Luke's POV

I wake up and find Emily on her desk working on some project.

"Good morning" I groggily greet her.

"Good morning!" she replies cheerily.

"What are you working on?"

"Oh, its just a project which is due tomorrow." She says not taking her eyes off of her work.

I get up and walk towards the bathroom. I take a shower and walk out to find Emily tying her shoes.

"Where are you going?" I ask, curiously.

"I am meeting up with Alice and then we'll go to the library to finish up the projects." She answers, grabbing her phone from her side table.

"Okay, have fun!" I say and she walks out.

I sit on my bed and start on my project too.

Flashes from yesterday come to my mind. I had never seen that side of Maria. Was she always like that? Did she cheat on me too? If she did, then I am the biggest dickhead in the world to not know about it.

I couldn't concentrate with these thoughts. I really need to talk to Maria. So, I took my phone and dialed the number by memory. After three rings, she picked up.

"Hey Luke!" she chirps. Her voice is so high pitched, its annoying.

"We need to talk." I reply flatly.

"A simple 'hello' would have been good. Don't you think?" she says.

"No, I definitely do not think. So I am coming to your house right now." I say.

"But..." she starts, but I hang up. I grab my car keys and leave the campus. God I am so thankful she doesn't study in the same college as mine. I would've literally killed myself.

Twenty minutes later, I find myself standing at door of her house. The last time I was here was almost two years ago.

I rang the doorbell. I was half expecting that she wasn't home so I will not have to do this. But the other half of me just wanted to get answers.

A minute later, Maria opens the door. She gives me a flirtious smile.

"Couldn't wait any longer huh?" she asks.

"Cut the crap Maria and tell me, were you with someone else behind my back" I ask her straight forward.

"What are you talking about? I don't understand..." she says nervously.

"Oh you know very well what I'm talking about. Just tell me, were you cheating..." I couldn't finish my sentence because an arm wrapped around her waist.  Looked behind her to see a guy nuzzling his face in her neck. However, it wasn't John.

It was Matt.

Matt was Maria's boyfriend before me. She told me that he cheated on her. She cried so much that day. But right now, the same Matt is hugging her like nothing happened.

"Babe, why did you leave me alone in the bed?" Matt asks, not knowing that I was here.

"Why don't you wait inside? I'll be back in a minute." Maria says quickly, glancing nervously at me.

Matt grumbled something but went inside.

And now I realized that she was like this all along. She cheated on me when I was still with her and I was too in love to even notice it.

"Luke, I can explain..."

"You can explain? You can explain what? That you still have feelings for me? Or it was just an accident? You can explain what, Maria?" I ask, harshly.

"Luke, it was just..." she tries again but there is now way I am going to listen to all the bullshit she has to feed me.

"You were always like that weren't you? You cheated on me. You played me and I noticed that you always go for the rich ones. John's parents own a chain of restaurants. Matt's parents have a big business and my parents run a famous company. You know now I wonder how do you manage to keep up with all your 'boyfriends' simultaneously. How do you do that Maria?" I speak, anger dominating my voice.

She doesn't say anything. I continue.

"Well, thank you for showing me the real version of you or I would have been one of your boy toys. You are a money-seeking whore and I am very glad that you left me, now I can rest in peace." I say and start walking away leaving a speechless Maria behind me.

However, she has other plans.

"Don't you dare call me a whore, Luke. I want you and I ALWAYS GET WHAT I WANT!" she shouts.

This woman is CRAZY. Doesn't she get it? She is openly admitting that she is in fact a whore but is denying it. I will never fall for her false façade again. Not after knowing the truth.

"Oh I'd like to see you try" I say, mockingly.

"Yeah, you'll see. See you at the party by the way!" she says and walks inside the house slamming her front door shut.

I stop in my tracks.

She is going to be at the party?

Of course she will! Either with Matt or John because they both are fucking rich and I am sure my parents have invited at least one of their families.

Great.

I still can't believe she cheated on me. I thought she left me because she didn't feel anything special towards me anymore and I respected her decision. But now all the respect I had for her decision had gone into the gutter. She played me. She used me for my money. She used me for sex. She was never in love with me. I was too whipped to notice anything. I was so deeply in love that I became to blind to see the light.

But now everything has changed. I am never ever going to think of Maria like I did before. Maria is not who she appeared to be. She is a bitch who uses people and is very talented in multi-tasking as she can handle three or maybe more boyfriends at a time.

I enter my car and start driving back to the dorm.

...................................

