"Someone has seriously sabotaged my warmth by hiding or kidnapping my flask." I angrily accuse everyone in the house.

"No one has kidnapped your tea flask. Stop making baseless accusations. You must have kept it somewhere and forgotten." Mum says while looking through her laptop on the kitchen counter, sipping her tea.

"Whatever." I huff and close the cabinets I've scattered. In my defence, I can't live without tea, so not finding my bottle makes me nervous.

"I don't understand why you take these novels to school." Mum beams at the books on the worktop.

"We sometimes have a free period," I tell her as I gulp down the remaining tea in my mug.

"So you prefer reading fiction instead of the recommended school material." She asks, looking confused.

"It's helpful for my literature class, Mum," I explain.

"It definitely is." Mum rolls her eyes and sighs at my pouty facial expression.

Ignoring my attitude, Mum informs Christian as he passes by the kitchen. "Honey, Lilith says to let you know she's driving straight to school from Embry's."

He pauses by the door, eyebrows knit together. "Do you need a ride to school, Ava?" Christian asks me, looking concerned. He has no idea that I've been walking to and from school every weekday for weeks.

Before I respond, Leigh appears in his black leather jacket with a backpack hanging around his arm. "I can drive her. I'm heading to school anyway," he tells Christian, who looks at Leigh with the proud nod only a father can give to his child. I still don't understand the need to act so obedient.

"Great." Christian pats his son on the back.

With a nod towards the entranceway, Leigh says to me, "Let's get going."

Mum waves us goodbye with a wide smile as we leave. I follow behind Leigh with my beige bag on my shoulders. "You don't have to drive me. I'm used to walking anyway," I mutter as he opens the driver-side door.

Leigh halts and stares at me, his alluring lips pursed, before he shakes his head and gets into the car. Rolling my eyes, I open the passenger door and almost sit on the familiar flask until Leigh grabs it and hands it over to me.

Blushing, I tilt my head to face him. "Uhm..." I don't know what to think about accepting tea from Leigh after weeks of avoiding him and feeling anger and hatred, I suppose.

He shifts his position, with his left hand on the wheel, able to face me directly. "Don't say anything until you've tasted it." Leigh rushes his words while carefully observing my reaction.

I slowly release my lip between my teeth before bringing the purple flask to my mouth, never taking my eyes off him. I take a small sip of the beverage, and my eyes almost pop out of their sockets as my hand travels to my mouth in absolute shock. "That's Twinings. Where did you get it? Did you hide some from my stash earlier?" I question the attractive young man chuckling next to me.

"Oh no, I went shopping last week." He must be satisfied with my astounded face, as he looks proud of himself.

"What does that mean?" I impatiently ask.

Amazed at my reaction, Leigh's smile keeps growing as he explains. "You ran out of your favourite tea, so I happened to come across it at the supermarket and decided to get some for you. Actually, I'll put them in the cabinet later."

"Thank you, but you didn't have to do that." I smile and lower my head to my slightly shaking hands on my lap.

Nodding, he says, "I did, and I think that's the least I can do for skipping on delivering your tea and for being a jerk all this while."

I look up to find him still smiling. I don't know how this always happens when I'm around him, but the effect and hold that Leigh has over me might be the end of me. I'm sure of it. "Thank you," I whisper, feeling more than diffident.

"That means we can start over." He curls his lip into a smirk and holds out his hand to me. "Hello, I'm Leigh Boyce."

"I don't think we started off on bad terms." I narrow my gaze at the cagey Leigh, not reciprocating the handshake he's implying.

"We did. We strangely met in the kitchen." Leigh opposes and gestures to his hand.

Smiling at his stubborn persistence, I give in. "I'm Ava Lancelot." I shake his hand, and he grins wider.

"That's a great accent you've got there."

I've never cared when people admired my accent until now. I promptly turn rosy until Christian's car horn helps me escape the situation, making Leigh pull onto the road.

I don't know what level Leigh and I are at, but I'm glad we have started to address our animosity. Last night was something I've never experienced in my life—falling asleep in the arms of someone with whom I feel a deep connection, someone who barely gives me enough breathing space because he happens to be breathtaking. I fell asleep in Leigh's arms while feeling the gentle rise and fall of his chest as he peacefully breathed, his hand rubbing my bare skin in a comforting way that made me feel warm and safe, even with the striking and lightning from the thunderstorm.

I woke up this morning to find myself in my bed, tucked in my comforter. And I immediately knew Leigh had transferred me from his bedroom to mine.

While I showered, I couldn't help but think about how it would feel to be carried in Leigh's muscular arms, fully awake.

Honestly, I try to stop myself from remembering his heartfelt words from last night, his intense emotions, and his gentle voice when he told me he wanted me more than anything in his life.

And right now, in this confined space filled with the most calming and delightful scent, having him next to me while he focuses his bright green eyes on the road, with one hand on the wheel, I take my time to appreciate how every part of Leigh Boyce looks perfectly sculpted. His hair looks artfully disheveled and irresistibly enticing, and the way his jaw clenches. God, I want to kiss him. No, I want to kiss him passionately.

