//I used to think one day we'll tell the story of us, how we met and the sparks flew instantly. And people will say 'they're the lucky ones'. I used to know my place was a spot next to you, now I'm searching the room for an empty seat....// Taylor Swift.

She wasn't sure who took whose hand first, but their hands sat intertwined on the car's console, Iverson's thumb grazing her skin every now and then as he drove them with the other hand to 'When The Sunset'.

She hoped the things he had in mind included the main thing. For that, she could almost forfeit the meal and head straight home. Thinking about it already had her creaming her pantie and she knew his fingers and tongue as good as they were, wouldn't satisfy her this time.

If his meaningless abstinence was a way to get her craving him like an addict crave their next fix, then he won already.

"I want you. I won't settle for less." She blurted with a sudden vigour.

"And you won't get anything less." He promised, sealing it with a quick kiss to the back of her hand.

Bella looked at him with raised brows. "That's it? All these while, you only wanted me to ask?"

"What? No!" He quickly said then sighed. "I don't know, I just... needed to get over the fact that you were a virgin but you didn't tell me. I could have hurt you and now I'm scared you won't say if I was hurting you. Blue, you shouldn't hide or omit things like that from me. I don't care how far gone you think I am, if you're not comfortable or you want to stop, all you have to do is say stop."

Honestly, Bella couldn't roll her eyes any harder. "I'm not a porcelain doll Iverson, you didn't hurt me and I've told you this. I enjoyed every minute of it. Get off your high horse, you may be my first but that doesn't mean I haven't tried other things? Claire and Jenna gave me a vibrator for my birthday last year and I've used it twice." There, she said it. It was out there now.

Iverson gaped at her like a choking fish and she couldn't help but laugh. "You have a toy?" He asked incredulously, his expression was priceless. She laughed more.

"Will you show me? Please baby, I'll love to watch you use it."

Heat flooded her cheeks then at the naked desire in his eyes. She slowly nodded her head. A promise.

**

The restaurant was quite different from the last time Iverson brought her there. For starters, a maître d' opened the door for them on arrival and the interior was another story.

The stage he sang on was still there at the corner and thankfully no one was doing an awful impersonation of Selena Gomez this time, no DJ and no instruments. She guessed it wasn't Karaoke night.

The place was...quiet in fact, compare to the last time and the chairs had all been replaced with elegant mahogany in a classy sitting arrangements.

"Wow." She nodded her approval and felt Iverson's hands sneaked around her waist from behind. Almost naturally, her back curved to fit with his front. Apparently the restaurant wasn't the only thing that'd changed, she remembered jumping a mile in the air the last time they came and he tried to touch her.

"I don't think I've properly thanked you for making me face my fears by getting up on that stage the other day." He said, his jaw coming to rest on her shoulder.

Bella bit her lip, he didn't need to know she did it for selfish reasons. She had wanted him to fail, she had wanted to see him embarrassed.

"I didn't thank you for making me face my fears by going to Claire's party either." She said instead. They both stood there, close to the entrance uncaring of curious eyes on them.

He groaned at her words and turned her around to face him. "I regretted it." He stated firmly and she laughed.

"You met Derrick, and made out with him to me singing! Do you have any idea how challenging that was to watch?"

He watched her laughing in his arms with a contented smirk. "It's okay though, I was also finally able to put a name to what I feel for you that night."

Bella stopped laughing almost instantly, seeing in his eyes all the seriousness, sincerity and raw emotions that made her weak in the knees.

He placed a finger under her chin to keep their eyes locked. "It's okay." He assured, but with a hint of sadness. "I'll wait till you do the same. I just need to know your hesitance isn't because of Derrick?"

She pulled her head back, squirting at him with crinkled nose. "Why would it have anything to do with Derrick?"

"You know," Iverson shifted uncomfortably on his feet but kept his hold on her. "Maybe y,you l-like him?" He stammered.

Bella faked a thoughtful frown, his insecurities when it came to Derrick genuinely amused her. Sure Derrick was really handsome in a catchy way, with his significant playboy charisma most girls would dig, including herself. Iverson on the other hand was....all kinds of handsome, any shade you put on him will go just fine.

He was Hollywood pretty (figures why his sister want him there) but with a surprising homeboy charisma, you most certainly won't be expecting.

"Blue?" He called warily at the amount of time she took thinking about it.

"Well, I mean..." She started innocently.

"What?!" The panic that filled his eyes made her laughed once again.

"It has nothing to do with Derrick, I'm only messing with you." She said amidst laughs.

