Ashley

After Shane dropped that bomb on me, my plans to relax at home went straight out the window. I couldn't sit still and kept pacing around while biting my nails. If I'd stayed at home any longer, my mom would have picked up on my mood and made me tell her everything. That's how I ended up at the Argents' door a whole hour earlier than the decided time.

Not that this helped my case. I still had no idea how I was going to bring up the topic of the kiss while talking with Kris. Forget talking, I didn't know how I was going to look him in the eye without blushing red like a tomato.

Pressing the doorbell, I ran my fingers through my hair as I waited for someone to open the door. I had paired my favorite red sweater with white shorts to get that extra boost of confidence when I confronted Kris. Lord knew I needed every bit of my courage.

The door swung open and I was greeted by Dawn's megawatt grin, missing tooth and all. "Ashley!" she exclaimed, hugging my legs. "Will you watch Frozen with me?"

"Hi! Of course, I'll watch Frozen with you," I said and wrapped my arms around her."But after Kris and I finish studying, okay? Is he home?"

Dawn nodded. "He's in his room."

The sound of rushing footsteps made me look up from Dawn to see Mrs. Diaz running toward us. "Dawn, what did I tell you about opening doors without—"

She paused mid-sentence once she saw me and slowed down her pace. "Oh, hey Ashley. It's so good to see you again," she said, smiling at me. "Come in, come in."

"Hey, Mrs. Diaz—Mrs. Argent?" I asked, unsure how to address her.

She chuckled and waved me off. "Either is fine. I have both last names in my legal name."

"Oh, okay." I gave her a sheepish smile as I stepped inside with Dawn still clinging to my legs. I grabbed her hands and moved along with her like we were dancing, making her giggle.

Mrs. Diaz looked at us with a soft smile on her face. "Dawn really wanted to meet you again. As soon as she heard you're coming over, she started planning the movie night."

"Really?" I asked and Dawn's face tinted pink. She nodded while fiddling with her fingers.

"I went shopping with Dad and bought caramel popcorn, gummy bears, and apple juice for us. Do you like apple juice?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

My heart melted at the wide eyed look on her face. If she'd asked me to eat chili peppers while looking at me like that, I would have still eaten them with a smile on my face. She was just so adorable.

"I love apple juice!" I said as I knelt down to hug her.

Dawn hugged me back, doing a little dance in my arms. "Yay! I also got new stickers. Let me show you."

"No running!" Mrs. Diaz yelled after her, but Dawn was long gone. She then turned to face me, her brown eyes curious. "I have been meaning to ask you, why didn't you tell me you were Kris's friend from college last time? It's not every day I get to meet my son's friends."

"I wasn't aware this was Kris's house," I replied, taking my shoes off. "My mom told me your name and I..."

"Ah yes, Diaz-Argent confusion. Got it. Kris is upstairs by the way," she replied and before I could say anything, she cupped her hand around her mouth and yelled. "Kris, Ashley is here!"

She then turned to me, shaking her head. "Kids these days always have their headphones on."

I laughed despite being one of the said kids. Kris, however, must not have his headphones on, because he was bounding down the stairs minutes later. A bright smile appeared on his face when his gaze collided with mine and my heart thudded in my chest.

"Hey," he greeted. "You're early."

I averted my gaze, unable to look him in the eyes. "Yeah. I thought we could cover more topics."

"Okay, you two study hard. I'll bring you guys snacks in a minute," Mrs. Diaz said.

"Thanks mom," Kris said, smiling at her. He then faced me and gestured to the stairs, signaling me to walk with him. "Come."

I followed Kris upstairs and into his room. The first thing that caught my attention was how everything in his room was in some shade of blue. The walls, the bedding, the curtains, even the bean bag lying in one corner. It was a monochromatic palette that was simple, yet elegant.

"I'm guessing blue is your favorite color," I said, making him chuckle.

"It's soothing," he said and walked to his desk that was pushed against the wall to our right, directly below the window. He picked a few books from there and came to sit down on the bed. "Why are you standing? Sit."

I sat at the edge of the bed, feeling the mattress dip under my weight. As I was taking my books out of my bag, my eyes landed on the bookshelf in his room that had more picture frames and knick knacks on it than actual books.

