Best friends who lie together, get punished together. This is a lesson I learned very early on in the friendship between me and Jade. Just so we are clear it is always Jade’s fault 99.9% of the time. But what can I do? Being hopelessly in love with your best friend means chasing down three well know pimps grand theft auto style and then having the guts to report them to the police. It also means adopting six kittens that keep you up all night and make you question every decision that led you to the ultimate grounding of a lifetime. It’s worth it in my book. I saved the day, got to kiss the girl, and looked like a total badass doing it. Not really, I am sure anyone who saw me driving after that car probably thought I looked like that Curella Deville meme from 101 Dalmatians.

Anyways! After we got home and explained everything in detail. My mom dragged me home and grounded me for all of eternity. Also, she found the kittens while I was gone. She wants to get rid of them. But Jade broke down and begged her not to, I had to back her up. So the fate of our fur babies is on hold for now.

Jade insisted that she stay with me tonight. She was hysterical being as she almost got kidnapped, she wanted me to stay with her. So they let her spend the night while her mom got to sleep in her room at her aunt's house.

She rested her head on my chest and snuggled up to me just like before. Except now we had six kittens laying all over us. My heart was beating fast, but she didn’t comment on it this time. So with Jade in my arms, and kittens laying on my face. I fell asleep.

In the morning we got to stay home due to all the trauma of last night. Even Mackenzie and Oli got to stay home. My mom called into work and so did her aunt. Her uncle still had to go in, he couldn’t miss.

“Skylar.” Jade called me.

We were still in bed, and she was holding the countess in her arms, while cloud and the other kittens laid all over me.

“Yeah?”

“Thank you, for coming to save me.”

“You already said that.” I giggle.

“But I mean it, if you hadn’t had come I don’t know what would have happened. I was so scared. You saved my life, again. I’m glad you’re my best friend.” She smiles at me.

Ouch, the friend zone again.

“Well being a superhero is my specialty.” I flirt.

“You are always saving me.” She giggles.

“Of course, what would a hero be without their damsels in distress?”

She giggles and kissed me on the cheek, I felt my whole face go red. Then she got up and walked downstairs to the smell of pancakes, I stared dreamily after her. I really do love that girl.

“You look ridiculous.” Oli laughed at me from the doorway.

I looked down at myself and saw the kittens stretched out all over me. For emphasis cloud walked on my face and laid down. Oli laughed. I moved my head to the side and caused the fluffy ball to go sliding off.

Then I got up and put all the cats back in their enclosure. Fed them and then went to wash up. I have a feeling I am going to be that lady with 27 cats. When I walked downstairs my mom made a full spread. My stomach growled at the sight of it.

Eggs, pancakes, bacon, sausage, hash browns, toast, you name it. Aunty, Maria, and Mackenzie all joined us for breakfast.

“Thanks, mom, you’re the best.” I sat at the table.

“Emm hmm, you are still in trouble.” She narrowed her eyes.

“Yeesh.” Jade shuddered then she set countess down who she was holding in her arms. The kitten started running free all over the place.

“Really Hanna you outdid yourself.” Aunty smiles.

“Thanks.” Mom smiled back.

We all ate in awkward silence. Jade’s mom was devouring the food like she hadn’t had a home-cooked meal in years. And maybe she hasn’t. That thought made me sad. Despite my better judgement, I let my eyes drift to Mackenzie who was staring at me. My mind was brought back to our almost kiss and I felt my face heat up. She smirked at me. Jade moved her chair closer to me possessively and glared at her cousin. Mackenzie rolled her eyes.

“Well let's go one issue at a time I guess,” mom started. “First, those cats got to go.”

“But mom!”

“Please, Ms. Clifton don’t get rid of them,” Jade begged.

“No buts, either of you. Six cats are you kidding me?”

“Well, what if we get rid of half of them?” I asked.

She eyed me.

“I can keep one in my room.” Oli offered.

“And what about Dukun?” mom shot at her.

“What about him? I can take care of him too.” She assured her.

“You can’t have a cat.” Jade’s aunt butted in.

“Please, please, please,” Jade begged.

“My mom’s allergic.” Mackenzie pointed out.

“I know but I could keep her in my room. Please.” Jade begged.

“No Jade, we can’t.” Her aunt stood firm.

I looked to mom with the look. The look I always give her when she knows I would do anything for Jade including take care of kittens. She sends me back the mom look, that says don’t even try it.

“Mom come on, I can keep both cats in my room. Jade can come over and help me take care of it.” I assure her.

“I will, I’ll come over every day!” Jade added.

“No Skylar. It’s bad enough we have that big smelly dog in the house now you are going to add three cats!”

