MELROSE

CHAPTER 26

11: 59: 50

Diana was yelling at everyone to get ready for the countdown. The Chandlers had returned and Helen was ecstatic to finally see her brother again after so long. Ethan was lying sitting down in the Mancini house, commenting on her paranoia. She told him to shut up.

11: 59: 53

"Alright, everyone. Countdown."

"Five."

Ethan's hand circled round my waist. I was busy watching my brother and Court who were very very close.

"Four."

They came closer.

"Three."

And closer.

"Two."

And closer.

"One!"

Their lips joined.

"HAPPY NEW YEAR!"

The hand was still on my waist as Ethan cupped my face with both hands to kiss me. So it wasn't his hand. It was dark so I doubted he could see that someone else was holding me. Don really had the nerve. My boyfriend was kissing me and he had the nerve to hold me? On the waist? I moved my hand to my waist in an attempt to yank his arm off. His grip only tightened. If tried to yank it off again, Ethan would notice and well ... I didn't want to think of what would happen after that. I still felt everything in the kiss, the butterflies, the electricity, it didn't feel different. If I liked Don it was supposed to feel different right?

I was getting more confused daily. I couldn't wait for school to start so I wouldn't be so free to think anymore. January 5th could not come any sooner. Ivan however, did not agree with me. He followed me everywhere as I prepared for the first day of the new term. He even crawled into my open backpack and when that didn't work, he jumped into the car the moment I opened it. It took five minutes of coaxing and promises of his favourite treats to get him to leave.

School seemed normal, people were already talking in groups, occasional couples making out, a group of popular juniors greeted whoever they deemed worthy, me included. I marched forward to my locker, I'd actually missed it, freezing in place when I saw someone with a mop of red long hair waiting impatiently beside my locker.

"Chris?"

"After waiting for twenty years, you finally show up. Happy new year bestie."

As response I flung myself towards her, enclosing her in a giant hug. "Where the hell have you been?"

She shrugged. "You know here, there, everywhere."

I released her so she could receive the full impact of my glare. "You haven't been answering my calls, texts, anything! I was worried about you!"

"Is that why you sent Ethan to attack me in Denver?" She teased.

"Chris." I warned.

She raised her hands in surrender. I urged her to tell me why she went incognito for weeks and she replied by saying someone died and she didn't want to talk about it. Finn, Ster and Zuke saw us and came over, scolding Chris for making us worry. Chris told them the same thing she told me. They nodded in understanding.

We decided to tell Chris what happened after she left as we still had fifteen minutes to kill before school started. When we were done, she ticked everything off her fingers. "So Meghan Trainor came here, Sterling's unbelievably gay, Don and Fletch fought, Courtney is a black belt karate fighter and likely squad member, Zuke has a crush, Ethan went into a coma and Aura's holiday revolved round Mancinis. There. Did I miss anything? Guys?"