Mirabella's ear was starting to hurt. The wood didn't feel so good against it. She was listening to nothing and she couldn't decide if that was a good or bad thing. Silence meant a lot of things: sleeping, staring, kissing softly, but so did noise: sex, talking, fighting, laughing. Defeated and irritated she tiptoed to her room, hoping to at least catch Cook on his way out.

It was almost midnight when Cook closed Samantha's room door. His hair even more ruffled, his clothes off place, and a stupid smile on his face, like we couldn't believe what happened. For those minutes he was inside he forgot everything. He forgot how shitty he was, how shitty he felt, how Freddie's eyes pierced him with pain and disappointment. He was descending the stairs, his hands in his jacket pockets and then he heard a door behind him. Was she going to kiss me goodbye? And before he could turn, he saw the front door open and another door behind shut.

"Coo---" He heard Mirabella's voice, but she cut herself when she saw her parents entering their house.

"Hm.. Hello?" The twin's father said, looking at the boy.

Their mother stared at him in a funny way, trying to understand who he was.

"Goodnight." Cook said, trying to sound like he hadn't been kissing Samantha for the last half an hour.

"And who might you be?" The older man asked.

The twins were standing at the top of the stairs, nervous. Samantha covered herself with her bare hands, she couldn't tell her parents he was with her, not when she was dressed like that. She looked at Mirabella, seeking help, but her sister wasn't looking at her.

"This is Cook. I—I mean, James. He just came by to get..." Samantha started. What the fuck was she was going to say? "his..." Her brain froze. What now?

"To get his notebook." Mirabella spoke matter of factly.

"His notebook?" Their father was not convinced.

"Yeah, I thought I borrowed it to Samantha. Apparently not."

"A text would save you a trip young man."

"Oh, yeah, but I was nearby anyway, so I decided to pop up."

"Hm, is that so?" Their mother finally spoke, looking at him suspiciously.

"Do I even want to know how you were in the possession of our address?"

This was not going very well. Samantha's palms were sweating but on the other hand, Mirabella seemed chilled out, like everything in that conversation was true.

"It was for a group project that we ended up doing at school."

"Yeah, it took less time than we all thought." Mirabella added.

"Very well then." The father said, after looking at the three teenagers.

✧ . ✧ . ✧

"You should be our president." JJ said to Samantha.

"Me?" She laughed. "I have no profile for that."

"Yeah, I'll have to agree with you, sister." Mirabella's arm hung on her sister's shoulders.

"I want to be this school's president, but I have been so busy lately, I think I'll pass." Katie interfered.

"Does anyone know where Cook is?" Samantha asked, looking around the table. "No one?" She tried again, after getting no response.

She was actually getting worried. He had skipped classes, which was not weird, but he hadn't texted her back. What if he was ignoring her? She sighed. She wanted to talk with Mirabella about this, but she couldn't. Not right now. After Charlie's situation, nothing was the same and besides, this would be hard for her sister in some way.

"So Thomas, how's being back?" Emily asked the boy and he grinned.

"It's amazing. I missed Bristol so much."

Pandora smiled, reaching for his hand.

"How did your mum even let you come back?" Mirabella asked.

"I promised her that I would be a good student. That our lives would be better here. She knows I'm right."

Even though Samantha was listening, she wasn't. She couldn't stop reviving the secret moment she and Cook shared in her bed. He was so different from Charlie, not just physically or personally, but in the way he held her. He was not afraid to break her, he was not afraid to hurt her. He just went for her, no matter what. He knew what he wanted and went for it. So different from Charlie. She had amazing times with the redhead, she loved her moments with him, but with Cook, it was so different and new. And she loved it. She remembered how it was to have his hands in her flustered cheeks, how his hair felt in-between her fingers. She could almost feel the sparkles fly when they were kissing. When she was straddling him, when he turned them around and laid on top of her, their noses touching, their eyes meeting and them laughing faintly. The way he said "Are you alright, love?" when she didn't talk and worried if he was making her unconformable.

She had no idea how to label what happened that night, but was important to label it? It just felt good, that was all that mattered.

✧ . ✧ . ✧

"What the fuck?" Mirabella asked to no one in particular, laughing. Her eyes aiming for the top of the building.

"Is JJ up there with him?" Samantha asked, focusing on the boy next to Cook.

Both of the boys were on top of the building, with a giant red sheet with Cook's drawing on it like he was Guevara. He was screaming into his megaphone but Samantha was not catching a single word, she was trying to understand what he was wearing. Was that a vest? How did he even pull this off?

"I can't believe he wants to be president. He definitely has no profile for that." Mirabella talked. "What will he offer us? Spliffs?" She laughed.

"I'm sure he has something to offer."

Mirabella looked at Samantha and smiled deviously. She knew exactly why her sister said that. Not because she liked to see the best in people, not when it came to Cook. She was catching feelings for him, which meant her plan was actually working. Who would know Cook could actually pull it off?

"Are we going inside or are we going to be late?" Mirabella asked her sister.

"Ah, yeah sure." They both went inside where they found Naomi talking to Emily.

"Have you seen what's happening out there?" Mirabella asked the two girls.

"You mean Cook?" Emily said. "Yeah, I'm trying to convince Naomi here to compete against him. If someone can beat him, is her!"

"That's not really my thing."

"Oh, but she's right Naomi!" Samantha told her friend. "You have so much potential!" Naomi just shrugged.

