Tristan was waiting in front Cassie's latest class, which was AP Spanish.

She wasn't sure if she liked the sentiment. "How do you know my schedule?"

"I ask around, like any good boyfriend," he said the last word with extra panache. "Anyway, what's in your bag?"

Cassie recoiled defensively. She didn't like anyone rummaging through her stuff. Mostly because there was nothing of significance there. The things inside her bag wasn't cool or trendy and it didn't deserve to be featured in articles like 'Things I keep in my bag' and the likes.

Mostly, it consisted of printed fanfictions and stationery. And not even the cute kind. She didn't mind Tristan seeing the full glory of her geekery, but she didn't want it happening in front of the rest of the students.

"Don't open my bag," Cassie demanded.

"Easy. I'm just noticing that it looks heavy," Tristan frowned. His hand hovered near her bag, but that was as far as it went. "Anyway, I'm hungry."

"You're not going to take my bag?" Cassie asked.

"You don't look like you want me to."

Cassie shrugged. "I told you not to open my bag, but it's okay if you want to bring it to me."

"Cassandra," there was a hint of enthusiastic surprise on Tristan's tone. "Are you doing what I think you're doing?"

"Which is?"

"Taking full advantage of a boy who's hell bent on getting into your good grace!" Tristan swung his hand, taking Cassandra's bag and slinging it across his shoulder. "I never would have thought that this day will come!"

"You look at my bag like you look at freshly grilled sausage," Cassie joked. "I was afraid that you'll salivate on it so I just let you take it for your own sake."

Tristan laughed. He moved closer to Cassie and kissed the top of her head, making her blush right to her toes. The people around her started to stare, and Cassie could even see a couple of girls thrusting their bags to their respective boyfriends.

"I heard that they're having so much sex the girl can't hardly walk," someone whispered, and not so discreetly.

"Ssh! She's Tyra's new girl friend. Her name is-" the other girl started a tirade about Cassie's supposedly made-up background about her proficiency at tennis and other sports she had never touched.

"I think I saw them walk out an empty classroom last week!" another totally false statement started to circulate.

Cassie's ears heated as more people stared and talked about them. It had started happening about a month ago, and the normal human being had 21 days before they got used to something. But standing right under the limelight had never really been a comfortable experience for her. She started worrying about her posture and the frizz on her hair or if her skin was shiny because of daylight oil bonanza.

Suddenly she was warm. Tristan shielded much of her body and view, and started shouting right in the hallway.

"My room. Her room. And somewhere called What The Fuck is Wrong with You Guys. There you go, those are the places where we've been together. Are you happy?"

The amount of jaws dropping was crazy high.

Of course Tristan was so not close to be done. "And this girl is amazing in every literal sense. But what we do in our private time is supposed to be private, so please just mind your damn business and don't let me hear you talking about us again!"

They scurried away from the crowd right then. Cassie's heart kept doing cardiovascular HIIT, and she didn't dare look up to Tristan because she knew her whole face was red.

They barely reached the parking lot before both of their phones dinged. Lucas just texted into their group.

Lucas
'Congrats. For the first time in 6 months, Trisandra is the most talked couple in St. Pulkeria! Move over, Tymond.'

Lucas
'Okay you know what, maybe Tyra and Desmond's atrocious couple name is the reason why they flopped.'

Tyra
Our couple name is fine, rat face. And good move, Tristan.

"Guess we just impressed the Queen," Tristan said, high-giving Cassie.

Cassie exhaled loudly. "Yeah, well. That was the classic Boyfriend Protects His Girlfriend's Chastity move. I bet you'll have girls dropping their panties to you the second we break up."

"And their hearts. Don't forget their hearts." Tristan looked back to the school building, his eyes glinted mischievously. "Look at us, two perpetually single people becoming the envy of the whole student body. And we haven't even whip out our most epic scene. I'm so proud of myself."

"Right," Cassie felt another smile creeping into her lips. Even though what Tristan did might just be part of their ordeal, it still felt nice to be defended so publicly. The only defending she had experienced was when someone agreed to her comment on reddit and murdered the other commenters with words.

Cassie held out her hand towards Tristan.

"What?"

"My bag."

"I'm not giving it back to you. Not now," Tristan's grin was lopsided.

"Well, nobody sees us here so you can drop the act."

"Such in a hurry to break up with me, aren't you? Well, Cassie, don't you want to ask why I stood in front of your class?"

Cassie knew Tristan wouldn't let it go so she played along. "What about it?"

"You need to take me to second lunch."

Cassie lifted an eyebrow quizzically. "Second... lunch?"

"I'm still hungry. You basically stole half of my food back there," he referred to his lunch at Gastromaquia. "I don't understand why girls never order their own meal. They say they're not hungry and then they eat half of our food. Sometimes even everything."

"I also just found out that it's the standard MO."

"Anyway, you need to take me to second lunch." Tristan started walking to his car and Cassie followed suit.

"Should I be buying?"

"Considering I just told the whole school that you're 'amazing', then yes, you do owe me at least three extraordinary lunches."

They arrived at Tristan's car. Only this time, it wasn't the old japanese one. It was actually a Bentley that looked vintage, but on purpose.

"This is not your mom's car," Cassie stated once she was inside.

