Neo was starting to get on my nerves.

And I mean that in the politest way possible.

It all happened the night before Friday, the day Lana was having her birthday party, as I stayed cooped up in my room and tried to finish this one essay that was due tomorrow.

I had been busy the whole week, working extra hours at the bookshop, spending half of my days with Penny, and doing everything that excused me from any Agency duties.

I don't exactly know why I was doing that. Clearly, Orias had given me one day off, not the whole week. But surprisingly, no one pressured me. I had this freaky moment where I didn't even want to change into my Cinder Girl gear. I knew I had to though. One way or another.

Each morning, I checked the newspaper outside Dolores's door before she picked it up, looking through sections of the latest news. None of them included the boy who'd died falling from that tall, abandoned building.

There was only one answer to that. The Agency had hidden the whole incident from the public. I tried not thinking about it. Clearly, it wasn't working as I pushed aside the essay papers from my desk, rubbing my temples and trying to concentrate.

And then I was biting the corner of my thumb anxiously, wondering about things that I really shouldn't be thinking about right now.

It made me fidget, as I cracked my knuckles. I was about to jump up from my desk chair and leave my room to look for another distraction when the opportunity presented itself.

In the form of my ex-best friend Neo.

One moment I was reaching for the doorknob to get out of my room and the next, I was having the mightiest heart attack of the century when someone knocked loudly on my bedroom window.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" I whispered in horror as I saw Neo waving at me from outside with this cheeky grin on his face.

I ran towards my window and lifted the pane. "Neo, this is taking violation of privacy on a whole new level!"

He laughed, stuck his head past my opened window, but didn't really make a move to climb inside. I didn't let him.

"Sorry." He did sound sorry. "I just had to come by. You know, to check up on you. I heard there was a break-in here?"

I gave him a really bad look, placing my hands on either side of the window so that he could not peep inside my bloody room.

"You could've just walked into the apartment like a decent human being." I frowned at him. "How did you even climb all the way up?"

I peeked outside past him and noticed a few metal ledges on the apartment wall that he must've climbed up from.

Neo chuckled and propped his elbows on the window pane. "Well, you see, elevators make me a little uncomfortable."

"There are stairs too." I was trying to be patient, really I was, but Neo was being cheeky and I was kind of scared that he might fall down. Could anyone blame me? "Look, just get inside. And don't you fucking dare touch anything in my room!"

I heard him trying to muffle another laugh before he slipped inside through my opened window. I closed it shut behind him when cold night air wafted inside.

"Eh, it's fine." He murmured thoughtfully. I turned around to see him examining my room. "Small and cosy."

"Don't touch anything."

He turned around and faced me with that sharp glint in his grey eyes. "I wasn't."

"Why are you here, Neo?"

"I told you, the break-in--"

"No, tell me the truth." I crossed my arms with a glare. "I know you are not here to ask me about the break-in."

He smiled, shrugged, then had the nerve to flop down on my bed. My fucking bed.

I pinched the bridge of my nose. "Neo, I'm really trying to be civil here."

"And I'm really trying not to be civil here, Dahlia."

Deep inhale. I marched forward and grabbed his arm, dragging him off my bed--which I guess was a bit of struggle. "Get off my fucking bed!"

He fell down my bed with a small oof. "Ouch."

I nudged him with my foot.

"I wonder how many guys you've killed who made a move on you." His voice was slightly muffled with the floorboards.

"I don't kill people."

"Sure, you don't." He turned around to look up at me. The smirk on his lips made me kick him again, a lot more sharply this time. "Hey--ow!"

"You've got five seconds, Neo." I threatened him. "Five seconds to start speaking or I swear to God--"

"What? You'll shout to your sociopathic roommate hoping he'd come in and be your knight in shining armour?"

I licked my lips. "No. I'll pick that lamp right behind you and whack your head with it."

Neo followed my gaze to this really heavy lamp--a shade so ugly green--that Dolores had given to me sometime last month. He broke out laughing.

"Damn, okay. What a party pooper you are." He grinned up at me before holding out his hand towards me.

I eyed his hand for maybe a whole minute, wary and hesitating, before slipping both of mine in his and pulling him up. Would've done pretty much anything to get him out of my room. There was just this something about having anyone (not just Neo) in my room that irked me. I liked it quiet here. I liked it alone here. Even Penny rarely got to come in here.

When Neo was up and standing before me once again, I made a move to pull my hands away from his and only managed to pull my left one. He gripped my other hand before I could've slipped that away too.

I glared at him.