“Mom, please! I’ll do anything.” I beg.

“Anything?” she challenges.

I nod.

She smirks. Oh boy, which can only mean one thing. She has something in mind for me to do.

“Okay, but only if you clean out the garage.” She says.

Oli chokes on her drink. I feel my smile fade away. There is nothing worse than cleaning out the garage. Nothing. That is because when we moved we threw most of our junk in the garage and left it there. Instead of unpacking everything we just bought new stuff. So the garage is stacked to the ceiling with junk and trash. I am not even exaggerating.

“Do we have a deal?” mom asks.

I look to Oli she is shaking her head no. Then I look to Jade who is shaking her head yes. Then I look back to my mom who knows she has backed me into a corner. She knows that I don’t want to clean the garage and she is banking on me saying no. I feel Jade squeeze my thigh and my heart jumps up inside of me.

Anything for Jade.

“Yes.” I agree.

“Oh my god,” Oli says in horror.

Even mom gives me an incredulous look.

“Yes! Skylar, you are the best, thank you, thank you, thank you.” Jade hugs me. I blush and everyone but Jade notices.

Mom sighs.

“Well, what did you think would happen?” Aunty snorts making a sly comment that everyone, but Jade and her mom understand. I feel my face get redder.

“Hopeless.” Oli shakes her head.

I shoot her a glare.

She snickers at me.

“You got to help me,” I say to Jade as she pulls back.

“Of course, my partner in crime can’t get away from me that easy.” She teases.

I blush some more. She called me her partner in crime. One of the requirements of winning over Jade’s heart! I am one step closer. I feel a smile stretch across my face. Jade giggles at me and kisses me on the cheek. Then she gets up from the table without finishing her food, grabs the countess off the floor and starts dancing around with her. I giggle and watch her.

God, she’s so adorable and cute. I could just kiss her right now.

“You’re drooling.” Oli teases me.

I shoot her a glare and go back to eating, my face bright red.

“Jade come finish your food.” Aunty chastises.

Jade gives the kitten one last big smooch on the head and sets her down before skipping back to the table. We share a look and giggle some more.

“I said you can keep three, but the other three need to go.” Mom goes on.

“You got it boss, no worries we will have those babies in homes by the end of the week.” Jade salutes.

I giggle at her.

Mom can’t help but smile at her. Jade is literally impossible to stay mad at. She has a face you just can’t say no to.

“Now on to the next issue, Nicole take it away.” Mom turns the attention to aunty.

“Well for starters I can’t believe you two would go behind our backs like that. I am very disappointed that you wouldn’t come to me first.” She frowns at us.

“Sorry Aunty.” I bow my head in shame.

“Yeah me too, I think I learned my lesson.” Jade says copying my movements.

“Who knows what could have happened to the two of you. You could have gotten yourselves hurt or worse. Just thinking of it makes me scared. From now on if something this big comes up you come to one of us, understand?”

“Yes ma’am.” We say in unison.

“You are only in trouble because we love you both so much. We were losing our mind in worry that something had happened to you. We don’t want to have to feel like that again. We just want you both to be safe. And that goes for you two as well.” She eyed Oli and Mackenzie.

“Yes ma’am.” They said.

“So we talked about it and you are both grounded for two weeks. No going out, no allowance, and no hanging out with friends, boyfriends, and girlfriends included.”

“But!” Jade and I said at the same time.

“No buts.” She eyed us.

“You can’t do that! I have a date with Archer this weekend.” Jade complained.

“And I have a date with Darleen,” I add.

“No buts, that’s the end of it. You are going to have to reschedule your dates for two weeks from now. If they really love you, they will wait.” She eyed us.

We sighed in defeat.

“Now that is settled I am glad you two are okay and that you both came out unscathed. I hope you have learned your lesson and that when something like this comes up in the future you will come to us first. We are always here for you guys no matter what. Even if you think we might not understand, you should try us. We were your age once upon a time.” Aunty winked at us.

We giggled.

“I do believe there is one more subject to be addressed.” Mom said.

We all looked at Maria. She smiled at Jade, Jade averted her gaze.

“First of all, I would like to thank you both for being so brave and coming to rescue me. That was such a brave thing you both did. Secondly, I would like to thank you, Skylar, for coming after us. Not just for saving me, but for saving Jade. I would have never forgiven myself if something would have happened to her. So thank you.” She smiled at me.

I smiled back.

“Jade, I know things have been rough between us, but if you would have me. I would like another chance to be in your life.” She says.

The room goes silent as we all wait for Jade to say something. She squeezes my hand for comfort. I squeeze back reassuringly. Then she looks at me, and I just stare at her not wanting to sway her decision in either direction. This is something she must decide on her own.