Iverson dug his thumbs into her sides and she yelped. "Messing with me isn't a very good idea now is it? Is it?" He laughed with her as he kept tickling her and she tried wriggling out of his hold to no avail.

"S-stop!" She cracked, playfully swatting his hands away  but he kept going until someone cleared their throat.

Only then did Iverson remembered where they were. They both faced the waiter with silly grins on their faces like naughty teenagers.

"I'm sorry, is this awkward?" The waiter, with 'Pete' on his badge asked without looking either of them in the eyes. "We are uhm, just a restaurant. You won't get room service here."

"Excuse me?" Bella blushed, embarrassed by his straight forwardness. "We are just here to eat."

"Oh?" The guy briefly met her eyes before looking at Iverson and then as quickly looking away. "Your excessive public display of affection like it's going obsolete must have confused me."

Iverson laughed from behind. "Ignore this madman baby. Remember him from Claire's party?"

"We weren't introduced." The guy Pete said. "She was hammered, probably seeing things in twos and you were busy receiving a punch to the face." He shrugged indifferently.

She remembered him then, he was the guy Iverson and Biggie arrived at the bar with, talking about the color of  someone's dress. He was the one who took over the bar from Derrick.

"Oh." She mumbled, unsure what to make of his uninterested demeanour. "Hello."

"Do we get seats? Or you just keep your customers standing around?" Iverson asked.

"You didn't seem to mind standing around."

"Maybe I should have a word with your manager, there's a line between customers and waiters and you are currently standing on it."

The guy Pete looked down to his feet as if to check said line then flipped Iverson the birds when he couldn't find it before walking away. Iverson led her after him.

"He seems friendly." Bella whispered.

"He's half a portion of fries short of happy meal." Iverson whispered back and they both chuckled.

They took their seats at the table he offered them, his eyes constantly darting around like any other thing was more interesting than the people in front of him. Bella wondered if it was awkward for him to be serving his friend. But hey, your job was your job.

"If you don't mind, I'll like the same thing we got the last time." Bella told Iverson, he agreed and gave Pete the orders.

"Why is he like that?" She asked once he left with the promise of returning with their drinks.

Iverson shrugged. "Pete's mood swing is worse than a woman with PMS and I'm so use to it, I don't even find it weird. He may come back and chat you up like a long lost buddy and I'll just go with his flow."

She shook her head with a chuckle while Iverson reached for his ringing phone, frowning when he saw the caller ID. "It's my sister." He told her grimly. "Do you mind if I take this outside?"

"Sure." She said and he gave her a tight smile as he got up but she placed a hand on his forearm to stop him from walking away. "If she still need my help I'll do it. I'm not upset and you shouldn't be either."

His face soften and he gave her a genuine smile, leaning down to brush a soft kiss on her lips. "You are the best." He told her with another kiss.

Bella watched Pete approached their table a few minutes later and Iverson wasn't back yet. She hoped she wouldn't come off as desperate to Marie Ivy, she was only trying to be the bigger person like her mother thought her.

It didn't matter that Marie saw her as insignificant, if she needed her help, Bella would gladly give it. And besides, she'd rather there was no riffle between the two siblings because of her.

"Thank you." She told Pete as he placed her drink on the table. She'd barely pulled it closer to sip from the straw when a camera's flash went off. She looked up to see Pete holding his phone.

"What are you doing?" She asked just as another flash went off. "What the hell are you doing?" Bella asked louder, instinctively leaping up to swat the phone out of his hands.

"Evidence." Pete said casually, taking a step out of her reach. "For Derrick to believe me when I tell him Iverson's got the girl again, I'll need this piece."

"I beg your pardon?!"

"Oh shush, this isn't about you." He had the audacity to chuckle at her bewildered face! He didn't know she was a breath away from emptying her glass of juice on his stupid face.

"He knew he didn't stand a chance anyway. Iverson always get the girls, even when he couldn't give less shít about them."

"What in world are you talking about?"

He met her eyes for a quick second before taking interest in the space above her head. "I'm not talking about you, he obviously cares for you. I was the one who stopped him and Derrick from killing each other the other day. I must say, it's fun to watch each time they do that, but a shame. They were such good friends." He shook his head sadly and then suddenly his eyes lit up with an idea.

"Hey, maybe you can bring them both together again? Derrick thinks you're cool, he'll listen to you and you already have Iverson wrapped around your finger."

Bella took a deep calming breath, the guy was obviously missing a nut. Maybe even two and arguing with him would be pointless.

"Listen Pete," she started, picking a tone she'd use for a sulky five year old. "Taking random people's picture without their permission is not okay. Iverson may be your friend but you hardly know me. Secondly, I have no idea what you are talking about. Derrick and Iverson aren't friends, unless you've got him mistaken for Biggie?"