"Mom's finally getting to put her work at an exhibit." He said and pulled out a square envelope from his pocket. "She told me to give this to you. A cordial invite."

I blinked in surprise. "What?"

He sighed and made this dramatic attempt at rolling his eyes. "You know her, Dahlia. It's a big day for her, apparently. Inviting you wasn't my idea, believe me. I won't even be there at that...stupid exhibit."

I frowned at him. "You can be a little nice."

"I can't." He chuckled. "You know I don't give a fuck about art. Or this natural love of hers. I can't care any less about it."

I remembered Neo's patchy relationship with his stepmum. At least he still called her mom.

"Take it." Neo nudged the envelope towards me. "Mom would fry me alive if she finds out that I didn't give this to you."

Neo's stepmum was an amazing woman. And as long as I had been friends with him, I remembered all those times she'd treated me like her own child.

"The invitation's for two." He murmured dryly as I took it from him. I only looked up from the crisp white envelope when I felt Neo's fingers sliding down to my palm, still holding my hand. I opened my mouth to say something, only to wince out loud when a short static hum ran up my hand, blazing across the skin.

"Ouch! What the fuck?" I snatched my hand away from his, looking at him in horror. "How in the bloody fuck did you do that?"

"Do what?" His hands were in his pockets now and he was smirking.

"Oh my God, Neo." My eyes widened, looking down at my palm and expecting a singed mark there. Redness, irritation, anything. But nothing was there. "What was that?"

By the time I looked up, Neo was standing in the other corner of my room, his fingers hovering over the few photo frames I had on my nightstand. "Hey, nice pictures you've got here."

I opened my mouth once again, not sure what to say. Once again, my brain was trying to catch up with the questions that kept popping up in my head, one after another. Just like how it had been before Neo had shown up at my window.

"Neo--"

"Gotta go." He straightened and smiled at me. "See you later."

I tried stopping him but he was way too fast for his own good, opening my bedroom door and walking out. Wide-eyed and a little shaken, I rushed after him without thinking twice.

Only when I was out of my room and into the small lounge did I remember this one specific problem. Jamie. Sitting right behind the kitchen counter.

My eyes found his, and his eyes found Neo, before darting back at me.

The painfully awkward silence that followed almost convinced me to dig up a hole right there and bury myself alive.

Then Neo, being his extremely fucktard self, spoke up with his usual grin, "James! What a pleasant surprise."

The awkward silence was more on my part since Jamie had started frowning now.

His gaze snapped to me. "What is he doing here?" I had a feeling Jamie was angry by the way he asked me that. Apparently, Neo seemed to be on his bad side. And they knew each other.

How did they know each other?

"He's--"

Neo cut me off. "Oh, we were just having some quality time together."

"He's leaving right this fucking second." I glared at Neo.

Neo laughed, nodded, then glanced at Jamie as if sharing a stupid secret. "Yes. That is correct. FYI, she's a little violent in bed."

My eyes widened in surprise, then I started shoving him towards the front door, muttering under my breath, "If you don't leave right this second, Neo, I swear to God I will hurt you."

He was laughing by the time I pushed him out the front door. I was about to slam the door in his face when he stopped me. "Hey, wait!"

"What?" I nearly yelled.

"Make sure you do come at the exhibit though." He tipped his head to the side. "Mom would be looking forward to it."

When I went back inside the lounge, so embarrassed and wishing the last few minutes hadn't happened at all, Jamie wasn't sitting behind the kitchen counter anymore. Instead, he was up and busy making himself a cup of coffee--even at this hour of the night.

I think I must've visibly blanched a little when I noticed that he still seemed angry, more so by his movements now.

"Jamie--"

"Save it, Dahlia." He cut me off. His back was to me and I wished he'd at least look at me when he was speaking. I didn't even know why exactly was he so angry.

Walking towards the kitchen, I leaned a little against the counter. "Look, I know Neo can be annoying sometimes," I spoke. He made no move to cut me off. But that didn't mean he might be listening to any of what I was saying either. "All the time, actually. But he was just lying about whatever he...said."

"What was he doing here then?"

I blinked and stared up at Jamie when I realised that he was talking to me again, facing me this time. He was still frowning, and truthfully, he did look rather intimidating when those dark brows of his pinched together in anger.

He knew Neo. They weren't on good terms. What had happened?

"Oh, his stepmum is having this art exhibit and he came by to give me an invitation," I stated, then nodded. "We're not even friends anymore. I'd also rather he'd never come here--"

"I bloody know you both haven't been friends since last year." His voice had an underlying angry hiss to it, and my eyes momentarily darted to his hands that were gripping the counter on either side of him, his knuckles completely white.

