I was gonna do it. I was really gonna fucking do it.

Closing my eyes, I hit the 'friend request' button. When I blinked my eyes open, I realized what I just did. I covered my face as I let out a loud groan.

"Fuuuuuck."

The notification sound from my laptop dinged, making me scramble to look at the screen. Sure enough, Scout just confirmed my request. Not a minute later, he sent me a message.

Scout:
Good thing I didn't hold my breath

I rolled my eyes. Smartass.

Scout:
Does this mean we're friends now?

Connie:
We're facebook friends.

Scout:
I want the real thing, though

Of course, you do. Because you don't give up.

Apparently all athletes were stubborn. It was as if it was in their genes or something. I should know that. I've been surrounded by them my whole life.

Connie:
Baby steps, Crimson. Baby steps.

Scout:
Lol alright
See you around

I was about to leave it on 'seen' when I remembered that I had to play nice. Ugh.

Connie:
Adios, amigo.

Yes, that was the best I could do.

* * * * *

I guessed it wouldn't be hard to track down Scout now because we had the same Intro to Sports lecture class for the whole fucking semester.

I tried to avoid looking at him for most of the class because whenever our eyes would meet, I had to force myself to smile. Then, he would have this weird look on his face as if I grew a huge as hell pimple on my forehead or something.

As soon as the class finished, I bolted out of the room.

Yeah, I was supposed to be nice to him or whatever. But I needed small talk practice. What did those goody-two-shoes people talk about, anyway? Family planning?

It didn't matter. He caught up with me in no time.

"You're majoring in sports, too?" he asked.

"Sports Med," I corrected.

He pointed a thumb to himself. "Sports Management."

"Cool." I nodded and smiled, close-lipped.

He slightly frowned, but shook it off. "You have plans right now?"

Yeah, I had plans to stay the fuck away from you because I'd rather poke my eye than hang out with you. But I couldn't back out of the stupid sorority now because my brother was so stoked when he found out that I was a pledge.

I was a bitch but I couldn't bring myself to disappoint Drew. He never asked me for anything but this shit. The least I could do was suck it up and get through being a pledge to become an official sister. Besides, hanging out with Madeline, Jamaica, and Lilian didn't seem too bad.

"Nothing," I finally answered him. "Why?"

"Uh," he trailed off, looking at me weird again. "I was wondering if you wanna check out the Brick? My frat brothers brought us out there last Friday and it had the best burgers in town."

"Sure!" I said, a little too cheerfully. Shit.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, why?"

He studied me. "Nothing, nevermind. Let's go?"

I nodded and followed him to where his car was parked. I couldn't believe I was getting in Scout Crimson's white fucking Camaro. I mean, I used to talk shit about this exact car back in high school.

He opened the passenger's door for me, and I mumbled a thanks before getting in.

"Uh, you're welcome?" he said, unsure. He had that frown again as he closed the door after me.

"Where are we going?" I asked, when he got in from the driver's side.

"The Brick." He faced me, half-amused and half-concerned. "I literally just told you."

"Oh, right." Damn, I'm shit at small talk.

"You sure you're okay?" he asked, seriously concerned now.

"Yup," I chirped, forcing myself to smile at him.

"You don't look like you are."

"Well, I am," I said through gritted teeth, hoping he would just fucking drop it.

"Don't girls always say they're okay even when they're not? Is this one of those times?"

"No."

"Are you sure? Because I feel like you're not telling the truth."

"Yes, I'm sure."

"Look –"

I snapped. "What the hell is with the third degree? I'm fine! Everything is just fucking peachy!"

He grinned and leaned back in his seat. "There she is. I was so close to kicking myself just to know that I wasn't dreaming."

I only glared at him.

"So what's up?"

"I thought you wanted a second chance." I tried to act casual as I shrugged, but it was so damn hard when I was still reeling from my outburst. "Well, here it is. Stop asking questions and fucking drive already."

"Nuh-uh," he disagreed, shaking his head. "Not until you tell me why you're acting all nice and weird."

"Can't it just be because I changed my mind about you?"

"You're not the type to just change your mind all of a sudden, without some sort of explanation. Give me some credit, Anderson. I may not know a lot about you, but that much I know." He placed an elbow on the steering wheel and fully faced me. "Spill it."

I opened my mouth, but then my tummy growled in protest of the promised food. Scout's eyes flew to my stomach, then traveled back up to my eyes. He leaned back on his seat and keyed in the ignition.

"Tell me on the way to the Brick."

Well, I knew when to admit fucking defeat. So I told him the gist of the task. They didn't exactly tell us that it wasn't allowed to share information to anyone outside the sorority about the tasks.

By the time I was done telling him, we were at the side parking lot of the bar and restaurant. He finally nodded after he parked, but still kept quiet. The silence was killing me.

He then got out of the car. I watched him go over to my side and open my door. I was too wary on what his reaction would be that I wasn't able to get out of the car by myself. He even had to open the stupid door for me.

