"Why does this need to stop? What's wrong?" I questioned, feeling beyond confused.

Brandon let out a bitter laugh. "What's wrong?" he scoffed. "Oh, gee, I don't know, Soph, maybe it has something to do with the fact there's a boy out there who's crazy about you," he said in a hushed whisper.

 I raised a brow. "Crazy about me? He still can't stomach the idea of calling me his friend," I laughed as an amused smile pricked to my lips.

Brandon let out a disbelieving sound. "Soph, he cooked you a whole roast dinner. "Whether he knows it or not, he is way past the accepting you as a friend stage, trust me! That boy has settled himself rather snugly into the crush zone," he snickered.

I pondered his words for a second before letting out an ugly snort. "That's such bull-shit! Just because he bought me food and stuff doesn't mean he's whipped. I mean, you do that kind of stuff for me all the time?" I argued.

"I buy stuff for you, yes, but when I give them to you, I don't also look at you as though I want to dry hump your leg as well," he scoffed.

I cracked a smile at Brandon's strange phrasing. "I'm pretty sure he doesn't want to dry hump my leg,"

"If that's so then why doesn't he look at you normally instead of with those weird far-away, dazzled looking eyes of his, huh? He doesn't look at me like that, so explain that!" he argued as he crossed his arms.

I rolled my eyes and leaned my back against the wall in an exasperated manner. "Whatever, believe what you want. But I still don't get why this means we have to 'stop the plan'?"

"Simple, because I like Nathan. He's not the snobbish rich dick I thought he was. I mean, don't get me wrong, he is still a snob, but there's more to him than that. He seems nice, shy even, and I don't want to watch him get hurt," Brandon explained weakly.

Annoyingly his words resonated something in me and it soon felt as though my stomach was twisting around in painfully tight circles. 

I swallowed back the feeling as best as I could, enough so that I could raise a sassy eyebrow at Brandon. "And this has nothing to do with the fact you love him cooking for you?" I teased as I cracked a knowing grin.

He paused. "Okay, I admit that did play a part," he muttered.

"Ha, I knew it," I laughed as I threw a finger up in his face. 

He shook his head. "No, you didn't let me finish. My main reason for liking him is because I like the way he is with you. He makes you laugh," he shrugged. "You can deny it all you want, Sophie, but I know you like him a hell of a lot more than I do," he said as his eyes dug pointedly into mine.

I swiftly broke eye contact, no longer able to handle his interrogative gaze. I hated how a part of me agreed with what he was saying. Shamefully, over recent weeks, I've been starting to forget there was a plan at all.

I was honestly pathetic. I mean, what kind of person starts to like someone whose very first words to them consisted of calling them a hooker.

I cleared my throat and glanced back up at him with an easy smile as though his earlier words had no effect on me. "Actually, you know what, you're right. We should break up. The boyfriend thing was stupid, to begin with, so it's about time it came to an end," I said with a nonchalant shrug of my shoulders.

Brandon narrowed his eyes. "But what about the entire plan? You're not seriously going to continue with that too, right?" he asked cautiously, making sure to keep his voice low to likely prevent Nathan from hearing.

"W-well, I can change the plan. I mean maybe, I don't have to be cruel enough to make him full in love with me. That was probably a bit too far. Maybe gold-digging him from the position of his friend will be enough," I suggested with a weakly optimistic smile.

"Or better yet, why don't you quit the plan altogether and gently explain to him the truth!" Brandon suggested.

"Tell him the truth! Are you fucking crazy? He would never, ever speak to me again," I whispered frantically, my eyes widening to the size of saucers.

Brandon stared at me blankly for a full thirty seconds, excessively blinking as he did. "So let me get this right; you don't want to quit the plan. Which might I add, is a plan which consists of you using him and breaking his heart. And you're doing this because you supposedly still 'hate him, and still want revenge.' But, miraculously at the same time, you also don't want to see him hurt and are troubled by the idea of him not talking to you," he asked slowly. "Am I the only one seeing a ginormous contradiction?" he scoffed. 

