Ignoring the laughter and chatter in the locker room around me, a thought came to mind. "You know what, I think I'm going to start dating other girls," I announced abruptly as I finished tying up my trainers.

Lucas who had been taking a swig of water on the changing bench in front of me locked eyes with me and then immediately started choking.

He spat out his water and started coughing rapidly, his eyes burning red. I swore, and immediately rushed to help him and started slapping him on the back. "Easy, calm down," I said slowly, my hand slapping harder on each word.

Lucas snapped his head towards me, his eyes radiating wide. "Calm down?" he laughed. "You're telling me to calm down after what you just said? Are you serious?"

I blinked back at him, my eyes flickering up and down him in confusion. "Yeah, what was wrong with what I said?"

Lucas's brows crinkled harder, and his eyes searched mine in the way you would a crazy person. "I don't know, perhaps the fact what you said was insane? What the fuck do you mean, date other girls?"

I shrugged, neutralizing my expression, in the hopes of giving nothing away. Then returning to my place on the bench, I sat down. "I don't know, I was just thinking since you asked May to be your girlfriend yesterday and everything, that I should probably start seeing someone too."

Even as the words left my mouth, they sounded ridiculous, and I hated that I thought they sounded ridiculous.

Lucas screwed the cap onto his bottle before his brow slowly raised into an arch, a slightly sassy one that was accompanied by the taunting twitch of his mouth. He wanted to laugh; I could see it in his eyes.

"You seriously think you're capable of dating someone right now who isn't Mia? " he asked slowly.

A muscle in my jaw tightened, and I frowned, annoyed. "Yes, why wouldn't I be. Mia and I were never dating in the first place, and I told you I was over her, Lucas. I'm capable of liking other people."

The words left my lips fast, and perhaps a little too defensively. The mocking part of my brain intercepted my words by presenting me with memories of Mia and her smile and those damn fucking distracting brown eyes and-

Damn, it! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!

I managed to find myself even angrier at myself, than before.

Lucas' eyes gleamed and he leaned forward and rested his forearms on his knees. "Okay, Mr. Casanova, since you like so many girls, let's hear them then. Name some."

His eyes had a knowing shine to them that pissed me off. I stared at him for quite some time, my mind working hard to conjure up some kind of name. Any name. Anything that could make me sound convincing.

"April," I finally blurted out, vaguely remembering her from a party. I didn't like her that way, not at all, but her name was brought up enough times by my friends for me to know she'd be a convincing answer.

Lucas let out a snort, now visibly starting to chuckle. "You mean the girl you told me a couple of weeks ago annoys you? The one that you said stared at you creepily. The one who-"

"Okay, okay," I said, cutting him off, knowing he'd clearly caught me out. I rolled my eyes. "Fine, I might not like someone right now, but that doesn't mean I won't with effort and time," I argued back.

"Hmm," Lucas mumbled. Leaning back on the bench, he watched me with a planning kind of expression. An expression that told me he was up to something. Something, knowing him that was going to be stupid.

"That's interesting...," he continued. "So, you're telling me you wouldn't mind if Mia started seeing other people too?" Lucas asked, his lip twitching upward.

Something all too familiar ran through my stomach – something sharp and fighting. My jaw tightened rigidly and painfully. My hand which was resting on the bench, was now gripping it tightly, possessively.

"Well?" Lucas probed.

"No, I wouldn't mind," I spat stiffly, the words slipped through my mouth like venom. "She's free to do what she wants." My hand on the bench, tightened further, wanting to make a fist.

Lucas looked me up and down, then smiled. "Well, if that's the case, I'll let some of the guys on the team know she's available."

My head snapped upward. "What?" I snapped.

Lucas just shrugged, his eyes still gleaming away. "I mean, you obviously don't mind, right? You don't like her anymore, and I know quite a few of the guys have a thing for her so-"

"Who?" I snapped as I jumped to my feet, glaring down at him.

Lucas threw a general hand over to our team who were now heading out the locker room to leave. "I don't know, Aaron mentioned something one time, and there's Henry obviously. No doubt there are others probably."

My teeth pressed together tight, and my fingers dug into my arm, to the point it stung. Images of my teammates flirting with Mia sharply flew through my mind, in a way that made me fill sick. I felt a part of me tick over, the way it did, right before a fight.

"So, I'm free to tell them, right? Unless you still like her, of course?" Lucas asked blinking up at me, with an annoyingly innocent smile. He was not innocent, and he knew it.

