CALISTA POV

"Hello, Mister..." Katherine struggled to find the word to finish the line she had started.

I noticed Scarlett nudging her from behind.
"Hi, Mister Calista's dad... I'm Scarlett, Calista's good friend."

Although, she only sounds worse. Mister Calista's dad? Like seriously? That's what she can come up with, and regardless, claiming to be my friend.

Although my parents aren't oblivious to Scarlett's maneuver. Matter of fact, everyone in the room is acquainted with who she really is.

"I'm Katherine." Katherine blurted, waving her hands, and flashing so many teeth toward Brayden and Myles. Khadijha did the same, followed by Camilla until they all introduced themselves specifically to the athletes in the room.

"Brayden Donovan." Scarlett was quick to interject as the rest of the girls were giggling like fools. "Shit, Donovan." She mumbled under her breath, but I heard. It's clear that she just mentally recollected my family's name by uttering my brother's name. She didn't mull over it though. Rather, she raided Myles's personal space, carrying her hands to his shoulders, and massaging them. He stiffened rigidly.

"Calista talks about you all the time and your handsome friend, Myles Cameron." She gave them a closed-lipped smile, the kind everyone is a sucker for, but Myles responded differently. He shrugged off her hands by shifting forward in his seat.

His reaction had me flattered, with a smile threatening on my blushing face. I let his earlier words run through my head.

Dad, on the other hand, looks disgruntled with our uninvited visitors, his cold gaze held alertness from surveillance.
"I am sorry you came while we are having breakfast." He told them, but being the typical welcoming woman mom is, she frowns at him and offers to the girls, "I made extra pancakes, please join us."

"No, we won't intrude." Scarlett, for probably the first time in her life, politely refuses. "We are just here to check on Cali. We will be in her room."

What?

Are these the perks of having a connection with something or someone people like Scarlett are obsessed with? Because the popular girls from my school are willing to be in my room. A place only Chloe and my family ever saw.

The four prance in the wrong direction, Khadijha as the lead.

"That's the bathroom," I mumbled with a flavor of secondhand embarrassment, and all their faces flushed.

If only they knew they didn't have to pressure themselves to act friendly because my parents already knew they were my bullies. My brother even witnessed it just a few days ago at my school. And Myles had figured it out since last year when she had me post a picture of her on my Instagram. I never had friends come over.

"Oh, I wanted to use the restroom." Khadijha lied and continued forward, while this time, the rest of the group waited until I showed them the way to the staircase.

The moment we were on the first floor, Scarlett began, "You didn't say your brother and Myles would be in town."

"I didn't know they would be here and you and I barely speak even if I do know." I pushed the door to my undecorated room, and plain white bedding, a desk, and a closet welcomed us.

Before everything went south last summer, this place used to feel like the inside of a rainbow, but ever since I promised to stay away from Myles, I have to honor it. Seeing his face all over my walls wasn't therapeutic. I had to put them down to find myself; it was among the first assignments my therapist had given me. It wasn't easy but it was the right thing to do. And right now I am grateful that Scarlett didn't have to witness my incurable obsession with the person she has her eyes on.

"Yesterday we did." She points out while she walks into the room.

"It wasn't a good time." I quietly said, leaving the door three inches open in case they decided I shouldn't live and tried to kill me; my family could hear.

"Look Calista, I hate the bad blood between us." She spun and faced me as Kathrine and Camilla sat with crossed legs on my bed.

"I don't have bad blood against you." I retorted.
I lied about that though. Honestly, I hate her for everything my life has turned out to be. She ruined me completely to the point that I might never heal.

"Really? I thought you blamed me for the death of that weird girl." She jerked her chin at a frame that contained a picture of Chloe and me. It pains me how they still make fun of her even when she's dead. And she's not wrong. I blame all of them for what happened that night because they were the cause of it. They all know, even though I never confessed to anyone.

When I was too quiet, biting my cheeks to eradicate my emotional pain by inflicting physical pain, Khadijha rejoins us. She closes the door finally and rudely uses my duvet to dry her hands when she had intentionally left behind paper towels in the restroom.

Great.

Scarlet clapped, calling my attention back to her.
"Well, since you and I have come to good terms, I want to know if there is anything between you and Myles. Because after seeing that diary I can't get past it." She wasn't kidding, she was fearless and intimidating. She had steely nerves and stared like a charging bull.

"No."

