When the final bell rang, it was a miracle I didn't fall flat onto my face from the overly-enthusiastic speed with which I rushed out of the classroom door, and out into the corridor.

"Yo, Romeo, where are you going off to so fast," I heard an all too familiar voice call out.

Letting out a heavy sigh, I braced myself as a long, lean arm flung itself with enthusiasm over the tops of my shoulders. With no surprise at all, I turned to the left and found myself walking alongside Lucas.

"Are you ditching me already, lover boy?" Lucas called out, the glint in his eyes teasing. Since filling him in on the rough details of what happened last night, Lucas had been making a ruthless sport out of taking the piss out of me.

A short breath of laugh escaped my lips, and I pushed him away with a roll of my eyes. "Like you can talk?" I threw back.

"Shut up, Blythe, we're making fun of you not me today. Focus," Lucas snapped rudely. "So, tell me, Ethy, I'm curious was your time in the car with Mia, anything like your wet dreams? I swear you mentioned a dream that took place in a car, one time..." Lucas spoke freely, and boldly, and did I mention loudly. So loudly, that a few curious students looked our way, and made wide-eyed judging looks in my direction.

What? Was it suddenly a crime to have wet dreams about Mia. She was hot, sue me!

"Lucas. People. Are. Listening," I spat tightly between gritted teeth. My eyes darted around at my final words, to check if Mia or her friends were around and listening. The last thing I needed was for Mia to know I had and still had dirty dreams about her. She was just starting to like me, for fucks sake – that would undoubtedly scare her off.

"What? Practically everyone knows you like her? You basically told her yourself. The only way you could make it any more obvious is if you started dry-humping her leg," Lucas said furrowing his brows with a laugh while still talking loudly. Very loudly. More students turned to look at us.

Please kill me.

"Anyway, for your 'study session' today, now that your relationships taking off a bit, I was thinking hey, maybe pull out the old, hate-fuck idea? You know the one we talked about where Mia strangles you. I don't know, just a thought. It could-"

"Nope, no, I'm walking away," I said quickly before pushing off the ground and making fast, urgent steps down the corridor, and away from him.

"Bondage, Ethan, Bondage," he called out to me as I practically ran away from him. I also rather annoyingly heard his witch-like cackles of laughter break out behind me, only proving he was trying to be an ass to me on purpose.

It was fine. I'd get him back.

Turning right at the end of the corridor, I slowed down and caught sight of a flash of dark hair that I was all too programmed to recognize. As expected, Mia was leaning up in her normal place by her locker and seemed busy making all kinds of wild gestures with her hands as she conversed with May.

A smile slipped to my face as I looked her up and down. She was wearing her usual sexy blue jeans– the ones I struggled to drive my eyes away from and a loose cream jacket. I couldn't help but wish she was wearing one of mine. My mind instantly filed a reminder to find a clever way to trick her into wearing my jersey.

Deciding I needed to stop staring at her, my feet carried me forward and over to her direction.

"-kissed you not once now, but twice," I overheard May ramble on, her eyes sharp with focus as she explained something to Mia. Shit – were they talking about me?

I slowed down my pace, wanting to catch more of their conversation.

"-looks at you every day like he wants to jump you –"

Okay, yeah, they were definitely talking about me.

Noise picked up in the corridor, annoyingly blocking me from hearing May's last bit of her sentence and the first bit of Mia's.

"- and...he doesn't look at me like that," Mia mumbled, her voice quiet, and noticeably embarrassed.

I finally came to a direct stop behind Mia, my lips curving up. "Who looks at you like what?" I interrupted, finally making my presence known.

May's eyes were the first to flick up to meet mine, and her lips contorted sharply into a motion that told me she wanted to laugh. Mia spun around shockingly fast, and her eyes grew wide as she took me in. She didn't look all too pleased to see me, only confirming the topic of conversation.

"Oh, nothing," Mia snapped out quickly – too quickly. Her cheeks were already flaming red, and her eyes did that darting motion she did with her lips when she was nervous.

My grin widened. "Were you guys talking about me by any chance? Is that why your face is turning the color of a tomato?" I teased.

"Yup," May said bluntly, with absolutely no tact. I guess that's something she and Lucas had in common.

Mia swung around to face May and glared her friend up and down with a fiery expression. Deadly even. Okay, fine I thought it was hot, I can't help it.

"For fuck's sake, May you're supposed to be on my side," she snapped.