An unnerving silence collected between us as the two of us engaged in a still-like staring match. "Well?" Lucas probed, once more.

"Fine," I snapped, practically snarling the words. Then turning around, I stormed out of the room and out onto the pitch.

You do not care, Ethan. You do not care.

As we entered onto the field, my eyes naturally lifted upward, noticing movement on the bleachers. That's when I saw her – Mia. I stiffened immediately, my heart picking up in pace as I looked her up and down.

She sat with her friends on the highest bench and didn't seem to be looking at me, seemingly distracted smiling and commenting on whatever May seemed to be saying.

I hated the flutter that ran through my belly as I observed her smile. It showed me I was still weak. Frowning, I forced my gaze away and tried to focus my attention on my feet.

Fifteen minutes later, I had busied myself with doing my normal dribbling warm-up drill around a set of cones. I really did try to concentrate on improving my footwork, I really did try but there's only so hard I could concentrate when I could feel Mia's presence radiating down above me.

She'd noticed me now. I had caught her staring at me a fair few times, her warm brown eyes doing their usual dance up and down my body. In the past, I would have been proud she was staring, I'd perhaps have even found an excuse to take off my shirt, but now I refused to let myself feel any of that. I shouldn't care that she was staring.

On my fourth go at the drill, was when I started to notice Lucas. He was on the opposite side of the field and was pretending to stretch while making conversation with Henry.

This instantly caught my attention, causing me to slow my movements as I watched them. Henry was one of the guys Lucas had mentioned before that apparently wanted a shot with Mia. Henry had been a casual friend of mine for quite some time, he was tall, blonde, or in other words exactly the kind of boy, Mia had a history of liking. She always liked the fucking blondes.

My jaw locked hard as I continued to look him up and down. Suddenly, he didn't look too much like a friend anymore. Not even close.

As Lucas continued to talk to him, Henry's mouth seemed to slide up into a smile, a surprised one that instantly put me on alert. I had a strong hunch about the kind of shit Lucas might be saying. Then making it worse, I saw Henry take a glance up to the bleachers where Mia sat, and the look in his eyes scared me as did his smile.

That's the moment Mia decided to climb to her feet, and started slowly climbing her way down the bleacher stairs. I tried to ignore the motion and pretend I didn't care, but my eyes kept flickering back to watch her.

I wondered if she was mad at me for what I did to her in class this morning. For embarrassing her. My heart squeezed at the thought.

You shouldn't care – my brain reminded me.

"Mia," A voice called out, low and strong. Mia stopped walking across the field and turned back.

My head whipped toward the voice in a second, and I watched in horror as Henry started jogging over to her with a smile on his face.

Completely giving up on the exercise, I came to an abrupt stop and watched as he came to a stop. Mia threw him a polite smile, and her eyes danced between his in confusion before the two soon started to converse.

Not on my fucking watch....

Before I knew what I was doing, my eyes latched onto the back of Henry's oversized head before kicking the ball hard in his direction.

The soccer ball flew through the air and slammed hard into the back of his head. A satisfied pride ran through me as the conversation broke, and he clutched his head.

"Fuck," he cursed.

Whoops.

Mia turned to look at me, and her eyes looked me rapidly up and down in confusion. From my current stance, it was no doubt pretty obvious that I was the one that had kicked the ball.

Taking this as my cue to head over to them, I narrowed my eyes and lightly jogged my way over to them. I was only going over there to observe the situation and collect the ball, that was all. I was not jealous.

Bending down, I picked up the ball before looking up at the two of them with a controlled expression. My grip on the ball tightened further as I noticed how close they were standing. Far too close.

Again, I was not jealous, I just didn't like how quickly he'd chased after Mia, seconds after hearing I supposedly no longer liked her. The fucker could have at least asked me to double-check.

Henry's eyes raised to mine, confusion lacing his eyes. "Dude, what the fuck? Did you kick that?"

Yes.

Locking my face together hard, I shrugged. "Sorry, it was an accident," I stated robotically, sincerity not even close to reaching my tone. I was far from sorry, and if he so much as stepped one more inch closer to Mia, I would kick it again but harder.

Henry, still rubbing his head, eyed me in suspicion. "That's weird, you always have excellent aim..."

I didn't say anything in response, my only answer was the slight tug up of my lips. He was right, my aim was flawless and his big fat head was my target.

An awkward silence filled the space between the three of us, and nobody made a move to leave. I knew I should have left; I was the obvious intruder in the conversation, but I just couldn't bring myself to leave. I didn't want Henry alone with her.