We arrive at school around eight, when the car park is filled with students milling about. Leigh manages to find a spot to park his Bugatti perfectly, something only a driver of a lower car would appreciate. "Thank you for the ride," I mutter.

"Anytime, mate." He smiles and turns to face me.

Laughing slightly, I shake my head, my cheeks turning a delicate shade of pink. "We're mates now?"

"Yep, before you say yes." He answers as if stating a fact.

I stare at him for a while, lips forming a straight line. "What makes you think I will say yes?" I ask a question to which I don't even have the answer. Knowing that I have to give Leigh a response about last night soon, I begin to lose my breath again.

"Because you held me tightly and asked me not to let go... when I took you back to your room," his words caught me by surprise, and I swallowed immediately. I couldn't remember saying that, but the honesty in his eyes made me believe him.

"I was asleep at the time," I embarrassingly tried to defend myself.

Leigh shook his head slightly. "Perhaps that's what was on your mind. You happened to say it out loud through your dream."

My eyes lowered to the centre console. What if Leigh was right? What if that's the reason behind the indescribable emotion I have for him? In the blink of an eye, Leigh tenderly grasped my hand and placed it on his thigh. My eyes met his pleading gaze, and my heart skipped a beat when he said, "Ava, please consider it. I don't want to waste time lying to myself when what I really want is right in front of me."

I didn't know what to tell him, and even if I did, I wasn't in a position to express it verbally. So, I did what I was best at: fight or flight. I literally grabbed my bag and ran out of the car.

I hurriedly walked into the hallway, where a huge placard reading "HOMECOMING WEEK" hung. Not caring, I headed towards my locker and found Evie standing there. "Tell me about it," she said, grinning like it was Christmas.

"About what? Homecoming?" I asked, confused, looking at the excited girl wearing a green shirt and jean shorts.

"No, your date with Arlen. How could you not tell me?" Evie smacked my shoulder, and that's when it sank in. Yes, I had spent most of my Sunday with Arlen Garrett.

Wincing at her playful attack, I rubbed the spot with my hand. "Ouch," I frowned.

"Spill it. What did you two do afterwards? You know, when the storm came?" She giggled, nudging me, this time a little gentler.

"What could we possibly do with the storm coming up?" I shook my head and shrugged, completely unaware of what she was implying.

"You know, like, getting cozy back at Arlen Garrett's place? And then turning on Netflix? Sharing a bowl of popcorn, and then boom, he kisses you, and you reciprocate, and that's when the fun begins, like in 'Fifty Shades'." Evie's eyes looked hopeful, while mine looked terrified.

What the heck?

"Your mind took you to the highest point of naughtiness, Evie," I narrowed my eyes at her, finding it hard to believe.

"I'm suspicious. You look pale when you walked through the hallway." Evie stepped closer to me, carefully observing me with her eyes.

Feeling uncomfortable, I inhaled deeply and scratched my head repeatedly. "I don't know what you're talking about," I shook my head and curved my lips in denial.

"Hey Ava, see you at lunch," his voice interrupted, and Evie's eyes lifted higher with a firm smirk.

I smiled and nodded at Arlen as he walked through the crowd of students in the hallway.

"He's seeing you at lunch. That means there's progress, Ava. Did he ask you to the Dance? I mean, Arlen Garrett doesn't just post any girl on his Instagram, but he posted about you last night," she emphasized her last words.

Now my eyes widened to meet hers. "What? Arlen posted about me?" What? Why? When?

"Yes?" she replied, confusedly sounding more like a question. "Can't you see the attention you're getting? The post earned ten thousand likes. That's a great number, more than Arlen Garrett's actual followers."

That's when I tilted my head to confirm her words. Surely, I was gaining attention around the hallway. "Wow," I murmured. What pressure.

"I know, right? You're a star," Evie laughed as we headed to class.

Yes, I'm a star.

The first period was interesting as I listened to Mrs. Murphy explain the plots and synopses of modern books. The class was silent as everyone focused on the board. Later on, during the ten-minute break before the next class, I replied to Sawyer's text before logging into Instagram to find hundreds of notifications waiting for me. I followed Arlen back, who tagged me in his recent post. Evie was right; the picture had earned over ten thousand likes and seven hundred comments, mostly admiring the scarf and asking if I was Leigh's girlfriend.

"Don't flatter yourself. They're all faking those likes. Sooner or later, you'll see. Do you think Arlen Garrett is falling for you? Love, he just needs the new girl for the dance, and boom, guess what? Heartbreak," someone's bold tone interrupted.

I raised my head to find Lisa smirking as she chewed gum nastily. "What does it matter to you? Are you stalking me now?" I shot back firmly, returning the smirk.

Snorting, Lisa leaned over to me. "You're so naive. Popularity doesn't last in Hills High. It's all going to blow away," she winked and stepped away.

What was that? I didn't even understand why Lisa sometimes felt the need to be rude towards me. She and I had nothing in common. We didn't share the same friends, nor did we know each other.

Ignoring what just happened, I looked forward to the following class, which ended after two hours.