He also opened the entrance door to the Brick and let me in first. I followed him to a booth beside the window. When the waitress came, we ordered a couple of cheeseburgers and some fries. After she left, I turned my eyes to Scout again. He leaned his elbows on the table with his hands together as he stared at me.

I couldn't fucking take it anymore.

"What?"

"Let's do it."

"Do what?"

"Date."

I blanched. "Excuse me?"

"Wasn't that what you were trying to do when you pulled that nice girl act earlier?"

"It was working, though," I muttered.

He barked out a laugh. "Yeah, no."

I frowned. "What do you mean?"

"If it was any other guy on a ten-mile radius, they would've bought up the act. But don't forget I went to high school with you. We also lived in the same town since we were kids."

Oh, trust me. I've never forgotten.

"'Bubbly' is the last word to describe you."

"Gee, thanks."

He chuckled. "You know what I mean."

Yeah, I did. I just liked giving him crap.

He stared at me, tilting his head thoughtfully. "Alright, how about this – You tell your sisters that we're dating, but really we're just hanging out."

I bit my bottom lip, considering it.

It would sure save me the trouble of being nice to him. I could be myself. All he was asking was to hang out with him. He looked like he was in dire need of a real friend. And after what happened in high school, I couldn't really blame him.

Would it be so bad to try what he was proposing? At least this way, I didn't have to play nice. I could call him out of being a self-righteous dick to his face.

"They didn't say anything about being exclusive, too," I added. "You can still date any girl for real while pretending to date me. That way, I'm not stopping you from getting your fix."

"My fix?" he asked, totally confused.

"You know, get laid."

His face grew serious. "I'm not having sex with someone when everybody knows I'm with you."

"But we're not going to be exclusive."

"I don't care. That's not how it's gonna be."

"So... I can't fool around with someone, too?" I asked, just to tease him.

"You can fool around with me."

I burst out laughing. "Yeah, sure."

"Why not?"

The look on his face made me stop laughing instantly.

"You're serious."

He didn't say anything, only shrugging as he leaned back casually and stared back at me.

"Gross." I winced. "Who says I'm attracted to your ginger ass?"

"I don't know, Anderson," he said, grinning confidently. "Tell me again why you picked me to date for two whole months?"

I wanted to say that it was because I was sure that I wouldn't fall for him but that was cliché as hell and I didn't want to eat my words in case – What the fuck was I talking about? There was no 'in case.' It would never happen between us. Ever.

Shit, I need food.

"I thought it was a trick." It sounded lame even to my ears.

"Sure," he snorted, not convinced.

I rolled my eyes. "Fine, I can go without fucking someone for a few weeks."

Not that I would if I could, anyway. I only had sex with one guy in my eighteen years on this planet. He was my best friend and now my ex-boyfriend. But Scout didn't need to know that.

"No fooling around with each other either," I told him, looking him in the eye to let him know that I was serious. "I don't want to complicate things if we've going to stay as fucking friends."

He raised both of his hands. "Fucking friends. Got it."

I was too caught up in what he implied that the fact that he, his ever goodness majesty, just used the F word slipped through my mind.

"No! That's not –"

He started laughing. "I'm kidding."

"Oh, look at that." I tilted my head. "You don't have a stick up your ass twenty-four-seven."

"You have a thing for my ass? That's twice now you've mentioned it."

"Don't get me started with your balls."

"Hey, what's the problem with my balls?"

"Your lack of it."

He laughed wholeheartedly at that. "Man, that's bad news for my basketball career."

"Yeah, it's not for you," I said, feigning a sympathetic look.

He chuckled. "Noted, thanks."

Finally, the food arrived. I was fucking starving. I was about to dig in when Scout spoke again.

"We have a deal, then?"

I lowered my burger. "Yes, I'll be your fu – friend and hang out with you in exchange for you pretending to date me for my pledge task so I could get initiated and keep my annoying brother happy."

He raised his burger, waiting for me to do the same. I took a deep breath and raised my burger to meet his as though we just clanked our beer mugs together.

"Deal," we both declared in unison.

"Now, let's eat the damn cheeseburger."

"Yes, ma'am," he whispered, before biting.

Suddenly, I remembered a very important detail.

"One last thing."

Scout looked at me, his mouth full from just taking a bite.

"Nobody from home shall know about this," I told him.

Oz and the others would give me fucking hell if they found out.

"Even Snow?" asked Scout.

Snow Crimson, Scout's twin sister (yeah, he had a twin), dated my best friend Oz for a while. We became good friends during that time, too. She was my first and only girl friend in the sea of boys that surrounded me. But when they broke up, it was also as if she broke up with me. She dropped me like I wasn't worth shit.

She tried to patch things up with me during senior year but it was too late. I didn't wanna be friends with someone who could cut me off that easily in their life.

I looked at Scout, and said in a dead serious tone, "Especially her."

_____________

Next update: Thursday (March 7th)