Mia's eyes rocked awkwardly around, clearly wanting to be anywhere but here. Finally, she let out an uncomfortable cough. "Nice chat guys, but I think I'm going to get going," she said rather quickly before making a step to leave.

Satisfied that she was making her way away from Henry and eliminating any possibility of stupidness happening, I was ready to leave myself.

"Wait," Henry said suddenly, then reaching out, he grabbed a hold of her wrist to stop her.

A weird sound escaped my lips against my will, sounding something between a grunt and a growl as I locked eyes with the fingers that he now had wrapped around her.

Mia eyes me warily before turning back to Henry, waiting for him to talk.

"So, Chemistry. Will you tutor me?" Henry asked eagerly.

Chemistry? Was that the shitty excuse he'd come up with? What a fucking lying snake, he was passing just fine in Chemistry. He was just using this as a dumb excuse to hang out with her.

You did the same thing – the annoying part of my brain reminded me.

Mia slowly nodded her head, smiling lightly. "Yeah sure, we can start today if you want. Is five o clock good?" she asked with a shrug.

I turned to look at her with a frown. Scanning her face, I realized to my irritation that he had no idea what was going on. Her tone was evident enough that she thought this was a normal study session. The only studying Henry planned to have in this session, was studying the ways he could get her on top of him.

For once in my life, I found myself truly annoyed at her obliviousness. If she knew he was looking for a date, perhaps she'd have enough sense to say no, and my blood wouldn't be boiling right now.

Again, not because I was jealous, but just because I was a concerned guy worrying about a fellow acquaintance.

"Yeah, perfect," Henry replied happily, a massive grin starting to stretch across his face. It was the face of someone who thought they were going on a date. I frowned harder.

Mia mumbled something about texting him her address, but I was barely listening too focused on mentally trying to laser the irritating smile off Henry's face.

Mia made a turn to leave, but suddenly turned back, seeming to forget something. Her cheeks briefly flushed red, and she let out a nervous laugh. "This is kind of embarrassing, but what's your name?" she asked quietly.

The second the words left her mouth, a snort of laughter escaped past my lips, which I poorly tried to hide between a cough. Now, smiling from ear to ear, I couldn't help myself. Henry could like Mia all he wanted, but at least she could remember my name.

Not that I wanted her anymore, of course.

Henry's smile slipped immediately from his face, and he threw me a light glare before turning back to Mia. "It's Henry," he said with a forced smile.

Mia threw him a kind smile, one that I couldn't help but wish was directed at me. "Well, see you later, Henry," she said before turning to leave.

I watched the back of her figure as she left for perhaps a bit too long, having to hold myself back from following her.

"Dude, Lucas told me you were done with Mia? Is that not true?" Henry asked interrupting my thoughts.

I turned to look at him, my expression cold. No, I'm not fucking done with her, nor will I ever be so back the fuck up – was what I wanted to say.

With all my strength, I shook my head. "He's right, I'm done," I snapped stiffly before forcing a smile. Then before I could change my words, I sharply walked away.

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

Releasing a breath, I relaxed back against the car chair and stared off out the front window. I was pathetic. Well, and truly pathetic. It was 4:45 pm and instead of being at home doing homework or working hard at the gym like I was supposed to be, I found myself sitting in my car in the parking space across from Mia's house.

Again, like I was saying before – pathetic. In fact, pathetic was probably too light a word to describe my current actions. There needed to be a new word created to better describe what I was doing and my inability to stop myself.

Fifteen minutes ago, I had convinced myself I was driving myself to the grocery store but instead, I found myself here, parked outside a house I never should be visiting again.

Unbuckling my seat, I slowly climbed out the car door and started to make my way over to the door with my hands shoved deep in my pockets. Eyeing the lack of a car on the driveway, I walked faster, knowing it was safe for me to enter as her dad wasn't home. That man would forever and always scare the shit out of me.

I raised my hand and knocked. Nothing happened, no movement down the stairs, nothing. Rolling my eyes, I reached into the pocket of my bag and pulled out two of Mia's old stolen bobby pins before starting to pick at the lock. I was too impatient to knock again.

That, and a nagging part in my brain was scared that Henry was already in there, and the two of them were already too busy and distracted to answer the door. My hands worked faster at the thought, disgusted at the idea.

That was the main reason I was here – to be the world's biggest cock block. I was going to ensure this study session was the driest shit anybody had ever seen since the 1930s drought.

