to him.

My mind now focused on the green alien. I slapped my hand to my forehead. "Oh I totally forgot about him!"

"Don't fret!" Rose said. "We can just go to his house and see if he wants to help."

"Yeah, but do we know how to get to his house from ours?"

"Wait." Kenny commanded and we obeyed. "Have you guys been to his house before?"

Rose and I looked at each other and smiled remembering visiting Zim's house for the first time. "Um," I started. "We have." and I started grinned.
"What's so funny about that?" Kenny inquired, now smiling too.
"Oh, it's a long story." Rose giggled.
"Well I have nothing but time. It is Friday after all."
"IT'S FRIDAY, FRIDAY. GOTTA GET DOWN ON FRIDAY." Rose blurted out all of a sudden. I cringed at the unexpected loudness.
"I'd tell you Kenny, but the fact is that I'm just too lazy." I shrugged.
"Will you have the energy to tell me later?" He asked, smirking.
"I just might." I smirked back and we started to head back home.

When all of us arrived back the house, Rose promptly whipped out the key from her front pocket and jammed it into the lock. She then threw open the door with all her strength causing it to slam into the wall.

"HOME AT LAST!" She yelled lobbing (A/N: That's a fun word...) her arms in the air. "I'm so happy." She smiled, tears beginning to well up in the corners of her eyes.

I laughed (because I'm such a good friend that I can laugh at her tears) and went over to hug her. "Don't cry Rose." I cooed and she buried her face in the crook of my neck. "Save those tears for Monday when we have to go back." And Rose yanked herself back unexpectedly and hit my shoulder. "Ow dude."

"Don't say that! It makes me want to hit things!" She frowned like a trout.

"You just did hit something!" Rose cocked her head like she had no fucking idea what I was talking about, and eyes swelled with part anger, part amusement. "ME, ASSHOLE! YOU HIT ME." And I came at her with my fist raised like I was holding an imaginary knife and hit her in her side, and it actually might've hurt her if she weren't laughing so hard.

I looked at Kenny then. He was also laughing, unlike what I had expected: him not being there anymore. In other words, I was sure we scared him off. I was wrong. Obviously.

Kenny, still laughing his adorable laugh, walked slowly over to us, his hands jammed in his pockets, looked at me and squinted. "You have very pretty green eyes."

I felt my ears get hot for second time that day, but I was able to keep it cool this time. I smiled and gave a simple: "Thank you sir."

Rose had stopped laughing just in time to witness the exchange. She blurted out: "You two would make an adorable couple, you know?"

Kenny and I looked at her then back at each other. "Well now we do." I answered and walked over to the living room where I dropped my bag and parked my ass on the couch. Rose ran over and spread out across the whole loveseat. Kenny took his spot a few feet from mine, assessed to situation, and decided that he was just too far from his dear Maxi. So he fixed that simply by sliding across the leather material and found a new spot close to me. Very close to me. In fact, he was so close than our knees were touching! This is kind of awkward… I thought as I gripped my knees tightly, and the pterodactyls nesting in my stomach take flight. I let out a shaky breath. He must have noticed that, because he looked at me and smiled a genuine smile as if to calm me.

"What do you guys want to watch?" Rose asked flipping through channels.

"Um, it doesn't matter to me, but when are we going to start on our project?" I asked.

"Later. Right now let's relax." Rose yawned and closed her eyes.

"Is she going to fall asleep on us?" Kenny questioned, smiling.

I squinted at Rose. I seriously need to get my eyes checked. I frowned. I think she's already sleeping. Damn that was fast. "I think she's already asleep, dude." I made my thoughts verbal; then looked at Kenny and frowned. "She has the remote.

"That's fine." And he stood up. "Would you mind showing me around the house?"

"Yeah," I exclaimed jumping up. "Let's go!" I said in the most fake, peppiest voice I could muster. I skipped over to the kitchen. "Okay, so we just left the living room and now we're in our awesome kitchen."

"Fuck yeah." Kenny said nodding like it was the most pimpin' thing in the word.

I snorted. "Notice the black granite counter tops and tiled floor. The stainless steel appliances are, uh... Stainless and very pretty to look at."