"Not much of a reader I see."

Kris followed my gaze and shrugged, smiling sheepishly. "I fall asleep before reaching page 10 of any book. It's a miracle I'm able to read textbooks at all."

We both laughed at that before jumping into our study session. The initial awkwardness I had been feeling melted away the more we discussed the topics from our syllabus. Mrs. Diaz walked in a few minutes later with two bowls of fruit salad in her hands, forcing us to take a break.

I tried to bring up the topic of our kiss a few times, but chickened out every single time. Kris didn't bring it up either, making me wonder if he had forgotten about it already. Or maybe he did remember, but didn't want to bring it up and risk making things awkward.

After our short break, Kris showed me his papers for Psychology 101 from his freshman year and I realized he wasn't as weak in studies as he'd made himself look like. In fact, he was pretty great at grasping the concepts.

It was the execution that needed work. And since Prof. Moore was such a stickler for terminology and perfect execution, he scored less despite comprehending the question and choosing the right concepts for the answers. Knowing this gap helped me help Kris better and fast tracked our study session. Time flew by and we fell into our usual rhythm, cracking jokes and laughing, my nervousness all but forgotten.

"Let's take a break. My mind is about to explode," Kris groaned as he fell back against the pillows.

I slapped his thigh. "We just took a break. And we are almost done. One more to go. C'mon."

"Please. I can feel the words overflowing from my brain," he said, clutching his head dramatically.

"Drama queen," I said and rolled my eyes at him, but still kept the books aside. Maybe a break wouldn't hurt.

Kris flashed me a grin and got comfortable against the pillows. When he saw me organizing the strewn papers, he took them away from me and patted the space beside him. "Come lie down with me. Give your brain some rest."

My gaze flitted from his face to the spot beside him before going back to his face. There was no way my mind was going to rest if I lied down next to him. And yet, I still obliged.

Kris and I stared at the ceiling, without saying a word. Faint sounds of footsteps running in the hallway outside floated in through the closed door, but otherwise it was all eerily quiet. My heart rate spiked when I felt Kris's arm brush against mine.

We were so close. It reminded me of the night in the attic and the kiss we had shared. Heat crept up my face while the sound of my own heartbeats rang in my ears. It was so loud, I wondered if Kris could hear them too.

"Uh... Kris?" I called when the silence stretched on for a little too long. "Can I ask you something?"

He hummed in response and I noticed his eyes were shut. I turned on my side, facing him. The same way I'd in the attic that day. Right before we had kissed. Oh, God.

"We never really talked about that night," I said, trying to sound calm and composed and not like someone who was this close to jumping out the window. "The night we, uh...we kissed?"

Kris's eyes shot open and he turned on his side as well. "Yeah. Did you..." he trailed off, shaking his head while a bright blush colored his cheeks. "Did I make you uncomfortable? I'm really sorry. I don't know what—"

I place my finger on his lips, stopping him. "You did not. I thought I made you uncomfortable."

He suddenly chuckled, the sound low and rough that made a shiver run down my spine. "Trust me, I was anything but uncomfortable."

When his eyes locked with mine again, my throat went dry. The way he looked at me, it made me...feel things. Things that were dangerous to feel considering the basis of our relationship.

I averted my gaze. "So... What are we going to do now? Do we add kissing to our 'allowed' list?"

Kris placed his index finger below my chin and tipped my head up so I was meeting his gaze again. "Are you sure about this? We would be breaking one of the rules we made for our deal?"

"I mean..." I sucked in a breath when he cupped my face, his thumb rubbing the spot above my mouth where my mole was. For some reason, Kris was oddly fascinated by it. I'd noticed him staring quite a few times. Not that I was complaining or anything.

Clearing my throat, I tried again. "Will it be really breaking the rules? We are just bending them a little...for the success of our deal."

"For the success of our deal," he parroted, nodding. "So you're okay if we kiss from now on?"

The baritone of his voice as he said that made my stomach knot with anticipation. It didn't even take me a second to nod my head in agreement. Kris raised a brow at me and I knew he wanted me to say it out loud.

