"Zac, do you have any laundry?" Ricki waited for a response from Zac, but none came.

"Zac?" She walked out of the bathroom to find Zac reading out of a Rolling Stone Magazine.

"Hello?" She said again, looking at him pointedly. Zac's eyes looked up at her for a few seconds, then went back to his magazine.

"Oh my god." She said, throwing up her hands. "Zac, you can't still be mad at me for the one little thing...My gosh, it was like, a week ago."

Still no response.

"Zac?"

"I heard you." He said quietly.

Ricki wasn't satisfied. "Well?"

"I'm still mad."

"Arrrrgh!" Ricki said, and walked over to her side of the room and began to pick up her dirty laundry and throw it in the basket.

"I'm mad because you had no business to be rude to Susan."

Ricki was fuming. "Oh that's bullshit and you know it."

Zac threw down his magazine and stood up. "It is not!" He yelled.

"Yes it is!" She yelled back. "She's a bitch!"

"She is not! Susan is a very nice girl and this is my room too, and if I want to bring my girlfriend up here, then I'm going to. And just to warn you, this won't be the last time she'll be up here." Zac said.

"Girlfriend?" Ricki repeated. "She's your girlfriend now? Oh that's just great. Now I have to deal with that bitch more now then ever."

"Quit calling her a bitch!" Zac yelled, stomping over to Ricki. Ricki wasn't about to go without a fight. She stood up, just a few feet away from him.

"No!"

"I'll bring her up here anytime I want!"

"Not if I have anything to say about it."

"Fine!" He yelled, taking a step closer.

"Fine!" She yelled back, taking another step closer. Their enraged faces were just inches apart while they were yelling.

"She's not a bitch!"

"Yes she is!"

"No she's not!"

"Yes she is!"

Zac leaned over and planted a kiss on Ricki, full on the lips. Five seconds later, she pulled away to look at him with wide eyes and blushing cheeks. Zac started to grin when Ricki let out an indignant huff and smacked him promptly across the face. Zac's hand flew up to his burning red cheek as Ricki bent over to pick up her basket and slam the door on her way out.

"How could he do this? Arrrghhhh!" Ricki said to herself outloud as she stomped noisily down the four flights of stairs. People stopped and watched as she talked and yelled to herself all the way down to the laundry room.

"Why would he do that? I certainly didn't ask him to. I would have had to be flirting. I wasn't flirting. You don't just kiss somebody just because. You kiss them because they were flirting." She threw her hands in the air as she sat ontop of the dryer. Several students were watching her to see what she would do next.

"What?" She asked, looking at them. They quickly looked away and went back to either reading or watching their laundry.

The more she thought about it, the more she was confused. She didn't like Zac, did she? No, she decided. She didn't. If he was stupid enough to think that Susan was a nice girl, then he was too stupid to date her. That was it. Zac Hanson just would not do for her.

"But he did kiss me." She said to herself, her eyes welling up. But he was dating Susan, and not her. "But he kissed me." She repeated quietly.

As switched her clothes from the washer to the dryer, she thought about Zac. His messy habits, his belching, the tacky clothes he wore, his loud music, his dirty socks all over..... His soft hair, his enchanting cologne, his warm smile, his boyish good looks....

But he was with Susan now. And it appeared that he was head over heels for her and vice versa. Susan was also hell bent on on keeping Zac all to herself, not the Ricki could blame her. Any girl that finally claimed The Zac Hanson had to be somewhat talented.

"But she doesn't deserve him." Ricki said to herself as she mindlessly chewed on her fingernails.

Deserve him, she might not, but have him, she did. Susan was thin and athletic and a cheerleader. She had a perfect complextion, perfect hair, perfect nails, and perfect body, she was smart, and she was overall...well...perfect.

"Could she be any more....more.....ulgh." She gave up trying to decide. She just hated Susan. "This is all her fault."

If she wasn't here, Ricki thought, there wouldn't be a problem. Susan was causing all of her problems, confusions....and Susan had Zac.

"Why do all the mean girls finish first? I want to finish first!" Ricki said to herself.

She began to picture Zac and all the time they had spent together. Ricki saw his dirty socks. Ricki saw his Hanson poster. Ricki saw him call his mom every other night. Susan didn't. She wondered why Zac couldn't see what Susan was really after; His fame and his money. That was all she wanted. She had always thought that if Zac dated someone she wouldn't have a problem with it but now she wasn't sure. How had one little kiss screwed with her mind so much?

"You don't kiss somebody just because, do you?" She asked outloud, her voice echoing on the basement walls.

The people were looking again, but as Ricki pulled her knees up to her chin and burried her face in her arms and cried, she didn't care. By the time she was done crying, she could see that it was already dark out, and she was left alone to load up her clean clothes and climb four flights back up to her room.

Email: morisstories@hotmail.com