The moment the door was unlatched, I softly closed it behind me and let my eyes analytically wander around the home. Dumping my bag and shoes on the floor by the door, I observed in irritation for any sign of Henry.

Figuring she was probably upstairs, I started to climb my way slowly up. Halfway there, I started to notice the hum of the shower.

My shoulders sagged in relief, happy the shower was the cause for why she wasn't answering the door, and not anything else. Or more accurately someone else.

Walking past the bathroom, I made my way in my usual path to her room. My eyes flickered around the purple walls of her room before landing on her bed where I found myself staring for quite some time. That was the first place I'd kissed her.

Against my will, my mind filled my brain with memories of that day, and how fucking good it felt. It felt too good.

I looked sharply away, hoping to break the images. I shouldn't be thinking about that, it wasn't happening again. I shouldn't want it to happen again.

Then why are you here – the annoying part of my brain once again piped in. In case you hadn't realized already, I desperately wanted to slap the shit out of this part of my brain and then light it on fire.

Knowing she could potentially take a while; I sat softly down on the bed as I'd done so many times before and leaned my back against the headrest. I was well aware I'd probably scare the shit out of her when she came out, but what the fuck, it might amuse me.

I tapped my finger impatiently against my thigh as I waited and scrolled aimlessly through my phone. The only sound I could focus on though was the distant pounding of the water from the shower. It naturally, pulled my focus and soon I was imagining things I shouldn't.

No, Ethan, you do not care that she's showering, and you certainly don't care that she's naked. You're not thinking about how good her body might look all warm or wet and dripping, or what you might like to do with her if you were wrapped tightly in the shower with her.

No, you're not thinking of any of that because you're over her. You don't like her anymore. You're not attracted to her anymore.

Repetition and persistence Ethan. Repetition and persistence. My fingers dug into the bedsheets as another strong image of her involuntarily flashed through my mind.

Seconds ticked by and suddenly, I heard the water cut off, helping to ease the images. Then seconds later, I heard the bathroom door creak open.

My heart jumped upward; suddenly all too aware of how crazy it was that I was just waiting for her like this. Shit. Maybe I should have waited downstairs.

Humming sounded down the corridor, and soon enough Mia walked right through the door. I was about to stand up, and say something but the image before me robbed me of all words. In fact, my mind stopped computing altogether.

I watched transfixed as Mia walked to her chest of drawers with nothing but a towel. A small towel. She had it securely loosely with a towel, and her long legs were dripping and exposed as she continued to shuffle through her clothes.

Shit. Shit. Shit. Ethan, say something. Say something.

Words seemed to fail me, and all I could seem to do was stare at her back like some kind of idiot.

Suddenly, her hand that was fastening the towel pulled away and the whole towel started to fall, rapidly.

A sharp breath escaped my lips, one that was loud and choked.

Mia caught her towel rapidly before I had a chance to see anything, and turned swiftly around to look at me. She let out a loud scream, the second she saw me, her eyes springing wide.

Yeah, this wasn't good...

Instead of apologizing or looking away or excusing myself, my eyes couldn't stop staring at her hand that was still loosely securing the towel. The towel that was still on the verge of slipping.

A more than generous portion of her cleavage was out, and it was robbing my brain from behaving normally.

"What the actual fuck, Ethan?" she finally yelled.

This alerted me enough to break away from my little daydream, and finally meet her eyes. The brown in her eyes was swirling rapidly as her eyes darted back and forth between mine.

"I let myself in," I stated stupidly.

She let out a scoff, one that sounded almost like a strangled laugh as she briefly tore her eyes away. Then just as quickly, her eyes returned, this time narrowed.

"Wait a minute...," she said slowly, a realization seeming to finally hit her. "Did you know I was in the shower?"

I knew the right answer was no. The honourable answer was to tell her I definitely wasn't waiting for her on her bed while having vivid imagery of her naked and showering.

Figuring it was probably for the best she thought I was pervy and rude, I decided to go with honesty and nodded my head to answer her while making sure to let my eyes flicker occasionally to her chest.

I figured the quicker I got her to hate me again, the easier it would be for me. If I had to have constant repeats of this morning with her sending funny love notes and acting all wide-eyed and apologetic, I wasn't sure how long I'd last. A Mia that hated me was a Mia I had a chance of staying away from.

Mia's eyes blazed with anger, just like I'd hoped they would. "And you still decided to wait in my room?" she scoffed.

"Yup," I snapped bluntly.