Eventually, they went to class. Samantha sat next to Freddie, giving him a warm smile.

"Ready for the final part of our project?" She asked him.

"Oh, definitely." He said, relieved.

"Wow, try to sound a little bumped at least." Freddie laughed.

"You know what I meant." She squinted her eyes. "You know I loved to work with you. You are an amazing partner." Freddie smiled at her.

"Hm, okay." She took a few papers from her notebook and handed them to him. "I made a presentation chronogram based on what we are going to say." Freddie took the papers, looking at them. "This afternoon after we train the presentation, we can rearrange what's necessary."

"Cheers, Sam." She nodded her head. He could call her Sam now, after all, they were partners.

Samantha tried to pay attention to class, but seeing Cook leaning back in his chair, not giving a fuck, made her realize they haven't talked for days, not since they kissed. Yeah, she hadn't tried too hard, sent him a text when he didn't show up to classes but he hadn't answered. Maybe he really regretted it. And just like that, the boy looked back, like he was feeling Samantha's eyes making a hole in his back.

Even before she could think about turning her gaze somewhere else, she knew it would only make her look more suspicious. He gave her a registered Cook smile and she smiled a little, nodding her head negatively. He raised one eyebrow and winked at her, turning his head back to the front.

"Sam..." Freddie's voice woke her and she faced him. "Not Cook."

"What?" She said, confused.

"You know what." He whispered. "He's not a good guy, you know that."

"He's your best friend."

"I think I lost him. And that's one of the reasons I'm telling you to stay away. He will hurt you."

"Isn't this a little bit of cliché, Freddie?" She asked him, feeling all of the sudden angry and hurt. "I'm not a child."

"I know, but I also know him. You deserve someone who doesn't fuck around." Freddie reached for her hand, reaching her.

She looked down, at his hand in hers.

"Excuse me, are you talking about...?" She tried to understand.

"Me?" He looked at her in horror. "Oh, no." He said.

She opened her mouth to talk, the horror in his face hurt. Cook had turned again to look at Samantha, he had only today realized that he was so busy preparing the sheet that he hadn't answer her text a few days ago. But now she wasn't looking at him. She was looking at Freddie. He was grabbing her hand and they were talking in a hushed tone. He couldn't understand what they were saying but it didn't matter. Once again, he faced blankly the board in front of him.

"Sam, listen." Freddie said and the girl snatched the hand of his.

"Let's just end it here, okay? Please." She told him, turning her face trying to pretend she was actually paying any attention.

✧ . ✧ . ✧

It happened during a morning break. Naomi climbed to one of the tables and made a speech, trying to explain why people should elect her. Five seconds in and Cook interrupted her. Samantha, who was smiling at Naomi quickly lost her smiled and her gaze turned to Cook. He was handing something to people, and everyone was cheering for him.

"Do you want a comedy for president?" Naomi asked everyone.

Cook said something that Samantha couldn't pick and once again everyone was clapping.

"You're such a fucking joke!" Naomi accused him.

Samantha closed her eyes. Naomi stepped low with that; she was better than that.

"I'm a joke? You are fucking hilarious." He pointed a finger at her, almost laughing.

Samantha felt her jaw drop. And for a second, she didn't listen to what any of them were saying and then she heard the stupidest thing coming out of Cook's mouth. The mouth she had kissed not so long ago.

"We just want to party!"

How could he think being student president was about that? And I could people agree with him.? There were so much more things to it.

Emily jumped in, trying to defend Naomi and Cook did everything Samantha thought we wouldn't do. He said Emily was defending her girlfriend. And now her eyes were in her blonde friend. She knew how much this label – being true or not – messed with her, and Cook knew too. How could he step so low and be so mean? Then she noticed Naomi leaving, Emily following. Naomi shouted for the girl to leave her alone and Samantha just stood there in a corner, looking at the circus going on. She was preparing to leave, dressing her jacket and that's when his eyes met hers. For a second, he was stunned, surprised to see her there and she could see he wanted to say something, but instead, he just kept saying gibberish. She felt sad looking at him, but while she was leaving, she looked behind her, making sure he was being that type of person, and he was. He had really said those things, he really only cared for one thing, he didn't know how to be president. What was he even doing?

He glanced at her, seeing her leave and he fought against the urge of running after her. After kissing her everything stopped working for him, they didn't even talk about it – mostly because of him, and now he knew they wouldn't. Samantha, nether less, was always good to him and at some point, decided to see the good in him, but after this morning everything was lost. He fucked up, but that was who he was. Samantha let him be her friend and he decided to let her down. The only person who didn't judge him, the only person who could actually say no to him and be there for him, - besides JJ and Freddie - was gone. 

x - x - x

IMPORTANT

Hey guuuys, so I know I already only post once a month but there's a chance I will even post less often.  I'm starting a job in a foreign country and I don't know what my internet situation will be and with only a day off per week, it will be really difficult for me to write. I will do my best to at least have one more chapter ready before I go to post next month and probably in July too (because I think the next chapter will be long so I'll need to divide it), but I can't make any promises.

So, if I don't post in the next few months (until October) don't be mad, please! I'll do my best to keep posting one chapter a month, even more now because there are only 3 more chapters left (the one there go camping, the one where Freddie gets Effy and Cook back and another one in the middle of these two). I'm assuming that the last one will be a divided chapter too so that actually makes 5 chapters, but if so, I promise the last two will be posted in the same week!