She takes a deep breath and looks to her mom. It feels like the whole room is holding its breath.

“Okay, you get one chance. One! Don’t make me regret it.” She says.

Her mom smiles then leaps from her chair to embrace Jade. Jade tenses up, but slowly relaxes and lets herself be held by her mom.

“I missed you so, so much. I love you baby girl.” She says.

Jade doesn’t say anything in response she just buries her head into her mom's shoulder. I smile at them in relief. Somehow everything always works out in the end. I am glad Jade decided to give her mom one more chance.

After breakfast, Jade and Oli run up to play with the cats while Mackenzie and I got stuck with clean-up duty.

“Who’s Darleen?” Mackenzie asks as she puts away the dishes I wash.

“My uh, girlfriend?”

“You sound unsure.” She points out.

“It’s uh, shaky at the moment,” I say.

“I didn’t know you had a girlfriend.” She says.

“You didn’t ask.” I shot back.

We are silent for a moment.

“Look, Mackenzie, I don’t know what that was the other day but you know how I feel about Jade,” I whisper. “Plus I’m sort of taken at the moment.” I finish.

“Jade’s just teasing you, obviously. The truth is---”

“Hey whatcha guys talking about?” Jade walks into the kitchen.

Her and Mackenzie share a glare.

“Uh, nothing much. Just uh soap and uh dishes. Because washing, I mean we are washing! The dishes… hehe.” Crud! Nervous babble!

Jade eyes me.

“Can we help you with something?” Mackenzie shot at her.

“Nope, I just wanted to see if Skylar was done yet.”

“Well she’s not, so either get a broom or get lost.” She snapped at her.

Jade narrowed her eyes.

“I’ll be done in a sec. Go spend some time with your mom.” I encourage.

Jade fidgets nervously.

“It will be okay. I’ll be there as soon as I can. I promise.” I assure her.

She nods and smiles at me before walking off towards her mother in the living room.

“She doesn’t even like you!” Mackenzie hisses.

“I don’t care. She’s still my best friend.” I say.

“The truth is Jade found out I have a crush on you last year and has been teasing me about it ever since. That is why she is always clingy to you when I am around. Not because she likes you back. She is just using you to get at me.” Mackenzie comes clean.

“Jade isn’t like that.” I defend her.

“You have no clue. You are too blinded by your love for her. She can be really awful sometimes.”

Darleen’s words are brought back to my thoughts then. So far two people have said the same thing about Jade, one who even knows her personally. My guts twist together in my stomach. I feel sick. No way that’s the Jade I know. Right?

“Deep down you know I am right,” she says.

“No, you’re wrong. And it doesn’t change how I feel about Jade. Or the fact that I am taken.” I turn away from her.

I hear a sniffle beside me and I look and see Mackenzie is crying. I feel bad now. I frown at her.

“Don’t cry.” I move to comfort her.

“I’ve waited so long to tell you how I feel and I get rejected just like that. How am I supposed to react?” she sniffles.

“I’m sorry okay. I just, I don’t like you like that. I like someone else.”

“She’ll never love you the way you love her.” She whispers.

Fear shoots through me at the thought that she might be right. That no matter what I do Jade will never love me back. I feel my own eyes water.

“You don’t know that,” I whisper back.

“You freaking idiot.” Mackenzie shakes her head then she grabs me by the collar of my shirt and kisses me.

My insides feel electrically charged. I feel fireworks going off in my brain. Kissing Mackenzie is like, wow…

I deepen the kiss and push her against the counter. She wraps her arms around me and I wrap my arms around her.

Kissing her feels almost like kissing Jade.

I am so confused, never before has one simple kiss made me this confused. I thought I loved Jade, I thought I liked Darleen. But after one kiss I don’t know what I think anymore. We break apart and look in each other’s eyes, I know she felt what I did. Her face is bright red.

I slowly lean in again, almost afraid, but unable to resist the pull I feel. Her lips just graze mine when,

“What the devil is going on here!?” Aunty shouts.

We quickly spring apart.

“Mom!” Mackenzie says is in shock.

“I, I, I…” I stutter.

“Explain yourself!” Aunty looks at me.

“What happened?” Jade came running in.

She looked at both of our red faces and I could tell she just knew. Instantly I was snapped out of it. It’s one thing to kiss Darleen, it’s another to kiss Jade’s cousin.

Skylar you freaking idiot! Jade will never like you now! You fool! You dufus! Ahh! Noo! Why did I do that? What was I thinking? Oh my god! Kill me now.

“Well!?” aunty demanded.

How am I going to get out of this one?