Still in a bad mood, I stared sulkily ahead at the wall before me. 

It wasn't fair. Perfect little Ben was hardly even trying and was already shaping up to be Mia Collin's number one crush. She was always into blondes. I remember on my first day of middle school, she was obsessing over some stupid blonde boy, and here she was again, obsessed over another. 

Fuck these blondes...

I wonder if she'd be more attracted to me if I dyed my hair blonde. I mean, sure, I might look dumb, but if she were into it, I guess I'd be willing to –

My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a bowl slamming heavily into the table before me. I looked up sharply and found Mia's flamingly angry eyes digging into mine with a piercing intensity. 

She looked scarily angry, but in some strange sort of way; it was kinda hot.

She let out a frustrated breath. "You didn't have to be so rude. Ben is a nice guy," she said, still glaring down at me. 

My sour mood instantly returned, realizing she was upset because I had disrespected her stupid crush. 

Pulling my ice cream towards myself, I sunk my spoon in bitterly. "A little too nice if you ask me," I spat out. I knew I was failing miserably at keeping the jealousy out of my voice, but I couldn't be asked to care.

"No, you're a little bit too rude," she threw back, those big brown eyes of hers still flaring away.

I frowned again, annoyed by how willing she was to consistently defend him. It was without a doubt that they were close, considering he had already given her a nickname. 

I wrinkled my nose as an image of them going to the backroom to secretly make out came to mind. I swear to God if this undeserving motherfucker had kissed her, I was going to kill him.

 "Why the hell does he call you Mimi for anyway? It's such a stupid nickname," I snapped, the words escaping my mouth before I could stop them.

Her face scrunched up in a cross between confused and amused. "You call me, Chubs, for crying out loud," she said with a laugh.

 The sight of her gorgeous smile made me pause a little bit, and I had to fight myself not to smile along with her.

"Yeah, but that's original," I argued. "I call you that because you have a cute little face," I said, pointing at her face with the end of my spoon. 

 Suddenly, she paused and gave me a really strange look. "You think I'm cute?" she said slowly, cocking up her eyebrow.

 I froze, realizing my mistake. It didn't take long for my heart to start violently thumping away.

  Shit, Shit, Shit. Save the situation, Ethan. Save the fucking situation.

"You're...alright," I said with a shrug before swiftly breaking eye contact. 

She was far more than alright, but I certainly wasn't about to admit how attracted I was to her.

I took another spoonful of my ice cream before awkwardly looking around the room. God, I was such a freak. I bet she knew I had a crush on her, but couldn't even be bothered to reject me. I mean, the whole school pretty much knew, so I'm guessing some idiot had probably spilled the beans already.

Suddenly, my eyes caught on to Ben's figure in the far corner. The stupid prick was clearing away a table while happily making polite conversation with a young boy. For fucks sake, he was good with kids now as well? What the hell was this perfect asshole not good at? 

God, I hated him...

Turning back around, I focused my gaze back on Mia. "He's way too friendly Mia, he definitely has a thing for you," I scoffed.

Again, Mia gave me a weird look, likely wondering why I was acting so strange. 

Her eyes narrowed. "That's because he's a nice person Ethan, maybe you could learn something from him," she said, giving me a pointed look.

 I scowled, not liking the reminder that she thought Ben was better than me in each and every way. I guess she wasn't wrong, but it still pissed me off to hear.

I cleared my throat. "Ben's so cool. Blah Blah Blah. I love Ben," I said, childishly putting on a ridiculously high-pitched voice to imitate her.

 Surprising me, she grinned a little and let out a little involuntary giggle. "I sound nothing like that, you idiot," she laughed before hitting my arm. 

The sound of her laugh was like music to my ears, and forgetting my anger, I leaned forward on my chair, so we were eye to eye. "Don't slap your customer, Mia. It's rude," I said, unable to stop my smirk from overtaking my face.

Those big, gorgeous eyes of hers stared into me, holding me completely encaptured. Then, suddenly an evil spark flew through them. 

Before I even had a chance to wonder what she was doing, she grabbed a clean spoon from the counter and swiped a large chunk of my ice cream clean from my bowl.

I stared a little in shock as she slowly ran the spoon through her mouth and slid the contents clean off. I stared at her lips; and then back at her eyes, finding them sparkling devilishly.

God, that was hot...

Realizing I was probably supposed to be having a negative reaction to this, I turned down my lips a little in a pretense of annoyance. 

"Hey, that's my ice cream," I whined.

In reality, I was far from annoyed; her sharing food with me was insanely sexy. The only thing that could have made it hotter was if she used the same spoon I was eating with. 

Because, then in a kind of pathetic way, I would have gotten an indirect kiss...

"Well, it's payback," she retorted smugly as she put the spoon in her mouth once more to lick off the last few remnants. 