I laughed a little before putting a comforting hand on Mia's shoulders. "It's okay, Chubs, it's natural to wonder what I looked like naked. I'm hot, I get it," I teased softly.

Mia's eyes blazed hot with fire as they landed on mine, and her cheeks only reddened.

I knew full well I had no right to be talking when I was the one constantly imagining her naked, and vividly at that.

"We weren't talking about that, you fucking idiot. We were discussing how much we hate you," Mia snapped.

Her denial only made her look more guilty, and my smile grew. Who knows, maybe she was actually imagining me naked.

"Hmm, sure thing, babe," I hummed, trying out the new nickname as I looked her up and down.

Correction, I looked her slowly up and down as a poor excuse to check her out again. I was weak. Pathetically so. I was especially weak when I still had yesterday's memories of her sitting all snugly on my lap and kissing me floating through my head. Fuck, it was good – much better than any dream.

A part of me wondered what she'd do if I dragged her into an empty classroom and continued what we started.

You'd probably get slapped – the mean part of my brain chimed in.

"Babe?" Mia scoffed bringing me back to focus. "Excuse me, while I dry heave into a fucking toilet."

Well, ouch, not exactly how I was hoping her to react...

Brushing it off, I smiled and looped an arm over the top of her shoulders, and tugged her towards me. Yes, another poor excuse to touch her.

"Aww, babe, I love it when you get all flirty," I teased, making sure to put extra hard emphasis on the nickname she seemed to love so much.

She slapped my hand away in annoyance, and I just laughed as I watched her fight back her smile.

"Anyway," I said, as I rubbed my hands together in excitement. "Are you ready to study?"

We were interrupted by a loud snort from May and we both turned to look at her through curious eyes.

"What's so funny?" Mia probed.

May shrugged, a knowing smile on her face. "I just think it's cute that you guys are still pretending you actually study at these alleged 'study sessions,' she drawled, throwing Mia particular suggestive looks in particular.

I shrugged, knowing clear enough I'd be called out fair and square. "Fair point, we don't do shit," I said nodding my head in agreement. It was more than true that I currently was and always had been using 'studying' as a piss poor excuse for hanging out with Mia.

It was the only way I could think to trick her into hanging out with me originally and now it was just a bad habit. Saying 'hey Mia, do you wanna come study with me today' just came out so much smoother than 'hey Mia, do you want to hang out with me because I'm shamelessly in love with you, and seeing you at school wasn't enough for me today.' One just came out a lot less stalkerish on the tongue.

Mia turned to me sharply then back to May. "Hey, that's not entirely true, we do sometimes get a little bit of work done...," she argued.

Both May and I turned to look at Mia at the same time and gave her the same flattened look.

Mia shut her mouth abruptly and turned away slightly, the redness once more threatening to creep up her face.

"Whatever let's get going then," she said. Then grabbing a hold of my elbow; she gave it a light tug. My heart raced at the casual contact. Mia rarely touched me casually and it fogged my mind for a few strides as she waved goodbye to May and led us away.

As we got further down the corridor, she continued to hold my arm, and it made me want to smile pridefully at all the other males my age in the corridor, and say: See she picked me, you fuckers. Obviously, not a socially acceptable thing to say, but I sure as hell thought it.

As I pulled her a little closer, I started noticing the feeling of being watched. Drifting my eyes to the sides of the corridor, I noticed a few groups of girls looking at me. Their eyes danced up and down my torso, and lingered in places that made me uncomfortable. Very uncomfortable. Catching eyes with one short blonde, my eyes widened as she winked at me.

I sharply looked away, not wanting to continue whatever the hell she was trying to start.

Just as I was about to make a passing comment to Mia, she surprised me by stepping closer to my side. Then, her grip on my arm grew tighter. My heart leaped up, and I looked at her in confusion, assuming someone must have been in her way, forcing her to step closer to me. But there wasn't.

That's when I saw it. Her eyes were intense and stared rigidly at the sides of the corridor where three or four girls stood. I wouldn't have thought much of it if I hadn't noticed how tense her jaw seemed to be or how murderous her eyes were. If I'd seen that look from her in isolation – I would have assumed she was about to attack someone.

Wait- was she... no. That's impossible. There's no way in the world she could be. This is Mia, the girl that hated you for six-straight years.

I brushed away the feeling as we approached the car. The two of us climbed in, and as I was mid-way through starting up the engine, Mia turned to me abruptly.

"Does it not bother you the way those girls look at you?" Mia randomly spoke out.