"I'm okay," I confirmed.

"Good," he whispered and my eyes flitted to his lips. For the whole week, those plush lips had been occupying a very large section of my thoughts. And now that I was this close to them, I couldn't help but wonder how they would feel once again.

A sudden noise in the hallway outside of his room shattered the bubble of crackling energy around us. We both jolted upright and stared at the closed door, expecting someone to barge in, but the door remained shut.

Kris scooted away from me and cleared his throat. "We should uh...we should check out that last topic for today."

I nodded and ran my fingers through my hair, fixing it. "Yeah."

We got back to our studies, making a silent agreement of not thinking about that moment. The one where we almost kissed each other again. We had called the first kiss practice. But there would be no explanation for this second one since there was no one here and we didn't need to pretend to be a couple. And I didn't know how I felt about it just yet.

"Hey, I can't find this anywhere," Kris said, showing me the topic he had underlined.

"Oh that should be in one of the reference books I got from the library. Let me check." I pulled out one of the books and started going through the index. "Can you check the other one? It's in my bag."

"Sure." Kris grabbed my bag and began searching for the other book.

"Never mind. Found it," I said as flipped through the pages to check the content and note down the page numbers in my notebook. "Here. It's on page 110."

When I looked up from the book, my heart nearly stopped. There, in Kris's hand was one of my romance books. My smutty romance book. Complete with book tabs and annotations.

"Hey, I know this book," Kris commented, grinning and holding the book up proudly like it was some kind of trophy. "They had given it to Dylan's team for the videos that—"

I shrieked and lunged for the book before he could finish the sentence. Kris knowing about the book was mortifying enough, but if he opened any of the pages that had tabs on it and read my comments, I would simply wither away.

However, Kris's reflexes were faster than mine and he immediately held the book away from my reach. I huffed and tried to grab it from him, but he just scooted farther away from me.

"Woah there. What's the rush? I just want to see what this book is about. That's all. I promise I'll return it to you," he said.

I shook my head. "No. I need it back right now. Give it to me."

Kris tilted his head to the side, an amused smirk on his face. "You know, you acting like this is just making me more curious about this book. I was only going to read the blurb before, but now I think I would like to read a few pages," he said and my eyes widened. He would not, would he?

"Hmm maybe I should read the ones with these colorful sticky notes on."

Kris held the book with both of his hands and opened the page that had my tab for the filthiest dialog in the story. No...

Before I knew it, I had launched myself on Kris and rolled him onto his back. Sitting on top of him, I pinned both his arms to his sides, making the book fall from his hands. Kris stared up at me wide eyed like he couldn't believe I had just done that.

I couldn't believe it either. Honestly, it wouldn't have worked if I hadn't taken Kris by surprise. He could have easily flipped us over, but because he was too stunned, he just laid there staring at me.

"Uh... Can I at least get the book's name? I just remember the picture on it."

I burst into a fit of giggles, shaking my head. "Nope."

"Damn. Is this like secret society stuff or something? Do I have to perform rituals to know these secrets?" he asked, clearly enjoying the situation a little too much.

"Yes. You have to—"

The door to his room flung open and we both froze. A dark haired girl who seemed to be only a little younger than me entered the room, her eyes stuck on her phone. She looked like a younger version of Mrs. Diaz and I immediately knew that this was Lily, Kris's other sister.

"Kris, mom is calling you and your friend for dinner. Hurry..." she paused, her brown eyes widening when she saw us. Her gaze flitted from me to her brother who was still lying underneath me, and her cheeks reddened. "Up," she finished and ran out of the room, shutting the door behind her with a bang.

It didn't take Kris and I longer than a few seconds to get away from each other and rush downstairs to explain ourselves. As it turned out, Lily had never come down in the first place, and with Mrs. Diaz already waiting for us, she made us sit down at the dining table for dinner. Kris and I shared a look before obliging his mother.

Lily showed up after a little while and quietly sat in her chair. No mention of what she'd witnessed whatsoever.

But throughout the dinner, she kept glaring at me from across the table. While I didn't know what she was thinking, I knew exactly how she felt about me. She hated my guts.