Staring impatiently outside my car window, I tapped an impatient rhythm against my thigh. I was feeling tense. And the reason for such, all had to do with a certain beautiful, brown-eyed girl who hadn't shown up to school today.

 I knew why she wasn't here; she was sick. Chloe had told me after I had stopped her in the corridor to ask where Mia was. And, ever since Chloe told me, I couldn't stop thinking about her and worrying. 

What if she was cold or had passed out in the bathroom with nobody there to help her? Or, what if she just needed company?

Anxiety turned my stomach once more, as a more solid image of a shivering and uncomfortable Mia came into view.

A sharp clicking sound interrupted my thoughts. Lifting my head, I saw Lucas climb into the passenger seat of my car before settling himself comfortably into my cushy leather seats.

 "Thanks for waiting for me, babe," Lucas called out with a smile as he clicked his seatbelt into place.

 I immediately lifted an eyebrow. "Babe? Is that what we're doing now?" I snickered, a faint smile pulling to my lips. 

Still smiling away, Lucas shrugged. "Yeah? Or would you prefer, Bitch?" he said, blinking away with feigned sincerity.

Turning to face him, the corners of my lips lifted higher. "I'm surprised you even want to call me that, considering you've got yourself a new babe. Have you returned your girlfriend's playsuit to her?" I teased.

 Lucas' face instantly warped to one of embarrassment, and he quickly turned to look back out the window. This only made me laugh harder, loving being the one with the upper hand in the teasing for once. 

 "Actually, hold on, speaking of the party-" Lucas said, turning back to face me. "-let's talk about what you did," Lucas said, giving me a pointed look. 

I immediately froze up.

He stared at me with an unnervingly simple smile. "Come closer, Ethan; I want to tell you something," Lucas said as he gestured me closer.

 Slowly, I narrowed my eyes. "Why?" I asked cautiously. 

"Just come closer," Lucas smiled. 

Though a voice in my head was warning me not to, I leaned a little closer to him.

"Even closer," Lucas said, his voice still eerily calm.

 I moved a bit closer until we were nearly nose to nose. Finding this a bit weird, I awkwardly cleared my throat.

 "No offense Lucas, but this is getting very w-"

My words were sharply cut off as Lucas gave me a harsh slap across the cheek. Grabbing my face, I stared back at him in shock as the sting spread through me. 

"Ouch, man, what the fuck was that for! I cried.

Lucas shrugged as though he had done something completely normal. "For acting like an idiot at the party. It was as embarrassing as fuck," he explained simply.

Still rubbing my cheek in annoyance, I opened my mouth to rebut, but then I slowly closed my mouth when I realized he had a point. Feeling ashamed, I cast my eyes downward. "Yeah, I know...," I trailed off.

Soon enough, Lucas started blabbering on again, and I listened on with a half-amused smile while I drove the familiar route to his house. Once I'd dropped him off, I waved him off and made a move to start back up my car.

 But before I did, I paused as I remembered Mia, who was still likely lying sick and alone at home. Catching view of my phone up on the dashboard, I couldn't stop myself from grabbing it and flicking my way over to Mia's contact.

My finger hovered over the call button, but not wanting to seem as desperate as I very much was, I clicked message instead. Biting the corner of my lip, I quickly drafted up a message before pressing send.

Me: Are you dead?

Though my message was aimed as a joke, I was half-serious. Just as I was starting to grow a little more paranoid that she actually was dead, a message pinged up.

Chubs X♡ : Yes, Ethan. I died.

My lips brushed into a loose smile upon receiving her message, and relief washed through my chest. I could practically hear that sharp, sarcastic tone of hers through my screen. Not wasting any time, I immediately started to text back a response.

Me: That's strange. I didn't know dead people could text.

My heartbeat a little faster in anticipation of her next response, but then nothing came in. A few more seconds, and still nothing. Not even a typing symbol. Frowning, I realized she was blanking me. 

Well, not on my watch....

Me: Look, I know you're sick, Mia. Do you need anything?

Again, I was met with no response. In a final moment of maddened frustration, I typed back my final response.

Me: Actually, never mind, I'm coming over. See you in 15 minutes! 😊

Then without giving it any more thought, I started up my car and peeled off the curb before heading in the direction of Mia's house. I was very much aware of how obnoxious it was to invite myself around to her house, but I was way too maddened with the desperation to see her, to give a single fuck.

