23. Forgiveness Is Freedom

"Well, this is boring." Kyle whispered as he kept changing the TV channels. He and I were sitting on the sofa with Claire on my other side. Clayton and Josh were on the carpet whispering things in each other's ears. Jordan and Amanda were in the kitchen making snacks while Zeke sat on the recliner with his phone in his hands, staring at it as if it would come to life.

Claire was snuggling up to me with a small cute smile which made me want to desperately kiss her but the excess of people in the room made me think otherwise.

"You're so damn cute." I whispered while kissing her nose, she smiled at me before doing the same. Kyle gagged from beside me and I elbowed him in the stomach making him groan before gagging again. Claire was giggling the whole time.

She's such a unique girl. One moment she's confident and the other she's shy, she's the cutest person in the world but sometime she becomes a demon. She's just so different and I love all of her differences so much.

"What?" Claire giggled at me and I smiled lovingly at her before pecking her forehead. "Nothing, just thinking about how much I love you."

She blushed before she hid her face in my neck making me laugh at her. My eyes averted to the boy that was sitting on the recliner, but this time he had his eyes on Claire and I. When I looked at him, he immediately went back to his phone with his eyes getting a bit glassy.

Claire saw me looking at Zeke and she sighed while staring up at me. "Go apologize to him." I looked at her before looking back at him.

"But he called you the 'b' word and even touched you." I whined quietly to which she laughed before cupping my cheek. Kyle gagged once again and I elbowed him once again making him quiet down.

"Well, I forgave him. You should too." Claire spoke after giggling at Kyle and I. I shook my head stubbornly with a frown.

Claire sighed before her eyes went towards Jordan and Amanda who entered the living room with two bowls of popcorn and cans of cola. "I forgave Amanda and she kissed you. Can't you do the same for me?" I frowned as I looked at her.

Well, she did have a point. I did kiss Amanda back and Claire did forgive her, after a lot of cursing and fighting that is.

"And besides, Zeke wasn't always this way. He was a really great friend when we weren't dating." Claire spoke with a sigh as she looked at Zeke with a distant look in her eyes.

Hah, I should do it for her. If it makes her happy.

"Hey, Zeke." I spoke up and immediately everyone looked at me. Nosy people.

"Um, I'm sorry for punching you and breaking your nose." I mumbled loud enough for him to hear me.

He squinted his eyes at me before he frowned. "You punched me three times and you even tried to break my jaw and gave me a black eye." Well, now that he is listing things off. I do feel a little guilty. Oh, who am I kidding, he deserved all that.

"You deserved it. You called Claire a bitch and you tried to touch her."

"Are you apologizing because she told you to?" He pointed at Claire before laughing. "Wow, you're whipped." I clenched my jaw tightly before I stood up.

"At least I'm apologizing, you dick."

"Hayden, please sit back down." Claire stood beside me and began to make me sit back down on the sofa. I sat down with a huff and Claire sat down beside me.

"You're like a dog. So obedient." Zeke laughed and in a second Claire was standing up again with a glare directed towards Zeke.

"Enough. What happened to you?" She spoke as she looked at Zeke with a look that I could clearly understand. That was the same look Kyle gave me when I shut him out.

"You dumped me, that's what happened." Zeke spoke loudly as he pointed at Claire with his eyebrows connected. "You should've never dated me if you never felt the same. You just gave me false hope and then moved away, moved on and left me with nothing." I looked at him with pity as his eyes began to get glassy.

"I, I'm sorry." Claire spoke as she looked at him with her own eyes getting shiny with unshed tears.

"Sorry? Is that supposed to make me feel better? Sorry doesn't do shit." Zeke stood up as well and was now glaring at her before his eyes met mine.

"And you, aren't you happy that I'm left with nothing now? Ever since she met you, she stopped spending time with me and now, now your aunt's gonna steal the only family I have. It's all your fault." His tears began to fall and he wiped at his eyes aggressively making Claire walk over to him.

"I'm sorry." He shook his head but Claire just hugged him and I had to control myself from separating them. Zeke needed a friend and Claire was the only one he needed at the moment.

Zeke cried in her embrace as he hugged her back holding her waist. I had to look away from them since my jealousy was flaring up and I was only seconds away from separating them and holding Claire close to me while growling 'she's mine' over and over again.