I blinked in surprise. "How do you know that?" I didn't quite remember mentioning mine and Neo's drastic end to our friendship to him. Or to anyone really.

"He was in your bedroom." Jamie ignored what I had just asked. "I didn't even see him coming in, Dahlia."

I stared at him this time--a little...well, speechless. "He...he came in through my window. That doesn't even matter! Why do you care anyway?"

Was he, by any chance, jealous? Penny would insinuate that if she were here. I found it a lot harder to believe. Something was going on between him and Neo and clearly, that seemed a bit troublesome. My crush and my ex-best friend who had a crush on me? I certainly would not want them together under any circumstance.

"Why do I care?" He advanced towards me and I cautiously stepped back against the edge of the counter when he was nearly looming over me, all threatening. It took me highly off guard. "Because he's someone you shouldn't bloody be involved with!"

"So." I crossed my arms against my chest, growing heavily aware of the close proximity. "What exactly is that supposed to mean?"

Jamie just stared at me but didn't really say anything. Though I saw the way his eyes seemed to dart across my face, as if searching for something, hoping he'd find it. Whatever he was looking for. Or maybe he wanted to say something but wasn't sure if he should. What was going on?

"Jamie, look." I sighed and forced my gaze away from him. "Things may be a little complicated between Neo and me, but I know how to take care of myself."

"He goes around insinuating that he's Ice Phantom."

"Right?" I laughed a little nervously. It was strangely a bit weird hearing that name from Jamie's lips. "I mean, who could be any more stupid than that? He's just got some...issues."

"He's dangerous, Dahlia." Jamie pressed on, leaning closer and closer until I could not just see his eyes, but feel the blue in them all around me.

"He's...he's got issues," I repeated a little shakily. My eyes were wide and my heart was doing this funny thing. "But he was my best friend once, Jamie. I know he won't hurt me."

Jamie made a face at that. "And if he fucking does--"

"Hey now." I didn't know why I placed my hand on his chest, my fingers splayed right over his heart. "Let's not go there. I still have...a little faith in Neo." Even when he had nearly zapped my hand earlier in my bedroom.

Jamie glanced down at my hand and I was a little surprised, a whole lot taken aback, when he brought up his own and placed it over mine. His hand was cold. I could feel the way his heart was beating beneath my hand.

"I don't." He told me.

I swallowed and I grew aware, painfully aware, of his face just inches away from my own when he leaned even closer. And his heart was beating as fast as my own was thudding in my ears. Loud and fast. I wanted--God, I wanted him closer.

Oh no, I thought. This was bad.

The heat from my neck started crawling up my face when Jamie's gaze flickered down to my lips. And I leaned back, staring up at him with wide eyes when his other hand softly brushed along my waist, soft and slow, trailing up my arm and to my shoulder and only stopped--making my breath hitch--near my neck. Cold and a whisper; it made the blood in my veins hum. I forgot to breathe. I forgot to notice anything but him around me. Anything but Jamie.

"Dahlia," he whispered, and my fingers softly tugged on his shirt, at that warmth in his voice. Warmth, so much of it. I had never...no one had ever spoken my name like that before.

"Dahlia," he murmured my name again, his hand sliding behind my neck, his lips painstakingly near my ear, another soft, cold whisper against my jaw. I closed my eyes shut and every little bit of tension left my body. It was just Jamie.

"Jamie...Jamie, I..." I didn't know what I was going to say. I didn't know what I would've said if Jamie hadn't pulled away, fixing me with his dark-eyed stare. My voice must've given it away. And maybe he didn't want it as much as I did.

"If he touches you," Jamie said, cutting me off, "whether his bloody intentions are good or not, you won't be able to stop me again, Dahlia."

I blinked, still wide-eyed. "Wha--"

"Night, love." His voice was a murmur, and his lips a lingering whisper against my cheek, before he pulled away completely.

Picking up his mug of coffee, he gave me one last glance, looking rather satisfied, before retreating to his own bedroom.

And I was a mess.

A complete, loony mess as I trudged back to my own bedroom, pent up and frustrated, but in a whole different way from usual this time.

I flopped down on my bed and groaned into my pillows, trying to permanently remove the feel of Jamie's touch from my head and from my heart and from every fucking where.

I couldn't though. I didn't think I could ever get him out of my head. It felt like all my nerve endings stirred alive, painfully alive under his stare alone. I didn't understand why.

Too busy thinking about the mess in my head, I didn't even notice one of the framed photographs missing from my desk.