In less than fifteen minutes, I found myself pulling up to the curb beside Mia's familiar two-story home. Parking up my car, I quickly checked that her father's car was nowhere in sight, knowing it would be suicidal to ring the doorbell when he was at home. 

Once I had confirmed it all clear, I got out and skipped my way up her porch stairs before ringing her bell. I waited patiently for the door to open, but to my utmost frustration, it never did. 

What the fuck was she playing at? I told her I was coming. 

Again, I gave the doorbell another ring; and waited. Still, no response. In confusion, I backed away a couple steps to look up at the upstairs windows. Then, through the window on the far right, I could just about make out a shadowy figure on the bed scrolling happily away on a device.

That little...

More determined than ever, I marched back up to the door and gave the doorbell several sharp rings, hoping to annoy her into action.

"MIA, OPEN THE DOOR!" I yelled up at her window.

 When I still saw no movement, my eyes narrowed. Swinging off my bag, I shoved my hand into the front pocket and started rummaging around. The tips of my finger soon brushed past a couple of what I was looking for, and sliding them out, I found myself staring down at two dusty bobby pins. 

They were Mia's bobby-pin. I used to like to childishly steal them out of her hair as a way to annoy slash flirt with her, and now I had millions of them. 

And by used to, I mean, last month...

Bending down to keyhole level, I carefully pushed one in to use as a lever. Then unbending another, I made a few adjustments to the tip before carefully sliding it in. Jiggling it around, I heard the resounding click as I lifted each pin on the lock. 

My dad had grown up kind of rough, so he'd taught me how to unpick as a child. A slightly weird thing to teach your child, I know, but it was him, so I guess it makes sense...

Once the final pin had clicked, the door cracked open, and I smiled. Perfect.

Though it wasn't a skill I should be proud of having, I couldn't help but feel a little smug. Sauntering in like I owned the place, I let the door close behind me before making my way up the stairs two at a time. As I got up to the second level of their house, I followed the corridor eagerly along and headed over to the only closed door in the landing.

Without even contemplating the idea of knocking, I swung the door wildly open. As expected, I found a startled Mia still sat in bed and staring at me with widened eyes.

 Soon enough, the shock left her eyes, and she gave me a flat look. "How the fuck did you get in?" She groaned as she started to sit up.

 My eyes washed over hers in amusement, taking in how cute she looked all wrapped up in her covers with her cute messy bed hair dumped in a little knot above her head.

Smirking back at her, I sauntered deeper into her room before pulling out her bobby pin. "With a little friend, I like to call a bobby pin," I chuckled, holding it up proudly.

Her eyes widened further before she double blinked at me in bafflement. "So let me get this straight..." she started. "You illegally broke into my house with a bobby pin just because I wouldn't open a door for you," she cried out with a disbelieving laugh.

I just shrugged as though what I did was a completely normal thing to do before flopping down on her desk chair by the window. Spinning around to amuse myself, I smiled. 

"It's an eye for an eye, Chubs. You broke into my house, so it's only fair," I said, giving her a pointed look.

 I cleverly left out the fact, I definitely didn't mind her breaking into my room at all. The only thing I was upset about was that she hadn't stayed and spent the night in my bed.

Mia's eyes narrowed with a scoff. "But still, you could have at least knocked before barging into my room like that. What if I was getting changed?" she huffed.

The words 'I', 'getting' and 'changed' immediately sprung my attention, and a thousand different wonderful images of her half-naked flashed through my mind. And God were they good images.

Trying to keep my composure, I chuckled. "I wouldn't have minded," I winked. "Actually, I think that would have made my day."

I was lying. Seeing her half-naked wouldn't make my day; it would make my entire existence.

"You're disgusting," she snapped as she looked me up and down in disgust. 

Knowing she wasn't wrong, I shrugged before making my way back to my feet. Turning around a little, I scanned every corner of her room in intrigue. As expected, her room was very clean with light purple walling and a plethora of knickknacks and pictures. No, picture of me, of course, but there would be one day.

  Well, hopefully...

"I can't believe I finally made it into Mia Collin's bedroom," I announced dramatically, deciding to mess with her a bit. 