"Dude, that's awful." Justin says, as he takes a sip from his coffee.

"Yeah, I can't believe she cheated on you." Cole says, eating his sandwich.

"Me too, bro" Alex says, agreeing with Cole.

Right now, the boys and me are sitting in a café. I told them about the Maria incident and they have been cursing her ever since.

"I know guys, she is a bitch. Can we talk about something else?" I say, wanting to close the topic.

"Well instead of 'something' we can talk about 'someone' if you know whom I'm talking about" Justin says, wiggling his eyebrows at me.

I roll my eyes, knowing where this was going.

"She is my friend guys, nothing more!" I say, already knowing that they were gonna start talking about Emily.

"Aw come on man, we all know you like her." Alex says.

"Like her as a friend sure I do." I say.

They all roll their eyes.

"You know what we are talking about," Cole says.

"No, I actually don't."

They sigh.

"Luke, you like Emily as in like, like her, like more than a friend. Admit it." Justin says, getting just a little bit of frustrated.

"No, I do not like her. Even if I did, she won't like me back. What if she is just like Maria?"

"Dude, she s nothing like Maria. We know it and you know it too. Emily is a nice girl. You just have to trust her. Give it a try mate." Alex says.

Trust.

Trust is a very dangerous thing. It can't even be earned now days. You just gotta do what you think is best and go with the flow.

I just sigh thinking about Alex's words.

"Well I better get going, I have homework for tomorrow." Cole says, standing up.

"Yeah we must get going too, there are a shit load of projects that need to be completed," Justin and Alex say.

"Yeah, I've got to study anyways. See you guys later!" I say and we depart our separate ways.

God we are so studious. The richest bad boys on the campus are nerds. Always studying and completing their work on time. We all may seem careless but education is very important to all of us and we get serious when it comes to studies. We all are planning to take over our parents' business anyway and we don't want to let them down.

Anyways...

When I reached my dorm, I saw Emily still completing one of her projects.

"How long have you been doing this?" I ask her.

"Since morning, its almost finished."

"Good." I say, flopping down on my bed.

"Where were you today?" she asks.

I remember Maria and the conversation that took place between us this morning.

"I went to meet someone." I reply through gritted teeth.

Emily senses the roughness in my voice and looks up from her project to meet my eyes.

"Whats wrong?" she asks, her face turning concerned.

"Its nothing, Ems just forget about it." I say.

Emily sighs and gets back to her work.

After ten minutes, Emily come and sits down on the edge of my bed.

"You're finished?" I ask her.

"Yeah, I was just writing the conclusion of my project." She replies.

We sit in silence for sometime when Emily breaks the silence.

"Luke, tell me whats wrong."

"I told you, its nothing Ems." I say, sighing.

"You know its not nice to keep it bottled up. You should tell me. It'll help." She says softly.

I sigh. I guess its time. I start speaking,

"When I was in high school, I had a girlfriend. Her name was Maria." I say, watching Emily. She nods for me to continue because she already knows that there is a 'Maria'.

"We used to be happy and care free. Just like a perfect couple. We were in love, or at least I was. When the senior year was about to start, Maria came to my home one day. She said that she was breaking up with me because her feelings had washed away. She did not feel the same about me. So when she left me, I was very upset. I got over her. I turned into a player. I used girls for one-night stands, nothing more. I couldn't trust anyone except my friends. I...I was afraid that any girl will leave me for someone better."

I see Emily sitting with a serious expression, although with a tinge of amusement from my comment of being afraid. I continued.

"For the whole senior year I remained a player. When I came to college, I changed my player ways. It just didn't feel right. So I haven't had sex with a single girl in college."

Emily just nods understandingly and then asks,

"Yesterday at the mall, I saw you talking to a blond girl. Was she Maria?"

"Yeah, she was. She had come up to me and said that she still had feelings for me." I say, annoyingly.

"But I saw a guy with her..." Emily trails off.

" Yeah that was her new boyfriend, John. She was willing to cheat on him with me."

Emily's eyes widen and I continue to explain.

"Today I went to her house to ask if she had been cheating on me when we were together. Then Matt came out wrapping his arms around her. Matt was Maria's boyfriend before me. She was still with Matt and with John at the same time and I realized that she did indeed cheat on me but I was too in love to notice anything. She used everyone for money as Matts and John are also rich. She played me. She just used me for her own benefit." I say, clenching my fists and gritting my teeth together.

"And the most stupid thing is that she got me so whipped to even notice anything. God I am the biggest idiot in the world." I add, angry with myself.