"My father gifted this to me on my 16th birthday. Although that was probably because I caught him having sex with his assistant when I visited him at work." Tristan started the car. "Desmond was seething when he saw the car, and the next day, he also got his own Bentley."

Cassie remembered that day. It was over a year ago, and everybody was oo-ing and aaa-ing at the luxurious vehicle. Most of the students here drove luxury cars, but Desmond's ride could pay a healthy-sized mortgage. The Bentley didn't last long, because Desmond mostly favored sporty cars, and next month, he showed up with the newest model of Maserati.

"You never bring this to school," Cassie intoned.

"I told you, I like my mom's car better," Tristan started driving. "But I can see that you don't like it so I asked the chauffeur to bring me this car so that I can drive you home."

All of a sudden, Cassie felt deep shame for herself. She had acted like a brat, like the typical trust-fund kid who never had any real problem. Tristan managed to stay at the Arrington household for 12 years and stayed humble. It was both an attractive and annoying thing about him.

"How come it doesn't affect you?" Cassie blurted out. When there was no immediate answer from Tristan, she added context. "The money, the power. I mean, you must be seeing all the things Desmond is getting away with. So why don't you?"

"What? Act like a jerk?" Tristan confirmed. "Haven't you heard? I'm a bad, bad boy. I'm basically required to go to the school counselor four times a week."

"You know what I mean. You don't... you're not like the rest of them."

Tristan sighed. "It's different for me, Cass. Well, of course my father has promised that I won't need to be worried for my future ever again. But I'm not getting the things that his real son will get."

Cassie didn't know how to respond to that.

"Desmond has a team of lawyers and consultants that will pull him out of any shit that he does. And I do too, I guess. But mostly, I'm expected to stay under the radar so that I don't bring shame to the family. Because the amount of shit my father will tolerate towards me will be on a different level than he does Desmond."

"Ah," Cassie trailed off, suddenly regretting her question. She hadn't meant to get to know Tristan even further. She should have kept this less on a personal side and more business-like. "Okay."

"Didn't expect a real answer, did you?"

Cassie shook her head. "Not really, I don't."

"Are you really planning to not get to know me at all?"

"Because I know myself," Cassie said, exasperation coloring her voice. "I... I fall in love easily. And I don't want to-"

"I get it. Because I'm not like him, right? I'm not like the rest of you."

There was a long pause, before Cassie nodded. "Don't take it personally."

"I still think it's impossible for us to maintain chemistry while being strangers," there was a second where Cassie thought she saw hurt fleeting across Tristan's face. But it was wiped away completely as he put on a neutral expression. "How about this. I can ask you one personal question, but then you also have to say something bad about yourself. Vice versa. It will keep us grounded."

"That's pretty smart."

"You already asked me a question, so now it's time for me to dish the dirt," Tristan stopped talking, then. As if deep in thought.

It took him way longer than expected and Cassie was getting impatient. "Come on. Where's my dirt?"

"It's hard to admit something bad about yourself!" he retorted. "Okay, so I have one. I'm not a romantic. My idea for romance is watching netflix and getting take-outs and liking the film we're watching. So that's probably the treatment you're getting if you were my real girlfriend."

"Gee, thanks for the warning. That's really helpful," Cassie said, even though she wasn't sure if she meant it sarcastically or not. "You can ask me one personal question."

"How much weight did you lose?"

"That's way too personal!"

"A deal's a deal."

Cassie groaned. She hated talking about her weight. She hated talking about her body issues in general. She still wasn't very comfortable with how she looked, and she hated how all of her new clothes fit so tightly into her body. It made no room for breathing and for relaxing. "I lost 12 kilograms in three months."

"Geez, woman. So you're basically dying."

"I'm not! This is still considered a healthy weight for my height," Cassie tried to suck in her stomach so that nothing could protrude out. "Anyway, one bad fact about me, is that I was a fat kid. Even fatter than I was before I went through this diet."

"That's not a bad fact! Fat kids are cute."

"Easy for you to say! I bet you've never been fat your whole life."

Tristan laughed as he nodded. Cassie couldn't help noticing his bicep. He obviously worked out, and judging by the lack of mindfulness of his food choice, Tristan enjoyed those work out sessions. It was such a far cry from Cassie's own vivacity for fitness. She wished she could just chill and take naps and wake up skinny.

"You're going to give me another bad fact, Cassie. Because let me tell you another thing about me," Tristan started. He looked at Cassie, asking permission to let her know more about him. Cassie knew she shouldn't nod, but she did anyway.

There was a satisfied smile on Tristan's face. "You look way better when you were bigger." He chuckled to himself, the embarrassment manifested on his reddened cheeks. "I'm glad that you're a stick now, though. I do have a thing for fleshy girls. Would be hard for me to keep up the charades."

Cassie's heart never stopped beating hard for the rest of the day.

↣↣↣

thank you for reading! Tell me what you think about this chapter :) And man, i love love writing about Tristan and cassie. it's been quite a while since the last time i wrote about a relationship so healthy. you know when i browse wattpad i keep stumbling upon these books about a boy and a girl who's involved in a very obviously toxic relationship (bully and 'nerd', hating on each other, breaking up and making up, etc) and they're just so so popular! i guess drama is something that we all like, and i admit that i love my share of bad boys stories, too. but sometimes i also need a change.

okay, so i rambled, but thank you for reading and please don't forget to vote and comment!

love, cat