"No what?" She meanly probed.

With her kind of daunting stare that multiplied into four sets, all daring me to say the wrong thing, I rushed my next words. "We are friends. I mean look at me." I laughed nervously, waving my hands up and down my body to satisfy her, knowing she likes it when people accept defeat in her presence.

"I know right?" She chuckled, gently pinching my cheeks with her fingers. "You could fantasize though." She smiled and spun on her heels, before walking around my room.

At that I am forced to apply a small smile, my palms getting sticky and sweaty and my breathing getting strained in my shrinking lungs.

"Now can we get to work?" She notified everyone.

"What work?" Camilla asked.

"Getting Myles Cameron to see me." She said.

Now, who is fantasizing?

~

The girls didn't leave. In fact, they spent the whole day there, helping mom harvest our naturally grown berries from the garden. Okay more precisely, they decided to help because Myles and Brayden were involved.

The moment we had three full medium baskets of berries, Brayden suggested it could have been cooler if there was a pool. He would take a swim. And the next second that chimed, Scarlett made calls for a fifteen-foot Intex pool that was set up in our backyard almost around evening by her chauffeur and the delivery man.

Mom and dad had refused the offer but she used me to get it to work out just fine, as she always gets everything she wants. I didn't like the idea, though. I was worried she would lure Myles into the water with her. Which didn't happen. He refused the horny girl's invitation to the pool and joined me on the patio swing chair while I was typing on my laptop some messages to the college that had sent those mails which Gabriel had torn.

"Hey?" I said when I scooch over.

He sat down in the space I made for him, and we practically snuggled. He smells like beauty and life. My body was very aware of his closeness.

"What are you doing?" He asked, bringing his hand over my shoulder. It was then I retained consciousness and shut the laptop.

"What? Now I am interested. Show me." He prodded his fingers into the side of my ribs and I jolted a little, giggling at the ticklish sensation. He tried to snatch away the laptop but I was quick to retrieve it back and his fingers hovered over mine.

Everything stopped making sense at that contact. Everything about him has me light-headed. I quietly watch his hand on mine while I inhale and exhale at the warmth his touch was providing.

"How are you?" He sounded concerned when he asked with tenderness, his breath blowing against my ear.

I looked to my right a little, meeting his glowing eyes. His face was very near, we were practically taking in each other's exhaled breaths. My heart picks up at an unsteady pace.

"Good."

"Aren't those girls from your school?" He asked then. He has lines stressed on his forehead.

I don't like the direction of our conversation. I looked away then, and my eyes met Scarlett. She signaled to me. I don't know what it meant but I am sure it has to do with her dreams of the man next to me.

"Yes, that's Scarlett," I answered Myles, while I could feel his gaze on me.

"The one who you posted on your IG?"

I twisted then and faced him again, our noses brushing in the process. His lips spread into a crooked smile and I blushed, my eyes dropping to his masculine neck.

"Actually, she wants me to tell you that she would like to know more about you." I locked my daring gaze on him as I rolled out the last words, and his brows rose.

"But it is you I want to know more about." His upper lips quirked up. His voice is a soft, sensuous whisper. My stomach flipped. "You fascinate me, Cali."

At the reminder that we were being watched, my head was downcast. Scarlett wouldn't hesitate to humiliate me. And I can't take it right in front of Myles.

"Why are you here Myles?"

"I told you. I can't stay away from you." He simply answered like life could be as simple as he sounded.

"I am no one. I don't have anything to offer to you." My voice got a little higher as I am on the stage of cloud nine euphoria. Smiling with my head down.

His fingers dip through my hair, gently threading into the locks.

"You have a lot of things, to begin with." He started, "Your smile, your eyes, your voice, the way you flip back your hair, your kindness." I couldn't quell the giggle, it flowed and he promised, "I can keep going."

I glanced at him. My cheeks heated with butterflies incited in my stomach.
"You really haven't gotten over me." It came out as a fact.

"I could never."
The emerald eyes I got lost in, spoke so much honesty in the way it gave me chills down my spine.

"My brother hates us together and I think my parents are beginning to suspect something." I pointed out, and his eyes squinted. As his lips pulled back into the most attractive smile I've ever seen, his phone rang in his pocket then, and I exhaled a short laugh. He smiled even broader, the back of his fingers feathery stroking my cheek before he stood and leave into the house.