Pete snorted, the look he gave her made her feel like a daft five years old. "Of course they aren't friends. They just lived together all through freshmen, shared clothes and everything. Derrick just casually followed him to his home town when his old man died because why the hell not? Oi! Biggie and Iverson only got close when him and Derrick fell out because of that stupid girl."

A girl?

Bella felt a chill began to spread all over her body from the very centre of it. A flash went up in her mind and some things began to come together like obscure pieces of a puzzle.

"I, I didn't know." She whispered, dazed.

Pete's shoulders sagged. "Yeah well, he doesn't like talking about it for the same reason he doesn't like alcohol." He told her and looked down to his feet, oblivious to Bella's sudden paleness or the sweat trickling down her spine.

"He still blame himself. When the truth is, we all do crazy stuffs under the influence but Iverson just get....horny. Lola knew that and she took advantage of it. That girl is the devil herself, she ruined our group of friends. Not only was she Derrick's girlfriend but she was Jay and Cynthia's best friend too, can you imagine?!"

Oh, he needed not ask her that, she was doing one hell of imagining already. Her heart was on a wild pace and it wasn't the good kind.

It occurred to her then that she didn't know Iverson at all, not even where he lived before moving in with her and Daniel. That knowledge mixed nausea hit her like tidal waves, she wanted to double over from the force, but she struggled to appear perfectly calm on the outside.

"Who is...Jay?" She asked, though she had a good, painful suspicion.

Pete raised his brows. "Jasmine? She was Iverson's high school sweetheart. I should probably go check on your orders now." He added, shuffling away.

Bella slumped back into her seat like a wet rag, she felt faint with everything she'd learnt in the given space of seconds.

She was stunned, she was furious. Malevolent emotions waged war within her. How could she have been so stupid? So blind? How did she end up in his pawn game again?

You'll think she'd have learnt her lessons the first time? To top it all, she made herself believe she was making him jealous by going out with Derrick. The goddamn joke was on her.

"Hey babe."

She startled at his voice and hand on her shoulder, she'd been lost in her churning mind that she didn't notice him approach.

He took his seat beside her with a smile. "We are on for the shoot in ten days, enough time to get you in shape and....Blue, are you okay?"

Okay?

Didn't he hear that shattering noise? It was the sound of her heart breaking into pieces.

Her lips trembled and she bit down on it. She wasn't going to be the same pathetic girl she was in highschool. She wasn't going to give his sadistic side the pleasure of seeing her crumble again.

"You and Derrick are friends. You lived together with Jasmine, she didn't break your heart like you told me, you actually came to Metropolis with her. You slept with her friend that was also Derrick's girlfriend. All your worries that I may have feelings for him wasn't because you were afraid of losing me. You were afraid of losing to him. You meant it when you said he was using me to piss you off because you knew he didn't care about me, it was all a game between the both of you. Just like highschool."

Surprisingly her voice was even throughout her little speech and Iverson had the decency to look confused, surprised and then pained.

"Who told,...you have it all wrong. I can explain baby. I didn't sleep with...I did, but I was drunk. I didn't know, it wasn't..."

"The kiss in the kitchen the other day." Bella interrupted him, clamming her shaking hands together on the table for stability. She begged God for strength.

"That was because you were drunk wasn't it? It wasn't because you were crazy about me, you would have done it with any girl. It was why you looked surprised to see me after Daniel interrupted." None of her words was a question for him to refute. They were simply conclusions, clear hand writings on the wall she should have seen if she wasn't such an idiot.

She gently got up to leave, maintaining the picture of calm when she was anything but on the inside.

"Baby please listen to...." The feel of his hand on her arm as he desperately tried to stop her was the last straw, she reached for her apple juice with blinding furry and emptied it on his head with the ice cubes, the straw and all.

"Don't you ever touch me again! I don't want to ever see you again!" She yelled at the top of her lungs, the tears she fought hard to keep at bay, spurted out of her control.

Iverson was over stun to react, he stared at her with wide eyes and opened opened mouth. She spun around and nearly collided with Pete who was back with their food. Bella narrowly dodged him and she bolted for the entrance, blinded my her own tears to see the eyes on her.

Commotion broke behind her before she reached the door, she looked over her shoulder in time to see Pete's tray of food flying in the air and Iverson angrily shoving him unto a set of chair.

Loud gasps and the yelling of other patrons accompanied her out of the restaurant, she ran down the busy street like she just escaped an asylum, looking back and forth for a cab to whisk her away from this nightmare.