I paused and reflected on his disturbing yet accurate words for how I was feeling. Hearing it all laid out on the table like that made me sound like an absolute lunatic.

I ran a hand through my hair in frustration. "I mean, look, I know it sounds crazy but, I mean, ....I...er, ugh-" I spat out in frustration when the ability to speak failed me. "Look, I don't want to talk about this anymore! Can we get this stupid dramatic break-up thing on the road; already?"

"You know, not talking about your problems doesn't make them go away," he sang. 

"Brandon!" I hissed. 

"Okay, fine, I'll shut up, I'll shut up," he said as he held his hand up in defense.

"So...er..how are we actually going to break up?" Brandon muttered. 

"I don't know, maybe we could stage it, so it looks as though I found out you cheated?" I suggested.

 He pulled a face. "Eww no, I don't want him to think I'm a cheater," he winced. 

"Fine, fine, okay, we'll think of something else," I trailed off as I racked my brain for a good reason.

After a straight minute of thinking, and nothing coming to mind, I flopped down onto my bed in frustration. "I can't think of a single thing, and Nathan's out there, waiting for us to come back," I grumbled as I stared miserably up at the ceiling.

"You know what, I've got it," Brandon said, excitement pouring from his tone. 

"What? Tell me!" I questioned as I leaned eagerly up on my forearms.

 Brandon smiled. "We say stupid vague crap that he won't even understand," he said, nodding his head eagerly. 

"The fuck are you on about?" I laughed as I looked him up and down in vague amusement.

"Look, think about it. If we yell out a bunch of weird cliché lines like, 'it's not you, it's me,' he'll go with it. I'm pretty sure it's how most people break up nowadays anyways," he explained with the vigorous nod of his head.

 I paused for several seconds. "You know what, fuck it, let's do it," I shrugged as I rose to my feet.

Brandon rubbed his hands together in excitement as he made his way to the door. "Finally, those random high school drama sessions are finally going to have use," he chuckled merrily to himself as he swung open the door.

As soon as the door was open, I instantly wiped the smile from my face for the sake of acting and shoved past Brandon as though I was mad at him. Once we were in direct line of where Nathan still sat on the kitchen stool, I swerved around and gave Brandon a spiteful look. 

"You're just...ugh, you're just so infuriating," I cried. From the corner of my eyes, I saw Nathan jerk his head towards us in confusion.

"Like you can talk, how do you think it feels to live with someone who always gets upset over nothing?" Brandon spat out in improvisation.

"I get upset over nothing, do I? Well, fuck you, Brandon, you can go suck a dick!" I yelled out dramatically. I didn't miss the way Brandon's lips twitched slightly, clearly finding fun in my choice of jab.

Brandon let out a bitter laugh. "Hmm, it's not a surprise that you've got dick sucking on your mind, considering how cozy you've been getting with Nathan. For all I know, you could be sucking his behind my back!" he huffed as he gestured over to him in anger. 

Nathan, looking more awkward than I'd ever seen him, sunk a little lower in his chair.

I gave Brandon a subtle look of warning, feeling mildly annoyed that he had taken it upon himself to get Nathan and his dick wrapped up in our fake argument.

I internally rolled my eyes, knowing I would have to force myself to go along with it. "Well, maybe I should have. We all know Nathan's dick would have probably had a lot more stamina than yours," I spat out sassily.

Nathan cleared his throat and raised a hand. "Erm..., is it possible that you guys could leave me and my dick out of your argument by any chance...," he trailed off awkwardly.

I almost lost my act there as the urge to break out into laughter came on strong. I could tell Brandon was struggling to contain himself as well from the way he kept pulling his lips in and out of his mouth.

While somehow managing to keep his composure, Brandon took a step closer to me and looked me up and down with a lost expression. "You know, I don't even know who you are anymore," he whispered dramatically.