The sight was beyond distracting, and I had to fight myself not to stare too obsessively at those plump lips of hers. God, did I wish I could be that spoon...

Suddenly, my eyes drew to the corner of her lips, and I saw to my amusement that there was the tiniest bit of ice cream there.

I looked back up at her with a smile. "You have some ice cream on the corner of your mouth," I teased, indicating where I meant by pointing to my own mouth.

 Immediately, an adorably deep blush colored her cheeks, and she hastily started to wipe the corner of her mouth against her sleeve.

She hadn't quite got it, and I resisted the urge to laugh. "It's still there," I smiled. 

Looking slightly frustrated, she attempted for another swipe but miserably failed once again.

"You're hopeless; let me help you," I said, my words escaping before I had a chance to second-guess them. 

Leaning forward in my chair, I swiped my thumb against the side of her lips to clean the ice cream away. I was about to wipe my finger against my napkin, but then I paused. This ice cream had been on Mia's lips...

Without a second thought, I brought my thumb to my lips and licked the ice cream clean off, smiling a little internally as I did so.

Now that definitely had to be an indirect kiss.

Catching Mia's eyes, I found her staring at me with a slightly dazed and widened-eyed look. It was an expression that I'd never really seen on her before. It was only then that it dawned on me; exactly how weird what I did truly was. I had eaten something off Mia's face. Or of her lips, to be more precise.

Swallowing nervously, I worked hard to push back my rising nerves. "What?" I finally said with a shrug, in a desperate effort to give off the impression that this was a completely normal thing to do.

The weird look that was in her eyes vanished, and she shook her head before clearing her throat. "Er, nothing," she said, her cheeks still as red as before. I raised an eyebrow a little at this but didn't say a word.

As much as the delusional part of my brain told me otherwise, I knew she wasn't blushing out of sexual fluster, she was quite clearly blushing because she thought I was weird.

There was no way of changing it: Mia Collin's thought and always would think I was a freak.

------------------------------

The sound of the school bell echoed throughout the classroom, and everyone around me started to hastily pack up, desperate to escape the horrors that were double biology. 

My eyes immediately drifted over to Mia's desk, wanting to see how quickly or how slowly I needed to pack up so I could walkout at the same time as her. It was pretty much a part of my normal routine to walk her to the lunch hall. 

Well, from her end, it probably looked like I was annoying her on her way to lunch hall... 

I furrowed my brows as I saw her abandon her stuff at her desk before making her way over to the teacher's desk.

Working at a snail pace to pack my stuff away, I strained my ears to hear what they were saying.

"Oh hey, Mia, are you alright?" the biology teacher said, once she noticed Mia's presence. 

 Mia cutely tucked a piece of hair behind her ear and smiled back at the teacher. "I'm fine, thank you. I was just wondering if I could get some extra help in Biology as I wasn't really happy with my last grade," she explained, rather sheepishly.

I furrowed my brows even deeper. I thought she was doing good in Biology; why on earth would she want help. A slither of fear ran down my spine as I thought about her failing. If she failed, she might not get into Stanford. And I needed her at Stanford. I needed her with me.

Our biology teacher also looked rather confused, but she gave Mia a kind smile, nonetheless. "I didn't think you needed the help, but I can try and find you a tutor if you'd like."

A tutor? Oh my god, I could do that. And if I were her tutor, I could spend hours and hours and hours with her, and I might even be able to trick her into hanging out with me after.

 Never moving so fast in my life, I shoved the rest of my stuff in my bag and speed-walked in their direction. I slowed down as I passed by their table and pretended to casually glance in their direction. 

Mia's gaze immediately narrowed in on me, clearly suspecting something suspicious. I ignored her and instead smiled politely at our teacher.

"I couldn't help but overhear your conversation. I could help Mia as I did quite well in the last exam," I offered while putting on my formal voice. 

Our biology teacher's face lit up in excitement. "Yes, that's a wonderful suggestion, Ethan. What do you think, Mia?" she said as she turned in Mia's direction. 

Mia went incredibly still, and her hands clenched into tight little fists at her side. She looked quite simply like she wanted to murder someone, and something told me that person was probably me.

In the most robotic fashion known to man, Mia reluctantly nodded her head. "Yes, it is indeed a wonderful idea," she said, her voice undercut with a heavy amount of sarcasm. 

Then to make her point clear, she shot me a particularly nasty glare which I responded to with a happy little grin. I didn't care how pissed off she was; we both knew I had won.

"We could start today if you'd like, Mia?" I said, shooting her a seemingly innocent smile. She knew she couldn't tell me to fuck off because the teacher was there, so she reluctantly nodded her head.

"Excellent, I hope you guys have a great evening," our teacher called out warmly before collecting her stuff and making her way out of the classroom. 