Then moving over to her cupboard, I started opening draws at random in the hopes of finding something of interest. As I opened one draw near the top, I paused. Swallowing, I found myself staring down at a vast array of cotton to lacy type underwear. Or more, beautifully described Mia's underwear draw.

 A lot of dirty ideas crossed my mind at what I would very much like to do with said underwear, but I luckily managed to hold myself back from seeing them through. 

Grabbing a red lacy bra that I thought was particularly sexy, I turned back to face Mia and waved it around with a smirk. "Ooo sexy..." I drawled with a teasing smile.

 Mia's face went bright red, and sinking a little deeper under her duvet, she let out a long whine. "Stop being a weirdo, and put it back," she snapped.

As my mind sparked with an idea, I chuckled. "Nah, I don't think I will. I want to keep it as a souvenir," I teased as I started to stuff some of it into the back pocket of my jeans. 

Mia's eyes sprang open so wide, so fast it was almost comical, and within a second, she was marching her way out of bed and over to me. She reached to snatch it back, but being quicker than her, I backed away and held it high up in the air with a chuckle. 

Then, feeling a bit curious, I grabbed the label peeking out the side, and tilted my head up to read.

"Oh wow, you're a 34C now, clearly things have been going well since those training bra days, I teased, shooting her a grin.

 It was something I used to make comments on back in seventh grade after I saw her small little training bra fall out of her gym kit. It was an incredibly insensitive thing to make fun of, I know, but I was twelve and stupid. And besides, she shut me up in a year or two when she got all distractingly curvy. 

Which now that I think about it, also happened to be around the time where my wet dreams arrived...

Mia gave me an incredibly flat look. "Shut the fuck up, Ethan, at least I wasn't all bucked toothed like you back in seventh grade," she threw back.

 I snorted, remembering how bad my teeth were. Thank fuck for those braces.

"Just give it back," she hissed as she continued to frantically jump up and down to catch it.

 I couldn't help but chuckle at the irony of the situation. She was the girl, after all, who'd been religious in making fun of my height back in middle school. As I continued to watch her with a smile, my eyes unconsciously drifted lower, and once I did, I almost choked.

 Staring at her in a daze, my heart instantly picked up at ten times the speed, to the point where I genuinely thought I might have a heart attack. 

Mia had no pants on. None. Nothing.

 Her hoodie was zipped down all the way and splayed to reveal her thin black underwear and thighs. And there was nothing I could seem to do to get my eyes to stop streaming over every last inch of her beautifully rich-tan skin. 

They were thickly beautiful and the kind of thing I could imagine grabbing and letting wrap around my waist. Digging my fingertips into my palm, I swallowed back the burning urge to grab her and chuck her onto her bed. 

Because fuck did I want to do that.

"What the hell are you looking at?" A voice snapped.

 Coughing awkwardly, I just about managed to pull myself out of the deep, deep fantasy-ville my brain was very much catapulting towards. Then fighting myself, I managed to remove my gaze from her thighs and back to her eyes.

"I...err...," I stuttered, forgetting how to speak. "I didn't know you slept without pants on...," I muttered awkwardly while scratching the back of my neck. 

She looked at me in absolute bafflement for a handful of seconds before she abruptly froze. Her eyes, as massive as they were, grew even wider, and she swiped her head down quickly before letting out a soft little cry.

"No, no, no, no!" She screamed in panic as she made a mad dash for her bed and hurled herself underneath the covers.

The sight was so cute, I couldn't help but chuckle. Putting her bra softly back into her drawer, I made my way slowly over to her and took a seat at the edge of her bed.

 "Chubs..." I sighed as I tried to pull the covers from her face. She wouldn't let me though and held it in a firm grip like a little koala bear.

"This is so humiliating..." she mumbled out, in a muffled voice through her covers.

 I was tempted to tell her; she shouldn't be embarrassed at all because I thought she looked hot, but I knew that wasn't the most friend-appropriate response. 

Smiling down at her, I snickered. "I'm more than happy to flash you my pants too, if it'll make you feel like less of the odd man out," I suggested. 

Again, I was half-serious. If she genuinely told me, it would make her feel better; I'd have my pants off in a second.

This seemed to catch her attention and pulling the covers down from her head, she gave me a highly unimpressed look. However, underneath it, I could see her lips twitching as though fighting back a smile.

