Friends and Alibis

"Wait, Zack's 'engaged'?" Ouch.



"Yeah, and we seriously don't know how that happened. She treats him like a dog on a leash and he's totally whipped." Matt groaned, running his hands down his face.

"He's just not Zack anymore." Brian sighed.



"Maybe she's blackmailing him." I joked but everyone stared at me with a serious expression.

"Oh, you don't know what Amelia's capable of." Johnny chimed in.

"Yeah, she's an evil, vindictive WHORE!" Matt said, yelling the last part, making sure Amelia had heard. Just in that moment she and Zack came back in and went to the kitchen with all the bags they carried. Amelia shot Matt a dirty look but didn't say anything. Insults were probably a pretty common thing since the engagement.

"I don't know… she seems feisty but really pretty." I told them and they all started laughing. "What?"

"She is pretty, gorgeous even. But that doesn't make up for the person she is." Matt said.

"Why, what'd she d-" I started asking but was cut off by someone clearing their throat behind my back. Turning my head I saw that Amelia was glaring at me with her arms crossed over her chest, her look ... not so pleased.

"Who are you?" She snapped.

"Wow, hello to you, too. Nice to meet you." I joked, trying to release at least a little bit of the tension she had made.

"Who are you?" She asked again, her tone even more spiteful.

"May Collins." I answered with a friendly tone despite her hostility towards me.

"Oh! Ohh..." Yep, rang some bells but her appalled expression didn't change. "Yeah well, you could be Jesus, our lord and saviour, for all I care. I don't want you in my house, now leave!"

"Amelia, shut up. She's a friend." Brian snapped. Amelia was about to retort but the day was saved by Zack coming back in, which made her attitude change immediately. From bitch to sweet as sugar in under 1 second.

I looked back to the guys who all just rolled their eyes in annoyance but Zack didn't seem to notice while Amelia whispered something in his ear.

I went to ignore her and started talking with the guys again. There was no way in hell I would be intimidated by a Barbie.

"Anyway... What about you guys? Any girls?" I asked with a wink.

"Yep."

"Yep."

"Yep."

“…”

"Aw Brian c'mon, seriously? You are the one without a girlfriend?" I asked, somewhat amused.

"What can I say, babe. I'm a lone wolf." He answered with a wink, causing the guys to erupt into laughter.

"Nah, I think I can set you up with a girl but you'll have to wait about ... three weeks." I told him, thinking of Katelyn. God, that girl will so owe me.

"I'm not really looking for a relationship, so..."

"Oh, I think she'll be up for something else, too" I said smugly.

"Seriously, May. What kind of people are you friends with?" Matt asked, laughing.

"Shut up, I was friends with you guys! And she's my best friend!" I defended with a snort before focusing on Brian again. "But she might call you Syn."

"Aah fan girls, always the crazy ones... I'm looking forward to it!" He let out a content sigh, causing the others to laugh again.

We stayed at Zack's until late at night. Amelia somehow disappeared after about five minutes into our get-together, and I was glad that she did. I didn't like her. Of course I didn't. I came to Huntington with plans of getting back together with Zack and there he was, engaged to wonderful Amelia. He should have at least gotten engaged to someone more decent and lovable than Amelia. Yes, she was pretty but her attitude was from hell, maybe even purgatory, and not the good, feisty kind. The full blown malicious kind.

Sometime my head started to ache, probably from the beer the guys had brought into the living room at some point but I didn't leave without exchanging numbers with the guys. I sure as hell wasn't going to forget about that again.

So after everything was sorted and saved, I was brought to the door by Zack. He had been distant the whole time we were together but I took it had something to do with what Amelia had whispered in his ear.

"It was great to see you again, May." He smiled at me, causing me to blush though I was trying to keep my cool.

"Yeah, it was." 'Except your bitch of a girlfriend.'

"How about lunch tomorrow? Just the two of us?" He asked.

"What's Amelia going to say?"

"Nah, she doesn't get a say when I want to meet one of my oldest friends." Not so whipped, are we? “I’ll pick you up around twelve?”

"Okay, see you tomorrow then. Bye." I smiled at him for a last time and giving him my address, before turning and walking back to my car.


The smile on my face didn't falter the whole drive back to my apartment. It was a weird feeling that the guys and I had gotten along just as well as we had all those years ago. It was weird, but a good kind of weird. I had missed them to death and was overly happy and glad to have them back although I had to admit that I felt a little bit disappointed on Zack and Amelia's behalf.

I still liked Zack, a lot, and I believed that he hadn't changed a bit except how he behaved around Amelia. But I still had feelings for him, they had never disappeared. He was my first love, of course I wouldn't get over that so easily. But after eleven years I was still acting like a love-struck teenage girl around him. And despite the many 'you should finally get over it's from various people, I couldn't help but still love him. And it hurt even more to know that I had never gotten a chance to tell him that.

Notes

there's a lot of stuff before stuff actually happens. ugh