The moment she was gone, I triumphantly turned to face Mia in the hopes of bragging. My eyes widened slightly as I watched her fake smile drop swiftly off her face to instead be replaced by a scowl.

"You had to open your big mouth," she spat out angrily.

 I feigned innocence by holding my hands up in the air in surrender. "Hey, I thought you wanted help," I said.

The fierceness in her eyes was lost, my words seeming to resonate with her. Her posture slackened slightly in defeat. "Yeah, I do," she admitted weakly.

Not being able to resist teasing, I let my eyes drift over her face. "Then I think the words you are looking for are thank you, Ethan. I love you, Ethan. Please marry me, Ethan. Please have my babies Eth-"

"Yeah, yeah, I think I get it," she said, cutting me off before I could finish, her eyes drifting away slightly in embarrassment.

 It was only then that I realized that I might have gone a little bit too far down the rabbit hole of my own personal fantasy.

Deciding to ignore my earlier slip-up, I took a small little step closer to her. "You're a lucky girl, Chubs; you get to ride in my Mercedes again," I said, wiggling my eyebrows.

She gave me a flat look. "Yup, I'm thrilled," she spat sarcastically. 

I laughed. While she may not be thrilled, I certainly was. An entire evening all alone with Mia had to be great.

--------------------------------

I let out a frustrated sigh as I stared down at the biology textbook laid out before me. "No, Mia, you left out the link reaction; that's what comes after glycolysis, not the Krebs cycle," I said. 

We were about two hours into our study session, and though Mia had been getting the vast majority of my questions right, she wasn't getting them all right. 

I knew I was being way too harsh, but I couldn't help it; I really needed her to get the best grades possible. I wanted to ensure there wasn't a single slither of a chance she wouldn't get into Stanford because I had to have her there. I just had to. 

I had this whole 10-year plan worked out: The first few years of college, I was going to continue to annoyingly insert myself into her life. And then, in the last year of college, I'd get over my issues and be out of therapy. The year after that, I'd apologize for all the shit I did; and slowly persuade her into accepting me as her friend. Then, I'd play the long game and be her friend for five or so more years. And then boom, when the time was right, I'd 'accidentally' trip her up so she'd fall on top of me. Then, she'd pause, look down into my eyes, and that's when I would kiss her. And because of my amazing kissing skills, she would instantly fall in love with me.

 The end.

Was the plan a little ambitious and a tad bit sad? Perhaps. But it was the only hope I had, and what was life without hope.

The sound of Mia's tut pulled me out of my fantasy. "Don't sound so judgmental. It's easy enough when the textbooks right in front of you," she huffed. 

Taking off my reading glasses with a sigh, I swerved around to face her. She was lying face-up on my bed, her hair spread out in a kind of halo around her head. A strange feeling ran through my heart as I looked down at her. I still couldn't believe she was lying on my bed. It sounded so stupid, but I very nearly went into cardiac arrest when she had initially dived down onto it. 

I mean, can you blame me? A hot girl had voluntarily laid out on my bed.

I cleared my throat. "Maybe we should take a break. I think we've been working for long enough."

Mia, instantly raised her thumb up in response to agree with me. Getting up, I made my way over to the bed and dived down beside her belly-first. 

Was this my sleazy way of living out my fantasies of lying beside her? Yes, yes, it was. 

Rolling over to face her, I propped my head up with my hand and stared down at her.

"What should we do now?" I said.

 Mia twisted her head to the side to look at me, and I swallowed nervously as I found those big round eyes of hers so close, and staring at me so intently.

I cleared my throat a little to escape my fluster. "I don't know," she mumbled softly, her eyes dancing gently over my face. 

The suggestion of us having a make-out session danced at the tip of my tongue, but I wasn't dumb enough to say it. Instead, my brain landed on another excellent idea. 

"How about we play twenty questions?" I suggested. I was dying to ask her some questions that had been gnawing away at me for quite a while. 

She hesitated, seeming to look at me cautiously. "Yeah, sure," she finally replied. 

I resisted the urge to smile in victory. "You go first," I said.

She paused for a few seconds before opening her mouth. "How would you describe yourself in three words?" she asked.

 I knew the answer immediately: Violent, selfish, and impulsive.

 I, of course, didn't say that and instead let a lazy smirk cross over my face. "That's easy. Sexy, fit-as-fuck, and hilarious," I listed off.

 I watched her lazily roll her eyes before letting out a snort. "It's nice to see your ego is strong and healthy. I also didn't know fit-as-fuck was all one word," she remarked. 

I bit my lip a little in amusement before remembering it was my turn. A great question hit me immediately. 

"Okay, my turn. Do you have a crush on what's-his-face from the ice-cream place?" I rushed out, in perhaps a little too eager of a manner.