But my anger slips away when Emily wraps her feeble arms around me. I tense for a second but then quickly hug her back. I hold her tightly to me. Her face buried in my shoulder and mine in her. We hold each other tightly, not wanting to let go. After some time, we pulled away.

"You aren't an idiot, Luke. You were in love. You just got a little bit distracted, to notice anything suspicious. It happens, Luke. Don't dwell on it. I am glad you told me about her." she says giving me a small smile.

"Yeah, you were right, I do feel a little better now." I say, smiling back.

Though Alex, Justin, Cole and even Alice already knew what I had been through, it still feels good after telling Emily the whole story. Its like a huge weight has been lifted off of me.

"She is such a bitch. I am going to break her face." Emily says.

I chuckled.

"I think you will get the opportunity to break her face at the party."

"She will be at the party?" Emily asks, surprised.

"Yes she will be at the party. She will either come with Matt or John."

"Great! I can break her face in the party and one of his lapdogs will be there to carry her home." Emily says smiling widely.

"Or maybe I can murder her and tie the body to helium balloons and leave her to float up in the sky and then I can put the blame on either one of her lapdogs. Maybe she will be the first already dead person to reach space!"

"You are so weird." I say, giving her an amused smile.

"Come one, I'll teach you a new song on the guitar." She says, taking my arms and dragging me to her bed.

Emily's POV

I drag Luke towards my bed and sit him down.

He finally opened up to me and told me about Maria and I was so glad he did. After he told me about what Maria did to him, I was beyond furious. You could've literally seen smoke erupting from my ears and mouth. I was just burning with anger.

Hell, you could've roasted marshmallows with the heat that was radiating off of me!

No one deserved that. Especially not Luke because in the past two months I have known him I have realized that he is great guy. Even now when he said that he changed his player ways after coming to college because it didn't feel right was proof that Luke was a genuinely nice guy but he got cheated on by that bitch.

She is definitely gonna die by my hands.

I understand Luke much better now. I know how difficult it is for him to trust people, especially girls thinking that they would all turn out to be like Maria. But he trusted me. He told me what he had been hiding which is enough proof to know that I had earned his trust. My heart fluttered at this thought.

I sit him down on my bed and quickly grab my guitar. I sit opposite to him and fix up the tuning of my guitar.

"Will you sing with me this time?" I ask him.

"I cants sing, Ems" he says, smiling.

"It doesn't matter. Just sing, okay?"

"Which song?"

"Count on me by Bruno Mars." I say, smiling widely at him. He returns the smile and I start strumming the chords.

I start singing first,

"If you ever find yourself stuck in the middle of the sea...

I'll sail the world,

To find you.

If you ever find yourself lost in the dark and you cant see...

I'll be the light,

To guide you..." I trail and nod my head to encourage him to sing and he does,

"Find out what we're made of,

When we are called to help our friends in need..." he sings.

Then we sing together,

"You can count on me like one two three

I'll be there.

And I know when I need it I can count on you like four three two

You'll be there.

Cause that's what friends are supposed to do oh yeah!..."

We sing together through the whole song, enjoying every moment of it.

"You can count on me cause I can count on you..." we both finish, smiling widely at each other.

"You are not that bad at singing, you know?" I say to him. Honestly, he is really good. His voice is not very beautiful like those of pop singers but not that bad either. His voice is very casual and calming.

"Really? Thanks." He says and a silence falls upon us. After a few minutes, he breaks the silence,

"You are really the best best friend anyone could ask for." He says softly, smiling at me.

It hurts a little when he says 'best friends' but I shrug it off giving him a small smile.

"You are the best best friend anyone could ask for too." I say to him.

I see an unknown expression cross his face but its gone as soon as it came, just a little hint of disappointment? Or sadness? I'm not sure. But he quickly regains himself and gives me a heart-warming smile. He pulls me into a hug and the tingling sensation rushes back like it does every time when we touch. I melt inside. Our bodies fit so perfectly in each other. He gives me a tight squeeze and pulls back.

"Thanks for everything, Emily."

"Its no problem, Luke" I say giving him a smile.

"You know you can talk to me about anything right?" he says softly. I give him a nod and he gets off my bed walking towards his own.

"Good night, Luke" I say, turning of my side lamp.

"Good night, pumpkin." He says and I fall asleep instantly.

.....................................................................................................................................

Thanks for reading this far!!

Josh hutcherson as Justin. Yay? Or nah?

Anyways...

Love you all like always!!

Until next time.