The Jerk

Tate? He's a leech.

Tate's incessant. Two days after the last time I saw him, I figured he moves on, found someone else to piss off. Then he was there, flopping down on the lounge couch next to me, his arm resting behind my head. His scent hit me like a train, making my entire body very aware of the hot boy beside me. Len and Emma give me a questioning look from where they sat across from me on a similar couch, both of them watching a movie on Len's computer.

"Hello, Ethans- I mean, Quinn." He says and as if I could be any more irritated, he pulls out one of my earbuds, putting it in his ear.

"Hm, I like this song." He hums, looking down at the game on my phone which I was no longer playing. I was too busy being shocked, irritated, and curious.

"Don't you have friends?" I ask, mocking him from the other day.

"Hey, what's your name's?" He turns to Emma and Len.

"Uh, Emma." Emma says, quirking an eyebrow at me.

"Len." Len says, glancing at Emma, clearly as confused as she is.

"See, three friends right here." He smirks, turning to look at me. My face was already towards him, not way too close to his. I blink, aware of his breath that was way too close to mine.

"I'm not your friend." I say. Emma snorts, both of them watching us now. I look at them, trying to silently let them know that I wanted out. Neither seemed to catch the hint.

"I didn't know you and Ethan were twins." Tate says. Fraternal, obviously since we look nothing alike. I decided not to respond. If I ignore him, he'll go away, right?

"You're hair is darker." He says, pulling my beanie off my head. I reach for it- ending up grabbing his wrist, practically crawling over him to snatch it with my other hand. I pull back, sitting back down, putting my hat back on. If he took it again, i'll just punch him, that's all.

"You have dirt on your nose." He says and I watch him actually lick his thumb, swiping over the tip of my nose. If I wasn't angry, it would have been hot as hell.

"Ew, no." I use the sleeve of my flannel to wipe at it.

"It's not dirt, its charcoal." I mutter, embarrassed that I don't think i'll ever forget watching him lick his thumb.

"Like, the pencils?" He asks. I nod, holding up one hand, showing him the smudges of grey on my it. His phone whistles and he pushes his hips up, reaching into his back pocket to get it. I was so gay I had to notice everything he does? I look back in my phone, paying attention to him my peripheral.

"Ah, fuck. Alright, see ya later Quinn, Ethan's brother's friends." He waves at us, strolling out of the room.

"Dude, how to do you know Tate Rhodes!" Emma rushed over, taking the seat next to me.

"I don't- I wish I didn't." I respond, still glaring at the door he walked out of.

"He's so fucking hot!" Emma groans, dramatically dropping her head on my shoulder and groaning. I didn't respond. Yes, I agreed, of course, but I would never admit it allowed even if they did know I was gay.

"Seriously, how do you know him?" Emma asks.

"I was in the library and he, um, sat next to me and was a total asshole. He likes annoying me- he followed me into math the other day!" I frown, remembering my annoyance, making me even more pissed off at the cocky, sexy, jerk.

Dinner with my Mother was always way more proper than at Dads. We were expected to sit at the table and have a conversation. Today, I was a little distracted with thought of Tate.

"And why should I care? I don't like her anymore." Ethan snorts.

"You dated for four months, you didn't develop anything for her?" I raise an eyebrow.

"Eh, we weren't compatible in that way." Ethan waves it off. My Mother slaps him upside the head, just hard enough for him to wince.

"You better be respectful to woman! I will not raise my boys to be pretentious pricks." She snaps.

"On that note, Can you tell your friend to stop bothering me?" I ask Ethan. He was rubbing his head, frowning at Mom.

"Who?" He mumbles, looking over to me.

"Tate? He's a leech." I say, stabbing the piece of chicken on my plate, shoving it into my mouth, chewing as I think about his dumb face.

"What do you mean?" He snorts, gagging as he chews on his broccoli.

"I'm kidding! It's good!" Ethan dodges Mom's hand, laughing.

"He follows me around and takes my things and teases me." I grumbled, pushing my carrots around the plate. The worst part of it all is that he's hot and I couldn't stop thinking about him.

"Really? Tate?" Ethan snorts, looking mildly surprised.

"Yeah, why?" I look up, wondering why.

"If this boy is bullying Quinn-" My Mother starts to Ethan, which has me speaking up.

"He's not! He's just, um, annoying." I shrug, knowing Ethan getting a smack to the head because of me may mean he'll slap me later.

"I guess he can be obnoxious but not annoying, just funny." Ethan says, shrugging.

"Obnoxious, sounds right." I snort, shoving more food into my mouth, fighting back a gag at the broccoli.

"If he continues to bother you, Ethan will take care of it, right?" Mom looks to Ethan.

"It'll be fine, I was just saying.." I put in, not keen on the idea of my twin sticking up for me because I couldn't handle it on my own. I mean, he's five minutes older than me, I should be able to figure it out myself.