I was taken aback by her words, stunned by the strange look swirling behind the brown in her eyes. My heart jolted foolishly, then started hammering away, liking the look in her eyes a little too much.

It was hard not to be a little excited when Mia was sitting in my car with eyes ablaze talking quite heatedly about girls giving me looks.

"Sorry, what?" I managed to breathe out. The corner of my lips edged up in amusement before I had the sense to stop them.

A heavy breath escaped past Mia's lips. "Don't play dumb, Ethan. Just now in the corridor you must have seen those girls in the corridor quite obviously checking you out," she snapped. There was an obvious frustration in her tone, and as my eyes landed on her lap, I noticed one of her hands was tightened into a sharp fist.

I observed it all – the tightened lips, the flaming eyes, everything – it was an emotion I'd seen in myself far too many times over the years. But now it was being reflected back at me. In Mia. I couldn't believe it.

Though it was wrong, and egotistical, my smile inched wider as I took her all in.

Then losing it completely, I broke out into a full grin and then a laugh escaped me. "I can't believe you're actually jealous, this is hilarious."

Most people would perhaps be neutral about their girl being jealous, perhaps even mad, but not me. I loved this shit. I'd never felt so flattered in all my life. Mia, of all people, was getting jealous. About me.

Mia's eyes widened, her face once more taking on that brilliant red. "No," she yelled, a little too loudly. "I was just wondering how you can stand being objectified, that's all. I am not jealous," she stated firmly.

As I continued to laugh harder, Mia looked like she wanted to leap across at me and beat the shit out of me.

She was definitely jealous – that wasn't a doubt in my mind now.

I looked her up and down, my eyes no doubt burning with a teasing spark. "Don't worry, I find your jealousy super sexy," I admitted with a wink, and I fucking meant it. I was convinced this had to be the biggest turn on of my life.

Mia's face was a cross of mortification and anger. She tried to keep a scowl on her face, but it twitched slightly when I hit the word sexy.

She soon let out a long-strangled groan and turned to throw her head back against the headrest. "But I'm not jealous...," she whined.

"Sure, Chubs. Just keep lying to yourself and one day someone might believe you," I teased before I finally peeled the car out of its space. I'd gotten so distracted; I forgot I was supposed to even be driving.

Mia let out a huff, and slumped back in her seat, giving up on the conversation entirely.

Soon enough we arrived home. Like usual, I led her immediately up to my room and kicked open the door before throwing myself down on the bed.

With a deepened sigh, I rested my thick arms lazily behind my head and watched as Mia trailed into my room behind me. Looking even more glorious than she did in the corridor, I stared at her with focus hoping for something I shouldn't. Please jump on top of me. Please jump on top of me.

I continued to stare, hoping my message would be magically mentally teleported to her brain and she'd act on it.

"What?" Mia finally said, her eyes flickering up and down in question. In suspicion as well.

Shit – she knows what you're thinking of you dirty fucker. Think of something else. Think of something else.

"Nothing," I said sharply. "I was just thinking," I smiled in what I hoped was an innocent manner.

Mia gave me a half-raised disbelieving smile before finally making her way closer and dropping down on the bed beside me. It wasn't on top of me, but it was more than good enough for me.

I rolled over to face her immediately, my eyes aligned with hers. I let my eyes do their usual selfish dance all over her face. Admiring her warm brown eyes, that gentle nose, her pink lips. You've kissed them – my brain randomly decided to remind me.

She'd become so beautiful over the years. I'd always thought she was beautiful, of course. It was one of my first thoughts when I saw her all those years ago, but now she'd grown into something that tugged my heart almost hypnotizingly. As I stared back, I noticed she was doing the same, and her eyes were dancing all over my face as well. It left a natural question in my mind.

"What was your first impression of me?" I asked abruptly.

Her eyes met mine back with surprise, then she seemed to pause as she tried to recollect the memory.

"Well, strangely enough, I thought you were kinda shy at first." A laugh escaped her lips, that tugged up my own. It was more than obvious she'd changed her mind. "You sat right at the back of the class with your baseball cap pulled down to cover your eyes, and you barely spoke a word to anybody. But then you stood up for me...," she started smiling fully, with that smile I loved. The one that made me weak.

She continued. "Our mean, seventh-grade teacher was picking on me, and you spoke up. You humiliated him by making funny little retorts and corrections throughout the class. I remember thinking you were awesome," she said, chuckling at the memory.