Oh boy, here we go with the drama lessons....

"Neither do I," I fired back.

"You know what, I can't do this anymore," Brandon laughed as he shook his head over and over like the over-dramatic drama kid he was. "We're done," he whispered.

Collecting together the last drops of dramatism I could muster, I recoiled back in shock. Then, in the same way, I've seen it done in a million soap operas, I tightened my jaw and let out a cruel laugh. "You know what, I couldn't agree more. We're done," I spat.

Brandon swallowed. "I hope you and Mr pretty boy over here have a happy life together," he spat with pretend bitterness. Then he shoved his way past me and made his way to the door. At this point, I could feel Nathan's eyes shining down on me with careful attention. 

Brandon who was half out of the door, slyly turned around when Nathan's back was turned. Winking at me, he mouthed that he would be back in an hour.

Still pretending to look crestfallen, I watched as the door closed firmly behind him. A chilling silence filled the room at the heavy sound of the lock sliding into place. I tore my eyes away from the door and stormed my way to the room. Slamming the door loudly behind me, I dived down onto my bed and buried my face into my cushions.

Come on, Nathan. Please follow me in here, please follow me in here...

At that moment, I heard the soft squeak of the door peppering open, followed by the gentle sound of footsteps drawing closer.

I felt the bed dip by my side. "Erm, hey?" he said softly. I kept completely still to make my act look more believable.

 "I brought you your hot chocolate in case you're thirsty," he said gently.

Act, or not, I was no longer able to help myself, and slowly rolled around to face him. I was immediately met with the sight of Nathan staring down at me with those beautiful green eyes of his. They were so innocently kind that I instantly felt like an absolute asshole for putting on this entire fake act.

  Relax, Sophie, stay strong; they are just eyes. They are just eyes. Yes, they are pretty eyes, but they are still eyes.

"Thanks, that was kind of you to bring it," I said weakly as I nodded my head over to the cup. 

"No problem, it was the least I could do," he shrugged. "Are you...are you sure you're okay?" he asked slowly.

 I nodded my head. "Yeah, don't worry," I said, giving him a tight smile.

His eyes flickered back and forth between mine, and then he slowly shook his head. "No, you're not, you're lying," he said simply.

My lips lifted up into a half-barely there smile. "Oh, and how did you come to that conclusion?"

"I don't know," he murmured. " You just seem... sad. Your eyes don't seem as bright as they normally do," he whispered as he continued to stare over me.

His gaze momentarily held my attention, and his words worried me since I wasn't pretending to look sad anymore. I was looking at him with honest, unveiled eyes.

Snapping out of it, I raised an eyebrow. "Gee, thanks, every girl loves to hear how dull their eyes are," I mumbled sarcastically.

 The corners of his lips pricked up into a smile, and he stifled a laugh. "You know I didn't mean it like that."

"Hmm, sure," I snorted.

I cleared my throat and decided to move the topic away from my fake breakup. "So, your trip to Greece is in two days, I believe. Excited?" I asked as I wiggled my brows.

"Hmm, yeah, yeah, I guess...but-," he suddenly cut himself off. Soon enough, a strange look passed through his eyes, and he looked back up at me abruptly as though a random thought had just hit him.

"What are you doing over the five-day break?" he asked abruptly. 

His question caught me off guard, and I took a couple seconds to think. "Erm...nothing, I guess. Maybe a little bit of studying, and I guess I'll go teach at the gym."

"Hmm, studying? Sounds an awful lot like code for moping around on your arse all day," He murmured as his eyes narrowed in on me.

Suddenly, a flash of determination sparked through his eyes. "Sorry, but I'm not going to sit back and let that happen. Pack your bags; I'm taking you to Greece with me."  

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Author's note:

So, yay, Brandon and Sophie are officially broken up!

Any theories about what might happen on their trip to Greece? 

Next update: Friday (6-8 PM - UK time)