My eyes followed him along with my butter-soft heart. I was smiling, probably looking like an idiot with a rosy face, until I made eye contact with mom through the window. She was in the kitchen, making her perfect berry juice. She was grinning with her hand held up, signaling a thumb up at me. She must have seen everything.

Oh, God.

Embarrassed, I averted my eyes and was startled to find the girls at an immediate distance in their drenched bikinis.

"What did he say?" Katherine rushed.

Scarlett's brow arched, anticipating my response.
Nervously, I rose from the chair while thinking of a deceptive reply.
"We are in the middle of it. He had to receive a call."

"Who wants some homemade juice," Mom called from the kitchen, interrupting whatever Scarlett was about to say. I feel like she did it purposely.

"Is it hygienic?" Scarlett started but within a second, before mom could frown, she rephrases, "You know what? I will have some please."

"Okay, come here and help me with the cups." Mom excitedly urged us, waving her hands.

I let out a relieved breath then.

While the girls dry their hair around the kitchen with the towels mom provided, mom serves the juice and hands out two cups to me.

My face twisted in confusion before she winked and said, "Take this to Myles."

Chewing my cheeks to hide the excitement and mortification, I just turned on my bare foot towards Myles's room.

His door was half open, and only silence was wafting from the room. My footsteps become more stealthy, I trail to the frame and cautiously peek into the room. He had his back on me, so he didn't know of my presence. He was slipping out of his shirt over his head.

Blood rushed down my stomach at the sight of the gorgeous view I had missed. My breath hitched, my throat dried, and I swallowed.

"What are you doing here?"

Startled for the hundredth time today, I slightly jumped, the juice pouring all over me.

It was my brother.

My eyes widened from panic, my gaze shifting back and forth, now that Myles had noticed my presence and was approaching me. I am going to kill Brayden.

"Here, mom said to give you." I shoved the two cups into his hand before he could notice my humiliation.

I heard Brayden telling him, "I've got it." Then I sensed his footsteps behind me until I reached the restroom and started reaching for paper towels.

"Let me help." Brayden offered, gently reaching for my hand. I let him take the paper towels from me.

He takes them under the faucet, wets them, and then stands before me. He reached for my hand and started cleaning where I had the juice.

But it wasn't convincing. It doesn't stop me from hating him.

"Myles isn't as bad as I had assumed."

Why is he telling me that? It is not like I didn't know. I had known he was innocent since the beginning.

"What?"

"It pains me to say it but it turns out he actually had a rough past and he was being blackmailed by his manager-former manager. I don't know the whole story but he was in a cluttered spot," Brayden said while focusing on cleaning my hands.

"I thought you despised him."

"I did for a while before everything worked out and I dropped the charges."

What the actual fuck? What charges?

"You really sued him?" I exclaimed nearly loudly.

"I was looking out for you." He met my eyes and stopped his hand movement. "Besides, you promised me you would never have eyes on my friends."

"I-" Words stuck in my throat like an introvert. I look away.

"It's okay, though." He continued wiping my hand again even though I am sure I was clean now. "You know, he's been working hard, he hasn't been with anyone since what happened."

Frowning, I glared at him from the corner of my moistening eyes. I don't understand why suddenly Brayden is a fan of Myles.
"Why are you telling me this?"

"I just..." His voice cracked and his throat shifted. It seems this conversation wasn't easy for him either. He released my hand and tossed the used paper towels into the trash can before bringing back his attention to me. "Look Cali, I don't want you to think otherwise about me. I am the first person who will always want you to be happy. It's just awkward. I see Myles as a brother and then you and him..."

I cut him off, reminding him, "I said I would stay away from him."

"But you don't have to." He instantly replied. "You have every right to do what you want." He exhaled a furious laugh and rubbed his forehead. "Now I just feel like I was being those guys downstairs, and I hate myself for making you do something you don't want to. You should be able to say no to anyone. I won't ever deny you your rights again as long as it's not toxic." He sadly frowned. "I hate it when you hate me and stop talking to me."

Hearing him say all those, my heart was on my shirt. I felt ease washed through me.

"I don't hate you. I was only mad at you." I croaked and cleared my throat.

"Was?" He smirked, dipping his head to search my face. "Does it mean I am forgiven?"

Blushing, I nodded and he pulled me into a hug. One hand is in my hair, the other circling around my back, and I hold him back.

And if I am being honest, I missed him so much.