"Oh, yeah, I did do that, didn't I?" My smile lifted as I thought back to that day. It had almost escaped my memory. With everything that had happened between us in the year with all my disastrous pranks and taunts, it was remarkable that she still remembered the one time I'd been normal. The one time I'd been myself, nice even. I'd assumed she would have forgotten.

"God, I used to love pissing that guy off," I trailed off with a reminiscent sigh.

"But then," Mia sharply interjected. "You completely ruined any positive opinion I had of you as soon as you kicked your soccer ball right at my fucking face," she snapped, her eyes slicing icily through me as she spoke.

I let out a long sigh – a pained and regrettable one. "Oh my god, Chubs, let it go, that was years ago," I groaned.

"Yeah, but that wasn't the last shitty thing you did. You've done a lot worse in recent history. Do I need to remind you of the ringtone incident? Or the blackmail? Or the many incidents in which you've stolen my foot? Oh, or my personal favorite the car ride ditch. Or the-"

I felt a part of me curl inward and wince. The car ride-ditch practically haunted me. "Okay, okay, I get it," I said quickly cutting her off, feeling ashamed when she listed it all back to me like that. "You've made your point. I'm a dick, sue me," I said as I threw my arms up in an exaggerated motion.

"And just for the record," I added. "I did loop back to get you when I ditched you in the parking lot, but you'd disappeared. You weren't on any of the main roads. Where the fuck did you even go?" I asked as I looked her up and down in genuine bafflement.

Mia blinked as she processed the new information, seeming genuinely surprised. "Oh, right, I popped into the sweet shop," she finally mumbled, her voice coming out in between a light laugh.

I rolled my eyes hard, realizing I was an idiot for not thinking of that first. There was a shop right by the edge of the school. Of course, she stopped for a snack; it was Mia. "Figures...," I muttered.

As I connected eyes with her once more, bit by bit I slowly started to process the full impact of all I'd done, and my posture slackened. Whether she'd admit it or not, I'd noticed the sharpened look of hurt in her eyes the day after the car ride ditch. I'd hurt her that day. And God knows how many other days without even realizing it. It finally dawned on me at that moment, that despite her tough face, and her sharp words, there were inevitably times I'd probably taken things too far. Times where I'd probably hurt her. And it killed me.

"No, but seriously, I'm sorry," I mumbled, my gaze softening as I looked at her – painfully so. "That was a lot to put one person through with little to no explanation." And it was. I could see that all too well now.

Mia met my eyes, a smile slipping to her lips. It made me want to kick myself for not fully apologizing to her sooner. Then surprising me she shrugged. "It's fine, you never did anything majorly bad. If I'm being entirely honest, there were days where I kinda looked forward to arguing with you," she chuckled.

My heart stopped briefly, and I searched her eyes over, surprised to only find honesty swirling back in them. Was she serious? She looked forward to talking to me. To argue, technically, but she still looked forward to it. An embarrassingly warm rippling sensation ran up and down my spine.

I smiled, unable to help myself. "Same, I enjoyed it too. I was just happy that you were talking to me," I mumbled honestly as I thought back to the memory.

Mia's eyes seemed to drift off somewhere in thought for some while before slowly they returned to mine. The brown in her eyes sparkled, and the corner of her rosy lips twitched, the way they did when she was about to say something rude.

Oh, here we go...

Her eyes danced playfully up and down my face. "I'd ask you what your first impression of me was, but there's no need. I already know you used to have a little crushy wushy on me," she teased as she jutted out her bottom lip.

My face heated fast, and I looked sharply away realizing just how much fun Mia was going to have as a result of my recent confession. The horrifying thing was, she didn't even know half the weird shit I'd done, and let's face it was going to still do as a result of my crush on her.

"I regret telling you that," I mumbled, as I shot her a playfully daggered look.

"Well, you did," she smiled proudly. "And now you're never going to hear the end of it."

My eyes slowly narrowed, feeling challenge rise within me. "If we're going to play the let's bring up embarrassing things game, I'm more than happy to play. Should I start by reminding you of all the wonderful things you did when you were high?" A smirk lifted to my lips as I eyes her up and down with what I knew was a threatening spark in my eyes.

As suspected, Mia sharply snapped her mouth shut and gave me a flattened look. Ever since that wonderful nice, I'd been slipping in daily jokes about all the crazed shit she'd done. She was not amused.

A buzz interrupted our stare off, and glancing down, my eyes landed on my abandoned phone on the bed that had flashed to life with some new notification.

Mia's eyes suddenly flashed with fire, then catching me completely off guard she suddenly snatched up my phone.

The hell...