 I stared at her carefully as I waited for her answer. I knew how risky it was asking her a question like that, considering how much power the answer had to hurt me, but I just had to know. 

Mia threw her head back dramatically. "Oh my god, Ethan, not this again," she groaned, her eyes rolling skyward before landing back on mine. Suddenly, a spark of amusement ran through her eyes. "Why are you wondering if he's taken?" she said with a flirtatious wink. 

I gave her a flat look. "Trust me, Mia, I'm not gay," I said. I was tempted to justify myself by saying a gay guy wouldn't have imagined her naked as many times as I had. But again, I didn't say that; for obvious reasons. 

"Can you just answer the question already?" I said, my frustration slightly breaking through my tone.

She looked at me in an exasperated manner. "No, Ethan, I do not have a crush on what's his face from the ice-cream place," she said drily. 

The tension in my shoulders instantly eased away, in relief that I didn't have any competition. Jealousy brought out the ugliest side of me that I wasn't exactly keen to bring forth.

"Do you have a crush on anyone?" Mia asked, with a curious eyebrow raised.

 Instantly, I froze, and my eyes widened. Frantically, my brain worked to come up with an appropriate thing to say. Should I say that I don't have a crush? Or should I say a random name?

  Shit, Ethan, think fast. Think fast. 

"I do have a crush on someone...," I said slowly, trying to choose my words carefully. "-but she sort of, kind of hates my guts," I finished off, with a slightly nervous chuckle. 

Mia seemed to find this hilarious, and she snorted. "Really? What did you do?" she said, her eyes alit with excitement.

A memory of every mean thing I'd ever done to her suddenly flashed through my mind. Everything from kicking that ball at her face all those years ago, to blackmailing her into hanging out with me rather recently. 

"A lot of mean things, I guess," I said, trailing off awkwardly. 

"Why don't you apologize then?" she suggested smoothly. 

Well, because that's year four of my ten-year plan. 

"She'd probably just laugh in my face, and besides, she's better off without me anyway..," I answered honestly with a dark chuckle.

Mia's eyes cast downwards as though she felt bad for me before her eyes returned to mine.

 "You're not even going to tell me her name?" she asked in frustration. 

 I resisted the urge to laugh; I'd rather drop dead than look her in the eye and tell her now. I didn't even want to know how nasty her rejection would be. 

"Sorry, Chubs, it's far too embarrassing for me to admit," I said, my face burning slightly hot.

Remembering it was my turn, I cleared my throat.

 "Anyway, it's my turn again. Who was your first kiss?" I asked, trying to keep my voice calm and un-murderous.

 Again, I knew this was a horrifyingly dangerous question to ask, but the answer had been bugging me for ages. Though I had tried to keep an eye on her love life over the years, I obviously wasn't always with her. 

I couldn't exactly pull an Edward Cullen and stalk her all around town; that shit had consequences in real life. 

Mia swallowed nervously, looking quite embarrassed for some reason. Bracing myself for the name, I stiffened. 

She coughed a little. "I...er...haven't," she mumbled in a quiet voice. 

The second the beautiful words left her mouth, my eyes widened so suddenly that I wouldn't be surprised if I looked like a cartoon character. My heart thumped wildly with happiness, and I was tempted to lift her up and twirl her around.

 "Wait, are you actually serious?" I exclaimed, failing miserably at keeping my excitement out of my tone. 

"Hmm," she hummed, barely making eye contact with me.

"If you're going to tease me, can you just get on with it already," she snapped as she swerved her gaze my way.

I furrowed my brows. Why on earth would I laugh at her for telling me the best news I'd heard all month. Possibly all year.

"I'm not going to laugh at you," I explained quickly. "I was just shocked, that's all. I just assumed you would have because you're so confident and pretty," I admitted honestly. 

Wait, shit, you idiot. She's now going to think you think she's ugly and insecure. 

"Not that it means you aren't because you haven't been kissed," I added quickly, desperate to rectify the situation. 

Great, now you sound like an idiot. 

Against my will, I felt my face heat warmer and warmer.

Mia stared at me with an eyebrow raised. "I think it's best you quit while you're ahead," she said bluntly. 

She cleared her throat. "My turn now. What are you most afraid of?" she asked with a lazy smile.

The minute the words escaped her lips, a coldness ran through me, and everything came tumbling back to reality. And as I stared back at Mia, all calmly relaxed out on my bed; I knew without a doubt that this shouldn't be happening. She should not be this relaxed with me.

 Keeping my face still, I sat up sharply. "It's getting late. I should take you home," I said abruptly.

 Then ignoring her look of confusion, I left swiftly out the room. 

-----------------------

Author's Note: 

There's chapter eleven done. Hope it was juicy enough for you :) 

Hope to bring a new chapter soon xx