"Okay...and when I came out only wearing my towel, didn't you think it would have been a good idea to, I don't know let me know of your presence," she snapped.

Seeing the perfect opportunity, to piss her off, I screwed up my nose. "Why would I have done that? It's not my fault you didn't notice me," I argued.

Her brows furrowed. "I don't know...maybe because you want to be a half-decent person," she laughed, her voice sharp.

I pretended to pause before letting my lips curve up ever so slightly. "Nah, I'm good. I'll pass at being a decent person if it means I get to watch you drop your towel," I stated bluntly.

Mia's face burned an embarrassed red, and she blinked rapidly, and I had to beg myself not to find it cute. Because it definitely wasn't, and there was nothing hot about the way she was glaring at me either. Not at all.

"You're disgusting," Mia hissed. Then turning around, she hurriedly grabbed her clothes and rushed out the door and to the bathroom to change.

Once the door closed behind her, my mind suddenly felt calm again, not under pressure to hold myself back. Climbing slowly out of her bed, I started to wander the room. I made my way over to the pin board over her desk and observed the pictures there. There were plenty of her with May and Chloe, enough to fill a book with. That's when my eyes landed on one near the center of the board and my heart jumped. I'd been in her room so many times, but I'd never noticed it.

It was one of me and her at my house that she'd taken a few weeks ago. We were lying on my bed, laughing together about something I couldn't even remember.

My heart squeezed painfully as I looked at it, wanting nothing more than to be transported back to that time. I'd meant to ask for the photo after she'd taken it, but I stupidly forgot.

I reached out to touch it, and that's when the door to the room opened and Mia walked in.

Letting my fingers drop, I stepped back from the desk and stiffened my expression.

Mia looked me up and down curiously before speaking and came to a slow stop before me. "Why the hell are you even here, Ethan?" she asked softly. "I thought you hated me. You made that abundantly clear when you humiliated me in front of the entire math class," she muttered as she crossed her arms.

I tried to keep my face guarded as she spoke, but I couldn't help but feel those same pestering feelings from this morning. Guilt.

After a few more seconds of silence, I let out a sigh. "I don't hate you, Mia, I just don't like you," I stated simply and firmly.

She flinched back a little, making me want to take back my words.

I cleared my throat. "And I'm here because I've also been struggling with Chemistry, and I could use some help too," I explained as my mouth pricked up into a quick half-smile.

It was a lie obviously – an embarrassing one but it beat telling her I came over here because I had no self-control and couldn't stand her 'studying alone' with Henry.

The look she gave me as her eyes met my own immediately told me she knew I was talking bull shit. She scoffed. "You're such a liar. I know that you got an A on your last chemistry test," she said, her eyes narrowing.

I paused, suddenly having regrets about briefly mentioning my chemistry results to her in passing.

I rolled my eyes, frustrated. "Okay, fine, I might have also come here to fuck up your little date with your new boy toy. If I'm miserably then you've got to be miserable with me," I snapped bitterly.

It was a half-lie, I had come here to fuck up her date, but it was easy to lie and pretend my motives were to make her miserable.

Mia's brows raised, her lips quirking up. "My boy, what now?" she laughed. "Ethan, I asked him over to study, I hardly think anything scandalous is going to happen," she explained as she looked me up and down with a smile.

I let out a frustrated breath and walked closer to her by a couple of steps. It was a dangerous thing to do, but I was already closer to her before I had the sense to stop myself.

"You're so naïve. You have no idea how guys work, do you? If you want to make a move on a smart girl such as yourself, you ask her to study," I explained slowly, my eyes flickering up and down her body as I spoke.

I knew all too well, the truth behind her words. I was basically admitting to her what I did.

Mia frowned and looked like she was ready to snap back with some kind of sarcastic comment before she was interrupted by the sound of the doorbell.

I froze, the sound filling me with dread, knowing exactly who the bell likely was.

Mia smiled in a way I didn't like. "Looks like that's him. It's good you came, he might be able to teach you how to ring a fucking doorbell," she taunted. My eyes narrowed. "Now if you'll excuse me," she said as she turned on her heel.

Scowling, I immediately moved to follow her, and jogged down after her, hoping to beat her to the door.

Just as she was about to reach for the door handle, I quickened my steps. Bumping her with my hip, she jolted to the side and out the way of the door.

"What the hell?" she yelled in shock, as I stepped smugly in front of her.

Turning to her I winked before swinging open the door. 

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Author's note: 

Hope you enjoyed