I lay confused as Mia shoved it deep into the back pocket of her jeans before turning around and sitting on it cross-legged.

My brows pulled together as I rocked my eyes back and forth between hers, in a slow-like manner. "Erm...why did you just take my phone?"

Mia locked eyes with me, smiling with a wicked gleam "Because it's mine now," she shrugged. "If you want it back, you're going to have to promise me, you'll never mention what I did when I was high and drunk, ever again," she stated firmly.

I stared at her for a long while, slowly processing the fact she was trying to blackmail me. I observed her small little figure perched on the bed with a defiant expression in her eyes, and soon my lips curved up, amused.

A breath of laughter escaped past my lips. "Sorry, Chubs, but I'm not promising shit. It's going to be dead easy to get it off you," I said while continuing to laugh.

I sat up immediately with shameful eagerness, more than happy to take on this opportunity to wrestle her.

Rolling us around on my bed while having a beautiful excuse to paw my hands all over her– count me in. Fuck, the phone, I'd do this shit for free.

Wasting no time, I slung an arm around her waist and rolled her over towards me.

"Shit," she hissed as she tumbled helplessly flat onto her stomach, the mattress bouncing underneath her.

I chuckled; the sound rumbly lowly as I leisurely climbed to my knees. I lifted a brow, observing my phone wedged halfway into the pocket on the right side of her ass that was now sticking up to the sky.

I swallowed hard, getting a little too distracted by the fit of her jeans.

Before I had the sense to grab it, Mia's hands flew behind her, and quickly snatched up the phone before shoving it between her chest and the mattress.

Disappointed I no longer had a good excuse to touch her ass, I let out a sigh. "Just give up Chubs, I'm going to get it," I said as I lazily made moves to try and roll her back over.

Mia slapped my hands away as I tried to dig around underneath her, making little stressed breaths as she did. It was adorable.

I watched, further amused as she started trying to army crawl herself away on her stomach. Deciding enough was enough, I swung my leg over her torso with a smile and straddled her in the hopes of keeping her in place.

Bending over her, I tucked my head into the crook of her neck before sliding my hands underneath her little waist in search of her phone.

My lips brushed against her neck with a smile as she bucked, and squirmed in an attempt to protect the phone from my approaching fingers underneath her. I could feel her laughing lightly through her breaths which tugged a bigger smile up on my face.

"No, no, no," she squealed in panic as I tried to softly tug away her arms. I chuckled, enjoying this perhaps a little bit more than I was supposed to.

Mia's hand suddenly made frantic moves underneath her, and as I continued to pat around, I was confused to find nothing.

"What the hell?" I muttered aloud, feeling genuinely confused. What the fuck had she done with my phone? Eaten it?

A breath escaped me in frustration before I grabbed a hold of Mia's waist and flipped her back around to face me.

Mia's eyes locked on mine, all wild and dilated, and it sucked all thoughts away from me. She was breathing hard, her chest rising and falling to a hypnotizing beat. It then dawned on me how close we were. My hands were planted on either side of her face, bridging her in as I bent over her.

My throat rolled in as I swallowed, my eyes tracing whatever they could get their greedy focus on. It was dangerous how badly I wanted to kiss her.

With all my strength, I blinked once then twice and forced my brain to focus. "Where the hell did you put it?" I asked, my eyes rocking between hers.

Mia's eyes shined brightly. "Somewhere safe," she chuckled brightly, a confident smile lighting her whole expression. She looked smug – far too smug.

I let my eyes narrow, suspicious, then slowly I looked her up and down. As my eyes rolled up her stomach, I came to an abrupt stop at her chest.

I swallowed once more, my eyes locking on a weird object sticking out over the top of her breasts. It was hard not to notice– it was obscuring what was normally one of my favorite views.

My eyes swung back up to hers.

"You put it in your bra, didn't you?" I asked bluntly.

Mia's expression said it all as her eyes flew wide. An amused smile slid onto my lips as she glanced back down at it.

The two of us engaged in a two-second staring match before a curse escaped past her lips as she finally seemed to process how badly she'd just fucked up.

My eyes danced down, and at the speed of light, I reached out and slipped my hand down the front of her shirt, and swiftly pulled out my phone.

I waved it up in the air triumphantly as I stared down at Mia whose face was now burning a deep shade of red.

"Found it," I sang.

------------------- 

Author's note:

Still convinced this is the oddest end to a chapter I've ever done. Anyway can't wait untill we get to chapter 40, it's my fav because I'm toxic.

Anyway hope you enjoyed.