"I'm sorry." After a moment, I heard Zeke speak and I turned my head towards the two again where Zeke had his head bowed down while Claire was smiling at him. "For coming between you and Hayden. I could see the way you two looked at each other and that made me jealous. I'm sorry for doing all those bad things and calling you a bitch." Zeke still had his head bowed down while Claire was smiling at him with a friendly look on her face.

"We should start over." Claire said and his eyes met hers with a confused look as she smiled at him.

"I'm Claire Brown." I laughed at how this girl always fascinates me. Zeke smiled a small smile before he shook Claire's outstretched hand. "Zeke. Nice to meet you."

"I can say the same, Zeke." Claire smiled at him before she looked around the room before her eyes stopped at me. I understood what she was saying and I stood up to go to him.

I smiled at him before I outstretched my hand as well. "I'm Hayden."

I guess, everyone got a hint because next thing you know is that everyone was coming towards him and introducing themselves which made Zeke smile with tears in his eyes.

"Now, we're gonna forget everything that happened and start anew." Claire ordered and it made me want to kiss her right then and there.

"Yeah okay. But who wants pizza?" The room erupted with cheers as Zeke laughed before looking at me.

"I'm really sorry." I waved my hand dismissively at him.

"For what?"

........................................................................................

"Okay, last slice. Which means death match?" Clayton spoke and Jordan smirked looking around the small circle in which we were sitting in.

"What are we gonna play?" I asked as I burped after taking a huge gulp of cola. Claire giggled while Josh looked at me in disgust.

"Whoever drinks a new can of cola faster than everyone else, wins." I smirked as I popped open a fresh batch of cans while passing them around. I knew that I was gonna win in this game. No one could beat my cola drinking skills.

Everyone was ready as they all had opened their cans and were now looking at each other.

"Okay. One, two and..... three!" Kyle shouted and everyone began gulping their drinks in fervor. I drank all the cola in one gulp and shouted excitedly. "I won! Take that you bitches and Claire!" I laughed as Kyle laid down and began to roll over. "Oh, I'm too full." He whined as he burped loudly.

Josh rolled his eyes at him and Amanda giggled. I picked the last slice and saw Claire pouting at me with the cutest face she has ever made yet. My eye twitched as I couldn't look away and I ended up giving the whole slice to her.

"Whipped." Clayton dragged the word out and I glared at him while the boys laughed at me. "Hey! Let's have a burp battle." Zeke spoke excitedly which made Josh look at him with disgust.

"No wa-" Jordan cut Josh off as he excitedly screamed his agreement.

And then we began to burp and laugh at each other.

Kyle was in the middle of burping when we heard the front door opening and in came Eric with a blushing Aunt Carrie.

Kyle managed to swallow his burp. "Hi Aunt Carrie. How was your date?" She looked at me before she looked at Eric, who smiled at her lovingly.

"It was amazing." Eric smiled widely as he looked at us. Just when he was about to speak, we heard the loudest burp ever. I turned myself towards a blushing Zeke while he quietly said, "Excuse me."

The whole room erupted in laughs as he bowed his head down in embarrassment. Jordan wrapped an arm around his shoulder and gave his head a rub while laughing.

"Well, I see that you all are getting along." Aunt Carrie spoke as she looked at me with an eyebrow raised.

"Yes." Kyle burped out and Josh gave him a punch to the shoulder while contorting his face in disgust.

"Sorry to interrupt your fun but I think it's time to go." Eric looked at Zeke as he smiled apologetically.

Zeke got up from the floor as we all followed him in standing up. "Why don't you leave him here?" Aunt Carrie asked as she looked Eric with a small smile. "I mean, if he wants to stay over."

Eric looked at Zeke, who had his eyes shining with hope as he looked at his father.

Eric looked at us before he sighed, "Okay."

We all cheered as Zeke ran to hug his father and I stared at the two with a certain look in my eyes. Aunt Carrie noticed that and she smiled at me with her eyes getting a bit teary.

"Thanks dad." Eric nodded before he pecked Zeke's forehead.

Eric had left a few minutes ago and we were back to laughing with each other while Aunt Carrie had retired to her room saying that she was tried. I had given her a look saying 'You need to tell me all the details' to which she nodded.

The night was still young as we all were still having fun with each other, not having a single care in the world.

Why do people suffer, why do people part? Why do people struggle, why do people break your heart?

-Coldplay