"It's truly amazing..."

"It sure is." I said putting my hands on my hips. "Let's go upstairs now. There's really nothing else down here except for the bathroom."

"Okay!" Kenny said smiling.

I smiled back and headed towards the stairs. It is pretty amazing, this house, but then again this whole thing has been amazing. I thought, It really has. I mean who else has this ever happened to? Certainly not anyone I've ever known.

Kenny and I reached the top of the stairs and I went down the hall pointing to doors and telling Mr. Kenny their contents. "Closet, bathroom, closet, Rose's bedroom, I don't really know what's in there, another closet, and finally my fucking awesome room." I burst through my door, revealing my room and all it's glory. "You like?"

"Very stylish!" Kenny confirmed and walked in, taking it all in. He sat on the bed and I flopped down on it behind him. "Do you mind...?" he asked, gesturing to the bed, telling me that silently that he also wanted to lay down.

"Oh sure!" And he laid on his back beside me, hands folded on his stomach. I laid on my side and stared at him. Maxi, you're such a fucking creeper. I thought as I stared at Kenny, who was just staring at the ceiling with that far off look on his face again. It's kinda hard no to stare though. I mean, he's really good looking.

Then Kenny looked over at me and caught me staring. "Enjoying the view?" he smirked again.

I laughed and decided to play it cool again. "Yes, yes I am!"

Kenny chuckled. "Awesome." He then proceeded to stare where he was before. After a minute or two of silence he said: "I like how your ceiling's painted like the night sky."

"Huh?" I looked up. "Whoa dude. Never noticed that before!"

"You haven't? Haha, can you say 'oblivious'?'"

"No," I sarcastically answered back, "I can't."

Smiles again. "So... Are you and Rose sisters or something?"

"I wish! But, no, we're just the two bestest friends you'll ever meet." I continued to smile at the thought.

"And you live together? Awesome sauce! How did you convince your parents to move in together?"

Oh... Parents... That's a lovely thought. I tried to hold it back the sadness, but I felt the tip of my nose burn and tears starting to wet my eyes anyways. "We didn't..." I answered back weakly, obviously on the verge of tears and trying not to lose it.

Kenny then shot upright. "What's wrong Maxi?" Alarm tainted his usually confident voice.

I closed my eyes tight and shook my head. A silent answer, talking would've sent me over the edge for sure. Maybe I should lie to him... Take the easy way out of this.

"Then what's wrong Maxi?" I opened my eyes to look at Kenny and saw that he was truly worried about me.

No... Lying is not a good idea right now. I then took a deep breath to brace myself. "My mom's dead..." The bracing technique didn't work, tears started to roll down my temples and into my midnight colored hair despite my efforts.

His eyes widened, then softened. "Oh... I'm so sorry dude." And with that he laid back down beside me. In the silence I got lost in my memories of mother: how she smelled like ginger; how her hair, dark like mine, cascaded down her back; her gray eyes speckled with golden brown; her voice, sweet like honey even in the most troubling of times, like when my brother died. That thought brought a whole new flood of memories. The memories of my brother, Alex's, funeral...

"He hasn't left us honey," Mother had told a five year-old me after Alex's service. "And he never will. He may be gone physically but he's with all who knew him, just in our hearts and minds, so he'll never truly die. He'll never really leave us..."

She was so cheesy. That was straight out of every movie that has ever been made! I thought and smiled, despite the still flowing tears. I looked over at Kenny, who was frowning sadly and decide to break the silence this time. "I really hate crying in front of people, you know?" I laughed through the sadness. Kenny joined me.

"I'm sorry your mom's dead, Maxi. I can't even begin to imagine what it'd be like if one my folks were dead and gone."

"It's okay dude..." I began, "But she's not really gone." I smiled. "I know it's cheesy, but they continue to live through the hearts and minds of all that knew them. I can feel it. They'll never truly die..."

Kenny laughed. "That is cheesy dude."

I sighed. "I know dude..." Then I smiled, put my hand on my heart, and proceeded to stare across the galaxy that was my ceiling.

A/N: FINALLY! Jesus tap dancing Christ that took forever! But anyways, here you go. Have fun... Wooooo.