 "Actually, I think that would probably make things ten times worse," she said flatly.

I was about to say something else when her hoodie suddenly caught my eye. "Hey, isn't that mine?" I said suddenly. 

Shuffling closer to her on the bed, I peeled back some of her covers to reveal some of her torso. Instantly recognizing the familiar logo on the front and the slight fraying on the pocket, my heart started hammering faster in excitement. 

Holy crap, was Mia seriously wearing my hoodie? Optionally?

Mia shuffled a little bit too much in her bed. "No, we must have the same one...," she explained with a nervous laugh.

"Hmm," I hummed, not nearly half-convinced. 

Then in a moment of boldness, and perhaps in a sneaky opportunity to get closer to her, I climbed to my knees and leaned my way right over her to get to the label at the back.

"Hey, don't touch that," she mumbled feebly. 

It was too late though, and I instantly spotted my name scribbled over the tag. I had written it as a safety assurance in case any of the thieving whores in my soccer team decided to steal it.

"Ah. Ha. It is definitely mine. It literally says Ethan on the back," I stated smugly, hardly able to wipe the smile off my face. "Would you like to explain yourself, Chubs?" I said, arching an eyebrow up at her in amusement.

She looked away from me in shame, clearly embarrassed at having got caught.

"Okay fine. I stole it from your room the night I snuck in," she admitted with a defeated sigh. 

My grin only grew further at the confirmation. I thought she stole my hoodie to get back at me; I'd never dream she'd actually put it on and wear it. 

 Snapping her head towards me, she narrowed her eyes. "Also, don't expect me to give it back though, it's mine now!" she said quickly, her voice lit with possessiveness. 

I couldn't help but find it funny that she thought I'd want it back, considering it not only looked hot as hell on her but also very much made it look like she was my girlfriend.

I held my hands up defensively. "Don't worry. I don't want it back," I snickered. "Besides, I quite like the way you look in it," I admitted softly. 

Then unable to help myself, I let my gaze brush over her hoodie-clad figure with a proud smile. Slowly lifting my gaze back to hers, I froze a little finding her eyes watching me with a careful kind of intensity. And like the pathetic fool I was, I didn't look away and flickered my eyes back and forth between her beautifully brown doe eyes. 

She blinked back at me softly, and it felt as though her eyes were almost calling me closer. As though she'd trapped me under some sort of spell, I inched closer and closer against my control. Then swallowing harshly, I couldn't take it anymore, and I let my eyes fall to her lips. 

The moment I saw those pink, full lips of hers inches away from my own, I knew I was in trouble. My heart started beating so fast and so violently that I felt like I was going insane. And no matter how much the reasonable part of my brain screamed out that this was wrong, I could not and would not move.

Suddenly, the sound of a clearing throat broke the mood.

 "I wouldn't sit this close. I still have a cold, remember. I could throw up any second," she lightly joked.

Her words felt like a slap to reality, and I blinked back out of the trance she'd had me trapped me. Realizing I was heavily leaned over her to the point I was almost on top of her, I slowly leaned back a bit in embarrassment.

  Great going, Ethan; you now look like a desperate freak who just tried to kiss her.

Desperate to rectify the situation, I let out a soft chuckle. "I don't mind. I'd get to miss a few days of school. Why do you think I came here?" I teased.

Shaking her head at me, she snickered. "How are you so smart with such a delinquent attitude?"

I smiled and was about to come out with some kind of smart retort when I remembered something. "Oh yeah, that reminds me," I said, jumping off the bed. 

Starting to rummage around in my bag, I looked up at her. "I took the initiative to go to all your classes, to pick up all the work you missed today."

Then pulling out a large folder with a smile, I stood back up again and laid it gently down by her side. 

 Mia stared back and forth between me and the folder with widened eyes.

 Taking that as my cue to continue, I cleared my throat. "And I even picked up some extra-credit work for you too," I smirked. 

 As soon as I was met with an incredibly unimpressed look by Mia, I laughed. 

"You're welcome," I chirped. 

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

Author's note:

Hope you enjoyed chapter fifteen; it was interesting to write lol. 

Also, I genuinely might be on the police watch list after intensely googling how to unpick a lock. Man the things I do for this book....

But anyway, hope to bring a new chapter soon xx